Eternal Heavenly Emperor-Chapter 286 - 276: The Wonders of the Soul
"Eh, you’ve already reached the Nine Meridians Martial Sect?" Xiaocao learned of Chu Hao’s advancement in cultivation and couldn’t help but be very surprised, her willow eyebrows slightly furrowed, looking rather worried, "Your cultivation is advancing too rapidly. If you continue at this pace to break through to Warrior, there’s a great possibility your soul won’t withstand it and you’ll turn into an idiot."
Hey, hey, hey, don’t scare people like that.
Chu Hao scratched his head and said, "It shouldn’t be that exaggerated, right?"
Xiaocao looked at her faintly and said, "You don’t realize the importance of the soul! Every creature is composed of two parts, the body and the soul. Without a body, you simply don’t exist, and without a soul, you aren’t you."
If such words were said on Earth, they would definitely be dismissed as superstition, but Chu Hao knew about the existence of the soul, otherwise how could he have been reborn in the original Chu Hao’s body, carrying memories?
"Based on my research, the reason creatures age and die involves two aspects, one is the aging of the body, and the other is the withering of the soul," Xiaocao suddenly said.
This had already strayed from the previous topic; they were clearly talking about breaking through to Warrior, yet suddenly it turned to life itself.
Yet, Chu Hao was extremely interested and said, "Why do you say that? You see, if a person dies a normal death, surely the body ages first. When the body can no longer sustain itself, life then ceases."
"This is because, in most cases, the body ages before the soul," Xiaocao shook her head and said, "Normally speaking, a common person’s life should last about a hundred years, but aside from martial artists, how many can reach such longevity?"
Indeed, it’s often said that life lasts a hundred years, but why do most people die in their seventies or eighties?
"Because common people seldom train their physiques, and in the span of several decades, the body’s wear is far greater than its maintenance, so very few live up to the century mark," Xiaocao continued, "But we martial artists are different. We train our physiques and always manage to consume some Spiritual Medicine, which enhances our body’s strength far beyond that of ordinary people, thus our lives are continually extended."
Chu Hao furrowed his brows, pointing out a problem, "However, it’s said that only those who reach War Venerate can cultivate the soul, and according to what you said, ordinary people’s bodies and souls only last about a hundred years. So, how can those below War Venerate who don’t cultivate their souls attain a lifespan of 200 or even 300 years?"
"You’re wrong, in our realm advancements, our souls are being nourished and strengthened, it’s just that such changes are subtle and not obvious, that’s why you don’t feel it," Xiaocao said.
"You might think about it, isn’t it that the higher your realm, the more developed your thought process, the better your memory, the clearer your mind?" she asked.
Now that you mention it, indeed.
Chu Hao nodded; as his cultivation went higher, his Derivation ability also became increasingly outstanding—for example, before, when he would see a Martial Sect make a move, he would only see a blur, but now he could easily analyze it.
If it weren’t for Xiaocao mentioning this, he would certainly think it was natural because his strength had increased. But in fact, it was indeed because his realm had improved, yet essentially, it was due to the strengthening of his soul.
Xiaocao suddenly looked towards the Barbaric Girl and said, "Your tribes are all into Body Cultivation, aren’t they? Aren’t your lifespans short?"
"How did you know that?" The Barbaric Girl cried out in surprise, feeling that this girl, who was not much older than herself, was simply a monster.
Chu Hao suddenly realized and said, "Body Cultivation completely doesn’t strengthen the soul!"
Xiaocao nodded and said, "Martial artists encounter so-called bottlenecks, which are actually moments of ascension and strengthening for the soul. Meanwhile, Body Cultivation lacks such bottlenecks and solely focuses on enhancing the physique, hence the soul is quite fragile and naturally the lifespan short."
She looked at Chu Hao, her expression solemn, "You’re advancing your cultivation too rapidly, as if you have no bottlenecks, which is because you rely too heavily on external forces and don’t give your soul a chance for ascension. Thus, your soul is at best equivalent to Two or even Three Meridians Martial Sect, if not for you... at this point, you probably couldn’t handle such powerful forces anymore."
She paused at a critical moment, but Chu Hao knew what she wanted to say about the fusion of his two souls. Indeed, because his soul had fused from two persons’ it was exceptionally strong, hence supporting his rapid advancement in cultivation.
"I’ve read about ancient times where strong individuals, after their bodies were severely damaged, could allow their souls to leave the flesh and continue to live in a new body. Interestingly, if such a strong person originally had only ten years of life left, then even if he revived in a young body, he could only live for another ten years."
"Because the soul is still the same."
Hearing her words, both Chu Hao and Fu Xue nodded, fully accepting her explanation about the soul. However, the Barbaric Girl was very irritated and couldn’t understand how she could be defeated by this girl who was merely at Three Meridians Martial Sect and whom she could overturn with a single slap.
Chu Hao felt a chill in his heart; he absolutely couldn’t consider breaking through to Warrior for the time being, otherwise his soul really couldn’t handle the formidable power within him, and it wouldn’t be strange if it shook him into a vegetative state.
"However, there is still a remedy," Xiaocao turned the conversation.
Chu Hao immediately brightened up—at a time when martial arts were flourishing and geniuses were emerging, like those at the top of the Yue State Earth Tiger List who had already stepped into Warrior, if he didn’t make an effort to catch up, the gap between them would naturally enlarge.
"How can it be remedied?" he asked.
"Find heaven and earth’s Precious Medicine that can nourish the soul," Xiaocao said.
Is there such a precious medicine in the world?
"You really are dense. Why do some spiritual medicines prolong life?" Xiaocao shook her head.
Chu Hao suddenly realized, spiritual medicines could prolong life, on one hand, by enhancing the vitality of the physical body, and on the other hand, by nourishing the soul, because only a dual approach could extend lifespan beyond the hundred-year limit.
So, the precious medicine that prolonged life must undoubtedly have the effect of strengthening the soul.
Yet Chu Hao sighed. How could such precious medicines be easily obtained? After reaching the Martial Sect, ordinary life-extending precious medicines no longer affected him, but high-tier precious medicines were not only exorbitantly priced but also virtually unobtainable.
The key was that such precious medicines even tempted many old monsters, some of whom were close to exhausting their lifespan and could perform any sort of crazy acts without surprise.
Competing with these old monsters for the medicines was hopeless — not to mention whether you had the financial capacity, even if you did, you would worry whether you could survive to use them.
Thus, this path was certainly impassable. Even if the Spirit Spring Sect had such precious medicines, they would not spend them on him—was he crazy to take life-extending drugs at such a young age?
"However, advancing to Warrior is no simple matter; it requires a large amount of spirit grass." Xiaocao thought for a moment and said, "I’ll prepare some for you. If you feel confident, go for the advancement to Warrior, and don’t intentionally suppress it. Suppressing it for too long could mean you might lose the possibility of advancement forever."
That serious!
Chu Hao nodded. Naturally, he did not want to stop at Martial Sect; he was aiming for War God.
Over the next few days, Xiaocao started picking in Medicine Valley, preparing spirit grass for Chu Hao.
To advance to Warrior, if one had enough enlightenment, the next step was the process of opening a Life Spring, which required strong support from power, and even a Tenth Tier Martial Sect was not up to the task.
Therefore, to successfully break through, Martial Artists must prepare a large amount of spiritual medicine in advance, utilizing the power produced by the spiritual medicine to forcibly create a Life Spring within the body. Moreover, the subsequent step required the condensation of Star Force into a liquid state, which also needed massive power support; otherwise, even if the Life Spring was created, it would be useless without the nourishment of Star Force water, quickly drying up and vanishing.
That would also mean a failure in the challenge.
From Warrior onwards, Martial Artists’ breakthroughs invariably needed the support of spiritual medicines, some of which not only provided extra power but also saved lives. Because the higher the realm, the more dangerous the breakthrough, even if the assault was successful, it could heavily deplete vitality and damage the physical body. Without spiritual medicines to save life, it would be too unjust a death.
Therefore, the later stages of martial arts see increasingly significant roles for precious medicines.
Xiaocao’s generosity was almost frightening; she prepared a vast amount of spirit grass for Chu Hao, which could fetch tens of millions of Star Stones if sold. The key issue was, even with that many Star Stones, it might still be impossible to buy as much spirit grass.
Everyone wanted to break through, so people typically hoarded spiritual medicines, resulting in very few circulating in the market.
Although Xiaocao could stimulate the growth of spirit grass, her generosity was still far beyond what Chu Hao and his group expected—especially the Barbaric Girl, who drooled profusely, almost wanting to kneel at Xiaocao’s feet and have such a grand gift prepared for herself too.
Yet Xiaocao did not like the fuss. After preparing the spirit grass for Chu Hao, she drove the three of them out of Medicine Valley and told them not to come here unless necessary.
It seemed they should be considered friends, close friends at that, or else who would casually give you spirit grass worth tens of millions of Star Stones? Yet this friend seemed annoyed, as if not wanting to be bothered, which was really hard to accept.
Chu Hao’s group left Shangfang Mountain and headed toward Spirit Spring Sect.
Spirit Spring Sect was not in Huquan County but in Jinhe County, located in the same area as the Hundred Thousand Mountains, where the Barbaric Girl was from—although this ’same area’ was only relative to Jinhe County.
In fact, the Upper Three Counties were ridiculously vast, and the distance between the Hundred Thousand Mountains and Spirit Spring Mountain, where the Spirit Spring Sect was located, was still very far, requiring half a month or more even for a Fiery Flame Horse.
Chu Hao’s group traveled day and night. Although the Barbaric Girl caused quite a few problems along the way, they still arrived at Spirit Spring Mountain a month later.
Both Spirit Spring Mountain and Spirit Spring Sect were named after a spiritual spring in the mountain.
This spiritual spring was immensely beneficial for Martial Artists. Daily consumption could save a lot of cultivation time, hence every day people came to seek discipleship, partly because of the prestige of the Emperor Level Sect, and partly to benefit from the spiritual spring.
Regrettably, not just anyone could enter a First Grade Sect. No matter how sincere the heart, it was useless; which power would waste precious resources on the mediocre?
When Chu Hao’s trio arrived, the entrance to the mountain was like a fair, crowded with people. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, we welcome you to vote for us at qidian.com, your support is our greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)
