Chapter Fifteen: Advancing into the Pre-Heaven

  "Old Luo, we're being followed." The leader of the three mercenaries' face sank, and he said with a hateful tone: "It must be one of the scouts from that 'Darkness' group that left earlier!"

  This mercenary has a heroic air about him, with the appearance of being twenty-five or six years old, standing at 1.85 meters tall, with a lean and strong physique, having reached the third stage of the Innate Three Realms, his eyes shining brightly, always on high alert, one glance is enough to tell that he's an expert.

  "He's not a 'dark' person, just a reckless and arrogant little brat. Don't bother with him." Luo Hao shook his head, furrowing his brow: "Let's hurry up and get rid of him."

  Zhao Xin's face sank, and he said coldly, "Does he have designs on Miss Mu? Do you want me to deal with him?" As he spoke, he cast a concerned glance at Mu Yutian, who was being supported by Luo Hao.

  "Don't get sidetracked." Luo Hao shook his head again and asked in a low voice, "Xiaodie, can you keep up? Should we speed up?"

  Mu Yu's face was pale, her forehead as white as snow had a faint sheen of sweat, but she smiled lightly and said: "Alright, let's hurry up some more, the sooner we get rid of that person the better, or else he'll be killed by the 'Darkness' envoy."

  Luohao sighed inwardly, feeling somewhat reluctant, but nodded in compliance, "Xiaodie, don't move a single strand of spiritual energy, I'll take care of everything."

  With that, Luo Hao grasped Mu Yu Die's fragrant shoulder, as if pinching a feather, lightly and nimbly leaping and bounding through the forest. When he landed, his sturdy body suddenly came to a stop, and not even a hint of footsteps could be heard from beneath his feet. His grasp on Jing Yuan was clearly extremely precise.

  ……

  Shi Yan gritted his teeth, his breathing growing heavier.

  His bloodthirsty desire had been tormenting him, and his body, which was severely injured by Karu, was also in agony. Because he used "Berserk", his vital energy consumption was huge, and it was difficult to recover in a short period of time.

  In this situation, if he were to encounter Mo Yan Yu, there would be no other way out but death. He had to quickly stabilize the anomaly in his body.

  And the girl's piano sound is his hope!

  No matter whether the girl disliked him or not, Shiyue felt he had no choice but to keep following her, even if it meant being a nuisance, just so she could play the zither again.

  Forcing down the increasingly intense killing desire, he circulated the remaining vital energy to his legs and followed the five people in front of him with a gloomy face at his fastest speed.

  When he concentrated his attention as never before and had only one thought in mind - to keep up, he suddenly felt that his feet were moving of their own accord.

  ……

  "Old Luo, is that person really only at the level of 'posterior heaven'?" Zhao Xin's face was full of astonishment as he sped by.

  Luohao was also puzzled in his heart. According to reason, a martial artist of the acquired realm should not be able to keep up with their speed, but Shiyuan, although gradually pulling away from them, was full of energy and surprisingly did not fall behind. This made Luohao somewhat uncertain and secretly suspected that he had misjudged earlier.

  "Lu Shu, I can hold on, you can go a bit faster." Mu Yu Die said, enduring the pain and sweating profusely.

  "No way! Can't go any faster!" Luo Hao resolutely refused, furrowed his brow and said in a deep voice: "We don't need to care about him, if he wants to seek death, that's not our fault."

  "Ahh!"

  At this moment, a fierce and bloodthirsty roar came from behind them, apparently coming from the stone rock. However, the roar did not seem to be human, filled with the aura of crazy killing and evil spirits, making people's hearts tremble with fear.

  "What the heck is this guy?" The female mercenary, Diya Lan's fiery figure trembled with shock, exclaiming: "How can a human have such a terrifying roar? Even a crazed beast wouldn't be as loud as that!"

  "The crazy thoughts in his mind have erupted." Luo Hao's face changed, and he hastily said: "Keep a distance from him, or else he will go mad and attack us. It's not hard to kill him, but it will waste time and let the 'Darkness' envoy find us, that would be troublesome."

  "I'll help him out, otherwise he'll become a monster that only knows how to kill, and will go around killing people in the dark forest." Mu Yu Die hesitated for a moment, then suddenly took down the ancient zither from behind her back, and without waiting for Luo Hao's dissuasion, sat down cross-legged and began to play.

  Luo Hao stamped his foot fiercely and shouted: "Damn little brat!"

  The ethereal and elegant sound of the guqin, like a gentle stream, flowed through the forest, with a strong sense of direction, flying straight towards the direction of the stone cliff...

  His eyes were bloodshot, and Shi Yan, who was about to lose control of his bloodlust, heard the sound of a guqin drifting over. He paused, and in his crazed eyes, a thread of confusion flashed by. Suddenly, he froze in place.

  A faint, thin mist, mixed with negative auras such as exposure, despair, and fear, swirled out of his body, enveloping him in a fog. The 720 acupoints on his body wildly rotated, refining and purifying the strange energy within him.

  The red glow in Shi Yan's eyes gradually dissipated, and his gaze cleared up. He realized that the beautiful girl had still lent him a helping hand.

  The rock heart is grateful, and immediately sits down on the spot, immersing his mind in the beautiful and moving piano sound, concentrating on operating the essence inside his body, and slowly relaxing.

  In this dark forest full of crises everywhere, he wonderfully entered a state of emptiness and selflessness.

  After a while, the misty white fog that had been swirling around Shi Yan's body was absorbed into his body, and he guided it to re-enter the holes in his body.

  Suddenly, strands of strange warm currents flowed out from the 720 apertures in his body and poured into the Jing Yuan within him.

  Shi Yan's body shook all over, and he clearly felt the essence in his body condensing at an unbelievable speed!

  In just a short span of ten breaths, his internal essence had thickened by five or six times!

  Suddenly enhanced essence, in his lower abdomen continuously condensed, making him feel infinite power throughout his body. Shi Yan's heart was filled with wild joy, immediately realizing that the essence obtained from Karu had finally been purified by the acupoints.

  Holding one's breath and concentrating the mind, Shi Yan focuses all his attention, thinking of nothing else, with his energy concentrated, operating the vital energy to rush towards the Twelve Main Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

  Suddenly surging vital energy, like withering and decaying, madly rushed forward in his body, accompanied by the stinging pain of the meridians inside, the blocked meridians were one by one broken through, becoming unobstructed.

  The thickened essence multiplied several times, with infinite potential, like a bursting river, flowing slowly along the meridian pathways of the Grand Heavenly Cycle in his body. One by one, the blocked meridians were opened up under this fierce impact.

  The sun has gone down, and the bright moon is rising in the starry night sky.

  Suddenly, Shi Yan's body shook, and the last closed meridian in his body was broken through by the essence. Suppressing the wild joy in his heart, Shi Yan circulated the essence and completed a complete cycle of the Grand Circulation Cultivation.

  When he finally finished his cultivation on this grand day, he took a deep breath and woke up from his ascetic practice. He raised his head to gaze at the starry sky, feeling an unspeakable comfort and relaxation wash over him as all his hardships came to an end.

  His entire body's meridians were unobstructed, signifying that he had officially entered the Realm of Innate!

  With the help of Karu's vital energy, after experiencing two near-bloodthirsty crises, he finally achieved his goal and purified Karu's power with an even more pure and refined essence, opening up a whole new realm.

  The bloodthirsty and frenzied thoughts in his heart had disappeared without a trace after Karu's body was purified.

  Recalling the previous situations, Shi Yan came to a conclusion - every time he absorbed the dead's vital energy through his acupoints and before it was completely purified, some negative emotions would overflow, triggering the darkest side of his heart, making him uncontrollably violent and crazy.

  Several martial artists of the Post-Heaven realm from before could barely control their inner desires due to insufficient strength.

  Ke Ka was a whole level higher than him, and the negative emotions attached to his refined aura were too much for him to withstand, almost losing his rationality.

  Now Karu's vital energy has been thoroughly purified, and he has also entered a new realm, no longer worrying about backfiring.

  "Crack!"

  After exercising his limbs a bit, Shi Yan slowly got up, the pain on his body was gone, and the fractured bones in his chest seemed to have recovered as well.

  He savored it carefully and a satisfied smile spread across Shi Yan's face.

  He understood that his rapid recovery from injuries was related not only to his boundary advancement but also to the 'Undying Warrior Soul'.

  Before he went crazy, he clearly felt the cells at his chest wound were abnormally active and had already begun to repair the trauma on his chest.

  Observing his surroundings, Shi Yan found that the place he was in had no cover at all. He thought of how he had just been cultivating in such an open area and a hint of fear emerged in his heart.

  If Mo Yan Yu is still pursuing him and cultivating in a place like this, he will definitely not be able to escape Mo Yan Yu's poisonous hands.

  The lingering sound of the guqin had long since disappeared, he remembered that before his cultivation it was still daytime, now the bright moon was hanging high, his cultivation time must have been quite long, he felt grateful to that beautiful girl, she had saved him twice, the first time unintentionally, and the second time obviously intentionally.

  From their conversation, Shiyuan knew that someone was still chasing them. Out of gratitude, he didn't hesitate much and decided to continue following them along the road.

  He didn't like owing people favors, so he wanted to use his own method to repay that woman for saving him twice.

  ……