Chapter 180: Embrace and Guard Mountain

At the summit of Heaven-Mending Peak, Lu Yang stood with his hands behind his back.

Behind him, the graceful figure of Madam Ruoxiang quietly emerged. In the beautiful eyes looking at him were astonishment and envy. Only then did she move forward and say softly:

“Congratulations to Yuan Tu for reaching the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment; from now on, longevity is in sight!”

She couldn’t help but be envious.

After all, being also at Foundation Establishment, not to mention Innate Divine Abilities, she hadn’t even comprehended a Life-Bound Divine Ability. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be wholeheartedly scheming on how to reincarnate.

The result was that compared to her, Lu Yang, who had attained the Dao less than a hundred years ago and was incredibly young, had already broken through layers of barriers and reached the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment in one fell swoop. How could this not make Madam Ruoxiang feel envious? However, she was very smart and didn’t let this envy affect her mindset.

“Madam overpraises.”

Hearing Madam Ruoxiang’s flattery, Lu Yang smiled slightly. Immediately, he looked inside himself, silently sensing the changes brought by this Innate Divine Ability.

[Embrace and Guard Mountain]

At this moment, a towering mountain shadow emerged within his Dao Foundation, balancing the One Qi and stabilizing heaven and earth, locking all his merit and qi destiny within his body.

“This is the Innate Divine Ability…”

Lu Yang murmured in his heart, only feeling the world in his eyes was vastly different. Along with it, he had new realizations about karma, fate, and even the heaven and earth of a region.

No wonder the gap between Initial Stage and Middle Stage Foundation Establishment lay in whether one could achieve an Innate Divine Ability. This was absolutely not just gaining one more powerful method, but a supplement in stature. The Innate Divine Ability’s enhancement to the Dao Foundation and even the changes to the Life-Bound Divine Ability were immediate.

“Embracing the One and guarding the Center, able to Distinguish Same and Different.”

As the name suggested, besides its own might, [Embrace and Guard Mountain] could also enhance and elevate the [Distinguish Same and Different] profundity within Lu Yang’s Life-Bound Divine Ability.

At this moment, when Lu Yang held [Distinguish Same and Different] again.

In his eyes, countless karmic lines immediately emerged—some bright, some dim, some thick, some thin, densely packed.

These were all his karma.

And the most prominent among them was a stream of black smoke, almost infecting more than half of the karmic lines on his body, wearing down his merit and qi destiny.

“Heavenly Punishment Tribulation Qi.”

In his previous life, he couldn’t see this Tribulation Qi, so he exposed a flaw in front of the Heaven-Mending Peak Master, almost failing at the last moment and creating complications.

However, now, not only could he see the existence of the Tribulation Qi, but as he operated [Distinguish Same and Different], the towering mountain shadow in the Dao Foundation immediately echoed with it. Under the washing of the Divine Ability brilliance, it actually dispersed those layers of Tribulation Qi, making the karmic lines on his body shine with brilliance again.

This was just the enhancement to the Life-Bound Divine Ability. Besides this, [Embrace and Guard Mountain] itself possessed both illusory and tangible transformation, which could be called extraordinarily wondrous.

In illusory form, it could suppress human hearts and fix Divine Abilities.

Transforming into tangible form, it could balance the One Qi and weigh heaven and earth.

This was also the point Lu Yang valued most—exceptionally good at bullying the weak

[Embrace and Guard Mountain] turning illusory, not showing form, was a big mountain pressing on the human heart. As long as Lu Yang had a thought, he could press it onto others.

From then on, cultivators suppressed by [Embrace and Guard Mountain] could no longer advance their cultivation. Every step of improvement would consume hundreds or thousands of times the energy of others. Even as long as Lu Yang was willing, he could knock their cultivation down out of thin air, pressing Qi Refining Perfection alive down to Qi Refining first layer.

And this effect could even be used against Foundation Establishment Perfected Ones.

Before fighting, press down directly with an [Embrace and Guard Mountain]. No matter how stunning you are, it can unconditionally negate one profundity of an Innate Divine Ability!

Three profundities become two, two become one.

One becomes directly gone!

“If I had [Embrace and Guard Mountain] in hand when fighting that Perfected One Huan Wu of the Divine Martial Sect back then, he wouldn’t even have been able to use his Life-Bound Divine Ability…”

How domineering!

Even more outrageous was that this ability to suppress profundities could be chosen arbitrarily. As long as you wanted, you could completely choose any profundity to suppress and erase. Therefore, it extremely countered some Perfected Ones who centered on a certain profundity of their Life-Bound Divine Ability and relied entirely on that profundity for combat.

Like Wu Cang.

His most powerful method, [Heavenly Furnace Li Fire], was composed of the “Fire in Wood” profundity in his own Life-Bound Divine Ability combined with the Innate Divine Ability [Bu Nan Ben].

It caused Lu Yang quite a bit of trouble at the time.

But now, he only needed to smash over with an [Embrace and Guard Mountain], suppressing “Fire in Wood,” and he could immediately break Wu Cang’s most powerful method!

Of course, this method of negating profundities also had restrictions.

First, once the profundity to be negated was selected, it couldn’t be changed for a short time. Second, other profundities of [Embrace and Guard Mountain] couldn’t be displayed.

[Embrace and Guard Mountain] transforming into tangible form could balance the One Qi and weigh heaven and earth. As the name suggested, it realistically manifested a mountain shadow, suppressing all spiritual qi, karma, and qi destiny in an area completely. Even with a thousand variations, it was difficult to escape from it. It was an extremely powerful trapping method.

“Damn it, mechanisms (utility) and stats (firepower) coexist.”

Opening his eyes, Lu Yang thoroughly understood why the [City Rampart Earth] Dao Fruit position was so sought after. Related Divine Abilities were either about mechanisms or stats.

its a pity, the karma was too heavy.

“Although sooner or later I have to discard it, now is the place to use it… Just right to settle new hatreds and old grudges together. Solve a big trouble in my heart today.”

With this thought, Lu Yang raised his head: “Come out, why be sneaky?”

As his voice fell, the moon was dark and the wind high. A black-clothed figure quietly emerged under the night curtain. Familiar appearance, but without the monstrous might of the previous life.

“This humble one Wu Cang greets Fellow Daoist Yuan Tu.”

As soon as these words came out, Lu Yang instantly smiled. Although he was also clear that the “Wu Cang” he saw at the end of his previous life wasn’t the person himself, but possessed by a Dao Sin.

But he couldn’t beat the Dao Sin now.

It just so happened that the sullen anger of being chased to self-destruct in the previous life had to find someone to vent on fiercely, so he had to record the debt on Wu Cang’s head first!

“Yuan Tu, this person comes with ill intent…”

Madam Ruoxiang beside him revealed a worried look seeing this. Lu Yang, however, waved his hand for her to retreat first, then said: “I understand Fellow Daoist’s intention in coming.”

“Pity, the Perfected Lord’s manuscript is so precious; how can it be given lightly?”

As Lu Yang’s voice fell, the originally pretentious smile of Wu Cang instantly faded, saying grimly: “So, Fellow Daoist wants to suffer a bit?”

Lu Yang didn’t answer.

After breaking through to the Middle Stage, he also saw some tricks. This Wu Cang came from a rogue cultivator background and joined the Saint Sect after reincarnating, so he still retained the style of a rogue cultivator.

Simply put, his numerous Divine Abilities were all focused on slaughter, but he had no dabbling in karma.

This kind of person was too easily influenced.

Therefore, him coming to find trouble might not necessarily be sincere.

Associating it further with the Heavenly Earth killing intent on himself in the previous life, Lu Yang thought about it now and felt that in all likelihood, it was a black hand laid by a certain big shot of the Saint Sect.

However, doing so couldn’t be without a price.

Foundation Establishment Perfected Ones were transcendent and worldly, with unique karma. Wanting to manipulate it would inevitably require paying a certain price; it couldn’t be as casual as controlling Qi Refining.

In other words—

“Once other variables suddenly arise while manipulating karma, this method of manipulating Foundation Establishment karma has a ninety-nine percent chance of immediately backfiring on the original owner!”

What is the specific variable?

The answer was self-evident. The opponent was dealing with him through Wu Cang. If he suddenly erupted and killed Wu Cang, this would be the biggest variable!

Thinking of this, a touch of crimson flashed abruptly in Lu Yang’s eyes.

No matter who plotted against me, be it Hong Yun or other Saint Sect Perfected Ones, it was absolutely impossible for them to calculate that he had already broken through and become a Middle Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator!

After all, [Embrace and Guard Mountain] inherently possessed the ability to suppress and stabilize merit and qi destiny. Starting from the breakthrough, Lu Yang had firmly locked the changes in qi destiny after his breakthrough within his body, covering it with the [Investigating Heaven Sphere] without showing a trace. All for this moment, finding a way to deal a ruthless blow to the mastermind behind the scenes!

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