Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 194 The Invitation to Lock the Source
Beneath the Tianjing Tower, twilight was ashen, and the soul's breath lingered.

After the preliminary test, the three pavilions returned to their respective places, but the fluctuations of soul rhythms still flowed faintly in the sky above the soul field, as if the entire realm within a realm was watching in another "silent way".

A completely new variable has quietly emerged.

Chu Ning, Soul Locked with Four Patterns.

Even a blurry phantom is enough to shake the delicate power balance among the three factions.

That night, the wind in Tianjing Tower ceased and the souls were still, but in Jingyunzhai, the soul lamp remained unlit.

Chu Ning sat cross-legged on the bed, his breath as long and gentle as water. He was meditating with his eyes closed. The Soul Lock Imprint on his palm trembled slightly, with faint signs of new lines about to appear.

The door opened softly.

Lei Jingjing's figure silently slipped into the room, her blue dress not stirring up a speck of dust.

"—Someone is investigating you."

She got straight to the point, her expression solemn.

Chu Ning opened her eyes, her gaze as cold as frost:

"Tu Ge?"

“Yes.” Lei Jingjing sat down and answered calmly, “They reviewed all the ‘Soul Consciousness Tracing Records’ of the Soul Mirror Pavilion over the past three years and applied to retrieve the remaining traces of the Soul Field in the far north region.”

“I asked Elder Li, and he refused.”

“But they… have bypassed the official procedures.” Her voice lowered slightly. “They’ve started doing ‘soul projection scans’ offline.”

Chu Ning lightly traced the Soul Lock mark between his fingers, a faint lightning bolt throbbed between his brows, and his tone was as deep as the bottom of a cliff:

"They're not looking into who I am, they're looking into where I came from."

Lei Jingjing did not speak immediately.

She simply stood there, her expression slightly lowered, staring at Chu Ning for a moment, as if silently weighing something.

After a moment, she slowly took out a folded soul talisman from her sleeve and handed it to him.

"She had someone deliver it," she said in a low voice. "The messenger was an external liaison disciple of the Soul Map Pavilion, and the seal was still intact when it arrived."

Chu Ning took it, and with a touch of his fingertip, a ring of extremely fine soul patterns immediately appeared on the soul talisman paper, lighting up one by one along the folded lines. The folds automatically unsealed, as if the paper had a spirit and was actively revealing its contents.

The moment the Soul Page unfolded, a slight ripple appeared in the air.

A faint phantom flashed by, like some kind of projection, passing through his palm. A blurry figure, a tower-shaped pattern, and remnants of chains vanished before he could capture it.

Chu Ning's eyes narrowed slightly.

The soul patterns on that sealed page were complex, and some of them were already connected to the soul consciousness resonance mechanism, clearly possessing the potential function of "one-time soul breath positioning".

—The letter from Soul Pavilion is more than just a letter.

Lei Jingjing stood beside him, her eyes secretly glancing at the slight lightning mark on his brow and the trembling of the Soul Lock in his palm under the glow of the Soul Talisman.

She seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she only commented softly:
"She knows too much."

Her tone remained calm, but the moment she finished speaking, her gaze did not meet Chu Ning's.

In that instant, a strange unease welled up in her heart, as if she were being tightly gripped by some invisible force.

Why did she know so much about unlocking the Source Land?

A doubt flashed through Lei Jingjing's mind. She knew that Yu Xingshui was calm and rational and rarely made unnecessary risk judgments.

She quietly shifted her gaze back to Chu Ning, looking at his focused expression, but vaguely sensed a suppressed silence.

She gripped her soul ring tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force, as if trying to suppress all her tension in this way.

However, her inner unease kept surging like a tide.

"If he enters the Lock Source Ruins, the danger there is not only the secrets behind the Source Seal, but also the spying and contamination at the soul level."

At this moment, Lei Jingjing's feelings were extremely complicated. She wanted to protect Chu Ning, but she also knew that the secrets of this world were far deeper than she knew, and that Chu Ning would face a fate that she could not bear for him.

She gently shook her head, temporarily suppressing these chaotic thoughts.

“She knows too much.” Lei Jingjing repeated the sentence again, but she was no longer calm. Her tone was filled with an almost undisguised worry.

Chu Ning remained silent, only gazing down at the Soul-Sealing Page.

The soul patterns had not yet dissipated, and the light still lingered; those four words seemed to have been forged into the sea of ​​the soul:
"The Land of Locked Source".

Below is a line of small seal script characters:
"Those whose four markings are about to be opened, if you wish to find the lock, meet me at 'Mirror Tower Back Alley' tomorrow at noon."

——Jade Star Water
When Lei Jingjing stood in front of Chu Ning and handed him the Soul-Sealing Folding Page, her expression was normal and her tone was calm.

But her right thumb unconsciously rubbed the soul ring on her left wrist.

It was an old-fashioned soul ring with a deep blue soul crystal embedded in it, originally used to stabilize soul power. Chu Ning had seen her wear it after battles while recuperating, but had never paid it any mind.

But just as he whispered:

"...The Land of Locked Source".

The gem on the soul ring suddenly emitted a faint, cold light, like ice water gliding through a shadow, which then quietly faded away in an instant.

Lei Jingjing seemed oblivious, her fingers continuing to gently rotate the ring, the movement so steady it was almost forced.

Her brow furrowed, but her tone remained calm and analytical:

“This is no ordinary ruin. The fact that she wants you to go in means that the soul lock on you is strong enough to ‘interfere with the structure’.”

“And I have checked the internal records of the TuGe Pavilion… It has been locked for nearly thirty years and has never been truly opened.”

Chu Ning remained silent, but unfolded the Soul Page. When his fingertips touched the line of small seal characters, Lei Jingjing subconsciously took a half step back, as if to guard against some kind of "unknown fluctuation".

Chu Ning stared at the line of words, remaining silent for a long time.

Lei Jingjing looked at him quietly and asked in a low voice, "Will you go?"

Chu Ning glanced at her, his eyes as deep and unfathomable as thunderclouds.

He didn't answer.

—But the next day, at 9:00 AM, behind the Soul Mirror Pavilion, in the back alley of the Mirror Tower, a quiet alley that is rarely visited by people.

He arrived as promised.

The alley was dark and gloomy, and the high walls of the Mirror Tower cut off the moonlight, leaving only a misty haze that drifted aimlessly.

Chu Ning paused slightly as she stepped into the alley.

The figure in the green robe at the end of the alley had been standing there for a long time.

Yu Xingshui did not speak immediately.

She merely turned her head slightly, her gaze sweeping lightly over the area behind Chu Ning—a dead corner of the boundary, covered in dust and never allowing the flow of soul winds, making it difficult to track soul shadows.

Her gaze paused for a moment, as if sensing whether anyone was following or if there were any lingering traces of the spell.

Only after confirming that there was nothing amiss did she slowly withdraw her gaze and return it to Chu Ning's face.

Then she said:

"...You've arrived." The words were spoken very softly, yet they seemed like a coded opening signal that she had confirmed was "not being eavesdropped on."

Chu Ning did not respond to the greeting, but went straight to the point:
"You want to use me."

Yu Xing Shui remained calm and nodded slightly.

"Yes. You have the fourth Soul Lock, making you the only person currently capable of unlocking the deepest part of the Soul Lock."

"And all I want to do is—go in and take a look."

"I don't care about the outcome, and I won't take what you've gained."

Chu Ning stared at her, his eyes cold and brooding: "When did the Soul Map Pavilion become so frank?"

Yu Xingshui smiled gently: "We don't hide our motives, we just don't waste useless information on persuasion."

Chu Ning didn't speak, but kept his eyes fixed on the Soul-Sealing Folding Page in her hand.

After a few moments of silence, he suddenly asked:

"Are you from the Soul Map Pavilion, or—from the Border Patrol Envoy's side?"

When he asked the question, his voice was noticeably tighter than before, and his tone carried a hint of urgency that he himself was unaware of, as if the words "Boundary Patrol Envoy" had stirred up some deep unease in his soul.

Yu Xingshui tilted her head slightly and glanced at him.

“I am not one of them.” Her tone remained calm, but her pace slowed slightly. “But what I study is—the ‘relics’ they left behind.”

She paused, as if recalling some extreme detail, and then continued:
“Those relics… were deeply corroded, and after the soul patterns were forcibly stripped off, a kind of ‘non-human substance’ remained on the surface.”

“Some seals even ooze out… rust that doesn’t belong to any known realm.”

Her voice lowered, as if she were saying a forbidden word.

"That aura is so powerful that even the Soul Scroll of the Soul Map Pavilion cannot record it. We call it—'Outer Boundary Contamination'."

Chu Ning's pupils contracted, and an indescribable wave of emotion surged within him.

"...Although the fourth pattern has not yet fully formed, it has already touched the 'Boundary Lock Back Ridge'."

"The remnant seal within your body... its vibration frequency is extremely close to that of the main seal of the Boundary Lock. If I'm not mistaken—even a Grandmaster of Primordial Chaos might not be able to suppress that seal steadily."

Chu Ning's expression remained unchanged, but she could hear her heartbeat skip a beat at that moment.

Yu Xingshui continued, "You are very cautious, never unleashing the Soul Lock at full power. In the battle of the Imperial Capital and the initial trial of the Soul Tower, you deliberately avoided the frequency range of the 'Source Seal Fluctuation'. But..."

She suddenly took out a fragment of a soul stone from her sleeve. The surface of the fragment had a lightning pattern as thin as a hair, which faintly glowed in the night.

"This is one of the remnants that the Soul Chart Pavilion collected from the far northern battlefield. Others may not see anything, but I discovered something unusual—the trace of soul power contains characters that are not from this world."

She paused, then slowly looked at Chu Ning:
“I have checked the soul imprint trajectories of all the participants, but in your battle, the soul field trajectory record... was deleted by the Soul Mirror Pavilion for three minutes.”

"Nobody noticed this 'blank'. Except me."

Chu Ning's gaze deepened, and he finally said, "So... you had your eye on me a few days ago."

“Yes.” Yu Xingshui readily admitted, her expression calm as still water. “The soul lock on you is more than just ‘rebirth.’ It’s more like ‘rekindling through another’—like some fragmented system trying to ‘connect with the world’ again within you.”

Her tone suddenly lowered:
"The Soul Map Pavilion cannot find the true owner of the Source Seal, but it sees a possibility in you."

She took a half step back, her gaze sweeping over Chu Ning, and whispered:
“You are the only one—a ‘non-source’ who can resonate with the Seal of Sealing.”

“You are qualified for the Soul Lock 'Fourth Mark', and are currently the only person who has the potential to open the Soul Lock Relic.”

Before he could respond, Yu Xingshui had already withdrawn his gaze, his tone returning to calm:

"Three days from now, the Land of Locked Source will open a brief passage."

She turned around, her robes fluttering lightly in the alley breeze.

"If you're willing to come, I'll take you inside."

She paused for a moment, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible, yet it touched the deepest part of Chu Ning's heart:

"If you want to know who you are, you should come."

The moment those words were spoken, the wind in the alley paused slightly, and the misty fog dissipated like a thin veil.

Chu Ning did not answer immediately.

He lowered his head, his gaze slowly falling on the cuff of his right arm.

The place was already empty, torn to the elbow by the Soul Lock's outburst, the tattered edges of his clothes swaying gently in the wind, as if reminding him of the price he had paid along the way.

He slowly raised his left hand and opened his palm.

The Soul Lock imprint had not yet dissipated, and the phantom of the fourth mark still floated uncertainly, like a question mark that might shatter at any moment, embedded in the most core position of his life.

In that instant, everything in my mind began to crumble.

—A vast starry sky, strangely like another world, with stars like countless broken points of light, spinning wildly, twisting and disappearing.

—A cold, metallic touch, as if a wire were piercing his skin, causing intense pain, followed by an unbearable burning sensation that seared every nerve in his body.

A deep voice, muffled and intermittent, echoed on the edge of his consciousness, but without any words, pressing down on his mind like fragments.

Then came an unfathomable fire, as if everything was burning away, the flames devouring the surrounding space. Immediately afterward, a broken celestial mirror fell, striking his heart.

Then came the utter loneliness, as if he were being swept into an endless abyss, his ears were hollow and empty, and only the feeling of being "lost" ripped apart his entire existence.

Finally, an unbearable pain swept over him, as if an invisible blade was cutting through his soul, tearing apart every piece of his memory and every inch of his existence.

He bowed his head in pain, his consciousness feeling as if it were being struck by countless electric currents, as if all the images were flickering on a screen with poor signal, intermittent and blurry.

The young man's face was no longer clear, and the inscription was like a broken blueprint covered in dust, blurry and unrecognizable.

All the reasons for the fall of the Heavenly Mirror, the figure we never met, and who exactly did it all—are forever buried in those unsolvable whirlpools.

He didn't understand whether those were dreams, memories, or a call from another world.

Chu Ning's fingertips trembled violently. Suddenly, the pain caused him to involuntarily kneel on the ground. A strong tearing sensation exploded in his mind, and he could barely support himself. Cold sweat instantly covered his forehead.

"It hurts," he murmured, his vision blurring. He took a deep breath and barely managed to stay upright.

After a long while, he slowly raised his head, his gaze still fixed on the Soul Chain in his hand, even though the pain in his mind had not completely subsided.

The struggle in his eyes had not yet faded, but his resolve was already as firm as a rock.

He whispered:

"...I will go."

As the wind blew, a subtle ripple spread between their souls, as if some unseen vow had quietly taken root.

Yu Xingshui's figure gradually disappeared into the twilight at the alley entrance, while Chu Ning remained standing in the same spot, looking down at the Soul Lock in his hand, motionless for a long time.

I gently stroked the fourth line that was not yet fully formed with my fingertips.

He didn't know if the answer was truly hidden within those ruins.

But he knew that some doors, once opened, offer no way back.

(End of this chapter)