21: Chapter 21 No inheritance? Then offer your soul in return.

These words did not sound like a threat, but rather like the final sentence for the disposal of an object.

The coldness and sense of inevitability contained within them caused Xuan Chenzi's phantom, composed of pure Soul Power, to ripple violently, churning like boiling water.

"Presumptuous!"

Xuan Chenzi had lived for who knew how many years; even with only a wisp of his remnant Soul remaining, his dignity was fused with the rules of heaven and earth in this Scripture Pavilion.

With an angry shout, his voice was no longer hollow but carried the tangible sense of clashing metal and stone, resounding throughout the entire space.

In an instant, the Scripture Pavilion, which had been silent for thousands of years, seemed to come alive.

On rows of towering bookshelves, those ancient scrolls and Jade Slips trembled slightly, and wisps of extremely pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi were drawn from them, transforming into visible cyan currents of Qi that surged toward Xuan Chenzi like a hundred rivers returning to the sea!

This was his authority as a guardian spirit; in this place, he was a part of the rules!

The frenzy of Spiritual Qi gathered into a surging giant wave, slamming fiercely toward Shen Xiao in an attempt to wash away and crush the strange power locking onto his Soul body.

However, a strange scene occurred.

When the cyan wave of Spiritual Qi touched the three-foot radius around Shen Xiao, it was as if it had struck a red-hot branding iron, emitting a harsh "sizzling" sound.

The Heaven-Defying Aura attached to Xuan Chenzi's Soul body was not dispersed; instead, like a shark smelling blood, it followed the flow of the Spiritual Qi and counter-attacked, eroding him!

"This... what is this power?!"

Xuan Chenzi was terrified.

He could clearly feel that the close connection between himself, the Scripture Pavilion, and the rules of this heaven and earth was being forcibly corroded and severed by that strange gray-black Aura.

He was like an ancient tree with roots spanning ten thousand years, but now, someone was using an invisible, poisonous saw to frantically cut his roots!

A rejection and fear stemming from the level of world rules, like a cold tide, submerged his remaining consciousness.

He finally understood that the power mastered by the young man before him was not any known Dao technique, but the absolute natural enemy of the "Child of Destiny" order he was guarding!

The futile struggle came to an abrupt end.

The surging wave of Spiritual Qi receded like an ebb tide, and Xuan Chenzi's Soul phantom stabilized again, even becoming slightly more solid than before, clearly having gathered all his power for self-preservation.

His turbid eyes stared fixedly at Shen Xiao, and his ancient, hoarse voice carried a trace of trembling: "Young man, do you know the consequences of forcibly seizing a Child of Destiny's Legacy? Such a Heaven-Defying act will surely invite punishment from the Heavenly Dao; your Divine Soul will be destroyed, and you will be doomed eternally!"

"Heh."

Hearing this, Shen Xiao let out a cold laugh filled with mockery, cutting him off directly.

"Old man, save that spiel you use to fool three-year-olds."

He took a step forward, and his pressing Aura caused Xuan Chenzi's Soul body to drift back by half a fraction.

"Heavenly Dao punishment? It's already on its way; do you really need to remind me?"

Shen Xiao's eyes were like two sharp scalpels, as if he wanted to completely dissect the essence of Xuan Chenzi's existence: "You are nothing more than a pre-set 'Opportunity Gift Package' on the heavenly dao chessboard, without even an independent personality. You are just a solidified program, waiting here for your Child of Destiny to come and sign for it."

He paused, and every word was like a heavy hammer, smashing fiercely against Xuan Chenzi's unchanging obsession of ten thousand years.

"You think you are guarding a Legacy? Don't be ridiculous. You are just waiting to be devoured by him, to become a part of his cultivation, and together with this 'Counter-flow Step', be packaged and gifted to him as a stepping stone!"

"No... impossible! I am Xuan Chen! I am the guardian of the Legacy! My mission is to select a talent for heaven and earth, to continue the lost teachings of the sages!" Xuan Chenzi's Soul body fluctuated violently, letting out a silent roar.

The belief he had guarded for ten thousand years developed spiderweb-like cracks at this moment.

"Select a talent?" The mockery on Shen Xiao's face grew deeper. "Are you selecting a talent, or are you selecting that guy with the 'Child of Destiny' mark branded on his forehead? If a Demonic Path Cultivator with talent a hundred times higher than Lin Yun came today, would you pass on the Cultivation Technique to him? No, you wouldn't. Because your core logic was hard-coded by the Heavenly Dao from the very beginning."

Shen Xiao did not give him any chance to think or argue, raising his right hand directly.

A pale blue System panel unfolded in his field of vision, invisible to others. His cold gaze swept over Xuan Chenzi's illusory figure, locking directly onto a faint point of light.

That was a memory fragment concerning the general outline of the "Counter-flow Step".

"Plunder."

Shen Xiao muttered in his heart.

"Ah...!"

Xuan Chenzi suddenly clutched his head, letting out a shrill, silent scream that echoed only on the Soul level!

He could clearly "see" an unreasonable and extremely barbaric power, like a rough hand, forcibly tearing and stripping that memory he was so familiar with out of his Soul body's Origin!

The excruciating pain of his Soul being forcibly divided far exceeded any physical injury he had suffered during his lifetime, as if his entire existence had been torn open with a wound that could never heal!

A mass of memory energy emitting a soft cyan light floated out from Xuan Chenzi's illusory body and landed in Shen Xiao's palm.

It was like a breathing star, slowly rotating, containing the most core Profound Truth of the "Counter-flow Step".

Holding this mass of light, Shen Xiao, right in front of Xuan Chenzi, slowly pressed it toward his own glabella as if savoring a beautiful delicacy.

As the light mass merged, Xuan Chenzi could clearly feel that a part of himself had completely and permanently become someone else's property.

That feeling of being "eaten" plunged him into unprecedented panic and weakness.

"How does it feel?"

Shen Xiao's cold voice sounded again, like the death god's ultimatum.

"Now, you still have two choices."

"One, you voluntarily release your Soul body and hand over the complete Legacy to me. I swear by my Heart Demon that after obtaining the Cultivation Technique, I will never harm the foundation of your Soul body and will let you continue to slumber here."

The corner of his mouth curled into an extremely cruel arc, and his gaze landed on Xuan Chenzi's increasingly dim Soul body, as if he were examining the quality of a peerless medicine.

"Two, I will treat you as a living Secret Manual, tearing it page by page, 'eating' it bite by bite. Until I obtain the complete Cultivation Technique. The process might be a bit long, and for you, it might also... be a bit painful."

The extreme pain, combined with the sudden collapse of his ten-thousand-year belief, completely destroyed Xuan Chenzi's last will to resist.

He had lost, lost completely.

The power of rules he relied on was countered, and the belief he had held onto was proven to be a joke.

Resisting would only invite longer, more humiliating torture.

His illusory figure withered, as if he had instantly aged a thousand years, and his voice carried endless fatigue, trembling, and a trace of relief.

"...I will give it to you."

Xuan Chenzi raised his head; in those turbid eyes, there was no longer any struggle, only dead silence.

"But you must make a Heart Demon oath. After I hand over the Legacy, you must immediately lift the imprisonment on me and, furthermore, never reveal my existence to any living being in this world in any way."

To him, having the Legacy taken away by someone other than the Child of Destiny was already a great humiliation.

If this matter were to spread, the last shred of Xuan Chenzi's dignity would also vanish completely.

"Agreed."

Shen Xiao did not hesitate, immediately raising three fingers and swearing a Heart Demon oath with his own Dao Heart; the content of the oath matched Xuan Chenzi's requirements exactly.

In the dark, an invisible shackle of Karma was quietly established.

The moment the oath was completed, Xuan Chenzi let out a long sigh, as if he had let go of all his obsessions.

He no longer maintained the form of an old man, and his entire Soul body dissipated with a boom, transforming into a brilliant cyan stream of light that, like a shooting star, instantly submerged into Shen Xiao's glabella!

Boom—!

A torrent of information, thousands of times larger than before, like a bursting galaxy, fiercely rushed into Shen Xiao's Sea of Consciousness!

"Counter-flow Step"!

From the most basic introductory Mind-Cultivation Technique, to the techniques of attaining the entry-level, to the Profound Truth of pure mastery, and even the Major Achievement insights of finally seeing through the Void Realm and shattering time!

Countless images, scriptures, and cultivation insights were forcibly branded deep into his Soul, as if he had been enlightened by a master.

Xuan Chenzi's lifelong understanding of movement techniques belonged entirely to Shen Xiao at this moment!

Shen Xiao closed his eyes, silently enduring the impact of this massive amount of information.

Around his body, air currents began to distort uncontrollably, and his figure left behind blurry afterimages in place, as if he would merge into the darkness at any moment.

It was also at this moment that the cold and familiar System notification sound exploded suddenly, with unprecedented urgency!

[Ding! Successfully intercepted the Child of Destiny's Opportunity—complete "Counter-flow Step" Legacy!]

[Successfully plundered high-level plot character "Xuan Chenzi"!]

[Comprehensive judgment: Reward 30 destiny value points!]

[Current destiny value: 75/100!]

However, before the joy could even arise, the next second, a blood-red warning flashed across the screen again, every word like a red-hot knife stabbing fiercely into Shen Xiao's consciousness!

[Warning! Heavenly Dao compensation mechanism has been strengthened for the second time!]

[Target "Xia Lengbai" has obtained temporary "Heavenly Dao Patrol" authority, movement speed greatly increased, and perception range for "Heaven-Defying" individuals expanded tenfold!]

[Estimated arrival time has been shortened to: six hours!]

Shen Xiao opened his eyes suddenly, his pupils contracting to the size of pinpoints.

Twelve hours, cut in half just like that!

The Heavenly Dao could no longer wait.