Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 207 - 145: Ku’s Magical Power

"Five Ku’s Magical Power now."

Lu Chang’sheng slowly floated up from the ground, but once he reached about ten feet, he started to feel the strain.

Vaguely, he could see a swirl of energy circling under him, holding up his entire body.

As a thought crossed his mind, his body shot straight out, nearly crashing headfirst into a wall over thirty feet away.

Five Ku’s Magical Power was much stronger than four; using his body technique suddenly made him feel like a child swinging a sledgehammer—totally out of control.

"Just five more Ku, and I can go one step further."

So Lu Chang’sheng thought to himself.

Of course, he knew that the further he progressed, the harder it would get to increase his Magical Power. Like now—with the Body Refining Pills, he was already close to his current limit.

"The truly difficult part is the few Ku that come after this."

"No need to rush, take it slow. For now, I need to go to the Spirit Realm and find a new cultivation method."

More than another month went by.

Lu Chang’sheng trained every day with the Body Refining Pills, but his Magical Power barely increased at all—it was nothing like before.

This was when he started thinking about his own talents.

"Maybe, my Spirit Root Talent is like the size of a bottle. How much it can hold is pretty much set in stone, and now my situation is that this bottle is almost overflowing. If I want to take in anything new, I have to keep compressing the space inside."

It wasn’t hard to imagine—his cultivation had reached the point of twice the effort for half the result.

"No wonder some of those evil cultivators are stuck at just the first level of Qi Cultivation."

Lu Chang’sheng did some calculations—at this speed, he might never reach the second level of Qi Cultivation his whole life.

"I really need to get to the Spirit Realm as soon as possible."

That was his only thought now.

The only thing standing in his way were those evil cultivators.

No idea how Zhu Er’s recovery was going.

Also, as the last few days passed, Black Mountain Prefecture City, normally bustling, had gotten unusually quiet all of a sudden.

There was this feeling that a storm was about to break.

Odds were, those evil cultivators weren’t going to hold back much longer.

Lu Chang’sheng got even more careful.

He also set aside time to go into the secret chamber and tell his family to be extra cautious.

He especially reminded Lu Chang’an and Lu Ziyou to protect their mother and the rest of the family.

Honestly, with the strength those two had, they should be on the surface helping out with the fighting. But because of Lu Chang’sheng’s status and influence here, no one dared to argue with this arrangement.

Lu Chang’sheng, for his part, didn’t think much of leading by example. If it weren’t for his business with Zhu Er, he’d have taken his whole family and hidden deep in the mountains long ago.

At night, Lu Chang’sheng walked through the courtyard of the Alchemy Room, catching sight of patrolling Black Mountain Army soldiers now and then.

That was just the open patrols; hidden away were more sentries, armed with powerful crossbows, ready for trouble from evil cultivators at any moment.

"Alchemist Lu, getting ready to refine some pills again?"

"That’s right!"

"Alchemist Lu, are you free later? I’d like to ask you some questions."

"Of course. You know my rules, though."

"Don’t worry. I’ve got everything ready—just waiting for you to have some time."

······

Lu Chang’sheng not only refined pills but ran private lessons on the side—whoever wanted to ask his advice had to pay for it.

Oddities, spirit medicine, even some herbs aged for years—they were all accepted.

Lu Chang’sheng wasn’t one for selfless deeds; unless someone had real potential that interested him, he stuck to his way of doing things.

But just as he was refining a Biyun Pill, suddenly, a violent explosion roared out.

"Crash!"

Lu Chang’sheng, who was controlling the Pill Fire, jumped with a start.

Something’s wrong!

At the same time, outside the Alchemy Institute, a group of armored fighters suddenly charged in, all dressed in Black Mountain Army gear.

They started swinging blades the minute they arrived—nobody among the patrolling Black Mountain Army expected their own men to turn on them. They got caught off guard, the casualties brutal.

Crack, crack! 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Even with just his current Spiritual Sense, Lu Chang’sheng could hear the sound of crossbows and mechanisms getting into position.

Those Black Mountain Army traitors definitely knew the defense setups inside and out, so there was no way they’d leave those weapons alone.

That thought made Lu Chang’sheng’s heart sink a bit.

These evil cultivators had clearly come prepared.

The months of silence probably had everything to do with the Black Mountain Army’s betrayal.

"Damn it, why’s the Black Mountain Army switching sides again?"

Lu Chang’sheng let out a silent sigh.

Back in the war, the Black Mountain Army had switched sides to the rebels before, and on the battlefield of Black Mountain Prefecture, they’d brought him no end of trouble.

Lu Chang’sheng rushed outside and, slipping into a corner, opened his Treasure Vault Immortal Insect and took out his Poisoned Long Spear.

Panic was already starting to spread inside the Alchemy Institute.

Sure, most everyone there was at least True Qi Realm, but spending years focusing on alchemy had cut into their fighting abilities big time—nobody dared step outside the doors.

"Alchemist Lu, where are you off to?" Yan Yun appeared, blocking his way.

"Heading to the battlefield to check things out and lend a hand."

Hearing that, Yan Yun felt embarrassed immediately.

He only wanted to stay safe in here.

Being the Alchemy Institute, security here was top-notch. Besides the Black Mountain Army outside, there was also a team led by an Innate Martial Artist and twenty True Qi Realm Martial Artists standing guard inside.

That Innate Martial Artist was none other than Sun Wu, the same one who’d escaped previously.

To everyone’s surprise, he had personally come to submit to the Empress, and as it turned out, Zhu Er noticed he had a Spirit Root Talent.

He also had a decent look to him, so naturally Lu Chang’sheng wasn’t going to be asked to kill him.

Hearing Lu Chang’sheng’s words now, Yan Yun hesitated a bit.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help—he simply couldn’t. Like the other alchemists, he had gotten rusty and soft from focusing on alchemy for so long. Fending off a regular Innate would be a stretch, let alone facing evil cultivators—there he had zero confidence.

The last time he and Jin Ke had led the guards at Gao Hufu in a siege against evil cultivators, the trauma stuck with him for good.

"Don’t think this is just Immortal Zhu Er’s problem—it concerns every one of us. If Immortal Zhu Er dies, the rest of us are doomed too."

Yan Yun jolted and quickly said, "You’re right, Junior Brother Lu. Let’s go right now."

"Hold up."

Just then, Lu Chang’sheng thought of something else and looked over the crowd of alchemists in the courtyard.

Zhu Er’s side was definitely the main battlefield—no question it was dangerous. Still, the more people to back him up, the better.

He gave the same message to that bunch of alchemists gathered there.

With Yan Yun lending support, quite a few alchemists chose to go along with Lu Chang’sheng.

Of course, not everyone wanted to go.

"We won’t be much help over there. Better to stay here and wait for word," said an alchemist by the name of Yu Wen.

Lu Chang’sheng just smiled, not pushing the issue.

In his mind, though, this place wasn’t all that safe either.

Sure enough, not long after he left, a group of Black Mountain Army men, covered in blood, burst inside.

But Yu Wen hadn’t done nothing. Before, he’d gotten together with the eight other alchemists who stayed behind and worked out a plan in case something happened. So even though they were startled, they weren’t in disarray.

They also knew the Black Mountain Army’s composition—most were good at Pile Skill, with few at True Qi Realm. Here, out of the eight, all but one were at True Qi Realm.

One or two even had reached Great Success, so unless they ran into an evil cultivator or crossbow ambush, they were sitting pretty.

Sure enough, after a fierce fight, they managed to drive off dozens of Black Mountain Army soldiers.

Yu Wen grinned and said, "Scholar Lu and the rest were too reckless, going after Immortal Zhu Er. They’re bound to run into evil cultivators—if anything goes wrong, even Alchemist Yan Yun could get killed."

The other alchemists nodded in agreement.

Yu Wen made sense—but there was something he missed.

Going to Zhu Er made things more dangerous, true, but actually, it also made things safer.

They didn’t know that the evil cultivators had come with two targets this time.

One was to surround and kill Zhu Er; the other was to wipe out the alchemists inside the Alchemy Institute.

Sure enough, not long after that batch of Black Mountain Army left, they came back for more.

This time, Yu Wen and his group were dragged straight into hell.

After beating back a few Black Mountain Army, a figure flashed before their eyes. In the next instant, Yu Wen was sent flying like a kicked ball and crashed hard against the courtyard wall, more than thirty feet away.

The sight scared the crap out of the remaining alchemists.

But before they could react, the armored Black Mountain Army rushed in—no weapons needed. Using only their fists, they smashed all eight alchemists to death in the yard as they tried to run.

"Yan Yun and Lu Chang’sheng aren’t here!" one of the armored men murmured, his body swelling suddenly—his closely-fitted armor shattered, falling to the ground, revealing the face of the evil cultivator Zhao Xing.