Immortality Begins with Breathing Exercises

...

Wuling City.

A standalone courtyard by the riverbank.

Lin Zheyu was sitting cross-legged under the shade of the trees, with his eyes closed, contemplating the mysteries of the golden runes on his body.

More than a month had passed since he last encountered Fan Hongwei of Lingyun Pavilion, and Lin Zheyu had thoroughly mastered the remaining parts of the "Totem Profound Interpretation".

Now, his understanding of magical patterns and Barbarian Totems was far superior to before.

After systematically studying magical patterns and totem knowledge, Lin Zheyu began attempting to decipher the golden runes and the golden body totem on himself.

The golden runes were special symbols born from the cultivation of demon skills, under the combined effects of forced source power recovery and golden energy within the body.

The golden body totem on him was formed during the totem construction process after integrating the Pusa Scripture, where by sheer fate, it activated the hidden magical pattern rule tao rhyme within the golden runes, automatically condensing.

The appearance of both was beyond Lin Zheyu’s control.

Previously, due to a lack of strength and systematic understanding of magical patterns and totems, Lin Zheyu did not have an adequate reserve of knowledge.

Even though he continually attempted to decipher the golden runes and the golden body totem, he couldn’t find any leads.

But now.

Lin Zheyu finally possessed the ability to attempt deciphering the golden runes on his body.

Pushing his sphere of perception to its limit, his spiritual sense dove into the golden runes within his body, as Lin Zheyu carefully analyzed the dao patterns contained within the golden runes.

Even though he had a foundational grasp of magical patterns and totems, breaking down the golden runes proved to be far more challenging than he had imagined.

Yet, it was something he had to do.

Otherwise, as his strength increased, Lin Zheyu would sooner or later hit a bottleneck.

Whoosh~~

Rustle rustle~~~

The gentle breeze blew past, rustling the leaves.

It was already winter, but the large tree within Lin Zheyu’s courtyard was an evergreen, its leaves still lush and green.

Lin Zheyu’s breath was long and deep, his chest rising and falling slowly.

The golden runes that appeared on his chest slowly vanished, only for a new golden rune to emerge adjacent to the previous one.

Each golden rune contained different rule patterns, some even very distinct from one another.

Time slowly passed.

Until the sky grew dark and the dim sunlight bathed the scene, Lin Zheyu remained seated under the shade, completely still.

Until the twilight darkened, and the moon climbed over the treetops.

The moonlight spilled down, clear and bright.

Lin Zheyu’s eyebrows furrowed as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Hoo~"

"I know far too little about magical patterns and totems right now; relying only on basic magical pattern knowledge and totem knowledge isn’t enough to thoroughly decipher the secrets contained within the golden runes."

Lin Zheyu sighed slightly, feeling a bit helpless.

No matter which cultivation path it was, systematic knowledge was exceedingly expensive, and just purchasing these two classics had cost Lin Zheyu a large amount of spirit stones.

He no longer had any extra spirit stones on him now.

"So much time has passed, why hasn’t Tu Yuan come out of closed-door cultivation yet? Do cultivators usually stay in seclusion for this long...?"

Lin Zheyu murmured softly.

Not just Tu Yuan, others had also not replied to his messages.

Oh, wait.

There was one who did respond.

Lei Yunshu had ended her closed-door cultivation more than three months ago and even visited Lin Zheyu once.

She was lucky enough to acquire a rule fragment.

But since it was from the periphery, and she hadn’t hunted a large number of demons for sacrifice, the rule fragment contained a very weak rule aura.

Lei Yunshu spent over three months in seclusion consolidating the gains from the Demon God Barrier.

"I have 142 spirit stones left."

"I can still hold out for about three months, Tu Yuan and Bai Lin should both be coming out of seclusion by then, right?"

Lin Zheyu checked the spirit stones in his storage pouch, speaking somewhat speechlessly.

If they didn’t come out soon, he would stop waiting.

He’d sell Tu Yuan’s storage pouch directly.

Even if he earned less, it would be acceptable.

In fact, aside from Tu Yuan’s storage pouch, Lin Zheyu had two items on him of considerable value.

Those were two Golden Cores he obtained from other cultivators earlier, truly precious treasures.

However, Lin Zheyu didn’t plan on selling them.

With a flip of his right hand, two perfectly rounded Golden Cores flew out from storage, landing in Lin Zheyu’s hand.

"Lei Yongtao mentioned that he was quite confident this time about proving the Six-Thunder Pattern Golden Elixir."

"Yet these two Golden Cores are perfectly round without any rule engravings. Could it be they’re just ordinary Golden Cores from regular cultivators?"

Lin Zheyu observed the Golden Cores in his hand, pondering inwardly.

Whenever he had free time, he would take out the Golden Cores to study, attempting to delve into their extraordinary qualities.

Closing his eyes, his spiritual sense emanated out, entering the Golden Cores in his hands.

Trace amounts of sharp and fierce sword intent emitted from the Golden Cores under Lin Zheyu’s active guidance, attacking Lin Zheyu’s divine soul.

Lin Zheyu’s spiritual sense enveloped the Golden Cores within, ignoring the threads of fierce sword intent attacks, concentrating on comprehending the subtle sword intent.

Within the Golden Cores, aside from strong and concentrated energies, lay contained power of rules and a hint of destiny aura.

This was information Lin Zheyu obtained from exchanges with Lei Yongtao and others.

The so-called destiny aura was the essence of a Golden Core.

It was also what supported a cultivator once having proved the Golden Core, to start embarking on a path of defying heavenly fate, dictating one’s own destiny.

Lin Zheyu’s current strength wasn’t yet sufficient to penetrate the Golden Core and comprehend the mysterious destiny aura.

For now, he could only use the power of rules he had comprehended to leverage the rule tao rhyme contained in the Golden Core, for everyday meditation.