High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

They endured famine, encountered bandits, slept in dilapidated temples, and ate grass roots. The once pampered high-ranking officials and noble ladies were now struggling in the mud and water. But no matter how hard life was, Shen Chang'an never gave up, always saving the last bite of dry food for her.

When they were in their fifties, their family members passed away, leaving only the two of them.

With the world finally at peace, the brother and sister, after enduring countless hardships, escaped to the scenic water towns of Jiangnan.

With the few pieces of silver they had hidden in their undergarments during their escape, they bought a small, tiled house with a courtyard in a small county town. Shen Chang'an returned to his old profession, opening a private school in the courtyard to teach the town's children to read and write. Gu Shuyi, on the other hand, planted flowers and plants in the courtyard and took care of their daily meals.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty years have passed.

Both men were over seventy years old, with full heads of white hair and wrinkled faces. Shen Chang'an had become the most respected old gentleman in the county.

......

The sun was shining brightly on a late autumn afternoon.

At the entrance to the courtyard, there are two creaking bamboo rattan chairs.

Shen Chang'an, with his full head of white hair, and Gu Shuyi lay side by side basking in the sun. Gu Shuyi held a palm-leaf fan in her hand, gently fanning Shen Chang'an.

"Brother..."

The elderly Gu Shuyi turned her head and looked at Shen Chang'an.

"I'm so... content to be your sister in this lifetime."

Shen Chang'an held her hand, which was covered with age spots, and patted it with a smile: "Silly girl, why are you saying these things? We still have many years to live."

Gu Shuyi gently shook her head.

Then, she looked at Shen Chang'an, and her tone suddenly became a little strange.

"Brother, promise me. In the future... if you encounter any danger, never try to face it alone. If you can't win, run away. Don't be so stubborn. And... you must take good care of yourself..."

Shen Chang'an was stunned, looking puzzled: "Shuyi, what's wrong with you today? You're saying all sorts of strange things. What danger could there be for us old folks staying peacefully in Jiangnan?"

Gu Shuyi did not answer.

She simply stared at him, and then a relieved smile appeared on her lips.

Click...

With her smile, the azure sky, the tranquil courtyard, and even Gu Shuyi with his full head of white hair suddenly shattered like a mirror, revealing countless cracks.

"Shuyi? What happened?"

Shen Chang'an was shocked and tried to grab her hand, but he missed.

"Wake up... brother, we'll meet again."

boom!

The dream is shattered!

......

In a side room of a small courtyard in Zhenyuan City, where blue bricks stand.

Shen Chang'an on the bed suddenly opened his eyes!

A sharp pain, as if tearing one's soul apart, suddenly struck! It was the memory backflow after the Great Dream Spring and Autumn Technique ended.

Memories of hundreds of lifetimes flooded into his brain like a burst dam. To protect his soul from being overwhelmed, his brain instinctively activated a defense mechanism, blurring and fading the memories of those previous hundred lifetimes, leaving only faint traces of understanding.

Moreover, even his memories of his last life were rapidly fading. He desperately tried to grasp those last fragments of memory, but they eventually vanished completely, leaving only some blurry memories.

Shen Chang'an clutched his head and curled up in pain on the bed for a while before the intense pain gradually subsided like a receding tide.

He was panting heavily, his whole body soaked in cold sweat.

He slowly sat up, staring blankly at the simple stone walls and wooden bed around him for a long time.

"Was everything... just a dream...?"

Shen Chang'an was pale and muttered to himself.

He instinctively raised his hand and clutched it tightly over his heart.

"Why...it was just a dream, why am I so sad..."

That's so true.

It was so real that Shen Chang'an felt that reality itself was a dream.

After a long while, he finally got up.

He pushed open the old wooden door of the side room, and the crimson light from the abyss fell on his pale face.

Beside the stone table in the courtyard, the Taoist Master Lingshan was leisurely sipping tea from a broken teapot, clearly having been waiting for quite some time.

Hearing the noise, the old Taoist priest raised his head, looked Shen Chang'an up and down, and a glint of shrewdness flashed in his cloudy old eyes: "Awake? How do you feel?"

"I can't quite explain it..."

Shen Chang'an walked to the stone table and sat down, still looking somewhat dazed.

"It's like having an extremely long dream, and when I woke up, I felt empty inside."

"Having just awakened from a deep dream, this is how it should be." The old Taoist smiled.

"Take a look at your spiritual sea."

Upon hearing this, Shen Chang immediately closed his eyes and focused his mind on his dantian.

The golden ocean, which originally stretched for 999 li, has now expanded by an entire circumference! Although it's only a difference of one li, it represents a qualitative leap!

A thousand miles!

A perfectly rounded state! The entire spiritual sea shone with golden light. Moreover, if he wished, he could collapse this thousand-mile-long spiritual sea at any time, condensing it into the spiritual abyss that leads to the sixth realm!

"Senior, I have achieved perfection. The limit of a thousand miles."

Shen Chang'an opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and said.

"Excellent! What a magnificent Thousand-Mile Spirit Sea!"

"Please have a seat. There is an elder in the main hall who wishes to see you."

The voice just fell.

A ripple spread through the space inside the small courtyard with its blue bricks.

Zhou Luotian's spiritual clone slowly appeared in front of Shen Chang'an.

"Young friend Shen, congratulations on your successful conclusion."

Zhou Luotian stood with his hands behind his back, exuding the air of a grandmaster.

"You are...?"

Shen Chang'an stood up, somewhat puzzled.

"I am Zhou Luotian, the sect leader of Taiyi Sect and the acting city lord of Zhenyuan City."

Zhou Luotian looked at Shen Chang'an and said, "All those reincarnation dreams you experienced before were my doing. I used the Great Dream Spring and Autumn Technique, the supreme cultivation method of the Taiyi Sect, to help you undergo tribulations and cultivate your mind. Now it seems you have survived."

Shen Chang'an was shocked, and then he realized that it was all a trial.

"Now that you have passed the trial, today I will formally impart to you the Great Dream Spring and Autumn Technique."

Seeing that Shen Chang'an remained silent, Zhou Luotian began to recount the extraordinary nature of this cultivation technique.

"This method is unpredictable. The simplest use is to make someone feel like they're in a nightmare at first glance. You can directly leave your body and enter someone else's dream to kill them without them even realizing it! In the dream, you are a god! At the same time, you can also combine reality and dreams, making it impossible for people to distinguish between reality and illusion."

"Secondly, there is 'cultivation in dreams.' The so-called 'great dream of spring and autumn,' where a hundred years pass in a dream, while in the outside world it's but a fleeting moment. Do you understand this heaven-defying method that saves so much time?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Chang'an was taken aback.

Cultivating in a dream? Isn't this the same as when I cultivated with the black figure before?

Zhou Luotian, oblivious to Shen Chang'an's unusual behavior, continued, "Of course, these are just the basics! Its most powerful aspect lies in being an alternative method of 'longevity'! The soul enters a great dream, using the essence of the dream to nourish the physical body, ensuring that the body remains incorruptible for thousands of years. Back in my time, countless old monsters nearing the end of their lives knelt before my mountain gate, begging me to pass on this technique to them, just to prolong their remaining days!"

After Zhou Luotian finished speaking, he stood with his hands behind his back, satisfied, ready to receive Shen Chang'an's admiring gaze.

"oh."

Shen Chang'an simply nodded blankly.

"..."

Zhou Luotian's face immediately darkened, and he was furious.

I've pulled out all the stops, the god-level techniques that even the most powerful beings back in the day would kill for, and all you give me is an "Oh"? Do you think this is some kind of cheap cabbage at a street stall?!

He was about to unleash a torrent of abuse on this ungrateful junior when he suddenly recalled the terrifying shadowy figure from his dream... he was still in spirit form...

Zhou Luotian shuddered and swallowed the profanity that was about to come out.

"Forget it, this child is hopeless..."