Chapter 214 - 213: Feng Yao (3)

Feng Yao immediately realized that Lin Yuan had accurately deduced his situation.

What comprehension! To understand my predicament so quickly, he might truly be the one who can...

"My mortal vessel cannot contain my Primordial Spirit forever," Feng Yao said, confirming Lin Yuan’s deduction. "The sheer density and magnitude of my soul will eventually overwhelm my physical body. As time passes, my flesh will be unable to withstand the pressure of my own Primordial Spirit and will ultimately collapse. When that happens, I will cease to exist in the physical world."

"A body too weak to contain the very soul that sustains it," Lin Yuan summarized coldly. "Your greatest blessing has become the very thing that will destroy you. The stronger your Primordial Spirit remains, the faster your mortal body approaches its limit."

"Precisely," Feng Yao sighed, waving his hand to dismiss the Origin butterfly. "Which brings me to why I am speaking to you now."

The boy looked around the vast expanse of Lin Yuan’s spiritual sea.

"I did not wish to participate in this tournament," Feng Yao confessed, a sudden, bitter anger flashing across his young features. "I have no desire for glory, and absolutely no interest in trampling on lower-realm cultivators. I just wanted to be left alone in the quiet pavilions of my home."

"Then why are you here?" Lin Yuan asked, though he already knew the shape of the answer. In the Nine Provinces, supreme power was never allowed to sit idle.

"Because I simply could not refuse," Feng Yao spat, his hands balling into tight fists. "The Lord of the Feng Province is a tyrant. He is an expert at the Mid-Stage of the Soul Transformation realm. He recognized my terrifying potential the day I was born. When the Peerless God Tournament was announced, he demanded I represent the province as their absolute trump card."

Feng Yao’s milky white eyes dimmed with profound, helpless despair.

"I refused," the boy whispered. "So, he took my parents. He took my younger sister. He placed them under absolute house arrest within the deepest, most heavily warded dungeons of his palace. He threatened to shatter their souls if I did not enter this tournament and secure a dominant position for the Feng Province."

Lin Yuan listened in silence. The cruelty of the Central Continent’s elites was a bottomless well. To weaponize a child’s love for his family to force a pacifist into a deathmatch was entirely in line with the moral bankruptcy Lin Yuan had come to expect from the Upper Division.

"It is a common tale," Lin Yuan said smoothly, his voice devoid of pity, offering only cold, pragmatic acknowledgement. "Leverage is the currency of this world. But you did not breach my Sea of Consciousness merely to share your tragic backstory, Feng Yao. You are a captive god, and I am an expert fighting for my own family’s survival. What do you want from me?"

Feng Yao took a deep breath, his teenage demeanor completely evaporating, replaced by the sharp, desperate focus of someone playing their final card.

"The second preliminary round will commence in exactly three days," Feng Yao stated, his voice ringing with absolute clarity as he stepped closer, his pupil-less eyes locking onto Lin Yuan’s avatar.

"If you can manage to reach the Top Three in that upcoming round, Daoist Lin," Feng Yao offered, "I will personally assist you in your cultivation."

Lin Yuan showed no outward reaction, but his mind immediately began analyzing every detail of the offer.

"You are at the Unshaken Stage," Feng Yao continued. "The Fifth Step of Dao Resolve. Your Dao Heart has achieved a level of conceptual stability that allows you to remain unmoved even in the face of absolute terror. Because you have reached this particular threshold, you are compatible with what I can offer."

Feng Yao raised his hand once more, but this time, he did not summon a playful butterfly.

A small, perfectly spherical orb of blinding, liquid-white energy materialized above his palm. It radiated neither heat nor cold. Instead, it carried a profound and indescribable weight, causing the golden-purple mist within Lin Yuan’s mind to physically bow away from it in submission.

"I will give you a sliver of my Primordial Essence," Feng Yao promised, his words hanging heavily in the void. "It is the purest essence produced by a perfected Primordial Spirit. It can serve as a catalyst for evolution. Because your Dao Heart has reached the Unshaken Stage, your soul and foundation are strong enough to withstand it. You will not detonate upon absorbing it. Instead, it will merge with your foundation and forcibly elevate your Dao Resolve."

Feng Yao lowered his hand, and the radiant orb vanished.

"With my Primordial Essence, Lin Yuan, you will instantly shatter your bottlenecks. You will bypass the Profound and Sovereign Stages entirely and step directly into the Eighth Step."

His voice became solemn.

"The Peerless Stage."

Inside his spiritual sea, Lin Yuan remained perfectly still. Yet internally, his mind was already reeling with a surge of cold, calculated delight.

The Eighth Step.

A terrifying thrill raced through his consciousness.

It was precisely what he needed.

Just hours ago, after consuming the Nine Essence Genesis Pill, he had realized that because his Dao Heart was tethered to Bai Qingyue and fundamentally defiant, it did not conform to the rigid will of the Heavenly Dao. The Heavens would never voluntarily grant him another natural step of Dao Resolve progression.

He needed an external means to advance his Dao Resolve.

And now, standing before him, was a sixteen-year-old boy offering exactly that.

Primordial Essence from a perfected Primordial Spirit.

It was an incredibly potent shortcut, one capable of vaulting him directly into a realm far above most of the so-called Peerless Geniuses and placing him only a breath away from the absolute zenith of the Spirit Severing Realm.

But Lin Yuan was not a gullible, greedy fool who would lunge blindly at the sight of treasure.

There was always a price for something this valuable.

"A generous offer," Lin Yuan said smoothly, his deep purple eyes narrowing into slits of pure analytical suspicion. "In fact, it is an offer that is entirely too good to be true."