Chapter 465: – The Limit of Life, the Merciless Heavenly Dao

“Huh . How did Li Shenxiao enter then? He spent fifty years overcoming his Lifesbane,” Tianming asked .

“Supposedly, it’s because overcoming it allowed him to become young again, thus circumventing the restriction,” Bai Mo said .

“Then can my godfather enter?” Tianming was surprised .

“Unfortunately, no . I’ve checked . His Lifesbane is different from the traditional one . His Lifesbane never burnt away at his lifespan, so all of its effects were on his cultivation and not his age . Now, his body is over forty years old,” Bai Mo explained .

Tianming had indeed noticed that Li Wudi hadn’t become younger .

He made some quick calculations . He himself should be roughly thirty by now . Fortunately, he had a sensation of being rejuvenated when he became an earth saint, so he felt much younger . As for his looks, he looked seventeen or eighteen . Taken altogether, he shouldn’t be past thirty yet, hopefully .

“Why in the world would this god insist only people under thirty can enter?” Tianming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry .

“That’s a little complicated . It’s because, for sky and empyrean saints, under thirty is considered to be the age where you have the most talent and the fastest progress . Once you pass it, you’ll slow down . And once you’re a hundred… that’s basically your peak . Then, when you hit a hundred and fifty, you’ll start deteriorating from age . While sky saints have an age limit of three hundred, you won’t really be all there anymore when you hit about two hundred and fifty . ” Bai Mo smiled helplessly . No one could escape fate, and everyone would perish one day .

“Tianming, many people mistakenly believe that even if an expert dies from old age, they’ll still be powerful before death . That’s wrong, because aging is a slow process . Your cultivation will regress as all of your saint ki is slowly returned to the world . Your flesh will fail and eventually return to the earth . After a hundred years of that, you die . It’s sheer nonsense to expect an old man to still be able to have a big fight . For us humans, we spend the first half of our life taking from heaven and earth, and the latter half returning it . ” Bai Mo shook his head .

Tianming understood what he meant . If you didn’t die in battle, you would pass from age with white hair, wrinkles, a hunched back… . It wouldn’t matter what kind of expert you had once been .

Tianming and his lustrous white hair full of health was the exception, not the rule .

Bai Mo was now about a hundred years old . He looked to be in his forties—even younger than Wei Tiancang, who was in his sixties . He would probably look Wei Tiancang’s age when he hit a hundred and fifty . In fact, Bai Mo had already reached a point where his cultivation could no longer progress!

That was why, while the Sky Saint stage gave you three hundred years, only the first hundred were truly comfortable .

Autarch Qian having children when he was three hundred was because he was equivalent to an ordinary person in their fifties . Another few years, and he would probably have been incapable .

The laws of the world were merciless . The path to eternity was painful, and all experts would have to see their bodies slowly waste away as their strength left them . Even the Primeval Autarch was no exception!

“That means Autarch Qian didn’t die of old age . As an empyrean saint, he’d just passed his peak period . He definitely had at least a hundred years left in him . Right now, he’s considered as suffering a premature death . But who knows what the cause was . Maybe he commited suicide from fear of death . Theocrats often do that, unwilling to endure their fall from grace . ” Bai Mo gave a mocking laugh .

In his view, youths like Tianming wouldn’t understand . However, in truth, Tianming did indeed get it . He had just seized five years of life, after all . If he hadn’t succeeded, he would have been resigned to watching his beast ki fade away .

“Hall King, can I enter the tomb?” Tianming asked .

“That’ll depend on your performance at the feast . Only the best can go in, and they’ll usually be at least twenty-six . Only special cases like Dongyang Fengchen, with his nine-headed hydra, can enter at twenty-two . ”

“Don’t the Theocrats control the second Divine Capital? Why would they let us go in?” Tianming asked .

“That’s because the Theocrats, and other powers of the capital, have already mixed into the dao palace . There was too much internal conflict when all of the Theocrats trained at the royal palace together . So, they purposely shifted all of the ones with the surname Jiang to us, in order to take our resources . Quite a few of them who joined us were quite strong, so the Theocrats gave them some slots, and the dao palace got some by association . But basically, it goes to them anyway . ”

“The slots are determined by battle . It’s been that way for tens of thousands of years, so it’s pretty fair . However, the tomb has opened so many times that there aren’t really any treasures left, just some small toys . ”

“I see . ” Tianming nodded .

“I’ll go and ask the palace lord about her opinion . It’ll be difficult for you, as your opponents have a few years on you, so go train first . Right, and go get your empyrean manana . ”

“Understood!” Tianming nodded . There wasn’t much to be concerned about, if the tomb was already cleared out .

For the crown prince to invite him to the feast, the situation couldn’t be so simple . There was definitely a trap somewhere . He didn’t believe the crown prince would be one of the good people in the Theocracy who would overlook his provocations .

However, he was still surprised . “That guy has a nine-headed hydra?” Such people, historically, were all capable of becoming Primeval Autarches . It was the reason Autarch Yun had immediately named him the crown prince .

“It seems that, in terms of talent, Dongyang Zhuo must have been quite a bit poorer than this crown prince . At thirty, he’s already past the period of fastest progress . I wonder what stage he’s at now?” Tianming was curious . If there had been someone of the crown prince’s talent in his age group, he probably wouldn’t have become the strongest in his age group .

“Whatever, I’ll go get the empyrean manna first!” Tianming split up from his companions and proceeded to the Dark Hall alone .

It was his first time in the Dark Hall’s area, but the guards all knew him .

“Not bad, kiddo!” The uncles at the gate directly picked him up and tossed him in, giving him a very warm welcome .

“Do you know the way to the Sacred Dao Palace?”

“Look up, you see that mountain?”

“Yes!”

“Right there on the peak, it is . Right, Li Tianming, remember to let us have a peek once you get an empyrean saint beast, as thanks for us saving you today!”

“No problem!” Tianming had a good opinion of the Dark Hall, as they all valued loyalty .

Of course, it wasn’t that people of the Decimo Dao Palace were good, while the Ancient Theocrats were bad . However, birds of a feather flock together .

……

“Gods, it’s a celebrity! Come and give me your autograph!”

“Wow, your skin is so white! Let uncle rub it a little for good luck . ”

“Get lost, don’t bully him! Big sister has your back!”

“Tianming, you’re going to see the palace lord? Help big brother here and report the fatty next door to me . His lifebound beast keeps shitting at my door, so please relocate him . ”

Tianming was speechless . However, he still made many friends en route .

“Tianming, when you said, ‘Nineshades Clan’, man, that got my heart pumping!”

Clearly, Tianming’s performance had made them like him a lot .

After a while, he finally made it past all the big brothers and sisters of the Dark Hall and reached the Scared Dao Palace . The palace had a refined, yet simple architecture . It was primarily black and white, and looked like an ink painting in the dense mist of spiritual energy .

It had a simple wooden gate, but Tianming saw many heavenly patterns, mysterious and profound, freely swimming on the walls in the shape of a black and white diagram .

“Tianming, come in,” a voice drifted out .

“The palace lord is female . ” Tianming was briefly surprised . The voice was relaxing . It wasn’t too young or too old, and sounded about Wei Jing’s age before she had overcome her Lifesbane .

“Disciple Li Tianming greets the Palace Lord . ” Tianming gave the wooden door a light push and entered .