Chapter 156 | Central Region

Chapter 156: 156 | Central Region

Lin Tian stood at the edge of a hidden, sunken valley. The spiritual energy here was incredibly dense, pressing down on his shoulders like a physical weight. He had to circulate a steady, continuous stream of Qi just to keep his breathing normal and his lungs from burning.

In the center of the valley, a rare Star-Metal Orchid grew from a deep crack in the black stone. Its silver petals pulsed with a cold, sharp light, radiating a dense, metallic spiritual essence.

Guarding the flower were eight Black-Spotted Centipedes. Each was three meters long, their thick black shells gleaming with a toxic, oily sheen. Green venom dripped constantly from their sharp mandibles, hissing loudly as it hit the rock and burned small holes into the stone.

Fighting all eight in the open would waste too much Qi and risk unnecessary injuries. Lin Tian did not draw his sword. Instead, he calmly analyzed the terrain.

To the left of the centipedes, a narrow, V-shaped fissure cut deep into the valley wall. The gap was barely wide enough for one beast to pass through, and it was completely blind at the end.

Lin Tian knelt and placed his palm flat against the solid stone floor. He channeled a low, heavy pulse of Qi into the ground. He controlled the frequency perfectly, mimicking the deep, rhythmic vibrations of a massive, burrowing earth-type predator.

The vibration traveled silently through the rock, carrying the exact spiritual signature of a heavy meal.

The eight centipedes stopped their patrol. Their long antennae twitched violently. Driven by territorial aggression and hunger, they slithered rapidly toward the source of the vibration. One by one, they squeezed their long, armored bodies into the narrow V-shaped fissure to ambush the intruder.

Once the last centipede disappeared into the dark crack, Lin Tian stood up. He walked calmly to the base of the massive, overhanging boulder directly above the fissure.

He found the single structural fault line in the rock. He injected a sharp, piercing needle of Qi directly into the crack, shattering the stone’s internal support.

Rumble.

The massive boulder fractured and collapsed. Tons of heavy stone crashed down into the narrow fissure, completely sealing it. The muffled, sickening crunch of eight crushed exoskeletons echoed briefly from beneath the rocks, followed by the hiss of ruptured venom sacs. Then, it went completely silent.

Lin Tian walked to the center of the valley. He extracted the Star-Metal Orchid, sealed its spiritual essence, and moved on without looking back.

***

Three kilometers away, the central region was breaking Gu Yan’s mind.

The physical pressure of the area was suffocating. Every step required immense effort, draining their already depleted Qi reserves. But the physical exhaustion was nothing compared to the psychological terror that had taken root in their camp.

Hong sat against a jagged rock, his eyes rolled back slightly. The beast venom from the lizard bite had bypassed his flesh and was now attacking his meridians. Dark, twisted black veins crawled up his neck, pulsing with a toxic, sickly light.

"The rocks..." Hong whispered, his voice a dry, raspy hiss. He coughed, spitting a mouthful of black, coagulated blood onto the ground. "The rocks are breathing. They are watching us."

Mei knelt beside him, her hands glowing with a faint, unstable healing light. She tried to push her Qi into his chest to suppress the poison, but the toxic heat burned her palms, forcing her to pull back with a sharp, painful gasp. Her skin was already red and blistered from previous attempts.

"His Dantian is collapsing," Mei said, her voice trembling with genuine fear. She looked at Gu Yan with wide, terrified eyes. "The venom is causing severe Qi Deviation. If we do not find a pure Yang herb to balance his core today, he will die by nightfall."

Gu Yan paced back and forth, his sword drawn, his knuckles white from gripping the hilt. He was not listening to her. His mind was trapped in a suffocating loop of deep paranoia.

He kept thinking about the lizard nest. He kept thinking about the sweet, rotting smell of the blood-bait.

"It is not a coincidence," Gu Yan muttered, his eyes darting toward the dense, shadowy trees. "The terrain is shifting. The beasts are herding us."

"Senior Brother?" Mei asked, confused and exhausted.

"Do not lie to me!" Gu Yan snapped, his voice cracking loudly. He pointed his sword at the empty forest. "The lizards did not just find us! The beasts in this realm are moving in a pattern. They are cutting off our routes. Someone is controlling them!"

Hong let out a sudden, high-pitched giggle, his mind slipping deeper into the hallucinations. "Lin Tian... he is under the ground. He is pulling us down..."

"Shut up!" Gu Yan roared, wasting another massive burst of fire Qi into the air. "I will kill him! When I find him, I will tear his core out!"

Mei quietly pulled her hands back and hid them in her sleeves. Her palms were burned red from trying to heal Hong. She looked at Gu Yan’s wild, bloodshot eyes and realized the terrifying truth.

Their leader was completely broken.

She reached into her spatial ring and touched her only emergency escape talisman. She did not tell Gu Yan. If his paranoia got them killed, she would activate it and leave him behind. Trust in Alchemy Peak had completely shattered.

"We keep moving," Gu Yan ordered, his voice dropping to a harsh, unstable whisper. "The center of the realm holds the strongest energy. We go there."

***

Far to the east, Lin Tian felt a series of chaotic, erratic Qi fluctuations.

It was the messy, uncontrolled burst of fire-attribute sword Qi, mixed with the heavy, desperate aura of a cultivator suffering from Qi Deviation.

Gu Yan’s team was falling apart.

Lin Tian did not pause his steps. He did not waste time calculating whether to help them or mock them. They were eliminating themselves. The central region’s pressure and the lingering poison were doing his work for him.

He adjusted his route, bypassing a cluster of aggressive beast auras to the north. His spiritual sense mapped the hidden terrain, allowing him to walk only on solid, load-bearing stones, avoiding the unstable patches of corrupted earth.

The physical pressure of the central region continued to increase. The air grew heavier, forcing him to circulate his Qi in a continuous loop just to keep his lungs clear. His boots felt like they were wrapped in lead.

But he ignored the physical strain. His focus was entirely on the spiritual currents flowing beneath the rock.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Faintly, cutting through the heavy, chaotic Qi of the central region, he felt a distinct fluctuation.

It was a pure, concentrated Yang attribute energy.

It was incredibly faint, buried deep beneath layers of corrupted spiritual pressure, but it was unmistakably clean and hot. It felt like a beacon in the darkness.

Lin Tian’s eyes narrowed.

The Tier-4 Pure-Yang Lotus.

It was not just a rumor. Elder Liu’s disciples were not chasing a ghost. The herb was actually here, deep in the most dangerous part of the central region.

He analyzed the direction of the fluctuation. It was coming from the deepest, most unstable sector of the core area, where the corrupted energy was thickest.

Gu Yan’s team was heading in the general direction, driven by their desperate need for a Yang herb to save Hong. But they were moving blindly, wasting Qi, and falling apart.

Lin Tian turned his body toward the faint Yang beacon. He adjusted his breathing, reinforcing his meridians against the crushing spiritual pressure, and began to walk.

***

The terrain ahead became violently unstable.

The solid stone paths vanished, replaced by floating, jagged boulders suspended over bottomless chasms of swirling, corrupted energy.

Lin Tian did not hesitate. He leaped from one floating rock to another. He calculated the spatial resonance of each stone, landing only on the ones with stable spiritual cores.

Below him, the corrupted energy hissed and spat, sending waves of toxic heat upward. A single misstep would mean falling into the abyss.

He moved with mechanical precision. His face remained completely calm, his golden eyes tracking the invisible flow of spiritual currents.

As he crossed a massive, floating stone pillar, the faint Yang fluctuation grew slightly stronger.

The heat in the air shifted. It was no longer just the oppressive, suffocating pressure of the central region. There was a sharp, biting warmth cutting through the cold, toxic dampness.

Lin Tian landed softly on the next rock and crouched low.

Ahead, the corrupted spiritual fog began to thin out, pushed back by an invisible wave of intense heat.

He was getting close.

He checked his internal Qi. His reserves were still at eighty percent. His body was fatigued, but his meridians were clear and strong.

He stood up, his obsidian robes settling around him. He did not look back at the path he had taken. He did not think about Gu Yan’s failing team or the dangers he had already bypassed.

His gaze was locked entirely on the thinning fog ahead.

The true prize of the Secret Realm was waiting.