Chapter 258: A Chance Encounter With Life
Laozi said: The highest good is like water. Under Heaven, nothing is more soft and weak than water, yet in attacking the firm and strong, none can surpass it.
Sun Yuanlang was at the forefront and truly felt what the power of creation was. That river water, which seemed soft and weak and powerless, contained the strongest power under Heaven. When this power gradually gathered, even the omnipotent Grandmaster could not resist it.
At this moment, a precious enlightenment arose in his heart. Four streams of True Qi—some majestic, some fierce, some soft and weak, some eerie—surged madly into his meridians without restraint, causing him unbearable pain. He felt as if his entire body’s meridians were being scorched by fire and cut by knives, on the verge of exploding at any moment. Yet his mind remained extraordinarily clear, even surging with waves of pure joy, just as the sage said:
‘If one hears the Way in the morning, one can die content in the evening!’
At this moment, Sun Yuanlang unexpectedly felt a sense of transcending the mortal frame. He suddenly no longer felt the pain in his body, yet it was not at all a state of losing sensation. On the contrary, his spirit was extremely sharp at this moment, and his control over the True Qi throughout his body reached an unprecedented realm. It was as if a thousand versions of himself were commanding those myriad strands of complex True Force together, making them operate in an orderly manner according to his will, coexisting and circulating in an extremely profound way without harming his fragile meridians!
Seeing Sun Yuanlang’s output of True Force stabilize, that formless energy shield finally held firm against the terrifying water pressure. The four Grandmasters behind him breathed a sigh of relief while simultaneously looking at Sun Yuanlang with complex gazes—Sun Yuanlang was actually gradually withstanding and taming such terrifying exotic True Qi, clearly gaining immense benefits from this confrontation with the might of creation!
‘This time, we’ve done the work for him to take the credit…’ The four looked at Sun Yuanlang with both envy and jealousy, yet they could say nothing.
Don’t forget, it was they who forced Sun Yuanlang to take the lead! These benefits were earned by him at the risk of his life!
The four reflected inwardly: if it were them in Sun Yuanlang’s position, they probably wouldn’t have lasted until the moment of sublimation and would have exploded and died long ago… After all, Sun Yuanlang was a giant of Taoism; how could their comprehension of Heaven and Earth’s creation compare to his?
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In the cave, Lu Xian had already advanced an unknown distance before finally stopping.
“What’s wrong, out of strength?” Cui Dingzhi asked in a deep voice from behind.
“No, a boulder is blocking the way.” Lu Xian frowned and replied.
Cui Dingzhi quickly circulated his eyesight and saw that the waterway ahead suddenly widened to over a zhang, but the height was less than half a chi. Clearly, as Lu Xian said, a massive boulder was pressing down on the waterway.
“What about below?” Cui Dingzhi asked.
“Same.” Lu Xian replied softly. After speaking, he fell silent, groping the edges of the upper and lower boulders while pondering a way to escape.
“Hurry,” Zuo Yanqing reminded in a deep voice from the very back: “The people outside won’t hold out much longer.”
Lu Xian struck the boulder with his palm to test it and found it extraordinarily solid, with a metallic clang echoing back.
“Bad news, it’s ironstone!” Hearing the echo, Pei Yuqiu wailed: “How the hell do we break this?!” Ironstone was iron ore, and from the sound, its purity was extremely high—practically a raw iron block plugging the way.
“Break it or die trying!” Lu Xian roared lowly, channeling True Qi into his right fist and unleashing Heaven-Shaking Stone-Breaking with full power at the massive ironstone.
With a boom, everyone saw sparks flying in the dark waterway, momentarily illuminating all their faces before plunging back into darkness.
In that brief flash of light, everyone saw clearly: Lu Xian’s fist, which could shatter monuments and split stones like crumbling wood, only dented the smooth boulder with a shallow little pit.
“All together!” Pei Yuqiu refused to believe it and roared the call. After so much time cooperating, the five were perfectly in sync. They immediately unleashed a thunderous punch from Lu Xian’s arm!
The top of the waterway nearly collapsed, the rumbling loud noise ten times greater than before. The powerful shockwave even traveled along the waterway to the ears of Sun Yuanlang and the others outside.
“What happened?” Mei Yu was caught off guard, her ears ringing.
“They might have run into a tough obstacle.” Du Hui smiled. Inside and outside the cave, it was all hard assignment.
“Don’t lose focus!” Sweat covered Sun Yuanlang’s forehead; the meridians in his arms were severely damaged, and who knew how long it would take to recover.
Everyone could see Sun Yuanlang was about to collapse, but even if they wanted to relieve him, they couldn’t switch. They could only watch with full hearts of worry, praying the five inside would break through quickly.
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The Grandmasters outside were still reeling with ringing ears; the five inside were even worse off. If not for their prior preparation of circulating True Qi to protect their eardrums, they would surely have been deafened and knocked out by now. Even so, the powerful shockwave left the five with churning blood and qi, waves of nausea threatening to make them vomit blood.
The five hurriedly circulated Qi to suppress their churning blood and qi. Once the gravel and dust settled, they fixed their eyes on the boulder and saw that the spot they had struck with combined force now had a shallow pit the size of a washbasin…
“Cough cough, no use…” Wei Yang said somewhat discouraged: “Even if we exhaust all our True Force, we can’t shatter this stone.”
“Whether we can shatter it aside,” Cui Dingzhi said with a bitter smile: “If we try once more, this passage might collapse.” He chuckled: “That might not be bad—at least no worry about burial, dead without a resting place.”
“Unfortunately, in life I can’t share a pillow with Mei sister, and in death can’t share a tomb with Mei sister…” Wei Yang was utterly dejected.
“You’re damn fifty and still this stupid.” Pei Yuqiu was disgusted.
“Enough, no more defeatist talk.” Seeing the Grandmasters getting disheartened, Zuo Yanqing hurriedly scolded in a deep voice: “Heaven never seals off all paths; we definitely have a way!” He asked Lu Xian: “Vice Sect Master Lu, if you have no temporary plan, why not go back out first and think it over.”
“I have an idea.” Lu Xian said leisurely.
“What idea?!” Everyone turned to look at him in unison.
“My Lu Clan’s Heaven and Earth Righteous Law has Drawing Square into Circle above Transforming Circle into Square, and above Drawing Square into Circle, there is yet another realm called Mutual Aid of Square and Circle.” Lu Xian explained slowly: “The so-called Mutual Aid of Square and Circle means circle beyond square, square within circle. If one reaches this realm, one can unleash the strongest killing move of Heaven and Earth Righteous Law—Unity of Heaven and Man!”
“Unity of Heaven and Man?!” The four Grandmasters gasped, exclaiming in shock: “That’s the legendary innate move!”
“Brother Lu, don’t joke.” Pei Yuqiu laughed in disbelief: “Innate Realm—ethereal and unattainable, not even Zhang Xuanyi has reached it!”
“Of course I haven’t reached the Innate Realm.” Lu Xian said even more firmly: “But we only need one innate move. Combining all our power, we can at least try!”
“Mm…” Cui Dingzhi and Wei Yang were persuaded.
“Even if you want to try, you need at least to have felt the Innate Realm for there to be a sliver of possibility.” Zuo Yanqing said calmly: “Could it be, you’ve already felt it?”
“Just now, in a fleeting instant.” Lu Xian said softly.
“What?!” The four Grandmasters cried out in unison: “Real or fake?!”
“Mm.” Lu Xian nodded and said in a deep voice: “I think if we all combine our full power, that instant is likely to appear again—that will be our only chance to unleash this one innate strike!”
