Chapter 7: The Spirit Embryo Wall
The demon ape flew into a rage, leaping upright and giving chase to Qin Mu. After a few running steps, however, its body was too heavy, its speed far inferior to Qin Mu’s. The ape was furious beyond measure. It reached out, uprooted a large tree, and ran its hand along the trunk, stripping away all the branches and leaves until the tree was like an enormous, crude spear. With a flick of its wrist, the demon ape hurled it!
“Little runt, die!”
This strike was full of power, overbearing, and astonishingly fast, but its aim was somewhat lacking. It shot past Qin Mu more than ten zhang away.
The demon ape grew even more enraged. It stripped another tree, ready to strike again, but Qin Mu had already run far off. The ape beat its chest in frustration.
Senior Brother Qu said quietly, “That little demon brat’s cultivation and strength are far inferior to ours. His injuries must be even worse than mine. He can’t have gone far.”
He forced himself to stand, but let out a muffled groan. The pain in his chest was too intense; several of his ribs had likely been cracked by the ape’s slap. Still, if even a little demon brat like Qin Mu could withstand the ape’s violent blow, he himself could certainly endure.
What he didn’t realize was that Qin Mu’s cultivation wasn’t weak at all—it was in no way lacking. The problem was simply that his primordial energy had no attribute, so its power couldn’t be unleashed.
If one truly compared their cultivation levels, despite Qin Mu’s young age, his cultivation was no weaker than any of them, including Senior Brother Qu!
The five of them skirted the demon ape’s territory and once again picked up Qin Mu’s trail. As Senior Brother Qu had said, Qin Mu had been injured by the ape, and his wounds were severe. After escaping the ape’s domain, his speed had to slow down, giving them a chance to catch up.
But as they continued their pursuit, they noticed that Qin Mu’s speed was steadily increasing, as if his injuries were also healing rapidly.
“That little demon brat must have some excellent medicine for treating wounds!”
The five of them felt a sinking sensation in their hearts. Senior Brother Qu had already taken the wound medicine from his own sect, but its effect wasn’t as good as Qin Mu’s “medicine.” Judging by the rate at which Qin Mu’s speed was increasing, his injuries were clearly healing at a visible pace!
This kind of medicine made all five of them envious and eager.
“Our sect’s wound medicine isn’t top-grade. If we could get the formula for that little demon brat’s superior medicine, our masters would surely be delighted and reward us handsomely!”
At that moment, however, Qin Mu wasn’t taking any medicine as they assumed. Instead, he was running while breathing and exhaling, circulating the so-called Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique that the village chief had taught him—which was, in fact, just the most basic guidance technique, though he didn’t know it.
This time, while fleeing and running, as he activated the “Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique,” Qin Mu made a new discovery: his primordial energy became more lively while running, circulating much faster!
But this differed from what the village chief had taught him. The chief had instructed him to sit quietly, regulate his breathing, slowly inhale and exhale, nurture his primordial energy, move it around, and use it to nourish his body.
Qin Mu had practiced for over ten years, always following the chief’s method of cultivating the “Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique.” Only now did he realize that running while practicing might yield better results.
When running at top speed, the “Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique” circulated faster, nurtured primordial energy more quickly, and greatly accelerated the nourishment of his body!
Not only that, but waves of primordial energy washed through his internal organs, surged through his limbs and bones, and even flowed along the fascia between muscles and bones, over and over again.
The demon ape’s slap had injured his internal organs and bones, but under the scouring of his primordial energy, the cracks in his organs and bones were steadily healing.
Senior Brother Qu and the others thought he relied on superior medicine, but they never imagined it was the unreliable “Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique.”
Gradually, Qin Mu discovered that there was one place in his body where the fascia between bone and skin was unreachable by his primordial energy: the center of his brow.
Between his two eyebrows, only about a finger’s width.
At this spot, his primordial energy couldn’t reach. It could flow under his scalp and strengthen his skull, but whenever it approached the center of his brow, it encountered great resistance, as if an invisible wall stood there, blocking its path.
When he pushed his primordial energy to strike that invisible wall, something even stranger happened: he heard a mysterious sound.
This sound seemed to come from beyond the nine heavens—lofty and distant, rising and falling in pitch, melodious and sacred, like a divine being proclaiming a decree from on high.
And whenever this sound arose, his primordial energy would uncontrollably recede like a tide, flowing around the center of his brow.
“Could this be the Spirit Embryo Wall?”
Qin Mu was puzzled. The village chief, Granny Si, and others had mentioned “walls” and “breaking walls” to him. Walls were the seals on various treasure troves within the human body; breaking walls meant opening those seals to obtain the treasures.
But the village chief and Granny Si had never told him where the Spirit Embryo Wall was located in the body, nor had they spoken of how to break through it.
What Qin Mu didn’t know was that it wasn’t that the village chief and Granny Si didn’t want to tell him—it was that there simply existed no techniques or methods in this world for breaking the Spirit Embryo Wall!
Ordinary people and spirit bodies belonged to two entirely different classes, two distinct castes.
As a spirit body, the Spirit Embryo Wall was naturally open from birth, making one inherently superior. For ordinary people, the Spirit Embryo Wall was sealed, making them inferior. The lofty spirit bodies rarely concerned themselves with the needs of ordinary people.
Among ordinary people, martial artists were rare. As for ordinary people who had broken through the Spirit Embryo Wall, even the village chief and Granny Si had never heard of such a thing, so naturally, they didn’t know how to break it.
Qin Mu ran wildly, repeatedly driving his primordial energy to charge at the invisible wall between his brows. The mysterious sound kept ringing out, causing his energy to retreat automatically. Though he couldn’t break through each time, he had plenty of patience and firmly believed that he would succeed eventually.
He decided not to tell the village chief about his discovery of the “Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique” today. He planned to wait until he had successfully broken through the wall, then surprise them.
Whether that surprise would be more of a shock or a fright for the village chief and the others, however, was hard to say.
Senior Brother Qu and his four companions grew more anxious with each passing moment. The “little demon brat” ahead wasn’t just recovering from his injuries—his speed had actually increased compared to before!
This was terrifying. It meant that Qin Mu’s cultivation was growing even as he fled!
Though the increase was slow, it was already frightening enough!
Everyone cultivated step by step. Even after breaking through a wall, one’s cultivation improved gradually; you couldn’t become a fat man in one bite. Who didn’t need dozens of days, months, or even years of persistent effort to make progress in their cultivation?
And yet this “little demon brat” could noticeably feel his cultivation improving even while escaping—that was truly terrifying!
Fortunately, Qin Mu was still inferior to them. Though he was improving, there was still a gap between them.
Still, catching up to Qin Mu wasn’t easy. After suffering one loss, he had become much more cautious, avoiding the territories of strange beasts as he ran.
When the pharmacist had taken him out to gather herbs, he had told Qin Mu that the strange beasts of the Great Wasteland were highly intelligent and each had its own domain. They left marks—trees with bark stripped off, bones stuck in the ground, animal heads hung on stakes, urine stains, and so on. As long as one noticed these unusual signs and avoided them, it was fine.
Earlier, there had been fist prints on the cliff beside the demon ape’s territory, marking it as the ape’s domain. Qin Mu hadn’t seen them and had blundered in. Now, being more cautious, he wouldn’t accidentally enter other beasts’ territories.
However, even without trespassing, many strange beasts still left their domains to hunt, filling the Great Wasteland with danger.
When Qin Mu ran through a marsh, he encountered two lord-level strange beasts fighting: a cockatrice-necked snow condor and a swamp venom dragon python. One massive creature swooped down from the air, its wings whipping up a gale, while the other coiled in the swamp, stirring up waves. Their battle was earth-shattering.
Before Qin Mu could even enter the marsh, he was blown away by the hurricane kicked up by the two giants. When he landed, he ran into a herd of startled wild oxen and was nearly trampled to death.
“I’m getting farther and farther from the village…”
Qin Mu’s heart sank. The five behind him were still in relentless pursuit, making it impossible for him to return to the village. And even more terrifyingly…
The sun was about to set!
He and Granny Si had left in the afternoon. Now the evening sun was sinking, and darkness would soon fall. If he couldn’t make it back to the village before then, he would face unimaginable danger!
“Senior Brother Qu, it’s almost dark!”
Behind Qin Mu, the five of them also noticed the setting sun. The youth Qin Mu had kicked showed signs of unease and said, “Master once said that the Great Wasteland is a cursed land. After dark, it becomes a forbidden zone. We must return to those villages protected by stone statues, or else it’s certain death!”
Senior Brother Qu shook his head. “It’s too late to go back now. We’ve come too far; we can’t return to the original village before dark. Darkness is dangerous for us, but it’s just as dangerous for that little demon brat. There’s only one option now: see where the little demon brat hides!”