Novel Full Chapter 49—Lifespan Increase
Chapter 49: Chapter 49—Lifespan Increase
Chapter 49—Lifespan Increase
『 STATUS PANEL 』
[ Name: Lei Cheng (Otherworldly Being)
Age: 17 / 57
Realm: Lv.0 — Mortal
Path: Bizarre Martial Path
Health: Healthy
Cultivation Techniques: None
Skills: None
Dao: Illusion Intent {31%}, Death Intent {42%}, Life Intent {40%}, Bizarre Intent {44%} ]
Lei Cheng stared at the panel.
The smile that formed was involuntary and immediate, and it did not go away when he tried to compose himself.
’I gained twenty-five years. And the path has been named automatically.’
That alone confirmed the world itself had acknowledged the path’s existence.
He looked at the panel with bright eyes.
"Looks like you gained a massive amount of lifespan," Hua Mingyue said, lowering her book just enough to glance at him.
"Twenty-five years," Lei Cheng confirmed, still smiling.
Hua Mingyue’s expression shifted slightly. "Twenty-five years?... Just twenty-five years?"
She managed to sound disappointed.
"For your level, those years may be nothing," Lei Cheng said, pointing at himself, "but I am a mortal. Before this, I had roughly fifteen years left. Now I have a lifespan of forty years. That is now double."
To someone who had been counting every remaining year, the difference felt almost unreal.
"Okay, okay," she said, waving a hand and returning to her book.
What neither of them seemed to register immediately was that their conversation had been carrying.
The remaining prisoners had gone very still. The guards at the garden perimeter and at the gates—several of whom had been listening from their posts—had gone equally still, and some of them had visibly flinched.
"Young master can live up to forty more years."
"It would mean young master can hit fifty."
"Fifty—are you serious?"
The guards whispered to each other.
In this world, living past fifty was considered a joyous event. Only wealthy families—who could afford strong herbs, vitality-boosting pills, and the resources for long-term health cultivation, and who practiced health preservation techniques—commonly lived to one hundred. Lei Cheng himself, having been raised in the Lei household with access to exactly those resources, had already once accumulated a lifespan exceeding one hundred years.
The prisoners looked at each other and said nothing. Yet their eyes revealed envy and jealousy.
For them now, cultivation no longer looked like a distant legend. It stood alive before their eyes.
’Now,’ Lei Cheng thought, clenching his fist, ’I need to keep cultivating and recover the lifespan I’ve spent.’
He turned toward the pile of books Hua Mingyue had scattered across the garden and started toward them. Before he could pick one up—
"Young Master! Teach us your path!"
All the guards came forward as one. Apparently, they had heard everything—and unlike the prisoners, who were afraid of being killed, they knew Lei Cheng would not harm them outright.
None of them had cared about his experiments. Success had changed everything.
’I didn’t expect them to come this fast.’ Lei Cheng stopped. He looked at them. "Who is the strongest among you?"
A middle-aged man stepped out of the group. Lean in frame, but every muscle on his body had the density of compressed stone—the type of musculature that came from real training, not size. His mustache was thin, his beard cropped. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, chest forward.
"I am currently the head guard, Young Master."
"Come at me," Lei Cheng said, waving two fingers toward himself.
The guard froze, clearly unsure whether to obey.
"I want to check my new path’s combat capability," Lei Cheng said. "Go ahead."
The guard bowed with a palm-fist salute. "Forgive me, Young Master, if I manage to injure you." He paused and scratched his head. "I hope young master doesn’t use Bizarre powers."
"No problem. And..." Lei Cheng grinned, "I won’t use so-called Bizarre power against you." He had long realized they could not differentiate Intent from Bizarre powers.
The guard moved.
"Level Three—Flaming Fist!"
Orange flames erupted around both his fists as he lunged. Behind him, the other guards stepped back to give space.
One guard muttered, watching, "If this works, Young Master will be written into history."
"We should become his personal guards," another said.
"Yes—then we’ll be in history too," a third added, and several of them began cheerfully daydreaming about posterity.
Opportunities to follow history’s founders appeared only once in a lifetime.
Lei Cheng sidestepped.
Purple-gold flames rolled across his body as he moved, and the enhancement was immediate and unmistakable—strength, speed, agility, senses, flexibility—all of it amplified simultaneously. He had never felt his body move so effortlessly.
The guard’s foot came down on empty ground. He had to take several stumbling steps to catch his balance. Thud! Thud!
Lei Cheng shook his head slightly and looked at the group.
"All Level Three guards—step forward."
Ten guards stepped up at once.
"Now attack together."
The strongest guard hesitated. "But, Young Master—"
"Don’t worry. You saw my speed. And if I’m in danger of being hurt, I’ll use my full power." Lei Cheng waved them on. "Go."
The guards exchanged glances.
"If that’s the case," one said.
They lunged simultaneously. "Haa—"
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue as he began moving. "You didn’t even wait for me to signal."
"In a real fight," the head guard called from behind, "no one waits for permission."
Lei Cheng was already a series of afterimages.
"Flowing Fist Style."
The guards launched the Flowing Elemental Fist techniques—the standard fist technique taught to every guard in the Lei household. Flowing Water Fist, Flowing Earth Fist, Flowing Metal Fist, Flowing Fire Fist—levels one through four, delivered from every angle.
’Crap!’ A guard scowled. "We’re just chasing afterimages." Guards were shocked. "We won’t give up." They hissed and continued.
Lei Cheng’s body moved through it all without being touched. Fists of various elementals flashed, punching through empty air. All the guards saw were afterimages. Not a single guard managed to touch a corner of his robe. The gap between them felt less like skill and more like two entirely different realms.
Thud! A slight palm push sent one guard launching sideways through the air, landing meters away, metal fists extinguished on impact. The guard clutched his chest and groaned.
When he struck, he struck lightly.
One light contact, one guard dropped. And soon every guard except one had fallen.
The head guard made one final lunge. "Flowing Flame Fist." His two fists lit up once more with burning orange flames.
Lei Cheng tilted sideways around it.
The head guard stumbled several steps to balance himself. His flames went out.
"Young Master—I admit defeat." He bowed his head, then smiled. "You could have ended me first, from the start. But you waited until everyone else fell."
"You had a position to maintain," Lei Cheng said simply. His words left a good impression on both the head guard and the others watching.
Hua Mingyue, from her rocking chair, nodded. "Before entering Level One, he already matches a Level Three modern martial cultivator." She turned to a new page. "Not just matches—wipes the floor with them, if not peak Level Three." She corrected herself.
She smiled at the page, apparently to herself.
Lei Cheng waved the guards back. "I’ll teach the path once I’ve confirmed everything is stable. Not yet."
Most of the guards dispersed. The head guard stayed where he was, stepping to the side.
"I would like to remain and watch, Young Master."
Lei Cheng looked at him. "Your name?"
"Zhang Mo." The guard bowed again.
"All right." Lei Cheng nodded and went to pick up one of Hua Mingyue’s books.
He sat down with the Dragon Phoenix Forging Technique and began to read.
He stopped partway through, book open across his knees.
He closed his eyes and turned his senses inward.
’My Bizarre Blood Qi isn’t regenerating.’
He had expended around five percent during the fight with the guards—yet after several minutes, not even a single strand had recovered.
The excitement from moments earlier vanished completely