This vast ocean was the length of Chen Xia's lifespan.
Boundless and endless.
Every slash that cut 5 meters symbolized 100 years.
The slashed 5 meters quickly reemerged instead of being filled up.
Truly inexhaustible and limitless!
Chen Xia's eyes lit up as he nodded in delight.
What a huge bargain, this was truly a business without capital.
Old Fisherman who was rushing to Chen Xia's cave suddenly froze, feeling a trace of unease in his heart.
It was neither painful nor itchy, just very uncomfortable.
If he had to describe it, it was like an ordinary person being bitten by a mosquito.
As everyone knew, normal mosquitoes could not bite people to death.
But what if the mosquito bit less frequently?
One bite was nothing much, but several hundred or thousand bites would become problematic.
Chen Xia calculated that he could perform it once every 5 years, each time was 20 years. He only needed 5000 years to take away Old Fisherman’s 20,000 years of lifespan.
After that, Old Fisherman would enter the true end period of his lifespan, which was old age. By then lifespan could no longer be exchanged.
He could just directly punch him.
Beating up old men was Chen Xia's expertise.
When cultivators truly entered old age, their cultivation and battle prowess would deteriorate. Without further breakthroughs, they could only accept their death.
Such was the will of the Heavenly Dao.
Cultivators were strongest only at their peak during adulthood. The older they got, the weaker they became.
It was understood that the will of Heaven and Earth would nurture new talents, not allowing these old fellows to live too long and take up too much fortune when they were nearing their end.
This was also a sign that a new era was about to rise.
When over half of the previous generation's experts perished, their fortune would return to Heaven and Earth, and the next grand era would commence, allowing new talents to become the next generation of experts.
To avoid contemporary unmatched peers, some unparalleled talents of their generation chose to seal themselves and avoid the world.
In the previous grand era, the number of talents who avoided the world was exceptionally high.
This was because there was an almost invincible Sacred Body in that era. With just Quasi-Saint cultivation, he single-handedly dominated the whole world, killing three Saints in the depths of the galaxy, smashing the galaxy and annihilating stars. He shattered the souls of the three Saints, preventing their reincarnation.
Unfortunately, that Sacred Body ultimately failed to become an Emperor. He was killed by an ancient Emperor at Quasi-Emperor cultivation. It was said that only a strand of his divine sense remained in the river of time. No one knew for sure.
The next grand era would soon arrive. The path to becoming an Emperor was about to open, and talents preparing to attain the Dao were raring to go.
The three Emperor seeds of the Boundless Sword Sea were hot contenders.
However, among these three Emperor seeds, only Chen Xia was a human Emperor seed. The other two were talents of foreign races.
Walking the same path yet through different gates.
Due to the scarcity of human Emperors in the vast heavens, the human race was relatively weak compared to other races born with divine abilities.
Some humans even had to rely on mighty foreign races just to survive.
Such was the cruel competition.
Only with sufficient strength could one have a say in the vast heavens.
Chen Xia was currently at the Infant Transformation stage. He still had a long way to go.
He had also read up on the specific realms in the vast heavens from the books in the Heavenly Pavilion.
After Infant Transformation was Mahayana, considered minor completion in cultivation where one's divine soul could journey beyond one's body as an out-of-body experience.
After Mahayana was the Moving Mountains realm.
The mountains here did not refer to ordinary mountains, but to the mountains in one's heart. Only by moving these mountains away could one truly walk one's own Grand Dao.
After Moving Mountains was Toppling the Sea, toppling the sea of consciousness within, seeking a clear conscience. This symbolized that the cultivator had entered the Grand Dao and could integrate and comprehend its profound truths.
After Toppling the Sea was Filling the Heavens, filling up one's congenital deficiencies to reach the pinnacle of cultivation, truly embarking far along the Grand Dao and attaining some success, able to unfold one's own domain.
Next would be Quasi-Saint and Saint realms.
These realms were too far away. Chen Xia only briefly glanced through them to get a general idea.
He stretched lazily, planning to rest for a bit before starting to write Dao chapters and cultivate the Giant Turtle Breathing Technique.
"I've brought you a treasure to aid in nurturing your Dao Heart. Take a look."
A sudden voice shocked Chen Xia, making him jump. Looking over, he saw that it was Old Fisherman. He quickly bowed his head, pretending to be greatly damaged in his Dao Heart and half-dead.
Seeing his appearance, Old Fisherman was also troubled, unsure of how to broach the subject. He took out a glowing white futon from his sleeve.
"This white jade zabuton is a treasure left behind by an ancient sage. Sitting on it to cultivate can nurture your divine soul and increase your cultivation speed, as well as stabilize your Dao Heart."
Chen Xia snuck a quick glance then continued bowing his head, looking completely disinterested as he lightly nodded.
"Mm."
This troubled Old Fisherman. Chen Xia had to reach the Quasi-Saint realm no matter what. Even the tiniest bit less would not do.
But now his Dao Heart was damaged. How could he still attain the Quasi-Saint realm?
Old Fisherman furrowed his brows and pondered briefly before gently advising,
"Don't be too upset. Difficulties and dangers are common along the path of cultivation. If it were smooth sailing, wouldn't everyone be able to become Emperors?"
"So don't worry. What's imperative now is to adjust your mentality. You absolutely must not give up. Charging towards the Emperor realm is what you should do."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded sluggishly, looking completely unmotivated.
That wouldn't do. He needed proper encouragement.
After contemplating for a while, Old Fisherman tried another angle. "Even if your Dao Heart is unstable now, you must never take crooked paths and learn unstable mystic arts."
Hearing Old Fisherman's words, Chen Xia knew he must have found out about the Blood Sacrifice Soul Annihilation art. He became vigilant and prepared to act.
Chen Xia's brows tightened as he heavily pounded the ground, yelling angrily, "One's life only lasts a few hundred or thousand years. How can I endure this humiliation? After learning those mystic arts, I will definitely kill my way back for a life for a life!"
Old Fisherman sighed. "Foolish child, there is no need for you to act this way. With your Emperor's talents, you only need to focus on cultivating. Naturally you can manifest your full divine soul once you become a Quasi-Saint."
"By then, with your Quasi-Saint abilities, annihilating the entire minor world will be easy, why the need for a life for a life!"
Chen Xia's eyes lit up and he suddenly asked, "Master, can you help me annihilate this minor world?"
Old Fisherman was startled, then shook his head. "There are endless worlds in the universe. Only you have been to this insignificant world, so only you can find it again. I cannot manifest there."
Hearing this answer, Chen Xia felt relieved. This meant Old Fisherman did not know he had frozen time in the entire minor world.
He heavily pounded the ground again, his tone grief-stricken. "But I can't even conquer a minor world. I'm completely useless. How can I ever attain Quasi-Saint realm?"
"It's not like that." Old Fisherman shook his head. "When I was young, I was also very arrogant, thinking no one in the world could defeat me. But in the end, I still lost, defeated miserably by an unknown nobody."
"Of course, I didn't get dejected but strove to improve, which is how I attained my current level."
Chen Xia's eyes lit up and he asked ingeniously,
"So Master was also useless like me in the past!"