Chapter 157: CH. 157 | Four Complex Restrictions Runes
"What’s that?" Li Qingxue asked.
"A method for pulling an active restriction out of someone’s body without destroying it," Lin Tian answered.
"Does something like that actually exist? I’ve never heard of it."
Lin Tian nodded. Unlike formations or arrays, the concept behind seals and restrictions worked through however the cultivator understood the idea of a seal in the first place.
In short, no restriction or seal came with a fixed, written ability the way a technique or formation did.
A person could seal something purely through their own understanding of that ability.
The deeper someone’s grasp of seals and restrictions, the better their odds of creating a seal that was nearly impossible to break, or of breaking a high level seal someone else had made.
Lin Tian hadn’t brought up the Restriction Extraction Technique for no reason.
The name had come to him right after he’d figured out a way to deal with the restriction on Li Qingxue’s body.
In other words, what she’d said was correct. There had never been any Restriction Extraction Technique.
It was just a name Lin Tian had made up on the spot so she’d trust him.
"It exists. Only those with a deep understanding of seals and restrictions would even know about it."
"Alright. What do I need to prepare?" Li Qingxue asked.
Lin Tian paused for a moment, then tapped his bag of holding and let five high grade spirit stones float out. That caught Li Qingxue’s attention.
"High grade spirit stones?"
"I brought these because I figured you and this technique would need a large amount of spiritual qi to get through the process," Lin Tian answered.
"I’ll leave it in your hands."
He cleared his throat briefly. His hands formed a hand seal, and Li Qingxue watched closely, paying attention to whatever Lin Tian was about to do.
His eyes lit up, and he shot a white qi orb from his fingertip straight up, piercing through the roof of the main hall before it burst in the sky with a loud boom.
Cao Ying and the other elders heard the powerful blast of qi. They turned and fixed their attention on the top of the main building.
"What was that?" one of the elders asked, confused.
A strong gust of wind swept through, pushing everyone near the building back.
The qi explosion in the sky formed a white rune dome, with a white dragon circling the dome’s wall clockwise.
Cao Ying found the dome oddly familiar. She kept staring at it, but strangely, she couldn’t make out what was happening inside.
Could Lin Tian be using some more complex dome formation to keep people from seeing what they’re doing in there?
One of the sect’s uneasy elders flew over to Cao Ying, "Senior Cao Ying... do you know what’s going on?"
"I don’t know. But knowing Lin Tian, he’s definitely doing this for Qingxue’s own good."
"All we can do is wait... and hope," Cao Ying added.
Inside the main building, Li Qingxue realized Lin Tian had just activated some kind of formation dome that kept people from entering or seeing what was happening.
She had no intention of asking about it. She figured Lin Tian probably had to do it this way, since a restriction extraction technique was probably secretive and dangerous enough that it couldn’t be exposed to the public.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Sit cross legged and get into a meditation stance. Start cultivating," Lin Tian explained, and Li Qingxue obeyed without hesitation.
The two of them sat facing each other, cross legged. Lin Tian raised his hand and brought forth the essence of his spiritual awareness, a golden orb hovering above his palm.
He sent the golden orb flying into Li Qingxue’s body, his eyes now closely tracking the state of her body from within.
Since the whole point of the restriction was to keep Qingxue from breaking through to heavenly enlightenment, there were only two places it could possibly be active.
Her dantian... or her heart.
Lin Tian guided the essence of his spiritual awareness deeper into her body, checking her heart first, but there was nothing there.
Still, he faintly picked up on a white qi aura flowing alongside her absorption of spiritual qi.
It’s probably in her dantian.
He directed the golden orb to follow her meridians until it reached the sea of her dantian.
He found spiritual qi energy gathered there, but it wasn’t being processed properly by her nascent soul.
Instead, he saw four restrictions surrounding her nascent soul.
Each of the four restrictions carried its own distinct pattern and ancient script, especially in how they were placed and how they functioned.
I didn’t expect Sect Leader Yuntian to have this level of skill with restrictions.
Lin Tian clenched his fist and let the golden orb burst apart, with no effect on either himself or Li Qingxue.
"Qingxue."
She heard Lin Tian calling her name. Her eyes opened, and her attention turned forward.
"What is it, Lin Tian?" Li Qingxue asked.
"I’m going to use a manifestation of my soul to enter your dantian. Can you open up your dantian realm and link your soul to mine?" Lin Tian asked.
"Alright."
Li Qingxue’s hands formed a complex seal, and a single burst of qi ran through her body.
That technique served to open up her dantian realm, making it easier for Lin Tian’s soul manifestation to appear inside it.
I never expected... I’d be opening up my own dantian realm to someone.
But I trust that Lin Tian isn’t the kind of person looking to gain something from this.
Normally, a dantian realm only needed to be opened when a Nascent Soul cultivator was badly injured, to the point where their dantian was thrown into chaos and their soul was damaged.
Opening the dantian realm made it easier for another cultivator to help stabilize things by channeling spiritual qi in from outside.
But the risk was significant too.
If some cunning cultivator ever took advantage of a situation like that, they could steal the essence of someone’s Nascent Soul and hand it off to another cultivator, using it as a shortcut to break through to Nascent Soul themselves.
But Li Qingxue was confident Lin Tian wasn’t like that. He’d already shown her plenty of kindness.
She truly believed he was only asking her to open her dantian realm because he needed to help her as fully as possible.
A golden mark appeared on Qingxue’s forehead, a sign that her dantian realm had opened. Lin Tian summoned the essence of his spiritual awareness again and sent the golden orb flying into her body.
Lin Tian’s golden soul orb reached Qingxue’s dantian quickly.
Li Qingxue went back to cultivating, drawing in spiritual qi energy before she was told to absorb the high grade spirit stones.
Powered by Lin Tian’s spiritual energy, he managed to manifest his soul inside another cultivator’s dantian realm.
His attention fixed forward, on Li Qingxue’s Nascent Soul, trapped within four white restriction runes.
Breaking even one of them outright would tip off Sect Leader Yuntian right away.
Lin Tian kept his focus locked in place, studying the intricate patterns and twisting ancient script, all of it far too risky to tamper with carelessly. He couldn’t afford to rush through this.
I just need to modify the pattern and ancient script on the rune, swap out its trigger, and make it more flexible.
"Qingxue," Lin Tian called out from his physical body.
"What is it, Lin Tian?"
"There are four complex restrictions surrounding your Nascent Soul. I can’t rush this. It might take a long time," Lin Tian said firmly.
"You’re going to feel pain, a burning in your chest, and surges of unstable qi. But I need you to hold on through it. Use whatever techniques you can to calm the surges as they come," Lin Tian explained.
"I’m ready for the consequences. I’m putting my full trust in you, Lin Tian," Li Qingxue said.
Lin Tian fell silent again, his eyes still closed. He’d gotten her consent, now all that was left was to modify the restrictions carefully, working through them one at a time.
His hands formed a hand seal, bringing up a cluster of white runes above Li Qingxue’s dantian, enough to send the sea of her dantian into unstable turmoil.
Li Qingxue started to feel it, a sharp ache spreading through her chest and body.
But it was a price she was willing to pay to be free of Sect Leader Yuntian’s restriction.
Inside Qingxue’s dantian realm, Lin Tian sat cross legged, facing her Nascent Soul directly. He caught hold of one white restriction rune and began the work of modifying it.
This is going to be exhausting, but hopefully it’s worth it in the end.
The modification and extraction of the restriction rune had begun!