103: Chapter 103 The Crimson Emperor's Heart Pendant

"Something is wrong."

You stand in the center of the empty Immortal Cave, your fingers tapping unconsciously against the sword scabbard as your gaze sweeps back and forth across the four walls.

"A Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator who has Cultivated for over two hundred years, no matter how poor, shouldn't be without even a Storage Pouch, right? Forget about Spirit Stones; what about Medicinal Pills? What about Magical Artifacts? Just these few tattered booklets and a single fruit?"

You walk to the stone wall on the left, circulate your True Qi into your palms, and slowly push along the wall surface.

The stone wall is solid; there are no hidden compartments.

The right stone wall is the same.

You crouch down again and carefully examine the millstone-sized bronze Formation Plate. The Formation Plate has completely lost its luster, its surface patterns dull and lifeless, but you still flip it over. The bottom is clean; there is nothing there.

"Could it really be that so much time has passed that everything has rotted away?" You stand up, smacking your lips in dissatisfaction.

Your gaze finally falls back onto the stone bed.

To be precise, it is that greenish-grey Daoist robe spread out on the stone bed, the one you didn't dare to touch before.

You raise the sword scabbard in your hand and lift a corner of the Daoist robe's hem.

Underneath the Daoist robe, it is completely empty; there are no hidden compartments or mechanisms.

You simply flick the entire Daoist robe aside, tossing it onto the ground.

The moment the Daoist robe slips away, the surface of the stone bed is suddenly exposed to your view.

Densely packed carved characters.

Your pupils constrict, and you walk to the side of the stone bed in two or three strides, leaning in close.

You start reading from the beginning.

"My name is Tao Wuji, born in the seventh year of Chonghe of the Great Yun dynasty, into a family of herb gatherers beneath Funiu Mountain in Youzhou..."

The opening begins with his background.

Great Yun was the dynasty before Great Qing, and it fell over three hundred years ago. By this calculation, Master Qingling must have died here at least several hundred years ago.

You continue reading, your reading speed increasing.

"...At nineteen, I went into the mountains to gather herbs, accidentally fell into a deep ravine, and found a blood-colored jade pendant in a crevice at the bottom of the ravine, named the 'red emperor heart pendant'."

red emperor heart pendant.

You subconsciously touch the cold, teardrop-shaped pendant inside your collar, your heart rate suddenly accelerating.

"...The red emperor heart pendant is an ancient exotic treasure that can merge with a person of the Pure Yang Physique. After the Fusion, the host will gain two great fortunes: First, those without a Spiritual Root can grow one, and those with a Spiritual Root can improve its grade. Second, every time the host slays a Yao Beast and absorbs its essence blood, the pendant can refine the blood energy, strengthening the host's Foundation and greatly accelerating Cultivation..."

Your breathing stops for a beat.

Those without a Spiritual Root can grow one.

These six words explode in your mind like a barrage from five hundred cannons.

"Holy shit." You curse under your breath, your eyes wide as copper bells.

Isn't this the legendary Golden Finger?! A Mortal without a Spiritual Root can step onto the path of Cultivation with this thing, and it even comes with passive effects that accelerate Cultivation and absorb blood energy?

You almost jump up on the spot.

However, this Master Qingling is really too weak. With such a powerful Golden Finger, he actually couldn't even Breakthrough to the Purple Mansion and fell at only the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

You continue reading further down.

"...However, the red emperor heart pendant is also an evil treasure. The one who fuses with it must pay two costs: First, the host must have the Pure Yang Physique; otherwise, during the Fusion, Yin and Yang will clash, and the Meridians will shatter, leading to death. Second, for those who successfully fuse, from the day of Fusion, their Lifespan will be permanently halved. Regardless of future cultivation level or what realm they break through to, their Lifespan will only be half that of a Cultivator of the same level. This is inevitable and cannot be defied."

You are silent for a moment.

Lifespan halved.

This price... is indeed ruthless.

A Qi Refining Peak Cultivator can live for two hundred years, so halving it means one hundred years. The notes didn't state how long a Foundation Establishment Cultivator can live, but judging by the time Master Qingling died, it's probably around five hundred years.

But you have a simulator, so who cares about Lifespan?

It's practically a massive profit.

You raise your hand, pinch the red emperor heart pendant inside your collar, and lower your head to look at your own bottomless... neckline.

"Pure Yang Physique." Your mouth twitches slightly.

"...I feel like I'm pretty Pure Yang." You mutter to yourself, clearly lacking confidence.

"Do I need to bathe and fast for three days, and burn incense to pray?" You stare at the pendant, seriously considering it for two seconds. "Or do I need to be naked?"

You shake your head, casting these unreliable thoughts out of your mind, and continue reading the carved characters on the stone bed.

The second half is the life story of Master Qingling.

"...At nineteen, I obtained the pendant and merged with it, growing a Medium Grade Fire Spiritual Root. At twenty-three, I left home, traveled ten thousand miles, traversed the Ten Thousand Mountains, and entered Nanxuan Region. At twenty-six, I achieved Aperture Opening. At thirty-one, I was at the first level of Qi Refining. At fifty-one, I was at the ninth level of Qi Refining."

"In the following years, I wandered the world, searching everywhere for a source fruit. Finally, at the age of eighty-two, in the ruins of an ancient Yao Beast battlefield, I found a fourth-grade 'Red Flame Python' source fruit. At eighty-three, I successfully reached Foundation Establishment and gained a trace of fire-controlling ability."

"After Foundation Establishment, I realized that the path to the Purple Mansion is even more arduous. I needed to find the corresponding 'Purple Mansion Wonder Item'. There are one hundred and eight Purple Mansion Wonder Items corresponding to the Red Flame Python, scattered throughout the Cultivation World. By the time I broke through to the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment and began searching for a Purple Mansion Wonder Item, my Lifespan had already been halved. Subtracting the years already spent, I had less than fifty years remaining."

"Over those fifty years, I traveled through ninety percent of the Nanxuan Region, exhausting my savings, but I never found a single Purple Mansion Wonder Item. At two hundred and thirty-eight years old, with my Lifespan coming to an end, I returned to my homeland exhausted, opened this Immortal Cave in Daliang Mountain, left behind my life's earnings, and passed away with regret."

You read to this point and remain silent for a long time.

A person's entire life, condensed into less than three hundred characters on a stone bed. A nineteen-year-old herb-gathering youth accidentally stepped onto the path of immortality, taking nearly a hundred years just to touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment, and finally exhausted the rest of his life for a Purple Mansion Wonder Item, waiting for nothing. And this was even with him having the red emperor heart pendant.

The last few lines of text have messy brushstrokes, with carved marks of varying depths, as if they were carved with the last of his strength when he was extremely weak.

"...If my Lifespan hadn't been halved, I would have had at least another hundred years to search. Why would I worry about not finding a Purple Mansion Wonder Item? Or not being able to condense a Divine Ability? But without the red emperor heart pendant, I wouldn't even have had a Spiritual Root. I would have been nothing more than an old herb-gathering farmer beneath Funiu Mountain, buried before reaching seventy."

"To obtain it is my fate; to lose it is also my fate. I have no regrets, but I am unwilling to accept it."

"Those who come after..."

"Since you have entered this place, you are either a Cultivator above Foundation Establishment who broke in by force, or someone who arrived by chance after the Spirit Stones in the Formation Plate were exhausted hundreds of years later. If you are the former, the items here are nothing to you; feel free to take them. If you are the latter..."

"May your path take you further than mine."

"The red emperor heart pendant, the xiaoyang source fruit, and the Burning Heaven True Art are all gifted to those destined to find them."

"I am Tao Wuji, with the Daoist name Qingling. I Cultivated for two hundred and forty years, reached the Peak of Foundation Establishment, had no affinity for the Purple Mansion, and died here."