Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)-Chapter 535: Time Suspension

Lu Yang looked at Meng Jingzhou with a strange expression. Your Meng Family really gets creative when it comes to making money, huh?

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s not like I was the one who hyped up the price of ten-thousand-year-old ice. It was the Meng Family, the one from tens of thousands of years ago.” Although Meng Jingzhou always referred to the Meng Family as “our Meng Family,” this matter involved his personal reputation, so he was quick to draw a line.

While the Meng Family had maliciously hyped up ten-thousand-year-old ice, it was targeted at ordinary ice. Things like Mystic Ice Marrows or Ice Embryos were still more valuable the longer they aged. For instance, archaic slumbering cultivators often used Mystic Ice Marrows that were more than ten thousand years old to freeze themselves and awaken in the current era, only to fall into the hands of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Some were even more unfortunate. Those who used either inadequately aged or outright fake Mystic Ice Marrows were forced to awaken in advance due to the ice melting prematurely. The archaic Fusion cultivators Lu Yang had encountered in the horrifying rule incident of Buyi Town were prime examples.

“Who needs ten-thousand-year-old Mystic Ice Marrows? If it were up to me, a single Everlasting Immortal Fruit could keep them asleep till the end of time; there’d absolutely be no risk of awakening early.”

“But Immortal Fairy, isn’t your Everlasting Immortal Fruit meant to prevent decay of corpses?”

“Not much difference. Those fellows frozen with Mystic Ice Marrows are hardly any different from corpses. How else do you think they bypassed lifespan limits to sleep until now? Isn’t it because they entered a feigned death state when frozen?”

“Well, a ‘feigned death state’ isn’t entirely accurate. The precise term would be ‘near-total time suspension.’”

“Time suspension?” The Everlasting Immortal Fairy nodded earnestly. Suddenly, she recalled Yun Zhi’s warnings. She warned me not to tell Lu Yang too many matters beyond his level.

But then, she remembered her glorious past, where she roamed the world carefree in ancient times. A mere Lass Yun isn’t worthy of my notice! I’ll speak my mind!

“What I’m about to tell you is top secret. You mustn’t let Lass Yun know!” Ever smart, the Everlasting Immortal Fairy devised a win-win solution.

“Feel free to speak, Immortal Fairy. Do you not know me? My lips are sealed!” Lu Yang patted his mouth to vouch for his credibility. Although he still remembered Yun Zhi’s warnings, the Everlasting Immortal Fairy’s stories always ignited his curiosity.

Of course, if she wishes to veer into ancient dark history and scandals, that’d be another matter.

The first-in-command and second-in-command exchanged a tacit grin, already forgetting their internal strife from three days ago.

“If you cultivate a Heavenly Eye and attain extraordinary vision, you will realize that all matter in this world is in motion, be it people, objects, dust, or even the tiniest particles composing them.

“The Nine-Layers Immortal wielded the Yin-Yang Dao Fruit and grasped extreme temperatures. He discovered that motion isn’t absolute. If the temperature drops to its limit, even the tiniest particles freeze and become immobile.

“When the Nine-Layers Immortal consulted the Epoch Immortal about this, the Epoch Immortal’s research concluded that if the Nine-Layers Immortal harnessed the extreme cold, he could also achieve a time suspension.”

“Also? The Epoch Immortal could suspend time too?”

“Of course. The Epoch Immortal could suspend the entire world’s time, the range much wider than the Nine-Layers Immortal’s.

“Later, the Nine-Layers Immortal discovered that the tiniest particles accelerated at high heat. He adjusted the temperature to the highest, beyond that of the sun. Under extreme heat, the speed of the tiniest particles reached its limit—in other words, the speed of light. This falls under the domain of the Epoch Dao Fruit.”

Lu Yang mulled over the story he had just heard and suddenly felt enlightened. “Immortal Fairy, are you saying that all Dao Fruits ultimately lead to the same destination?”

The Everlasting Immortal Fairy stared at Lu Yang for a moment. “Yes, that’s exactly the principle I wanted to tell you! I didn’t expect you to comprehend it on your own!” Actually, the ten-thousand-year-old Mystic Ice Marrow simply reminded me of this matter. I didn’t think so much.

As they spoke, the group arrived at the Metal Branch.

As soon as they stepped in, everyone felt a tingling sensation on their skin. Their golden cores automatically protected their masters, covering their bodies with a thin membrane of spirit qi. Only then did the numbing sensation disappear.

“This is the unique intangible metal qi of the Metal Branch. According to Elder Tong, the Metal Branch Elder, the Metal Branch is made up of countless precious essence stones and mineral veins. These precious ores possess their own pride that doesn’t allow them to coexist with other minerals. The collision between these ores and minerals causes metal qi to leak out, resulting in this unique phenomenon at the Metal Branch.”

The land of the Metal Branch rarely saw vegetation. Even when spirit plants grew there, they would have been converted by the Metal Branch’s influence, taking on a metallic luster. To flourish in an environment suffused with metal qi was a testament to the sheer resilience of these spirit plants.

Lu Yang’s Sword Spirit Root was a variant of the Metal Spirit Root, making him particularly sensitive to the vibrant metal qi of the Metal Branch. If this metal qi was refined, it would become the most basic form of sword qi.

Man Gu noticed many Five-Elements Sect disciples sitting in meditation on the Metal Branch with numerous magical treasures floating above their heads, bobbing up and down as if they were floating on the sea’s surface. Some paired up, competing with each other to control magical treasures, which could coordinate to form powerful arrays. Such exquisite manipulation demonstrated the strength of their spiritual consciousness.

Bai Ming smiled. “The Metal Branch is most adept at metal manipulation. It can be likened to sword control techniques.

“If we’re talking about the individual most skilled in metal manipulation, that would be the first Metal Branch Elder. His cultivation was heaven-defying, and his every movement was in perfect harmony with nature’s laws. He was truly formidable. If he hadn’t moved several mineral veins here during the sect’s founding, the Metal Branch couldn’t have achieved its current state.”

“...So your Five-Elements Sect’s Metal Branch was stolen from elsewhere?”

“You can’t call it stealing,” Bai Ming corrected. “It’s called illegal mining.

“Besides, the first Metal Branch Elder studied law. At that time, the Great Xia Dynasty had just been established. Its legal system wasn’t yet complete, and even the penal code hadn’t been drafted. He took advantage of this gap to make contributions to the sect by bringing a few mineral veins back to the sect.”

Without even a draft of the penal code, there was no way to convict him of any crime.

Lu Yang, “...”

“The first Metal Branch Elder stated that as cultivators, their every word and action should conform to nature’s laws. This implies that cultivators themselves are a part of nature’s laws. Therefore, his moving the ore veins to the Five-Elements Sect isn’t considered illegal mining, but rather ‘natural migration of mineral veins.’ It was a course of nature, and he merely accelerated the process. Hence, it shouldn’t count as a crime.”

“And then?”

“The imperial court didn’t buy it.”

“I thought so too.”

“Later, he took out a loan from the Meng Family and purchased those mineral veins.” Bai Ming glanced at Meng Jingzhou and added, “As for the loan from the Meng Family, it was fully repaid sixty thousand years ago.”