The wooden door of the dilapidated courtyard closed behind him, shutting out the commotion from deep within the estate.
The last sliver of daylight was swallowed by the gray courtyard walls.
The icy, dead silence wrapped around this narrow space instantly like thick, sticky ink.
The night wind wailed as it blew through a hole in the roof, stirring up a few dead leaves.
Qin Lie leaned his back against the cold earthen wall and slowly slid down to the ground.
Every slight movement pulled at the raging, churning agony within his body.
He opened his palm.
Lying quietly in the center of his palm was the palm-sized, sharp-edged bronze shard.
The deep bronze undertone emitted a chilling light in the dim twilight.
Dense, dark golden patterns, resembling frozen star-trails, were silent and mysterious.
On the surface of the shard, a few droplets of dark red blood that had not yet dried slowly bloomed across the rough patterns.
That was the heart's blood he had spat out when his soul was injured just moments ago.
At this moment, the shard was dull and lusterless.
Like a genuine, ordinary stone.
"Hah..."
Qin Lie twitched the corners of his mouth, triggering a tearing fit of coughing.
Frothy blood spilled from the corners of his lips.
The lingering pain of his torn soul still raged inside his skull, like thousands of steel needles repeatedly piercing through it.
Every breath carried a heavy buzzing sound.
The price was heavy.
But...
It was worth it!
He closed his eyes.
Deep within his consciousness, those distorted, ancient, cold, and profound broken runes were branded there, exceptionally clear.
Reflection!
Analyze!
Trace back!
Reconstruct!
They rotated silently, exuding an aura that pierced through illusions and pointed straight to the origin.
This was the key bought at such a high price!
A key that could pry open fate and peer into the origin of martial arts!
"Hoo..."
He let out a long, slow breath of foul air tinged with the smell of blood.
He forcefully suppressed the stinging pain in his soul and the weakness in his body.
His gaze refocused on the bronze shard in his palm.
Cold, silent.
Yet Qin Lie knew its power went far beyond releasing warm currents and providing perception.
Its true core was that "Reflection" and "Reconstruction"!
The family's Boulders Formula!
This thought struck like lightning, parting the chaos.
Fragments of memories from his past life surged forth.
The foundational introductory cultivation technique of the Zhenbei Estate.
Yellow Grade Lower Tier.
Crude and simple, it excelled by being upright and peaceful, focusing on tempering the tendons, bones, skin, and membranes, and nourishing Qi and blood.
The cultivation route was extremely basic, involving only the twelve coarsest main meridians.
It guided the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth into the body, circulated it along a specific route, and finally converged it into the dantian to nourish and strengthen it.
To a martial artist, this was enlightenment, the very foundation.
But for him right now...
His dantian was shattered like a broken glazed lamp.
His meridians were snapped inch by inch like a riverbed ravaged by a storm.
Under normal circumstances, let alone running a cultivation technique, even guiding a trace of heaven and earth Yuan Qi into his body would be wishful thinking!
The Yuan Qi would only run amok along the severed meridians like a runaway wild horse, instantly tearing his already battered body completely apart!
Yet...
Qin Lie's gaze suddenly turned as sharp as a blade.
Beneath the ice sheet, a desperate fire of last-resort madness was burning.
Normal circumstances?
He, Qin Lie, living a second life, held the key to shattering normal circumstances!
This ancient mirror fragment could "reflect" the tiniest damages and vitality within his body.
It could "reconstruct" that simple Boulders Formula!
Why couldn't it... forcefully tear open a path of survival in this desperate situation for his crippled body?!
Even if this path led to a deeper hell!
He would still charge through it!
Without the slightest hesitation.
Qin Lie closed his eyes, enduring the lingering pain of his torn soul and the weakness of his body.
All his remaining spiritual power twisted like an untamed, resilient thread spun by an invisible hand.
Cautiously yet with absolute firmness, it probed toward the bronze shard in his palm.
His target was precisely the complex dark golden patterns in the core area that had just been stained with his fresh blood!
The instant his consciousness made contact—
Hum!
A very faint tremor, perceptible only to the soul, came from inside the shard.
Cold!
Profound!
Carrying the will to pierce through all things!
An invisible, chilling power of perception, like ripples stirred by a stone thrown into a calm lake, fed back instantly!
No longer the warm current from before.
It was the eye of "Reflection"!
Qin Lie's mind tightened.
He immediately guided this chilling power of perception not toward his body, but deep into his own mind!
Focusing his intent.
In his past-life memories, that simple, almost crude cultivation route diagram of the Boulders Formula was clearly conjured up by his visualization!
The twelve coarse main meridians, like dried-up riverbeds, were outlined in his consciousness.
Guide the Qi, circulate it, return to the origin.
The route was straight and flat, the nodes sparse, the Qi upright, peaceful, and devoid of any edge.
Like a genuine, ordinary stone, bulky and sluggish.
The exact moment this crude visualization diagram formed in Qin Lie's consciousness!
A sudden change occurred!
The ancient bronze mirror fragment in his palm... lit up without warning!
Hum—!!!
A tremor far more intense and clear than any before erupted fiercely from deep within the shard!
No longer a faint hum.
Instead, it was like a fierce beast slumbering for eternity letting out a low growl upon awakening!
On the surface of the shard, the complex dark golden patterns stained with his heart's vital blood suddenly burst forth with dazzling radiance!
No longer the flowing motion of molten gold!
Instead, it was as if they had come to life!
Countless dark golden beams of light, as fine as hairs, gushed forth from those profound patterns like living elves.
They were not scattered and chaotic in their release.
Instead, they crazily intertwined, spiraled, and reorganized in the empty space an inch above the shard!
The speed surpassed the limit of what the naked eye could capture!
Qin Lie felt a "boom" inside his head!
The crude cultivation diagram of the Boulders Formula he had visualized was forcefully "yanked" away from his consciousness by an irresistible, cold, and grand force!
Like a pebble thrown into a boiling crucible!
Those twelve withered main meridian phantoms were instantly enveloped and swallowed by countless gushing dark golden light streams!
The light of the ancient mirror transformed at this moment into the most precise carving knife in heaven and earth! The most merciless eye of rules!
The power of "Reflection" was activated!
Qin Lie's consciousness felt as if it were forcefully elevated, and from a bird's-eye perspective, he "saw" clearly inside the cultivation diagram wrapped by the streams of light!
The crude lines were infinitely magnified and analyzed.
Those minor meridian tributaries ignored by the original technique, like withered capillaries, were rendered in sharp detail under the eye of reflection!
The weak points of the meridian walls, the stagnation nodes during Yuan Qi circulation, the energy loss at route turns... every tiny flaw and every ignored corner of potential had nowhere to hide under the chilling light of the ancient mirror!
"Analysis" followed closely behind!
The dark golden light streams, like a master runemaster's spiritual brush, began to crazily outline, modify, add to, and delete from the infinitely magnified cultivation diagram!
Screech!
A main meridian route that originally led straight to the dantian was abruptly intercepted in the middle!
The light streams cut in as precisely as a surgical scalpel, skillfully twisting and turning the broken section, bypassing the destruction-laden dark green poisonous zone at the core of the dantian.
At the same time, an extremely minuscule and previously ignored hidden meridian tributary connecting the visceral region was suddenly lit up and widened!
Hum!
A critical Yuan Qi circulation node was ruthlessly erased by the light streams!
In its place, a more complex light-and-shadow structure resembling a miniature vortex was embedded along the route, exuding an aura of high-efficiency intake and expulsion.
Boom!
The core artistic conception of the entire cultivation diagram—that heavy, "boulder-like" sensation—underwent a world-shaking transformation through the analysis and reconstruction of the ancient mirror!
A trace of unyielding, towering sharpness, as if a mountain wanted to pierce the firmament, was forcefully injected!
It remained heavy, but was no longer clumsy and sluggish!
It carried a sense of power, compressed to the extreme and yearning to erupt!
The power of "Reconstruction" erupted to the extreme!
The dark golden light streams, like a crazed painter, splashed ink and wielded their brush in that boiling void of light and shadow!
Brand-new, more complex, exquisite, and conforming to some profound rhythms of heaven and earth routes were constructed and connected out of thin air!
Seventeen!
A full seventeen brand-new hidden meridian routes, like the veins of stars, were forcefully outlined out of the void by the light streams!
They cleverly interspersed and linked between the original twelve main meridians, like injecting brand-new, vibrant sinews into a withered skeleton!
The complexity of the new cultivation diagram instantly skyrocketed by more than tenfold!
Dense routes, resembling the most precise star map, crazily rotated, reorganized, and solidified within the dark golden light streams!
Finally.
All the radiance fiercely retracted inward!
In the void, a brand-new cultivation route diagram, exuding ancient, heavy, yet implicitly unyielding sharpness, floated clearly above the ancient mirror shard like a brand!
It was no longer simple lines.
Instead, it was a three-dimensional, dynamic light-and-shadow human meridian diagram radiating weak energy fluctuations!
Countless tiny light spots, like stars, flowed slowly along a route complex enough to dazzle the eyes.
Every single flow faintly stirred the weak heaven and earth Yuan Qi around it, emitting a deep resonance!
Old technique versus new technique—a difference as vast as clouds and mud!
The crude, ordinary stone had been reconstructed into a towering mountain concealing world-shaking sharpness!
Qin Lie suddenly opened his eyes!
His pupils shrank to the size of needle tips due to extreme shock!
He stared fixedly at the brand-new cultivation light-and-shadow diagram floating above the ancient mirror shard and rotating slowly!
His heart beat against his chest like a giant hammer striking fiercely!
A shudder originating from deep within his soul swept across his entire body!
Optimization?
No!
This wasn't optimization at all!
This was... a rebirth! Turning decay into magic! This was... defying the heavens and changing fate!
The ability of this bronze ancient mirror fragment was far more terrifying than even his wildest imagination!
It had truly... forcefully torn open a path of survival in the desperate dead-end of martial arts for his crippled body!
An unprecedented, overwhelmingly domineering path of survival!
Euphoria washed over him like magma, instantly breaching the dam of reason!
He no longer hesitated for a single moment!
His intent, like the most devout believer, locked firmly onto that floating, heavy, and sharply-intent-laden brand-new cultivation diagram!
Forcefully memorize it!
Use all the power of his soul to brand it!
That maddeningly complex route, those seventeen newly added hidden meridian nodes, that brand-new energy circulation rhythm... every single detail was deeply engraved into the depths of his consciousness like a red-hot branding iron!
When the last shred of light and shadow was firmly memorized, the floating light-and-shadow diagram abruptly vanished.
The light on the surface of the ancient mirror shard also dimmed accordingly, leaving behind only a faint warmth.
Yet Qin Lie felt as if his head were about to explode.
Forcefully memorizing such a complex and profound cultivation technique placed a tremendous burden on him, given that his soul had just suffered injuries.
Yet he didn't care at all!
His gaze burned like a blazing star!
He lowered his head and looked at the shard in his palm, which had returned to stillness.
The pads of his fingers unconsciously rubbed against the cold dark golden patterns.
Then.
He slowly closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath.
Air mixed with earth, blood, and decay rushed into his lungs.
Bringing a trace of clarity.
It was time!
Following the cultivation route branded deep in his soul—the brand-new Boulders Formula (perhaps it should be called the True Zhenyue Manual)—he began to try!
Step one, guiding the Qi!
He cast aside all distractions, his mind sinking into a state of utter emptiness.
His intent, like the gentlest wind, cautiously probed into the void surrounding his body.
Sensing the stray, weak Yuan Qi particles between heaven and earth.
To him, who was once a Peak Martial Master, this should have been as natural as breathing.
But now, his meridians were severed, his dantian shattered, and his body was like a leaky sack open to the wind on all sides.
The moment his intent spread out, it sank like a stone in the ocean, struggling to coalesce.
It even triggered the stagnant poison within his body, bringing waves of sharp pain.
"Hmph..."
Qin Lie let out a muffled groan, fine beads of cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
Yet his gaze remained cold and resolute.
Once, twice, three times...
His intent, like the most stubborn fisherman, cast invisible nets over and over again into the roaring sea.
Finally!
After countless attempts!
A trace of heaven and earth Yuan Qi particles, weak to the point of being almost imperceptible and carrying a cool aura, was laboriously captured and drawn in by his exceptionally resilient intent!
Like the first wisp of firefly light caught in the dark!
He immediately followed the starting route of the True Zhenyue Manual—the new route reconstructed by the ancient mirror, completely bypassing the dantian's core and bizarrely starting right below his heart, near the dark purple toxic bruise!
Cautiously, he guided this pathetically weak Yuan Qi particle and sent it into his body!
The instant the Yuan Qi entered his body—
Uriah—!!!
A muffled, beast-like death rattle of a scream burst from the depths of Qin Lie's throat!
Pain!
Indescribable agony!
Tenfold, a hundredfold more violent than any pain he had endured before!
The seemingly weak Yuan Qi particle, the moment it entered his fractured and twisted meridians, felt like molten lava pouring into a dry, cracked riverbed!
Screech—!
It felt as though countless red-hot steel needles were violently stabbing into his fragile meridian walls along the newly "paved" route! Stabbing into the flesh and blood tissues along the way that had long been eroded by poison and rendered fragile beyond measure!
Ice and fire intertwined!
The energy impact contained within the Yuan Qi particle itself instantly engaged in the most violent conflict, collision, and annihilation with the stagnant dead Qi of the Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison and the residual corrosive power of the Soul-Dispersing Severed Vein Wine inside his body!
Although the new cultivation route was exquisite and avoided the most fatal toxic nest.
The regions it passed through were likewise riddled with holes and dead zones repeatedly eroded by severe poison!
The Yuan Qi particle was like a spark thrown into a battlefield filled with gunpowder and oil!
Detonation!
Violent turbulent energy ran amok within the narrow "passage"!
Qin Lie's body trembled violently, like a leaf in a gale.
Twisted, earthworm-like dark green patterns instantly bulged across the surface of his skin.
That was the sign of energy running out of control in his broken meridians!
Cold sweat poured down like a waterfall, instantly soaking his thin garments.
His teeth chattered, his lower lip already bitten through, and fresh blood mixed with cold sweat flowed down.
The lingering pain of his soul tearing apart had not yet dissipated, and this torture of his flesh being torn apart inch by inch and repeatedly scoured by violent energy almost instantly dragged him to the verge of collapse!
No!
He absolutely could not give up!
A terrifying blood-red light erupted in Qin Lie's eyes!
Like a lone wolf driven to a desperate corner!
He clutched the warm bronze shard tightly.
As if drawing the last bit of strength and... chilling will from it!
Enduring the inhuman agony, his intent acted like the most precise helmsman, fiercely controlling that wispy, violent Yuan Qi particle!
Following the maddeningly complex route of the True Zhenyue Manual, he pushed forward bit by bit, with agonizing difficulty!
Every tug of his intent felt like scraping his own bones with a red-hot knife!
Yet with every advance, that wispy, violent Yuan Qi particle was forcibly "tamed" just a fraction during this excruciatingly painful process of "pioneering"!
It was assimilated by the heavy, condensed, and strangely unyielding sharp rhythm contained within that brand-new route!
At the same time, wherever the Yuan Qi particle passed, though it brought destructive pain, it also acted like the most overbearing scavenger, forcefully scouring and annihilating the portions of dark purple toxic residue (Purple Heart Bone-Corroding Poison) clinging to the meridian walls along the way!
Though it was merely an insignificant fraction.
That bone-deep frigid dead Qi was indeed... weakened by a fraction!
Pain and purification!
Destruction and rebirth!
On this desperate path forcefully torn open by the ancient mirror, they intertwined and played out in the most brutal fashion!
Qin Lie felt as if he were placed in the crucible of purgatory.
His body was the fuel, his soul the firewood.
Every single second, he endured torment that exceeded his limits.
Time lost its meaning.
There was only endless pain and that weak yet resolute advancement.
How much time passed?
It felt as long as a century.
That wispy, violent Yuan Qi particle was finally... driven by his supreme willpower to push forward laboriously along the complex route intertwined by the seventeen hidden meridians of the True Zhenyue Manual... completing a full... minor heavenly cycle!
The moment this initially "tamed" pale golden Qi stream—its volume shrunk by nearly half, yet condensed and weighted several times over, carrying a trace of faint mountain sharpness—finally sank into accordance with the cultivation route... not the dantian!
Instead, it sank into a temporary "Qi cavity" located right below his heart, near the dark purple toxic bruise, specially carved out by the ancient mirror's reconstructed route deep within his visceral flesh and blood!
Hum!
The instant this pale golden, condensed, and heavy Qi stream sank into that tiny Qi cavity!
Qin Lie's entire body shook violently!
As if struck by a weak electric current!
An indescribable, weak yet undeniably real... sense of strength!
Like the first spring gushing forth from the depths of a billion-year-dried desert!
It instantly spread from that tiny Qi cavity!
Though as weak as a candle in the wind.
It flowed with unmistakable clarity through his nearly exhausted limbs and bones!
This strength was heavy! Condensed! Carrying a boulder-like stability while implicitly harboring a trace of a mountain's desire to pierce the firmament!
It was completely different from any True Essence he had cultivated in his past life!
It was not stored in the dantian Qi ocean.
Instead, like a seed, it took deep root in the depths of his visceral flesh and blood!
Sharing a neighborhood with the toxic bruise and using his ravaged body as soil, it drew strength from pain and destruction, stubbornly... sprouting vitality!
Success!
Qin Lie abruptly opened his eyes!
Deep within his pupils, the endless pain was replaced by a nearly fanatical, survivor's radiance!
Though his body remained weak and his soul still stung.
Though that wispy pale golden Qi stream was so weak it was almost negligible.
Yet...
Strength!
Strength belonging to himself!
Inside this crippled body condemned as trash, above the ruins of the martial arts dead-end, he had personally... reignited it!
He lowered his head and looked at the bronze ancient mirror fragment in his palm, which had completely returned to tranquility, retaining only a faint warmth.
Its cold edges pressed against his palm, bringing a touch of real tactile sensation.
The corners of his mouth slowly and with extreme difficulty pulled upward.
Carving out an arc that was cold and weary, yet laden with endless madness and hope.
A shattered mirror reveals the true technique!
The path through the desperate dead-end... has opened!
The cold moonlight climbed silently onto the dilapidated lattice window.
Like frost and snow, it spilled across Qin Lie's sweat-and-blood-stained face.
He still leaned against the cold earthen wall.
His body trembled slightly from excessive consumption and excruciating pain.
Every slight twitch pulled at the newly opened meridian routes, bringing lingering, tearing pain.
Yet deep within his drooping eyes.
Beneath the frozen abyss.
A tiny yet exceptionally resilient golden light, like a seed buried deep underground, quietly sprouted amidst the ruins of pain and destruction.
He slowly raised his lowered head.
Beneath the blood-stained, messy strands of hair, those eyes cast a cold gaze toward the pale moon outside the window.
His intent stirred slightly.
The warm bronze shard in his palm seemed to sense something.
With extreme faintness...
It trembled.
A trace of moonlight, almost impossible to detect, guided by an invisible force, quietly converged.
Silently and soundlessly...
It sank into the profound dark golden patterns on the surface of the shard.