Chapter 156: Embrace and Guard Mountain

At the summit of Senior Butian Peak, Lu Yang stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

Behind him, the graceful figure of Lady Ruoxiang quietly materialized; her beautiful eyes held shock and envy as they fixed on him, before she leaned forward and spoke softly:

"Congratulations, Yuan Tu, on reaching the Mid Stage of Foundation Establishment; from now on, immortality is within sight!"

She could not help but feel envious.

After all, though both were at Foundation Establishment, she had not yet comprehended even a single innate divine ability, let alone a natal divine ability; otherwise, she would not be so single-mindedly plotting how to reincarnate.

Yet compared to her, Lu Yang, who had only attained the Dao a mere century ago and was young beyond belief, had already broken through countless barriers to reach the Mid Stage of Foundation Establishment in one leap; how could this not make Lady Ruoxiang feel envious? However, she was clever enough not to let this envy affect her state of mind.

"Lady, you overpraise me."

Hearing Lady Ruoxiang's flattery, Lu Yang merely smiled slightly, then turned his gaze inward to silently sense the changes brought about by this innate divine ability.

【Embrace and Guard Mountain】

At this moment, a towering mountain shadow emerged within his Dao Foundation, balancing the single qi and stabilizing the universe, locking all his merit and fortune within his body.

"So this is an innate divine ability..."

Lu Yang murmured in his heart, feeling that the world before his eyes was utterly different, bringing with it new realizations about karma, fate, and even the very heavens and earth.

No wonder the gap between the Early and Mid Stages of Foundation Establishment hinged on whether one could achieve an innate divine ability; it was not merely gaining another powerful technique, but a completion of one's very status, as the amplification an innate divine ability provided to the Dao Foundation, and even its alteration of the natal divine ability, yielded immediate results.

"Embrace the One, guard the Center, distinguish the Same from the Different."

As the name implies, besides its own marvelous power, 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 could also reinforce and enhance the mystery of 【Distinguish the Same from the Different】 within Lu Yang's natal divine ability.

At this moment, when Lu Yang once again activated 【Distinguish the Same from the Different】,

countless karmic threads immediately appeared before his eyes, some bright, some dim, some thick, some fine, densely packed together.

These were all his karmic ties.

Among them, the most prominent was a wisp of black smoky qi that had stained nearly half of his karmic threads, eroding his merit and fortune.

"Heavenly Punishment Tribulation Qi?"

In his previous life, he had been unable to see this tribulation qi, causing him to reveal a flaw before the Peak Master of Senior Butian and nearly ruining his efforts with unexpected complications.

Yet now, not only could he see the existence of the tribulation qi, but as he circulated 【Distinguish the Same from the Different】, the towering mountain shadow within his Dao Foundation immediately responded; under the cleansing radiance of the divine ability, it truly dispersed the layers of tribulation qi, causing the karmic threads on his body to shine once more.

This was merely the amplification to his natal divine ability; beyond that, 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 possessed its own marvelous duality of void and reality, making it extraordinarily miraculous.

In its void aspect, it could suppress the human heart and stabilize divine abilities.

In its solid aspect, it could balance the single qi and measure the universe.

This was also the point Lu Yang valued most: it was exceptionally powerful against weaker opponents.

When 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 assumed its void form, it revealed no image, becoming simply a great mountain pressing upon the hearts of men; as long as Lu Yang willed it, it could press down upon others.

From then on, any cultivator suppressed by 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 would be unable to further refine their cultivation base; every step forward would require hundreds or even thousands of times more effort than usual, and if Lu Yang wished, he could forcibly drop their cultivation base, pressing someone at the Great Perfection of Qi Refining all the way down to the First Layer of Qi Refining!

Moreover, this effect could even be used against Foundation Establishment True Persons.

Before a battle even began, he could simply press down with 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】; no matter how brilliant the opponent, one mystery of their innate divine ability would be unconditionally neutralized!

Three mysteries become two, two become one.

One becomes none!

"If I had possessed 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 during my battle with that Huanwu True Person from the Shenwu Sect back then, he wouldn't even have been able to unleash his natal divine ability."

How domineering!

Even more absurd was that this ability to suppress mysteries could be selectively targeted; as long as one wished, any specific mystery could be chosen for suppression and erasure, making it an extreme counter to those True Persons whose combat relied entirely on a single core mystery of their natal divine ability.

Take Wu Cang, for instance.

His most formidable technique, 【Heavenly Furnace Separating Fire】, was formed by combining the mystery "Fire within Wood" from his natal divine ability with his innate divine ability 【Not Fleeing South】.

That had caused Lu Yang no small amount of trouble back then.

Yet now, he needed only to smash 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 over him, suppress "Fire within Wood," and immediately break Wu Cang's most powerful technique!

Of course, this method of neutralizing mysteries had its limitations.

First, once a mystery was selected for neutralization, it could not be changed for a short period; second, the other mysteries of 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 could not be employed.

When 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 assumed its solid form, it could balance the single qi and measure the universe; as the name implies, it truly manifested a mountain shadow to suppress the spiritual energy, karma, and fortune of an entire region, making it nearly impossible for anyone to escape no matter how many transformations they attempted, making it an extremely powerful method of entrapment.

"Damn it, it combines both mechanics and raw stats."

Opening his eyes, Lu Yang finally understood completely why the fruit position of 【City Wall Earth】 was so highly sought after; the related divine abilities were either purely mechanical or purely statistical.

Pity that the karmic burden was too heavy.

"Although I will have to discard it sooner or later, it still has its uses right now; perfect for settling both new grudges and old scores, today I will resolve a major worry weighing on my heart."

With this thought, Lu Yang raised his head: "Come out, why hide so furtively?"

As his words fell, under the dark moon and windy night, a figure in black robes quietly materialized from the darkness, bearing a familiar face yet lacking the overwhelming majesty of his previous life.

"I am Wu Cang; greetings, Fellow Daoist Yuan Tu."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yang immediately laughed; although he knew clearly that the 【Wu Cang】 he had seen at the very end of his previous life was not the man himself, but a karmic sin that had possessed him,

he still could not defeat that karmic sin at present.

Yet the stifling rage from being hunted down to self-detonation in his previous life demanded release upon someone, so he would simply settle the score with Wu Cang first!

"Yuan Tu, this person comes with ill intent..."

Seeing this, Lady Ruoxiang beside him showed a look of worry, but Lu Yang waved a hand for her to retreat first, then said, "I understand your purpose in coming, Fellow Daoist."

"Pity that a True Person's handwritten letter is so precious; how could it be lightly bestowed?"

As Lu Yang finished speaking, the pretense of a smile on Wu Cang's face instantly faded, replaced by a cold sneer: "So, Fellow Daoist wishes to suffer a bit?"

Lu Yang did not answer.

After breaking through to the mid-stage, he had seen through a few things; this Wu Cang was of a loose cultivator background, having joined the Holy Sect after reincarnating, thus retaining the habits of a loose cultivator.

In short, all his various divine abilities were focused on killing and destruction, with no involvement in karma whatsoever.

Such a person was far too easily influenced.

Therefore, his coming to cause trouble for Lu Yang might not be entirely of his own volition.

Connecting this with the heavenly and earthly killing intent that had plagued him in his previous life, Lu Yang now suspected that nine times out of ten, this was the dirty work of some big shot within the Holy Sect.

However, acting this way could not be without cost.

Foundation Establishment True Persons were extraordinary and transcendent, with unique karmic ties; manipulating them inevitably required paying a certain price, unlike the casual control one could exert over Qi Refining cultivators.

In other words—

"If some other variable suddenly arises while manipulating karma, there is a ninety-nine percent chance that this method of manipulating Foundation Establishment karma will immediately backfire upon the original master!"

What exactly would that variable be?

The answer was self-evident: the opponent was using Wu Cang to deal with him; if he suddenly struck out and killed Wu Cang, that would be the greatest variable of all!

Thinking of this, a scarlet light suddenly flashed in Lu Yang's eyes.

No matter who was plotting against him, whether it was Hong Yun or some other True Person of the Holy Sect, it was absolutely impossible for them to calculate that he had already broken through to become a Mid Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator!

After all, 【Embrace and Guard Mountain】 inherently possessed the ability to stabilize and lock merit and fortune; from the moment of his breakthrough, Lu Yang had tightly locked the changes in his fortune within his body, then used the Instrument of Ultimate Heaven to conceal it, revealing not a trace, all for this very moment, intending to deliver a severe blow to the mastermind behind the scenes!

(End of Chapter)