Dao Heaven, Stealing Heaven!

Chapter 2: Dao Heaven, Stealing Heaven!

Halfway through his meal, Chen Lin rubbed his belly in satisfaction.

If only my martial arts were paired with an internal cultivation technique, the fight just now would have been much easier. Chen Lin licked his forelimbs, savoring the lingering taste while feeling a twinge of regret.

Although his mind was filled with a vast array of martial arts, he lacked the internal energy to support them, leaving him with only the forms and moves, but none of the true power.

Alas, humans and other creatures were each complex in their own way, with different constitutions and meridians; in his current form, Chen Lin was simply unable to practice internal cultivation.

"Hm? Internal cultivation techniques!"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him.

It seems... there is one technique that has no requirements for one's constitution or meridians!

As if remembering something, Chen Lin felt a faint surge of excitement and an urge to try it. No longer caring about the delicious meal before him, he smacked his lips and nimbly climbed a towering giant tree. In a secluded spot, he built a temporary shelter, using his forelimbs to arrange leaves and withered branches to cautiously seal off the surroundings, leaving only a tiny slit above to let the sunlight filter through.

Once he ensured his safety, Chen Lin stood upright, unable to wait any longer. As he felt the sunlight wash over him, he began to recall the technique that might change his fate—Dao Heaven!

In his past life, Chen Lin was a martial artist.

Martial artists were the most mysterious group of people in the East on Earth. Their cultivation involved following specific laws to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, circulating it through the internal organs, channeling it out to the limbs and bones, and tempering the physical form.

Dao Heaven was different.

"All things in heaven and earth are to be stolen; the thief guards the Dao, and the Daoist practices theft!"

This sentence was the very first line on the first page of Dao Heaven, and its practice was not limited to humans.

Dao Heaven was also "Stealing Heaven," turning the body into the entire universe and opening five major meridians within: the Heaven Meridian, Earth Meridian, Yang Meridian, Yin Meridian, and Void Meridian.

Yang was the sun, Yin was the moon, and Void was the stars. Just as heaven and earth had the sun, moon, and stars, these five meridians served as the foundation to evolve a small world within the body.

Chen Lin had obtained this technique by chance while carrying out a mission in his past life. Unfortunately, it was only a fragment.

At the time, Chen Lin had studied the manual carefully. The characters recorded in Dao Heaven were bizarre and obscure, a script that had never appeared before. Yet, the moment Chen Lin saw them, they seemed to come alive, imprinting themselves deeply into his mind. He instantly grasped their meaning, and to his shock, the moment he finished reading the last character, the manual ignited without fire and vanished into thin air, as if heaven and earth only allowed one person to cultivate it.

This made Chen Lin realize that the technique was incredibly mysterious and no ordinary item. However, he had not dared to practice it rashly, as it required the practitioner to abolish all previous cultivation and use this technique as the foundation before any other martial arts could be practiced.

Dao Heaven was divided into three volumes, and he had only obtained the first, which was the foundation chapter.

It was noon, and the scorching sun burned like fire. Chen Lin bathed in the light filtering through the dappled tree shadows, calmed his mind, and began to circulate the technique, slowly drawing in a sliver of the Essence of Li Fire hidden within the sun.

Half an hour later, with a soft "hiss," a golden flame the size of a hair erupted in Chen Lin's abdomen. This golden flame was barely visible, flickering like a candle in the wind, incredibly frail and on the verge of vanishing, yet it made Chen Lin's heart leap with joy.

"Essence of Li Fire! This is the Essence of Li Fire recorded in the technique; it really works!"

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Lin focused his mind and slowly guided the golden flame to move, circulating it throughout his body.

"Hiss!"

Suddenly, Chen Lin's entire body began to convulse uncontrollably, his two long, slender antennae snapping straight! Wherever the golden flame traveled, it brought waves of tearing pain that reached deep into his marrow and pierced his consciousness.

This was the first baptism: the Essence of Li Fire tempering the physical form. It was the most domineering and thorough method of body refinement, burning away the impurities and dregs within a living being while polishing the sinews and bones.

As the golden flame tempered his body, it continuously absorbed the Essence of Li Fire from the sun and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to replenish the energy consumed.

"This... it can actually absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth at the same time!"

Feeling the pure spiritual energy seeping through his skin, Chen Lin endured the heart-wrenching pain, but felt even more ecstatic.

"So much spiritual energy!"

Soon, Chen Lin discovered something even more shocking: the spiritual energy of heaven and earth here far exceeded his imagination. It was nearly infinite, vast as a sea, and endless—far beyond anything on Earth.

In his past life, even if Chen Lin had practiced breathing and meditation for a month, it would likely not compare to three days of cultivation here. This made Chen Lin increasingly certain that this place was definitely not the Earth he once knew.

This state of tempering his body with the Essence of Li Fire lasted for several hours. Chen Lin's mind was muddled and exhausted, and he had grown somewhat numb to the pain of his meridians being torn apart. Finally, night fell.

The moonlight spilled down like a silver river, its soft glow illuminating the sky and earth. Deep in the jungle, shadows of trees danced and flickered. Occasionally, earth-shattering roars of anger and the shrieks of raptors echoed, shaking the region and chilling the heart.

Threads of flame, invisible to Chen Lin, condensed gently from the moonlight, forming a blue flame like flowing water that seeped into his body.

Mystic Yin Essence!

Although it was also a flame, the Mystic Yin Essence lacked any burning sensation. Instead, it emitted a coolness like water. The blue flame felt like the gentle, slender hands of a woman, slowly brushing over Chen Lin's body and soothing all his wounds. It was more like a method of water-tempering and cleansing.

The meridians, sinews, bones, and skin that had been scorched by the Essence of Li Fire during the day began to heal rapidly under the constant nourishment of the Mystic Yin Essence. Chen Lin felt carefully and discovered that where the Mystic Yin Essence flowed, his meridians became wider and tougher, his sinews and bones more solid and powerful, and the skin of his entire body was no longer a pure emerald green, but instead revealed a crystal-like luster, mysterious and profound.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Lin had been practicing Dao Heaven for nearly a month. During this time, he had experienced several crises. The most dangerous one occurred when he was hiding in a tree at night, absorbing the Mystic Yin Essence; he was spotted by a poisonous, flower-faced spider the size of a millstone. While Chen Lin was cultivating, it spat out silk to weave a net, wrapping him up completely. Although the silk was thin, it was incredibly tough. Fortunately, thanks to his days of cultivation, the two scythes on his chest had become sharper and more powerful, allowing him to barely break through the silk. He had escaped by the skin of his teeth, suffering heavy, near-fatal injuries, but avoiding becoming food.

These crises made Chen Lin even more vigilant. His cultivation time was still short, and even the most inconspicuous existence in the jungle could take his life. Every moment was like walking on thin ice, his life hanging by a thread. Even when cultivating, he would divert a sliver of his consciousness to monitor his surroundings. Although this slowed his cultivation speed, it was much safer.

"Hiss!"

Hidden atop a towering ancient tree that required several people to encircle, Chen Lin suddenly swung the large blade on his chest. It whistled through the air, fast as a phantom, decapitating a red monster bird that had been resting nearby.

Bright red blood sprayed out. Chen Lin walked slowly toward the twitching bird. Once its body went completely still, a wisp of black light, thin as a thread, drifted up from the bird's corpse and dove into Chen Lin's body.

Chen Lin's eyes flashed, but he did not stop it; instead, he stood still. Days of experience had proven that he couldn't stop it anyway.

For a long time, he felt nothing. Chen Lin carefully examined his body, but there was absolutely no change. He didn't know what this extremely faint black light was; it entered his body and vanished like a stone cast into the sea, without causing a single ripple.

This was already the umpteenth time, yet Chen Lin still hadn't figured out the origin of the black light.

"But this feeling... it's very much like Death Energy."

This was the word that suddenly surfaced in Chen Lin's mind, for he had indeed sensed a fleeting trace of Death Energy within that black radiance.

In his past life, Chen Lin had stained his hands with many lives; though that black radiance had vanished in a flash, it still allowed him to keenly detect a scent—a scent remarkably similar to the thick Death Energy that permeated the air when he stood upon a battlefield.

He had once harbored suspicions, quietly lurking in the shadows to observe two ferocious beasts locked in a struggle. Whenever one side perished, that black radiance would appear, yet the surviving beast seemed completely oblivious to it. What was eerie was that the black radiance seemed to fixate on Chen Lin; whenever he drew too close, it would burrow into his body, impossible to stop no matter how he tried.

This left Chen Lin all the more bewildered. Such a bizarre phenomenon existed only for him, which brought him to a realization: he seemed to be somewhat different.

Though his heart felt a sense of unease and strangeness, in this perilous jungle where one's life was never guaranteed from one dawn to the next, no one knew if they would become the meal of some other beast in the next moment. Thus, despite his worries, Chen Lin chose to face it with composure.