Chapter 132 - 131: Obsession Heart (2)

Within Lin Yuan’s Sea of Consciousness, the two beasts, one forged from the abyssal black mist of his unsevered attachment and the other manifested from his own might, tore into each other with world-shaking force.

Lin Yuan stood at the center of the chaos, his spiritual avatar maintaining the hand seals as he poured every ounce of his Half-Step Spirit Severing cultivation into sustaining the purple lightning dragon.

For a brief moment, the lightning dragon gained the upper hand. Its razor-sharp claws pinned the black mist beast against the floor of his consciousness, its massive body coiling around the creature as it roared triumphantly. Arcs of purple thunder pierced through the black scales, filling the Sea of Consciousness with destructive lightning.

"Yield to my Dao!" Lin Yuan commanded, his voice reverberating through his spiritual sea.

The black dragon let out a shriek that sounded like the weeping of a thousand desolate souls.

But instead of disintegrating beneath the overwhelming torrent of lightning, the abyssal beast suddenly abandoned its physical form.

Its body dissolved into a swirling vortex of black mist.

Before Lin Yuan could react or change his stance, the dark vortex lunged forward with terrifying speed.

Gulp!

In a single motion, the black mist engulfed the purple lightning dragon, swallowing it completely into the depths of its core.

Lin Yuan’s eyes widened in shock. He immediately tightened his hand seals, attempting to detonate the swallowed lightning dragon from within.

But it was already too late.

BOOOM!

The black mist suddenly exploded from the inside.

Yet the explosion did not destroy it. Instead, the blast scattered the pitch-black energy into a massive shockwave that instantly swept across every corner of Lin Yuan’s Sea of Consciousness. The thick fog churned with terrifying speed before rapidly converging toward the absolute center of his spiritual sea.

There, suspended in the middle of the vast spiritual ocean, was his pulsing Mortal Heart.

The black mist wrapped around the crimson heart like a hungry swarm of locusts.

Lin Yuan watched in stunned silence as the vibrant crimson color of his Mortal Heart rapidly darkened. The rich red gradually turned ink-black, while a strange, necrotic aura spread across its surface.

The entire structure of the heart began to mutate.

In the blink of an eye, the crimson Mortal Heart transformed into an abyssal black heart that radiated a suffocating aura of absolute obsession.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The first beat of the black heart echoed through Lin Yuan’s mind.

With that single pulse, an enormous wave of oppressive aura erupted from it.

The pressure was so heavy and violent that it completely bypassed his spiritual defenses, slamming directly into his consciousness before transferring into his physical body in the real world.

"Blech!"

Inside the River of Years Pagoda, Lin Yuan’s cross-legged body violently convulsed.

His eyes snapped open, and he immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood that stained the front of his robes.

His chest burned as though he had swallowed molten iron. The sheer magnitude of the aura radiating from the mutated heart was staggering.

Lin Yuan quickly closed his eyes again, plunging his awareness back into his spiritual sea.

As he carefully analyzed the overwhelming pressure, a terrifying realization slowly dawned upon him.

This aura...

It is saturated with an incomprehensible concentration of obsession.

What is this? Lin Yuan thought, his mind racing.

Is this... a tribulation?

Yes.

It was a tribulation born from his unprecedented defiance.

The heavens had taken the very thread Lin Yuan refused to sever and transformed it into a weapon, using his own attachment and obsession to crush his soul from within.

Thump-thump!

The black heart pulsed again.

Every beat released a devastating wave of obsessive aura that battered his spiritual sea like a giant hammer. The waves crashed against his consciousness again and again, threatening to crack his spiritual foundation, fracture his Dao Heart, and ultimately destroy his soul, reducing him to an empty shell consumed by madness.

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth in the physical world as he struggled to steady himself against the relentless pounding of the black heart.

"You want to break me?" Lin Yuan growled within his mind, his will surging despite the agonizing pressure. "You cannot break what I have already forged!"

With a flick of his wrist, his spiritual avatar summoned the blade of his Thunder Rain Dao Intent once more.

The lightning blade appeared in his grasp, crackling with raw and destructive power.

"If I cannot sever the thread, I will destroy the heart!" Lin Yuan roared.

He lunged forward.

Raising the heavy lightning blade with both hands, he brought it down with the full force of his Half-Step Spirit Severing cultivation, striking directly at the beating black heart.

CRACK!

The blade slammed into the heart.

Instead of slicing through its surface or shattering its conceptual structure, however, the metaphysical blade bounced away with a deafening metallic clang.

A violent shower of purple sparks erupted from the impact.

The black heart did not move.

It did not crack.

It did not even leave a mark.

Lin Yuan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He pulled the blade back and struck again, this time channeling every drop of his high-dimensional True Essence into the attack.

CLANG!

Once again, the blade was deflected harmlessly.

The black heart absorbed the force of the attack as though it were nothing, its surface remaining completely intact.

Then it pulsed.

Thump!

A fresh wave of oppressive aura erupted from it, far heavier than before.

The pressure slammed into Lin Yuan’s soul, nearly causing his spiritual avatar to collapse. Lin Yuan steadied himself, his eyes becoming increasingly solemn as he stared at the black heart.

This was no longer something he could simply destroy with force. The tribulation had taken his own attachment and turned it into something that could withstand even his Dao Intent. And the next heartbeat was already coming.

Thump!

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A/N: Thanks for reading this far, and I appreciate all form of support.