41: The world's rejection

Inside the cave, the smell of blood mixed with the dampness of soil was as thick as indelible ink.

Jiang Chen did not look at the bodies on the ground, cut into neat pieces by wind blades.

His gaze fell on the golden feather lying quietly before him.

It was very long, over a meter, like a ceremonial sword forged of gold.

The surface of the feather lacked the usual fluffiness of bird feathers; instead, it was as smooth as metal, and the edge of each barb shimmered with a sharp glint, seemingly capable of cutting one's vision.

It felt heavy in his hand.

Not heavy in weight, but rather... a responsibility, or perhaps, the weighty feeling of a covenant.

Under his Eye of Insight, he could see inside the feather, a violent golden storm, compressed to its extreme, slowly rotating, like an ancient Vicious Beast trapped in amber.

A full-power strike from a Late Stage Nascent Soul.

This was indeed a generous gift.

It was also the pass to become one of the top kings of this Ten Thousand Demons Valley.

In his arms, the fluffy little fellow had fallen asleep, emitting steady, soft breaths. Its golden fur looked somewhat warm under the dim blue light of the cave's mushrooms.

Xiao Jin.

This thought, for no apparent reason, emerged from Jiang Chen's heart.

It wasn't a result of deep contemplation, but as natural as kicking a pebble while walking. Just a codename.

He put away the feather, held Xiao Jin, and turned to walk out of the cave that had witnessed a change of fate.

Outside, the waterfall still roared.

Sunlight pierced through the mist, creating several blurred rainbows.

Jiang Chen's figure passed through the water curtain, his body still completely dry; his Myriad Laws Dao Body's subtle control over energy and environment had long become an instinct.

He needed to find a place to properly sort out his gains from this trip... Half a day later, in a secluded dense forest.

Jiang Chen sat cross-legged on the crown of a thousand-year-old ancient tree, its dense branches and leaves completely concealing his figure.

Xiao Jin pecked curiously at a leaf beside him, having a great time.

He began to examine himself internally.

Within his Dantian Qi Sea, the total amount of Formless Life Essence was already close to 20,000 units, and the abundant energy, like a river about to burst its banks, was impacting the barrier of the Middle Stage Foundation Establishment.

He could Breakthrough to the Late Stage at any time.

The embryonic form of the Myriad Laws Dao Body slowly operated under his will.

Array Dao Heavenly Heart was the bone, seeing through the underlying structure of all things; Hundred Herb Spirit Body was the flesh, perceiving and refining life energy; Sword Dao Enlightenment was the edge, the will to kill; and the newly acquired Demonic Heart, Phoenix Blood, and Heart of Beast Mastery were like nascent organs and meridians, making the functions of this "Dao Body" increasingly perfect and powerful.

He was no longer the thief who needed to be cautious everywhere and evade pursuit.

With a Nascent Soul-level trump card in hand and various unfathomable talents, he was already considered a chess player who could sit by the board and watch others make their moves.

Although, he was still far from being the one playing the game.

Thinking of this, he prepared to activate his Formless Life Essence, and with one fell swoop, Break through the Bottleneck.

However, the moment his thought stirred.

An inexplicable palpitation, without any warning, struck him.

It wasn't a premonition of danger; it was more like... the entire world frowning at him.

He suddenly looked up.

The sky was still the same sky, falsely blue.

But in his Eye of Insight, the Heavenly Dao's giant net, woven from countless Law lines, which enveloped the entire cultivation world, was undergoing subtle changes.

The Law lines corresponding to the area he was in were... thickening.

It was as if countless finer threads were wrapped around the existing lines, making this "grid" exceptionally heavy and conspicuous.

Moreover, this "reinforced" area was slowly moving, centered on him.

It was not a curse.

Nor was it a bounty hunt.

A concept from his previous life immediately popped into Jiang Chen's mind—firewall upgrade.

The "Heavenly Dao" cage of this world, because of his continuous "jailbreaks" as a "virus," was starting to apply targeted patches.

It did not send down Lightning Tribulations to attack him.

That crude method might be effective against native creatures, but against him, an "anomaly," it seemed ineffective.

This time, it chose a more fundamental and intractable method.

Correcting the rules.

Jiang Chen's thoughts stirred, and he took out a cup of clear water from his storage ring.

The water was clear, and Spiritual Qi was abundant.

He took a sip.

The moment it entered his mouth, the originally pure Spiritual Qi suddenly became impure and chaotic, as if a handful of sand had been forcibly mixed into a cup of sweet spring water.

His brow furrowed slightly.

He tried to breathe.

The dense Spiritual Qi around him, as if alive, strangely slid to both sides just before he completed his respiratory cycle, creating a vacuum zone.

What he inhaled was only the thinnest, most useless Mortal air.

He stood up from the tree and took a step forward.

The branch beneath his foot let out a faint "creak," with a hint of unnatural stickiness compared to normal.

The wind blew in front of him, rustling the corner of his clothes, carrying a sense of... repulsion.

Jiang Chen stopped all movements and stood quietly on the treetop.

He was horrified to discover that the entire world, from the circulation of Spiritual Qi to the friction of matter, and the conduction of energy... everything was, in a subtle and pervasive manner, repelling and weakening him in all aspects, without any blind spots.

He was like a wrongly written code, and the entire program was spontaneously isolating and correcting him.

This suppression was impossible to resist.

Because his opponent was the world itself.

It was every wisp of wind, every drop of water, every speck of dust.

Forcibly Breaking through in this environment was tantamount to seeking death.

Jiang Chen's expression, for the first time, became solemn.

But beneath that solemnity, there was no fear, only a cold, boiling thrill.

Wasn't subverting these rules his greatest pleasure?

He did not stubbornly resist.

Fighting the rules was foolish.

What he needed to do was find the loopholes in the rules, or... the places where the rules were weak.

A thought clearly emerged in his mind.

The Heavenly Dao Laws were closely related to the concentration of Spiritual Qi and the density of Karma connections.

The cultivation world was where the Laws were most stringent and active.

So... what about the Mortal world, where Spiritual Qi was thinnest and Karma was most sparse?

Jiang Chen looked down at Xiao Jin, who was snuggling again in his arms, trying to find a more comfortable position.

He retracted all his aura.

The Myriad Laws Dao Body slowly became dormant, leaving only a faint fluctuation of Qi and blood, like that of a Mortal Martial Artist.

His black clothes turned into rough linen, and his face also gained traces of hardship.

Holding a somewhat mystical golden-yellow "chick," he leaped down from the treetop and silently merged into the dense forest below, heading towards the Mortal realm.

Just like a drop of water, actively flowing into the desert.

He wanted to go to the land of Mortals to find a way to resist this "world-level malice."

Or... find new "food."