Chapter 273: Zhang Yu's Spiritual Vein Pass

Zhang Yu felt the tangible martial will crashing into him, intent on burning his flesh, organs, bones, soul, consciousness—everything about him—to ashes.

The instant it made contact, Zhang Yu felt as if he were dying; the gap between them was just too vast.

At the same time, Starfire Realren's voice exploded beside his ear.

"Activate your heart methods, use your will to resist my martial will."

Zhang Yu fully activated the Crippled Bull Sacrifice Heart Technique; as a white bull roared in his mind, surges of fighting spirit welled up from his heart.

Scenes of past desperate struggles, life-or-death resistance, and successive deadly fights with Wang Yin kept flashing through Zhang Yu's mind.

On the other side, seeing the two of them gritting their teeth and stubbornly persisting under his martial will, Starfire Realren nodded slightly and temporarily withdrew his martial will.

"Rest for thirty seconds, then continue."

Thirty seconds later, the violent will burst forth from Starfire Realren's body again.

This time, Zhang Yu no longer felt a sea of raging fire, but an overwhelmingly domineering pressure—as if the air had suddenly become a thousand or ten thousand times heavier, threatening to crush his bones and force him harshly to his knees.

Starfire Realren said coldly, "Hold on. Don't kneel."

Unlike his previous gentle, elder-like demeanor.

After guiding Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's training, Starfire Realren exuded an aura of authority, like a general on the battlefield—every command, every reminder felt irresistible.

In the time that followed, Starfire Realren repeatedly struck them with his martial will, making Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen activate their heart methods and resist with all their strength.

And each time Starfire Realren released his martial will, it was different.

Sometimes Zhang Yu felt like he was being burned by fire, sometimes crushed by atmospheric pressure, sometimes pierced by ten thousand swords, sometimes having his thoughts frozen...

All kinds of martial will came at him, and Zhang Yu couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "Just how many heart methods does this old bastard know?"

"He switches between them so naturally—doesn't he get a split personality?"

During this tempering of his heart and heart method, Zhang Yu felt like a longsword, while Starfire Realren's martial will was like a whetstone; through repeated honing, the longsword became sharper and more refined.

Zhang Yu could clearly sense that such training... was indeed several times more effective than practicing the heart method alone.

Heart Level 11 (0.3%) → (0.5%)

Crippled Bull Sacrifice Heart Technique Level 11 (3/110) → (35/110)

Starfire Realren looked at the two, their faces pale and already swaying, and stopped releasing his martial will.

He said calmly, "Alright, you've about reached your limit today. Pushing further would hurt your spirit."

"But keep circulating your heart methods, and especially remember that feeling of resisting pressure."

"Maintain that feeling, keep up that tension—it will make your daily heart improvement more efficient."

As Starfire Realren left, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen suddenly collapsed to the ground, feeling a sense of exhaustion even though their bodies hadn't really moved much.

In the following days, Starfire Realren would occasionally call Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen over for a session of discipline.

The method he used to guide Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen was exactly as he had described—very primitive, yet very effective.

If Zhang Yu had to describe it... it was a poor man's training method with excellent cost performance.

But that cost performance was entirely dependent on Starfire Realren himself.

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "If Starfire Realren charged for this, I can't even imagine how much it would cost. Anyway, A-Zhen and I definitely couldn't afford it."

Zhang Yu kept in mind the kindness of this Golden Core Realren for willingly taking the time to guide them for free.

He secretly resolved: "Thanks, old man. When I climb up later, I'll make sure your name is known throughout Kunxu."

Under Starfire Realren's guidance, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's heart and physical strength improved steadily each day, far surpassing the efficiency of training alone.

As for their mana, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had other arrangements.

That day, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen arrived at the reserve. One after the other, they simply swiped their faces to pass through the gate.

They followed a familiar path to the foot of a mountain, as if they had been there many times before.

The peak before them was one of the reserve's important spiritual vein nodes—a place that had once been utterly out of reach for Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, something they couldn't even dare to imagine.

But at this moment, not only could they breathe freely within the reserve, they could even go into the mountains to cultivate.

Only, before every trip into the mountains, Zhang Yu had some tasks to complete—he had to deliver the goods as required by the Red Pagoda Company’s Chairman.

Watching Zhang Yu walk into the restroom nearby, Bai Zhenzhen waited outside and began her breathing exercises.

After waiting a long while, Bai Zhenzhen finally couldn't help urging, “Are you done yet?”

She grumbled, “How come you take longer every time? I’ve been waiting almost half an hour.”

Zhang Yu’s embarrassed and annoyed voice came from inside: “Almost done... What’s the rush?”

“Think about who it is that keeps sacrificing so you can go cultivate in the Spirit Vein?”

Bai Zhenzhen rolled her eyes and suggested, “Then why don’t you finish up at home next time before bringing it over?”

Zhang Yu replied, “You think I don’t want that? But the Red Pagoda Company demands it fresh!”

After waiting another ten-odd minutes, Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself, “This guy Yuzi really... even after Foundation Establishment, he still can’t kick the root of the evil.”

“After Foundation Establishment, his physical strength improves across the board—so won’t that evil root just grow bigger? Get even more nourishment and become stronger?”

“If he keeps training his body in the future and keeps raising that thing, who knows how much nutrition, blood energy, and spiritual essence it will drain?”

“Not to mention how much time and energy he’ll waste on it... It’s basically a malignant tumor on the path of immortality.”

“But then again, this thing does have its merits—at least it lets us cut the line and cultivate in the Spirit Vein.”

“Once we get to the upper realm, we’ll be broke again, so maybe it can serve as our backup fund at a critical moment.”

Bai Zhenzhen pondered for a while and came up with a compromise: “What if we make it detachable for Yuzi? Like his eyes.”

“Put it on when needed, keep it locked away normally? That way the tumor won’t drain too much nutrition and blood energy, holding back Yuzi’s body-tempering progress.”

“We’re like parent and child after all—if he can’t make up his mind, should I just help him out?”

Bai Zhenzhen believed Zhang Yu would understand her too.

“After all, I’ve seen the look of helplessness and regret on Yuzi’s face every time he finishes—he must want to solve this problem deep down, he just can’t bring himself to do it.”

Just as Bai Zhenzhen was secretly planning how to help her brother out, Zhang Yu slowly walked out of the restroom.

“All done, let’s go.” Zhang Yu waved his hand and, with a hint of pride, led Bai Zhenzhen through the entrance to the Spirit Vein.

Billowing spiritual essence surged toward them, sending a tremor through their spirit roots as an indescribably comfortable feeling spread through their bodies.

Zhang Yu felt that only when entering the Spirit Vein to practice his breathing could his Qi Sea spirit root and Green Swirl Qigong truly shine, no longer as stifled as usual.

Yes, stifled.

Ever since stepping into Foundation Establishment, Zhang Yu felt stifled every day—the spiritual essence of heaven and earth was so thin, the air so unclean.

“The Spirit Vein really is much better.”

But then, thinking about the time he had just wasted to get in, Zhang Yu felt some self-reflection: “I really am wasting too much time.”

“But I can’t blame myself—I’m already trying my best.”

Glancing at Bai Zhenzhen beside him, Zhang Yu suddenly blushed and turned his head away.

Bai Zhenzhen, who was taking a deep breath, raised an eyebrow, sensing Zhang Yu’s gaze, and asked curiously, “What is it? Spit it out.”

Zhang Yu stammered, “Actually... it’s about that... I thought of a way to go faster.”

Bai Zhenzhen asked curiously, “What way?”

“Well...” Zhang Yu turned his red face away, then finally took a deep breath and said, “Nothing... never mind.”

As Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen walked deeper into the Spirit Vein, Fuji felt a bitter, unspeakable pain in her heart: “You two, don’t you ever think about how I feel? Do you think I’m fine just staying with Zhang Yu like this?”

“Dammit, they should pay me a viewing fee.”

“Damn it, if I demanded to follow Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu would definitely get suspicious, thinking I’m up to some trick.”

“Sigh, I’ll just treat it like watching a nature documentary.”

After reaching the depth of the Spirit Vein, Zhang Yu began to circulate his newly cultivated Green Swirl Qigong.

This Foundation Establishment stage breathing method could use spiritual power to form a vortex, and with continuous breathing, it would expand the scope of absorbed spiritual essence until it reached his personal limit.

At this moment, after combining with the Qi Sea Spiritual Root, Zhang Yu's spiritual aura absorption range was directly increased to a distance of 100 meters around him.

At this moment, Zhang Yu was like a massive void, madly attracting the spiritual aura from the spirit vein to surge in continuously.

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Although this Jade Vortex Qi Art cannot be constantly active like the Great Sun Qi Sea, using this method to cultivate in the spirit vein for a few hours equals several days of hard work with the Great Sun Qi Sea. The efficiency is still higher."

"Especially since I haven't pushed this Jade Vortex Qi Art to its highest level yet; the efficiency of refining mana will certainly become even stronger in the future."

Mana 200.5

Jade Vortex Qi Art Level 10 (1/100)

"Finally Level 10."

As Zhang Yu sensed the Jade Vortex Qi Art reaching Level 10, he could feel streams of air vortexes swirling around his entire body, madly devouring the surrounding spiritual aura.

"After Level 10, the mana vortex manifests externally, which can further increase the range of spiritual aura absorption."

"Combined with my Qi Sea Spiritual Root, my spiritual root's absorption range has now increased to 150 meters."

And shortly after Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu entered the spirit vein entrance,

With flying swords whistling and combat spiritual roots surging, a fully armed security team had already surrounded the restroom Zhang Yu had just used, riding on a flying boat.

Several workers in protective suits entered the restroom, and after a moment came out carrying a huge armored box. Under the solemn gazes of the surrounding security team members, they loaded the armored box onto the flying boat.

While Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were immersed in Foundation Establishment stage cultivation, fully devoted to solidifying their foundations and improving their Dao heart, mana, and physical strength,

On the other side, there were some disturbances regarding the handling of the Oasis Group.

That day, just after Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen received guidance from Starfire True Person, they received a call from Patrol Captain Yun Ni.

Yun Ni said: "Earlier, when you were fighting with the Red River group, wasn't there a mysterious expert who suddenly ambushed Bai Zhenzhen?"

"After investigation, we have 100% confirmed that this expert, whom you killed during the law enforcement operation, is Zhou Yang of the Zhou family..."

Upon hearing this news, both Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's expressions changed slightly, as they all knew that the Zhou family was suspected to have a dark god behind them.

Yun Ni continued: "Next, the patrol team will conduct a thorough investigation of the Zhou family. Since you two are the parties involved, I'm here to ask for your opinions..."

Zhang Yu said directly: "We're going to thoroughly investigate the Zhou family? Can Ah Zhen and I go together?"