Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

Lin Zheyu glanced at the energy lake below. With a light beat of his purple-black wings, he shot toward the distant spatial rift. This rift led to the demonic realm, yet it remained unstable. As he approached, he sensed the dense power of rules. Unlike the rule fragments bestowed by the Heavenly Dao, the rules here were violently chaotic and impossible to comprehend.

Without any intention of studying them, Lin Zheyu leaped forward and entered the rift. A familiar sensation washed over him. His perception blurred for a moment, and when it cleared, he found himself in a pitch-black world. Black winds howled through the void, producing a low, mournful wail.

”What a harsh world. No wonder it gives birth to creatures with such terrifying vitality.”

Lin Zheyu scanned his surroundings. As far as the eye could see, the land was barren and lifeless, with no sign of any living creatures. The ground was covered in countless cracks, each radiating intense heat. Looking closer, he could see purple-red magma flowing within them.

Suddenly, a distant fissure exploded, and purple-red magma erupted outward, casting a splash of color into the cold, dark world.

”So there really aren’t any... Hm?” Lin Zheyu had just been about to remark that there were no yaos here, only to be proven wrong the very next instant.

A fissure less than a hundred meters away suddenly burst open, and from the purple-black magma, a yao shot out. Its entire body was purple and its tail resembled that of a dragon.

Lin Zheyu pushed off the ground and retreated rapidly, his long saber flashing out in the same instant. The yao’s aura was powerful, and without hesitation, he unleashed the fifth strike of the Seven Absolute Sabers. A formidable saber intent surged forth, and a thirty-meter-long blade of light appeared in the void, radiating a chilling aura.

The blade cleaved down from the creature’s head, cutting straight through its body and splitting it in two. The massive corpse crashed heavily onto the ground and thick purple fluid poured out. Lin Zheyu did not spare it a glance. With a sharp beat of his wings, he quickly left the area. Something about this place felt off. The demonic realm already suppressed his perception, and with the added concealment of the purple-red magma, he could not detect the yaos lurking within it.

The black wind howled. In an instant, Lin Zheyu had covered more than two thousand meters, finally leaving that area behind before coming to a stop.

Lin Zheyu felt a trace of relief in his heart.

It seems there isn’t a powerful yao army stationed on the other side of this space-time node. Otherwise, things would have been troublesome.

Then again, it made sense. This was only a small space-time node. If every node had large numbers of yaos stationed on the other side, it would be a disaster. If the yaos intended to invade the main world, they would surely concentrate their forces on the largest nodes.

After confirming that the surroundings were safe, Lin Zheyu chose a spot where demonic qi was relatively dense and came to a stop.

In an instant, surging waves of demonic qi rushed toward him. Under Lin Zheyu’s frenzied absorption, the raging demonic qi gradually formed small vortices around him. His strength was no longer what it once had been. With power comparable to the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm, even lacking natural talent no longer mattered. As he absorbed with full force, the demonic qi surged like a tide.

Jagged bone spikes burst out from both shoulders as his body rapidly grew taller. Hardened flesh nodules sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain, and in mere moments, his massive frame was covered in dense clusters of them. Although the Primordial Golden Body remained at the second stage, with his increased strength, Lin Zheyu’s yao form became far larger than before.

Before, he had only been close to five meters tall. Now, he had reached an astonishing eight meters. Despite the increase in size, he did not appear grotesque or monstrous. Instead, there was still a strange sense of fluidity and balance to his form.

Even from a human perspective, one might find a peculiar kind of elegance in him. That was, of course, if one ignored the countless flesh nodules covering his body, which severely diminished any sense of beauty.

The massive fleshy wings behind him flapped twice, stirring up fierce gusts of wind.

Lin Zheyu threw a punch, and the terrifying force struck the void itself, sending faint ripples across it. Such a phenomenon could only occur when one’s strength reached a certain level.

A thunderous roar echoed out. Lin Zheyu’s transformation had stirred the demonic qi within several kilometers, drawing the attention of other yaos. Before long, a massive yao came charging over, its black fur bristling, its eight-meter body resembling a ferocious tiger. It was a yao in the Foundation Establishment realm, and the purple demonic patterns on its body flickered faintly with light.

Lin Zheyu’s fleshy wings gave a slight beat as he advanced instead of retreating, charging straight at the yao. His massive fist smashed forward and the terrifying force whipped up a violent storm of wind.

His fist struck the yao square on the head, and the force exploded outward. The creature did not even have time to scream before its skull burst apart. Lin Zheyu lightly flapped his wings and landed gracefully. Within his perception, many yaos had already gathered nearby, lurking in the shadows and watching him closely. However, he paid them little mind. These scattered, unorganized yaos posed no threat to him as long as there were no six-patterned Golden Core realm yaos among them.

Lin Zheyu frowned slightly as he thought to himself, My strength has increased, but I can no longer leverage the power of rules.

This was his first attempt to use the rules power in his yao form, and he could not use it at all. Not only in yao form. Even when he had first entered this world, before transforming, the strike he unleashed had also failed to carry any power of spatial laws.

Given his level of mastery over spatial laws, this was abnormal. He did not know whether it was due to the difference in rules between the demonic realm and his original world, or to his lack of the appropriate demonic patterns. Closing his eyes, he pushed his perception to the limit, intending to test the cause.

Lin Zheyu circulated the demon essence within his body. Under its influence, black smoke began to pour out from the dark circular openings at the center of the countless flesh nodules. The smoke gradually diminished and eventually disappeared. After about an hour, an indescribable aura began to emanate from those openings, and faint currents of energy condensed out of thin air. Lin Zheyu abruptly opened his lantern-like black eyes.

”As expected! By relying on the rule patterns within the golden runes, I can use the power of rules,” Lin Zheyu said to himself.

During his cultivation of the Primordial Golden Body, Lin Zheyu had incorporated many demon arts, resulting in chaotic, uneven demonic patterns. Although these patterns formed golden runes, they did not contain much of the power of rules.

Instead, it was the seemingly ordinary Saha Scripture that perfectly preserved a trace of the elusive essence of wind, manifesting itself through the black openings on the flesh nodules.

Just now, Lin Zheyu had relied on the trace of wind essence contained within the golden runes, using its rule patterns to mobilize a sliver of the power of rules. However, his understanding of wind-related rules was limited, so he could only forcibly draw out a tiny fraction of that power.

In the demonic realm, it seems that without relying on rule patterns inscribed on the body, it’s very difficult to leverage the power of rules. What an interesting cultivation method. It suits me perfectly. Since I’m already here, I might as well capture some powerful yaos and study them. It’s about time I improved and refined the Primordial Golden Body, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.

Although his Primordial Golden Body had developed a Golden Body Dharma Form, it felt more like something forcibly pieced together rather than a complete system, lacking any truly distinctive abilities. It only made him stronger and more resilient.

Under normal circumstances, golden runes that contained Dao resonance of rules should not be so limited in function. But when Lin Zheyu cultivated them, he had cobbled everything together through fragments and fortunate coincidences, resulting in golden runes that lacked any coherent structure.

That yao hiding in the purple-red magma just now was quite suitable. I should capture a few and study them, Lin Zheyu thought.

Yaos that had mastered spatial laws were hard to come by, so Lin Zheyu had to settle for the next best option. Still, the yaos hidden within the purple-red magma were a good choice, and that area seemed to be their natural habitat.

When Lin Zheyu left earlier, he had sensed many auras similar to that yao. Moreover, that creature possessed formidable defenses. Though its strength was only around the early Foundation Establishment realm, its durability rivaled that of the mid-stage. Its control over fire was also exceptionally strong, which made sense given its ability to survive within purple-red magma.

Aside from that, the sleek, elegant scales on that yao were also very appealing to him. He had long grown tired of the dense flesh nodules covering his own body, which could easily trigger discomfort at their sight. Even in his Golden Body Dharma Form, those growths would still appear, making him look utterly unsightly.

Lin Zheyu planned to experiment by integrating the demonic patterns from those scaled yaos to see whether the nodules would disappear and transform into scales.

His massive, fleshy wings beat behind him as Lin Zheyu rose into the air and flew toward the magma region.