Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 135 - 112: Mid-Stage Innate Realm

War and chaos raged on, and even a remote place like Zhao Family Village couldn’t escape disaster.

When the group entered the village, they found many corpses that had been dead for a long time—most were already unrecognizable.

From the scene, it looked like they’d run into mountain bandits.

The area where Zhong Village was located was scorched black, clearly the result of a fire.

Mr. Lu, Mrs. Lu, and old Mr. Wang, along with other elders, looked on with a mixture of sorrow and gratitude.

Back when Lu Chang’sheng and Wang Heihou wanted to take them away, they had hesitated for a long time; only after much persuasion from everyone did they agree to head for Black Mountain Prefecture.

Looking back now, it turned out to be the right decision. Otherwise, they would’ve ended up like the rest of the villagers—just more victims of war.

The feeling of being close to home welled up inside them.

Stepping onto the land of Zhao Family Village, everyone suddenly felt as if they’d been wandering for more than a decade.

Mr. Lu and Mrs. Lu walked along the familiar roads, holding Lu Chang’an’s hand, telling him stories of where Lu Chang’sheng used to linger as a child, and what he did at each stage of his youth.

The others started clearing out the junk from inside the houses.

The original villagers had either fled or died, the homes were empty, so they could do as they pleased—building houses near Lu Chang’sheng’s family home, just in case something unexpected happened, so there’d be someone close by to help.

Within a few days, each household gradually settled in.

The whole White Ape family also came along with Lu Chang’sheng and the rest.

Everyone built a few houses for them on a small hill not far away, as a place to stay; behind the hill was a stretch of forest, enough for the apes and monkeys to roam as they pleased.

The village lay in ruins, crying out to be rebuilt.

Mr. Wang and Mr. Lu seemed to have found new joy in life: every day they rushed about full of energy, much different from when they lived in Black Mountain Prefecture City.

"When you get older, it’s hard to let go of your homeland,"

Lu Chang’sheng found it all very heartwarming.

He took the time to make a trip to the prefecture city, planning a big shopping spree.

Wang Heihou and Niu Dazhuang got word ahead of time, dropped what they were doing, and hurried over.

"As long as my parents are safe, that’s all that matters. I can’t get away right now, but I’ll come visit them once work slows down,"

Once he heard the elders had returned to Zhao Family Village, Wang Heihou felt relieved.

He didn’t insist that they come live in the city either.

After all, the situation was still shaky. No way he could bring his family over with things this unstable—if something happened, who could guarantee they’d be safe?

To repay Lu Chang’sheng for all he’d done, he and Dazhuang brought people over to help buy a huge pile of things.

Servants, household goods, masons for building houses, decorations, food—everything.

With the current situation, it was tough to buy things like grain, but now that they both had official status, they could get things done much more easily.

Even with that, it took Lu Chang’sheng a full two days to gather everything, just because there was so much to buy.

Of course, along the way he had to pay Master Hong Yuan a visit, and meet with several Black Mountain Prefecture officials for a bit of conversation.

Lu Chang’sheng might not have official status, but he outranked any Black Mountain Prefecture official by a mile.

After all, as an Innate Martial Artist, he could take on ten thousand men himself, and that wasn’t an exaggeration.

Once everything was ready, Lu Chang’sheng was about to set out for Zhao Family Village. But just after he returned from Master Hong Yuan’s, he heard a ruckus.

"What’s going on?"

He walked into the group and asked one of the Protector Institute guards.

This time, they’d brought more than ten thousand taels of silver coins, so naturally they needed a bunch of hands for security. All the household’s Protector Institute men were brought along, except for Master Mo who stayed behind.

"It’s the two main madames!"

The guard visibly relaxed when he saw Lu Chang’sheng, and quickly explained.

"The main madames?"

Lu Chang’sheng frowned, not quite sure what the guard meant. But as soon as he made his way to the front, he understood.

He found two women kneeling at the front of the group, begging his older brother Lu Haozi with all their might.

They were just about rolling around and making a scene.

These two were still alive after all this chaos?

Lu Chang’sheng was honestly surprised to see them.

Those rebel troops weren’t exactly gentle souls—after taking the city, they murdered, burned, and plundered with no restraint.

At the very start of the rebellion, maybe the soldiers still had some humanity, but as time went on, they became ruthless beyond belief.

Rumor had it, nearly a hundred thousand people died in Black Mountain Prefecture City during the wars out of several hundred thousand.

That was a pretty staggering number.

Looking closer, Lu Chang’sheng could roughly guess how these two had managed to survive.

They behaved oddly below the waist—most likely they’d used their bodies as currency to survive the chaos.

Lu Chang’sheng said nothing about it, but after hearing Lu Mansion’s people had shown up in the city, the women came to make a scene, and that really got on his nerves.

"Drag them away. If they come after us again—break their legs!" Lu Chang’sheng said coldly.

He was no softie like his big brother Lu Haozi.

With people like this, the softer you are, the more they try to climb all over you.

Sure enough, when Lu Chang’sheng’s harsh words reached the women’s ears, they were too scared to even breathe loudly.

"Chang’sheng, we know we were wrong! Take us back with you!"

"Wuuu~ it’s all our fault!"

Once the group had moved a bit further away, the two women started bawling at the top of their lungs, the sound echoing all around.

But ever since they abandoned the Lu Family, they’d had nothing to do with the family in the slightest.

"Good thing big brother never had any children with them—otherwise it’d be a headache."

On the way back, Lu Chang’sheng felt incredibly relieved.

A few days later, the group arrived at Zhao Family Village. The masons who’d come along got to work building houses according to Lu Chang’sheng’s plans.

Money was no issue, so in just over a month, several newly designed courtyards appeared on the old site of Zhao Family Village.

The household servants and maids they’d purchased started bustling about in every corner, making the courtyards look more lively than ever.

During this time, Guan Hongxiu and Yu Hai moved in as well.

Seeing how Lu Chang’sheng and his friends were going all-in on rebuilding, they were so motivated they pitched in a bunch of silver coins and had the masons build a courtyard nearby for themselves too.

And just like that, several families settled down here together.

Time passed quietly by.

While construction went on, Lu Chang’sheng never slacked off on his own martial cultivation.

Martial Artist Council and people like Kong Yuzhen frequently sent martial arts manuals for him to study.

He never turned down any style—all were included in his training, and each one was cultivated to the level of Great Success. Then, drawing on his genius-level talent, he melded them all into his Five Elements Divine Skill, nourishing it until the art reached perfection.

In a flash, five more years passed.

Ever since the battle of Black Mountain Prefecture a few years ago, Jinghua Prefecture had sent some war-hardened generals everywhere; little by little, the balance started tilting in favor of Great Yuan.

The chaos, which had spread to more than ten prefectures, was put down in six or seven of them in just two years.

The National Pillar of Great Yuan, Zhou Dingyuan, was like an anchor holding the world steady—commanding from the center, step by step squeezing the rebels back into the place where everything started: Nanming Prefecture.

Peace across the land was just around the corner.

But for Lu Chang’sheng, Hei Wutian’s Immortal Worship Ceremony in Liyang Prefecture felt more and more unsettling.

"Maybe Great Yuan’s purpose all along was that Immortal Worship Ceremony?"

"Or maybe they’re taking the chance to break the great clans’ power?"

Lu Chang’sheng shook his head and smiled wryly.

The former Great Yuan dynasty was rotten to the core—if they wanted to solve every problem, it would take gutting the whole system.

But what’s done is done. Once things are out of the box, there’s no putting them back in.

Still, with things going as they are now, he figured it’d be possible to enjoy some peace for a while.

So thought Lu Chang’sheng.

He was much stronger than he had been four years ago.

Two years ago, he completed the Minor Achievement stage of his Five Elements Divine Skill, and just over a month ago, he reached mid-stage Innate Martial Artist in his training.

His True Qi had grown much deeper, and traces of color began to appear in it.

Gold, wood, water, fire, earth.

He had touched all five elements.

Yet the colors were extremely faint—even Lu Chang’sheng only happened to notice them by chance one day.

Most of the time, there was no sign of it whatsoever.

Reaching mid-level Innate Martial Artist also meant he could form a protective wall of energy around his body.

This energy shield could even hold him suspended in midair for a few seconds.

With a little skill to catch the right force, he could sprint atop leaves, or skim across rivers and lakes.

Doing things like crossing rivers on a single reed, just as in the old legends, had become easy for him.