Chapter 335: Devouring Void Physique
Lu Chen paused, a dark shadow falling over his eyes as his tone faltered.
"But... a few weeks later, his progress ground to a sudden halt once again. His body has begun to wither anew. The only thing keeping him alive right now is the continuous dosage of your Tang Clan’s high-grade spirit pills."
Shen Yu rested his chin on his hand, his golden eyes narrowing in quiet contemplation as he easily put the pieces together.
"So... you want me to personally inspect your son and find a permanent cure?"
A faint crimson flush of desperation rose to Lu Chen’s eyes.
"Y-Yes! If there is anyone in this entire region capable of saving him, it is the master behind the Tang Clan’s divine pill formulas!"
"I cannot offer any promises blindly," Shen Yu replied calmly, his voice smooth and grounded.
"I can only give you an answer after I inspect the boy myself. Is he currently here in Thousand Waves City?"
Lu Chen nodded frantically.
"Yes! I brought him with me and settled him in a quiet courtyard near the eastern district!"
Shen Yu offered a gentle, reassuring smile.
"Give me the address."
After Lu Chen quickly provided the location, Shen Yu leaned toward the front of the carriage and instructed the driver to change course.
The heavy, beast-drawn coach veered off the main avenue, gliding swiftly toward the eastern residential district to treat the blacksmith champion’s hidden son.
The luxury carriage glided smoothly into the quieter, tree-lined avenues of the eastern district, coming to a stop before a secluded, serene courtyard house.
The air here was far removed from the deafening roar of the arena, filled instead with the gentle rustle of bamboo leaves and the faint scent of medicinal herbs.
Lu Chen jumped down first, his usual calm demeanor entirely replaced by the anxious twitching of a father whose heart hung in the balance.
Shen Yu stepped out with unhurried grace, his white hair catching the soft evening light as he swept his golden eyes over the estate.
"This way, Young Master Shen! Please!" Lu Chen urged, leading the way through the stone courtyard and pushing open the carved wooden doors of the main manor.
Inside, the room was kept warm by a small hearth. On a wide, silk-covered bed lay a thin, frail youth around fifteen years of age.
His face was pale as chalk, his breath coming in shallow, ragged hitches.
Though his body bore the faint, faint aura of a Qi Condensation cultivator, his life force was like a flickering candle flame in a rising storm, weak, unstable, and constantly bleeding away into the ambient air.
"Father...?" the boy rasped softly, his dark eyes barely opening as he heard the footsteps.
"Don’t move, An’er," Lu Chen said softly, rushing to his bedside and taking his cold hand with infinite gentleness.
"I brought someone who can help you. Lie still."
Shen Yu stepped up to the side of the bed.
Without a word, he extended two slender fingers and pressed them gently against the youth’s wrist, sending a hair-thin strand of his refined, golden Spiritual Sense surging into the boy’s meridian network.
The moment his energy penetrated the youth’s body, Shen Yu’s eyes flickered with a sudden, deep interest.
Inside the boy, the meridian network was not merely withered or damaged, it was being subtly consumed from within.
Nestled deep beneath his fragile Qi Condensation sea lay a microscopic, pitch-black vortex of heavy spiritual energy.
It spun silently, greedily devouring the youth’s vital life force and converting it into a dense, locked reservoir of ancient vitality that his frail, mortal vessel simply couldn’t digest.
’A hidden bloodline? No... an ancient physique,’ Shen Yu realized instantly, his golden eyes narrowing in quiet intrigue.
Suddenly, a translucent, ethereal screen materialized before his vision, a rare occurrence that usually only triggered for women.
It was as if his System or the ancient inheritance had been startled into reacting by the sheer impossibility of what lay dormant inside this feeble boy.
[Target Identified: Devouring Void Physique]
[Status: Dormant / Self-Devouring State]
Shen Yu’s lips twitched upward in dark amusement as the detailed insights of the physique flooded into his mind through the System.
The Devouring Void Physique was an exceedingly rare, primordial constitution, a divine gift that manifested as a terminal, incurable curse to those ignorant of its true nature.
In its early stages, the physique was incapable of digesting crude or polluted materials, requiring immense quantities of pristine, unblemished spiritual energy to ignite its core.
Deprived of such pure nourishment, the body was forced to perpetually consume its own vital essence just to sustain the dormant vortex.
Though at its peak, the physique possessed the terrifying ability to devour and refine anything in existence, from heavenly laws to the sun and moon, its fledgling state was extraordinarily delicate.
The Peng Clan’s toxic pills, ridden with heavy impurities, had nearly caused the volatile vortex to detonate and tear the boy apart from the inside.
In contrast, the Tang Clan’s Pure-Flow Pills had unwittingly supplied the exact stream of pristine, high-grade nourishment needed to placate the ravenous vortex, suppressing the self-devouring cycle and keeping the boy’s life force tethered to the mortal realm.
Slowly withdrawing his fingers, Shen Yu straightened his back, a profound, inscrutable smile spreading across his handsome face.
Along with the detailed knowledge of the Devouring Void Physique, the System had simultaneously imparted the exact, ancient method required to completely unseal and cure the boy’s dormant core, as if telling him to save the boy and gain an ally.
Lu Chen watched his every subtle movement with bated breath, his palms drenched in cold sweat and his throat bone-dry with desperate, agony-laced fear.
"Y-Young Master Shen... how is he? Is there... is there any hope?"
"He doesn’t suffer from an illness, Master Lu," Shen Yu spoke smoothly, his voice dropping into a low, majestic timbre that reverberated with unquestionable authority.
"Your son was born with an ancient, legendary constitution that the ignorant fools of this lower realm mistake for a mortal curse."
Lu Chen froze, his eyes widening in utter, speechless shock.
"A... a legendary constitution?!"
"Indeed," Shen Yu purred softly, his golden eyes glowing with a dark, captivating light as he looked down at the pale youth.
"Without the proper method to ignite it, his own body will eat him alive before he reaches his eighteenth year. But in my hands... not only will he be completely cured, but he will also be reborn as a monstrous genius capable of shaking the very heavens."
Shen Yu slowly shifted his gaze toward Lu Chen.
His refined, overwhelming aura expanded subtly, filling every corner of the quiet chamber with an invisible, suffocating weight.
"Now tell me, Master Lu... if I bestow a second life upon your son and forge him into an untouchable dragon among men... what are you prepared to offer me in return?"