"Ming Zeng! You dare to bully others of low rank! Have you no pride as one of the five great families?"
A piercing yell was heard somewhat far away, preventing Ling Tian from partially lifting the heavenly seal in his sea of knowledge.
Scanning with his spiritual sense, Ling Tian found a young man wearing combat style clothing and a spear on his back, along with an angry look, as he shouted at Ming Zeng in anger and took Mu Shen's side.
Mu Shen was surprised at first but then smiled and nodded in appreciation as he looked back at Ming Zeng.
"Tch! What are you doing here, Tang Jingtian?" Ming Zeng muttered as he clenched his teeth.
Tang Jingtian stood in front of Mu Shen and spoke harshly to Ming Zeng: "Ming Zeng, do you think I don't know what your bastard little brother tried to do? He deserved it. So if you're going to fight with my brother Shen, you're going to fight with me too. Even if my Tang family is below yours, we can still cause them big headaches".
Ming Zeng just stared at him, as if trying to kill him with his eyes.
"Tch... this time you've saved Mu Shen. Tell your friend to take care, that one day I'll personally take care of him..." Ming Zeng turned around while leaving behind a threat to Mu Shen.
Mu Shen breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at Tang Jingtian and thanked him: "Brother Jingtian, thank you for helping me again, I really don't know how to repay you for all you have done for me someday...".
"Hehe, you don't have to worry Brother Shen, you are my true brother, so brothers support each other. Besides, I found out what they wanted to do to little sister Shuiruo, those bastards didn't hesitate when you left... by the way, where is the one who helped little sister? I have to thank him for saving her and above all for teaching that bastard Ming Fen a good lesson, haha, they say he'll be bedridden for more than 6 months, haha". Tang Jingtian laughed when he said the latter.
Ling Tian twisted his lip when he heard what Tang Jingtian said. Not wanting to listen to other people's conversations any longer, he retracted his spiritual sense as he reflected on what had happened.
Half an hour later, Mu Shen arrived at Ling Tian's room.
"Brother Tian, a friend invited me to go and get some medicinal plants tomorrow morning, and I wanted to know if you would join us. By the way, Shuiruo would be staying with my friend's sister, so there would be no problem with her safety". Mu Shen told him.
Ling Tian wanted to know more about this world on this lower plane, so he couldn't stay locked up all the time, so he nodded to Mu Shen's request.
Mu Shen left, leaving Ling Tian to rest for the night.
It was already night and although it was still a little early, Mu Shen went to sleep in his room. Due to the effort of fighting Ming Zeng he exhausted his energies so he fell asleep quickly.
Mu Shuiruo was in her hidden room almost all afternoon due to the nervousness of seeing Ling Tian again. Along with the fright she had felt when she saw Ming Fen wanting to take advantage of her, she fleetingly entered the paradise of dreams.
Ling Tian left his room in silence and confirmed that they were both sleeping. He moved slowly without making a sound.
Although the house was one floor, it was somewhat big, so Ling Tian decided to go up on the roof.
He lay down, gazing at the night sky along with the stars that shone in the sea of darkness.
Unexpectedly, he took out almost all of his immortal crystals, leaving only some in his space ring, and sat down in the cultivation position. The immortal crystals he took out, he left them in front of him, as he took one and began to absorb its immortal essence.
Sigh
Ling Tian breathed a sigh of sadness, as he remembered his current state.
Although his body had recovered, his cultivation had not yet returned. Now, even with several immortal crystals he could not cultivate and have some power again.
'One must go with the flow, if you can go on, go on, if not, let yourself go. When things have changed and you can come to understand, then you can breathe and move on...'.
The words spoken by Mu Shen echoed in his mind again and again. He felt there was something in those phrases. His insides echoed as he heard them.
Haaaa
Ling Tian felt it was unfair what was happening to him.
He was angry with the Heavenly Dao, but, looking at it from another perspective, he knew that this was the right thing to do.
He was going to die at the depth of the abyss of Samsara Bridge, that was for sure, but in the end, he was transported into the void, where the Heavenly Dao was calling him.
Hence, sealing his cultivation was a form of punishment for having defied the Heavenly Laws and forcing his fate to prevent him from dying.
"I shouldn't blame the Heavenly Dao ... in the first place, wasn't it my fault for trusting those treacherous bastards? ..." Ling Tian spoke quietly to himself as he looked up and watched the sky while lost in the beauty of the night.
A sympathetic light shone in Ling Tian's black, pearly eyes.
"How can I be such an idiot and let my judgment be clouded only by hatred for the Heavenly Dao? What good is it for me to have had all that wisdom acquired in the immortal world if I do not put it into practice? ... Even a mere mortal could see another way to my situation ..."
Ling Tian's mind cleared and he seemed to be able to finally "see" the horizon, then, suddenly he managed to destroy an invisible wall that prevented him from advancing.
"Haaa, I don't know if I should start over. Start cultivating again from scratch? Certainly it's something unpleasant and very frustrating ... thousands of years searching for the true strength to one day disappear and become a cripple, a simple ordinary mortal ..."
"But, I'm still alive, so the cultivation can start again... What does it matter to start again from scratch?! I once stood on top of the immortal world. I had absolute strength! Cultivate again if it is required... then I will do it again! ... If... if you don't let me cultivate... I'll find a way to start cultivating again! ...all in order to see my loved ones again! My life is more important than my own cultivation... if I were really dead... how am I supposed to see them again?"
Ling Tian plunged into his thoughts without realizing that a faint light coming from the stars, the moon and faintly from the sun from the distant horizon enveloped his entire body, giving him a mysterious aura, which even seemed to merge with the very darkness and space around him, making him completely ethereal.
His body even began to float in the air, a metre or two from the ceiling. And he stayed there, floating in the air, with all these strange events happening in his body.
Fwoosh
Crack
A sound was heard in Ling Tian's body, both in his Dantian and in his sea of knowledge.
Swoosh
An amazing and mysterious energy descended from the Heavens and enveloped Ling Tian, while the light became brighter to the point where it looked like a tiny sun, radiating light and illuminating even the darkest place in the darkness.
Even the immortal crystals scattered around him could not withstand that mysterious energy and easily turned to dust, while its immortal energy was transformed at a vertiginous rate and combined with the energy from the Heavens and entered Ling Tian's body.
Ling Tian had not heard the sound inside him, nor had he even noticed the amazing but strange phenomenon happening around him.
He was shocked by the voice he heard from inside him.
That voice seemed to want to say something to him, but he could only hear a few phrases:
"Balance... Life... Order... Patience... Understanding... Simplicity... Honesty..."
He could vaguely hear those words, they were so weak that he could hardly discern them.
Ling Tian was wondering why he was hearing those words, as it happened to him almost exactly after he forced his potential by performing the Inner Energy Technique and became unconscious.
Once again, that voice came up, but this time, it was firm and concrete:
"One's being must understand and go with the flow of the river. When you can move forward, go ahead, fight, struggle ... When you can't take a step, meditate, relax, let yourself go ...
When you realize that all things have changed and you understand this in the depths of your being, the shackles of slavery will disappear and there will be nothing to hold you back ..."
Ling Tian felt those words resounding in his whole soul and instantly understood them in his whole being, allowing him to reach a new vision and to glimpse just the threshold of the Great Dao.
Boom
Boom
Boom
A restraint of a layer of the heavenly seal on his Dantian rose up and let out its contained immortal essence, addressing and covering the whole body of Ling Tian, swimming freely in his meridians without any restraint. Filling the void with the power that was missing from him.
A layer of the heavenly seal on his sea of knowledge also rose and both his spiritual sense and his power of soul and spirit were greatly strengthened.