275: Chapter 276 Earthly Fiend Cave, Opening the Furnace

The mining area's passageway was very narrow, with rusted, dilapidated miner's lamp brackets hanging on both stone walls; they were made of iron, and most were already bent.

Lin Qi walked in front, the gravel beneath his feet crunching with every step.

The deeper he went, the more obvious the fluctuations of the Law became in the air.

It was not the orderly, cold data flow of the System, but a more primal, coarser pulse of energy, as if something buried deep underground was breathing.

Core Compass.

The last time he suppressed the Earth Fiend Cave here, he had placed this thing into the formation eye.

The compass had completely locked onto the Earth Fiend Cave's natural Law node, and the entire cave had become his "home field."

After walking for about twenty minutes, the passage suddenly opened up.

A natural hemispherical karst cave appeared before him, at least forty meters in diameter, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling; the largest one was as thick as two people embracing.

In the very center of the cave, on a flat bluestone platform, the Core Compass was spinning silently, emitting a faint, deep blue light.

Within three meters of the compass, the air was distorted.

It was not the distortion caused by heat waves; it was the light itself taking a detour in this area.

Lin Qi placed his backpack on the dry ground in the corner and simply unrolled the bedding Zhang Wei had stuffed in for him.

Then he walked to the cave wall, squatted down, and drew a line on the ground with his finger.

Fine cracks appeared on the stone surface.

"The concentration of essence is not bad," he muttered to himself.

This place Zhang Wei chose was indeed suitable.

The Earth Fiend Cave itself was a natural Law node, with essence constantly seeping out from underground; the concentration was stable, unlike the extreme cold ice caves that would frequently release energy tides that could nearly kill a person.

More importantly—he had suppressed this place before.

His Law imprint still remained on every inch of the rock wall, and the cost of using "My Body is the World" here was much lower than outside.

In case something went wrong during the Breakthrough, he would at least have a layer of insurance.

Lin Qi sat on the edge of the bluestone platform, crossed his legs, fished Zheng Wujiang's notes out of his backpack, and turned to that page.

"essence is not just energy to strengthen the Physical Body. It might be the blood of this world's 'System'."

He stared at this line of text for a long time.

In the previous life's "martial arts era," essence was the most basic source of experience points; killing monsters dropped essence, and absorbing essence to level up was a matter of course.

But that was a game.

This world also had essence, also had monster-killing, and also had leveling up.

The question was—was this world actually a "game"?

That piece of ancient code at the bottom of the chip had always weighed on his heart, and he had not mentioned it to anyone.

It was not a lack of trust; it was that this information was too critical, and saying it out loud would only cause trouble for others.

"Zheng Wujiang saw a part of the truth," Lin Qi said, closing the notes. "But he didn't see deep enough."

He stood up and walked to the Core Compass.

The compass was still spinning, its blue light sweeping across the inner walls of the cave in circles; every time it swept past, the concentration of essence in the air rose slightly.

Lin Qi stretched out his right hand and pressed his palm against the surface of the compass.

An icy cold touch. Then, a familiar flow of energy surged up from the depths of the compass and poured into his Meridians along his arm.

It was not a standardized data product distributed by the System.

It was raw, unprocessed, savage essence.

This stuff entered his body without triggering any changes in panel numbers—he did not have a panel to begin with.

But his internal organs were vibrating slightly.

The Five Elements cycle was triggered.

Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—the Five Elements returned to their respective positions within his body, forming a closed, small world of their own.

As the raw essence poured in, it was like adding firewood to a furnace, and the flames suddenly leaped up a few notches.

"Good."

Lin Qi withdrew his hand and sat back on the bluestone platform.

One cannot be hasty when attempting a Breakthrough to the Tongshen Realm.

In his previous life, it took him seven years. This life, the conditions were better—he had the complete experience from his previous life, the foundation of the Organ Refining Realm for his Physical Body, the trump card of "My Body is the World," and Zheng Wujiang's unique theory about raw essence in his notes.

But no matter how good the conditions, the path that must be walked cannot be skipped.

The core of the Tongshen Realm is not in brute force, but in "enlightenment."

Enlightenment of what?

Enlightenment of the "Dao."

What was his Dao?

Lin Qi closed his eyes.

In his previous life, he had fought in the "martial arts era" for twelve years. The first six years were spent climbing, the next six years reaching the Peak, and the final seven years were spent stubbornly attacking the Tongshen Realm; during that time, he was slaughtered thousands of times by various BOSSes before he barely managed to touch that door.

The threshold for the Tongshen Realm was only one sentence: Use the Physical Body to communicate with heaven and earth, and merge one's own will with the Laws of the world.

His understanding back then was that you had to make yourself a "part" of the world.

But that was the rule in the game.

The rules of this world were different.

The System of this world had always been trying to delete him as a "virus."

You want to make an anomalous file flagged by antivirus software "integrate" into the operating System?

What a joke.

So there was only one path.

Do not integrate; replace.

Use the Law of "My Body is the World" to forcibly graft his own "Heavenly Dao" onto the foundation of this world at the very moment of his Breakthrough to the Tongshen Realm.

It sounded crazy.

But when was he, Lin Qi, ever not crazy?

"Open the furnace."

Lin Qi spat out the two words in a low voice.

He began to circulate his internal alchemy technique, guiding the Five Elements True Qi within his body to cycle along a specific route. Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal. The Five Elements generate each other, cycling endlessly.

Each time it cycled, his Physical Body was tempered by the essence once.

This process was very slow.

And very painful.

Raw essence was different from the "experience points" processed by the System; it had no template, no direction, and pouring it into the human body was like forcing an unpolished piece of Ore into a precision instrument—he had to rely on his own will to polish, shape, and digest it.

Zheng Wujiang wrote in his notes: "The potential of raw essence is infinite because it has not yet been defined."

Conversely, things that haven't been defined are also the hardest to control.

Lin Qi was not in a hurry.

He had one month.

For the first three days, he would first adjust his body to a state beyond its Peak. Then he would start trying to use the Five Elements Law to "deconstruct" the essence of the raw essence. Once his understanding of essence reached a certain depth, he would then touch the threshold of the Tongshen Realm.

Step by step.

One cannot rush.

The cave quieted down.

There was only the buzzing sound of the Core Compass spinning, and the slight creaking of bones as True Qi circulated within Lin Qi's body.

The blue light swept past in circles.

Time began to pass.

---

Outside the mining area.

Zhang Wei lay in the driver's cab, staring at his phone screen and swiping back and forth.

Lin Qi had been inside for two hours, and there was absolutely no communication signal deep in the mining area. This was expected; he had set up a repeater 500 meters from the entrance, but it could only cover the front section of the passage; the core area of the cave was a dead zone.

"It doesn't matter, it's not the first time Seventh Brother has gone into seclusion," he consoled himself.

His phone popped up a new message.

It was sent by Chen Shu.

"A brief activity on the mysterious person's encrypted frequency has been intercepted. It lasted 0.3 seconds, no valid information was transmitted, and localization failed. However, the signal source is in the east of the Federation, with an error range of 3,000 kilometers."

Zhang Wei frowned and replied: "Continue monitoring; notify me the moment there is any unusual movement."

After sending the message, he opened another encrypted communication group.

There were only three people in the group: him, Instructor Su Qing, and Chen Shu.

He had chosen the group name: "Seventh Brother's Support Club."

Instructor Su Qing did not say anything when she saw the group name, but Zhang Wei always felt that her silence carried silent contempt.

He sent a message to the group: "Report: The boss has gone in, and everything is currently normal. Comrades, for the next month, let's all do our jobs and hold the fort outside."

Instructor Su Qing replied instantly: "Stop talking nonsense."

Chen Shu's reply came three seconds later: "Received."

Zhang Wei shrank his neck and exited the group chat.

Well, two ice blocks sandwiching him, a heater.

He turned off his phone and pulled the quilt tighter around himself.

The night in the mining area was wickedly cold, with the wind blowing in from the tunnel entrance, whistling and carrying a smell of rust.

"One month," Zhang Wei muttered.

He took a small notebook out of his pocket—paper, no internet, a habit Seventh Brother had taught him.

He opened the first page, which was densely packed with items to be handled next.

"1. Ending the aftermath of the Li Family: Follow up on the progress of bankruptcy liquidation to ensure that the handover of the fifty-three secret lines goes without a hitch."

"2. Public opinion control: Continue to guide public attention to the Li Qingcang treason case and lower the personal popularity of Lin Qi."

"3. Material supply: Once a week, drop off medicinal herbs and essence storage liquid at the entrance of the mining area."

"4. Intelligence monitoring: Cooperate with Chen Shu to track the mysterious person's signal."

"5. Xiao Family resource handover: The favor owed during the league should be repaid; things cannot be delayed on Xiao Zhenguo's side."

He counted them; five major matters, with a string of minor tasks trailing under each.

"Being Seventh Brother's steward is so fucking tiring."

But the corners of his mouth were turned up.

Tired as he was, he quite enjoyed this feeling of being needed.

Zhang Wei closed the notebook, wrapped himself tightly in the quilt, and closed his eyes.

There were still a pile of things to do tomorrow.

Sleep first.

The night outside the mining area was so quiet that only the chirping of insects remained.