Chapter Thirty-Seven: Joyful Welcome to the Revival of Spiritual Energy

Thirty years is long enough. Though, compared to the vast lifespans of the primeval human race, it is hardly lengthy; for the lesser humans, whose average age is sixty or seventy, it marks half a lifetime.

Through cultivation, after reaching the peak of the world’s “Bottle Realm,” life expectancy rises to three hundred years. Yet, because the essence of these lesser humans is not inferior, after refining essence into qi, their lifespan does not increase; nor does it lengthen after refining qi into spirit. Perhaps only upon the return of spirit to emptiness will longevity be granted.

Within the Bottle Realm, thirty years have given birth to many stories.

The Yang Spirit method he once imparted has now matured. The younger brother who once chased him to beg for tutelage has earned a grand name—Yang Lord!

Upon mastering the Yang Spirit method, Yang Lord upheld Cang’s legacy, sweeping away the lingering corruption of the ancient Demon. Since the Demon flashed through the martial world like a meteor, demon cultivators have multiplied.

Yet demon cultivation is harsh, requiring a severing of emotion and loyalty; if not, their inherent demonic nature will eventually drive them down that path—estranged from all, foes to the world.

Demon cultivators are formidable. Those with insufficient prowess rarely survive an encounter.

Over thirty years, demon cultivators have grown stronger, banding together for mutual support. Amid their schemes and betrayals, they established a Demon Sect, devoted to the destruction of human life and the theft of heaven’s essence. They became a force reviled by all; whenever discovered, heroes from across the land would gather to eradicate them.

A legend persists: demons defy heaven’s will and invite calamity. With each step in their cultivation, fire tribulations arise from within, thunder descends from the sky, and wild winds like blades rend flesh from bone.

Other calamities abound: the dual trials of ice and fire, trials of inner demons.

In short, every destructive spell of the Ancestor Luo Society is brought to bear against them.

Repeat offenders—there are none. Once found by Ancestor Luo, his spell guarantees death.

To lesser humans, Ancestor Luo’s power is overwhelming; crushing them would require only a finger.

Returning to Yang Lord, after achieving minor mastery in the Yang Spirit method, he became active in the martial world, enduring hardship like a protagonist in a novel—betrayed by friends, by love, misunderstood by all, falsely accused as a demon cultivator, hunted. In one great battle, his Yang Spirit method reached perfection, clearing his name and exposing those who secretly plotted his death.

He claimed his beloved, and became the universally respected Yang Lord.

Afterward, he journeyed to the “Holy Mountain,” seeking Ancestor Luo and searching for Cang’s legacy.

Sadly, Ancestor Luo’s traces had long been erased by time, while Cang left behind a humble cottage, now decayed and collapsed by wind and rain.

Yang Lord then began to promote the Yang Spirit method, aiming to purge the deep-rooted demon taint, but chiefly to supplant Cang’s Sacrificial Thought Method. The root of demonic corruption lay in this cultivation technique; Yang Lord understood this, though few others did. As one of the few clear-minded, he revised the Yang Spirit method, merging it with the Sacrificial Thought Method, restricting the practice of absorbing others’ essence, and strengthening the approach of gathering the essence of sun and moon.

Thus, the technique reverted closer to its original form—worship of the sun and moon by all living things.

This surprised Ancestor Luo, who wondered whether it was a regression, an evolution, or simply stagnation.

Ultimately, Yang Lord’s cultivation produced a highly refined spiritual will, a crystallization of consciousness. He followed the path once taken by Mu, forging an achievement akin to a Dao Seed.

Ancestor Luo was puzzled. He had intended to guide Yang Lord to cultivate the Yang Spirit—if not exactly as he knew it, then at least something close. Yet, instead, Yang Lord arrived at the same destination as Mu, though by a different route.

Once might be coincidence, but twice cannot be dismissed so easily.

After thorough investigation, Ancestor Luo reached a conclusion.

Environmental factors.

The environment dictates the people; the Bottle Realm’s meager spiritual energy cannot support the birth of the Yang Spirit. Thus, cultivators must exhaust their own resources, seeking inward rather than outward.

The emergence of demons, though partly due to their nature, is also influenced by environment.

In a world of dwindling spiritual energy, with scarce resources, instinct drives them to mutual slaughter, plundering all things to compensate for their deficiencies.

Ancestor Luo had not considered this before. At first, the lesser humans were few and their cultivation low, so such problems seldom arose. As their numbers increased, even though Ancestor Luo raised spiritual energy supplies, the per capita amount remained nearly unchanged, while the overall quality of the lesser humans improved. Now, it was necessary to further increase spiritual energy provision.

Originally, continuing along the martial path with their current spiritual energy would allow slow progress, compensating for deficiencies over time. Yet Ancestor Luo, eager to accelerate their advance, pushed them swiftly onto the path of immortality, resulting in the current “post-traumatic syndrome of insufficient spiritual energy among the tribe.”

Having settled on a solution, Ancestor Luo acted at once, infusing the Bottle Realm with a vast amount of spiritual energy.

Of course, he did not increase it too much at once, for fear of negative consequences. Incremental rises would suffice.

Today, a ten percent increase; tomorrow, another ten percent, and so on, gradually reaching a suitable concentration.

Naturally, he could not raise it to primeval levels—for fear the Bottle Realm’s creatures would be poisoned. Such concentrations mean nothing to those born and bred in the primeval world, accustomed as they are, but the Bottle Realm is not so. For those used to hardship, the rampaging spiritual energy could tear them apart before anything else.

With Ancestor Luo’s infusion, the development within the Bottle Realm began to change.

From the third year of increased spiritual energy, a rumor began to spread—“Spiritual Energy Revival.”

Along came a negative consequence—ghosts!

The dead returned to life? The legendary ghosts wandered the human world?

This change was unexpected for Ancestor Luo, yet he did not interfere. The appearance of ghosts is natural; their absence was abnormal. Ancestor Luo often suspected that the creatures of the Bottle Realm were simply too small, with insufficient spirit, and thus ghosts had vanished.

Now, it seems his “paternal care” was lacking.

In days past, he fed them only half full—perhaps not even that. The creatures of the Bottle Realm always lived below the “subsistence line,” so even those lesser humans with Ancestor Luo’s bloodline could only awaken their innate gifts after refining essence into qi and developing body and spirit to a certain extent. Now, they awaken these abilities upon reaching adulthood, much like the primeval humans, though their lifespan remains unchanged.