Chapter 1498 - Reaching An Agreement

The two elders seated far in the back rose to their feet at once, and a terrifying aura burned through their eyes. All three stood at the Quasi-Immortal Realm, and any one of them could have killed Liu Wuxie with a single breath.

Both sides held a silent standoff, and neither moved an inch.

"How do you know about that?" the floating head asked after drawing a deep breath. His body had already vanished completely, leaving only his head behind, and the moment that head disappeared, his lifespan would reach its end.

"I know more than you think. I even know that the three of you are afflicted with the death curse, and your lifespans bleed away with every passing moment. If you three want to keep living, your only option is to borrow lives," Liu Wuxie said. He had no intention of explaining how he knew.

The three elders exchanged looks, and shock flashed unmistakably in each of their eyes.

"Since you know all that, you should also know that your life belongs to us from the moment you step into Death Mountain."

No one had come to Death Mountain for thousands of years, and the three elders had almost no time left. They could only continue living by borrowing another person's life.

Liu Wuxie had reached the sixth-level Void Realm, and his lifespan stretched long. If they could borrow his life, they could continue living for a very long time.

"You can't borrow my life. You can give it a try if you want," Liu Wuxie said with a faint smirk. Stripping his life was nearly impossible, and he had to be the first person bold enough to provoke the three elders in this way.

The eldest was called Tian Can, the second Di Can, and the third Ren Can. Di Can stood on the left, limbless, while Ren Can had it worst of all—his arms remained, but someone had severed his body at the waist and stripped him of the ability to reproduce.

The three elders wore strange expressions the moment they heard Liu Wuxie's reply. For countless years, everyone who had visited had treated them with reverence and begged for mercy, yet the trio had claimed every life without exception, and their corpses now lay deep under the Deadwater.

The three elders were also bound to this mountain, and if they ever left, their lifespan would burn away in an instant. Over the years, they had accumulated unimaginable wealth, all piled within Death Mountain.

When rumors had spread, and experts had arrived in waves in the hope of borrowing from Death Mountain, and every one of them had died there without exception. No one could verify whether the treasures truly existed—perhaps the three elders had spread the rumors on purpose to lure people in, or perhaps this mountain really held unimaginable wealth.

"Every life is the same, and your life belongs to us," Ren Can said, flying over as he reached out. The moment he extended his hand, Liu Wuxie felt something rip out of him—his lifespan.

The three elders had survived through this method for ages, and the moment they saw Liu Wuxie, they could barely restrain themselves. If not for what Liu Wuxie had said earlier, they would have stripped his lifespan the instant he stepped inside.

Liu Wuxie knew he couldn't resist it directly, so he could only place his hope on the Heavenly Dao Book. Sure enough, the moment his lifespan began to drain, the Heavenly Dao Book flew out and released a dazzling brilliance that lit the palace.

"ARGH!" The three elders screamed in agony. They despised light, and they recoiled into the darkness as if flames had scorched them, while the lifespan they had extracted from Liu Wuxie surged back into his body.

"I already told you that none of you can borrow my life," Liu Wuxie said, and the pressure he released even surpassed theirs as he refused to show a hint of weakness.

"Y-You're the chosen one!" Tian Can exclaimed, fear twisting his face. The heavens bestowed a chosen one's lifespan, and no one could strip it away.

Liu Wuxie froze for a heartbeat. The Han Clan had also called him the chosen one, and now these three elders spoke the exact words, carrying what felt like the same meaning.

Both sides fell into another standoff as the three elders emerged from the shadows. The Heavenly Dao Book also slipped back into Liu Wuxie's soul sea.

The three elders traded looks again, and a trace of fear surfaced in their eyes. From that single exchange, they had lost more than half of their remaining lifespan, burned away by the Heavenly Dao Book.

"Brat, who are you, and how do you know about what you said earlier?" Tian Can asked after inhaling deeply, keeping his distance from Liu Wuxie.

"I know more than that, and I even know that the three of you don't have much lifespan left. At most, your lifespans will end in another ten years, because it has been thousands of years since anyone last came here. That means you three will die within ten years if no one comes," Liu Wuxie said. The three had once still possessed dozens of years, but the Heavenly Dao Book had stripped away more than half in that brief clash.

Liu Wuxie could see their dwindling lifespan because he had comprehended the Great Death Mythical Art.

The three elders' faces darkened at being exposed. If they could have stripped Liu Wuxie's lifespan, they would have bought themselves thousands of years. It was more than enough time to wait for the next visitor, but they couldn't, and frustration churned in their eyes.

They had even borrowed the lives of experts at the Heaven Gaze Realm, yet they had failed against someone at the Void Realm, and that reality tasted like madness.

"Even if what you say is true, we can still extract your soul and kill you before we die," Ren Can said in an eerie tone.

Even if Liu Wuxie knew they only had ten years left, he still couldn't leave Death Mountain alive. With a single finger, they could kill him hundreds of times over.

"Killing me doesn't benefit any of you, and at best, it only lets you vent your anger. It won't change the fact that you three will still die after ten years," Liu Wuxie said with a smile, as if he already held them in his palm.

That shameless smile nearly drove them to slap him to death, but they forced the urge down. Since Liu Wuxie could name their condition so precisely, he had to know more, yet the fact that three Quasi-Immortal Realm elders couldn't do anything to a Void Realm nearly drove them insane.

"Brat, what are you hinting at?" Di Can asked. He could already tell Liu Wuxie had them hooked and was tugging them in circles.

"Your condition isn't incurable, and your lifespans will all recover as long as you can undo the curse," Liu Wuxie explained.

The three elders' eyes instantly lit up, and hope flared as they wondered whether Liu Wuxie truly knew how to break the curse.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Brat, are you telling the truth?" Tian Can asked, a glimmer of hope flashing through his eyes. If they could undo the curse, Liu Wuxie would become their savior, because they had been trapped here for countless years and had long forgotten what the outside world even looked like.

"What I say is absolutely true, and I can swear upon my soul," Liu Wuxie said.

He wasn't lying. However, his current cultivation wasn't enough, but if he reached the higher levels of the Heaven Gaze Realm, he would raise the Great Death Mythical Art to the level of an immortal art that could command life and death.

"If you can undo our curse, we're willing to be your servants for three hundred years and listen to your bidding," the three elders said after a brief exchange, choosing to gamble. With only ten years left, they had no other choice.

If they missed Liu Wuxie's offer, they would become dust within ten years. Killing him held no meaning beyond rage, while his words had reignited their hope to live.

"I do know how to undo your curse, but there's nothing I can do about it with my current cultivation unless I can reach the Heaven Gaze Realm. Do you three have any way for me to reach the Heavenly Gaze Realm quickly?" Liu Wuxie asked with a chuckle, intending to take this opportunity to bleed the three elders of their treasures.

The three elders stood as Quasi-Immortal Realm powerhouses, and they had to possess some method to push him toward the Heaven Gaze Realm faster.

They knew Liu Wuxie was scheming against them, yet they had no way around it, because they would do anything to keep living.

"Do you think the Heaven Gaze Realm is a cabbage you can find off the road?" Di Can said, nearly choking on Liu Wuxie's words.

Even helping Liu Wuxie reach the Earth Immortal Realm would be difficult, let alone the Heaven Gaze Realm. Cultivation meant defying heaven, and if powerhouses could raise the weak whenever they pleased, no one would need to cultivate at all.

"Then bring out some treasures. It's enough to help me reach the pinnacle of the void Realm," Liu Wuxie said, rubbing his palms together with a crooked grin, while the three elders glared at him, furious at his shamelessness.

Everyone who had come here had treated them with reverence and even kowtowed, but Liu Wuxie had toyed with them from the moment he had arrived.

"Death Mountain doesn't have any treasures. Even if there were, the environment here would strip them of their spirituality," Tian Can said, refusing to let Liu Wuxie trap him.

If Liu Wuxie could dispel their curses, they would naturally give him treasures to raise his cultivation. The special environment here corroded anything with spirituality until it became trash, and Tian Can spoke the truth. However, some treasures could resist the deathly energy's erosion, and he had no intention of revealing them.

"Since that's the case, there's nothing I can do to help," Liu Wuxie said with a shrug. If they refused to help him, he had no reason to help them, and the palace fell into yet another standoff.

"Brat, what can you do to repay us if we help you increase your cultivation?" the three elders asked after a quick discussion, finally deciding to take out some treasures, but they demanded repayment for what they gave.

"If you three can help me increase my cultivation to the eighth-level Void Realm, I can lend you three a hundred years of lifespan each. Once I reach the Heaven Gaze Realm, I'll help you three undo your curses," Liu Wuxie replied. He had no intention of exploiting them outright, and he offered them a total lifespan of 300 years.

The three elders finally nodded, satisfied, as the two sides reached an agreement.

Tian Can summoned a strange crystal coffin containing countless treasures, and only something like that could withstand the deathly energy's corrosion.

Over the years, countless people had come to Death Mountain, and once they died, their interspatial rings naturally fell into the elders' hands.

Even so, most cultivators who ventured here were already prepared for death, usually entrusting their interspatial rings to their descendants in advance. Everyone knew that no one who entered Death Mountain returned alive.