241: Believe in love

Inside the Immortal Cave, a youth with a high ponytail, dressed in a plain cyan robe, held a long scroll in his hands. His eyes were slightly narrowed, and a faint golden light shimmered within them.

"Hmm!"

Zhou Yan suddenly opened his eyes wide, straightened his body, and subconsciously swallowed his saliva. Only then did he snap back to reality and realize he had fallen asleep while reading.

"What on earth is this!"

He tossed aside the Nascent Soul Formation insights given by Li Wenbo and began scratching his head vigorously, as if trying to scrape what he had just read out of his brain.

As his emotions fluctuated, a halo radiating a peaceful Aura slowly condensed behind his head, simultaneously soothing his restless mood.

"Ah~ That's much better~"

After calming down, Zhou Yan conjured a water mirror, made a gesture, and examined the halo behind his head.

"Tsk, it looks so cool no matter how I look at it. Now I really have a bit of a divine feeling."

This halo was the merit golden wheel of the Human Dao, which he had condensed according to the method he had just learned after comprehending the Human Dao.

Had he not comprehended the Human Dao, Zhou Yan truly wouldn't have known he had accumulated so much Karma within his body.

He speculated that this must be the Karma bestowed by the Human Dao after he observed the remnants of the Human Dao and saved the entire Kaifeng.

Although he didn't know why the System hadn't given a notification, this Karma certainly belonged to him.

Thus, Zhou Yan used national destiny as the framework and wrapped the Karma around it, creating this impressive halo. Any national destiny and Karma collected in the future could be carried by this halo.

According to the knowledge in his mind, this halo might become a merit Magic Treasure in the future. Of course, that is for later; for now, it could only be used for showing off and reflecting some damage when attacked.

It was neither as exaggerated as Long Tianxing's falling meteorite, nor did it have the luck bonus of finding Opportunity while walking or achieving Immortal Ascension on the spot.

However, it should make the upcoming path to Nascent Soul Formation much smoother. This halo could stabilize the mind and dispel negative influences; if he encountered any accidents during the Heart Demon Tribulation, it might be able to help.

This was also a characteristic Zhou Yan only realized after activating the golden wheel and discovering that his Heart Demon value remained at zero.

In the past, even without being attacked, his Heart Demon value would fluctuate with his state of mind, maintaining around 10 points.

But now that he had the golden wheel, there were no more fluctuations, indicating that it truly had a great suppressive effect on the Heart Demon.

Since everything was ready, Zhou Yan confidently opened the insights given by Li Wenbo.

It would have been better if he hadn't read it; the moment he did, he became incredibly sleepy.

This wasn't any kind of insights; it was simply Li Wenbo's autobiography.

He recounted from beginning to end what he saw during the Heart Demon Tribulation: relatives, lovers, enemies... He severed ties of affection and kinship, losing almost everything, yet he failed instead.

When he went through the Heart Demon Tribulation a second time, he severed things more thoroughly, but not just for the sake of cultivation; it was to let go of his regrets one by one, and only then did he successfully achieve a Breakthrough to Nascent Soul.

Does it sound simple?

Actually, it is not.

This conclusion was summarized by Zhou Yan himself, because the book Li Wenbo gave was actually a Magic Treasure.

Each page of that book was a storage space, which unfolded into a scroll.

That book was both a catalog and a library.

Just reading all of this, Zhou Yan didn't know how many days he had spent.

The total time spent was longer than his Breakthrough from the Core Formation Middle Stage to Core Formation Perfection.

The key was that this thing couldn't be accelerated with a pocket watch; the reading time was real, and it was truly a form of torture.

If he hadn't already embarked on the path of immortality and had Mental Energy far exceeding that of a Mortal, Zhou Yan felt he would have truly broken down.

He even suspected whether Li Wenbo thought his Heart Demon wasn't heavy enough and specifically created this thing to torture him and help him induce a Heart Demon.

Zhou Yan stuffed the last scroll back into the book, took a deep breath, and prepared to face the final impact.

In fact, the Sect had also left Zhou Yan insights for breaking through to Nascent Soul, but compared to Li Wenbo's, that one was even more abstract.

So much so that Zhou Yan only took one look before deciding to go back to gnawing on Li Wenbo's long-winded treatise; at least Li Wenbo was actually saying something.

But in the insights given by the Sect, there was only one sentence.

"Believe in love."

Thinking of the Sect's consistent style, Zhou Yan felt relieved and stopped after cursing a few times.

It was also at that time that he discovered the merit golden wheel could suppress the growth of the Heart Demon value.

Zhou Yan finally checked his prepared items one last time. Actually, there wasn't much to prepare; just bring the Soul Transformation crystal, and leave the rest to the Law of Creation.

Comprehend!

A massive stream of memories flooded in; this was the way of Dao comprehension that Zhou Yan was familiar with.

Unlike the history of observing the evolution of Laws in the past, this time Zhou Yan saw the story of a maggot.

Just as Li Wenbo said, start with a mouthful of blood, and cultivation depends entirely on survival.

Because its original form was a maggot, this Yao Race Venerable suffered greatly before growing up; both humans and the Yao Race stayed away from it.

But also because it was a maggot, those with even a little intelligence basically wouldn't eat it.

Except for a few with special hobbies, it had almost no natural enemies.

Just like that, it lived all the way to the Foundation Establishment Stage, then the image blurred, all information was interrupted, and it jumped directly to when it was at Nascent Soul Perfection.

At that time, it seemed to be holding something in its arms, and it was being besieged by the Human Race and the Yao Race, its expression sorrowful, with only the desire to survive and endless grief remaining.

Under this intense emotion, accompanied by the extension of some kind of power, it created its own Law Divine Ability and successfully promoted to Soul Transformation.

After it ended, it did not immediately kill the enemies, but instead injected power into the object in its arms.

Then, only a green light containing decay and vitality was seen swirling up.

The image ended there.

Zhou Yan was stunned for a moment before realizing he had finished watching, and also discovered that his face was wet.

He didn't know when he had shed tears, and his clothes were also soaked.

Although he had detached from those memories, Zhou Yan always felt a sense of loss, as if he had just woken up from a big dream.

That dream seemed very moving, but only vague fragments remained, and the more he recalled, the more it dissipated.

Zhou Yan subconsciously gripped the Soul Transformation crystal in his hand.

As that familiar feeling of "breaking the shackles" emerged, he took the Opportunity to begin Nascent Soul Formation.

Although he didn't know exactly what he had just experienced, this low mood was too consistent with the prelude to the Heart Demon Tribulation, and he could just take advantage of this feeling.

And as the shackles were broken, Zhou Yan directly felt the so-called Heart Demon Tribulation; sure enough, the feeling was very full, and it should be packed with Heart Demons.

As for the source of these Heart Demons, Zhou Yan could also guess a little; it was highly likely the lives of those people he experienced during Dao comprehension.

And just as Zhou Yan was in seclusion for his Breakthrough, the outside world had already stirred up waves.

At this moment, everyone in the Kaifeng cast their eyes toward the pillar of light that shot up into the sky from the distant mountain peak.

Under the radiance of the light pillar, the originally bright sky was once again illuminated like night, with only flowing light continuously spreading to the surroundings.

The flowing light rising from bottom to top was bright and steaming, overflowing with the rhythm of life.

In the eyes of ordinary people, this scene was extremely terrifying; after all, they had just experienced an unprecedented crisis not long ago, and now such a strange phenomenon suddenly appeared, it was inevitable that people would be panicked.

Fortunately, the government and the Cultivators comforted them in time, and everyone barely suppressed their fear and did not flee.

Until they witnessed the flowing light continue to bloom, and that vigorous vitality sprinkled over the Kaifeng like a spring breeze, people gradually calmed down, a feeling of yearning rose in their hearts, and they looked toward the direction of the light pillar, no longer restless, only filled with expectations for a beautiful future.

And this scene, in the eyes of those familiar with Zhou Yan and some powerful beings, had another meaning.

Inside the Li Mansion.

Xiao Sheng, Yuan Chenling, and Li Wenbo were looking at the strange phenomenon from afar, their faces showing shock.

Shi Suiyan and Wang Yao had already left because they had been delayed outside for too long and could not wait for Zhou Yan to come out of seclusion.

Just as they expected, Zhou Yan's seclusion this time lasted for nearly two months, and with the New Year approaching, fortunately, they did not continue to wait bitterly.

As for Xiao Sheng, after his own Immortal Artifact was used by others one after another and its light appeared slightly dim, he dared not return for a while, so he wanted to hide for a bit longer.

It wasn't until recently, when he refined the Karma obtained from the Kaifeng into a thin layer of merit golden body, that he breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to set off for home.

Just as he was packing his luggage and had not yet left, Zhou Yan's Nascent Soul Heart Demon Tribulation arrived.

Looking at this momentum, Zhou Yan's Foundation must be solid. Although he didn't know how he did it, it seemed nothing was impossible when it happened to Zhou Yan.

So Xiao Sheng decided to stay for a few more days, waiting quietly for Zhou Yan's successful Breakthrough, and then carry out the plan he had almost given up on.

Li Wenbo's mood was a bit complicated.

He saw Zhou Yan's confidence, but he didn't know how the other party could complete the continuous leap from Core Formation Middle Stage to Nascent Soul Formation in such a short time. But he knew that a Nascent Soul Breakthrough was by no means easy.

Yuan Chenling's thoughts were much simpler.

He was originally in seclusion for a Breakthrough, waiting for Zhou Yan to come out of seclusion to feed him and help him with Core Formation, but he didn't expect that just as he broke through, his boss went to rush for Nascent Soul.

At that time, he was almost desperate, not knowing how long he would have to wait.

But Heaven does not disappoint a determined lion!

Boss, when you come out of seclusion, you must take me to fly!