Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

Within the vast hall, a handsome, powerfully built young man lay sound asleep upon a carpet made from beast hide. His chest rose and fell gently as he slept deeply. At the far end of the hall, the enormous statue of the Shamanic cultivator stirred faintly, a glimmer of ghostly light flickering within its lifelike eyes as its gaze settled upon Lin Zheyu.

The will within the statue stared at the sleeping Lin Zheyu in astonishment. "He actually came out completely unharmed!"

It was merely a remnant soul left behind by the master of the secret realm. Its only role was to send Lin Zheyu into the trial space. It had no way to observe what occurred during the trial itself.

"Grade A physical aptitude, Grade B comprehension. Overall, not bad. But something is strange. This little fellow only has Grade B comprehension, so why is the Earth Power within him so abundant? Curious... It's as if he's shrouded in a layer of mist. Even I can't see through him."

The will within the statue was puzzled, but only for a moment. It made no attempt to investigate further. As a remnant soul, it lacked the ability to do so. A moment later, it shifted its gaze away from Lin Zheyu and looked beyond the waterfall. Outside, Woo Yiyan and Woo Shuo had entered this pocket of space.

"Another two have arrived. Have the humans of this era all become so small?" the will murmured softly.

As the controller of the secret realm, the moment this will awakened, memories of every cultivator who had ever entered the realm surfaced in its mind. The tallest among them had been only about two meters tall. Back in ancient times, someone that short would have been mocked as a dwarf.

"Ten thousand years have passed... The world seems to have changed tremendously." Using the mechanisms left behind within the secret realm, the will began to probe the outside world. "Hm... Spiritual qi has become so sparse that, compared to ancient times, this world could almost be called a land devoid of spirit."

The more it learned, the more uneasy it became. After ten thousand years, this world had deteriorated to such an extent.

"Not only has spiritual qi grown thin, but even the Heavenly Dao has gone awry. And this... Is this demonic qi? What exactly happened afterward? Did this world ultimately lose the war?" the will within the statue sighed softly.

From its fragmented memories, it vaguely recalled that when it had prepared this inheritance secret realm and entered its final closed-door seclusion, the two worlds had still been evenly matched. No... If anything, this world had even held a slight advantage. Yet ten thousand years later, upon awakening from its long slumber, it discovered that this world had lost the war and was now little more than a shadow of its former self, struggling to survive.

"Strange... Very strange... Could it be that expert from the demon realm ultimately achieved a breakthrough?" the will within the statue murmured softly.

The will turned its gaze back toward Lin Zheyu. "Forget it. I'm only a remnant soul now. There's nothing I can do, so what's the point of dwelling on it? This little fellow is rather interesting. There's still one final trial left, so I'll give him a helping hand. Otherwise, who knows if I'll ever live to see another inheritor?"

"The world has changed beyond recognition. I don't know what fortune allowed you to obtain Grade A physical aptitude. But Grade A physical talent, exceptional perseverance, and outstanding comprehension still aren't enough. The path of the Shamanic cultivator is simply too difficult. The world of today is no longer suited for our kind. There is only so much I can do. An inheritor of mine, Qiong Yun's, cannot be too weak. I only hope you survive the great calamity to come," Qiong Yun said softly.

He belonged to the last generation of great experts from the Shamanic Clan's golden age. By Qiong Yun's era, the Shamanic Clan had already begun its decline, while the Immortal Dao was rising to become the dominant cultivation system. As spiritual qi steadily thinned, human children were born increasingly frail. It had become nearly impossible to find human prodigies truly suited to the path of the Shamans.

Throughout his life, Qiong Yun lowered his standards for accepting disciples again and again, yet still failed to find an inheritor who truly satisfied him. Eventually, as his lifespan drew to its end, the Five Decays of Heaven and Man began to manifest. He had no choice but to carve out this separate space, place the entirety of his life's knowledge within the secret realm of his inheritance, and leave behind a remnant soul to await a destined successor. Unfortunately, that wait lasted more than ten thousand years.

Only when Lin Zheyu arrived and was found to possess Grade A physical talent was Qiong Yun finally awakened from his ten-thousand-year slumber. With a thought, a gray, chaotic sphere of energy shot out from the statue's brow and entered Lin Zheyu's body.

At that moment, Lin Zheyu was so mentally exhausted that he was completely unaware of the changes taking place outside. His mind had entered a state of perfect emptiness, free of thought, free of intent, free of distraction, as he sank into the deepest sleep he had experienced in a very long time.

Yet the instant the gray sphere merged into him, a warm current spread throughout his entire body, so pleasant that he could not help letting out a contented groan.

Hm? He's absorbing it this quickly? Does he really possess only Grade A aptitude? Qiong Yun wondered.

This inheritor was simply too strange. Time and again, unexpected changes emerged from him. Unfortunately, Qiong Yun was nothing more than a remnant soul confined within the statue. Otherwise, he would have loved to thoroughly investigate just what secrets this young man carried.

"What a peculiar little fellow. Even his cultivation is a complete mess. The Immortal Dao, the barbarian totem cultivation method, demonic patterns... He's practically a walking hodgepodge," Qiong Yun's remnant soul said in exasperation.

Withdrawing his gaze from Lin Zheyu, he turned his attention back to the two men outside. Their physiques were quite formidable as well.

"Although they can't compare to this little fellow, they should still merit a Grade C evaluation... Hm? No... They're not pure humans. I misjudged them. Those two appear to be descendants of the bloodlines left behind by those people. Martial cultivation... seems to have achieved little after all. It looks like they failed as well.

"I said it from the very beginning. This path would never work. Drawing upon the bloodline power of powerful spirit beasts and forcibly merging it into one's own bloodline through heaven-defying means is fundamentally the wrong path. The most important quality of any bloodline is its purity. What they achieved was only a forced increase in the physiques of later generations, at the cost of corrupting the bloodline itself," Qiong Yun said disdainfully.

With a single glance, he saw through the secrets of Woo Yiyan's and Woo Shuo's bloodlines. Thinking of this, he suddenly looked back at Lin Zheyu lying on the floor.

"I wasn't thinking about martial cultivation just now. Looking at him again, it seems that's actually his primary path. So many years have passed, and martial cultivation appears to have progressed considerably beyond the Marrow Refining realm. Even so, that's all. It seems this path ultimately failed to reach its destination," Qiong Yun said, shaking his head.

If the path beyond had truly been found, this little fellow would never have needed to cultivate such a chaotic mixture of systems. To Qiong Yun's eyes, the divine patterns Lin Zheyu had forged were crude beyond words, utterly lacking in refinement.

"Even so, in one respect, martial cultivation has fulfilled its purpose. This boy's Grade A aptitude owes a great deal to it," Qiong Yun remarked.

Martial cultivation had not originally been created to resist the invasion of the demon realm. Instead, it was devised by the Shamanic Clan's experts as a solution to the steadily thinning spiritual qi and the increasingly frail bodies of newborn humans. At that time, martial cultivation had only been developed as far as the Marrow Refining realm. The realms beyond that were created by later generations after Qiong Yun's death.

"To cultivate martial cultivation to this extent under the current state of the world and refine himself into possessing Grade A aptitude... This boy is even more exceptional than I imagined. Had he been born ten thousand years earlier, he might well have used martial cultivation to forge a transcendent physical talent. What a pity... Truly a pity," Qiong Yun said with genuine regret.

During his lifetime, he had never heard of anyone capable of advancing martial cultivation to such an astonishing level as Lin Zheyu. It was nothing short of incredible.

"Two failed test subjects. I originally intended to leave each of you a share as well, but it seems there's no need. A tainted bloodline can never receive the blessing of the Ancestral Shaman. Little fellow, you can have theirs too. I'll keep only the final portion for some destined successor in the future," Qiong Yun said calmly.

With another thought, two more gray, chaotic spheres of light emerged from the statue's brow and flowed into Lin Zheyu's body.