Yuan

For now, let us set that aside.

After that strange sensation entered Lin Xiao’s sea of consciousness, he felt as though tens of thousands of voices were speaking to him at once.

The voices overlapped, sometimes booming like bells, sometimes faint as silken threads.

Lin Xiao instinctively tried to distinguish what each voice was saying. However, his divine sense immediately became overloaded, leaving him dizzy and disoriented, as though the heavens and earth were spinning around him.

Alarmed, he quickly stopped and blocked out the voices.

Once he had recovered, he sensed that the voices seemed to bear no malice. After some thought, he completely lowered his guard and allowed his divine sense to enter a state of absolute relaxation, drifting along with the current.

He did not hurry to distinguish the voices or force himself to hear them clearly. He simply let himself wander among them.

Gradually, in his daze, he seemed to hear an ethereal voice enter his mind.

“Ji is the negative force of the universe; Origin is the positive. If Origin is transformed into a shield, and the origins merge, yin and yang interweave—only then can its negative force be overcome…”

Just as he wanted to continue listening, his consciousness suddenly snapped back to clarity, and the voice vanished without a trace, leaving not even an echo behind.

The countless voices that had previously filled his sea of consciousness all transformed into the radiance of the star river within it, scattering throughout his consciousness. Only the sea of consciousness, now brighter than before, proved that they had ever appeared.

Lin Xiao shook his head. That profound and mysterious sensation was completely gone.

Only the sentence he had just heard remained crystal clear in his mind.

Staring at the imperial seal in his hand, Lin Xiao examined it from every angle. Seeing that nothing else happened, he put it into his private vault.

Unexpectedly, the moment he stored the seal of the Huanyou Kingdom in his private vault, the system suddenly appeared:

[Ding—the host has temporarily acquired the seal of the Huanyou Kingdom. The sect construction side quest “Establishing Diplomatic Relations with a Nation (1)” has been automatically activated: An excellent sect naturally has connections throughout the world and maintains relations with many powers. Please establish diplomatic relations with the Huanyou Kingdom and successfully set up an officially recognized sect branch within the capital of the Huanyou Kingdom.]

The sudden appearance of this quest caught Lin Xiao somewhat off guard.

Who would have thought that merely handling an imperial seal could trigger a quest like this?

Could it be that, in the future, whenever he wanted to accept one of these diplomatic quests, he would first have to ask people for their imperial seals and store them in his private vault for a while?

Lin Xiao complained inwardly, but the system completely ignored him.

After announcing the quest, it fell silent once more.

Glancing at the corpse on the ground, Lin Xiao thought for a moment before storing that away in his private vault as well.

If he had guessed correctly and this person truly was the former king, then he was one of the chief culprits behind the Ji Stone incident. Even in death, he could not be allowed to pass away so easily. Lin Xiao had to bring his corpse back and give everyone an explanation.

With matters here settled, Lin Xiao thought of Yuan Jinsheng, who had already entered the Ji Stone mine, as well as the son Yuan Jinsheng had mentioned. He immediately returned to the location where Yuan Jinsheng had entered.

He had already sent word to the alliance army. Judging by the time, the people they had dispatched should be arriving soon.

Lin Xiao therefore made a few alterations to the sealing formation around this place, opening up a concealed entrance.

He then sent out another transmission, informing the alliance army of the entrance’s location.

If the alliance army set out to come here, they would surely send someone capable of contacting him directly, for the sake of convenient communication.

Lin Xiao did not recklessly remove the sealing formation simply because those remnants had managed to enter once.

Although they had entered without alerting the formation, they must have possessed some special method.

However, he suspected that this special method could not be used easily.

To enter and leave a formation created by the system without making a sound would certainly require them to pay a considerable price.

Otherwise, with the Ji Stone mine sealed by him for so long, those people who had once been so desperate to capture people and mine Ji Stones could not possibly have remained inactive if they truly possessed a way to come and go freely.

Nor would they have been reduced to barely more than twenty survivors after facing the alliance army’s pursuit.

This was enough to prove that the sealing formation still restricted them greatly.

Thus, they were trapped inside the Ji Stone mine like turtles hiding in their shells—fish in a barrel with nowhere to escape. They could only huddle inside and wait for death.

While waiting for the alliance army, Lin Xiao did not remain idle.

The more he pondered it, the more he felt that the voice transmitted from the imperial seal earlier might be the key to countering the Ji Stones.

“If Origin is transformed into a shield, and the origins merge, yin and yang interweave…”

As he thought about it, he sat down on the ground and began meditating.

“If Origin is transformed into a shield…”

Lin Xiao drew upon the spiritual power within his body and transformed it into a spiritual shield that covered him.

“No, that’s not it…”

This was merely an ordinary spiritual shield. It could not defend against the Ji Stones.

“If Origin…”

“Origin… What is it?”

Could it be the same “Origin” mentioned in his Primordial Origin Heart Scripture?

Origin was the beginning, and also the foundation.

Then what did “beginning”—or “foundation”—refer to here?

As he pondered, he closed his eyes.

His consciousness delved deep within himself. In a trance, Lin Xiao saw the radiance emitted by the star river in his sea of consciousness suddenly blaze brighter. It gradually extended into his body until it reached his Violet Palace Golden Core, linking with the spiritual power within.

His soul seemed to receive some kind of guidance as well. Soul power extended outward, connecting with his divine sense and spiritual power above his dantian, and the three began to merge with one another.

Could this be what that sentence meant by “Origin”?

Lin Xiao did not stop the process from taking shape.

Without him realizing it, the Primordial Origin Heart Scripture within his body began operating at tremendous speed, accelerating the development of the process.

He had no idea how much time passed in the outside world. Lin Xiao only felt as though he had lived through a hundred years, and yet as though only a single instant had gone by.

The mass formed from the fusion of consciousness, spiritual power, and soul power above his dantian suddenly released a single drop of colorless substance.

It was clearly without color or form, yet Lin Xiao could see it with perfect clarity and sense its presence.

He could feel that this thing contained an inexhaustible vitality.

The moment it merged into his dantian and touched his golden core, Lin Xiao felt all the spiritual energy between heaven and earth surge toward him!

With a thunderous boom, his golden core was instantly covered in fine cracks. A moment later, it suddenly shattered!

Yet he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

The shattered outer layer disintegrated, revealing the tender, milky-white core within.

It seemed newly born—pure and delicate.

At the same time, it gave the impression of being incredibly fragile, as though the slightest touch would cause it to break into countless pieces and crumble into dust.

But in the next instant, brilliant waves of light suddenly burst forth from within the core.

The light resembled flames, spreading across the surface of the core and burning fiercely.

Lin Xiao’s core seemed to be tempered and refined beneath the scorching waves of light.

When the layers of flame finally receded, the core—now stripped of its protective outer layer—was coated in the lustrous sheen of immortal glaze.