Chapter 213 - 212: Feng Yao (2)

"I was born with a Primordial Spirit," Feng Yao stated.

Even though Lin Yuan had sensed the boy’s Primordial Spirit back at the Grand Court through the use of his divine sense, hearing him personally say that he had been born with it was something else entirely. It was one thing to perceive that extraordinary existence through divine sense, but another to hear the absolute, undeniable truth of it spoken aloud. The weight of the statement seemed to vibrate directly through Lin Yuan’s spiritual sea, sending a genuine shockwave through his mind.

It was a phenomenon that spat in the face of the Heavenly Dao.

To form a Primordial Spirit, a cultivator had to endure centuries of meditation and painstaking cultivation. They had to sever their mortal dust, completely detaching themselves from the emotional tethers of the human condition. They had to subject their soul to the grueling ten steps of Dao Resolve, tempering their will against heavenly tribulations, karmic backlash, and existential terror until they reached the ultimate zenith of the Tenth Step. Only then, during that brief and agonizing window, would the Heavens open a microscopic crack, allowing the cultivator to absorb a sliver of Origin Energy and undergo the profound transformation of turning their Nascent Soul into a Primordial Spirit.

It was a process with an extraordinarily high mortality rate.

Yet this boy, this sixteen-year-old standing before him, had bypassed the entire crucible. He had simply opened his eyes in a crib, already possessing the soul of a god. What kind of great and terrifying phenomenon could have caused the universe to glitch so spectacularly?

"Many call me a Half-Step Soul Transformation prodigy," Feng Yao continued, a bitter, cynical edge creeping into his young voice. "They write my name on their scrolls and praise my ’unfathomable cultivation.’ But it is all a lie, Lin Yuan. A convenient lie."

Feng Yao took a step forward, the Origin Energy humming around him reacting to his emotional shift, causing the golden-purple mist of Lin Yuan’s mind to hiss and evaporate where the boy stepped.

"I am not at the Half-Step Soul Transformation realm," Feng Yao revealed, his voice echoing with a tragic resonance. "In fact, I did not fully reach the Soul Transformation realm at all. Do you know why?"

"Because you lack a Dao Resolve," Lin Yuan answered smoothly, his comprehension instantly piecing together the paradoxical tragedy of the boy’s existence.

"Exactly." Feng Yao nodded, a sad smile touching his lips. "I lack Dao Resolve because I simply do not have a Dao Heart. I have never cultivated for even a single day in my sixteen years of life. I have never circulated Qi for the sake of cultivation, nor have I ever meditated upon the fundamental laws of Yin and Yang. In essence, Lin Yuan... I am not a cultivator."

Lin Yuan stood silently, absorbing the magnitude of the revelation.

"I am merely a mortal boy who happened to inherit a phenomenon," Feng Yao said, looking down at his own pale hands. "I was born with a Primordial Spirit. Because I possess it, I naturally have access to all the divine abilities that a Soul Transformation expert can wield by virtue of possessing one. But that is the absolute extent of it. Technically, I cannot even be classified on the standard cultivation ladder, because my true cultivation lies completely outside its conventional measure."

The boy looked up, his milky white eyes burning with a sudden, intense clarity.

"I am simply a boy with a Primordial Spirit," Feng Yao stated softly, yet the words carried the weight of a falling mountain. "Which allows me to casually use Origin Energy to shake mountains and reverse rivers. When the other Peerless Geniuses face me, they are at an insurmountable disadvantage. Not because I am a better fighter, but because of the fundamental nature of our ammunition."

Feng Yao raised a finger, recreating the bioluminescent butterfly of Origin Energy.

"You and the others use normal spells fueled by Spiritual energy," the boy explained, watching the butterfly flutter. "Spiritual Qi is heavily limited in its abilities, but I wield Origin Spells. I wield the literal first breath of creation itself. It is a completely unfair advantage that was simply bestowed upon me."

Lin Yuan understood perfectly.

Since Feng Yao was born with a Primordial Spirit, he projected the aura and the terrifying pressure of someone at least halfway into the Soul Transformation realm. But in reality, he had zero cultivation foundation. He had no martial arts, no physical body refinement, and no tempered will.

But none of that mattered when his basic, instinctual reflex was fueled by an energy source that could erase a Nascent Soul from existence with a mere thought.

"And yet," Lin Yuan spoke, his voice remaining cold and analytical, refusing to let the tragic tale soften his guard, "from what I understand, you do possess another advantage against those who have only just entered the Soul Transformation Realm. Can you tell me how your Primordial Spirit compares to theirs?"

Feng Yao’s expression shifted once again. The childlike curiosity vanished completely, replaced by an old and heavy sorrow that seemed wholly out of place on his youthful face.

"Because my Primordial Spirit is not like the rest," Feng Yao revealed, his voice dropping into a solemn whisper that seemed to echo from the dawn of time. "It did not evolve from a mere Nascent Soul. It was born perfect. From the moment I came into existence, it had already reached a level of perfection that rivals even the Primordial Spirits of Peak Void Refinement experts."

Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes widened by a fraction.

Peak Void Refinement.

The very realm of Emperor Tianxu.

To possess a soul of such terrifying magnitude while being trapped inside the uncultivated body of a sixteen-year-old boy was not a blessing.

It was an active, ticking time bomb.

This boy’s innate aura of sorrow is not without reason, Lin Yuan thought. It stems from the fact that he might soon die because of the very nature of the Primordial Spirit he possessed.

To have a Primordial Spirit at the level of a Peak Void Refinement expert was simply too powerful for his mortal body to bear. No amount of cultivation he could have undertaken would have been enough to prevent his premature demise.

From everything Lin Yuan could see, Feng Yao’s body was already being overwhelmed by the terrifying existence within him.

He might not even live to see his twentieth birthday.