The Sacred Ruins

Deep in the night, the lazily floating clouds obscured the moon, casting the lands below into darkness.

In the dark depths of the mountain woods, the trees and leaves felt as if they were moving on their own. It was like a scene out of a horror movie.

It became increasingly dark as time went by and soon even the mountain was no longer visible. One could scarcely see his own fingers in the terrifying darkness.

The bestial roars shook the forest while the mournful cries of vicious birds echoed through the mountains. It was a frightening night.

Amidst all this, the sudden roar of a human came through and immediately drowned out the roar of wild animals and caused the whole mountain range to tremble.

At that moment, the vicious birds and wild beats all fled for their lives.

A burst of red light blossomed amidst the darkness and surged out like lava. It was a striking sight to behold.

The silhouette of a man emerged from within. His heart was glowing a brilliant red like the raging sun. His body was spasming as if he was suffering from immense pain.

"Ah..."

He cried loudly and raised his head toward the dark night sky. His whole body was drenched in sweat which was swiftly evaporated, enshrouding him in a layer of white vapor.

This person was Chu Feng. He was now suffering from immense pain as he gave it his all to sever the fifth shackle.

It was so much more difficult than he had imagined. To break the cages and sever the shackles without the help of pollen was a grueling and dangerous process.

He felt agonizing pain in his heart as if it was being torn apart.

His trembling body drenched in sweat, Chu Feng did his best to direct his internal energy towards protecting his heart and attack the shackle.

This so-called shackle was not visible to the naked eye nor could it be captured with high tech imaging modalities. Only divine instinct and internal vision can make out its presence.

Upon the red beating heart was entangled a mass of energy with golden metallic qualities which acted to restrain it. It was preventing the heart from releasing its full potential.

While attacking the divine shackle, one could sense the chain rocking with clear jingling sounds akin to clashing metal.

Red light burst out with his heart as the center and almost immolated his whole body. The light illuminated his whole physical body causing it to glow with translucently—even his bones and organs were vaguely visible.

The intense rush of energy caused energy to explode from the heart and incomparably resplendent divine light shot out from its midst.

Pfft!

Chu Feng coughed up a mouthful of blood. During his intensive struggle, he felt a warm sensation well up from below. He could no longer hold back; his mouth turned salty as he spat out the blood!

It was extremely difficult!

Attempting superior evolution without the support of divine pollen increased the difficulty exponentially. He had already spent all the energy in his body to attempt this breakthrough for quite a long time.

It was close to dawn; the stars and moonlight were still present. The forest and mountains were completely quiet. Only absolute darkness remained after the wild beasts were startled away by the roar of agony.

Chu Feng was emanating a dangerous aura. His king level energy was rampaging throughout the mountains. Even the bugs and ants had gone into hiding.

"Ah..."

He cried loudly time and again. He stepped out with what strength he had left and collapsed a mountain in his path, causing the whole forest to quake and tremble. The dried leaves all fell from their branches.

Fresh blood seeped out of the corner of his mouth as his eyes glowed with terrifying radiance. He could not, he would not give up—he had almost reached his destination and was a mere step away. He had to succeed.

But it was simply too dangerous without the aid of divine pollen. The seemingly invincible shackle within his body was too hard to break.

"The heart houses the spirit—it is the embodiment of life, the center of the five viscera and six bowels, the purest accumulation of yang energy akin to the sun crossing the sky."

Chu Feng recalled a theory from Chinese Medicine and hoped to utilize this knowledge for his next attempt. This time, perhaps, he’ll be able to break this important shackle.

This stage was too important to him. It held great significance because this would be his first attempt at a breakthrough on his own.

At the same time, he had to break through also because strong enemies would soon descend upon him and there was no shortage of experts with six severed shackles among them.

"The heart houses the spirit, right?" Chu Feng muttered to himself.

He wiped the sweat from his brows and suddenly channeled all of his spiritual energy into the heart and proceeded to fuse with it. He then circulated his breathing technique.

Boom!

This time he felt it more deeply. His spirit had entered deep into his heart; he could hear its intense beating like the sound of a beating divine drum reverberating across the ages.

This sound threw his spirit into turmoil.

At the same time, scarlet blood boiled and surged throughout his body like lava and baptized the spirit amidst the torrential flow of yang energy.

The vitality there was simply too intense. It was the source and origin of the whole body’s energy.

Spiritual energy mixed in with the boiling blood as if it was undergoing gestation amidst a vast and blood colored divine lake of life energy. It was where the spirit was housed and the source of all vitality existed.

As his yang energy grew increasingly vigorous like a great furnace, his whole heart was enveloped by a layer of spiritual energy, glowing like the sun hanging high in the firmament.

Boom!

It was simply too brilliant! Chu Feng maneuvered all his energy toward attacking the shackle on the heart, causing the glow to grow ever so bright with scarlet beams shooting out one after another.

His spirit had contracted within the heart and was also feeling the immense pressure.

Finally, his spirit could no longer withstand the vibration of this "sun" and suddenly exploded with a loud boom and flowed toward his limbs and bones along the lava-like blood flow, eventually reaching every last inch of his being.

The energies then circulated back with each heartbeat and accumulated therein.

Within that split second, Chu Feng was completely astonished. He felt his strength swiftly increasing after the circulation.

"The heart houses the spirit—it is the embodiment of life, the center of the five viscera and six bowels, the sun within one’s body. It is indeed so!"

Chu Feng was suddenly enlightened. He realized he should read more ancient Taoist book from now on. It seemed such knowledge be applied in cultivation.

He restored his spiritual energy into the gestating sun. It would then flow out via the arterial blood flow towards every part of this physical body and then return via the veins in a perfect cycle. It was even more effective than when he previously fused his spirit with the physical body.

Boom!

Via such a process, he felt himself capable of using increasing amounts of energy. Now even his whole body was beginning to take on a reddish hue.

Every time he was able to clearly feel the state of his energy circulation. The heart was like an everlasting stove pumping out vitality to circulate towards his whole body.

Chu Feng began to attack the shackle once again. He was now much stronger than before and might even succeed.

Boom!

His blood surged wildly and his heart was glowing with scarlet lights which eventually shot out from every part of his body and illuminated the dark forest, flooding the land with brilliant red light.

The pitch-black night was torn apart by this extreme brilliance.

Dong!

As Chu Feng progressed with his assault on the shackle, the beating of his heart became increasingly loud. One might actually hear it from over ten meters away.

Later, that sound began to change in quality and became muffled like a war drum.

It was too astonishing. Not only Chu Feng himself but everyone in the vicinity would be able to hear this powerful drum.

The astonishing beating of his heart was pumping out an unprecedented level of vitality and pulsing with indomitable strength which enveloped his whole body.

Chu Feng’s body was completely scarlet with vibrant blood energy seeping out of his pores, glowing with scarlet radiance. His heart was beating at an extreme rate as it circulated his life energy.

Thump!

Suddenly, an extremely loud sound rang out like a bursted drum and Chu Feng’s body began to tremble unstoppably.

The blinding rays from his heart, once again, receded and Chu Feng staggered backwards with blood seeping out of his mouth.

Obviously, something within him had undergone drastic changes.

He soon raised his head ferociously. Beams of lightning spilled out from his eyes and illuminated the dark night sky.

He wiped off the blood from his mouth and revealed a gradual smile. The sound of something cracking was transmitted from within his body.

After his heart shook violently for one last time, the shackle began to crack and collapse.

Chu Feng laughed out loud—he had succeeded!

But he didn’t relax just yet and gradually retracted his spirit before observing his internal condition. His situation just now was extremely dangerous and had pushed his heart to the very brink of its tolerance.

If he hadn’t succeeded with that last push, his heart would probably be torn apart once again and leave him with more injuries. That would mean absolute failure.

Fortunately, he was able to deal with this sturdy shackle in one go.

At this time, his heart was enshrouded in prismatic lights. The colorful shackle was beginning to break down amidst divine radiance. It can no longer restrain the energy of the "sun" within this man’s body.

Boom!

Finally, the brightly colored chain shattered with the momentum of an explosive flood or a powerful tsunami and transformed into beams of energy which swiftly drilled into all his internal organs.

Following that, the brilliant radiance diffused toward every part of his body.

Only at that point could the process be considered completely successful. Chu Feng had severed his fifth shackle and begun superior evolution!

That brightly colored shackle was made up of pure energy. Although called a shackle, it was also the foundation for further evolution.Breaking it down and distributing it, via the heart, towards every other part of his body induced incremental changes in his physique as a whole.

Chi!

Tens of thousands of scarlet beams shot out.

Chu Feng’s heart had become stronger by god knows how many times. It had been occupied by an astonishing amount of energy, granting it incomparable resilience.

His heartbeats were no longer as loud and had returned to normal but the energy within had far surpassed his previous state.

His whole heart was replete with a fresh red and translucent radiance like coral and was akin to a statue carved of blood diamond, prismatic and brilliant.

As the energy from within his heart spread to all parts of his body his superior evolution erupted.

Boom!

His whole being exuded terrifying energy fluctuations which diffused toward the surrounding mountain and, within the blink of an eye, sent all the beasts of the forest trembling in fear.

This was an absolutely terrifying energy which affected all living beings. It caused them to shiver in fright and invoked a subconscious urge to submit.

That night, Chu Feng successfully evolved. He had torn apart the fifth shackle with his own strength!