Lifespan Extraction: I Ascend As The Immortal Beast Tamer
Chapter 25 - 6th Layer Nascent Soul Realm

Chapter 25: 6th Layer Nascent Soul Realm

A sly smirk emerged on Zar’s chiseled face, with his index finger unable to stop itself from spamming the Invest Lifespan button next to his personal Cultivation.

Then mayhem ensued inside the 10-meter-wide barrier bubble, its origins known to only one person...

*Ding~!!*

[You have invested 80 years of Lifespan into advancing your Cultivation, and because of your Ordinary Tier- Supreme Sword Dao Spirit Roots and Unmastered Low-Earth ’Heavenly Beginnings’ Cultivation Technique, you reach the absolute pinnacle of the ’Half-step Nascent Soul’ Realm!]

[Your Nascent Soul Lightning Tribulations kick off with a bang!]

[1st Lightning Bolt strikes, dealing no damage.]

[2nd Lightning Bolt hits with three times the lethality, but you still remain unaffected.]

[3rd Lightning Bolt breaks through the first of many of your defensive energy barriers.]

[4th Lightning Bolt shatters ten times more defensive energy barriers...]

[5th Lightning Bolt breaks through all your defenses, mildly harming you...!]

[6th Lightning Bolt is twenty times more powerful than the 5th, and with a giant mountain-shaking explosion, you’re put an inch away from death....]

[You succumb to your injuries before experiencing the terrifying, gaping, monster-like mouth of the 7th Lightning Bolt’s physical manifestation.]

[You have spent 300 years cultivating and attempted to transcend your Lightning Tribulations over a dozen times, yet you failed each and every time.]

[Even after 600 years of cultivation and dozens of failures to transcend the 7th Lightning Bolt, you just can’t seem to succeed. The gaping mouth of lightning always ends up engulfing you and the entire simulated mountain you stand atop...]

[Finally, after what felt like an eternity of suffering, you succeed on your 69th try, just barely surviving the 7th Lightning Bolt, with 1000 years of Lifespan having been thrown down the drain!]

[Your Nascent Soul begins to form!]

1000 years of Lifespan!?

All just to survive the Lightning Tribulations!??

Zar’s heart ached.

But the Lifespan Extraction System didn’t seem to care, for it ceaselessly spat out system pop-ups one after another:

[You have invested 1200 years of Lifespan into advancing your cultivation, prompting a speedy breakthrough into the 2nd Layer Nascent Soul Realm!]

[After 1500 years of strenuous cultivation with your Ordinary Tier- Supreme Sword Dao Spirit Roots and unmastered Low-Earth ’Heavenly Beginnings’ Cultivation Technique, you accumulate enough Innate Energy to advance once more!]

[Nascent Soul Realm (2nd Layer) → (3rd Layer)]

[It may have taken 1900 years of non-stop cultivation, but you ultimately enter a state of resonance and pull in enough Spiritual Energy to successfully break through to the 4th Layer of Nascent Soul!]

[2400 years of reclusive cultivation pass, and with the opening of your piercing eyes filled with Level 1 Sword Intent, you make a breakthrough!]

[Nascent Soul Realm (4th Layer) → (5th Layer)]

[After a grand total of 3000 years of perpetual absorption and refinement of the Natural Energy in the atmosphere, you finally settle down in the peak stages of the 6th Layer of Nascent Soul...]

"6th Layer Nascent Soul Realm," Zar mused. "Better than I was expecting for 3000 years of Lifespan. Though it definitely could’ve been more if the Lightning Tribulations themselves weren’t so ridiculously difficult."

But with that being a mere minor grievance of his, he moved over to the Shadow Beast section of his System Interface. Just like a year ago in Trial Experiment Area #8777, he would have his Shadow Beasts undergo evolution right alongside him.

*Ding!*

[You have invested 100 years of Lifespan into the group advancement of all 160 of your Shadow Beasts, resulting in the breakthroughs of many because of your Ordinary Tier- Supreme Sword Dao Spirit Roots!]

[Average Beast Cultivation: Core Formation (7th Layer) → Core Formation (8th Layer)]

[After 200 years of cultivation, every single one of your Shadow Beasts have broken through the 9th Layer of Core Formation. Unique Beast ’Albion’ achieved the peak of the Half-step Nascent Soul Realm, commencing its Lightning Tribulations!]

[Your 160 Shadow Beasts have cultivated for 400 years: 159 have begun their Lightning Tribulations and are close to surviving the 7th Lightning Bolt; Albion has already passed its tribulations, even going a step further and breaking through the 2nd Layer of Nascent Soul!]

[1000 years of Lifespan have been invested into the cultivation of your Shadow Beasts: All 160 have survived their Lightning Tribulations; 145 of them cap at the 3rd Layer Nascent Soul Realm; 14 cap at the 4th Layer Nascent Soul Realm; Albion reaches the pinnacle of the 5th Layer Nascent Soul Realm!]

[After 2000 years of continuous cultivation, 159 of your Shadow Beasts have broken through the 5th Layer Nascent Soul Realm; Albion has achieved the pinnacle 6th Layer Nascent Soul Realm, matching the Host!]

Zar revealed a content smile. But with Natural Innate Energy surging toward him from under the ground and all around the Azure Medicine Valley Mountain, worry crept into his expression. He just hoped the Lifespan Barrier would do its job and confuse everyone’s senses as to where the sudden drain in Spiritual Energy was originating.

While being drowned in Natural Spiritual Energy, Zar quickly clicked on the upgrade button for his Maximum Shadow Beast count limit. The number instantly soared from 160 to 250 at the cost of 1,500 years of Lifespan.

RUMBLE—

The Spiritual Energy in the surroundings suddenly—and dramatically—redirected to a single indiscernible location. As a result, tremors that shook Azure Medicine Valley were produced. And though Senior Sister Hua and Valley Master Yu immediately reacted and scoured the area with their Divine Senses, they were left tilting their heads in puzzlement.

Why couldn’t the source of the sudden Spiritual Energy drain be traced?

How was that even possible??

"Sect Master Yu," Hua Ling called out. "Do you know what’s going on here...?"

Although Sect Master Yu was embarrassed to admit it, she shook her head, giving Hua Ling her answer.

They were then left hovering in the air, watching in dumbfoundment as the Natural Innate Energy of their Medicine Valley seemingly vanished to nowhere. It was a phenomenon so mysterious that even Sect Master Yu, who secretly used her Deity Transformation Realm powers, still couldn’t discover anything.

Meanwhile, Zar and his Shadow Beasts had just broken through the Nascent Soul Realm, completely skipping the Lightning Tribulations that their simulated selves already passed.

But that was far from the end of the breakthroughs...

2nd Layer Nascent Soul - Achieved!

3rd Layer Nascent Soul!

4th Layer Nascent Soul!

5th Layer Nascent Soul!

By this point, six hours had passed since Zar first began the lifespan spending spree. The sun had already risen to the height of the clouds, with Senior Sister Hua and Valley Master Yu still standing around, twiddling their thumbs.

Every normal Shadow Beast felt their cultivation come to a slow crawl, with the rapid advancements stopping while they were in the 5th Layer Nascent Soul Realm.

But with Albion and Zar still progressing, the pull of Natural Spiritual Energy only intensified...

’I’ve never seen anything like this,’ Sect Master Yu thought with furrowed brows. ’How can Natural Spiritual Energy just up and disappear like this? It doesn’t make any sense...’

She had been alive for over two hundred years, and yet in all those years, she had never been as stumped as she was right now.

OOOM!

Within the Lifespan Barrier, Zar had just finished consolidating his cultivation. It stagnated toward the peak of the 6th Layer Nascent Soul Realm, the same as the swan-like shadowy figure cultivating beside him in a lotus position.

Opening his eyes, an unbelievably sharp aura burst forth, threatening to devour the entire mountain. Yet, with the presence of the Lifespan Barrier, no one other than him could sense it.

"The Nascent Soul Realm," Zar said as he peered into himself, making out the appearance of a miniature figure bathed in red light. "My Nascent Soul. It possesses similar features to myself, but is in a more infant form. It also sits above my Golden Core like a protector of sorts..."

At the center of Zar’s being was his Sky Core, which glowed purple and passively emitted Level 1 Sword Intent. Covering the Sky Core was his Golden Core, which also permeated a Level 1 Sword Intent; furthermore, it contained the nature of Heaven, Earth, and the beginning of both.

Now, sitting atop the brilliantly glowing Golden Core was a miniature version of himself—

His Nascent Soul.

"How interesting," Zar mused, his whole existence feeling entirely different from how it did before. "This makes me wonder what happens in the Soul Transformation and Deity Transformation Realms. They never keep any books related to those realms around these parts, for they don’t believe any Outer Disciple can hope to touch upon such mystical realms in their lifetimes."

Realizing that he was brooding for no reason when there were suspicious people outside, Zar stood up like a straightened sword. He then reduced his apparent cultivation to the 2nd Layer Foundation Establishment Realm before deactivating the Lifespan Barrier.

He noticed three hundred years of lifespan missing due to the cost of keeping the Lifespan Barrier active, and though it hurt him deeply, he buried his pain and left his house. Standing outside in small groups were the dozen other disciples who also worked for the Azure Medicine Valley.

"Did you guys all feel that as well!?" Zar feigned surprise while secretly slipping Albion into his shadow, where it then joined the rest of the Shadow Beasts. "I was cultivating, attempting to finally make a breakthrough into the 3rd Layer of Foundation Establishment when, out of nowhere, the Natural Spiritual Energy in the atmosphere left me! My breakthrough was a failure!"

The Azure Outer Disciples originally looked at Zar with scrutiny, for he had taken so long to come out, but now that they heard his side of the story and noticed the slight deviation of his energy, their skepticism turned into sympathy. The way they stared at him emulated the pity they felt for him.

They all knew how hard he had been cultivating in order to break through the Foundation Establishment Realm...

"It’s okay, Junior Brother Zar," Meng said with a compassionate gleam, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Even if you never break through, this Senior Brother of yours will make sure you’re fed."

"You won’t be starving under my care!" he added righteously.

Silence...