Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

His figure shifted slightly before he suddenly leaped out of the energy lake. The golden runes covering Lin Zheyu’s body shimmered and transformed into purple-black runes in the blink of an eye. Faint purple-black energy condensed over his skin, completing his disguise.

The purple-black wings behind him beat lightly as Lin Zheyu shot through the violent energy storm filled with raging black winds. Passing through the node fissure, he entered the familiar demon realm.

The roars of yaos echoed out. These were the yaos drawn over by the aura of living beings Lin Zheyu had emitted when he reverted to human form before entering the void space within the space-time node.

Lin Zheyu curled his lips in disdain. This time, he had no intention of relying on his overwhelming speed to shake them off. He wanted a massacre. He wanted to vent the frustration building inside him.

Lin Zheyu stood motionless as surging demonic qi rushed toward him from all directions. His right arm swelled first, transforming into a yao limb.

He threw a punch. The first yao to charge toward him was instantly blown apart by Lin Zheyu’s massive fist covered in grotesque flesh tumors. It did not even have time to scream.

Explosive cracking sounds continuously erupted from Lin Zheyu’s body. With every step he took, his body expanded and grew larger. The surrounding yaos charged at him endlessly like moths rushing into flame, roaring wildly as they attacked.

Lin Zheyu’s powerful perception spread outward. After repeated enhancements, even without opening the spirit divine repository, his perception had already reached the threshold of the Golden Core realm.

Within his perception, these five-pattern yaos moved unbearably slowly, like snails crawling across the ground. They posed absolutely no threat to him.

Terrifying explosions rang out nonstop. Rather than being surrounded by the endless stream of yaos, it was Lin Zheyu alone who seemed to be surrounding them all. The wings behind him flapped violently as he darted back and forth at blinding speed, his fists smashing out again and again.

The slaughter was completely one-sided, as effortless as butchering chickens and dogs. By the time he fully transformed into his yao form, every yao that had gathered there had been reduced beneath Lin Zheyu’s fists into mangled piles of flesh and severed limbs scattered across the ground.

So weak! At my current level, I should already possess strength comparable to the Golden Core realm, right? I wonder, when compared to that old man from Soaring Cloud Pavilion, which of us is stronger? Lin Zheyu pondered inwardly.

Even now, he still could not sense the tracking mark Fan Hongwei had left behind. Because of that, Lin Zheyu continued to harbor a trace of wariness toward the old man. He had already remained in the demon realm for over a month. For Foundation Establishment realm cultivators, surviving within the demon realm for a month was nearly the limit without the protection of a powerful secret treasure.

If possible, Lin Zheyu would have left the demon realm once the month was nearly up. Unfortunately, he had no idea whether Fan Hongwei had departed yet.

If that old fellow was still waiting outside, rashly leaving now would be no different from walking straight into a trap. Lin Zheyu still lacked absolute confidence in dealing with Fan Hongwei. As a result, he could only continue hiding within the demon realm.

”Once I get out, news that I possess some kind of powerful secret treasure will probably spread everywhere. What a pain,” muttered Lin Zheyu, shaking his head helplessly.

This was a space-time node guarded by the Demon-Suppressing Army, filled with spies from countless factions. Such things were unavoidable. But so what if he was exposed? At worst, it would only bring some extra trouble. So long as his strength was sufficient, any problem could be smashed flat beneath Lin Zheyu’s fists.

A series of crackling sounds rang out from Lin Zheyu’s body as his massive yao form rapidly shrank down to a height of three meters.

He briefly sensed the location of his divine repositories. There, he could vaguely detect a faint connection coming from the void spaces within the divine repositories themselves. However, he had no way of opening those spaces.

After transforming into yao form, the divine repositories opened within his body would vanish due to the demonization of his fleshly body. Without the divine repositories serving as a bridge, the connected void spaces would seal themselves off once more, cutting off all connection.

That suited him just fine. If his yao form could still connect to the void behind the divine repositories, that would truly be troublesome.

Yao energy and blood qi energy were two fundamentally opposing forms of power, incompatible as fire and water.

If he could still connect to that void space, Lin Zheyu would have to find some way to seal the entrance and prevent demonic qi from flowing inside and consuming the vast reserves of life energy and blood qi energy he had painstakingly accumulated.

With a slight shift of thought, Lin Zheyu rapidly suppressed his aura. Then his figure suddenly leaped forward and plunged into the purple-red magma. Familiar with the route, he continuously swam deeper in a certain direction. The farther down he traveled into the depths of the purple-red magma, the stronger the yaos became.

***

During this period, Lin Zheyu encountered other cultivators several times. He did not take the initiative to approach them, but through his powerful perception, he overheard quite a few names for the yaos living within the magma.

These yaos were known as Purple Flame Qilin, a type of yao whose appearance somewhat resembled the legendary qilin. Because they lived within the purple-red magma, they were given the name Purple Flame Qilin.

Magma rushed rapidly past his sides as Lin Zheyu continued descending deeper, traveling for nearly five minutes straight. The magma’s temperature here had reached a terrifying level.

Ordinary five-pattern Purple Flame Qilins could not survive under such horrifying heat. Those capable of living here were mostly powerful yaos at the peak of the five-pattern level.

The movements Lin Zheyu made while parting the magma became far more subtle. He quietly swam forward, suppressing his aura to the absolute limit.

His powerful perception spread outward. Even after transforming into yao form, Lin Zheyu’s perception remained extraordinarily powerful. Although it still could not compare to his human state, it had nevertheless reached the peak limit of the Foundation Establishment realm, while also retaining roughly 50% of the unique traits of martial cultivation perception.

Several minutes later...

A delighted smile appeared on Lin Zheyu’s grotesque, tumor-covered face. ”That Purple Flame Qilin finally left...”

He had discovered this place quite some time ago. However, because a peak five-pattern yao lived nearby, Lin Zheyu feared that causing too much disturbance might attract six-pattern yaos from below. As a result, he had not dared to act rashly. But now, that yao had finally left.

Lin Zheyu stared at the empty space in the distance with great interest. ”I didn’t expect to find a human formation here. A formation perfectly fused with demonic patterns, capable of using demonic qi... hm, now that’s truly interesting...”

Nothing could be seen with the naked eye. Yet under Lin Zheyu’s unique perception, he could clearly sense something abnormal in the space ahead. There existed a formation constructed from demonic patterns and materials harvested from yaos. Within that formation, he faintly sensed traces of spatial fluctuations.

”Was this formation laid down by human cultivators? Or was it created by powerful yaos after learning human formation techniques?”

Lin Zheyu gazed at the empty space ahead without acting rashly. After more than a month of observation and study, he had come to understand that not all yaos were mindless monsters driven solely by instinct.

Among the yaos, there seemed to exist two distinct kinds. One was violent and bloodthirsty, creatures that acted entirely on instinct without intelligence. The other possessed wisdom, capable of thought and free from being controlled by instinct. These two kinds did not appear to be divided according to strength.

Lin Zheyu had seen peak five-pattern yaos that possessed no intelligence, as well as four-pattern yaos that clearly possessed wisdom.

He speculated that the difference might be related to yao bloodlines. Intelligent yaos were akin to nobility, while the mindless creatures driven only by slaughtering instinct were little more than slaves or livestock, commonly used as expendable cannon fodder when invading other worlds.

As for the strange formation ahead, Lin Zheyu suspected it was likely set up by intelligent yaos.

After all, this was the demon realm. The strongest cultivators capable of entering through this particular space-time node were only at the Foundation Establishment realm. They likely lacked the strength necessary to reach this depth and establish such a formation.

I’ll study it from the outside first and see if I can discover anything. With that thought in mind, Lin Zheyu cautiously drifted toward the formation.