In Great Wei, along the eastern coast of the Central Plains, lay Pinghao City.

In the depths of winter, the annual year-end festivities arrived once more, and the entire city brimmed with lively celebration—all kinds of sacrificial rites and worship ceremonies emerged one after another. Firecrackers started going off before dawn and did not cease until deep into the night.

The festivity belonged to those with friends or family. For a lone man like Lin Zheyu, whether it was a holiday or not made no difference at all.

Within a courtyard in the outskirts of the city, formation flags had been planted all around the perimeter, creating an isolating formation. Now that he had sufficient spirit stones, Lin Zheyu had purchased quite a number of highly practical auxiliary dharma artifacts and formation arts.

The endless crackling of firecrackers from outside drowned out the sharp hiss of saber light slicing through the air within the courtyard. Beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down Lin Zheyu's forehead as his chest rose and fell violently, his breathing heavy like a bellows. Every muscle in his body trembled faintly, yet the movements of his hands remained perfectly steady.

Even though the blood qi within him had nearly been exhausted, every slash he unleashed still carried an incomparably sharp and terrifying saber intent.

After more than two hours of tempering, the essence, qi, and spirit throughout his body had nearly twisted together into a single unified force. Another fifteen minutes passed before Lin Zheyu's spirit and soul shuddered simultaneously. His body swayed slightly, and he quickly planted the long saber against the ground to steady himself.

Panting heavily, he took a moment to recover before patting his storage pouch with his right hand and pulling out six low-grade demonic spirit stones.

Use 1 unit of Origin Force to cultivate the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner.

With a single thought from Lin Zheyu, the recovery process after obtaining Origin Force began. His consciousness blurred for an instant before he entered the consciousness space and began endless cultivation once more.

Vast amounts of energy poured into his physique beneath the sweep of the mysterious energy, rapidly transforming into blood qi and essence origin. In only moments, his physique was restored to its peak condition.

Under the effects of the mysterious energy, his spirit and spiritual soul rapidly strengthened at a visible rate through the nourishment and feedback of his physique. Compared to immortal cultivators, martial artists were naturally at a disadvantage when it came to soul strength. Lin Zheyu was no exception.

Although he possessed combat power comparable to a peak Foundation Establishment realm genius, the strength of his soul was only roughly on par with a late-stage Foundation Establishment realm cultivator.

Fortunately, his physique was powerful enough, and within his sea of consciousness lay a vast ocean of golden energy. His formidable physique could block or weaken the majority of soul attacks. Even if a cultivator's soul secret art managed to penetrate into his sea of consciousness after being weakened, it still could not break through that immense golden sea of energy to inflict serious damage upon his soul.

Lin Zheyu had never paid too much attention to cultivating his spirit and spiritual soul. After all, improvements in soul strength did not noticeably increase his overall combat ability. Unless facing opponents far stronger than himself, it was extremely difficult for enemies to break through the dual defensive barriers of his physique and golden energy to pose any fatal threat to his soul.

If a stronger spirit and spiritual soul had not also enhanced the growth of his Perception Domain, Lin Zheyu would probably have allowed his soul to improve passively and slowly alongside his cultivation instead.

A few breaths later, Lin Zheyu slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath of turbid air.

[Heaven Rewards the Diligent]

[Name: Lin Zheyu]

[Origin Force: 300]

[Skills: Earth Shrinking Technique (Perfection), Primordial Concealment Technique (Perfection), Seven Absolute Sabers (Second Stage: 48%), Primordial Golden Body (Second Stage: 100%), Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner (Perfection)]

Away from the safety of home, there were no guarantees when it came to survival. Every time Lin Zheyu pushed himself beyond his limits to obtain Origin Force, he would spend 1 unit to recover immediately afterward. This was already the third time. Including the Origin Force he had spent on the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner before leaving the Martial Realm, he had now used a total of 4 units.

After sensing the results of this round of improvement, Lin Zheyu could not help grumbling inwardly.

Only 4 units of Origin Force, and the effects of the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art have already weakened this much... For a beginner secret art that cost me so many spirit stones, this feels a little disappointing...

Still, it was only a passing complaint. The effects of the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art were undeniably astonishing. With merely 4 units of Origin Force, Lin Zheyu's previously lagging soul had caught up, rising to a level comparable to peak Foundation Establishment realm. Reaching a point nearly equal to his actual strength was already an exceptional result.

Moreover, it could continue improving in the future. It was simply that the initial explosive growth period had passed, and what remained would require long, gradual refinement.

It would probably take dozens, or perhaps even over 100 units of Origin Force, to push his spirit and spiritual soul through another transformation and reach the limits of the Foundation Establishment realm. It might even allow him to rival the weakest Golden Core realm cultivators.

But that simply was not worth it. More than 100 units of Origin Force would be enough for Lin Zheyu to undergo an earthshaking leap in overall strength instead.

After some thought, Lin Zheyu made his decision.

I can put the cultivation of the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art aside for now. Next, I should use my Origin Force on the Seven Absolute Sabers. This saber technique is due for an upgrade as well.

This technique, which he had created by combining his own Saber Dao insights with numerous cultivation methods, while also drawing inspiration from the sword intent of Mu Jianli, the top genius of the Soaring Sword Sect, and integrating the power of rules into it, was currently Lin Zheyu's strongest offensive technique.

As a martial artist, he had relatively limited attack methods. In past battles, Lin Zheyu had mainly relied on his overwhelming speed and perception, while raw attack power had often been his weakest link. Now that his speed and perception could no longer improve dramatically in the short term, he naturally shifted his focus toward increasing his offensive strength instead.

A gentle breeze drifted through the courtyard. Just as Lin Zheyu was sensing the changes brought about by his recent growth in strength, his expression suddenly shifted, a trace of surprise appearing on his face.

"Oh? I thought this guy had already given up. He's surprisingly persistent." Lin Zheyu chuckled softly.

Just moments ago, the Spirit Resonance Sphere had suddenly received a message from Tu Yuan. Ever since Lin Zheyu frightened him away with the sky-high price of two high-grade spirit stones and negotiations had failed, the man had gone completely silent. Now, after nearly half a month, he had finally sent another message.

Tu Yuan said in the message, "Fellow Daoist, one high-grade spirit stone is already the limit of what I can offer. Besides that stone, I can also agree to one condition and help you deal with something personally once."

"So one high-grade spirit stone is really his limit... Isn't this guy supposed to be fairly well-known? How is he this poor?"

Lin Zheyu shook his head speechlessly.

Even among cultivators, the gap between rich and poor was enormous. Back then, Luo Shu of the Soaring Sword Sect had spent a full three high-grade spirit stones to purchase a sword dao golden core in order to achieve a false core, yet Tu Yuan was aiming for a true Golden Core breakthrough and still could not bear to part with even three high-grade spirit stones...

Should I accept this price? One high-grade spirit stone is already an enormous fortune for cultivators below the Golden Core realm.

Lin Zheyu pondered for a moment before a mischievous smile slowly spread across his lips.

"One high-grade spirit stone is acceptable, but you'll need to help me kill someone."

When Tu Yuan received the reply, delight first flashed across his face, only for hesitation to appear immediately afterward.

Killing someone was never simple. There were too many consequences involved. The more powerful the background of the cultivator being targeted, the higher the chances that some great divine ability would eventually trace the killer afterward. The resulting trouble could be immense.

"Who?" Tu Yuan asked.

"Woo Yixuan of the Martial Realm."

"Woo Yixuan! Apologies, but I cannot kill this person."

Tu Yuan's expression changed the instant he saw the name, and he rejected the proposal without hesitation.

The Martial Realm was a faction backed by Deity Transformation realm experts, and Woo Yixuan himself was said to possess the purest bloodline in the Woo Family over the past thousand years, aside from his elder brother. Killing him would bring endless consequences, far beyond what a mere Foundation Establishment realm cultivator like Tu Yuan could endure.

Seeing the response, Lin Zheyu merely shrugged indifferently.

"Oh, then forget it. The price has gone up now. Three high-grade spirit stones."

The two mysterious dharma artifacts in Tu Yuan's storage pouch, forged from strange bones and a skull, were clearly no ordinary objects. If the price was only one high-grade spirit stone, Lin Zheyu felt it would be more worthwhile to keep them for himself and continue studying them later.

Thanks to the improvement in his perception during this period, he had already made some interesting discoveries. With a flick of his right hand, a skull with hollow eye sockets appeared in his palm. Strange ghostly light flickered within those empty sockets like soul fire, almost as though the thing itself still possessed life.

"The bones of an ancient shamanic cultivator... The material is unbelievably hard. Even my full-force strike couldn't leave the slightest mark on it. That's honestly terrifying."

Lin Zheyu casually toyed with the skull dharma artifact in his hand while guiding his spiritual sense and perception deep into the skull.

This was not his first time studying the two dharma artifacts crafted from the bones of some unknown expert. Previously, because his perception had not been strong enough and his understanding of dharma artifacts had remained limited, he had failed to uncover anything useful.

Later, after beginning cultivation of the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art, both his soul and perception underwent noticeable improvements. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

After every improvement, Lin Zheyu would spare some time to study the items inside Tu Yuan's storage pouch to see whether he could glean any new insights. After all, these were treasures that had provided significant help even to a genius cultivator like Tu Yuan during his Golden Core realm breakthrough.

Finally, seven days ago, while absentmindedly fiddling with the skull dharma artifact, Lin Zheyu stumbled upon an unexpected discovery. Deep within the bones of those two peculiar artifacts, he sensed a strange yet powerful energy frozen inside them.

After conducting some preliminary research, he concluded that the energy was most likely related to shamanic cultivators.