Chapter 7: Fang Tian Bao Yin
Chapter 7: Fang Tian Bao Yin
The second method scattered eight phantoms, launching attacks from eight directions simultaneously. This multiplied the numbers eightfold, overwhelming the enemy.
Cheng Lingyu now employed this second method. Though his strength remained unchanged, the multiplying numbers left Cheng Xiaodong unable to counter all strikes.
“Damn you! How did you manage this?”
Cheng Xiaodong roared, fear flashing across his face. Cheng Lingyu stayed silent, fists accelerating until eight phantoms became sixteen. Despite Cheng Xiaodong being a Spiral Phase expert, a single strike knocked him back, his screams echoing.
Landing nearby, Cheng Lingyu stomped on Cheng Xiaodong’s face, grinding his heel in cold humiliation.
“Think the Spiral Phase makes you invincible? I’ll still trample you like dirt.”
A final kick sent Cheng Xiaodong sprawling.
“Disappear. Don’t dare show yourself again.”
Turning slowly, Cheng Lingyu gazed at Ruo Xue’s tombstone and softly said, “See, Ruo Xue? I’m no longer the helpless weakling everyone bullied.”
At dusk, Cheng Lingyu entered the Cheng estate, immediately sensing tension. Second-generation experts gathered in the courtyard, including Cheng Yun, who motioned his son closer.
Family Head Cheng Feng studied him. “You’ve reached the Sixth Layer of the Ordinary Martial Realm—the Shape Change Phase?”
“Recently, yes.”
Cheng Lingyu kept his tone neutral, thoughts churning.
Cheng Feng shot Cheng Yun a humorless smile. “Congratulations, Fifth Brother. Ruo Xue’s death lit a fire in him. My son Zhaolong bears the shame while your boy reaps rewards.”
Cheng Yun’s voice chilled. “Third Brother jests. Lingyu earned this through his own efforts. By family rules, he now qualifies for ten Gathering Energy Pills monthly.”
“Fear not—as Family Head, I’d never withhold pills. Let him collect three bottles tomorrow as compensation.”
“Our thanks.”
Cheng Feng raised his voice. “Two months remain before the Double Ninth Martial Festival. Excel there, and you might join the Xuanhuo Sect. Lingyu should spar with cousins more often—build practical skills.”
Cheng Lingyu nodded, noting the frost beneath Cheng Feng’s words. Hostile gazes prickled his awareness, including Cheng Song’s—Cheng Xiaodong’s father.
Back in their small courtyard, heaviness hung between father and son. Cheng Yun’s long-unhealed injuries stripped him of status; Cheng Lingyu remained a fledgling cultivator. Without allies, attracting attention meant trouble.
“Explain today’s events.”
Cheng Lingyu summarized the fight.
Cheng Yun frowned. “I’ve studied Thousand Layers of Snow myself. Why could I never cultivate it?”
Cheng Lingyu shook his head.
“The technique multiplies energy exponentially—twofold, fourfold, eightfold. Most store energy in meridians and dantian. Their bodies withstand gradual growth, but exponential surges rupture meridians. Yet you…”
Cheng Yun leaned forward. “You store energy unconventionally. Not in meridians or dantian. That’s why you release 128 energy streams in Shape Change Phase—impossible for others. Thousand Layers of Snow was made for anomalies like you.”
Cheng Lingyu’s brow furrowed as he pondered this.
“How could such a secret manual end up with the Cheng family?”
Cheng Yun answered, “I checked the library records. It was seized from the He family when our Cheng clan destroyed the Wushan He family thirty years ago.”
“How were you injured back then, and why couldn’t you recover all these years?”
Cheng Lingyu had asked this before, but Cheng Yun had always avoided answering.
“Fifteen years ago during a black gold stone transport mission, I faced a formidable foe. A dark red bone spike pierced me, carrying yang-extreme heavenly fire poison that burned my Beast Soul to ashes. Though I survived through great efforts, the poison remains. My cultivation level keeps deteriorating.”
“Any cure?”
Cheng Yun sighed. “This fire poison is unnatural. Legends say only the heaven-sent ice dew can purge it. But Tianyang Empire’s climate is too hot for such icy treasures.”
“Any substitutes?”
“They say Minghe Cold Spring might work. Not as potent as ice dew, but could suppress the poison.”
Cheng Lingyu memorized “Minghe Cold Spring”, determined to seek treatment for his father.
At dawn, Cheng Lingyu collected three bottles from the pill chamber – ten Gathering Energy Pills per bottle.
These pills boosted cultivation speed for Ordinary Martial Realm practitioners. Testing one, Cheng Lingyu felt energy surge faster than normal meditation.
He proceeded to the back mountain’s sinkhole.
The punishment pit stood unguarded. Passing the stone tablet marked “Extreme Prohibition”, Cheng Lingyu peered into the ordinary-looking well.
Leaping down, he found nothing unusual after half an hour’s inspection. Puzzled, he lay at the sinkhole’s bottom and unexpectedly fell asleep.
An invisible airflow lifted his suspended body. Through the Dreamless Technique, Cheng Lingyu entered endless darkness where three faint lights flickered – cold, silent, devoid of thought or soul.
Transparent energies seeped into his pores, merging with flesh and cells before settling in his soul’s depths. There existed a speck containing vast space where his true energy swirled, radiating warmth.
His body rotated rhythmically above a silent vortex tearing through spacetime, channeling terrifying energy into him unnoticed.
For three days he remained in perfect stillness until energy erupted. A one-inch cube materialized beneath him – razor-edged with mirror surfaces bearing faint patterns that soon faded.
Resembling stone from afar but metallic up close, it pierced his body repeatedly, shrinking through cellular gaps without leaving wounds. Through half an hour’s rhythmic penetration, a voice echoed:
“Ten suns nurture, nine suns dormant. Fang Tian Bao Yin awakens destiny.”
Waking, Cheng Lingyu found himself floating beneath a jade-like cube glittering in sunlight.
“Fang Tian Bao Yin?” he murmured, grabbing it. As he fell and landed, he stared at the mysterious object, oblivious to his earlier levitation.