Manifestation of All Laws!

"System, exchange twenty thousand Merit Points for Awakening Time!"

"Exchange successful. Awakening Time countdown: 20, 19, 18..."

The moment Awakening Time began, the scene in Shen Zhui's eyes turned hazy and unreal. It was as if he were no longer in the prison cell, but instead had entered a vast, misty chaos.

He felt utterly relaxed, as though all his troubles had vanished and his mind had gone blank. The grass stalk in his hand slipped away unconsciously.

This ethereal sensation was entirely different from Enlightenment Time.

It was like a drowning man sinking into a sea of suffering. Enlightenment Time was like that drowning man suddenly realizing how to lift his head above the water.

Awakening Time, on the other hand, was an invisible, mighty force that hauled him completely out of the water, freeing him from the shackles of the sea of suffering.

"Bzzz!"

A faint buzzing sounded in his mind. In that hazy space, a figure suddenly appeared.

The figure looked exactly like Shen Zhui, but his entire body radiated a sense of spiritual vitality.

He held the Iron Ruler and wore silver armor. He seemed like an independent individual, yet also seemed to share countless threads of connection with Shen Zhui's true self.

Enlightenment Time illuminated his actions and awareness, allowing him to recognize his own shortcomings.

Awakening Time manifested and explained all laws, pointing out the direction ahead.

A Shen Zhui who had mastered the Ruler Technique of 'Unity of Heaven and Man' began practicing before him.

'Nine Layers of Iron Ruler' consisted of eighteen forms in total. Pointing, thrusting, chopping, smashing, stabbing, and sweeping served as the six cores, each with three variations.

Every move and form could be combined and executed in countless ways, possessing endless subtleties.

After three years of arduous practice, Shen Zhui naturally knew the eighteen forms by heart. Yet now, watching another virtual version of himself practice them, he felt something entirely different.

This was a teacher whose body, realm, movement technique, and every other aspect were identical to his own—except that his Ruler Technique had reached perfection.

Unlike being taught by others in the real world, every move and every action the other displayed in this virtual space was exactly as if Shen Zhui himself were performing it.

Awakening Time was equivalent to giving him two perspectives. From one perspective, he practiced in a state of Unity of Heaven and Man, imprinting every movement of his own body into his mind.

From the other, he watched from the perspective of an outsider and drew conclusions.

With the two perspectives confirming each other, Shen Zhui understood, in an extremely short time, a great path leading to Unity of Heaven and Man!

Inside the cell, Shen Zhui stood motionless with his eyes closed, like a statue.

Had anyone been sharing the room with him, they would have noticed that even his heartbeat and breathing had taken on an extraordinary rhythm.

Shen Zhui seemed to have experienced endless years in the illusory space, but in truth, only a single breath had passed.

The instant he opened his eyes, vitality burst forth. His heartbeat and breathing suddenly surged like a volcanic eruption. His entire body and essence fused as one, and his condition instantly reached its peak!

"Whew~"

Snatching up a section of grass stalk, Shen Zhui began moving inside the cell.

"Swish, swish, swish~"

Phantoms immediately appeared. The grass stalk seemed to have become one with him, and its radiance caused even the shadow reflected on the wall behind him to blur into one continuous mass.

With Shen Zhui at the center, everywhere the grass stalk swept was shrouded in phantoms.

This was the unique 'Momentum' of a technique that had reached the Major Accomplishment Realm.

Yet now that he had awakened, his movements were completely different from before.

During his usual practice, the weapon had merely been a dead object, without any special sensation. But at this moment, Shen Zhui felt as though the weapon in his hand had come alive.

It was as if some faint yet profound force, following a unique rhythm, were touching his weapon and resonating along with his movements.

What was the Power of Heaven and Earth? The Power of Heaven and Earth was the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy!

All things in the world existed between heaven and earth, and every movement they made would itself stir fluctuations in the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.

It was simply that Houtian Martial Artists were too weak to sense it. Even sensing it was difficult, much less making use of it.

By comparison, Xiantian Masters stored Xiantian Spiritual Energy in their dantians. With a source to guide them, they could naturally draw upon the Power of Heaven and Earth with ease, as well as absorb and store it.

This was the fundamental difference between the Xiantian and Houtian realms.

Previously, when Shen Zhui's technique had reached Major Accomplishment, the Momentum accompanying the Iron Ruler's phantoms had been fierce, domineering, and murderous.

It looked immensely powerful, yet it was like an ignorant child banging all eighteen musical instruments at once. The sound was certainly thunderous, but it was chaotic and disordered.

Now, after Shen Zhui sensed the changes transmitted through his weapon, he reflected on the scene in the virtual space and gradually grasped a trace of its flavor.

He slowly controlled the changes in the Momentum, organizing its notes into order and gradually forming a simple melody.

Once the melody took shape, that wondrous sensation immediately deepened, as if he had pierced through a membrane. At the same time, the invisible force became increasingly clear.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"

Earlier, when Shen Zhui practiced the Ruler Technique, weeds had flown wildly and dust had danced through the narrow cell.

But as Shen Zhui adjusted himself again and again, slowly touching the threshold of 'Unity of Heaven and Man,' the situation changed completely!

Driven by the invisible force, the weeds no longer flew about without order. The dust, too, strangely formed a small whirlwind that revolved around Shen Zhui.

Immersed in this wondrous state, Shen Zhui was completely unaware of the changes. He simply followed the exhilarating sensation, doing his utmost to make the notes even more beautiful.

He had discovered that whenever he controlled the Momentum and played the notes in a more orderly fashion, that exhilarating sensation deepened another layer.

Although he had already left the virtual space, he clearly felt his mind spreading outward with his movements, extending beyond the cell.

The feeling continued to deepen. The weapon in his hand was no longer merely this three-foot-long grass stalk, but the spiritual energy within this entire stretch of heaven and earth!

"Boom!" "Clang!"

A series of muffled sounds suddenly came from the bars and iron door.

At first, they were faint, but they gradually grew louder.

Scratches appeared across the iron door. As for the wooden bars, they were shaved until wood shavings flew everywhere.

The sounds also carried a certain rhythm. Some prisoners in nearby cells were jolted awake one after another.

"Where did that sound come from?"

"What happened?"

"Is someone breaking into the prison?"

"How could this be a prison break? This is the county office prison!"

"Damn, you dead bastard of a prisoner! Are you going to let people sleep or not?!"

"..."

The disturbance grew increasingly loud. Streams of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, like soldiers ordered to charge, swept across every obstacle nearby at their master's command.

As the range controlled by Shen Zhui expanded and the Power of Heaven and Earth he drew upon grew stronger, the prisoners in the cells adjoining his were already nearly suffocating beneath its pressure.

"Xiantian Spiritual Energy?! My heavens! Could the person locked up beside me be an Xiantian Master?!"

"What kind of madness is this? Why would an Xiantian Master be locked up with us?"

"I can't breathe... I can't breathe... help! Help!"

The disturbance mixed with the prisoners' uproar, finally alarming the yamen runners guarding the prison.

Hearing the noise, the yamen runners hurried down the stairs, one hand covering the long saber at their waists.

They struck the iron doors with their torches and shouted a warning: "Silence! Silence! What are you making such a racket for?"

The yamen runners naturally did not suspect a prison break. In the past, martial artists accustomed to comfortable lives had sometimes caused a commotion after being locked up, simply because the food was worse. Usually, a few lashes were enough to make them submit completely.

But this time was different. Even after dozens of lashes, the uproar did not diminish. Instead, it spread like a prairie fire.

"Scarface, what's going on? Could someone really be trying to break out?" A younger yamen runner was inexplicably terrified.

"What kind of horseshit are you spouting? Don't scare yourself!" the older yamen runner, nicknamed Scarface because of the scar on his face, immediately barked.

Yet he was also somewhat panicked inside. As a seventh-grade Houtian Martial Artist, he sensed things more keenly than the others. The pitch-black prison was inexplicably emanating an extremely powerful pressure that made him tremble uncontrollably.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

A series of tremendous booms came from deep within the prison, as if someone were ramming the iron door, or as if hammer after hammer were pounding against their hearts, making them unbearably uncomfortable.

Scarface's expression immediately changed.

"You go report to Steward Liu. Have someone seal off the dungeon exit."

"Right." The already frightened young yamen runner hurried away.

"Damn it... Could some blind fool really be trying to escape?" Drawing his saber and holding up a torch, Scarface walked toward the source of the noise.

The county office, the main hall.

County Magistrate Wei Wenhe was looking at a map. Standing beside him were Wang Long, the head of the Martial Arts Department, and Zhao Hu.

"...You're saying that the Li Family might have a hiding place at Phoenix Mountain Ridge, a hundred li away?"

Seeing the county magistrate ask him a question, Zhao Hu hurriedly said, "This subordinate is only making a conjecture. Earlier, the head ordered us to keep an eye on the movements of the Li and Yang Families' caravans. This subordinate discovered that a caravan of roughly a hundred people would always carry large quantities of supplies and head toward Phoenix Mountain Ridge in batches at regular intervals."

"Once they emerged and returned to the territory of the two great families, the group would have been replaced by a new set of unfamiliar faces, though their numbers remained roughly around a hundred."

"This subordinate once sent people to infiltrate them and make inquiries. These people guarded their words tightly and refused to mention what goods they were transporting. We only know that when they returned to the city, they would have a few more horses and Silver Taels. To avoid alerting them, this subordinate did not dare send people to intercept and inspect them, so we could not verify what they were trading. We can only make a conjecture."

Wei Wenhe did not turn around. His entire body seemed shrouded in a mass of fog, leaving behind only the outline of a tall figure.

He continued staring at the map. After Zhao Hu finished speaking, he merely waved his hand.

"Very well, I understand. You may leave for now."

"Yes." Zhao Hu bowed respectfully.

After Zhao Hu withdrew, Wei Wenhe studied the map for a while longer before finally turning around. The fog dispersed, revealing a face that was far too young.

He looked entirely different from the dignified old man in the rumors. Wei Wenhe appeared more like a delicate and handsome scholar.

"Senior Brother, what do you think?"

Wang Long pondered for a moment before saying, "The area around Phoenix Mountain Ridge is where mountain folk gather to trade. Caravans often go there to sell supplies, so it's difficult to determine whether this matter is true."

Wei Wenhe waved his hand and was just about to say something when his expression suddenly changed.

"Junior Brother, what is it?" Wang Long noticed the shift in his expression and immediately asked.

Wei Wenhe suddenly relaxed and laughed aloud. "Come, Senior Brother. Let's go to the county office prison. It's good news."