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

The high priest's pupils contracted sharply. His powerful sword strike had been blocked by the young man before him with just one finger.

As the blue and white energy circulated at Ye Xuan's fingertips, the golden sword began to disintegrate inch by inch from the point of contact, turning into countless points of light that dissipated.

"not enough."

Ye Xuan spoke calmly, and at the same time, he made a fist with his left hand. The spiritual energy between heaven and earth frantically gathered in his palm, and a three-foot-long green sword, with a crystal-clear jade-like blade and a sword shadow containing a blue-white flowing light, condensed in his palm.

The sword strike carried an earth-shattering force, forcing the high priest to retreat a hundred feet, unable to withstand it head-on.

Now he dared not hold back in the slightest, and as he approached the royal ancestral hall, he chanted:

"I have honed my character for decades, and I earnestly beg the divine intervention..."

As he chanted, the sky above the capital changed color. The sky, which had been covered by thunderclouds, suddenly opened up, and a beam of dazzling golden light descended from the heavens, enveloping the high priest.

Within the golden light, the high priest's face and physique began to slowly change.

The wrinkles on his face faded, his white hair turned black, and his hunched body straightened like a pine tree. In just a few breaths, he transformed from a frail old man back into a robust man in his thirties.

Even more astonishingly, the aura around him had already faintly broken through the shackles of the Foundation Establishment Perfection stage and touched the threshold of the Golden Core stage!

"Burning lifespan?"

"If you fight like this, it will disappear..." Ye Xuan stared at all this from a hundred feet away, and saw through the trick at a glance.

This is not some miracle of the Longevity Mantra; it is merely a final burst of life after the High Priest burned all of his own lifespan.

"After this battle, regardless of victory or defeat, I will be utterly destroyed."

The high priest's voice became deep and powerful, and his eyes flashed with golden light. He did not regret his decision, or rather, he was very excited about his decision at this moment.

"To have seen a true immortal in this life, and to be able to fight one, I would die without regret!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he clasped his hands together, and golden light around him condensed into nine golden swords. The swords were engraved with mysterious runes, and each one exuded a terrifying pressure.

In the blink of an eye, nine swords were unleashed, transforming into nine golden rainbows that attacked Ye Xuan from nine directions. Wherever the sword light passed, space seemed to be cut apart, leaving behind golden trails that lingered for a long time.

Ye Xuan also moved at this moment. This attack was very different from the previous one, and it was definitely not going to work if he took it head-on.

The green sword in his hand trembled slightly, and the tip of the sword drew a complete circle in the air.

A mixture of blue and white energy surged from the tip of the sword, transforming into a giant Tai Chi diagram, with two yin-yang fish slowly rotating within it, endlessly regenerating.

The nine golden swords pierced the Taiji diagram, but it was like a mud ox entering the sea; the sword's momentum was dissolved layer by layer by the Yin and Yang energies, and finally hovered three feet in front of Ye Xuan, unable to advance any further.

"Life goes on and on."

Ye Xuan whispered that this Tai Chi diagram was created by combining the commonalities between the "Immortal Willow of Longevity" and his own Daoist robe. It not only embodies the endless vitality of the willow tree, but also reflects the endless vitality of his Daoist robe's understanding of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

After a brief standoff, the Tai Chi diagram suddenly reversed, and the nine golden swords were bounced back along the same path, even faster than when they came.

The high priest remained expressionless. With a wave of his hands, the nine swords converged in the air, merging into a giant sword ten feet long. The sword's golden light blazed like the sun, slashing down towards Ye Xuan.

This sword strike already possesses the power to split mountains and cleave peaks!

Ye Xuan was also feeling a little excited. He had always been invincible in the short-lived world and had never encountered such a difficult situation before.

He released the green sword in his hand, and the Tai Chi diagram in front of him transformed into wisps of blue and white light mist that swirled around his body.

"Fairy Willow, open!"

With a soft shout, a thousand miles away in Shuitian Village, the white flower atop the willow tree by the lake suddenly bloomed, its petals shimmering with precious light…

The powerful azure and white energies traversed space, flowing like a celestial river pouring into Ye Xuan's body.

At this moment, Ye Xuan's aura underwent a complete transformation. He was no longer just at the peak of Foundation Establishment, but had truly touched the threshold of Golden Core. The spiritual power within his body began to undergo a qualitative change, evolving towards a higher level.

Facing the golden giant sword that was about to fall, Ye Xuan simply raised his hand, his five fingers loosely clenched.

The ten-foot-long golden sword suddenly stopped in mid-air. The golden light on the sword body receded like a tide, the runes collapsed inch by inch, and finally turned into starlight and dissipated in the wind.

The high priest's expression changed; the excitement on his face gradually faded, replaced by a trace of fear.

He never expected that the breakthrough he achieved by burning his lifespan would be completely ineffective on the young man in front of him.

"You...you have perhaps already broken the limitations of the short-lived world?"

The high priest's voice trembled, but he quickly regained his senses, because he could still feel the aura of Foundation Establishment on Ye Xuan.

Ye Xuan did not answer; he simply raised his right hand and pointed at the High Priest.

At this point, a white light emanated from Ye Xuan's fingertips.

It seemed ordinary, but the high priest felt the space around him suddenly freeze, as if he were bound by invisible shackles and could not move even a finger.

What was most disheartening was that the spiritual energy within his body began to spiral out of control, surging wildly towards a certain spot in his chest.

"It's that strange spell!"

This was the method of cultivating immortality; how could the high priest, who had secretly observed countless times, not know it? And the more he knew, the more despair it brought him…

A glimmer of emerald light suddenly shone on his chest.

The high priest looked down at his chest, where the emerald light rapidly expanded, eventually penetrating his robes and taking root in his flesh.

However, the horrific scene he had envisioned—a willow sapling bursting from his chest—did not occur.

The immortal seed within the body only sprouts and, after absorbing all the life force and cultivation that leaks out, ceases to grow.

The high priest suddenly fell to the ground, staring blankly at Ye Xuan, "What does this mean?"

Feeling his century of cultivation being drained, his face and body quickly returned to their previous aged and hunched appearance, and his spirit became even weaker. Even though he was not dead, he looked like he was half-buried in the ground.

"If you are willing to make offerings to the Immortal Willow, your life can be saved."

Ye Xuan said calmly, "The methods of this immortal seed can always be controlled autonomously, but most of the time they are complete and the scene is bloody."

He looked at the old man in the ancestral hall, who had lost all his cultivation. If he were willing to rely on the immortal seed within him, he might be able to gain a few more years of life.

"..."

The high priest fell silent for a moment. This was clearly blatant charity. He had cultivated for a hundred years, yet now he had to end up like this. In the end, the immortals he had worshipped for a hundred years never made a move.

His heart was filled with complex emotions, but after struggling for a while, he finally showed a look of relief.

He stroked the nascent immortal seed on his chest with his right palm, a bitter smile appearing on his lips. "So that's how it is."

"So this Immortal Willow Method is the true path to immortality..."

He could vaguely sense that his life force and a century of cultivation were flowing continuously through this willow sapling to Ye Xuan and to the immortal willow thousands of miles away.

In the final moments of his life, through the connection between the willow seedling and the immortal willow, he glimpsed a glimpse of the secret to immortality.

Compared to the "Longevity Manual" which he had blindly cultivated for decades, the "Longevity Willow" that he was currently experiencing was undoubtedly a clearer and more correct path.

The high priest prostrated himself on the ground, dust swirling around his robes. As the golden light in his eyes dimmed, he uttered his final words—

"Flowers may bloom again, but youth never returns..."

His final gaze fell upon his aged hands, and the light in the high priest's eyes went out completely, leaving him silent.

After his death, a celestial seed sprouted from his chest and began to absorb blood and flesh, eventually bursting out of his chest and growing into a verdant willow sapling.

On a single willow catkin of that willow sapling, a white flower blooms at this moment.