514: This is the Life-Severing Slash? It's nothing special!

How delightful!

Before Shen Bei descended into the earth's surface, he was troubled about what identity to use to enter the Royal City.

Now…

All problems were solved.

And it was under the You Family, which held considerable power in the Royal City.

This audacious move was simply explosive.

If Bai Wei knew, she would definitely give him a thumbs-up.

This was a display of both courage and strategy.

No one would ever believe that Shen Bei killed the Young Master of the You Family and was then treated as an honored guest.

It was truly a reversal of the natural order.

After Shen Bei had settled securely in the Royal City, he did not rush to build connections or get in touch with the Royal Family.

These past few days, Shen Bei had been researching the Martial Skill, “Life Severing Strike.”

Actually, General saying this thing was a 'dead skill' was not absolute.

This “not absolute” didn’t mean the Martial Skill couldn’t be Cultivated.

Rather, the cost of Cultivating it was somewhat… hair-raising.

Or rather, Cultivating it was not a problem; even someone with a bit of intelligence could Cultivate it.

But the price one had to pay to unleash this Martial Skill was absolutely agonizing.

So far, the most difficult Martial Skill Shen Bei had Cultivated was the third form of swordsmanship, “Void Lunar Array - Damaged.”

Once this sword technique was unleashed, it would put pressure on and “gnaw” at his own Lifespan.

Shen Bei felt the word “gnaw” was quite precise.

To use another analogy, it was like a gecko’s tail; unleashing Void Lunar Array - Damaged was like severing one’s tail.

But after the battle, the gecko’s tail would grow back.

Void Lunar Array - Damaged only affected Shen Bei during the battle.

After a few days of rest, he would be perfectly fine.

And this “Life Severing Strike” was somewhat similar to “Void Lunar Array - Damaged,” yet entirely different.

To sum it up in one sentence: “Unleashing Life Severing Strike requires the user to sacrifice half of their Lifespan, and the lost Lifespan will not recover!”

Therefore, although Life Severing Strike was powerful, very few dared to Cultivate it.

According to General, among the Stranger in the earth's surface, only the Wu clan’s Stranger could Cultivate it without restraint.

Presumably, there must be some secret to it.

However, the Martial Skill book did not elaborate much on this aspect.

There was only one line of advice: promptly replenish lost Lifespan.

Those few simple words were the key to solving it.

But how to replenish Lifespan, it damn well didn’t say!

Shen Bei thought of that guy, Wu Di.

He painstakingly used Two Headed Vine, Jiang Churan, and himself to kill Bu Jin.

Then, he took something from Bu Jin’s body.

Shen Bei had to put a question mark on this “thing.”

Currently, it didn’t seem to be a physical object, but rather like taking away a spell.

If this conjecture was correct, Shen Bei almost had an answer in his mind.

That was the spell Bu Jin used to pull out white light clusters from corpses.

It must be a spell related to replenishing Lifespan.

Unfortunately, no matter how Shen Bei guessed, even if his guess was precise and flawless.

Shen Bei had already missed this crucial opportunity, and Wu Di had gotten there first.

Shen Bei didn’t feel much regret about this.

After all, when Wu Di made his move, Shen Bei knew nothing; it was only later when General returned that he pieced the whole incident together.

Although he was slow to realize, this didn’t mean Shen Bei was a weakling.

Putting past events aside for now.

Shen Bei began to ponder whether he should Cultivate “Life Severing Strike.”

Whether for Martial Artists on the earth's surface or the Stranger in the earth's surface.

Just by looking at the contents of Life Severing Strike, they would certainly consider it a hot potato, wishing to quickly burn it and be done with it.

After all, what was the purpose of Cultivating?

To live better!

Good heavens.

This one Martial Skill directly cut off half of his Lifespan.

It was simply killing a thousand enemies while harming oneself ten thousand times over.

It was not worth the loss.

But what Shen Bei understood was that the Wu clan in the earth's surface had Cultivated it, and Wu Di on the earth's surface had Cultivated it.

Their methods for replenishing Lifespan should be the same.

Shen Bei, whether as an Stranger or a human, could not obtain the secret method for replenishing Lifespan from either of them.

Otherwise… why could the Wu clan Cultivate it?

There must be a rule of passing it down internally, not externally.

As for Wu Di… don’t even think about it; if they met again and didn’t fight tooth and nail, it would be considered social harmony, with no possibility of exchanging benefits.

Therefore, Shen Bei had to find another way.

Shen Bei had no idea about this method before descending into the earth's surface.

But now…

Shen Bei felt it was worth a try.

Of course, Shen Bei’s way of solving this Lifespan loss was also simple and crude.

That was—advancing to the Divine Power Realm!

Whether Stranger or humans, natural Lifespan was limited.

Ordinary people only lived eighty or ninety years.

Martial Artists and Cultivators could at most live one hundred forty years, but not one hundred fifty years.

However, the Divine Power Realm could achieve longevity!

According to Shen Bei’s guess, this longevity was not achieved overnight.

Instead, it was a gradual process.

It was precisely this attribute that made Shen Bei feel that the price paid for unleashing Life Severing Strike was merely a drop in the bucket.

Lifespan increased with the advancement of the Divine Power Realm; wasn’t this a disguised form of replenishment!

How simple!

It felt like a sense of déjà vu, like the fable of the pony crossing the river.

When one’s strength reached a certain level, looking back at those obstacles once considered insurmountable, those uncrossable mountains, they were nothing more than trivial matters.

Shen Bei was thinking about the problem from this perspective.

What combination techniques, what post-event Lifespan replenishment, those were the opportunistic tricks of the weak.

A true man just endures it!

And the premise for all of this to be true was: being able to advance to the Divine Power Realm.

On this point, Shen Bei was absolutely confident.

That Celestial Human Attraction of Seven-Colored Divine Radiance was the stepping stone to entering the Divine Power Realm!

“Truly, it’s better to be lucky than early.”

Shen Bei couldn’t help but beam with joy, exclaiming, “One Seven-Colored Divine Radiance solves two of my problems, how wonderful!”

After Shen Bei had sorted everything out.

He immediately began to Cultivate Life Severing Strike.

He sat cross-legged in the secret chamber of his small courtyard, surrounded by flickering candlelight.

Ever since he had assimilated the Seven-Colored Divine Radiance, Shen Bei’s breathing seemed to subtly resonate with heaven and earth's surface.

The foundation of Cultivation was naturally the Mind-Cultivation Technique.

Its main purpose was to teach Cultivators how to find and examine their own Lifespan.

There was no difficulty in this aspect.

Purely theoretical knowledge.

Shen Bei spent only three days to fully understand it and examine his own Lifespan.

His Lifespan was probably a cluster of milky white Qi.

It had the fierce intensity of staring directly into a raging fire.

Just by looking at the Lifespan Qi cluster, he couldn’t tell how long he would live.

However, if he stared at it for a long time, he could see the Lifespan Qi cluster dissolving at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

And the true first step of Cultivation severely tested one’s tolerance for pain.

“Condensing Lifespan into Threads!”

Shen Bei closed his eyes tightly, forming hand seals, and slowly, thread by thread, he peeled away the life force within his body, his own Lifespan, from his Dantian.

With each fraction of life force extracted, Shen Bei’s face grew paler, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

It was like extracting spinal marrow; this feeling was simply indescribable.

It was the sensation of having slices of flesh scraped off one by one.

It was far less swift than Void Lunar Array - Damaged biting off Lifespan in one go.

The main reason was that this process was too long and tormenting.

The pain was not a one-time thing, but rather a constant torment, like being slowly sliced, every single minute and second.

No wonder ancient Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts) was one of the most severe punishments.

It truly made one wish for death but be unable to die, wish for life but be unable to live!

Gradually, more and more threads of Lifespan were drawn out from Shen Bei’s body.

This ethereal substance was what was needed for the second step of Life Severing Strike—Gathering Lifespan into a Blade!