Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

Chapter 201: The Beginning of Confession!

Inside the subterranean secret chamber.

Zheng Yuanhua’s expression contorted violently, a chaotic storm of panic, rage, and cold calculation raging behind his eyes.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, infused his Qi into a communication Talisman, and crushed it.

Moments later, a russet-robed cultivator hurried into the chamber. Upon seeing the bloody, empty void where Zheng Yuanhua’s right arm used to be, the man’s face went slack with shock.

“Divine Envoy Zheng! You… your arm…”

“Shut up and listen! Immediately notify every single captain to sever their connection to the Spirit Ears!” Zheng Yuanhua roared, finally displaying the ruthless decisiveness that had earned him command of the Yin Spirit lineage. “Order everyone to abandon their current outposts immediately! For the next three days, they are to move constantly and randomize their patrol routes!”

The russet-robed cultivator blinked, confused for a fraction of a second before a terrifying realization hit him. His eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Divine Envoy Zheng… could it be…”

“Yes. The Master Ear has been compromised,” Zheng Yuanhua admitted, his voice a low, venomous hiss. “The blame rests entirely on my shoulders, and I will personally present my neck to the Third Rank Divine Envoys to plead for punishment. But the Heavenly Gate Sect now possesses our entire command-and-control network! Our absolute priority is to scatter and preserve our forces before they are systematically hunted down!”

The russet-robed cultivator stood paralyzed, his jaw hanging open as his brain struggled to process the sheer scale of the disaster.

“Did you suddenly go deaf?!” Zheng Yuanhua bellowed, his killing intent flaring. “Move!”

“Y-yes! Right away!” The man finally snapped out of his stupor, stumbling backward out of the chamber.

The heavy stone door slid shut, returning the room to a suffocating silence.

But Zheng Yuanhua couldn’t sit still. He paced the chamber like a caged beast, his heart hammering against his ribs. He hadn’t felt this profound, nauseating terror in decades.

If a Nascent Soul True Lord cracked my Storage Ring… this is a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. Once the orthodox sects reverse-engineered the Master Ear, the Yin Spirit lineage’s invasion of the State of Chen was effectively dead.

Aside from the secluded Third Rank Divine Envoys, nearly every single Foundation Establishment captain of the Incense Burner Path operating in the State of Chen had their unique soul-signature registered in the Spirit Ear network.

The enemy wouldn’t even need to fight a war. They could simply use the Master Ear as a radar to track down and butcher every mid-level officer in the region. Without its Foundation Establishment backbone, the Incense Burner Path’s grip on the mortal kingdoms would evaporate overnight.

“No. I cannot cover this up. I must inform the Third Rank Divine Envoys immediately.”

It was a suicidal decision, but Zheng Yuanhua’s survival instincts demanded it. Confessing to the supreme elders would likely result in brutal, agonizing punishment—perhaps even death. But he was not a man who shied away from the consequences of his own failure.

More importantly, he recognized the existential crisis looming over them.

If he hid the loss of the Master Ear to save his own skin, the entire invasion force would be annihilated. If the war was lost, he would never have a chance to rebuild his foundation anyway.

But… if he confessed, allowed the supreme elders to mitigate the damage, and then somehow contributed to the final conquest of the State of Chen, he might just earn a chance at redemption.

The tactical pathways flashed through his mind in a fraction of a second, and he locked onto the only viable route.

Without wasting another breath, he strode over to his personal Thousand Spirit Tree. He violently harvested several precious drops of Divine Essence Dew, swallowed them to forcibly suppress his internal bleeding, and immediately boarded his flying Magical Artifact, rocketing south.

Pushing his second-grade Top Grade vessel to the absolute limit, he soon arrived before a seemingly idyllic canyon.

The valley was a painting of serene poetry, filled with blooming spiritual flora and babbling brooks. Zheng Yuanhua didn’t even glance at the scenery. He rapidly formed a complex sequence of hand seals.

Suddenly, the air rippled. A colossal, suffocating Formation materialized above the valley.

The beautiful flowers and streams fractured like a broken mirror, dissolving into nothingness to reveal the barren, heavily fortified reality beneath the illusion.

Simultaneously, a voice rolled out from the depths of the Formation, echoing with the oppressive weight of a morning bell.

“Zheng Yuanhua? Why have you abandoned your post?”

“Did we not explicitly order you to handle the frontlines so our work here would remain undisturbed?”

Zheng Yuanhua dropped to one knee, bowing his head so deeply his forehead touched the dirt. His heart hammered with pure terror.

“Divine Envoy Gong… this Junior begs forgiveness, but I bring tidings of absolute urgency.”

“Urgency…” Divine Envoy Gong’s voice rumbled thoughtfully. “Speak.”

“Yes, Lord!”

Zheng Yuanhua kept his head bowed as he recounted the entire disastrous sequence of events. Naturally, to ensure he wasn’t immediately executed for incompetence, he heavily embellished the sheer, monstrous lethality of the “nameless” Heavenly Gate Sect cultivator, painting Wang Ba as an apocalyptic anomaly that had perfectly countered his arts. He also made sure to mention that Li Canghai—a peer of equal standing—had also been brutally maimed by the same man, framing his own defeat as an unavoidable act of heaven.

However, despite his careful phrasing, the terrifying entities sequestered within the Formation erupted into a murderous fury.

“You useless wretch! We entrusted the Master Ear to you because we believed you possessed a shred of tactical competence! How could you be this arrogant?!”

“If your sheer idiocy delays our acquisition of the True Scripture, I will personally flay your soul and forge you into a mindless Yin Ghost!”

“Damn it! If Ning Daohuan gets his hands on that Master Ear, our entire vanguard is compromised!”

The barrage of enraged, crushing spiritual pressure forced Zheng Yuanhua’s face into the dirt. His skin turned a sickly, bruised purple under the sheer weight of their auras. Yet, facing multiple Golden Core-equivalent monsters, he didn’t dare show a microscopic hint of resentment. He simply knelt and endured.

Finally, Divine Envoy Gong—the one who had initially spoken—intervened.

“Enough. Zheng Yuanhua fought to prevent our sacred work from being interrupted. He suffered a catastrophic defeat, yes, but he did not act out of cowardice or treason.”

“Furthermore, howling like beaten dogs accomplishes nothing. Our priority is tactical adaptation, not summary executions.”

With Divine Envoy Gong setting the tone, the other supreme elders grumbled but swallowed their remaining curses.

“In my opinion, even if Ning Daohuan slaughters every last Foundation Establishment ant we have, it changes nothing. We do not fear him. The six of us have been bleeding ourselves dry to forge this artifact for months… it is time we test its fangs!” a new voice within the Formation growled.

This aggressive proposal immediately drew fierce agreement.

“Exactly! Brother Yu speaks the truth! Ning Daohuan is nothing but a native barbarian who stumbled into the Nascent Soul realm through dumb luck. He is entirely unqualified to stand against our supreme arts!”

“We strike from the shadows, and with the Divine Artifact fully Awakened, our victory is an absolute certainty.”

Divine Envoy Gong remained silent for a long moment before responding.

“Your bloodlust is justified, but you speak too hastily. The Divine Artifact still requires its final, binding sequence. To abandon it now would render all our sacrifices moot. I say we wait the final few days. As for the Master Ear… it is a severe tactical vulnerability, but we must weather it.”

The group debated the logistics of an early strike for a while longer, but ultimately reached a stalemate.

“We must leave the vanguard to their own fates,” Divine Envoy Gong finally concluded, his tone heavy with resignation. “Breaking our seclusion now would waste everything. It is a foolish trade.”

He then directed his oppressive aura back onto the kneeling man.

“Zheng Yuanhua. Your failure is monumental. However, your decision to report it immediately, combined with your past merits in holding the front, stays my hand today. Return to your post. Gather what remains of your forces and prepare. The day this Formation drops is the day we annihilate the Heavenly Gate Sect and reclaim the True Scripture!”

“Yes, Lord!”

Despite his pardon, a cold knot of dread remained coiled in Zheng Yuanhua’s gut.

These Third Rank Divine Envoys had been isolated from the frontlines for years, entirely consumed by their grand project since the fall of the Yin Spirit. Zheng Yuanhua, however, had spent years in the trenches bleeding against the Heavenly Gate Sect. He knew, intimately, that the sect was not some fragile, backwater organization that would crumble after a single decapitation strike.

Perhaps the six supreme elders, armed with their mysterious ‘Divine Artifact,’ truly could assassinate Ning Daohuan.

But could six men, no matter how powerful, successfully occupy and hold the entire Heavenly Gate Sect territory alone?

Zheng Yuanhua heavily doubted it.

But he was a one-armed, disgraced commander. He had no voice here. With a heavy sigh, he bowed once more and retreated.

…

Three days passed in a blur.

Zheng Yuanhua sat in his secret chamber, his remaining hand drumming rhythmically against his knee as he listened to the latest casualty report from the russet-robed cultivator. His eyebrows slowly crept upward.

“Are you certain? We only lost around 20 Foundation Establishment captains in the last three days?”

Twenty mid-level officers was a bloody toll. The total sum of Second Rank Incense Burner Path cultivators in the State of Chen—including the brainwashed prisoners dragged in from foreign conquests—was barely 400.

However, considering the enemy held the Master Ear and could theoretically track every single officer in real-time… 20 casualties was an absolute miracle.

Zheng Yuanhua exhaled a long, shuddering breath of relief.

After reviewing the specific locations of the deaths, he noted they were entirely clustered around the Qianyu Lake region. The tactical picture instantly cleared in his mind.

It seems that specific Heavenly Gate Sect cultivator truly did crack my Storage Ring and claim the Master Ear, Zheng Yuanhua deduced, his eyes gleaming coldly. But he is operating alone. Limited by his own speed and Qi, he could only hunt down the captains in his immediate vicinity. Why didn’t he immediately return to his sect and hand the artifact over to a Nascent Soul True Lord to orchestrate a continent-wide purge? I don’t know, and I don’t care. His greed or cowardice has saved our entire campaign! The core of our army remains intact, and the six Divine Envoys are mere days away from completing the Divine Artifact. The board has stabilized.

Reinvigorated, Zheng Yuanhua immediately boarded his vessel and sped back to the southern canyon, forcefully requesting an audience.

“Zheng Yuanhua? Have you lost your mind? Why are you here again?!” Divine Envoy Gong’s voice echoed from the illusion, vibrating with genuine murderous intent.

Zheng Yuanhua didn’t grovel this time. He rapidly reported the incredibly low casualty figures and his tactical deductions regarding the lone operative hoarding the Master Ear.

Hearing this, the oppressive rage in the air noticeably thinned. A pregnant silence fell over the canyon as the elders calculated the odds.

“You are implying…” Divine Envoy Gong began slowly, “that because we have maintained a strict, defensive stalemate for years, the Heavenly Gate Sect has grown complacent. And that a sudden, overwhelmingly violent offensive right now would catch their entire defensive line completely off guard…”

“Exactly!” Zheng Yuanhua said, his eyes burning with dark ambition. “Furthermore, our spies indicate the Heavenly Gate Sect and the surrounding four major sects are maneuvering for a joint operation. Instead of waiting for them to encircle us, we must strike first! A blitzkrieg to decapitate the Heavenly Gate Sect will shatter their alliance and secure our rear!”

“Hmm… your tactical assessment is sound,” Divine Envoy Gong admitted.

Muffled murmurs echoed from within the Formation as the six supreme elders debated.

Moments later, Divine Envoy Gong’s voice rang out, ringing with absolute, chilling finality:

“Then it is decided. In exactly two days, we march directly on the Heavenly Gate Sect’s core stronghold!”

…

Near Qianyu Lake.

Deep within a hidden mountain valley.

Wang Ba stared at the glowing communication Talisman in his hand, his face a mask of profound annoyance.

“This Wu Buping… he actually got drafted by a Golden Core True Person for some random errand, and now he wants me to wait another two days?!”

Wang Ba sighed, rubbing his temples.

The past three days hadn’t been a complete waste, at least. Utilizing the Master Ear’s radar, he had spent the time aggressively hunting down isolated, low-tier Second Rank zealots around the lake. It was a thoroughly cathartic experience, playing the apex predator for once.

He had harvested a massive bounty of Divine Essence Dew, alongside a mountain of Magical Artifacts, Talismans, and Pills.

He had tossed almost all of the captured Magical Artifacts—including the high-tier gear from Zheng Yuanhua’s ring—directly to Shen Fu. Since his Junior Brother’s combat style literally relied on detonating artifacts as disposable bombs, it was the perfect investment.

He had also offered Shen Fu a share of the Divine Essence Dew. Such supreme soul-nourishing treasures were universally prized. However, Shen Fu had politely declined most of it. His brutal, physical cultivation path didn’t rely heavily on soul manipulation, so the dew offered him little tangible benefit.

Of course, while the loot was nice, in Wang Ba’s eyes, it was entirely worthless compared to the piece of ‘Meteorite Flame Red Gold Iron’ he was waiting for.

With the Master Ear acting as a flawless GPS, he could have easily charted a completely safe route back to the Eastern Sage outpost, completely bypassing both the Incense Burner Path patrols (whose auras would linger on the radar for three days) and any opportunistic Rogue Cultivators.

He had immediately sent a message to Wu Buping, demanding they execute the trade immediately so he could go home.

Unfortunately, the fisherman had ghosted him for three whole days before finally replying with a delay request.

And now, the three-day window had closed. The zealots had severed their connection to the Spirit Ears, their soul-signatures fading from the Master Ear’s map. The radar was officially blind.

Wang Ba had no choice but to sit in the dirt and wait for Wu Buping.

Still, whenever he thought about the Meteorite Flame Red Gold Iron, a smile tugged at his lips. He was one step away from forging his second Dantian. His grand plan to gain enough power to safely desert the Heavenly Gate Sect was finally materializing.

Once I get back, I need to start scouting for second Dantian vessels for Junior Sister and Shen Fu… Junior Sister is only at the Qi Refining stage, so a high-quality second-grade treasure will suffice. But for Shen Fu… Wang Ba frowned. Both he and Shen Fu were Foundation Establishment cultivators, meaning they required exceptionally rare, third-grade elemental treasures to forge a second Dantian.

He had absolutely no idea where he was going to procure another priceless third-grade artifact.

The two days of waiting bled away.

On the promised morning, a figure descended smoothly into the hidden valley.

Wearing a coarse straw raincoat, his weathered face grave and serious, Wu Buping—the Perfection-stage fisherman—had arrived.

But before Wang Ba could even demand the metal, Wu Buping delivered a sentence that made Wang Ba’s blood run cold:

“Fellow Daoist… are you aware that the Incense Burner Path and your Heavenly Gate Sect have just erupted into all-out war?!”