Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

"He took the bait!"

Sensing the aura closing in behind him, Lin Zheyu's scale-covered face broke into an unmistakably human smile. Things were going even more smoothly than he had expected. After all, no matter how suspicious Sun Zhenzhi was, he would never imagine that someone could transform into a yao and still retain their original intellect.

"Trying to run? Get back here!" Sun Zhenzhi sneered.

He slapped his storage pouch with his right hand, and the other soldiers mirrored the motion. Each of them drew out a black spirit rope. Their movements were perfectly synchronized. At Sun Zhenzhi's command, every soldier hurled their rope at Lin Zheyu simultaneously. The ropes vanished into the void, weaving together into a massive black net that descended upon the yao Lin Zheyu had transformed into.

Roar!

Lin Zheyu let out a thunderous roar. The Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness snapped open. After sensing that the giant net posed no threat to him, he sneered inwardly and deliberately pretended he could not escape, allowing himself to be 'accidentally' caught.

"Haha, got you! This yao is actually rather good-looking. Interesting. It's rare to see one that resembles a human this closely." Sun Zhenzhi threw back his head in laughter as he watched the purple-black scaled yao roar furiously and struggle in vain.

With a sharp tug of his right hand, the giant net binding Lin Zheyu rapidly contracted, wrapping tightly around him until he appeared completely immobilized.

"Now!"

Watching Sun Zhenzhi draw closer and closer, Lin Zheyu discreetly turned his golden Heavenly Eye toward the direction of the Demon-Suppressing Army's main camp. He dared not look at it directly, instead observing the connection between the patrol and the battle formation. At this distance, the link had indeed weakened considerably.

Roooaaar!

Lin Zheyu unleashed an earth-shaking roar as energy surged violently through his body. Seeing this, Sun Zhenzhi simply assumed the yao was raging in helpless frustration, making him laugh even harder.

"Hahaha... Huh! Not good!" The smile on Sun Zhenzhi's face froze instantly.

The yao that had been tightly bound within the black net suddenly tore it apart. Its body swelled at an astonishing rate as a gigantic palm came crashing down toward Sun Zhenzhi.

A... A peak six-pattern yao! Damn it! It's an intelligent specimen! It's this powerful, and it actually pretended to be weak to lure me in. Since when did yao become this devious? The thought flashed through Sun Zhenzhi's mind as the colossal palm descended upon him.

The giant palm was unimaginably fast. Even with the enhancement of the battle formation, Sun Zhenzhi's peak Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation left him utterly unable to react.

With a sickening splat, Sun Zhenzhi was instantly crushed into a puddle of mangled flesh beneath the massive palm.

The instant Sun Zhenzhi died, a terrifying aura of slaughter erupted from the direction of the Demon-Suppressing Army's main camp, soaring into the heavens. A blood-red blade light slashed forth from the camp, hurtling straight toward Lin Zheyu.

"So fast!"

Lin Zheyu's eyes narrowed as he vanished from where he stood. Yet before he had even covered two kilometers, the blade light flashed behind him.

A deafening metallic clash rang out. Just as the blood-red blade light was about to strike Lin Zheyu, the Primordial Chaos Pool materialized behind him and intercepted the fatal blow.

The Primordial Chaos Pool was blasted away by the blood-red blade light and slammed into Lin Zheyu, knocking a mouthful of blood from his lips. He did not dare hesitate for even an instant. Without looking back, he continued fleeing deeper into the demon cave.

"Hm! It actually survived!"

A clear, melodious voice sounded from within the Demon-Suppressing Army's main camp. A pair of deep, distant eyes opened and turned toward the direction in which Lin Zheyu had fled, a hint of confusion flickering within them.

"Strange. Was that really a yao just now? Since when have yao become so cunning?" the woman murmured in puzzlement.

Had she not been responsible for guarding this space-time node, she would have gone after it, captured it, and studied it thoroughly. The thought passed through her mind in an instant. Tightening her grip on the blood-red saber in her hand, she prepared to unleash another slash toward Lin Zheyu. But just as she was about to strike, her movement suddenly halted.

"Hmph!" The woman let out a cold snort, withdrew her gaze, and turned her attention back to the space-time node she was guarding, her expression growing solemn.

Activity stirred on the other side of the space-time node once more. The yao beyond had launched another assault on the node, intending to invade this world through it.

"Suppress!" shouted the woman in a low voice.

She stepped forward with her right foot. Instantly, crimson light spread through the surroundings, condensing into mysterious runes that flowed into the formation beneath the ground.

***

Amid the dark void, Lin Zheyu could not help coughing up another mouthful of blood. Fortunately, his vitality in yao form far surpassed that of his human body, so injuries of this level were not particularly serious.

Even from that far away, with the Primordial Chaos Pool blocking most of the attack's energy, it still managed to seriously wound me. The expert guarding the Demon-Suppressing Army's main camp is truly terrifying.

Lin Zheyu still felt lingering fear at the thought.

Fortunately, he had been cautious enough not to attack near the main camp, buying himself enough time to escape.

It seemed that something happened on the demon realm side of the space-time node just now, forcing that expert to divide their attention. Otherwise, there would have been far more than a single slash, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.

During his escape, he had also sensed the overwhelmingly dense aura of the demon realm pouring from the space-time node guarded by the Demon-Suppressing Army. It had been more than two years since he first entered through that node. Apparently, over that time the space-time node had completely stabilized, allowing the demon realm on the other side to begin its invasion.

Only after fleeing more than a hundred kilometers did Lin Zheyu finally stop and let out a long breath. With a thought, the formation disk he had purchased earlier appeared in his hand.

Dozens of formation flags shot out from the formation disk and embedded themselves into the ground. Centered around the disk, they quickly established a concealment formation.

Next, the Primordial Chaos Pool flew out and landed softly on the ground. With another thought, Lin Zheyu vanished from where he stood and entered the space within the Primordial Chaos Pool.

A hint of anticipation flashed across Lin Zheyu's eyes. "The timing wasn't right earlier. Now I can finally see whether my natal shamanic pattern undergoes any changes during the process of reverting from yao form back to a human body."

The golden Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness snapped open. Vast quantities of essence, qi, and spirit energy poured forth from the three great divine repositories.

His preserved human heart began beating powerfully. Nourished by the immense essence, qi, and spirit energy, an intricate network of blood vessels spread outward from the heart. Flesh, tendons, membranes, and bones soon followed, reconstructing his body piece by piece.

Time slowly passed. After an unknown length of time, Lin Zheyu had fully returned to his human form. However, neither his natal shamanic pattern nor his divine patterns had reformed.

Lin Zheyu's eyes flew open. "I can't condense my natal shamanic pattern anymore? No way..."

No matter how he tried, he found himself completely unable to reform his natal shamanic pattern.

Could it be because I'm lacking chaos origin qi? Lin Zheyu pondered. With a thought, the chaotic energy stored within the Primordial Chaos Pool poured out in an instant and flooded back into his body.

Lin Zheyu let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Good. I was only missing chaos origin energy. That's why I couldn't condense it."

At the moment, his natal shamanic pattern was his only means of probing the mysteries of the Shamanic Dao. If it were lost, he would also be unable to continue cultivating the Primordial Chaos True Art, which depended upon the natal shamanic pattern.

Once Lin Zheyu confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it, he finally relaxed. As he recondensed the natal shamanic pattern, the golden Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness remained open, closely observing every change in it. Witnessing the process firsthand would be tremendously helpful in understanding the true nature of his natal shamanic pattern.

Time slowly passed. Lin Zheyu's eyes grew brighter and brighter.