Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

Chapter 531: Cultivation Paths (I)

"Fellow Xiao, you jest. I merely wish to make a trade with you." Tu Yuan smiled faintly and said, "My storage pouch is still in your possession. Will you return it to me?"

"Oh? And what about the spirit stones..." Before Lin Zheyu could finish speaking, his figure suddenly moved.

He had never been one to waste time with empty words. Lin Zheyu could already tell that Tu Yuan was stalling for time, and the few exchanges he had entertained were only meant to probe the surrounding situation.

In an instant, dazzling saber light erupted as an overwhelming saber intent burst from Lin Zheyu's body and slashed toward the space ahead and to the right. Yet Tu Yuan showed not the slightest trace of fear as he watched the terrifying attack descend upon him.

The razor-sharp blade swept through Tu Yuan's body, causing him to explode into a burst of earthen-yellow light that instantly sank into the ground beneath them. Lin Zheyu was not surprised in the slightest. The moment Tu Yuan appeared, he had already realized it was not his true body, but a technique similar to an elemental clone. This strike had never been intended to kill Tu Yuan. Its true purpose was to shatter the seal imprisoning this stretch of space.

The saber light tore through the air and slammed into an invisible energy barrier, unleashing a thunderous hum that shook the heavens. Violent energy collided head-on, sending massive ripples surging outward in all directions.

"So sturdy!"

Lin Zheyu's eyes narrowed as he stared at the faint golden net now revealed in the air.

On Lin Zheyu's left, the Tu Yuan who had just vanished reformed once more and smiled calmly at him. "Don't waste your efforts, Fellow Xiao. Return my storage pouch, and I guarantee you'll be allowed to leave."

"Heh, quite the methods you have. Since you're already here, why don't you all come out and show yourselves? Let me see who exactly is capable of laying down such a grand formation." Lin Zheyu sneered as he raised his head toward the upper-left corner of the sky.

When he struck the barrier sealing this region moments ago, he had sensed a faint aura from that direction. His voice rang out across the battlefield, yet no one revealed themselves.

"Hmph, a rat hiding in the shadows." Lin Zheyu snorted coldly and said, "The storage pouch is right here on me. If you're unwilling to pay for the three high-grade spirit stones, then come and see for yourselves whether you can take it."

Tu Yuan's smile vanished instantly as he shouted coldly, "In that case, forgive the offense. Move!"

The moment his words fell, the energy throughout the surrounding void surged violently. The air itself seemed to solidify as an immense pressure bound itself around Lin Zheyu.

Tu Yuan continued speaking with a smile. "Why must it come to this, Fellow Daoist? That storage pouch was taken from me in the first place. We once fought side by side, did we not? If possible, I truly do not wish to kill you."

Eight phantom figures gradually appeared around Lin Zheyu. Vast spirit power surged through their bodies as they worked in tandem with the hidden cultivators to activate the power of the formation.

Under their suppression, Lin Zheyu felt as though he had fallen into a swamp. His strength remained intact, yet it felt strangely ungrounded, as though he could no longer properly exert force.

"Is that so? Those are the exact words I wanted to say to you. I only want to cultivate in peace and live a quiet life, so why do all of you insist on forcing my hand?" Lin Zheyu's gaze gradually turned icy as dense killing intent flooded his expression.

A powerful aura of danger radiated from his body. Tu Yuan's expression shifted slightly the moment he sensed it. The reason he had not attacked from the very beginning was that he deeply feared Xiao Yu. He could not see through the man at all. Not only was his origin mysterious, but his strength was terrifyingly powerful, and he might even possess an unimaginable background. That was why Tu Yuan had initially hoped to resolve matters through trade if possible, or forcefully seize the pouch otherwise. Killing for treasure had always been the final option.

"Stop hesitating. Kill him!" A cold voice rang out, filled with urgency.

Tu Mingzhen, hidden within the shadows, was already stronger than Tu Yuan to begin with. Having fused herself into the grand formation, her sensitivity toward danger had become astonishingly sharp. And just moments ago, she had felt a terrifying sense of crisis unlike anything before.

"Fine!" Tu Yuan replied decisively through voice transmission.

He had always been utterly lawless and capable of any evil, otherwise he would never have earned the title Earth Demon Rat. His name was infamous to the point that everyone despised him. Someone with such a reputation was naturally not the type to hesitate.

The instant the two of them resolved to kill, the aura around Lin Zheyu also began soaring wildly. Golden energy surged frantically through his body and poured into the golden runes. Under his control, the chaotic golden patterns formed by those runes released a faint glow as the muscles across his body rapidly swelled.

Crackling sounds rang out nonstop. Savage bone spikes burst from both sides of Lin Zheyu's shoulders as countless fleshy tumors rapidly spread across his body. His figure expanded at an astonishing rate until he stood nearly five meters tall. The tumors covering him were incomparably hard, and at the center of each was a pitch-black hole from which faint streams of wind drifted outward.

These fleshy tumors were a unique form created after the ethereal wind Great Dao patterns contained within the Saha Scripture fused with the laws woven into the demonic patterns. Though the tumors themselves appeared rather horrifying, Lin Zheyu as a whole did not seem grotesque or monstrous. Instead, he carried a strange sense of fluidity and eerie elegance. Without those tumors, the form might even have seemed perfect.

A pair of pale golden wings suddenly unfurled behind him. In a flash, Lin Zheyu displayed his complete Golden Body Form. Unlike the monstrous transformations of yaos, this form radiated a gentle golden glow, exuding a sense of steady balance and calm majesty.

"Bind!" A cold, clear voice rang out, and the already frozen space around them instantly became even more solid.

Countless earthen-yellow ropes rapidly condensed out of thin air and lashed toward Lin Zheyu, seeking to pin him in place. At the same time, Tu Yuan made his move as well. The two were both prodigies of the Tu Family. Though their personalities clashed, their coordination in battle was flawless.

Tu Yuan made seals with both hands and then slammed them onto a strangely shaped dharma artifact. A burst of violent spirit power erupted from the artifact, flowing into the grand formation and causing two enormous hands to form, which reached out toward Lin Zheyu.

"Die! No matter how strong you are, as long as you haven't reached the Golden Core realm, there's no way you can break free from the formation's suppression!" Tu Yuan watched the giant earthen hands close in on Lin Zheyu, a confident smile spreading across his face.

For martial artists, breaking into the Shackles realm was far harder than it was for immortal cultivators. Tu Yuan refused to believe that this mysterious Xiao Yu could have shattered his shackles and advanced into the Shackles realm in such a short time. The information he had gathered only reinforced that belief. Otherwise, he would never have dared to hunt Lin Zheyu with only Tu Mingzhen as support.

"Heh!" Lin Zheyu slowly raised his head and let out a faint, icy chuckle.

He had never truly fought using the complete Golden Body Form before. Now that it had been fully unleashed, Lin Zheyu could feel immense power surging through every part of his body. Blood qi was the primary source of strength for martial artists, but for the esteemed ancient martial families, bloodline power was something even greater than blood qi itself.

The golden energy within Lin Zheyu was a unique power, similar to the bloodline abilities of those ancient martial families. Aside from being stored within his sea of consciousness as a defensive measure, it could only display its true might after being transformed through the golden runes.

In the state of the Golden Body Form, his blood qi and golden energy overlapped perfectly, elevating his strength to an unprecedented level. With a violent tremor of his body, the earthen-yellow ropes binding him snapped apart one after another.

Lin Zheyu stepped forward with his right foot as golden energy surged through him and a powerful rule force spread around his body. The sealed space, which should have felt like an endless swamp that made movement nearly impossible, seemed to lose all effect beneath the suppression of his overwhelming rule force. His figure blurred and vanished instantly from where he stood.

The two giant earthen hands grasped nothing but empty air before slamming together and exploding with a deafening roar. Violent energy ripples spread outward from the center of the blast. Tu Yuan stared fixedly in Lin Zheyu's direction while spirit power surged through his body. Though he was confident that Xiao Yu could never withstand the combined might of himself, Tu Mingzhen, and the Tu Family's powerful formation arts, he still did not dare lower his guard in the slightest.

The instant Lin Zheyu disappeared, a sense of worry filled Tu Yuan's heart. Not good!

With a sweep of his right hand, a talisman he had prepared long ago shot into the air and rapidly formed a thick earthen wall before him.

A streak of golden saber light split the heavens as it slashed directly toward Tu Yuan's true body. The strike was incomparably powerful. Within the terrifying saber intent lay astonishing rule force, turning an already peerlessly sharp blade into the keenest edge in existence.

The saber light plunged straight into the supposedly indestructible earth wall and sliced through it as easily as cutting vegetables. Without slowing in the slightest, it continued toward Tu Yuan's forehead. The speed of the slash had reached an unimaginable extreme, far surpassing even Lin Zheyu's own movement speed. The moment Tu Yuan sensed danger, he immediately formed seals with both hands and attempted to use earth escape techniques to merge into the formation. But no matter how fast his casting speed was, it could never surpass Lin Zheyu's blade.

The saber light swept past in a flash. Tu Yuan's hands froze mid-seal as disbelief, shock, regret, and unwillingness filled his eyes. He refused to accept it. After cultivating so bitterly for so many years, he had been only a single step away from attaining the Golden Core realm. Yet now he had fallen just before reaching it. How could he possibly accept such an end?

No!

A shrill soul scream erupted forth, transforming into a raging soul storm that swept toward Lin Zheyu. This was Tu Yuan's final struggle at the brink of death, his last trump card of mutual destruction. He wanted to drag Lin Zheyu down to hell with him!

Watching the incoming soul storm, Lin Zheyu's lips curled into a disdainful sneer.

Such a weak soul attack... who is it supposed to frighten?

Before discovering that the golden energy could stabilize his sea of consciousness and act as a defensive barrier for the soul, he would have had no choice but to endure it head-on, perhaps even suffering severe injuries as a result. But now, before the vast golden energy within his sea of consciousness, an attack of this level was not even worthy of scratching an itch.

"Break for me!" Ignoring Tu Yuan's desperate soul attack, Lin Zheyu roared as dazzling golden light erupted from his body.

The immense golden energy was transformed by the golden runes into a terrifying, destructive force before surging into the blade in his hand. The high-grade dharma treasure embryo trembled violently beneath the influx of power, as though even it could barely withstand such overwhelming energy.