On the proficiency panel, a new line of text appeared silently:
[Technique: Cycle of Verdant Rings (One Cycle, One Revolution – Proficiency: 0.01%)]
When Su Yu completely converted the spiritual energy from his original Wutong Evergreen Art into the energy of the Cycle of Verdant Rings, that line shifted:
[Technique: Cycle of Verdant Rings (One Cycle, Three Revolutions – Proficiency: 4.4%)]
The name Wutong Evergreen Art had completely disappeared from the panel, leaving only the Cycle of Verdant Rings.
A faint and indescribable aura of ancient time and age now lingered around Su Yu. At the same time, he gained new insight into what "One Cycle, One Revolution" truly meant in the context of this technique.
It was akin to the growth rings of a tree—cultivating the Cycle of Verdant Rings was like etching the rings of time onto his own body.
One cycle, one era. One era, one cycle of reincarnation.
And each revolution was like a shedding of old skin—a step forward.
One cycle and three revolutions corresponded to the third level of the Qi Refinement Realm.
The raw spiritual power of the Cycle of Verdant Rings wasn't particularly strong at first, but with each revolution and each completed cycle, it would undergo a qualitative transformation.
Beyond that, the technique also extended lifespan much more than the Wutong Evergreen Art.
At Qi Refinement level three, the Wutong Evergreen Art granted him a lifespan of 100 years.
But now—
Su Yu glanced at his proficiency panel.
[Lifespan: 18 / 104]
Just from switching techniques, he had gained four more years.
"If I reach the ninth level of Qi Refinement, I'll probably gain at least another thirty or forty years of life. And with the second cycle, the increase should be even greater—probably seventy or eighty more years." Su Yu took a deep breath. This Cycle of Verdant Rings is seriously powerful.
Even putting aside everything else, just the ability to extend life was enough to make countless cultivators green with envy.
A few extra decades of life could mean the difference between ascension and stagnation. More time meant more chances to reach immortality or become a sect patriarch.
Feeling the subtle time aura lingering on him, Su Yu furrowed his brow.
He had the nagging sense that this aura was more than just about lifespan.
It held deeper secrets—but for now, it was too faint to discern.
With his successful switch to the Cycle of Verdant Rings, Su Yu was in excellent spirits. Just for this technique alone, his trip to Yunshan Market had been worth it.
"Next… I'll try cultivating the Blood Whale Devours the Moon Technique," Su Yu thought to himself.
The Cycle of Verdant Rings was more difficult to cultivate than the Wutong Evergreen Art, but Su Yu found that the aura of time around him seemed to naturally attract the spiritual energy of plants and wood.
Because of that, his cultivation speed wasn't slower—in fact, it was comparable to or even faster than before.
Within two years, reaching Qi Refinement level four shouldn't be a problem.
Besides that—
Su Yu also continued practicing the One Hundred and Eight Styles of the Crocodile Demon, using the power of late-stage Tier 1 beast blood to advance his body refinement rapidly.
In less than two months since returning home, after consuming most of the blood essence he had acquired, he finally pushed his body refinement to the fifth level.
And not long after this breakthrough—
The Blood Whale Devours the Moon Technique, which had shown no progress until now, suddenly clicked and broke through overnight.
[Technique: One Hundred and Eight Styles of the Crocodile Demon (Level 5 – Proficiency: 0.28%), Blood Whale Devours the Moon Technique (First Realm – Proficiency: 0.01%)]
Buzz!
The night was deep. Only faint starlight streamed through the window into the room.
Suddenly, a crimson glow burst from Su Yu's body. His blood essence surged into his heart. With a thunderous boom that seemed to echo directly in his mind, he was momentarily dazed.
At that moment, the blood within his heart condensed into a single golden droplet.
That droplet, shimmering like a crystal core, radiated an overwhelming aura—as if a primordial great demon had been reborn.
Thump-thump-thump!
As the golden blood took form, Su Yu's heartbeat thundered like war drums. His heart itself seemed to undergo a transformation, slowing down but beating with greater force each time.
Time passed.
When the morning sun rose and golden rays of light spilled into the room, Su Yu opened his eyes—just as a flash of blood-colored light flickered within them.
In that instant, a domineering aura—like that of a demon king—flared briefly from his body.
It vanished almost immediately.
Awakening from his cultivation, Su Yu looked over his body in a daze.
The change was drastic.
Besides the transformation in his heart, his entire bloodstream had taken on a new hue.
Not as golden as the core drop within his heart—
But now, all his blood carried a dark-golden sheen.
And after this bodily transformation, his physical strength—tempered through the Crocodile Demon Body Art—seemed to have received an additional boost.
"Compared to just the body refinement art alone, my physical strength has increased by at least thirty percent," Su Yu muttered as he felt his body.
But then—
Gurgle, gurgle—
He was starving.
Every cell in his body was screaming. He felt hollow, utterly drained. It seemed like forming the pseudo-divine core of the Blood Whale Devours the Moon Technique had emptied every last ounce of energy from him.
Enduring the hunger, Su Yu quickly pulled out some dried Groundrock Rat meat and spiritual rice he had prepared earlier and began to cook.
He ended up eating thirty jin of low-grade spiritual rice and nearly fifty jin of dried beast meat before his hunger finally abated.
A bite of spirit rice, a bite of meat—
Warmth spread through his body, flowing like heat through every limb. His cells scrambled to absorb the energy.
Satisfying.
"My appetite has grown a lot. And I'm digesting these much faster too," Su Yu noted.
Despite the massive meal, he didn't feel bloated at all.
Most of the energy, he realized, was being drawn into the pseudo-divine core in his heart—fueling the Blood Whale Devours the Moon Technique.
"To fill it to the brim, it'll probably take at least half a year," he estimated.
When the core for the first realm of the technique was fully charged, he could unleash its pseudo-divine power and double his physical strength.
That was a trump card.
In critical moments, it might not just save his life—it could take the enemy's.
With his appetite now vastly increased, Su Yu turned his gaze toward the Groundrock Rat colonies beneath the medicinal garden—they now looked to him like walking delicacies.
He began hunting more frequently.
Eating meat while replenishing his stock of spirit stones—a win-win.
Oddly enough, during this time, the Lin Family quieted down.
Their friction with the Su Family diminished significantly. What they were planning, no one could say.
—
Half a year later.
The Su Family finally managed to hire a Tier 1 Geomancer, paying a hefty sum to have them search for the root of a spiritual vein and establish a blessed land.
Strictly speaking, geomancers were a specialized subset of formation masters.
But compared to ordinary formation masters, geomancers were more esteemed—and more mysterious.
Most members of the Su Family didn't truly understand what a geomancer was.
But Su Yu, having played a cultivation game in his past life and even practiced the geomancer subclass, understood very well.
In the game, every time a geomancer performed a dragon-seeking and vein-setting ritual, they would lose some of their lifespan.
According to in-game lore, geomancers were the favored children of heaven and earth. They could search the heavens above and tame the dragons below. Nothing was beyond their reach.
Among all subclasses, geomancers had the greatest potential for unearthing hidden treasures. Finding a spiritual vein was often trivial for them.
But everything came at a price.
Such heaven-defying power was paid for in years of life.
Unless a geomancer could resist the allure of treasure and refrain from using their secret arts, every ritual they performed would shorten their lifespan.
Which was why hiring one was never easy.
Even a novice Tier 1 geomancer would require the Su Family to bleed wealth to secure their service.