The heavy, cold steel frame of the multi-ton seal groaned beneath Lin Fengās palms, the metal buckling slightly where his fingertips dug into the reinforcement ribs.
Beneath the granite flooring of the Zhao Family Ancestral Estate, the pressurized ocean of ancient, pristine spiritual energy thrummed against the barrier like a physical hammer. The remaining three elders of the clan lay scattered across the basement cavern, their breathing ragged, their traditional martial alignment thoroughly broken by the sudden kinetic and spiritual backlash of the preceding minutes.
The countdown to the Great Awakening is still ticking on the global ledger,
Lin Feng calculated, his internal gaze scanning the immaculate, compressed layout of his
Dantian
.
But the corporate kings and traditional masters are looking at the wrong board. They are trying to claim the earth before they have even learned how to breathe the sky.
He didn't waste time with mechanical tools or cutting torches. Infusing his bare palms with the absolute, dense weight of
Mortal Flesh RefinementāStage 9 Peak
, Lin Feng jerked his forearms upward in a sharp, coordinated burst of physical leverage.
SCREECHāBANG!
The massive heavy steel slab was violently ripped from its bedrock anchoring pins, the heavy iron chains wrapped around the locking gears snapping into dozens of flying metal links that embedded themselves deep into the concrete ceiling blocks.
The moment the well breached, a blinding, vertical geyser of crystalline sapphire vapor erupted from the dark shaft. It wasn't water; it was an incredibly dense column of liquefied pre-awakening Qi, surging under thousands of pounds of tectonic pressure. The sheer concentration of the energy was so immense that the ambient air within the basement instantly vaporized, replacing the room's atmosphere with a sweet, intoxicating mist that turned the concrete floorboards into a slick sheet of frosted glass.
Ordinary human flesh would have been instantly calcified or torn into microscopic molecular shreds upon making contact with a raw geological eruption of this magnitude.
But Lin Feng didnāt retreat. He stepped straight into the center of the blinding sapphire pillar.
The moment the liquid energy struck his chest, a wave of agonizing, bone-shattering pressure slammed into his primary energetic pathways. It felt as though a column of molten steel was being driven down his throat, threatening to expand his refined, tightly bound blood vessels until they ruptured.
Lin Feng closed his eyes, his breathing slowing down to an absolute, unmoving state as he activated the core transformation mantra of the
Nine Heaven Circulation Scroll
.
āThe vessel is complete, the floodgates are open, let the mortal marrow transform into the first stream of the Absolute Dao.ā
Instead of allowing the raging geological torrent to wander aimlessly through his anatomy, Lin Feng used his pristine, scoured meridians as a series of high-pressure hydraulic conduits. He guided the crystalline sapphire Qi down his spine, across his lower pelvis, and straight into the major energetic bottleneck at the base of his torsoāthe
Ren Channel
.
In his past life, it had taken him three years of agonizing black-market drug consumption and dangerous training errors to open his first true circulation channel, leaving his pathways permanently scarred and inefficient.
Now, with a flawless foundation and an absolute ocean of raw geological fuel right beneath his heels, the bottleneck stood no chance.
BOOM.
An invisible spiritual detonation occurred within Lin Feng's internal consciousness, the sound resembling a heavy bronze bell striking inside his skull. The structural barrier blocking his primary meridian channel was instantly, ruthlessly pulverized into nothingness. The liquid sapphire energy flowed through the newly opened pathway with a deep, rhythmic roar that perfectly synchronized with the natural vibrations of the Earth's fault lines.
Qi Circulation ChannelingāStage 1!
The breakthrough didn't stop at the initial layer. As the immense volume of the Mount Tai stonesā residual energy and the ancestral well's core output blended within his
Dantian
, a brand-new internal engine began to spin. The gaseous, unrefined spiritual vapor he had accumulated over the past days was aggressively compressed, transforming into a dense, circulating current of genuine, liquid Qi.
His physical senses exploded outward. His mental awareness expanded from a simple physical boundary, projecting a five-meter invisible dome around his frame where every falling dust particle and every microscopic temperature shift was tracked with absolute, perfect clarity.
By 6:45 AM, the vertical geyser of sapphire vapor slowly began to stabilize, drawing back into the dark mouth of the well as the tectonic pressure of the subterranean node found its natural equilibrium with Lin Fengās new baseline.
Lin Feng opened his eyes, a temporary, blinding flash of pure golden light radiating from his pupils before settling back into a calm, deceptive vacancy. He stood at the center of the misty, ruined basement, his old clothes completely shredded by the energetic currents, revealing a torso that looked entirely smooth, lean, and porcelain-whiteāyet packed with a compressed physical and spiritual density that could repel high-velocity ballistic rounds without a single mark.
He walked out of the granite ring, casually picking up his old backpack from the dry corner. He reached into the front pocket, pulling out a spare, clean t-shirt and adjusting his utility jacket over his shoulders.
Suddenly, a faint, rhythmic vibration from the floorboards caught his attention.
His newly expanded
Qi Circulation
senses instantly traced a series of rapid, heavy footfalls approaching from the upper courtyard stairs. The security doors at the top of the utility stairs were violently kicked open, and three figures plunged into the basement, their compact tactical firearms extended in a standard defensive clearing formation.
They didn't wear the gray uniforms of the Zhao family or the crimson tactical suits of the Jade Pavilion. They wore unmarked, matte-black tactical gear, their faces completely obscured by heavy Kevlar ballistic masks.
The butterfly effect is accelerating,
Lin Feng realized, his pulse remaining perfectly flat as he slipped his arms into his jacket sleeves.
These aren't local corporate enforcers. These are the black-ops engineering teams from the Central Regulatory Bureau. In the original timeline, they didn't deploy their tactical units to Jiangnan until six months after the Awakening.
"Target silhouette localized!" the lead black-ops operative barked into his throat mic, his weapon's laser sight instantly locking onto Lin Feng's chest. "The automated surveillance grid for the southern hills went dark ten minutes ago. Identify yourself, civilian! Drop the bag and step away from the structural installation!"
Lin Feng didn't drop his backpack. He slung it casually over his right shoulder, a cold, undefeated smile curling the corners of his lips beneath the glare of the industrial halogen lamps.
"Your regulatory charter is about to become completely worthless, gentlemen," Lin Feng said softly, his voice carrying a deep, spatial resonance that caused the metal breaker panels on the walls to hum in sympathy. "You brought your guns to a dragon's nest. Let's see if your masks can hold back the smoke."
He took his first step forward as a true Qi Circulation cultivator, the board changing forever beneath his feet.