The explosion that had erupted deep within the forest was powerful enough to shake the entire surrounding region, and the tremor spread through the earth like an invisible wave, rattling windows, disturbing formations, shaking trees, and causing countless martial artists throughout the prefecture to stop what they were doing and turn toward the distant forest with startled expressions.
"What was that?"
"An earthquake?"
"No, that came from the eastern forest!"
"Could an expert be breaking through?"
"Perhaps Grandmasters are battling?"
The speculation spread rapidly, but nobody could determine the truth, especially since the source was deep within the inner regions of the forest, where ordinary martial artists rarely ventured and even those with sufficient cultivation preferred not to linger for long. Some believed a powerful beast had awakened, others suspected that a great expert had triggered a breakthrough, while a few older cultivators quietly wondered whether some precious treasure had been born, but without seeing the scene themselves, all they could do was speculate.
Far away from the growing commotion, deep within the forest, the mountain that had once stood beneath Lin Sheng had been completely erased.
A quarter-mile-wide crater now occupied the area, its edges still burning from the remnants of tribulation lightning, countless shattered stones scattered across the devastated ground while wisps of smoke drifted upward into the sky.
At the bottom of that crater, Lin Sheng lay flat against the ground.
His breathing was somewhat heavy, his clothes had been reduced to little more than fragments, and several parts of his body carried faint injuries from the collision with the lightning dragon, but none of them were serious enough to prevent him from moving.
Yet Lin Sheng wasn't paying attention to his injuries.
His attention was focused entirely on his body.
"Five Elements Spiritual Energy..."
He could feel an enormous amount of spiritual energy gathering around him, but it wasn't ordinary spiritual energy, the surrounding Five Elements Spiritual Energy seemed to have been attracted toward his body by some invisible force, continuously entering through his pores before spreading throughout his flesh.
His body was undergoing a transformation.
Lin Sheng slowly closed his eyes and turned his awareness inward, immediately seeing the Five Elements Qi within his Qi Sea Dantian behaving differently from before, the originally gaseous energy was beginning to compress at an astonishing rate, becoming increasingly dense as the five different attributes circulated together before spreading outward through his meridians.
Every circulation caused his physique to tremble.
His muscles tightened.
His bones resonated.
His marrow seemed to glow.
Even his blood began carrying a faint Five Elements radiance as the energy seeped into every part of his body.
"So this is the transformation to Rank 4..."
Lin Sheng's consciousness moved toward his skin, and he immediately noticed something strange.
A faint golden color had appeared beneath the surface.
At first it was barely noticeable, but as the transformation continued, the golden hue gradually became stronger, spreading from his skin toward his muscles and deeper into his entire physical structure, as though an invisible layer of gold was slowly being condensed throughout his body.
The deeper the Five Elements Qi circulated, the stronger the golden radiance became.
Lin Sheng's eyes opened slightly.
"Golden Body."
The words carried a hint of disbelief.
He had finally done it.
After years of building his foundation, after cultivating external arts, refining his marrow, exchanging his blood, forming the Qi-Blood like Furnace, and finally condensing five Qi-Blood dragons, he had crossed the threshold.
Rank 4 Golden Body.
The moment this realization settled into his mind, Lin Sheng suddenly sensed something else.
A faint Yin energy, then Yang energy.
Both emerged from his storage ring simultaneously, causing his expression to change.
"What?"
He quickly extended his spiritual sense into the storage ring and immediately discovered the source.
The Yin and Yang jade slips.
The two objects he had obtained after killing the Su Fang and Gu Qing had finally reacted.
The Yin jade slip released a pure Yin energy that seemed capable of nourishing the soul, while the Yang jade slip contained a powerful Yang force that carried faint traces of lightning, seemingly capable of nourishing the physical body.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed as he carefully observed them.
"Interesting."
The two jade slips trembled faintly for several breaths, releasing their respective energies, but almost as quickly as they had reacted, the sensation began fading.
Their response had been brief.
Too brief.
Lin Sheng frowned.
"Did they sense something?"
He didn't have enough information to determine the reason, so he didn't force the matter, especially since he had already learned that some treasures possessed reactions that couldn't be understood simply through cultivation theory.
For now, he returned his attention to the transformation of his Golden Body.
---‐----
Several hundred li away, two enormous flying dragon horses pulled a magnificent carriage through the skies, their muscular bodies covered in dark scales that shimmered beneath the sunlight as they flew through the clouds, each step upon the air producing faint ripples beneath their hooves.
The carriage itself possessed an imposing Imperial aura, its frame constructed from dark golden spiritual wood with intricate carvings running along its surface, the roof curved upward like the wings of a phoenix while brilliant jade ornaments hung from its sides, and at the very center of the carriage was an enormous phoenix seal engraved into the metal, its wings spread outward as though preparing to soar into the heavens.
Inside the carriage, a woman sat with her eyes closed.
Her hair fell naturally over her shoulders.
The rider controlling the flying dragon horses suddenly heard her voice.
"Stop."
The rider immediately pulled the reins.
The two flying dragon horses slowed, their enormous wings beating against the clouds as the carriage gradually came to a halt.
The woman opened her eyes.
For several breaths, she simply stared toward the eastern horizon.
She could feel it.
An incredibly pure Yin and Yang energy had appeared somewhere in that direction, faint but unmistakable, and beneath it was another sensation that made her expression become slightly more serious.
"What is that?"
She remained silent for a moment before speaking.
"Take a detour."
The rider turned slightly.
"Where to, Your Majesty?"
"The eastern Provinces."
The rider immediately understood.
"Yes, Empress Dowager."
The reins moved.
The two flying dragon horses immediately turned, pulling the Imperial carriage toward the east.
Meanwhile, Lin Sheng remained completely unaware that someone had sensed the reaction from his Yin and Yang jade slips.
For several days, his transformation continued.
The golden color gradually became deeper.
His skin became increasingly dense, his muscles seemed to contain an unimaginable amount of force, and even his bones possessed a faint golden radiance that made his entire body seem as though it had been forged from divine metal.
The Five Elements Qi continued circulating through his body, repeatedly condensing before being absorbed into his physical foundation.
Eventually, Lin Sheng opened his eyes.
He slowly stood.
Crack!
His joints released a series of crisp sounds as he stretched his limbs, and the surrounding air seemed to tremble simply from his movements.
He looked down at his hands.
His entire body possessed a faint golden sheen.
"So this is what the Grand Elder meant by Golden Body."
Lin Sheng slowly clenched his fist.
The muscles in his arm tightened.
His Qi-Blood surged. The five dragons within him roared.
Then Lin Sheng casually threw a punch.
BOOM!
The air exploded.
A visible shockwave spread outward from his fist, tearing through the remaining dust and sending fragments of stone flying across the crater.
Lin Sheng stared at his fist.
His eyes slowly widened.
"At the very least..."
He flexed his fingers.
"My total physical strength should now exceed seven dragons."
Seven million jin.
That was already approaching the upper boundary of Rank 4 physical strength.
And this wasn't merely brute force.
His Golden Body had fundamentally transformed his physique, while the Qi-Blood like Furnace provided him with an extraordinary source of nourishment, and his Astral Gang further reinforced his physical attacks.
Lin Sheng slowly looked toward the heavens.
Then he froze.
That sensation.
The sensation of being watched.
Gone. Its completely gone.
For several breaths, Lin Sheng didn't move.
He extended his perception outward, searching carefully, but there was nothing.
No invisible gaze, no oppressive sensation. No faint connection stretching toward something beyond the world.
The Heavenly Mechanism had finally stopped watching him.
Lin Sheng's lips slowly curled upward.
He almost laughed.
He had finally escaped.
But after a moment, his expression became cautious.
"Don't get too excited."
He rubbed his chin.
"If my actions somehow attract its attention again, that would be stupid."
He looked toward the sky.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"Or..."
A strange smile appeared.
"Better yet, accelerate the process."
He had an idea.
If the Heavenly Mechanism was truly no longer capable of locking onto him, then there were certain things he could finally begin doing without constantly worrying about attracting another tribulation designed specifically to kill him.
And one of those things had just appeared.
An auction.
Within days, news spread throughout Dongtai Prefecture that the Dongtai Decade Auction was about to begin.
The announcement immediately caused an uproar.
The last auction had been ten years ago, and even now, many martial artists still remembered some of the extraordinary events surrounding it.
The most famous story involved an ordinary painting.
At first glance, it had appeared to be nothing more than a decorative landscape painting, something that could have been purchased for a modest amount of silver, yet one fortunate martial artist had recognized that the brushwork contained profound martial concepts hidden within the mountains and rivers.
It was a Grade B painting.
He had purchased it for almost nothing.
Then, realizing that he lacked the ability to properly comprehend its mysteries, he had made an incredibly bold decision, presenting the painting to one of the major families.
That single decision had completely changed his life.
A nobody became someone of importance.
A common martial artist became a respected guest of a major family.
From commoner to noble in a single moment.
Stories like that were exactly why the Dongtai Decade Auction attracted so much attention.
Nobody knew what treasures might appear.
Nobody knew whether an ordinary-looking object could conceal an extraordinary inheritance.
And this time, Lin Sheng was planning to participate.
More importantly...
He wasn't planning to buy anything.
He was planning to sell.