Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 186 The Soul Lock Pact
The soul breath suddenly returned, like a breath rising from the deepest depths of the water.

Chu Ning suddenly opened his eyes. The star trails were still there, but the gate to his soul was closed.

He was still standing on the star platform, the soul pattern array beneath his feet had been extinguished, the surrounding wind was still and the night was as cold as iron.

I have a slight pain in my chest.

He lowered his head, and a dark silver lock mark suddenly appeared on his palm, shaped like five intersecting rings. The mark moved slightly, and lightning energy was faintly gathering in it.

“This is…” He raised his hand to touch it, and his soul sensed a slight tremor.

The next moment, a faint yet clear voice from the depths of the soul sea resounded:
[Boundary Lock Initially Opened - Level 1 Authority: Boundary Sealing Technique, Soul Runes Temporarily Solidified, Lifespan Extended by Seven Years.]

Chu Ning was taken aback, but then his gaze slowly darkened.

He finally understood that the Primordial Inheritance seemed to be related to the Primordial Divine Decree in some way.

Why is the so-called "Primordial Inheritance" called the "Life-Locking Technique"?

This is not a path to immortality.

Rather, it's a way of bargaining with fate.

You must first accept that your fate is destined to come to an end at some point.

Only by accepting the premise that "the outcome is already decided" can you use the boundary lock as a key to pry open a limited, temporary exit from this dead end.

It's neither a rebirth nor a reversal.

It's just a matter of paying a "price" to buy some breathing room.

Seven years.

That's all the leniency it gave him.

Suddenly, a series of light footsteps came from afar.

Chu Ning turned around and saw a familiar yet unfamiliar figure slowly walking towards him from the edge of the star array.

Those were the foreign envoys we encountered just before entering the Mirror Heaven.

At this moment, she released the pressure of her soul, her expression calm, but there was an undisguised melancholy in her eyes.

She approached, stood quietly in the night breeze, and met his gaze.

After a long silence, she finally spoke in a low voice: "...You still don't recognize me?"

Chu Ning's brow twitched slightly, his gaze falling on the faint lightning mark under her eye, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat, and his voice became low and hoarse:

"You are... Lei Wanjun's daughter?"

The woman nodded, her lips pressed tightly together, and said softly, "My name is Lei Jingjing."

Chu Ning stood frozen in place, the lightning in his eyes gradually receding, but his brows were furrowed like frost.

"I never expected to meet you here."

His voice was low, and his eyes were filled with turbulent emotions.

He had only heard this name once from Lei Wanjun.

On that occasion, Lei Wanjun said in person that if Qingyun Arena performed brilliantly, Lei Jingjing would be his fiancée.

After that, Lei Wanjun and his sister lost contact, and Lei Jingjing's name was erased from memory and never mentioned again.

The next time they met was in a forbidden, sealed-off area like the Floating Pavilion.

He took two quick steps forward, a slight glint of lightning flashing in his eyes, his voice involuntarily tightening:
"Do you know where the curator is now? Is he still alive?"

He paused, his voice trembling slightly:
"And my elder sister, Chu Yun... has she ever been to Fuge?"

Lei Jingjing looked at him, and in that instant, the hardness in her eyes seemed to crumble.

She lowered her head, her knuckles slowly tightening and then slowly loosening.

After a moment of silence, she finally raised her eyes, her voice soft and slow, as if she had used all her strength to speak:
"...My father is no longer here."

"It's to protect Miss Chu Yun."

Chu Ning's body trembled slightly.

Lei Jingjing gazed into the distance, her eyes flickering slightly, and continued in a low voice:
"Back then, my father and Chu Yun fled into the Floating Pavilion to escape pursuit."

"She used herself as a catalyst to break through the floating illusion. But just as she was about to touch the core of the gate, the sealing formation backfired violently."

“It was my father… who forcibly shielded her with his own body and sent her into the transmigration passage in the mirror.”

"In that instant... his soul dissipated and his life force was completely extinguished."

She paused, her voice slightly hoarse:
"Chu Yun did not die in the end, but he did not truly 'leave' either."

"She remained deep within the floating pavilion."

Chu Ning was startled, his fingertips tightened slightly, and the lightning seal on his palm throbbed faintly.

He didn't press for details immediately, but slowly lowered his head to suppress the turmoil in his heart.

In that instant, he suddenly realized that he wasn't the only one who truly wanted to open that door.

But what truly remains behind this door is not just tradition.

Lei Jingjing remained silent.

After a long silence, he only said one sentence:
"He only told me that if you come, he'll let you in."

The glory of the Star Platform has faded.

Chu Ning slowly walked down from the main platform, his footsteps landing in the center of the sand sea, but the surrounding wind suddenly began to reverse.

It wasn't the wind blowing sand, but rather a slowly rotating barrier of soul energy forming from bottom to top in the center of the eye of the storm, as if the heavens and earth were closing themselves off under the impetus of some ancient rule.

He frowned slightly, trying to probe the way with his soul sense, but found that his senses were being bounced back.

He stood still, gazing at the slowly rotating star trails in the night sky.

—The outer perimeter of the Yipin Pavilion has been sealed off again.

“Once the inheritance begins, each recipient will trigger this mechanism.” Lei Jingjing’s voice rang out, still standing not far behind him.

"Beneath the Star Platform lies the first rift in the ancient world's fault line. Master Hunyuan sealed it extremely tightly; every time someone retrieves the key, someone else has to leave it behind."

Chu Ning looked at her without saying a word.

“If you want to get out,” she said calmly, “you must leave your ‘soul imprint’ to complete this lock.”

“This is not just the price of inheritance.” There was an indescribable complexity in her eyes. “This is the imprint of this world that you must repay after you have inherited it.”

“If you don’t lock it again, this eye of the storm won’t open. Neither of us will be able to get out.”

“If you wish to reprint it—” she added softly, “you will lose control over the next segment of the boundary lock. Your lock will be crippled.”

Chu Ning's gaze darkened slightly.

He suddenly countered, "So you came here to fix this seal for me?"

Lei Jingjing did not deny it.

"This is the order my father left me, and it is my... only choice."

She turned to look at him, her voice lower:
"You'll have so much to do if you get out of here alive. As for me—staying here might be the least I can hope for."

"If you refuse to imprint your soul, I will do it in your place."

“You will not die, but I will no longer be an ‘envoy’.”

Chu Ningjing glanced at her quietly, the lightning in her eyes gradually subsiding.

The next moment, he suddenly raised his hand, and the not-yet-fully-stabilized Boundary Locking Lightning Seal in his palm throbbed slightly, faintly emitting a dull pain.

It was a backlash from the resonance between his soul and destiny, as if he was overdrawing his future that had not yet been formed.

Fine, almost imperceptible cracks have already appeared at the edge of the Boundary Lock Thunder Seal.

His expression remained unchanged. He simply put two fingers together and lowered them diagonally. A silver-blue soul line appeared in the air, like a pillar of lightning, piercing straight to the root of the sealing formation.

“Who said,” he said in a low voice, “that this sealing formation… must be broken by ‘preserving the soul’?”

Lei Jingjing was stunned.

She sensed that the boundary lock did not truly control the sealing formation, but rather forcibly accessed the residual right to use a "Sealing Formation 1" through some kind of "authority shift" method.

Chu Ning clasped his hands together, the thunder wheel rang, and his soul consciousness surged into the boundary lock seal.

His face turned pale instantly, his chest trembled violently, and a wisp of unhealed soul wound almost burst out of his body.

"Chu Ning!" Lei Jingjing called out in a low voice, but he stopped her with a raised hand.

The thunderous sound exploded, causing the entire starry sea to tremble slightly.

However, the sealing formation did not immediately break. Instead, it seemed as if some immense consciousness had sensed the intruder's presence. Fine runes appeared around the core of the formation, attempting to seal the soul lines in reverse. Soul energy clashed violently, instantly distorting space into ripples. The crack appeared faintly in the night, yet it teetered on the brink of collapse.

Chu Ning stepped forward, his body surging with lightning energy, gritting his teeth to suppress the backlash churning within him.

"Help me stay calm."

Before he finished speaking, Lei Jingjing stepped forward, her robes fluttering, and she formed a hand seal to guide the soul, using herself as a seal to stabilize the scattered soul pressure around her.

At this moment, the two of them were almost using their soul consciousness to fight against the entire remnant of the sealing formation.

The tear was finally ripped open.

However, the end of that soul thread had been forcibly severed, and a clear scorch mark appeared on the lightning seal.

Chu Ning turned around, panting, his gaze falling back on her, his voice calm yet low and hoarse:

"If you really want to block my way... we'll talk about it another time."

"This time, you come out with me first."

He didn't look at the Thunder Seal again, but he knew it was now in grave danger.

Lei Jingjing stared at the still-open crack, her brows furrowed.

Just a moment ago, deep within the sealing formation, a certain soul force not belonging to the Floating Pavilion trembled slightly.

It's like... "the other shore" has been disturbed.

Lei Jingjing stood motionless, her eyes flashing with intense light.

"If you really want to block my way..." Chu Ning looked back at her, his tone calm, yet it struck her like thunder.

"Tell me next time."

"This time, you come out with me first."

The moment those words were spoken, her heart trembled, as if a long-sealed soul imprint had suddenly been struck.

Come out with me.

Her fingertips trembled slightly for a moment.

It is not an order.

This is not a warning.

It was an invitation. A statement of approval.

She suddenly remembered her father's last words as the spirit lamp flickered before he passed away:
"You are not a discarded pawn, nor a substitute. You are... the line that is alive."

But did she ever really believe that?

She always thought that she was just a soul retainer ordered to guard outside the floating pavilion, a "footnote" assigned to fill in the gaps at the border, and not even a "player".

But now, someone turned back to look at her. Not to ask her to stay, but to ask her to leave with them.

In the blink of an eye, his soul trembled slightly.

The hesitation in her eyes finally melted away, replaced inch by inch by firmness.

She took a step forward and landed beside Chu Ning.

Not much to say.

The wind pierced through his body, and his soul's shadow streaked out.

Two figures, like bolts of lightning, ripped through the sky and leaped out from the deepest part of the eye of the storm.

……

Night deepened, and the wind ceased.

Chu Ning stopped beside a sand dune, and Lei Jingjing stopped as well. The two were separated by the firelight, and neither of them spoke first.

The night was so dark it felt like it was pressing down on my bones.

The silver-blue crack in the eye of the storm had not yet healed and trembled gently in the distant night sky, like an open eye.

After a while, Chu Ning picked up a piece of wood and gently placed it near the fire. The firelight flickered, and he whispered:

"Why...did your father let you stay here?"

Lei Jingjing lowered her head and poked at the ashes, her tone indifferent:
"At first he said it was to escape his enemies who were chasing him."

Chu Ning paused for a moment.

"He never came to see you again after that?"

Lei Jingjing didn't look up, but just smiled, as if it were a gentle self-mockery.

“The year I entered the Floating Pavilion, he secretly came to see me once. He didn’t say anything, only left a talisman bag.”

"Inside are some drawings I made when I was a child, and... a suicide note left by my mother."

He said, 'There are things your mother didn't take in the cabinet.'

She buried her fingertips in the sand, the firelight reflecting on her face, but instead revealing a chilling depth in her eyes.

“My mother was originally an envoy from Fuge. Later, she was seriously injured and her mind was not fully developed. She was sent back to the border to recuperate and married my father.”

"Their marriage was never recognized by the government. After I was born, my mother was completely banished, and her soul vanished without a trace."

“My father hated Fuge his whole life. But when I was nine years old, he personally sent me into this prison of souls.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Ning finally spoke: "Do you...hate him?"

“I don’t know.” Lei Jingjing said calmly. “When I was little, I thought he was afraid of me, afraid that my mother’s past of being expelled from Fuge would implicate him.”

She paused, her fingertips gently grinding a half-burnt wood shaving in the ashes:

"But before he left, he got completely drunk under the eaves where I couldn't see him."

That was the only time... he truly told me what was on his mind.

He only said one sentence: "After you go in, if a boy named Chu Ning gets into the eye of the storm, help him."

I asked him why.

He remained silent for a long time, then only said one sentence: "Helping him is helping me."

She looked up at Chu Ning, her eyes calm and composed.
"So since you're here, I'll let you in."

"It's not because you're some kind of savior, nor because I respect you."

"It's simply because I didn't want to let that man's most vulnerable words be thrown away by my own hands."

She paused for a moment, then whispered:

“I’ve thought about this countless times over the years… He probably never expected me to become a ‘successor’ from the very beginning.”

"When he sent me into the floating pavilion, it might not have been a compromise, but rather a way of pushing me into this situation, making me wait for a change of events behind this door for him."

"And that variable is you."

The firelight flickered, illuminating the brief but profound silence between the two.

Chu Ning looked at her, the lightning in his eyes dimming slightly, and finally asked in a low voice:

"how about you?"

"What have you been doing staying in Fuge all these years?"

Lei Jingjing lowered her eyes and spoke softly:

"So that it will no longer be someone else's 'left-behind proof'."

“My mother was abandoned, and my father sent me to the pavilion... I once thought that one day I could become a formal pavilion envoy of the floating pavilion and obtain my own soul imprint.”

"But now it seems—my fate was already predetermined by them."

Chu Ning stared at the crack that had not yet closed, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly spoke:
"If you had the chance to leave—would you be willing to come back?"

Lei Jingjing was slightly taken aback, and gently asked in return:

"What are you coming back for? To continue guarding the gate, replenishing souls, and cutting off paths for others?"

"No." Chu Ning looked at her, her tone light yet extremely steady:

"Come back and be your true self."

After a moment of silence, Lei Jingjing suddenly turned her head and asked softly:

“...My father said that he betrothed me to you back then.”

She spoke softly, as if asking casually, but then slightly averted her gaze, her fingers gently tracing the ashes on her knee.

Chu Ning was taken aback, coughed, and turned his head away somewhat awkwardly: "This matter... I did hear him mention it once back then."

(End of this chapter)