From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 494 The Strange Change in the Divine Artifact's Light

The moment the light of the Key of Destiny went out completely, it felt as if half the warmth had been sucked away from my fingertips.

"Yao Yao." Wen Chen's voice, imbued with spiritual energy, brushed past my ear. He placed his other hand on the back of my neck, the warmth of his palm traveling along the Dazhui acupoint to my limbs and bones—this was his unique calming technique, which he had used before when I underwent tribulation.

I looked up at him; the red mole at the corner of his eye stood out sharply in the darkness, while his pupils shone like stars. "Don't rush, let's get it sorted out first."

理？

My throat tastes bitter.

Just a moment ago I could clearly feel the spirit responding to my obsession, how could it suddenly...

"Elder Qingfeng!" I turned around and grabbed Elder Qingfeng's sleeve, only to find that my fingertips were trembling.

The Bagua compass at his waist was emitting a faint blue light, and the pointer inside was spinning wildly. "What on earth is going on?"

Didn't you say that according to ancient texts, the Key to Destiny can be awakened through the resonance of spiritual power between two people?

Elder Qingfeng staggered half a step after I pulled him, his white beard becoming disheveled.

He raised his hand and pressed down on the Bagua plate, his knuckles turning white from the force: "I never expected this..." Before he could finish speaking, the altar floor suddenly cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns, and black mist emerged from the cracks, carrying a sweet and pungent smell of blood that rushed into his nostrils.

I suddenly let go and stepped back, crashing into Wen Chen's arms—this was bloodthirsty ghost energy, even stronger than before, as if someone had poured an entire jar of rotten blood into it.

"It's a protective barrier."

The ethereal immortal's voice suddenly boomed overhead.

I looked up and saw that he had somehow appeared in the center of the altar, his Taoist robe fluttering without wind, his left hand forming a mudra and pressing it against the center of the star map.

His usually calm eyes were now frosty as he said, "The place where the ancient artifact is sealed must be protected by three layers of defense."

The first layer suppresses the spirit, the second layer locks in the energy, the third layer… As he withdrew his hand seals, golden patterns appeared on the star map. “It is the Heart-Slaying Technique.”

“Slaying the heart?” Zi Ling came closer at some point, the silver bell hanging from her jade hairpin jingling softly. Only then did I notice that she was still clutching half a piece of unburnt Qingxin incense in her hand.

She reached out and smoothed my sleeves, which were stained with black energy, her voice as soft as spring snow: "Could it be that our obsessions were sensed by the barrier and mistaken for...?"

“They mistook him for an evil cultivator attempting to seize the treasure,” Wen Chen interjected. His spiritual power suddenly surged within my body, like a living fire burning the remaining black energy to ashes.

I was then shocked to realize that I had been so bewitched by the ghostly aura that I hadn't even noticed the burning pain in my eyes—it turned out that the black aura was not only interfering, but also trying to erode my consciousness.

"So the light of the Key of Destiny dims." I touched the key pendant on my chest, the mark of the connection between the artifact spirit and my mind, which was now faintly warm. "Is it shielding me from the barrier's attacks?"

“Not bad.” The ethereal immortal raised his hand, and golden patterns spread from his fingertips, condensing into a semi-transparent barrier above the altar.

I saw ancient runes floating in the shadows on the barrier, like countless small snakes swimming around. "This Heart-Piercing Barrier is the most insidious, specifically targeting the weakest point in people's hearts."

"You just used your obsession to activate the spirit of the artifact, and the deeper that obsession..." The golden patterns on his fingertips suddenly twisted into thorns, "...the more severe the backlash from the barrier will be."

"Then how do we break this?" I gripped Wen Chen's hand tightly. The calluses on his palms hurt me—these were left from when he refined the Hundred Refinement Pill for me back then. Each callus held the shadow of him searching for pill formulas in the middle of the night.

The pain, at that moment, acted like a stabilizing force, clearing my mind somewhat. "I can't just give up like this."

"Break it?" Elder Qingfeng suddenly chuckled, his Bagua compass finally stabilizing, the pointer pointing directly to the southwest corner of the altar. "Young friend, do you know that I spent thirty years immersed in ancient texts searching for a way to break it?" He pulled a bronze token from his sleeve and tossed it to the ground. The token hovered above the cracked rock. "The Heart-Slaying Barrier recognizes its master, not its power. To break it..."

“We need to make the barrier recognize us as ‘masters’.” Wen Chen suddenly squeezed my hand, and I followed his gaze to the center of the altar—where a ball of white light had appeared at some point, which was the Key of Destiny that had just dimmed.

It hovered in mid-air, the light patterns flowing across its blade synchronized with the golden patterns laid out by the ethereal immortal. "Yao Yao, the obsession you used when you activated the weapon spirit earlier..."

"It's a bond with someone important." I suddenly realized.

When the light was stable for the first time, I thought of Wen Chen; before the light dimmed for the second time, my mind was filled with the anxiety of "not being able to lose".

The barrier doesn't need to be simply "strong," it needs to be...

“It’s a pure, unpossessive protection.” Zi Ling suddenly interjected, her silver bells suddenly falling silent. Only then did I notice the redness in her eyes. “I once heard my master say that when ancient powerful beings set up barriers, what they valued most was…”

It is the heart.

The buzzing of the Key of Destiny interrupted her.

I looked up and saw the sword's light had returned, this time not a scorching white, but a soft glow with a warm gold.

The spirit's voice echoed in his mind, clearer than before: "Master, try replacing the thought of 'wanting to win' with 'wanting to protect'..."

I took a deep breath.

This time, I didn't recall what Wen Chen had done for me. Instead, I remembered the confidence I had when he stood behind me, the confidence I had to forge ahead; I remembered the matter-of-fact tone in his voice when he said, "If you are tired, I will carry you on my back"; I remembered how he always took the sword from my hand first when I wanted to be stubborn—not to carry it for me, but to carry it with me.

The light on the sword suddenly surged.

I saw the golden barrier of the ethereal immortal begin to melt, Elder Qingfeng's bronze token glow red, and even the cracks in the ground slowly closing.

The most amazing thing is that the black mist is now floating upwards along the light patterns, as if it has been sucked into the Key of Destiny.

"You succeeded?" Zi Ling's silver bell rang again as she wiped the sweat from my brow. "Look at the star map!"

I looked down, and the once dim star map was now as bright as day, with starlight flowing through every line.

Wen Chen suddenly pulled me back half a step—the ground in the center of the altar was rising, revealing a blue stone slab engraved with runes, with a dark blue bead embedded in the center of the slab, which was gently vibrating with the light of the Key of Destiny.

"That is..." Elder Qingfeng's Bagua compass clattered to the ground, and he staggered over, "This is the core of the barrier!"

So the core of the Heart-Piercing Barrier was hidden here...

"So to remove the barrier, we must first..." Before I could finish speaking, the bead suddenly burst out with a dazzling blue light.

I instinctively closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, an ancient character appeared on the surface of the bead: "Sincerity reveals the key."

Wen Chen suddenly chuckled softly.

I turned to look at him, and the smile in his eyes was like a galaxy melting into the night sky: "It seems our little fairy is about to face another challenge."

I touched the keychain that was burning hot against my heart.

The spirit's voice rang out again, this time with a hint of excitement: "Master, I can feel it, the real test has only just begun..."

A strange wind suddenly blew up outside the altar.

I squinted and saw a dark figure flash by in the mountain mist, its aura as cold as a thousand-year-old ice cave—it was Mo Yu.

But I couldn't care less about him at that moment.

I stared at the blue bead on the stone slab, then looked at Wen Chen, and reached out to grasp the Key of Destiny.

“Now that we’ve found the key to the formation…” I licked my dry lips, “let’s try to see how to be ‘sincere’.”

When my fingertips touched the blue bead, I could clearly feel the indentations of those ancient runes—like grooves worn away by time, each one imbued with the vicissitudes of antiquity.

Elder Qingfeng's Bagua compass had started spinning again, the pointer pointing directly at my wrist. "Young friend, remember, dispelling this spell requires the spirit of the artifact as a guide and spiritual power as a bridge," the Void Immortal's robe swept past my feet, and he tapped my brow with his finger. "Most importantly..."

"Hold fast to your original intentions." Wen Chen finished the sentence for him.

His palm covered the back of my hand, his body heat seeping in through the coolness of the blue bead. "When you activated the spirit just now, the barrier recognized 'protection' rather than 'seizure'."

The same applies now.

I took a deep breath.

The key pendant on my chest was so hot it felt like it was being branded into my flesh; it was the spirit of the object responding to my emotions.

Following the steps the ethereal immortal had just described, I slowly closed my eyes—first summoning the spirit of the artifact, then forming a spirit seal, and finally incorporating the word "guardian" into the hand seal on my index finger.

"Heaven's mandate is clear, the light of the heart will never be extinguished—"

The moment the incantation was uttered, a bitter, herbal scent wafted into the nose.

I opened my eyes and saw a pale blue mist rising from the surface of the blue bead, creeping up my fingertips and onto my arm.

The mist was as cool as morning dew in a mountain stream, but unlike the previous black mist, it was not corrosive. Instead, it made my mind clearer.

Zi Ling's silver bell suddenly jingled softly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her retreat to the edge of the altar, the incense in her hand burned out, leaving only a charred ash: "Sister Yao Yao, you're glowing!"

I lowered my head.

The moon-white skirt was somehow covered with a layer of golden gauze, and even the fingertips shimmered with tiny particles of light—the spiritual power of the Key of Destiny was overflowing outwards.

A slight tremor came from Wen Chen's palm. His spiritual power was flowing into our clasped hands, intertwining with my spiritual power to form two golden ropes that went straight into the blue bead.

"Yes, that's it." The ethereal immortal's voice was like soaking in a hot spring, "Maintain the resonance of spiritual energy, let the artifact spirit act as the guide..."

"laugh--"

A cold laugh suddenly shattered the tranquility of the altar.

I opened my eyes abruptly, and the dark figure in the mountain mist was already within reach.

Mo Yu, draped in a dark cloak, stood at the edge of the star map, the silver ornaments in his hair gleaming coldly, even the red markings at the corners of his eyes seeming poisoned: "You think you can break the barrier with such petty tricks?" He raised his hand, a wisp of black mist condensing at his fingertips, "The heart-piercing array set up by ancient powerful beings is not something your kind of..."

"Step back." Wen Chen's voice was as deep as a block of black iron.

He released my hand, and as he turned around, a gust of wind rose up, his fingertips already forming a demon-slaying incantation—a technique specifically designed to suppress evil spirits.

Just as Mo Yu's black mist was about to drift towards me, it was struck by that golden light and scattered by most of it.

I took the opportunity to step back two steps and shield Lan Zhu behind me.

The spiritual energy resonance from before was disrupted, and the golden rope was already broken in half.

The spirit within the artifact's consciousness cried out anxiously, "Master, please continue!"

The barrier is backfiring! I looked down and saw that the mist on the surface of the blue bead was turning gray at a visible speed, and the originally closed cracks in the stone were cracking again.

"Too naive." Mo Yu's laughter grew colder. He took half a step forward, his black cloak billowing like waves. "You think that bead is the core of the formation?"

It's just a facade.

for real......"

"Shut up!" Zi Ling suddenly pounced over, clutching a half-burnt piece of Qingxin Incense, and threw it directly at Mo Yu.

The incense ash exploded in the air, sending out wisps of white smoke—that was the Cleansing Mantra she activated with her own spiritual power, specifically designed to dispel evil illusions.

Mo Yu hadn't expected her to make a move. When she tried to dodge, she stumbled half a step, and a small hole was burned into her black cloak by the incense ash.

"Ziling!" Elder Qingfeng exclaimed in surprise, his Bagua compass clattering to the ground. "Come back quickly!"

That is...

"Enough." The ethereal immortal suddenly raised his hand.

The golden patterns around his body suddenly surged, like countless golden snakes darting towards Mo Yu.

Mo Yu's pupils contracted sharply, and his dark cloak suddenly transformed into black mist, enveloping him.

When the black mist dissipated, only a few pieces of cloth remained at the edge of the altar, along with the lingering sweet and pungent smell of blood in the air.

"He's gone." Wen Chen turned around, but the Demon-Slaying Incantation on his fingertips didn't dissipate.

He stared in the direction where Mo Yu had disappeared, his Adam's apple bobbing. "This time it was... weaker than last time."

"He's expending his energy." The ethereal immortal withdrew the golden patterns, his robes soaked with cold sweat. "Any place that can force its way into an ancient barrier must have its cultivation suppressed."

"Those words just now..." He looked at me, a hint of seriousness in his eyes, "were meant to unsettle us."

I looked down at the blue bead.

The fog, which had turned gray, turned bluish again, though it was lighter than before.

The spirit's voice rang out again, this time with a hint of urgency: "Master, quickly replenish the spiritual power!"

If we stay any later, the barrier will recognize us as its enemy!

“Wen Chen,” I grabbed his wrist, “help me one more time.”

He didn't say anything, he just held my hand in return.

This time, his spiritual power was no longer simply transferred in, but rather flowed around my spiritual power like a living dragon, re-entangling the broken golden rope into a thicker golden chain.

I could feel his heartbeat through our clasped hands, one beat, two beats, in sync with the key pendant on my chest.

I began chanting the incantation again.

This time, the mist from the blue bead completely turned into a bluish-gold color, and it drilled into my sea of ​​consciousness along the golden chain.

Countless images flashed before my eyes: Wen Chen staying up all night in front of the alchemy furnace to prepare medicine, the medicine splashing on the back of his hand and causing blisters; when I was struck by lightning and couldn't stand up, his sleeve wrapped around my waist and pulled me back; and that day he said, "Yao Yao, you don't always have to think of yourself as a lone bird," the red mole at the corner of his eye looking like an unyielding drop of blood under the moonlight.

"boom--"

The blue bead suddenly burst out with a dazzling blue light.

I instinctively closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the ancient characters on the surface of the bead, “Sincerity reveals the key,” were slowly disappearing, replaced by a line of smaller characters: “Unity of Hearts unlocks the lock.”

"This is..." Elder Qingfeng picked up the Bagua plate, his hands still trembling, "...the solution for 'Two People United'?"

"It seems our previous guess was correct." Wen Chen looked down at me, the red mole at the corner of his eye tinged with a deep blue by the blue light. "He needs the 'protection' of both of us."

I touched the keychain that was burning hot against my heart.

The spirit's voice was filled with joy this time: "Master, I can feel it! The lock cylinder is moving!"

The ground of the altar suddenly trembled.

I saw the runes around the blue bead begin to rotate, like prayer flags fluttering in the wind.

Zi Ling's silver bell rang again, and she pointed to my feet: "Sister Yao Yao, the stone slab is sinking!"

I looked down and saw the blue stone slab inlaid with blue beads slowly sinking into the ground, revealing the cave below that glowed with a ghostly light.

The scent emanating from the cave was no longer the sweet, pungent smell of blood, but rather the crisp fragrance of grass and trees—much like the scent of the centuries-old bamboo forest behind the mountain gate.

"You succeeded?" Zi Ling gripped my sleeve, her voice trembling.

"Not yet." The ethereal immortal suddenly frowned, gazing into the depths of the cave, a corner of his robe fluttering in the wind. "This cave... has the aura of living beings."

Wen Chen's spiritual power suddenly exploded within my body.

He pulled me back three steps, and the demon-slaying incantation on his fingertips lit up again: "Is it a demon?"

“No.” I stared into the depths of the cave.

Something was climbing up the rock wall at great speed, leaving trails of slime in its wake.

That aura was all too familiar to me—it was the spirit beast I had seen in the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, corrupted by the aura of bloodlust.

But this one is... even more ferocious.

"Mo Yu." Wen Chen gritted his teeth and spat out the two words.

His spiritual power transformed into a golden net that enveloped me. "He didn't leave; he just went to gather reinforcements."

I hold the key to destiny tightly.

The sword shone even brighter than before, and the weapon spirit's voice was filled with fighting spirit: "Master, I'm here to help you!"

A roar came from inside the cave.

The thing finally crawled out of the cave—it was a black-scaled beast about half a person's height, with eerie red eyes and dark green saliva dripping from its mouth.

As its gaze swept over me, it let out a low growl and its front paws dug deep marks into the ground.

"It seems..." I licked my parched lips, holding the Key of Destiny across my chest, "that the real test has only just begun."