Chapter 294: Star Chains Binding the Body

Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, Su Chen sat cross-legged beside the charred stump of an ancient pine, his aura completely retracted, merging seamlessly with the rocks and vegetation.

The lingering resonance of the Primordial Opening Intent flickered faintly in his mind, like a tiny glimmer deep in an abyss, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Su Chen dared not relax, fearing the faint spark of insight he had barely grasped might vanish.

He sat motionless for three days and three nights before finally fully assimilating that lingering resonance, transforming it into a faint seed that took root.

Su Chen opened his eyes.

"Not enough. I must press forward and fully comprehend the Primordial Opening Intent."

Su Chen decided to seclude himself on Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, riding this moment of insight to fully grasp it.

This was the starting point of his Dao enlightenment.

Long ago, as a mortal with a mere iron axe, he had carved open the first gate to the Immortal Path within these woods.

Now, at this same place, he would cleave through the final barrier blocking his path to Da Luo.

Su Chen rose and ascended the mountain path to the spot where the Slanted Moon Three Stars Cave had once stood.

The cliff face was thick with green vines and dotted with wildflowers; not a trace of immortal aura remained.

Had Su Chen not experienced it himself, no one would believe this place had once been the cultivation ground of a great immortal.

He extended his hand, pressing his palm against the rock. A cold sensation came, but not a single trace of Dao essence remained.

The Patriarch Bodhi had departed cleanly, leaving no trace behind.

Su Chen withdrew his hand, stepped back several paces, and drew forth the Gui Xu Divine Axe.

He swung the axe— the cliff shattered on impact, shards flying everywhere.

A cave appeared before him; he used his magic power to smooth and shape its walls.

Then, from his storage space, he retrieved array flags and laid down protective seals both inside and outside the cave.

The array consisted of two layers: one to seal off his aura and conceal the cave from accidental intruders; the other to protect the cave from attack if discovered.

The two layers overlapped, completely isolating the small cave from the outside world.

Even a Jin Jin Xian passing by would detect no one cultivating within.

Having finished, Su Chen entered the cave and sat cross-legged.

He sat there for ten years.

For ten years, his consciousness drowned in boundless emptiness.

He swung the axe again and again.

Not any of the thirty-six forms, but the simplest motion: raising the axe, bringing it down.

He was performing subtraction—forgetting every axe technique he had ever learned, pursuing the ultimate "One."

At first, his movements still bore the marks of two centuries of cultivation—distribution of strength, circulation of blood and qi, invocation of lethal energy—all these ingrained instincts deeply embedded in every swing.

It took him three years to strip them all away completely.

In the fourth year, his axe held only the purest "intent."

In the fifth year, he recalled the two primordial Dao patterns etched on the Like Pangu True Form Diagram.

Previously, he had tried to decipher the laws hidden within the patterns and integrate them into his axe technique.

But now he understood: those two patterns were not meant to be "learned," but to be "forgotten."

When Like Pangu swung the Primordial Opening Axe, he had no patterns, no laws, no thirty-six forms in his mind.

He had only one thought.

Chaos lay before me—I must cleave it open.

In the seventh year, Su Chen fell into a strange state while sitting motionless.

He "saw" his thirty-six axe forms, like thirty-six streams rushing toward him from different directions.

Each stream had its own course, direction, and force.

The thirty-six streams converged at a single point—that point was the chaos within his heart.

Cleave it open, and heaven and earth would be revealed.

In the ninth year, the thirty-six streams began to dissolve.

They were no longer separate entities, but became waves within a single great river, surging forward, carrying all power, skill, and law toward that one point.

In the tenth year, Su Chen opened his eyes.

The cave was buried in dust; his hair and beard had grown to his chest, his body caked in grime, yet his eyes blazed with startling brilliance.

He slowly rose, bones cracking as his blood and qi surged.

Su Chen gripped the Gui Xu Divine Axe and stepped out of the cave.

Sunlight outside the mountain was blinding; he squinted.

The scenery of Lingtai Fangcun Mountain had not changed in ten years—the same layered peaks, the same verdant forest sea, the same gentle breeze brushing his face.

Su Chen reached the summit, standing at the highest point, gazing down at the endless peaks below.

Then he raised the Gui Xu Divine Axe— at that instant, the thirty-six axe forms flashed simultaneously in his mind, then vanished in the same breath.

Thirty-six became One.

All techniques return to One; One is the Dao.

Su Chen did not think of any variation of the thirty-six forms, nor of Like Pangu's grand act of opening heaven.

He thought only of that rainy day long ago, when he was still a mortal, and swung his axe to cleave open the ancient pine.

The feeling of that moment now merged with this one.

Su Chen swung instinctively—a slash of axe-light shot forth, yet caused no destruction.

Only Su Chen felt it: the chaos within his heart had been cleaved open by that axe-light.

At this moment, his own Primordial Opening Intent was finally complete.

As Su Chen attained the Primordial Opening Intent, the heavens over Lingtai Fangcun Mountain changed abruptly.

The sky above Su Chen darkened instantly—not from clouds blocking the sun, but from stars appearing in broad daylight.

Tens of thousands of stars emerged across the heavens, radiating cold light.

The seventh descent of Star Fury Body Tempering arrived.

But this time, it was utterly different from the previous six.

The previous six temperings had flooded his body with fury like tidal waves—washing, refining, reshaping. Though agonizing, he merely had to endure.

This time, what descended from the stars was not a flood of fury.

It was chains—dozens of chains forged from starlight, each one pulsing with a distinct stellar law.

Some burned like the blazing sun; others froze like the polar night; some weighed like falling stars; others sliced like starlight blades.

The first chain wrapped around Su Chen's right arm.

It was the law's binding upon his flesh.

The stellar laws bound Su Chen's body—he could only transcend by breaking the chains.

The second, third, fourth…

Chains fell one after another, coiling around his limbs, torso, and spine.

In mere moments, Su Chen's body was tightly bound by forty-nine stellar chains, immobile.

Stellar laws seeped into his body, colliding, clashing, and merging with his flesh and blood.

Su Chen's skin began to crack; blood oozed from the fissures, instantly vaporized by the starlight's searing heat.

Su Chen understood.

The previous six temperings were heaven and earth forging his body, actively pouring fury into him to aid his transformation.

But the seventh was different—it was a trial.

The stellar laws had become chains not to refine him, but to bind him.

These chains represented heaven's threshold to the Da Luo realm.

To cross into Da Luo, his body must endure the crushing weight of all stellar laws, then break free.

If he failed to break free, his body would remain forever locked at the Tai Yi Jin Jin Xian level, with no further progress.

Su Chen's body was crushed into a half-kneeling posture; the rock beneath his knees shattered, forming a widening crater.

Yet he did not fall.

Su Chen gripped the Gui Xu Divine Axe, teeth clenched, his mind holding only one thought.

When he was still a mortal, he had never been brought to his knees.

Now, he would not be either.

The chains tightened further; the pressure of the stellar laws reached a terrifying threshold.

Su Chen felt his body might shatter at any moment under this force.

Su Chen slowly raised his hand holding the Gui Xu Divine Axe.

Every inch of movement required battling the binding of forty-nine stellar chains.

The Gui Xu Divine Axe vibrated violently in his grip, blazing with blinding light.

Su Chen raised the axe above his head.

"Open—"

He growled, and brought the axe down.