350: Chapter 350: A Century, In the Blink of an Eye

A hundred years.

For a Mortal, it is a lifetime; for a Cultivator, it is but a fleeting moment.

Su Qinghan had lived in Xiao Ran's bedchamber for a full hundred years.

While it was called imprisonment, it was really nothing more than switching to a larger, softer bed and a window that, when opened, offered a view of the entire mountain range.

Xiao Ran never restricted her movements; if she wanted to go to the Hehuan Sect to have tea with Xiao Chan, she went, and if she wanted to go to the Scripture Pavilion to browse through books, she did.

Sometimes, they would even disguise themselves as Mortals and go to the Mortal world to experience the life of a Mortal.

It was just a pity that they never encountered any clichéd plots of arrogant faces being slapped.

A hundred years passed in the snap of a finger, and the days were incredibly mundane.

Every evening, Su Qinghan would wait for Xiao Ran early on.

And every night, Xiao Ran would be there.

Sometimes he would be reviewing documents at his desk, and she would sit on the windowsill watching the moon.

Sometimes he would brew a pot of tea, and she would lean against the couch, closing her eyes to rest.

A hundred years of time flowed by like a gentle stream, flowing until Su Qinghan had almost forgotten the sound of the brass bells on the eaves of the Supreme Dao Palace.

It flowed until, when she looked at Xiao Ran's profile, she no longer felt that drum-like heartbeat.

In its place was something deeper and heavier, like the roots of a tree digging into the soil, digging deeper and deeper, until she could no longer pull them out.

That evening.

Su Qinghan was sitting on the windowsill, flipping through a newly borrowed book from the Scripture Pavilion, "Records of Northern Scenery." Suddenly, the Jade Slip in her hand trembled slightly.

She thought it was an illusion and looked down for a moment, only to discover that the vibration came from the wind outside the window.

The wind blew from the direction of the main peak, carrying a layer of extremely faint Spiritual Qi vibration, as if the entire mountain were humming at a low frequency.

She looked up toward the direction of the main peak tower.

The dark blue bead that had been hanging for over a hundred years was flashing violently at this moment, its light flickering, the frequency as fast as a heart beating too rapidly.

Above the bead, in the night sky, a layer of purple-gold clouds had gathered at some unknown time, churning and swirling like a giant eye slowly opening.

Su Qinghan put down the Jade Slip and jumped off the windowsill.

Before she could even take a step, the door to the bedchamber was pushed open.

Xiao Ran stood at the doorway, the hem of his black robe fluttering without wind, his whole body emitting a scorching aura she had never seen before.

It was not the kind of aggressive, dry heat, but rather like magma deep underground awakening, pushing upward layer by layer.

He looked at her, his gaze so bright it was somewhat frightening.

"I am going to have a Breakthrough."

Su Qinghan was stunned: "What?"

"Mahayana."

As Xiao Ran said these two words, the law seed in the center of his brow emerged on its own.

The purple-gold light shone through his skin onto his forehead, like a vertical eye.

"The Guixu Vortex is shaking, the law seed has emerged on its own and is pointing north, the Bottleneck of the Mahayana Stage has loosened."

"One year from now, on the day of the celestial convergence, the concentration of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi will reach its peak in ten thousand years."

"Breaking through at that time will have the highest success rate."

Su Qinghan's breathing hitched for a beat.

She looked at Xiao Ran standing in the doorway.

His hair was loose, his robes were fluttering violently from the Spiritual Pressure overflowing from his body, and he looked like a red-hot sword being quenched.

"Are you confident?" Su Qinghan asked nervously.

The Mahayana Stage!

There hadn't been a powerhouse at the Mahayana Stage in the entire Far North Land for ten thousand years.

The difficulty and danger of such a Breakthrough were unimaginable.

"I can feel it." Xiao Ran raised his hand and pointed to the northern horizon, "There—"

Su Qinghan looked in the direction he was pointing; in the night sky outside the window, that layer of purple-gold clouds was slowly condensing.

The light seeping through the door crack was warm and heavy, pressing down so hard that it was difficult to breathe, yet it made one's Spiritual Root inexplicably excited, trembling, and yearning.

At the same moment.

Thousands of miles away at the Supreme Dao Palace.

Li Changsheng stood at the highest point of the Forbidden Ground behind the mountain, in front of an old ginkgo tree that had been withered for three thousand years.

At this moment, tender green leaves were sprouting on the branches of that tree, the edges of the leaves shimmering with an extremely fine purple-gold halo, as if plated with a thin layer of crushed gold.

He looked down at his palm.

The law seed had emerged on its own at some unknown time, and the light, identical to the one on Xiao Ran's brow, was rotating in his palm.

It pointed far away in the same direction.

The Far North Land.

Li Changsheng closed his eyes, his Divine Sense reaching out along the Soul Link, and without almost any waiting, he touched the consciousness on the other end.

"Did you feel it?" He spoke through the link.

"I felt it." Xiao Ran's voice rang out in his Sea of Consciousness, carrying an uncontrollable tremor.

"The celestial convergence in a year, is your law seed moving too?"

"It is."

Li Changsheng opened his eyes and watched the purple-gold halo on the new leaves of the old ginkgo tree slowly spread to the bark, as if it had been lit from within by something.

"We both sensed the Bottleneck loosening at the same time; this is no coincidence."

"This is Spiritual Vein resonance," Xiao Ran said.

"The law seeds you and I planted back then came from the same source. Now that we are about to break through to the Mahayana Stage, the two seeds have resonated with each other. In other words—"

"If we break through, we break through together." Li Changsheng finished his sentence.

"If one person moves, the other will be carried along."

"If we stagger the timing, the one who breaks through first will absorb all the Spiritual Qi tide, and the one who breaks through later will never be able to break through."

There was a silence of two breaths in the Soul Link.

Then Xiao Ran laughed, the laughter carrying a certain sense of reckless exhilaration.

"Old Li, this time we're tied to the same rope."

Li Changsheng also laughed, watching the new leaves on the withered branches of the old ginkgo tree unfold one by one, as if the whole tree were nodding at him.

"There is still one year left. That is enough for us to do many things."

"Let's discuss one thing first." Xiao Ran's voice suddenly lowered a few degrees, his tone becoming a bit more alert.

"Although we are the nominal rulers of the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path now, the Cultivation World is more than just these two places."

"The remnants of the three great clans of the Southern Border escaped back then, the Yao Race in the Western Regions only surrendered on the surface, and the Dragon Clan of the East Sea has had spies wandering on the shore for over a hundred years."

"I know," Li Changsheng said.

"And there are a few old things who have been stuck at Body Integration Perfection for thousands of years and have never dared to show their faces."

"They wouldn't dare to fight you or me head-on, but if we were both Undergoing Tribulation..."

The scene was unimaginable.

"They will come," Xiao Ran cut him off.

"They will strike while we are in the midst of our Breakthrough. A once-in-a-millennium Opportunity from Heaven and Earth—whoever seizes it gets it. Those old monsters won't let it pass."

The Soul Link fell silent for a few more breaths.

This time the silence was longer, so long that Li Changsheng almost thought Xiao Ran had cut off the connection.

Then Xiao Ran said one sentence.

"Let's put on another show."

Li Changsheng raised an eyebrow: "What show?"

"A war between the Righteous and Demonic Paths." When Xiao Ran said these four words, his tone was flat, as if he had already thought it through.

"You release news that the Demonic Path is secretly assembling an army to launch a sneak attack on the Righteous Path, and I will release news that the Righteous Path is preparing to strike first."

"Once the news is out, those hiding in the shadows will definitely make a move."

"They want to wait for us to suffer mutual destruction so they can pick up the scraps, so let's let them see the play of 'mutual destruction'."

Li Changsheng was silent for three seconds, then he laughed out loud.

The laughter echoed for a long time under the old ginkgo tree, startling a flock of roosting night birds in the forest behind the mountain.

"This trick again?" He said through the Soul Link, his voice still filled with laughter. "Old Xiao, we already performed this once back then."

"The harvest from that performance was huge!" Xiao Ran said. "The harvest this time will only be greater."

"The last time," Li Changsheng continued.

"Yes, the last time." Xiao Ran's voice sank, like a sword slowly returning to its sheath.

"Once we break through to the Mahayana Stage together, no one in this Cultivation World will be able to stop us."

"By then, whether it's the Southern Border, the Western Regions, or the East Sea, whoever wants to reach out will have to weigh the weight of the Mahayana Stage first."

Li Changsheng stood in the night wind, the new leaves of the old ginkgo tree rustling above his head.

He looked at the purple-gold clouds on the northern horizon, which could still be sensed from thousands of miles away, and nodded slowly.

"Then let's perform. Old Xiao, we make our move in a month."

"In a month," Xiao Ran responded in the Soul Link. "You release the news on your side first—that the Demonic Path is secretly assembling—and I will follow up in three days."