"Dispersing cultivation to cultivate anew?" It was the first time Lu Yang had heard the phrase, though its literal meaning was straightforward enough.
"Yes. Many cultivators have no guidance when they first embark on the path of cultivation. Their progress is anything but smooth, and their foundation ends up shaky. At low realms, it doesn't make much of a difference—at most, they get challenged across realms by someone with a rock-solid foundation like you. But once they reach higher realms, serious problems arise. It becomes terribly easy to hit bottlenecks where their cultivation doesn't advance by even a shred for hundreds or even thousands of years.
"When that happens, cultivators face a choice: dispersing their cultivation to cultivate anew."
The Immortal Fairy spoke with ease and eloquence. When it came to knowledge of cultivation, no one could rival her.
"They disperse their entire lifetime of cultivation, which is similar to reincarnation, returning as an infant with their memories intact to start over from scratch. With the memories of their previous cultivation, they can avoid countless detours this time around and know exactly how to lay a firm foundation. Opportunities they once missed because their cultivation had been too high or their age too advanced won't be missed again. Outsiders have no way of telling whether someone has reincarnated to cultivate anew; even testing bone age or anything else will reveal nothing.
"However, dispersing cultivation to cultivate anew comes with three problems. First, there is a cultivation requirement: one must be at the Body Integration stage, and at their absolute prime. At peak vitality, essence, energy, and spirit are unified, which ensures that a sliver of the true spirit remains imperishable after dispersing one's cultivation. If one disperses cultivation in old age, when essence, energy, and spirit have scattered, the only result will be failure—their soul will shatter and scatter beyond any hope of salvation.
"Second, after starting anew, you are just like a newborn infant, with zero ability to protect yourself. Even eating and crawling are struggles. And even after surviving infancy and growing up, the cultivation world is far from safe. You might provoke some enemy while growing up and meet an untimely death.
"Third, there is no guarantee for your root bone after cultivating anew. For instance, if you had dual spiritual roots before, you might end up with triple or even quadruple spiritual roots after dispersing your cultivation. In that case, even with prior cultivation experience, it would be difficult to return to your previous heights."
Lu Yang nodded. Dispersing cultivation to cultivate anew sounded quite similar to Li Haoran's situation, yet different. At the very least, Li Haoran was a brand-new individual, and his innate talent in the next life was guaranteed to surpass the last. Each method had its merits and drawbacks.
No wonder Huang Ming was so difficult to deal with. This was practically the same as fighting an expert whose foundation was at least at the Body Integration stage, simply suppressed to the same realm as himself.
"By the way, did any of the Five Ancient Celestials disperse their cultivation to cultivate anew?"
"None." The Immortal Fairy counted on her fingers for Lu Yang. "I came from a small tribe; Immortal Ying Tian was a vagrant; Immortal Jiuchong was the primary heir of the Lianshan Clan; Immortal Kirin was born of heaven and earth; and Immortal Suiyue was the spirit of the Jianmu tree."
"Can you tell who Huang Ming was before his reincarnation, Fairy?"
The Immortal Fairy shook her head. "I can't. If he hadn't used a mental attack just now that shouldn't belong to his realm, even I wouldn't have been able to tell he had reincarnated to cultivate anew."
Lu Yang pondered. Did the Corpse Driving Sect know that Huang Ming had reincarnated to cultivate anew? Why had Huang Ming chosen to cultivate in the Corpse Driving Sect? With talent like his, he could easily have entered one of the Five Great Immortal Sects. Was he afraid of something, or did the Corpse Driving Sect possess something special?
*Whatever. No need to overthink it for now.* Lu Yang smiled with excitement and drew the Green Blade Sword. This was the first time he had ever faced an opponent who had reincarnated to cultivate anew. It was time to get serious.
Huang Ming watched Lu Yang with a solemn expression, as though facing a formidable enemy, not daring to let his guard down in the slightest.
As a cultivator who had dispersed his cultivation to cultivate anew, he could not tolerate losing to a junior cultivator. That was the only reason he had broken protocol and unleashed the mental arrow.
A mental arrow was something no mid Golden Core cultivator could possibly withstand—not even one who specialized in spiritual power!
How had the other boy managed it? Could he be like himself, someone who had dispersed his cultivation to cultivate anew?
Little did he know that back when Lu Yang had revived the Immortal Fairy during the early Foundation Establishment stage, she had forcefully opened his spiritual space, giving him spiritual strength that vastly outstripped anyone of his generation. Afterward, she had spent every single day raising a ruckus inside it, causing his spiritual space to expand and become increasingly sturdy.
In terms of spiritual strength, no one in the Golden Core stage could match Lu Yang.
"Slash!" Lu Yang roared. Essence, energy, and spirit aligned as one, and his sword qi unfurled like a fierce, torrential bolt of silk. The blade traced a swift, dazzling arc through the air, shearing toward Huang Ming.
Watching from the sidelines, Zhao Po felt his hair stand on end. Even observing this strike from the side, he could feel its terrifying power. Was this truly a sword technique a mid Golden Core cultivator could unleash?
The drowned ghost was equally terrified. Only now did he realize that Lu Yang had held back during their earlier clash; otherwise, this single strike would have been enough to leave him grievously wounded on the ground!
The sword came with such blinding speed that Huang Ming had no way to evade it. If he took the blow head-on, defeat was certain. Huang Ming gritted his teeth, and with a single thought, he vanished from the spot, replaced by the living corpse.
In an instant, he had swapped places with the living corpse!
"Corpse Shifting?!" Zhao Po gasped in shock. He had never imagined Senior Brother Huang Ming had mastered such a secret art, which normally required the Nascent Soul stage to learn.
Huang Ming panted heavily and swallowed a Qi-Replenishing Pill to restore his spiritual energy. Forcing the secret art had instantly drained what little energy he had left.
The living corpse took the blow, split straight down the middle. Innumerable red threads sprouted from the severed surfaces, knitting together to restore the living corpse to its original state.
Huang Ming held back no longer. Controlling the living corpse, he attacked Lu Yang in tandem.
A corpse driver's fatal flaw lay in the physical body, forcing them to rely solely on controlling living corpses to fight. Yet Huang Ming possessed a formidable physical body and abundant mental power, allowing him to fight in person while manipulating the living corpse at the same time, completely eliminating every shortcoming of a corpse driver.
His combat power soared!
Zhao Po stared blankly at the spectacle. Huang Ming's various techniques completely overturned everything he thought he knew. Was the gap between him and Huang Ming truly this vast?
"Ha, now this is interesting!" Facing two opponents at once, Lu Yang showed not the slightest hint of retreat. Like a god of war, the more he fought, the fiercer he grew.
"No wonder you're a disciple of the Dao Seeking Sect—you do have some ability. But that's all it amounts to!" Huang Ming's eyes resembled those of a wolf, gleaming with ferocity and resolve.
"With your talent, you must be invincible among your peers. You probably haven't tasted defeat yet, have you? Today, I'll let you have a taste!" Huang Ming sneered with contempt.
"The spider lily blooms, remolding heaven and earth!"
This was his final and greatest trump card. If he lost even after this, there would be no need for him to disperse cultivation and cultivate anew just to vie for authority in the coming Golden Age—he might as well slit his own throat and be done with it.
Exquisite, blood-red spider lilies burst into bloom. Huang Ming and the living corpse's eyes turned crimson as their momentum surged higher and higher. Their fingernails lengthened into razor-sharp beast talons. Under the pressure of this aura, the earth trembled, shaking as though a subterranean dragon were turning over!
"Two against one—let's see how you win!" Huang Ming's expression twisted slightly with supreme confidence.
"Fighting like this really is a bit much," Lu Yang muttered. He slipped into the ground, took out a seed of the Twin Conjoined Lotus, and channeled the Tree Planting Art.
Under Huang Ming's slightly stunned gaze, amid the cluster of spider lilies, lotus blossoms unfurled. Two Lu Yangs emerged side by side—one holding the Green Blade Sword, the other gripping the Dark Moon Sword.
A composed smile curved the corners of Lu Yang's mouth.
"Now it's two against two."
Chapter 428