Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

Early in the morning.

Li Mengxi and the others had nothing pressing to do, so after finishing their meal, the group headed straight for the plaza where the arena challenges were being held. People were coming and going, and it was far livelier than the first few days. Even before the official matches began, some participants had already stepped onto the stage to start fighting.

Standing beneath arena six, Li Wensi said with firm conviction, ”Young Master Zhao, you will definitely succeed.”

”Look, that monk is here again. Huh, it seems he does not intend to go up to arena two,” Li Mengxi pointed toward the monk Puxuan in the distance and said with some surprise.

The monk Puxuan did not enter the plaza. Instead, he stood at the side, quietly chanting scriptures with a gentle expression on his face.

”His goal is not to accept challenges and obtain the title of one hundred undefeated victories. He is here to break other martial artists’ winning streaks so that no one else can win and obtain the Buddhist sect’s Great Strength Vajra Fist,” Lin Zheyu glanced at the monk Puxuan and said calmly. He could tell that the Buddhist sect’s conduct this time was indeed underhanded.

”That is truly despicable. If many of the genius disciples from the major sects had not been absent, someone would definitely be able to defeat him,” Li Wensi said indignantly.

”By the way, if a match on the arena ends in a draw, does it still count as a consecutive win?” Lin Zheyu asked curiously. He had wanted to ask this question earlier, but had forgotten it for a moment.

”It counts. For a martial artist who steps onto the arena to challenge, only by defeating the arena holder does the challenge count as a success. A draw also counts as a failure. And to prevent people from deliberately dragging things out, the battle must be decided within fifteen minutes. Anything exceeding that time is counted as a loss for the challenger,” Li Mengxi said.

He had challenged the arena before as well, but with his strength, he was nothing more than cannon fodder and lost quickly. In contrast, his elder sister Li Mengqi had nearly succeeded. Unfortunately, on the fifth day, powerful Marrow Refining realm martial artists began to make their moves. Li Mengqi was defeated by the Luo Family’s genius, Luo Shaoning.

”Oh, then there is no problem. If there is no rule forbidding techniques from being passed on, then once I obtain the Great Strength Vajra Fist, I will show it to you,” Lin Zheyu said with a smile.

If even a draw counted as his win, then with the Golden Goose Technique having just been raised to the Perfection of the eleventh stage yesterday, Lin Zheyu possessed strong confidence that he could contend with the monk Puxuan on the arena.

”There was no such restriction before, but this technique was provided by the Buddhist sect, so I do not know whether they have any limitations,” Li Mengxi said, a flash of excitement crossing his face, though mixed with hesitation.

Li Mengxi was quite interested in the Buddhist sect’s Great Strength Vajra Fist. In Great Wei, the Buddhist sect existed only in books and story scripts, and the monk, Puxuan, was the first living monk Li Mengxi had ever seen. He even deliberately went back to consult ancient texts and asked Elder Wang, who guarded the Li Family Library Pavilion, to obtain information about the Great Strength Vajra Fist from him. It was said that this technique was an extremely important foundational fist technique within the Buddhist sect.

The Great Strength Vajra Fist, also known as the Vajra Arhat Fist and simply called the Vajra Fist, was the foundational fist technique of the Karma Seal[1] among the Buddha’s hand seals.

”The time is almost up. I will go up first,” Lin Zheyu said.

He glanced once toward the distant monk Puxuan, then leaped lightly onto arena six. Outside the plaza, Xiong Yonghao and Xu Zifan arrived late. They waved excitedly at Lin Zheyu and shouted encouragement at the top of their voices.

Beneath the arena, Tang Weizhong narrowed his eyes slightly and asked calmly, ”Pei Yuchun, where are the people you hired? Zhao Hao’s challenge is almost over, so why have they not made a move yet? We have already offended him. With his natural talent, he will certainly be noticed by other forces and sects. If we do not deal with him now, once he comes knocking later, it will become troublesome.”

If not for his helping the Pei Family search for a murderer and getting involved in this matter, Tang Weiqiang would not have died. At the time, he had thought it was merely a matter of dealing with a fairly capable but backgroundless wild martial artist. He had not expected that boy to be so fortunate as to survive until now. Even after the Soulcall Tower assassins struck twice, they still failed to kill him. However, since matters had come to this, regret was useless. He could only think of a way to resolve it as soon as possible. Otherwise, after this martial cultivation exchange ended, Zhao Hao’s natural talent would surely attract the attention of other powerful sects.

”That person had matters to attend to in the past few days and only had time today,” Pei Yuchun said calmly.

His gaze shifted toward a certain figure within the crowd, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly as he said, ”There, is that not him?”

”Are you sure there will be no problems? You have seen it these past days. Many well-known martial cultivation geniuses of Wuling City have fallen at his hands. Even Ni Qiangkun nearly died at Zhao Hao’s hands back then.”

Seeing that the man looked somewhat unfamiliar, Tang Weizhong felt uneasy.

At the mention of Ni Qiangkun, his face could not help but twitch. In order to appease him, he had paid a considerable price. It would have been far simpler if the man had died outright. Unexpectedly, Ni Qiangkun was born with an unusual constitution.

”Rest assured, there will definitely be no problem. This person was once a disciple of the Yama Palace. You must have heard of the Yama Palace, right?” Pei Yuchun said with a light chuckle.

”The Yama Palace? They actually still have survivors?” A look of surprise appeared on Tang Weizhong’s face.

The Yama Palace was a sect that walked crooked paths, attempting to carve out a heretical road by researching yaos, demons, and living corpses. Later, as they continued cultivating, problems inevitably arose. Even so, their strength was undeniably terrifying. Each one of their members had exceptional recovery, a powerful physique, and a frightening, explosive strength that made them resemble a weakened version of a yao.

”Don’t you know the consequences if it’s discovered that you brought someone from the Yama Palace in here?” Tang Weizhong asked in a lowered voice.

Because of that incident back then, almost all of the disciples of the Yama Palace were exterminated, leaving only a few martial artists who survived by sheer luck.

”Who said I brought him in? I have no relation to him. He came in through the Soulcall Tower’s channels,” Pei Yuchun said calmly.

”Interesting. Since it was through the Soulcall Tower’s channels, there is no problem,” Tang Weizhong said with a nod. A trace of viciousness flashed in his eyes as he looked toward Lin Zheyu in the arena.

He then glanced at the unruffled Pei Yuchun from the corner of his eye

This old fellow has such means and actually hid them until now. But what conditions did he use to persuade that person?

This time, regardless of whether the attempt succeeded or not, that Yama Palace martial artist was certainly doomed. People of the Yama Palace were universally condemned. As long as he was exposed, death was inevitable.

***

On arena six, Lin Zheyu landed lightly on the platform. Unlike his previous demeanor, his edges were no longer so sharp, and he now carried a hint of refinement, returning to the scholarly storyteller state he had in Songyi City. With the two true intents in his consciousness, both greatly different, no longer deliberately suppressed, their influence on him was greatly weakened, giving him an illusion of returning to simplicity.

”I am Zhao Hao, and I accept the challenges of all friends here,” Lin Zheyu swept his gaze around and said calmly.

Below the arena, he saw many familiar figures. Wild Man Luo, Yue Qinghong, Luo Dinglong, Li Yin, and the others were all present. However, after several days of exchanges, they had been completely subdued. Facing Zhao Hao, they had no chance of victory at all.

”Luo Dinglong, are you not going up to try again?” Luo Manghan nudged Luo Dinglong with his elbow and suggested with a grin. Watching this Luo Family genius suffer setbacks at Zhao Hao’s hands put him in an excellent mood.

”Right now, I am not his match. When I reach the Force Transformation realm, I will personally go challenge him,” Luo Dinglong said calmly.

”Heh, a coward. If you do not dare, I will!”

Wild Man Luo curled his lips as a powerful fighting intent surged from his body. What he cultivated was the purest Berserk true intent of the War God Sect. He needed to be unyielding and never admit defeat.

”Brother Zhao, I am here to spar with you again.”

Wild Man Luo landed on the arena with a loud thud, gripping his massive wolf fang club while brimming with battle intent.

So what if he fought again and again only to lose? His heart knew no fear and did not dread failure. After defeat, he sought the reasons, worked hard, and returned to fight again. Repeated defeat and repeated battle were precisely what the Berserk true intent he cultivated needed. This true intent even complemented the Dominance true intent cultivated by Lin Zheyu. Lin Zheyu planned to see if there were similar true arts when he reached the Wuji Sect.

”You can go first. Otherwise, you will not have the chance to make a move.” Lin Zheyu looked at him and nodded.

”Then you should be careful. After going back, I specially devised a set of tactics to deal with you.” Wild Man Luo grinned and charged forward with his wolf fang club.

Bang!

With a powerful leap, a thunderous sound rang out as Wild Man Luo shot forward like a cannonball. His massive wolf fang club tore through the air, stirring up violent winds from the formation. In order to deal with Zhao Hao, Wild Man Luo had spent a long time studying after returning. When facing a martial artist who had cultivated lightness and movement techniques to such an exquisite level, the only way was to design a lure to draw the opponent into a trap and defeat them through powerful combat awareness.

1. Karma Seal refers to the Jiemo Mudrā of Buddhist tradition, a foundational hand seal associated with ritual action, execution, and karmic enforcement. In cultivation contexts, it represents techniques that manifest power through the body, emphasizing strength, discipline, and the suppression of adversaries. Many Vajra-type body techniques trace their origins to this seal. ☜