Watching the Mountain

At the age of ninety, a cultivator in the Qi Cultivation Stage would already see their Essence, Qi, and Spirit begin to decline. Attempting to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

’I have an infinite lifespan, and even I don’t dare to slack off in my cultivation for a single moment. How can he, with so little time left, be so "leisurely?"’

However, despite his confusion, he didn’t interfere with Ye Shu’s cultivation. He only reminded him on multiple occasions to ask if he needed anything, especially cultivation resources.

Unfortunately, each time, Ye Shu would just shake his head with a grateful expression, performing a formal salute and respectfully declining his offer.

This left Xu Ran feeling quite helpless. All he could do was let out a long sigh and let him be.

Three years passed while Ye Shu continued his unhurried cultivation. Then, one day, news arrived that Flowing Clouds Master had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage.

Xu Ran was overjoyed when he heard the news.

He never imagined that Flowing Clouds Master would not only regenerate his severed limb—growing back his lost leg and recovering from his injuries—but also seize the opportunity to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage. It was a truly delightful surprise.

But when he met True Monarch Flowing Clouds, the man’s two words—"Greetings, Ancestor"—left him utterly stunned.

He looked at True Monarch Flowing Clouds in surprise and asked, "Senior, did you break through using the Flying Immortal Stream method?"

True Monarch Flowing Clouds looked at his expression and let out a hearty laugh. In a booming voice, he said, "You’re the one who created this Flying Immortal Stream. Why do you look so disdainful of it, kid?"

Xu Ran fell silent.

Zhao Wuyang had repeatedly stressed how difficult it was to reach the Nascent Soul Stage, but Xu Ran had no real sense of it; after all, that Realm was still far too distant for him.

However, once reports of the actual combat performance of Flying Immortal Stream Nascent Soul cultivators began to spread, he gained a quantifiable standard by which to gauge the difficulty of the stage.

Previously, the power gap between a Flying Immortal Stream Cultivator and a normally trained cultivator of the same Realm was such that it would take two or three Flying Immortal Stream Cultivators working together to defeat a single ordinary one.

To be more precise, one ordinary cultivator was roughly equivalent to two and a half Flying Immortal Stream Cultivators of the same Realm.

But upon reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, this gap widened even further.

A Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who possessed their own Power of Law and a Flying Immortal Stream Nascent Soul who did not were on completely different levels.

Based on the Profound Pure Sect’s prior combat records, it took five Flying Immortal Nascent Souls just to hold their own against a single ordinary Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator of the same Realm. And even then, they could only manage a stalemate, not victory.

This showed just how enormous the gap was.

Over the years, the Flying Immortal Stream had slowly spread throughout the Cultivation Realm. Secrets never stay secret forever, which was only natural, and the Sect had never made a deliberate effort to stop it.

However, as it spread, Flying Immortal Stream Cultivators acquired another name: "Pseudo-Cultivators."

This referred to cultivators who possessed power but had not grasped the Dao or its corresponding Realm. Furthermore, according to the deductions of some Great Powers, the lifespan of a Flying Immortal Stream Cultivator might be somewhat shorter than that of a normal cultivator. While an ordinary Nascent Soul Stage cultivator lived for three thousand years, a Flying Immortal Nascent Soul might only live for two thousand.

Of course, this was only speculation. The Flying Immortal Stream had only emerged recently, so there was no way to verify it yet.

Seeing Xu Ran fall into silence, True Monarch Flowing Clouds grinned. "What? Does the world’s ’Pseudo-Cultivator’ label really bother you?"

Xu Ran shook his head. "No, it’s not that. I just can’t understand why you would suddenly choose this path."

True Monarch Flowing Clouds said calmly, "What’s so strange about it? You must understand, I am already over a thousand years old. If I hadn’t chosen this path, how many more years would I have had?"

"What?" Xu Ran stared at True Monarch Flowing Clouds in shock. One doesn’t speak of a cultivator’s age, so despite their frequent contact, he had never known how old the man truly was.

"But... isn’t Junior Brother Zhang your grandson?"

True Monarch Flowing Clouds shot him a look. "I had his father only after I reached the Golden Core Realm. As for his father, he used a Secret Technique to produce an heir only when all hope of Core Formation was lost and his life was nearing its end."

He finished, tilting his head back with a sorrowful expression, and lamented:

"So, don’t mind the world’s ’Pseudo-Cultivator’ label. My only regret is that you appeared a little too late. If you had shown up sooner, perhaps my family would still be whole and together today."

"For all the cultivators in the world whose potential is exhausted, with no hope of another breakthrough, your appearance has given them a chance to keep on living."

"Compared to power, the ability to simply continue living is what matters most."

"That is why my calling you ’Ancestor’ just now came from the bottom of my heart."

"I thank you, Ancestor, for bestowing this path upon us, allowing me to watch over my grandson for a while longer."

With a solemn expression, True Monarch Flowing Clouds performed a deep bow to Xu Ran.

Seeing his formal gesture, Xu Ran thought for a moment. He didn’t dodge; he accepted the profound bow.

’Because he was afraid that if he dodged, the man would come out with a line like, "Don’t force this old man to get on his knees and kowtow to you."’

*

*

*

After learning True Monarch Flowing Clouds’s age, Xu Ran no longer had any doubts about his breakthrough via the Flying Immortal Stream and offered his sincere congratulations.

Just as the True Monarch had said, the path of cultivation was arduous, like ascending to heaven one step at a time. Regardless of combat strength, the emergence of the Flying Immortal Stream had given the people of the Cultivation Realm a new choice—another chance to seek the Dao, another chance to enjoy their time in the mortal world.

He now had a profound understanding of just how difficult the Nascent Soul Stage was. Sixty years had passed. Whether in the Profound Pure Sect or across the entire Cultivation Realm, he would periodically hear rumors about the rise of new, young prodigies.

There was talk of cultivators reaching the Purple Mansion Realm in their thirties or forties, the Golden Core Realm in just over a hundred years, and occasionally, even a Hundred-Year Golden Core.

But once the conversation turned to the Nascent Soul Stage, the rumors fell silent. To this day, he had not heard of a single prodigy from the same generation as Yue Qingyu and Ye Shan breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

No wonder Zhao Wuyang had once said that among all the young prodigies in the entire Eastern Domain, aside from those in the Upper Three Sects, Yue Qingyu was the only one considered a guaranteed success for breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage.

What puzzled Xu Ran, however, was that ever since Ye Shan had unleashed that one sword strike, Yue Qingyu had announced she was entering seclusion, and there had been no news of her since.

He had originally assumed she was aiming for the Nascent Soul Stage, but sixty years had passed without her re-emerging. He couldn’t help but wonder. ’Could it be... that Senior Sister Yue isn’t just breaking through to Nascent Soul, but to an even higher Realm?’

He never even considered the possibility of failure. Even after Ye Shan’s world-shaking sword strike, in Xu Ran’s heart, the person closest to the Dao was still Yue Qingyu.

If even she couldn’t break through to the Nascent Soul Stage, then he would truly have to wonder if even he, with his infinite lifespan, could ever reach it.

The Profound Pure Sect once had four great prodigies. With Yue Qingyu in seclusion and the Little Witch having failed her breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Stage, Xu Ran figured the next one to succeed would be either Chen Chang’an or Zhang Zhentian.

But as the saying goes, the newcomer often surpasses the veteran.

Xu Ran never would have imagined that the first of the younger generation to break through would be his very own student, Shen Wuchen.

A mere six months after True Monarch Flowing Clouds’s breakthrough, Shen Wuchen broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage under the watchful eyes of all.

The moment he succeeded, the entire Sect was stunned. The news spread like wildfire throughout the entire Cultivation Realm.

And so the name Shen Wuchen, last heard after his five hundred consecutive losses in the New Domain Grand Tournament, once again appeared before the world in a far more dazzling fashion.

The reason was simple: he was just too young.

To break through to the Nascent Soul Stage after cultivating for less than one hundred and fifty years was a feat unheard of in ages.

The final Cultivation Realm of the former Master Vermilion Bird, Ning Xiyue, was unknown. No one was certain if she had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage in her final moments—or, if she had, whether the breakthrough occurred before or after the incident with the Vermilion Bird Array.

Therefore, her case couldn’t be officially recorded.

Excluding her, Shen Wuchen was the youngest Nascent Soul True Monarch the Cultivation Realm had seen in a hundred thousand years.

The name Wuchen True Monarch resounded throughout the Cultivation Realm.