Chapter 541: The Appearance Of Shackles (I)
Inside a grand, luxuriously decorated building, a young man in splendid robes sipped wine in the reception hall on the first floor, watching the man opposite him with keen interest.
"Well, well, if it isn't Ning Ji'an. What wind blew you here?" Woo Yixuan said with a light chuckle as he looked at the man opposite him.
As the most notorious playboy of the Woo Family, Woo Yixuan possessed a bloodline talent said to be the strongest in a thousand years aside from his elder brother. Yet he was widely looked down upon by other bloodline martial artists. They had no regard for his stubborn, good-for-nothing attitude. No matter how great his natural talent was, it could at most carry him rapidly forward before the Shackles realm.
Beyond that, without sufficient martial will and a strong cultivation mindset, his path would effectively come to a halt. As a prodigy of the Ning Family, Ning Ji'an had always looked down on Woo Yixuan. That was precisely why Woo Yixuan greeted his visit with such faint mockery.
A trace of disgust flickered in Ning Ji'an's eyes, but he suppressed his displeasure and said calmly, "Do you want revenge?"
"Oh? You mean against Xiao Yu?" Woo Yixuan's expression shifted in surprise as he leaned forward slightly, his earlier indifference gone.
At the gathering in the Profound Light Tower, all present were elite disciples from major factions and families. None of them would go out of their way to spread word of Ning Ji'an's humiliation. As a result, very few people knew he had been effortlessly defeated by Lin Zheyu. Even his father had only learned of it from the guards who accompanied him.
"That's right," Ning Ji'an replied evenly.
A flash of excitement appeared on Woo Yixuan's face, but he quickly suppressed it, his brows knitting slightly as he asked in a calm tone, "Why?"
He might be a playboy, but he was no fool. There was no such thing as a free meal. As fellow members of ancient, esteemed martial families, Ning Ji'an would never help him out of pure goodwill.
"I want access to the Woo Family's Martial Legacy Secret Ground," Ning Ji'an said calmly.
"Hah. Keep dreaming." Woo Yixuan let out a soft scoff, leaning back into his chair with a mocking sneer. The Martial Legacy Secret Ground was one of the Woo Family's most important sites and was never opened to outsiders lightly.
Ning Ji'an took out a multicolored, oval-shaped fruit from his storage pouch and said calmly, "I can trade this for it. And I'll help you lure Xiao Yu out of the Martial Realm as well."
The fruit had been given to him by his father. Since Ning Ji'an found it of little use, he had kept it all this time. Now, he could use it in exchange for a chance to enter the Woo Family's Martial Legacy Secret Ground.
"You actually have something like this!" Woo Yixuan's eyes widened as he stared at the item Ning Ji'an had taken out, a trace of greed flashing in his gaze. After weighing it for a moment, the memory of being utterly humiliated by Lin Zheyu resurfaced in his mind, and he made his decision.
"Fine. But Xiao Yu is very strong. He has a powerful grasp of spatial laws. Simply luring him out of the Martial Realm isn't enough. I'll need his movements and destination as well," Woo Yixuan bargained.
A setback makes one wiser. The last time, after going to great lengths to place a tracking mark on Lin Zheyu, it had been erased by some special method. Woo Yixuan knew just how troublesome Lin Zheyu could be.
A vicious grin and killing intent flickered deep within Ning Ji'an's eyes. "Don't worry. I'll make sure everything is arranged perfectly."
His father had speculated that Xiao Yu might be descended from an ancient, esteemed martial family that had long since perished. If they acted personally, it could invite unnecessary trouble. That was why Ning Ji'an had sought out Woo Yixuan. He would lure Xiao Yu out of the Martial Realm, while Woo Yixuan would take his life. Even if Xiao Yu truly had a powerful backer, it would never be traced back to him.
***
In the height of summer, warm winds formed waves as they swept through, rustling the trees. Golden sunlight poured down, baking the earth in sweltering heat.
Lin Zheyu sat cross-legged beneath the shade, feeling none of the season's oppressive warmth. The formation surrounding the courtyard not only concealed aura and provided defense, but also regulated the temperature, humidity, and airflow within. It was far more effective than the central climate-control systems in villas in his previous life.
The blood qi in his body surged, producing a deep rumble. Under Lin Zheyu's control, the vast golden blood qi circulated and flowed continuously toward the acupoint located beneath the spinous process of the second lumbar vertebra, between the two Shenshu points. This acupoint was the Mingmen acupoint, the root of origin qi and the gateway of life, where the essence origin divine repository resided.
Nourished by the unceasing flow of golden blood qi, Lin Zheyu felt a warm aura radiate outward from the Mingmen acupoint at his lower back, spreading through his entire body. It was as if he were immersed in a hot spring, his whole body suffused with warmth. A powerful vitality gathered within his divine repository like a seed, quietly brewing, waiting to absorb enough nourishment before sprouting and breaking through the soil.
Lin Zheyu's breathing was deep and steady, his expression calm and serene. As he cultivated the Purple Firmament Repository Returning Art, the vitality within him grew ever stronger. It truly deserved its reputation as one of the most powerful divine repository techniques of the Martial Alliance, famed for its balanced and harmonious nature. Cultivating it brought not the slightest pain, only a profound sense of comfort.
Its only flaw was the enormous consumption of cultivation resources. This was a common issue among all divine repository techniques. Nurturing and strengthening the repository required vast amounts of energy. By contrast, a more extreme path, such as the Yellow Springs Nirvana Scripture, demanded far more than just energy. It required spring water from the Netherworld Cold Spring, Life-Generating Fortune Pills, Meridian-Protecting Pills, and various other medicinal pills and treasures.
For Lin Zheyu, however, the water of the Netherworld Cold Spring alone was sufficient. The other pills and treasures existed only to protect cultivators from the terrifying Yellow Springs true intent during cultivation, preventing them from losing their lives midway.
Within his consciousness space, Lin Zheyu was practically immortal. As long as he did not die during a single cycle of cultivation, he could immediately recover afterward, free from concern over the immense damage and side effects the Netherworld Cold Spring would otherwise inflict.
Time passed slowly. After this round of cultivation, the spirit stones in his storage pouch were running low. If he could not replenish them, he would have to wait until he reached the demon god barrier to continue improving with Origin Force.
Suddenly, as Lin Zheyu remained immersed in cultivation, a crisp sound rang out deep within his spirit. It was like the clinking of chains or the sharp collision of metal. Immediately after, he felt an invisible yet powerful restraint descend upon him. The vitality that had been steadily surging under the nourishment of the Purple Firmament Repository Returning Art seemed to encounter a limit, its growth beginning to slow.
"What's going on?" Lin Zheyu suddenly opened his eyes, his brows drawing together slightly.
He carefully examined his body, trying to determine exactly what had just gone wrong. A trace of concern surfaced within him, wondering if something had gone awry in his cultivation.
More than ten minutes later, Lin Zheyu's expression turned somewhat strange. His eyes widened slightly, a hint of surprise flickering within them.
"So this is the Heavenly Dao Shackle?" Lin Zheyu muttered, his tone tinged with curiosity.
In his perception, a massive shackle, like a chain, was coiled around his body. Its shadow was faint, so faint that even with Lin Zheyu's powerful senses, he had to search carefully for quite some time before detecting its presence.
Lin Zheyu frowned slightly. "It appeared this early... does that mean my physique has already reached the human limit?"
Recently, he studied the Shackles realm extensively and gained a deeper understanding of it. The so-called shackle, fully known as the Heavenly Dao Shackle, was also called the Life Shackle. This shackle was a restraint engraved by the Heavenly Dao into the very genetic makeup of human life—a physical limitation. It existed to restrict humanity, preventing endless growth and evolution.
At the dawn of its creation, martial cultivation was meant to be a path of human evolution. With the decline of the Immortal Dao, the strong had joined forces to carve out a new path, giving rise to martial cultivation as a means of advancing life itself. But upon reaching the Shackles realm, this path of evolution approached its limits. One either had to switch to another path or break free from the life shackles to continue forward on the road of martial cultivation.
Lin Zheyu sensed the faint shadow wrapped around his body, momentarily stunned by this unexpected development. "Strange. Isn't the shackle phantom supposed to be sensed only after opening the three great divine repositories, through a special spirit ascension technique? How is it that I haven't opened a single repository, yet the shackle phantom has already appeared, and is this easy to perceive?"
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