Chapter 694: Heart Aperture

My body was cold, devoid of the slightest trace of warmth, and my head felt like it had been filled with molten lead.

I forced my eyes open. I was covered by a tattered straw mat and surrounded by pitch-black darkness, though I could hear the patter of rain.

"You're awake?" I looked toward the voice. A middle-aged man sat not far from me. His body was almost transparent, and the cluster of soul fire at his chest was on the verge of going out.

"Wang Shi?" My lips were dry and cracked. As soon as I spoke, a needle-like pain pierced my throat. "Where are we?"

"The ancestral hall of Suolong Village." Wang Shi made a shushing gesture. "There's something outside. Don't move, or it might see you."

The soul fire flickered. Wang Shi was in terrible condition. He had paid a massive price to bring me to Suolong Village.

Without saying anything else, he waved a hand at me and retreated into the Ghost Ring on his own.

I didn't know how many dangers Wang Shi had faced along the way. All I knew was that he had overcome them all to escape with my unconscious body.

There were no absolutely bad people in this world, just as there were no absolutely selfish or absolutely great people. Wang Shi was a perfect example. He still retained at least a trace of redeemable quality.

What was out there? A living creature? Or a ghost?

This place was connected to the Yin-Yang Boundary. It wouldn't be strange for foul things to appear at night.

I tried to shift my body but gave up after a few attempts.

My forehead was burning. Yin energy had invaded my body. I hadn't been sick in a long time, but this time, I had actually fallen ill.

'Malevolent yin energy is crashing through my meridians, and I seem to be running a fever. A leaking house happens to encounter all-night rain. How am I supposed to keep running like this?' When I used the Realm-Breaking Talisman to leave the Three Yin Sect, I hadn't seen Elder Chen anywhere, which left me deeply unsettled.

The Two-Faced Buddha was no ordinary opponent. I had to prepare for the worst.

I channeled the Pre-Heaven True Qi inside me and inspected my body. Aside from my Kidney Aperture and Liver Aperture, all my other internal organs had been invaded by malevolent yin energy. It felt like I was trapped in an ice cave, without a single shred of warmth.

'I didn't expect to be pushed this far by sect cultivators. I was careless this time.' My head spun, and all sorts of noises echoed in my ears. It sounded like vicious ghosts demanding my life, or wronged souls weeping. 'The yin energy has invaded my body and isolated my Pre-Heaven True Qi. If I don't deal with it, I probably won't survive.'

The high fever refused to break, and my consciousness began to blur. Shaking my head, I bit down hard on the tip of my tongue, terrified of passing out in the next second.

'Yang qi, I need yang qi...' My pants pocket was the only place on my body that retained a bit of warmth, a spot the yin energy avoided. Without overthinking it, my survival instincts drove me to take the object out. The source of this warmth was none other than the Heart of the Mountain God.

While in the ley lines, I had heard its voice when I used the Earth Divine Talisman to control the Mountain God Sculpture.

It seemed we had known each other a long time ago. It had been hiding from me, but unexpectedly, I still managed to find it in the end.

'I'm only twenty-five or twenty-six this year, while the Mountain God Sculpture has existed for an unfathomable amount of time, so this defies logic.' My cheeks burned, and my brain felt like mush. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. 'Memories... I always feel like a large chunk of my memories is missing. Every time I open a Life Lock, completely unfamiliar memory fragments surface. I'm certain the person in those scenes is me, but why don't I have any recollection of them?'

If it were just amnesia, I wouldn't be in such agony. The terrifying part was that my memories were flawless and perfectly coherent. It was these extra memories that felt jarring, because the version of me in those fragments was vastly different from the real me right now.

'Could it be my past life? That's impossible too. In one Dream Realm, I was with Xiao A, and neither of our appearances had changed much.' Deep down, I didn't believe in reincarnation. It had nothing to do with ghosts, monsters, gods, or Buddhas; I simply didn't believe such a thing existed.

'The Live Show once said I was the most outstanding streamer, but compared to the others, I don't have much of an advantage. On the contrary, Owen has character flaws. Given the Live Show's style, Lu Xing and Chen Jiuge are much more suitable candidates.' My thoughts had unwittingly drifted. I clenched the Heart of the Mountain God in my palm, but the warmth it provided only lingered on the surface of my skin.

'This item was hidden inside the stone shell and has already gained sentience.' I brought it up to my eyes and carefully examined its appearance by its faint glow.

It was different from what I had imagined. This Heart of the Mountain God resembled a medicinal pill, covered in various medicinal marks and emitting an indescribable fragrance.

'Can the yang qi emitted by a single pill balance out the yin energy of the ley lines?' Smelling the faint medicinal aroma drifting from the Heart of the Mountain God, I still couldn't be sure what this thing actually was, only that it gave me a vague sense of familiarity.

Holding it in my hand, my palm could feel a bit of warmth, but this heat couldn't melt the yin energy freezing my internal organs.

'Whether I live or die depends on this.' I decided to follow that mysterious intuition. Closing my eyes, I opened my mouth and swallowed the Heart of the Mountain God.

This "heart" sealed inside the stone statue contained an astonishing amount of yang qi. If an ordinary person accidentally swallowed it, they would definitely explode from the overwhelming yang energy. I only took such a drastic measure because I had no other choice.

The Heart of the Mountain God was extremely hard. It got stuck in my throat, as if I had swallowed a cobblestone.

Yang qi surged through my body as it slid down my esophagus. The yin energy inside me seemed to sense the threat and immediately mounted a counterattack. The two forces collided at the acupoints near my heart.

As the yin and yang energies clashed, my heart rate spiked, pounding fiercely.

The heart was the most vital organ for life. Even the slightest mishap would put my life in grave danger.

The yin and yang energies were currently battling around my heart. A human body's yin and yang should naturally be in harmony, but because I practiced ghost arts and had prematurely opened my Kidney Aperture and Liver Aperture—two yin organs—the yin within me far outweighed the yang. My constitution was weak and cold, making me prone to encountering ghosts and disasters.

Now, the Heart of the Mountain God injected an unprecedentedly tyrannical wave of yang qi into my body. Like sunlight piercing through a city blanketed by the plum rain season, it instantly dispelled the damp gloom in my meridians and cleared my blood vessels.

The blending of yin and yang required a process, and this process was a mutual devouring.

Using my body as a battlefield, they tore at my meridians, fighting over every inch of territory within my blood and internal organs.

The Heart of the Mountain God wanted to purge all the malevolent yin energy from my body. However, the yin energy was already deeply rooted within me. Without my conscious control, my body reacted naturally; whenever the yin energy ran low, it would draw more from my Eighteen Yin Apertures.

It was a thrilling, silent struggle. Using my body as its foundation, the yin energy fought back desperately, yet it was still no match for the Heart of the Mountain God.

The Heart of the Mountain God stuck in my esophagus slid down little by little. The sensation was agonizing. Yang qi scorched my internal organs, eradicating all the residual malevolent yin energy inside.

It cleansed the yin energy from my body inch by inch. Wherever the heart passed, my meridians were cleared, becoming as crystal clear as emeralds.

For the Heart of the Mountain God to remain unextinguished within the Henshan Yin Vein, the amount of yang qi it contained was immeasurable. The malevolent yin energy rampaging through my body soon showed signs of defeat.

It was forced back until it finally retreated to the Kidney Aperture and Liver Aperture, barely managing to maintain a stalemate.

In the past, whenever I swallowed medicinal pills, the medicine would melt in my mouth and nourish my entire body. This Heart of the Mountain God, however, was completely different.

It seemed entirely indigestible. I could clearly feel its presence. After it had purged the yin energy from my entire body, it hovered right over my heart.

Had this been any other time, I definitely would have found a way to stop it, as the heart was simply too important. But I was far too weak now. I had the will but not the strength, so I could only let it slowly sink into my heart.

The moment the fusion was complete, the blood throughout my entire body boiled. My heart seemed to stop for half a second before a much more powerful heartbeat echoed within my chest. It sounded like the beating of a heavy drum—the sound of life.

Thump. Thump. My heart seemed to have broken free from some sort of restraint. Healthy, vigorous blood flowed out from my Heart Aperture. It didn't take long for all the blood in my body to cycle through once, and then, the sound of snapping chains rang out from within the Heart Aperture!

I was the only one who could hear this sound, and the only one who understood what it meant.

'My Heart Aperture has opened!'

The heart aligned with fire in the five elements. It was the absolute pinnacle of yang among the organs, commanding the blood vessels, housing the mind, and serving as the grand master of the internal organs!

With the opening of the Heart Aperture, a long-lost warmth spread from my heart to every limb and bone. It was like parting the clouds to see the sun. My internal organs were nourished, radiating unprecedented vitality.

The chill inside me faded, and my mind cleared. My pulse was steady and powerful, its rhythm perfectly even. I didn't seem like an injured person at all.

The Heart Aperture was the most important organ of them all, and for me, it was also the most unique. As the absolute pinnacle of yang, I had thought it would be the very last aperture I opened, since I constantly walked in the dark.

'A blessing in disguise. By surviving this brush with death, I actually opened my Heart Aperture. Fate truly works in mysterious ways!' Strength surged from my flesh and blood. With every beat of my heart, my body grew a fraction stronger.

Of course, physical enhancement was only part of it. More crucially, the Profound Truth Dao Method, which had been stagnant for a long time, seemed to have broken through its bottleneck under the surge of yang qi.

My Pre-Heaven True Qi and yang qi bolstered each other. I felt as though my entire aura had changed.

In the past, I would always furrow my brows subconsciously and frequently fall into solitary contemplation, giving off a very dreary vibe. But after my Heart Aperture opened, a touch of color returned to my complexion and my eyes, making me appear approachable, warm, and distinctly masculine.

The transformations in my Heart Aperture were far from over. Not long after the sound of snapping iron chains ceased, fragmented memories erupted from the depths of my mind.

Doing a quick scan of them, my eyes widened in shock. Multiple memories surfaced in my mind this time. They were completely unconnected to each other, but every single one of them was startling.