Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 255 - 169: Consecutive Evaluations

This trip turned out to be a close call with no real danger, but the relationship between Lu Chang’sheng and the Zhu Family had pretty much hit rock bottom.

After they picked up their people, neither side made any effort to greet the other.

Lu Chang’sheng and his companions didn’t linger—they headed straight back to Platinum Immortal City.

The whole family settled into the residence they’d purchased earlier.

Half a year later.

It was Mrs. Lu’s birthday. Neither she nor Lu Chang’sheng wanted to make a big deal out of it, so they just invited a few friends living in the Great Yuan territories.

On the day itself, Daoist Ruyi, Yu Hai and his father, and others showed up, one after another, to take their seats.

Because Qu Yan had married into the Lu Family, Wan Yu also got an invitation.

After dinner, Yu Hai updated Lu Chang’sheng on what had been happening over the past six months.

Especially regarding the Empress.

"That Empress cultivates at an insane pace. The Zhu Family already sent her off to the Supreme Profound Sect. At this rate, it won’t be long before her opportunities leave us all in the dust."

Yu Hai wasn’t happy about this at all.

He’d never liked the Empress—especially after everything that had happened recently. To him, she was the kind of person who just didn’t care about others.

On top of that, since they all came from the same place, he couldn’t help but compete with Zhu Qing in secret.

At this point, Yu Hai started looking distressed—before long, he was tearing up as he spoke.

Turns out that just half a year ago, not long after they reached the Zhu Family, his old man, Guan Hongxiu, finally made good on his promise from the Great Yuan days to find a woman and give the Guan Family an heir.

Yu Hai couldn’t quite compete with Zhu Qing, but his talent was still enough to count as a small-time prodigy, so he was doing alright in the Zhu Family.

Finding a mortal woman for his old man was no big deal.

In no time, with Yu Hai’s help, a woman married into the Guan Family.

But after she walked out of Guan Hongxiu’s room, Yu Hai suddenly remembered a pretty major issue.

He now had a new mother.

If that was something he could just grit his teeth and accept, then what he learned next was the real killer—turns out, for his vaunted Celestial Spirit Body to achieve major success in cultivation, he had to keep his essence sealed for a long time—no "primordial yang" slipping out at all. That just about broke him.

When he told Lu Chang’sheng, Lu could only shake his head in awkward silence.

All he could do was comfort Yu Hai, telling him that with gain comes loss, and to just focus on his cultivation for now.

After all, cultivators live for a long, long time.

That made Yu Hai feel a bit better.

He went on to mention the other people who’d escaped from Great Yuan.

There was one guy Yu Hai especially minded: Sun Wu.

"Remember Sun Wu?"

"Of course I do."

Lu Chang’sheng had a deep impression of Sun Wu.

Back when they were all elder members of the Martial Artist Council, Sun Wu’s Martial Dao talent came second only to Lu himself. Later, he even advanced to the Innate Martial Artist level and joined Wei Feng and the others in pushing Lu out.

"Recently, the Zhu Family discovered Sun Wu’s insane alchemy talent, so they’re working on sending him to White Cloud Cave Mansion for the next Alchemist assessment."

Lu Chang’sheng was quiet for a moment, then said, "Great Yuan really is full of talent."

Great Yuan is just a Mayfly World. Even producing one or two C-grade spirit roots is considered impressive. In the Spirit Realm, a world with Great Yuan’s population might have only enough talents to count on two hands.

You know, the Spirit Realm’s rank is way higher than the Mayfly World’s.

"My relationship with the Zhu Family is pretty awkward these days. You’d better head back early."

Lu Chang’sheng said.

He suspected that Yu Hai’s slow cultivation speed compared to Zhu Qing’s could be because of his own involvement.

"I’ll be more careful about that."

He’d already signed an Immortal Contract with the Zhu Family, so leaving now just wasn’t an option.

If he tried, the Zhu Family would suppress him, and no one would say a word about it.

"Enough about that—how are Zhuqing and Miss Qin Wan doing these days?" Yu Hai asked.

Lu Chang’sheng sighed. "Nothing’s changed. That guy still won’t let them go."

"Any idea why?"

Yu Hai felt his gut sink.

He’d already put in work back at the Zhu Family, asking them to help get the two out, so he knew some of the details.

Apparently, the business with the concubines wasn’t entirely Master Lu’s idea.

If it was, the Zhu Family would’ve never gotten so many chances to interact with Xu Zhuqing and Qin Wan.

So Yu Hai knew that, with Lu Chang’sheng’s current reputation, rescuing the two women shouldn’t have been that hard.

"That’s not the real problem. It’s just that Master Lu hasn’t come back yet."

Yu Hai immediately understood. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Without Master Lu around, nobody below him dared release them on their own—that’s really the main thing.

"That’s a bit sticky," Yu Hai said with a sigh.

"Yeah, he is a Foundation Establishment grandmaster after all."

Lu Chang’sheng sighed too. Up against a Foundation Establishment grandmaster, a small-time alchemist like himself barely stood a chance.

The two chatted for a while, then Lu Chang’sheng walked Yu Hai to the door.

"Don’t sweat it, Chang’sheng. Once my Celestial Spirit Body reaches full mastery, I’ll be there to back you up." Yu Hai patted Lu Chang’sheng on the shoulder with a laugh.

"Won’t be long before I catch up to you—you’d better not stay at just the first Qi Cultivation level forever!"

Not long ago, Yu Hai had already reached the Innate Realm. Next up was training the Root Source Technique, surpassing the Martial Saint stage, starting to refine magical power, and forming his dharma body as a cultivator.

Meanwhile, Lu Chang’sheng was still stuck at the first level of Qi Cultivation. His magical power had increased a bit, though—now up to Seven Stocks.

That’s what you get from popping pills.

With first-grade Qi Storage Pills as his staple, he’d forced his magical power from Five Stocks up to Seven Stocks.

Three more Stocks and he’d be at the second level of Qi Cultivation.

"My spirit root talent is just way too low. I burn through resources even faster because of it."

Not much he could do about that—he couldn’t just stop advancing. If he did, it’d hold back his alchemy too.

Alchemy needed control of spirit fire, which burned through magical power.