19: Chapter 19 What's yours is mine! I'll destroy your dantian!

A crisp sound of bone cracking echoed through the vast underground cavern.

The curses on Lin Tian's lips were forcefully choked back by blood surging up from his chest.

He gasped for air, each rise and fall of his chest tugging at his broken ribs, bringing a heart-wrenching, agonizing pain.

He stared fixedly at Gu Yi, who was looking down at him from above, his bloodshot eyes filled with a mixture of shock, unwillingness, and intense resentment.

"Cough, cough... Gu Yi... You were hiding in the shadows, plotting against me all along?!"

Lin Tian roared through gritted teeth as he coughed up blood.

In this perilous Forbidden Ground behind the mountain, for Gu Yi to appear at the very last moment just as he was about to touch the Azure Lotus Fire—he could think of no other explanation besides long-planned stalking and exploitation.

Gu Yi did not answer, merely watching Lin Tian, who lay like a trapped beast beneath his feet, with a calm gaze.

This condescending silence, in Lin Tian's eyes, undoubtedly became a form of tacit mockery.

"You hypocrite!"

Lin Tian completely broke down; he used his intact left hand to frantically pound the scorching stone slab, his nails scraping against the black stone, creating a harsh sound.

"That is an Opportunity I risked my life to find! It is my hope to stand up again! As a high and mighty Senior Brother, why must you keep targeting me? Just because I reported you to Revered Master for meeting with a demoness?!"

"Report?"

Gu Yi chuckled softly.

"Junior Brother Lin, that is too formal. Reporting truthfully to Elders is your duty. As the Chief Disciple, how could I hold a grudge over such a small matter?"

Gu Yi moved his toe slightly, sliding it slowly down along Lin Tian's broken ribs, finally stopping at his lower abdomen—the location of a Cultivator's Dantian and Qi Sea.

"I came here today purely because I felt the call of this heaven and earth Spiritual Qi fire, and I just happened to stop by to harvest it. It just so happens that I encountered Junior Brother Lin here paving the way and clearing the mines for me; in my heart... I am quite grateful."

These gentle, elegant, and even somewhat "sincere" words were like the sharpest poisoned blade, stabbing fiercely into Lin Tian's heart.

Grateful?

Paving the way and clearing mines?

Lin Tian trembled violently. He finally understood that in Gu Yi's eyes, he had been nothing more than a tool for scouting paths and clearing obstacles from the very beginning! His pride in his tenacity, his reckless desperation—it was all making wedding clothes for someone else!

Despair, like tangible darkness, completely devoured the last shred of Lin Tian's sanity.

He suddenly raised his left hand, pressing that lusterless mysterious black iron ring tightly against his forehead, as if it were the only life-saving straw in his life, and a shrill, inhuman howl escaped his throat.

"Senior! Come out! Didn't you say my destiny was extraordinary? Didn't you say you would help me trample the Xuantian Sect?!"

"He even snatched away our Spiritual Qi fire! How much longer are you going to sleep! Come out and kill him! I beg you... kill him!"

Lin Tian's voice echoed endlessly in the vast cavern, accompanied by the gurgling of churning magma, revealing a hair-raising madness and pathos.

Gu Yi watched his performance quietly, without a ripple in the depths of his eyes.

Deep in the Sea of Consciousness, Ji Meier's illusory figure leaned against the Soul Nourishing Wood. Listening to the desperate cries outside, a flash of bored indifference crossed her fox-like eyes.

"This silly boy, his Dao Heart has completely shattered."

Ji Meier covered her red lips and yawned, her tone full of disdain.

"Pinning all his hopes for cultivation on a remnant soul and a dead object—even if you didn't rob him today, he would eventually die at someone else's hands sooner or later. Little lover, hurry up and get rid of him; this magma pool is stiflingly hot, and big sister wants to go back early to soak in the hot springs."

"As you wish."

Gu Yi responded with a soft chuckle in his heart.

In reality, he watched Lin Tian, who was still desperately banging his forehead, trying to wake up that scrap-metal ring. His toe finally stopped hesitating and began to apply pressure slowly downwards.

Through a thin layer of tattered fabric, Lin Tian clearly felt a bone-chilling, icy True Qi seeping from the sole of Gu Yi's boot into the skin of his lower abdomen, bit by bit.

That True Qi had no violent killing intent, but it carried an absolute, overwhelming sense of crushing suppression, striking directly at the most fragile core within his body.

"No... Don't!"

Lin Tian finally woke from his madness, sensing the real aura of destruction beneath Gu Yi's foot. At this moment, the fear of losing his cultivation instantly overwhelmed all his anger and unwillingness.

"Senior Brother Gu! Gu Yi! You cannot cripple me! I am an Outer Sect Disciple; if you cripple a fellow Disciple's cultivation without cause, Revered Master and the Elders will absolutely not let you off!"

Lin Tian twisted his body frantically, trying to break free from beneath that long boot, his face smeared with a mixture of tears, snot, and blood—he was completely devoid of dignity.

"Revered Master?"

Gu Yi curled his lips into an appropriately timed arc, looking down at Lin Tian with gentle eyes.

"Junior Brother Lin, this Secret Realm behind the mountain is inherently fraught with danger. You, a Disciple at the Qi Refinement Stage, were greedy for merit and advanced rashly, unfortunately getting heavily injured by the Formation Puppet, resulting in your Dantian shattering and your cultivation being completely destroyed. I, your Senior Brother, happened to pass by, took pity on you, and saved you from danger, sparing your life... This is the truth of what happened today."

The moment his voice fell.

The Origin of Gu Yi's Primordial Limitless Creation Immortal Body beneath his foot suddenly released a burst of energy.

"Crack."

A dull, shattering sound that only a Cultivator could understand rang out clearly within Lin Tian's body.

It was a muffled sound sufficient to make any Cultivator's Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

Lin Tian's whole body stiffened violently, his eyes instantly losing all focus, bulging out of their sockets.

He clearly felt the Qi vortex deep in his lower abdomen, which he had painstakingly condensed for over a decade, shatter instantly like a fragile water bag stepped on by a foot.

The weak Spiritual Qi that had originally flowed through his Meridians lost its source's restraint and turned into a chaotic, disorganized turbulence, frantically dissipating outwards through every pore of his body. In less than two breaths, Lin Tian could no longer feel even a trace of Spiritual Qi fluctuation within his body.

His Dantian shattered, his Foundation completely destroyed.

From now on, this shell would not even be able to perform the most basic act of drawing Qi into the body, completely reduced to a useless person weaker than a Mortal.

[Ding!]

[Detected that the host has crippled the Dantian of the Child of Luck (Lin Tian), completely shattering his Dao Heart!]

[Judgment of suppressing the Child of Luck successful!]

[Real-time settlement: Villain Points + 1000.]

He withdrew his foot unhurriedly, looking at Lin Tian, who lay limp on the ground like a pile of mud, unable to even utter a cry of pain, his eyes revealing a trace of composure.

"Junior Brother Lin, do not look so lifeless."

Gu Yi turned around, his back to Lin Tian, who was like a dead dog, his tone light and airy, carrying a touch of consolation that was impossible to tell whether it was genuine or false.

"This Cultivation world is vast and boundless, with countless Opportunities and fortunes. What does a shattered Dantian matter? Perhaps one day, if you are lucky, you might pick up a peerless Immortal Plant by the roadside that can bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on bones, allowing you to resume your path of cultivation?"

Gu Yi chuckled softly and strode away, his white robes fluttering gently in the hot wind of the underground cavern, without a trace of bloodstains.

"I, your Senior Brother, will be waiting for you up ahead, so please do not disappoint me. Next time you find something good, remember to do as you did today and help your Senior Brother scout the path well."

As that tall, slender figure gradually disappeared at the end of the dark red passage, the entire underground cavern returned to a suffocating deathly silence.

After a long time.

"Ahhhhhhh—!"

A despairing howl, shrill to the extreme and resembling a beast weeping blood, exploded above the empty altar.

Lin Tian used his only remaining left hand to claw tightly at the scorching black stone slab beneath him, his nails breaking and blood dripping everywhere. He buried his head deep into the dirt and bloodstains, tears gushing out like a broken levee.

It's gone.

Everything is gone.

No Spiritual Fire, no response from Senior, and even less, the cultivation he had painstakingly achieved. He had fallen once again into a dark abyss deeper than any he had ever known.

And the person who had kicked him into the abyss did not even bother to give him an extra word of mockery, merely leaving behind a "word of encouragement" that felt like a gift, before taking away all his hope.

Immense humiliation and a sense of powerlessness completely crushed Lin Tian's remaining dignity and Dao Heart.

Like a stray dog with a broken spine, he let out whimpers of despair and sorrow on the isolated island by the magma pool.