A Mortal's Supporting Character's Different Kind of Cultivation

Lu Yunfeng sat upright on the meditation cushion, slowed his breathing, cleared his mind of distractions, and calmed his mind to a state of tranquility and clarity.

Forging one's soul is no child's play; it is fraught with danger. He had already studied the various life-and-death crises repeatedly in the secret jade slip, memorizing every dangerous detail and daring not to be negligent in the slightest.

After two days of quiet recuperation, his spiritual essence and internal magical power both rose to their peak.

Lu Yunfeng spread the jade slip flat on the ground in front of him, lowered his eyes and concentrated on studying it carefully. After half an hour, he had completely mastered the cultivation techniques of the first level of "Forging Back to Truth", and there was no more hesitation in his mind.

The time had come. He took out a lustrous, purplish-red Spirit Nourishing Pill and put it directly into his mouth. The pill instantly transformed into a pure purple light as it entered his throat, and then sank into his limbs and bones, quietly waiting to be unleashed.

He then straightened his seated posture, his palms facing upwards, and his ten fingers rapidly formed intricate hand seals, his fingertips lightly tapping his brow and the sea of ​​consciousness several times. In an instant, several deep and mysterious blood-red lines quietly appeared on his forehead.

This bizarre secret technique originated from the demonic scripture he obtained; it was originally a vicious and cruel soul-cursing art. Ordinary cultivators could use it simply by possessing an enemy's personal item, especially their blood essence, to silently cast a curse, causing the opponent to become delirious, their consciousness gradually sealed, until their soul completely stiffened and solidified, turning them into a mindless living dead. Outwardly, no injury would be visible, but the soul within had already collapsed and annihilated—it was extremely insidious.

When Lu Yunfeng first encountered this technique, he immediately recognized its secret: this incantation excels at solidifying the soul and locking in the origin, while "Forging Back to Truth" uses supreme brute force to forge the soul and remove impurities. The two, one soft and the other hard, one solid and the other loose, are perfectly complementary. The curse can protect the soul from disintegration and collapse, while the soul-forging secret technique can break the shackles of solidification. They complement each other perfectly, making them the ideal combination for cultivating this dangerous secret technique.

Lu Yunfeng's gaze suddenly sharpened, realizing he had no way out. Once this curse was activated, the solidification of his soul would be irreversible, leaving no room for retreat.

He used his own life essence as a catalyst to cast this curse upon himself, but he did not unleash its full power. If he cast the curse with all his might, the insidious curse would permanently bind his soul, causing endless troubles, which was definitely not what he wanted. Therefore, he deliberately suppressed the curse power to one-quarter, but even with such a weak power, it was still dangerous and troublesome for him at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, enough to bring endless torment.

Before long, Lu Yunfeng clearly noticed that his senses were gradually becoming dull and numb, a sign that the curse had begun to take effect. Alarm bells rang in his mind, knowing that once the blood-red lines on his forehead spread and covered his entire head, it would mean the annihilation of his soul and the dissipation of his body.

He dared not delay for a moment and immediately activated the Soul Refining Secret Technique of "Forging Back to Truth" according to the method recorded in the jade slip.

In the silent, enclosed stone chamber, several suppressed, muffled groans suddenly rang out. On the futon, a young man dressed in a blue training robe was drenched in sweat, and the strange, blood-red lines on his forehead had spread to between his eyes.

His face was twisted and ferocious, like a demon, and his body convulsed uncontrollably, looking extremely miserable.

This person was none other than Lu Yunfeng. This was his second month of cultivating the "Forging Back to Truth" technique, and compared to now, his experience in the first month was far more unbearable. The moment the technique was activated, he truly experienced the domineering and terrifying power of this secret art—his entire sea of ​​consciousness felt as if it were being repeatedly pierced and stirred by a red-hot iron rod, sometimes causing his soul to burn with excruciating pain, and sometimes plunging him into an extremely cold wasteland, where a bone-chilling cold swept over his mind.

Two extreme pains intertwined and tormented him day and night, causing him to almost lose control and roll to the ground several times. Whenever he was on the verge of his limit and about to give up, a refreshing and cool medicinal power would suddenly sweep over his mind, temporarily relieving the excruciating pain caused by the combined effects of the soul-forging and the curse, giving him a moment to catch his breath and rest.

Even though the Spirit Nourishing Pill had miraculous effects, Lu Yunfeng never dared to take too much of it lightly. Although this pill could repair all severe injuries to the soul, if someone with an intact soul or minor injuries were to take it rashly, it would cause a great disaster: excessive medicinal power could easily cause the soul to expand disorderly, eventually directly rupturing the sea of ​​consciousness and causing the body to explode and die.

He was well aware of the risks and dared not take any supplements indiscriminately, fearing that the medicine would have a backlash and he would suffer the tragic fate of having his head explode.

"This pain is so unbearable, this technique is indeed bizarre and domineering..."

Lu Yunfeng gritted his teeth and endured the excruciating pain for a full month before he gradually managed to adapt to this extreme torment of tearing and forging. Once his mind had calmed down a bit, he even had the energy to carefully observe the mysterious state of the two secret techniques intertwining and operating within his body.

When the curse takes effect, it's as if one is sinking into a thick, heavy stream of honey, with the soul slowly solidifying and imprisoned by an invisible force. Even knowing the danger, one is powerless to break free. But just as the soul is about to completely freeze and solidify, the soul-forging power of "Forging Back to Truth" crashes down like a mighty hammer, forcefully pulling back the near-solidified consciousness.

When the Soul Forging Hammer strikes too violently and the soul is on the verge of disintegration, the curse power within the body will stabilize the source in time, keeping the soul condensed and able to withstand the violent Soul Forging impact.

One solidifies, the other forges; one defends, the other attacks. These two completely different secret techniques formed an extreme yet strange balance in his mind.

In this painful balance of constant back and forth, tormented day and night, Lu Yunfeng gritted his teeth and endured two whole months of arduous cultivation.

After several days of arduous training, Lu Yunfeng slowly opened his eyes several times, feeling no discomfort whatsoever.

Whether it was the mental dullness and drowsiness caused by the curse binding his soul, or the excruciating, heart-wrenching pain during the Soul Refining process of "Forging Back to Truth," both had completely vanished without a trace. The terrifying blood-red lines that had once spread across his forehead were now reduced to a faint, thin mark; the vicious self-inflicted curse had completely dissipated and lost its effectiveness.

At this moment, he could clearly sense that his own soul was surging and expanding at an astonishing speed. Every speck of dust and every subtle movement in the entire secret room fell into his divine sense, appearing in the smallest detail, leaving nothing hidden.

With a thought, Lu Yunfeng probed his storage bag with his divine sense, and several magical artifacts were instantly drawn out by an invisible force.

He sat serenely on the meditation cushion, calmly experiencing the powerful changes that followed the transformation of his soul. Several magical artifacts beside him transformed into streams of shimmering light, swirling and dancing in the air with effortless grace. At times, each artifact pierced through the air, displaying its sharpness; at other times, they resonated and connected, weaving together a dense and stable defensive shield, moving with measured precision and under his complete control.

Looking at the scene of his divine sense being controlled with ease, Lu Yunfeng couldn't help but reveal a look of satisfaction in his eyes.