As the essence of the runes touched his skin, Zhi Xuan felt an unfamiliar sensation: warm and heavy, yet also icy cold. It was like a wave of hot lava flowing through his meridians, followed immediately by a piercing sweep of ice, soothing the pain. The hot wave tried to purify, the cold wave stabilized.

  He sank into his consciousness. Amidst the darkness of his mind, he could see his cracked wheel—the cold wheel spinning rapidly in his chest. The wheel was no longer dark sapphire, but now emitted a faintly purer light, resonating with his sapphire eyes. When the aura of the Four Seasons Breath Scroll reached the cracked wheel, instead of healing or strengthening it, an unexpected violent reaction occurred.

  A dark energy pattern, hidden deep within the core of his cracked wheel, suddenly reacted. The pattern was not a Dao rune, but something that felt closed off and oppressive. In Zhi Xuan's consciousness, he saw it clearly: an ancient nine-seal, shaped like nine gates encircling the core of his mortal wheel, sucking the energy around it and vanishing instantly. The seal was invisible to mortal eyes, but etched in the essence of the soul.

  His cracked wheel, which was initially pulsing nervously, now spun wildly, trying to break free from the Seal's grasp.

  Suddenly, the old man's voice broke the tranquility Zhi Xuan had just achieved. The hoarse voice was no longer filled with madness, but with a sharp, pure shock. "What is this? A Seal?"

  Zhi Xuan opened his eyes, startled by the tone of the voice. He saw the old man, who had been calm, now rising to his feet with a fast and graceful movement. His dark purple spiral eyes sharpened, focusing through Zhi Xuan's body, seeing the Seal that only appeared when it came into contact with the Dao runes.

  "Even with my consciousness, I couldn't see this seal. It only appeared when the Dao runes entered your body." The old man tried to peek into the nine seals; the seals were chained with dragon-shaped chains, surrounding each gate of the seal. "Impossible..." The old man stepped back and his face was filled with subtle shock.

  "It's the Nine Heavens Bead!" he exclaimed, his voice containing a resonance of power that made the leaves on the ancient trees tremble. He looked at Zhi Xuan with a mixture of awe, fear, and a returning shadow of madness.

  Zhi Xuan, still cross-legged, felt a sharp pain from his cracked wheel. "Nine Heavens Bead? What do you mean, old grandfather? It... it's hurting me!"

  The old man ignored Zhi Xuan's question. He walked in circles around Zhi Xuan, his thin hand raised. He radiated a wave of spiritual energy that Zhi Xuan did not understand, touching the air around Zhi Xuan, as if he were reading invisible writings.

  "Nine gates. Nine heavens. Long ago, an Immortal from the Forbidden Plane once fell in battle against the forgotten world." The old man laughed, a laugh full of irony and sorrow. "And that bead, that bead... It is something used to seal something, I don't know what is there, but it is sealing something carried within your body!"

  Zhi Xuan froze for a moment, lowering his head to look at his chest; the painful throbbing was still there. Nine Heavens Bead, Forgotten World and Immortal from the Forbidden Plane... It all felt confusing to Zhi Xuan. It was a problem beyond his mortal understanding, yet now etched into the core of his soul.

  The old man suddenly stopped, his expression becoming strange—a blend of enlightenment and cold fear.

  "I know why your human wheel is cracked," the old man whispered, his voice trembling. "It wasn't you who broke it. The Nine Heavens Bead did it! When you absorb mortal jade essence, the seal prevents it and cracks your mortal wheel!"

  The old man clutched his own head, his eyes rolling wildly again, madness enveloping him once more. "A prison! Even in the afterlife there is a prison! The Great Dao laughs at all of us, and now he is imprisoning you within yourself! Why must you be involved, little shepherd? Why?"

  Zhi Xuan snorted softly, not knowing what to say; his breath was short and heavy. With a faint grunt, he closed his eyes again and let the Dao runes enter. He didn't understand what the old man was talking about; all he knew was that he wanted to fix his mortal wheel.

  "I don't care about the prison you speak of, I just want to... fix my mortal wheel!" his teeth chattered, enduring the pain in his chest; the pain intensified as he continued to force the Dao runes to surge in.

  The piercing pain from the tormented wheel was a limit he had never experienced, even with Grandfather Wu's hardest training. However, the mad insistence of the cultivator, who called it a "prison," ironically ignited the stubborn fuse within Zhi Xuan.

  The Nine Heavens Bead sounded majestic, but to him, it was just a chain. And Zhi Xuan, a mortal accustomed to living without chains, refused to accept it.

  He focused his mind, ignoring the howls of madness the old man was now chanting behind him. He forced himself back to the Four Seasons Breath Scroll.

  The Spring Breath, clearing the mind and heart. Zhi Xuan took a long breath, mimicking Bashan's calm breathing movements, but this time, he imagined the air he inhaled was not just air, but the pure essence of this older forest. This essence, although cold and smelling of lead, felt denser and stronger than the jade essence of Star Village.

  As the essence flowed into his chest, he directed it straight into the wildly spinning wheel. The pleasant cold sensation from the wheel now felt like a sudden relief. The Nine Heavens Bead reacted again. The nine gates emitted a dark aura, and the dragon chains around it seemed to tighten, trying to suck up the energy of the Four Seasons Breath Scroll.

  However, this time Zhi Xuan was ready. He remembered the old man's last words, delivered with momentary clarity: "This is the Heavenly forced into the Mortal." His cracked wheel was Heavenly. The Seal could only suck up mortal Human Wheel energy, but it could not completely restrain the heavenly aura.

  Zhi Xuan changed his breathing strategy. He no longer tried to fix the crack with the Spring Breath; he tried to strengthen the crack's Heavenly nature. He began to concentrate the external essence to channel it through the crack itself, letting the energy flow into the fissure, not just to the surface of the wheel.

  As the essence entered the crack, the wheel spun slower, but with much greater power, like a whirlpool dragging seawater into a bottomless abyss.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  VOOM!

  A strong tremor spread from Zhi Xuan's chest. It was no longer pain, but a sudden sensation of expansion. One of the dragon chains around the first Seal gate trembled violently. It wasn't just shaking; it seemed to be fighting back against the Heavenly energy being forced through the crack.

  Behind him, the old man suddenly fell silent. The madness vanished, replaced by a very calm and cautious voice.

  "Stop, Little Shepherd! You're making a hole in the Seal! If you break one, the others will react violently! That is a Protection Seal!" the old man shouted, his voice filled with clear panic.

  Zhi Xuan ignored him. He felt an incredible sensation—the familiar, cold strength he usually felt when spinning too fast. But now, that power was centralized. He had found the valve. He took another breath, imagining himself in Autumn, the breath that could make stars fall. He focused that breath onto the same chain.

  CREAK!

  The dragon chain binding the first Seal Gate made a deafening cracking sound in his consciousness. The dark light from the seal began to fade, and some of the energy previously sucked by the Nine Heavens Bead now flowed back into his cracked wheel.

  His cracked wheel pulsed, and suddenly, Zhi Xuan felt a surge of cold, dense jade essence flooding his meridians. It was all the mortal jade essence he had collected from his hard training, which had been held back by the Seal all this time. The essence was now flowing freely!

  BOOM!

  The released energy was so powerful that he felt his cracked Human Wheel had exploded, yet he felt an extraordinary strength instead. Zhi Xuan staggered back, his eyes slowly opening, the pain in his chest gradually fading, replaced by an amazing feeling; his cracked mortal wheel now felt patched, he could feel it! shattered and risen, although the orb seal remained intact and unshaken.

  "I... I succeeded..." Zhi Xuan mumbled, his voice filled with emotion and triumph. He tightly gripped his thigh, filled with disbelief.

  The Four Seasons Breath Scroll immediately closed again and floated towards the old man's waist, disappearing behind his tattered robe. The old man now stood still, staring at Zhi Xuan with a sharp, focused gaze.

  "That Seal... it only seals something but not cultivation?" the old man whispered, his voice no longer hoarse, but clear, carrying a cold and cautious spiritual resonance. The purple spirals in his eyes were completely gone; what remained was a pair of sharp dark eyes, full of calculation and hidden fear. "I don't know what destiny you carry, little shepherd. But your path will surely be different."

  Zhi Xuan gasped, his eyes dimming; exhaustion attacked him because his body had forced itself too much to let the Dao runes fix his mortal wheel. He slowly stumbled and fell from the rock, collapsing onto the ground; the last thing he saw was the old man still standing silently in front of him before everything went dark.

  The old man lowered his gaze and looked at the collapsed Zhi Xuan; silence crept for a moment, replaced by the sound of the night wind rustling. "This child... carries such great cause-and-effect." With a gentle outstretched hand, Zhi Xuan's body lifted into the air; the old man flicked his hand forward, and a void crack appeared.

  The old man stepped forward, disappearing into the void crack that opened in the air, carrying the unconscious Zhi Xuan. The space around them warped and twisted, the dark forest landscape of the Star Burial Forest was immediately replaced by flashes of starlight and wild astral colors, a sight indescribable by mortal eyes.

  The journey ended briefly; the void crack reopened and the old man stepped forward, the landscape shifting to an expanse of bushes and mud; the fragments of Zhi Xuan's ironwood staff were still scattered on the ground, his leather lantern lying extinguished; they were back where they first met.

  The old man flicked his hand and Zhi Xuan's body floated down onto a flat rock. "Little shepherd, you are quite tenacious," the old man mumbled, his eyes looking at Zhi Xuan with a calm gaze. "Forget we ever met; live well."

  The old man opened his palm and flicked his energy, subtly striking directly at Zhi Xuan, erasing his memory of all the events of this night. The old man knew that Zhi Xuan would face calamity if he knew too soon. Then, he turned his gaze to the fragments of the ironwood staff, moved his hand, and restored the wooden staff to its original form.

  The old man turned slowly, his robe's hood fluttering gently. "Goodbye, little shepherd." The utterance was like the rustling of the wind; the old man was no longer visible and disappeared within the sound of falling leaves.

  The cold silence of the forest enveloped Zhi Xuan. His body felt heavy, cold, and stiff. The pain from hitting the muddy ground had now subsided, but was replaced by overwhelming exhaustion, as if he had been punching the grain sack non-stop for three days.

  In his chest, his cracked wheel spun calmly and steadily, but something was different—the familiar cold sensation was now mixed with a strange, dense feeling.

  Zhi Xuan lay on the cold, flat rock, still wearing his damp black robe. When his eyes slowly opened, he saw the canopy of ancient trees beginning to be illuminated by the sneaking dawn light. Thick, white morning mist danced on the ground, giving him a surreal and peaceful view.

  He raised his hand; his face still felt stiff. "I... I fell asleep?" he mumbled, his voice hoarse. He tried to remember the reason he was here. Water mushrooms. Right. He went to look for water mushrooms in the deeper forest to cover his departure. But... why did he fall asleep on a stiff rock?

  He sat upright, observing his surroundings. He was on the middle path, the rarely traveled path, where he first made his reckless decision. Beside him lay his extinguished leather lantern and his empty leather bag.

  Then, his eyes fell on his heavy staff. The ironwood staff lay quietly on the muddy ground near his feet. He picked it up. Intact.

  The staff was intact.

  Zhi Xuan turned the staff over in his hands. He remembered the feeling of that dense, familiar weight. However, he had a strange flash—a missing memory. He remembered hitting something with the staff, and a deafening CRACK! sound. He remembered seeing fragments of ironwood scattered on the ground.

  "I must have been dreaming," Zhi Xuan whispered, shaking his head. "I was too tired. I must have dropped this staff and was afraid it broke."

  However, in the depths of his heart, there was a piercing coldness. He felt a strange fluctuation, as if important words had just been erased from his memory, leaving a void that could not be filled. There was a majestic, cold, and mad feeling clinging to his robe, like the smell of a foreign forest he shouldn't be carrying.

  He looked back, in the direction that should have been the Jade Valley, his initial destination. He didn't remember seeing it. He didn't remember anything after deciding to take the middle path and stepping on the ancient trap. His memory jumped from the moment he stepped on the trap until he woke up on this rock.

  Ignore. Go home.

  That was the logical command that came from Grandfather Wu's training. Zhi Xuan knew he didn't have time. The sun would soon rise, and Mingling would surely be the first to notice his absence.

  He slung his empty leather bag and tightly gripped the staff that felt so heavy. This time, he walked back through the same middle path, but he moved with greater speed—a speed he gained from Human Wheel training, but now it felt smoother, more controlled.

  This speed... felt easier than usual.

  Zhi Xuan ignored the strange sensation. He focused on his footsteps, making as little noise as possible amidst the crawling fog. After a while, he reached the path split, and he immediately turned onto the right path that led back to the familiar forest behind the village.

  As he walked, the sun fully rose, and its rays pierced the tree canopy, turning the fog into a shimmering silver curtain. The forest that had seemed threatening now returned to its familiar boundary, full of the chirping of mortal birds and the aroma of damp soil.

  Zhi Xuan finally emerged from the forest and stepped onto the outskirts of Star Village's wheat fields. He crouched for a moment behind a tall pile of straw, wiping the mud from his robe and face, ensuring his appearance returned to the state of a tired shepherd boy, not a cold intruder.

  He hid his staff under the straw—he didn't want Mingling to ask about it in the morning—and then walked slowly towards the village.

  The smell of cooking, the aroma of freshly baked wheat bread, and the sound of water in the well welcomed him. The contrast was so strong; he returned to comfort and simplicity.