Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

In a secret chamber somewhere within the Woo Family of the Martial Realm, a burly middle-aged man with immense blood qi crouched on all fours, his body twisting as a rapid series of crackles erupted from within him. Terrifying blood qi energy surged from his body. Thick, blood-soaked aura mingled with purple bloodline powers, condensing into the phantom of a bizarre crimson-purple tiger. The phantom seemed almost fused with him, moving in perfect unison as his body writhed.

Without warning, the man unleashed a deafening roar. It sounded like the bellow of an ancient Desolate Beast, carrying an aura of primordial savagery and boundless Wildness.

His blood qi surged violently through his body. Every one of his muscles swelled, his bones cracked loudly, and his body underwent a grotesque transformation. His physique gradually shifted toward the form of the gigantic tiger phantom that had nearly merged with him.

Suddenly, his blood qi churned violently, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The aura surrounding him collapsed like air escaping from a punctured balloon, rapidly draining away as his entire body slumped in exhaustion.

”This is still not enough... I need more Yao Desolate Grass, along with more essence blood from the Dragon-Whiskered Tiger clan among the ancient yao. Completely transforming the human bloodline within me into the bloodline of an ancient Desolate Beast is proving far more difficult than I imagined.”

The man’s face had turned pale. Gasping for breath, he quickly sat down cross-legged and began regulating his breathing to heal his injuries.

Time passed slowly. It took the man nearly ten days to fully recover from the injuries sustained during his previous cultivation attempt. As soon as he had recovered, he immediately began a second round of cultivation. Once again, terrifying roars echoed through the chamber, shaking the soul as his body underwent another bizarre transformation.

Suddenly, a series of deep, booming knocks echoed from outside the tightly sealed stone door. The sound reverberated throughout the chamber, rousing the middle-aged man from his cultivation. He frowned slightly and stopped.

What could be so urgent? A trace of confusion crossed his mind.

His cultivation had reached a critical stage, and before entering seclusion, he had specifically ordered that no one was to disturb him unless it was an emergency. The thought flashed through his mind before he casually waved his right hand. A streak of purple bloodline powers shot toward the stone door and disappeared into it. The door, forged from exceptionally hard Black Tungsten, was engraved with powerful defensive formations and could only be opened using the Woo Family’s bloodline powers.

The massive stone door slowly swung open, revealing a beautiful young woman waiting outside. She looked flustered and panic-stricken, her eyes filled with terror, grief, and utter disbelief.

”Great-Grandfather! Family Elder...” Seeing the middle-aged-looking man, she blurted out in panic, ”Brother Yan... Brother Yan’s soul lamp has gone out!”

”Yan’er!” the middle-aged man cried out, his expression changing dramatically.

A thunderous boom rang out as the middle-aged man transformed into a streak of purple light and vanished from the chamber in an instant. The young woman hurried after him without even wiping away the tears still clinging to her face.

At the Woo Family Ancestral Shrine, where the family members’ soul lamps were kept, several figures had already gathered. Their expressions were grim as they stared at the extinguished soul lamps belonging to Woo Yiyan and Woo Shuo.

”Yan’er... is dead! What in the world happened? Didn’t Yan’er have the Grand Purple Crystal Ring? With the Grand Purple Crystal Ring, together with the Grand Teleportation Talisman and the Heaven-Deceiving Talisman, he should have been able to escape even from a late Nascent Soul cultivator.” The speaker was a woman who appeared to be around forty years old, though she had retained much of her youthful grace. Her face was deathly pale as she spoke.

As a once-in-a-millennium genius of the Woo Family, Woo Yiyan carried the family’s greatest hopes upon his shoulders. He had more than lived up to those expectations, displaying extraordinary talent and earning the lion’s share of the family’s resources.

To ensure he would not die before reaching his full potential, the Woo Family had equipped him with numerous life-saving treasures. The Grand Purple Crystal Ring, the Grand Teleportation Talisman, and the Heaven-Deceiving Talisman that the woman mentioned were the three most powerful among them.

”Even I couldn’t break through the Grand Purple Crystal Ring. The family elder spared no expense to have a Nascent Soul realm cultivator from the Heavenly Works Pavilion refine it into a powerful dharma treasure. It should have been able to withstand even a peak Nascent Soul realm cultivator for dozens of breaths. Investigate! Find out everything Yan’er has been doing recently!” the elderly man beside the woman ordered grimly.

A dangerous aura radiated from him. The younger members of the Woo Family nearby instinctively trembled under its oppressive pressure.

”Yes, Fifth Elder!” the burly man beside him replied at once. He quickly turned and hurried out of the ancestral shrine. The moment he stepped through the doors, the crushing pressure vanished, and he let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Woo Yiyan is actually dead? H-how...

He felt little grief over Woo Yiyan’s death. More than anything, he found it impossible to believe. The unparalleled genius hailed as the greatest bloodline talent the Woo Family had produced in a thousand years had died so suddenly. It was simply beyond comprehension.

The burly man halted and respectfully saluted the approaching figure. ”Greetings, Family Elder!”

The newcomer acted as though he hadn’t seen him at all, racing toward the ancestral shrine without slowing in the slightest. It was none other than the middle-aged man who had just emerged from seclusion, the current family elder of the Woo Family, Woo Tianlei. In a flash, he entered the shrine and ignored the elders present, heading straight for Woo Yiyan’s soul lamp.

”Yan’er... Yan’er is really dead! Who was it?”

Staring at the extinguished soul lamp, Woo Tianlei’s face darkened as an overwhelming aura erupted from his body. Even the woman and the fifth elder were forced to step back two steps beneath its terrifying pressure. The two exchanged glances, surprise and faint delight flickering in their eyes. Had it not been for the tragic death of the Woo Family’s greatest genius, they would already have stepped forward to congratulate Woo Tianlei on yet another breakthrough in strength.

”What exactly happened? Have you identified the murderer who killed Yan’er?” Woo Tianlei asked in a low, icy voice, his eyes never leaving Woo Yiyan’s soul lamp.

”We’ve already sent people to investigate. Some time ago, Woo Yiyan seemed to have run into some trouble. He enlisted Woo Shuo as his assistant and also transferred several Divine Repository realm experts. However, he never explained what the matter was,” the fifth elder replied with a frown.

”Within fifteen minutes, I want to know everything about the person who killed Yan’er! Whoever dared to murder a member of the Woo Family will pay a devastating price!” Woo Tianlei’s eyes blazed with murderous fury. The oppressive aura pouring from him was so overwhelming that even the fifth elder and the woman beside him struggled to breathe.

The Family Elder’s aura is becoming more terrifying by the day. He can’t be far from successfully awakening the Desolate Beast bloodline. Perhaps... he’ll surpass every record set before him, the fifth elder transmitted silently.

A trace of anticipation unexpectedly welled up within him, dulling even the sorrow brought by Woo Yiyan’s death. This path was one of the martial cultivation directions the three great ancient martial families, including the Ning Family and the Kong Family, had studied for over ten thousand years without success. Yet in Woo Tianlei, the fifth elder finally saw a glimmer of hope.

Hard to say. Even if he doesn’t succeed, when he eventually breaks through to a realm comparable to Immortal Dao’s Deity Transformation realm, the flaws should be far fewer than before, the woman replied through voice transmission.

Woo Tianlei’s talent was exceptional, no less than Woo Yiyan’s. The reason Woo Yiyan was hailed as the disciple with the greatest bloodline talent in the Woo Family’s past thousand years was precisely that Woo Tianlei himself had been born more than a thousand years earlier.

Woo Tianlei had raised Woo Yiyan to be the future head of the family, placing immense expectations on him. He had hoped Woo Yiyan would carry forward the task of perfecting the Woo Family’s martial cultivation path. Yet no one had expected him to die before fulfilling that promise. The ancestral shrine fell into complete silence. Beneath the crushing pressure of Woo Tianlei’s aura, no one dared utter a single word.

Time passed slowly. Just before the fifteen-minute deadline expired, the burly man who had left earlier hurried back.

”Family elder, we’ve confirmed the details. Woo Yiyan believed that Xiao Yu of the Martial Alliance was closely connected to the death of his younger brother, Woo Yixuan. He intended to capture Xiao Yu and uncover the true culprit. To that end, Woo Yiyan followed Xiao Yu’s trail all the way into a Shamanic Clan inheritance secret realm within the Southern Barbarian Region...” Feeling the terrifying aura radiating from Woo Tianlei, the burly man found himself speaking faster and faster.

”The Martial Alliance... Xiao Yu!” Woo Tianlei said coldly. ”Woo Jin, Tongyu, the two of you will go personally and bring Xiao Yu back.”

”Yes, family elder!” the beautiful woman and the fifth elder replied in unison. Their figures blurred, then vanished from the ancestral shrine in an instant.

”The Martial Alliance...” Woo Tianlei snorted, his face dark with anger. ”Do they really think that just because Qin Hu has emerged, they can look down on the ancient martial families? If Qin Hu dares interfere in this matter, I’ll make sure he dies with both body and Dao destroyed!”