Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

In the Eastern Sea, on an unremarkable island within the Chaotic Star Sea, Lin Zheyu sat cross-legged inside a hall. Deep within his sea of consciousness, a golden pupil opened. Its radiant gaze was devoid of emotion as brilliant golden light shone from his eyes, fixed upon the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation enveloping the hall. Under the Heavenly Eye's observation, the flow of spirit power through the formation became perfectly visible. Meanwhile, immense blood qi gathered in his hands.

Stretching out both hands, Lin Zheyu used blood qi as the foundation to recreate the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation. Golden trails of blood qi appeared in the air as he traced the formation's structure, each line carrying faint ripples of mysterious Dao resonance.

After three days of study, his understanding of the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation had advanced at an astonishing pace. Observing a functioning formation directly through the Heavenly Eye produced remarkable results. In only a few days, his comprehension of the formation had surpassed what many people could achieve in years.

"Incredible," Lin Zheyu murmured in admiration.

Just as Wu Di had claimed, the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation had undergone extensive refinement and improvement. Although limitations in strength and control left parts of the formation somewhat crude, Wu Di possessed a unique understanding of formation arts.

After his modifications, the formation's ability to conceal auras and obscure heavenly calculations had improved significantly. Had it been this effective before, Lin Zheyu might not have discovered Shi Weiping's presence at all.

I'll call this new technique the Heaven-Deceiving Art, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.

With a thought, he formally gave the name Heaven-Deceiving Art to the technique he had been designing, one that would use divine patterns to replicate the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation. The moment the thought settled, his consciousness within the sea of consciousness blurred briefly before becoming clear again. The data displayed there remained completely unchanged.

"It didn't work. Which part is the problem? Is it the integration of the formation with demonic patterns, or the process of converting it into divine patterns?" Lin Zheyu muttered softly, showing no sign of discouragement.

Even engraving an ordinary formation into the body using Martial Divine Patterns as a foundation was no simple task. The Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation was far more complex. The process required merging formation principles with demonic patterns and recreating the formation through an entirely new framework.

First, the formation had to be translated into divine patterns and reconstructed in that form to reproduce the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation's power. After that, the Heaven-Deceiving Art would need to be integrated into the Primordial Golden Body system while eliminating any conflicts between their respective divine patterns. Every step of the process was extraordinarily difficult.

"I've been trying to do too much at once. I'll start by integrating the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation into demonic patterns first," Lin Zheyu murmured.

He lightly tapped his storage pouch, causing several black demonic spirit stones to fly into his hand. The golden Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness remained fixed upon the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation in the hall. The demonic qi contained within the stones was rapidly absorbed by his divine patterns, transformed into yao energy, and poured from his hands. As his fingers moved through the air, strands of purple-black energy condensed into one strange rune after another in the void.

This integration method was something Lin Zheyu had derived from the mysterious formation hidden deep within the purple-red magma of the demon realm. His understanding of that formation remained superficial, but that was hardly surprising. He had simply not spent enough time studying it. Even so, divine patterns themselves had originally evolved from demonic patterns through a series of fortunate coincidences.

Later, after incorporating the Saha Scripture and cultivating the Primordial Golden Body, he had condensed the Golden Body Dharma Form. Martial Divine Patterns represented a fusion of martial cultivation and demonic patterns, while the Golden Body Dharma Form went a step further, combining martial cultivation, demonic patterns, the Immortal Dao, totems, and other systems of cultivation.

Upon bringing the Martial Divine Pattern Secret Manual to Perfection of the second stage and cultivating the third stage of the Primordial Golden Body, Lin Zheyu's understanding of martial divine patterns deepened considerably. At the same time, he gained new insights into the fusion of demonic patterns and Immortal Dao formations.

As a result, integrating demonic patterns into the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation became much smoother. Smooth, however, was all it was. Cultivation was a gradual process by nature. Achieving everything in a single leap was simply impossible.

***

Two days later, Lin Zheyu emerged from his study of the formation.

Lin Zheyu slowly rose to his feet and began his extreme body-forging regimen, pushing his physical limits to obtain Origin Force. Maintaining the operation of the golden Heavenly Eye required him to spend an average of 2 units of Origin Force each day to replenish the golden energy within his sea of consciousness. Even though every breakthrough of his limits now yielded 6 units of Origin Force, it still was not enough to keep pace with the Heavenly Eye's consumption.

Fortunately, before coming here, Lin Zheyu had already accumulated more than 70 units of Origin Force. Combined with the 6 units he gained from breaking through his limits roughly once every four days, he possessed enough reserves to keep the Heavenly Eye active continuously for nearly half a year. Such a feat was nothing short of astonishing.

The golden Heavenly Eye itself was a heaven-defying ability, capable of piercing through appearances and perceiving the essence of all things. The greater the power, the harsher the restrictions. Every use of the Heavenly Eye consumed an enormous amount of golden energy, and that energy had to be replenished within the sea of consciousness beforehand.

Even if someone else somehow acquired a heaven-defying divine ability like the golden Heavenly Eye, they would never be able to use it as recklessly as Lin Zheyu. Every use would require extensive preparation and recharging afterward. Lin Zheyu, however, was different. By spending only 2 units of Origin Force, he could instantly replenish it.

More than four hours later, inside the hall, Lin Zheyu gently rubbed the worn parchment that recorded the incomplete Heaven-Deceiving Formation. Brilliant golden light shone from the Heavenly Eye as it focused on the tattered document.

The Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation had been created by Wu Di after studying the incomplete Heaven-Deceiving Formation, supplementing and refining it with his own insights and knowledge of the Immortal Dao. It was the product of Wu Di's personal understanding and interpretation.

Lin Zheyu had no intention of simply adopting Wu Di's perfected Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation. Compared to the incomplete Heaven-Deceiving Formation, it had been significantly weakened in many respects. Instead, he intended to use his understanding of the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation as a reference point, comparing it against the incomplete Heaven-Deceiving Formation to accelerate his comprehension of the latter.

As the golden Heavenly Eye continued studying the incomplete formation, Wu Di sat cross-legged nearby with his eyes closed, fully immersed in cultivation. His aura fluctuated constantly, sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Gradually, however, it began to stabilize, and the energy fluctuations within his body slowed and settled into a steady rhythm.

Earlier, after breaking through his limits, Lin Zheyu had called Wu Di over and given him some simple guidance. With the aid of the Heavenly Eye, he could easily identify the problems within Wu Di's cultivation and provide precise advice accordingly.

After a long while, Wu Di slowly opened his eyes, a hint of delight flashing within them.

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior," Wu Di said respectfully.

His gratitude toward Lin Zheyu came from the bottom of his heart. After only a few hours of cultivation following Lin Zheyu's guidance, he could already feel a clear improvement in his strength. Such an ability left him deeply astonished.

"Mm. How is the search for the formations I asked you to find?" Lin Zheyu asked softly.

"Senior, these are some formations I've organized. These others are ancient, incomplete formations I've collected over the years. You can take a look at them first. I'll continue gathering more and stronger formations for you." Wu Di hurriedly produced several jade slips, along with a number of aged parchments and ancient manuals. Among them was even an old bronze compass covered in rust.

Lin Zheyu accepted the items and said calmly, "Mm. You may leave for now."

Wu Di said respectfully, "Senior, there's one more matter I should report. I offended some people not long ago, and they may come seeking revenge soon. When that happens, I may need to trouble you for assistance."

"What are their strength and background?" Lin Zheyu asked expressionlessly, a slight frown appearing on his face as he glanced at Wu Di.

He had yet to fully comprehend the Minor Heaven-Deceiving Formation and still needed to use the formation here to aid his studies.

"They're only in the False Core realm, same as me. As for their background, it shouldn't be particularly powerful. Otherwise, they wouldn't have risked their lives fighting me over opportunities," replied Wu Di.

Perhaps worried that Lin Zheyu might be unwilling to get involved, Wu Di quickly summarized the entire affair. It was nothing unusual in the cultivation world, merely a case of killing for treasure and competing over opportunities.

In this particular instance, Wu Di had been the one doing the killing and taking the treasure. His attainments in formations were exceptional, and among cultivators of the same realm, his combat strength ranked among the very best.

After hearing the explanation, Lin Zheyu replied calmly, "Don't worry about it. Just focus on helping me find more powerful concealment formations."

He decided to agree for now. If Wu Di had lied and his enemies truly possessed a formidable background, he could simply throw Wu Di out and wash his hands of the matter. Lin Zheyu had already attracted the attention of several powerful factions. He had no desire to make even more enemies because of Wu Di.

"Yes! Thank you, Senior!" Wu Di bowed respectfully, unable to hide the delight that flashed across his face.

One of the burdens weighing on his heart had been resolved just like that. He had invested immense effort and resources into this island and had no wish to abandon it.

"Misfortune truly does give birth to fortune..." Wu Di sighed with a complicated expression. "Fellow Daoist Shi, I really should thank you. If not for you, I would never have met a senior of such caliber."

After leaving the hall, Wu Di returned to his own formation and began cultivating according to Lin Zheyu's guidance. Meanwhile, Lin Zheyu immersed himself once more in comprehending the Heaven-Deceiving Formation. The task Hall Master Lin Xian had assigned him was temporarily set aside. There was no rush, after all.

The mission deadline was nearly half a year away, so delaying it for a while posed no problem. Besides, he still needed Lin Xian to provide updated information on the target's whereabouts. Searching blindly would be like looking for a needle in the ocean. No matter how powerful his perception was, finding someone under those circumstances would be extremely difficult.