Hot… Hot… Hot!
That was all Darian could feel.
Inside a simple wooden hut, he sat cross-legged, his entire body blazing like a furnace. His once-fair skin had flushed crimson.
Sweat beaded on his skin in heavy droplets, but before they could fall, the scorching heat of his body evaporated them into steam.
His eyes were shut tight, brows slightly knit, and though his face was otherwise calm, the tension in his jaw betrayed the pain he was enduring.
Buzz!
Hua la la…
From within his body came the roaring sound of rushing rivers. His skin trembled faintly, as though something vast and unstoppable was raging through him.
His flesh felt as if it were being torn apart by brute force.
His soul—scraped raw by an endless, cold blade.
And yet, despite the torment clawing at his nerves, the will Darian had forged over ten years allowed this fifteen-year-old to grit his teeth and endure.
In the middle of that agony, his mind stayed clear.
My body… it's transforming! This is it—the Holy Law origin I sacrificed ten years of silence to obtain!
Dong! Dong! Dong!
Like muffled thunder rolling inside him, his seated form shuddered violently. The writhing beneath his skin intensified, and the pain—
—exploded.
Bone-deep. Soul-piercing. As if ten volcanoes erupted inside him at once.
The burning, the tearing, the scraping—every torment multiplied and surged together. Even his tempered will now stood on the edge of collapse.
His body began to go numb. His thoughts turned hazy. The darkness before his eyes deepened.
If he gave in now… he would never wake again.
Hold on! Hold on! I can't faint—I mustn't faint!
A voiceless roar tore through his mind. He was drenched in sweat, vision filled with darkness, ears roaring with endless thunder. Pain as vast as the sea devoured his every nerve.
Each breath was an eternity.
Hong long long!
Hua la la!
The torrent inside grew more violent. His muscles bulged like knotted ropes, veins swelling beneath his skin like writhing serpents.
The pain reached its peak. His endurance reached its limit.
But he clung on—desperate, unyielding.
Even if it killed him, he would not surrender.
Few could imagine the depth of his obsession. What looked like toughness was, in truth, a near-mad, unshakable resolve.
Sigh…
At the very brink of life and death, a faint sigh echoed in his mind. It carried an ancient loneliness, as if drifting through endless years, tinged with confusion—like someone just awakened from a deep slumber.
Buzz!
A golden flash flared briefly behind his head.
In the midst of his fading consciousness, a sudden wave of coolness washed over him, like rain falling on parched earth.
His mind cleared. The darkness lifted. And then—
This is… my body's interior?
Before his "eyes" appeared a strange, vivid sight—
A beating heart. Veins like winding rivers. A stomach working in steady rhythm. Kidneys glowing like small furnaces. A liver shining like polished jade.
Hua la la! Hong long long!
At last, he saw the source of the roaring within him—his qi and blood.
If Theron were here, he would have been utterly shocked—this was the same qi and blood he had once pronounced "withered beyond repair."
But Darian showed no surprise. His focus locked onto a radiant cluster of light, three inches below his navel.
The Holy Law origin! Ten years of silence, ten years of nurturing, locking away all my qi and blood—and now, I've finally succeeded!
Joy surged through him. The blazing light cluster pulsed like a miniature sun, radiating a vast, sky-piercing battle intent.
The pain still lingered, but the coolness in his mind and his hardened will made it bearable.
Yet when he examined his body more closely, he was stunned—
His crimson qi and blood now shimmered faintly with gold.
Golden-tinged qi and blood? Could this be the Holy Law's doing?
He traced the flow back to the light cluster.
All his qi and blood had been sealed within it for ten years. Now, it was flooding back through his body—like molten metal pouring into every limb. The process flayed him from the inside out.
For an ordinary man, it would be unbearable.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
In an instant that felt like forever, his qi and blood surged into his organs, muscles, and bones. It was as though he had returned to the day he first began cultivating at age five.
The golden-red tide coursed with unstoppable vigor—marking the rebirth of his strength.
When the coolness faded, his vision snapped back to his physical body.
Thud!
He collapsed backward onto the wooden bed, his clothes drenched as though he had been pulled from a river. His eyes sparkled with joy—not only for the end of ten years of suffering, but for something more… something he awaited.
After a long moment—
Sigh…
The same voice returned. Darian's smile deepened—a smile he hadn't worn in a decade.
"Riven… long time no see."
The words were soft, as if spoken to an old friend.
"Ten years of silence… and at last, fortune smiles on you. Darian, you truly are… remarkable."
The reply carried a youthful tone despite an ancient weight.
Darian opened his eyes. "Riven, thank you for earlier. Do you remember anything about yourself?"
Riven chuckled faintly. "No. I still don't know who I am. But some of my soul power has returned—enough to stay awake. If you hadn't opened the Sun Restriction in the Sun, Moon, and Stars Seal ten years ago, I'd have vanished completely."
Darian's hand moved to his chest, drawing out a plain envelope. There was no writing on it, yet his gaze softened with a sorrowful longing.
"This is why you endured ten years of silence," Riven said quietly. "Why you abandoned your peerless talent… all to open this letter. Was it worth it?"
Darian smiled faintly. "Worth it? Absolutely."
He spoke then of Halron, the man who had raised him until age four, when he left Darian at the Valeblue family with this letter and the Blood Dragon Jade—then vanished.
He remembered nothing before that age—only his name. His parents, his origins… all unknown. This letter and the jade were his only clues.
"Riven, after Halron left, I was lost. That's when I found the Sun Restriction… and met you. You told me this letter was sealed by the Holy Law—that without mastering it, even the greatest cultivation could not open it."
Silence.
Finally, Riven spoke, voice warm with conviction. "Darian, your choice will be the greatest fortune of your life. To master the Holy Law at the Ironbody Tier … one day you'll understand how right you were."
A flicker of determination passed through Darian's eyes.
He told Riven of his duel with Lucian.
Riven's tone sharpened. "At five, you'd already reached Minor Completion in tendon refinement. Ten years of nurturing the Holy Law has pushed you to Great Completion. With time, you'll refine bone and marrow—and with the Holy Law's power, your path will outshine all others. Now, try cultivating your origin force."
Placing the letter away, Darian sat cross-legged. The moment he began circulating the Aetherial Force, the Holy Law origin in his Core pulsed—drawing in every drop of origin force and transforming it.
A quarter-hour later—
Boom!
Golden light erupted from within him. A new, pale-golden energy surged through his body—denser, deadlier, and blazing with battle intent.
"Riven… what is this?"
"This," Riven said with satisfaction, "is Holy Dao Battle Qi—ten times stronger, purer, and more lethal than ordinary origin force. With it, you can leap realms and defeat opponents far stronger than you."
A fierce glint sparked in Darian's eyes.
"Halron… I will protect the Blood Dragon Jade you left me. Lucian… you'll be the first stepping stone in my return to glory."