Chapter 355 - 339: The Rule

Chapter 355: Chapter 339: The Rule

The creator of this technique was a diabolical genius.

After his investigation, Chen Li couldn’t help but marvel at the creator’s cruel and brilliant methods.

With this technique, there was almost no need for external methods of control.

Once a Cultivator tasted the sweet pleasure of rapidly improving by plundering others, trying to go back to arduous self-cultivation was like rowing upstream—twice the effort for half the result.

If they wanted to maintain their Cultivation progress, they had no choice but to willingly attach themselves to the Xiang Sect and be driven by it.

It was a vicious cycle that was nearly impossible to escape.

He explained all the pros and cons to Linglong, finally confirming, "If you disperse your Cultivation to start anew, all your past efforts will be for naught. Are you truly willing?"

Linglong’s gaze was firm and unwavering. "I have made up my mind. I beg you to proceed, Master."

Chen Li looked at her, and after a moment’s thought, he agreed to her request.

He had initially planted the Evil Suppressing Seal for the sake of control.

But now, Linglong’s Martial Arts were of little help to him. She mostly handled miscellaneous tasks.

This method of control had lost most of its meaning.

Besides, she had been quite loyal to him over the years.

If she genuinely wanted to switch her Cultivation, then so be it.

Chen Li said no more. He pressed his palms against her Dantian and lower back as a vast and pure surge of Primordial Qi flowed into her, preparing to dissolve the Inner Qi she had cultivated through the Celestial Fragrance Scripture.

As a Grandmaster Guiyuan, he was confident that with his pure and immense Primordial Qi, dissolving the Inner Qi of a Spirit Realm First Level Cultivator should be a simple task.

However, once he actually began, he discovered things were far from as simple as he had imagined.

The Inner Qi in Linglong’s meridians, though far less pure and vast than his Primordial Qi, seemed to possess a faint consciousness.

When Chen Li’s Primordial Qi surged in, this black Inner Qi began to frantically flee and hide within Linglong’s meridians and Acupoints.

Something even stranger happened when Chen Li caught and dispersed the first wisp of gray-black Inner Qi.

The instant that wisp of Inner Qi dissipated, a black rune suddenly erupted from it.

Chen Li’s heart trembled.

His own Primordial Qi had similar runes, but those had only formed naturally after he broke through the Guiyuan Pass and his Inner Qi underwent a qualitative transformation.

But what was Linglong’s Realm?

Spirit Realm First Level!

’How could her Inner Qi possibly contain a rune?’

Even if this rune was extremely faint, fragmented, and filled with a sinister aura, it was utterly beyond reason.

Chen Li immediately stopped trying to destroy the black rune and instead began to study it cautiously.

As his investigation deepened, he gradually began to see some clues.

These black runes were not something Linglong had comprehended through her own Cultivation. Rather, they seemed to be branded into the very source of the Inner Qi she cultivated.

They were exceptionally tightly bound to the Inner Qi, almost symbiotically, yet they were not one and the same.

’This is... a rule?’

Waves of shock crashed through him.

The creator of the Celestial Fragrance Scripture was likely an existence with an extremely deep understanding of the rules of heaven and earth.

This person had actually managed to solidify this rule within the fundamental source of a Cultivation Technique.

Anyone who practiced this technique, as long as they followed its method, would unconsciously carve this type of rune into their own Inner Qi.

This meant that, in a sense, all who cultivated the Celestial Fragrance Scripture were potentially just resources or puppets for its creator.

The fruits of their Cultivation, and even they themselves, could be harvested or controlled.

Chen Li tried to understand the principle behind this method, but it was like trying to see flowers in a fog; he couldn’t grasp its core.

This was beyond his scope of understanding.

But he had a faint intuition.

If he could decipher the mysteries of these black runes, reverse-engineer them, and master this imprinting of rules, it would be of immense help to him in comprehending the rules of heaven and earth and ascending to the Dharma Aspect Realm.

At this thought, a fire ignited in Chen Li’s heart.

In the following days, Chen Li stopped going to Mirror Mountain for Qi Collection. Instead, he settled down, spending several hours each day dissolving Linglong’s Cultivation and meticulously studying the black runes.

「Seven days later.」

When the final wisp of Celestial Fragrance True Qi was refined and the rune completely disintegrated into nothingness with a nearly inaudible whimper, Chen Li slowly withdrew his hands.

He let out a long, turbid breath, a trace of exhaustion on his face.

Linglong’s body went limp and she slumped forward, but Chen Li reached out and caught her.

Her face was as pale as paper, her body soaked in sweat as if she had just been pulled from the water. Her aura was incredibly faint.

Chen Li’s voice was a bit hoarse. "Rest well for a few days. Once your Primordial Qi has recovered a little, I will teach you the Yin Yang Unity Scripture."

"Thank you, Master."

Linglong’s voice was weak. She struggled to bow but was held back by Chen Li.

"Just rest."

Chen Li stood up and walked out of the room.

In the small courtyard, Chen Li sat cross-legged and opened his palm again.

Fragments of the black rune floated there.

This time, he didn’t use his golden runes to suppress them. Instead, he slowly removed the restraints.

The moment the rune fragments were freed, they trembled like living things and tried to escape into the depths of the void.

Chen Li’s Divine Sense spread out like a net, pinning them firmly in mid-air.

’Rules...’

He muttered to himself.

What were rules?

They were the notices posted by the Government Office, the clan regulations in the ancestral hall, the commandments within Jianghu Sects...

Some people establish rules, some obey them, some defy them, and some enforce the rewards and punishments.

These were the rules of the mortal world.

Then what were the rules of heaven and earth?

They were the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, the cycle of the four seasons. They were life sprouting in spring and growing in summer, the harvest of autumn and the storing of winter. They were water flowing downward and fire rising upward. They were the lightning that inevitably lit up the night sky when it struck, the seed in the earth that would eventually break through the soil...

Heaven and earth did not speak, yet the myriad things had no choice but to obey.

They were the manifestation of the Dao, the skeleton of the world. Silent and unseen, yet omnipresent and inviolable.

These were the rules of heaven.

Chen Li stared at the fragment of the rune.