Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Amidst towering mountains and deep valleys, swirling mists obscure the path ahead and obscure the way one has come.

Standing on the edge of a steep slope, Chen Qinghe gazed at the mountain peaks connected only by a single plank road, and couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

He had never seen such a treacherous place before. Not only was the plank road narrow, but the mist swirling around the mountains was even more eerie.

As long as one releases their spiritual power, they will be affected, and their perception of the surroundings will instantly become chaotic.

If it weren't for this reason, even Chen Qinghe, who was at the second level of Qi Refining, would be confident that he could quickly traverse the plank road.

"grown ups……"

Chen Qinghe wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the misty mountains ahead. He had been traveling solely by physical strength, and his face showed signs of fatigue.

Ye Xuan remained calm, his gaze sweeping over the plank road and the mist, his perception spreading out quietly like ripples on water.

The chaos contained within the fog could interfere with ordinary cultivators, but it had no effect on his ability to traverse the world.

He noticed that this natural fog contained not only the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but also many complex components.

"This fog is a naturally formed miasma, which is specifically designed to counter the outward release of spiritual energy by cultivators. However, it is also a training opportunity for you."

Since the ancestral hall joined forces with the royal family yesterday, they have stopped rushing to take action and instead sit back and watch the capital, waiting for Ye Xuan to come to their door.

After all, the capital has accumulated numerous battle formations throughout history. Even if they are truly unable to defeat the enemy, there are still the statues of immortals in the shrines of immortals.

As the only passage connecting the realms of short-lived and long-lived beings, the statue can only be used by immortals to unleash divine punishment within the capital city.

Seeing that they weren't in a hurry, Ye Xuan naturally couldn't be in a hurry either.

His current cultivation level is at the eighth level of Foundation Establishment, which is close to the limit of the Short Life Realm. It would be safer to refine his cultivation to perfection before going to the capital.

So he used his senses to discover this treacherous path, and within the illusion before him, there was naturally an opportunity...

Chen Qinghe nodded vigorously, took a deep breath, and followed Ye Xuan onto the plank road.

The walkway is only a foot wide, made of old wooden planks and vines. Below is a bottomless valley. It has weathered countless years of wind and frost, and when the mountain wind howls, the wooden planks creak.

The two walked slowly through the clouds, one after the other. Compared to Ye Xuan, who had the ability to sense and lead the way, Chen Qinghe was more focused and took each step very steadily.

When the two reached the middle of the plank road, the fog suddenly thickened, making it difficult to even see the towering mountain peaks in front of them.

Chen Qinghe, who could originally release a little spiritual power to support himself, dared not release any more power now, for fear that his consciousness would dissipate in the miasma.

Even with his utmost caution, he couldn't be perfect. Chen Qinghe suddenly slipped, half of his body dangling in the air. In that critical moment, Ye Xuan steadily supported his back with one hand, while simultaneously injecting a bit of spiritual energy into his body.

"Calm your mind."

Ye Xuan guided Chen Qinghe through a set of health-preserving exercises, which helped the young man regain his balance, though his heart was still pounding.

He secretly circulated the "Health Preservation Technique" to try to calm his breathing, but found that the spiritual energy was slightly sluggish when it flowed in his body, as if it was being suppressed by the invisible mist.

Chen Qinghe didn't have a good solution for the time being. When his spiritual energy was circulating, it was blocked by the miasma, and the path became chaotic.

Ye Xuan gradually slowed his pace. "If the spiritual energy within your body circulates and avoids obstacles, how can it follow the proper pathways of a health-preserving exercise?"

Chen Qinghe seemed to understand something, and stopped being weak so often. He focused on circulating his internal energy and broke through any obstacles he encountered.

Gradually, he felt his body become lighter, and the fatigue he had accumulated from the long journey quietly subsided.

After a full cycle, the boy slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and gazed at the winding plank road.

Along the way, Ye Xuan suddenly stopped and looked into the depths of the mist on his right. Chen Qinghe followed his gaze and could vaguely see a stone pavilion in the mist.

As the two approached and their view became clearer, they realized it was a stone pavilion carved by human hands.

But the furnishings inside this stone pavilion are quite unusual—

A stone bed, a stone table, several pottery jars... The most eye-catching item is a jade slip on the stone table, its surface covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Does someone actually live here?"

Chen Qinghe curiously stepped forward to take a look. He couldn't imagine how anyone could survive in this treacherous place.

Ye Xuan picked up the jade slip, dusted it off, and saw that there was no cultivation technique passed down inside, only a brief record:

"My name is Li Xuanfeng, the forty-seventh High Priest of the Dynasty Ancestral Hall. In my twilight years, nearing the peak of my short lifespan, I relinquished the ancestral hall and peacefully cultivated the Longevity Technique here..."

The seamless handwriting abruptly ended there, and the already faintly visible words on the jade slip vanished without a trace as a gentle breeze swept by.

Ye Xuan put down the jade slip and looked around the entire stone pavilion. There was only a skeleton sitting cross-legged on the stone bed. The bones were as white as jade, indicating that the person had a high level of cultivation in life, at least the Foundation Establishment stage.

"This person."

Looking at the skeleton, Chen Qinghe felt a strange sense of unease. Clearly, this former high priest had also failed in his cultivation of the Longevity Technique, just like his successors.

Ye Xuan didn't care about this. Instead, he condensed a white light at his fingertips and slowly floated it down onto the white bones on the giant stone bed.

As the white light penetrated the bones, Ye Xuan's Daoist robe began to emanate a bluish-white aura, drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to infuse the bones.

In just a few breaths, the skeletons before him underwent a dramatic transformation—

Emerald green mist began to surge wildly from the skeleton, and then a tender sprout emerged from within the bone, slowly breaking through the decaying bone shell and continuing to grow.

In the blink of an eye, the emerald green mist seemed to transform into its flesh and blood, clearing away all the remnants from the skeleton, which were then absorbed by the sprouting buds.

The tender bud gradually grew into a lush willow sapling, and Li Xuanfeng's remains lost their extraordinary nature, turning into an ordinary skeleton...

After absorbing all the essence of the remains of the former high priest, Ye Xuan found no trace of cultivation techniques in them, as if the Longevity Technique was just a figment of imagination.

However, his cultivation level has indeed improved, and he has now broken through the eighth level and reached the ninth level of Foundation Establishment!

Ye Xuan composed himself and gazed into the distance at a dense forest in the mountains.

In Li Xuanfeng's remaining memories, there should be a spiritual spring there, which is why he secluded himself to cultivate in this perilous place.

They continued on for another half day, carrying Chen Qinghe, until it grew dark.

The mountain wind was biting at night. Chen Qinghe leaned against the rock wall, circulating his health-preserving skills to resist the cold, while Ye Xuan sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff, spreading his senses to explore every corner of this treacherous path.

Sure enough, behind a waterfall ten miles away from them, Ye Xuan sensed another fluctuation of spiritual energy.

Following the fluctuations of spiritual energy, the two arrived at the place where the spring was gushing.