Chapter 577: Martial Divine Patterns (I)
In the desolate darkness of the demon realm, a massive rift hung in the void, constantly spewing vast quantities of demonic qi. At the same time, it radiated a terrifying aura that kept the surrounding yaos from approaching too closely. Even so, countless yaos remained gathered around the void rift.
The roars of yaos rose and fell without end. Several kilometers away, atop a rocky hillside littered with jagged stones, a three-meter-tall yao figure slowly emerged. Its body was covered in fleshy tumors, yet its proportions remained surprisingly balanced. Powerful aura spread outward, covering an area twenty kilometers in every direction. At the same time, the golden Heavenly Eye within the sea of consciousness snapped open and swept across the surrounding region.
A look of understanding appeared on Lin Zheyu's face. "After all this time, there's still a six-pattern yao standing guard. So it's one of the mindless cannon-fodder yao. No wonder."
A six-pattern yao was comparable to a human Golden Core realm cultivator. Even within the demon realm, such creatures ranked among the strongest. There was no way an intelligent six-pattern yao would spend all its time standing guard here doing nothing.
If it's only a mindless six-pattern yao, then there's nothing to worry about, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.
This was an excellent opportunity to leave. Before doing so, however, he needed to return his body to its human form. Entering an unstable space-time node in yao form was practically suicide.
A breeze swept by, and Lin Zheyu vanished from the spot. More than fifty kilometers away, in a barren wasteland, he slowly descended while beating his wings. His powerful aura spread outward, while the Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness opened wide and worked in concert with his perception to examine the surrounding area. Before long, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"This will do."
His right hand tapped his storage pouch as his spiritual sense reached inside. With a flick of his wrist, a formation set designed specifically for use in the demon realm appeared, along with a mid-grade spirit stone and a Divine Power Crystal. Lin Zheyu embedded both items into the recessed slots of the formation compass. The accompanying formation flags floated into the air and, under his control, shot one after another into the barren black earth.
In an instant, several threads of energy shot out from the compass and connected to the formation flags. The formation activated successfully. After setting everything up, Lin Zheyu carefully inspected it before stepping outside. His powerful senses spread outward once more.
"This feels a little unreliable. Is my perception simply too strong?" Lin Zheyu muttered.
Even without using the golden Heavenly Eye, he could clearly sense the concealment formation before him. If he activated the Heavenly Eye, he could even make out vague scenes hidden within the formation itself. This formation was specifically designed for cultivators entering the demon realm to establish temporary shelters and hide themselves. Its concealment capabilities were highly effective and had been tested by countless cultivators over the years. Unless a seven-pattern yao or stronger happened to come within a kilometer of its location, it was extremely difficult to detect—yet Lin Zheyu had discovered it with ease.
Lin Zheyu chuckled faintly. "As expected, my perception is simply too strong. Still, it has stood the test of time. It should be good enough."
Returning to the formation, Lin Zheyu pondered for a moment before taking out a palm-sized jade pendant and a green glazed bracelet. The jade pendant was a consumable treasure specifically designed to conceal a living being's spiritual aura, though its effect lasted only about two hours.
The green glazed bracelet was something he had obtained from Shi Weiping, the Martial Alliance traitor, during a previous encounter. It possessed the power to obscure heavenly secrets and warn of impending danger. Unfortunately, its concealment effect was rather disappointing and lasted less than ten minutes. Lin Zheyu had taken it out solely for its warning function.
After checking everything once more, Lin Zheyu nodded to himself. "That should do it."
The reason he was being so cautious and making multiple preparations in advance was simple. This time, Lin Zheyu intended to rely on his own abilities to reverse the Yao Transformation and return to human form.
"Let's begin. Let's see whether my current abilities are enough to forcibly reverse the Yao Transformation," muttered Lin Zheyu.
He had entertained this idea long ago, but his strength had been insufficient at the time. After opening his divine repositories, however, he discovered that he might finally possess the means to reverse the transformation. The vast reserves of life energy and blood qi energy stored within his essence origin divine repository and essence and qi divine repository, each as large as a small lake, provided exactly the resources such a process required.
The golden Heavenly Eye and his nearly tangible golden soul enabled him to connect with the void spaces behind his divine repositories, even while in yao form. Together, they created the possibility of restoring himself to human form through his own efforts.
Sitting down cross-legged, Lin Zheyu cast aside all distracting thoughts and calmed his mind. The golden Heavenly Eye within his sea of consciousness slowly opened and focused on the locations where the essence-origin divine repository and the essence-and-qi divine repository had existed in his human form. Under the Heavenly Eye's gaze, no trace could remain hidden.
It did not take long for him to locate the divine repository spaces that had sealed themselves away and retreated into another layer of space-time after his transformation into a yao. The void spaces behind the divine repositories had not vanished. Rather, they seemed to have shifted into a separate dimension, much like the mysterious formation hidden within the crimson-purple magma.
"How do I open them?" Lin Zheyu murmured softly.
In his human form, a single thought was enough to enter the void spaces behind his divine repositories. Now, however, those spaces had closed themselves off, and he needed to find a way back inside. After a moment of thought, he released his spiritual sense. Following the faint connection revealed by the golden Heavenly Eye, he attempted to trace it into the void space beyond the divine repository.
His yao body exerted a powerful suppressive and disruptive effect on his spiritual sense. Combined with the barely perceptible connection linking him to the divine repositories, the task became extraordinarily difficult. Following that tenuous thread into the void space was far from easy. Without the golden Heavenly Eye revealing its existence, it would have been nearly impossible.
Time passed slowly. Lin Zheyu failed again and again. His spiritual sense was rapidly consumed by the erosion of yao will and demonic qi. Then, at last...
More than ten minutes later, delight suddenly appeared on Lin Zheyu's face. He had succeeded. Just moments ago, his spiritual sense had successfully followed the faint connection between his soul and the void space behind the divine repository, entering that hidden realm.
He had been wondering how he would open the sealed space, only to discover that the moment his spiritual sense touched it, the void space opened automatically, as though recognizing its rightful owner.
Lin Zheyu's thoughts raced.
The first step is complete. Next, I need to find a way to draw out the life energy and blood qi energy stored within the void spaces.
Under his control, another strand of spiritual sense separated and entered the void space behind the divine repository of essence and qi. Having succeeded once already, the second attempt went much more smoothly. Looking at the immense masses of energy floating within the void spaces like small lakes, Lin Zheyu smiled. Once he had gained access, everything became much easier.
With a thought, he could easily control the energy within and guide it outward along the connection he had established. Control itself posed no difficulty. The challenge arose when he attempted to draw energy from the void spaces. Fortunately, his earlier success in sending spiritual sense through the connection gave him a foundation to build upon.
This time, he used his spiritual sense to guide the energy itself through the connection and out of the void spaces. The process proved far less difficult than expected. At first, he could draw out only tiny strands of energy. Gradually, as his control improved, the amount he could manipulate increased steadily.
Continuous sizzling sounds emerged from Lin Zheyu's body. The life energy and blood qi energy drawn from the void spaces reacted violently with the demon essence energy permeating his yao body.
More than ten minutes later, Lin Zheyu frowned. "This won't work. All I'm doing is wasting energy. It won't restore my human body."
The energy he drew from the void spaces simply collided with the demon essence energy inside his body, and the two annihilated one another. There was no sign of his human form returning.
Lin Zheyu quickly realized the problem. "Of course. A yao body and a human body aren't the same. When I transformed, my human body was consumed as nourishment. If I want to rebuild it, I need to start from the organs that were preserved, especially the heart."
His body had never been completely transformed. Protected by the golden energy, both his heart and the region of his sea of consciousness had remained intact. Closing his eyes once more, Lin Zheyu began a new round of experimentation. Before long, pure life energy and blood qi energy flowed out from the void spaces. Suppressing the demon essence within his body by force, he guided both streams of energy directly into his heart.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Fueled by the influx of life energy and blood qi energy, Lin Zheyu's heart roared to life like an engine receiving fresh fuel. It pounded powerfully within his chest, each beat ringing out like a great bell or distant thunder. With every moment, the sound grew louder and louder.
Delight flashed across Lin Zheyu's face as he exclaimed, "It works!"
As life energy and blood qi energy poured in, new blood vessels began extending outward from his heart. The vast reserve of golden energy stored around the organ spread along these vessels, coating them as they grew. It protected the newborn vessels from erosion by demon essence energy and the yao will.
Time passed steadily. The energy flowing from the divine repositories grew greater and greater. What began as thin strands became trickling streams, then swelled into a roaring river. Within Lin Zheyu's body, the main framework of the human circulatory system was gradually rebuilt. Countless capillaries branched outward from the primary vessels. Powerful life energy and blood qi energy coursed through them, nourishing every part of his body and giving rise to new flesh.
Vast quantities of golden blood qi merged with his bloodstream and began circulating through his body once more. Each beat of his heart resounded like rolling thunder, sending wave after wave of powerful life energy and blood qi energy throughout his body.