How did I, a fake bodyguard, become a terrestrial immortal?

The ancestral hall's main gate was now fully open.

Dozens of villagers walked out slowly in several rows with their eyes closed.

Their faces were expressionless, but their movements were much more agile than the previous dream puppets.

Lu Yang was about to make a move when he discovered that they were still breathing; they were all alive!

Lu Yang abruptly stopped punching.

A villager lunged at him, but he grabbed his wrist and pushed him aside. The man quickly regained his footing and charged at him again.

More and more villagers poured out of the ancestral hall.

They are controlled by the dream curse, they feel no pain, and they don't know how to escape.

If Lu Yang goes too far, the villagers might be killed before the Dream Gu is even dealt with.

"How can we fight if we can't hurt anyone?"

Lu Yang defended himself while retreating.

Zhao Mingtang noticed, however, that a thin black line extended from under the feet of each villager.

Thin threads connected their shadows, as if someone was hiding in the shadows manipulating marionettes.

Wanting to impress her newly recognized master, she immediately drew her sword and charged forward.

The longsword slashed through the air, severing several black lines in succession.

The villagers, no longer under the control of the black lines, went limp and collapsed to the ground, still fast asleep.

"Sever the threads of their dreams beneath their feet!"

Zhao Mingtang finally regained some of her confidence as a female knight-errant.

Upon hearing the warning, Lu Yang stepped on a strand of Dream Silk and forcefully tore it off.

The villagers who were being controlled collapsed one after another.

After the Dream Silk broke, the shadows beneath their feet did not disappear. Instead, they gradually detached from their bodies and coalesced into blurry dream puppets.

Lu Yang no longer had to worry about harming innocent people. He stood in front of the villagers and scattered the approaching dream puppets one by one.

Zhao Mingtang moved around the area, responsible for severing the remaining threads of the dream.

One was domineering and direct, the other agile and swift; their first collaboration showed remarkable chemistry.

Zhao Mingtang became even more certain.

This is fate!

Leaving the Prince's mansion secretly was indeed the right decision.

Otherwise, how could I have met such a powerful master?

Bai Yixin stood behind, watching Zhao Mingtang follow closely beside Lu Yang, calling him "Master" repeatedly, and felt inexplicably stifled.

......

As Lu Yang shattered the last dream puppet, the remaining dream threads inside the ancestral hall simultaneously shrank towards the ground, as if deliberately exposing their weakness.

There's something down there.

As soon as Lu Yang approached, numerous cracks appeared on the stone slab beneath his feet.

Zhao Mingtang also sensed something was wrong and tried to back away, but found that her ankle was entangled by a strand of dream silk that had emerged from a crack in the rock.

The ground collapsed rapidly!

Lu Yang could have jumped away, but Zhao Mingtang had already lost her balance and was falling towards the bottom of the crack.

He could only reach out and grab her wrist.

As a result, there was nothing left to hold onto, and the two of them fell into the ground together.

"Young Master Lu!"

Bai Yixin rushed towards the collapsed area, but only managed to see the flying dust.

……

The underground area is several meters below the ground level of the ancestral hall.

Before landing, Lu Yang adjusted his body and used his back to block the protruding pebbles.

Zhao Mingtang was held protectively in his arms and, apart from being frightened, was not injured.

She looked up and met Lu Yang's gaze; the two were very close.

Zhao Mingtang blushed slightly and hurriedly got up from his embrace, straightening her disheveled skirt.

The Life-Seeking Lamp fell down with Lu Yang, but the pale flame did not go out.

By the light, the two discovered that this was not a naturally formed cave, but a stone chamber that had been buried for many years.

There were no dream puppets in the stone chamber, only a few faded murals.

In the mural, a woman stands amidst clouds, binding a giant dragon with red chains.

Despite its struggles, the dragon eventually lowered its head.

The mural is covered with dense text.

At the very top are three large characters.

Dragon-Locking Technique.

Zhao Mingtang's eyes lit up immediately.

In her view, a technique that could be named "Locking Dragon" and hidden underground in the village must be some kind of lost and unparalleled inheritance.

Wasn't she secretly leaving the palace precisely to seek this kind of opportunity?

"Master, we may have encountered a master who has passed on his teachings."

Lu Yang did not answer.

Because he was also looking at the martial arts techniques on the stone wall.

"The Qi flows through the Yin Qiao point, the spirit guards the Xuan Guan (mysterious gate), and the dragon is drawn into the lock..."

He recognizes every single word.

They're put together but I can't understand them at all.

What place is called Yinqiao?

Where is the entryway?

He finally confirmed one thing.

Without the system's help, I'm still a martial arts illiterate.

Zhao Mingtang, however, watched with great interest.

She had been practicing the "Hidden Dragon Guide," a secret technique passed down by the Prince An's Mansion, since childhood. Although her cultivation level was not high, she was not unfamiliar with the method of meridian circulation.

The Dragon-Locking Technique on the stone wall is extremely domineering.

The first step is to dispel the old energy, break the original foundation of the technique, and then use the meridians of the whole body to condense the energy of locking the dragon.

This means that the Dragon Locking Technique cannot be practiced simultaneously with other martial arts techniques.

But in Zhao Mingtang's eyes, this was clearly the kind of destruction followed by reconstruction that often appears in storybooks.

How can one cultivate stronger divine skills without discarding the old foundation?

"You don't want to start training right now, do you?"

Lu Yang saw through her thoughts, and Zhao Mingtang had already sat cross-legged in front of the mural.

"Opportunities are fleeting. What if I forget the details of the technique after leaving here? Wouldn't I regret it for the rest of my life?"

Lu Yang felt that there was some truth to what was said, but something also felt off.

"You'd better reconsider this kind of cultivation technique with its unknown origin."

"With my master protecting me, nothing will happen."

Lu Yang really wanted to tell her that he hadn't even understood the second sentence of the cultivation technique, so how could he possibly protect the Dharma?

But Zhao Mingtang had already closed his eyes and started circulating his energy according to the records on the stone wall.

Her internal energy slowly gathered.

After the Dragon Locking Technique began to operate, the true energy seemed to have encountered its nemesis and quickly broke away from its original meridians.

The color drained from Zhao Mingtang's face.

The foundation of his cultivation technique, built up over many years, was forcibly torn apart from his dantian by a domineering force.

Her body trembled slightly, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Lu Yang's expression changed slightly: "Stop practicing!"

He reached out to wake Zhao Mingtang, but Zhao Mingtang managed to say, "We can't stop."

Her cultivation foundation had already begun to crumble. If she stopped now, not only would she lose her original cultivation level, but her meridians might also suffer severe damage.

Zhao Mingtang could only continue to use the Dragon Locking Technique.

A moment later, the original true energy completely disappeared.

A wisp of pale red aura took its place, condensing into a chain shape in her dantian.

Zhao Mingtang opened her eyes.

Although his face was pale, his eyes were full of surprise.

She could sense that the quantity of the Dragon-Locking Qi was small, but its quality far surpassed the true qi she had cultivated before.

It truly is an unparalleled divine skill!

Following the instructions in the manual, Zhao Mingtang raised her hand and gently tapped Lu Yang.

The pale red aura left her fingertips and lingered on Lu Yang's wrist.

The Xuanwu Qi and blood within Lu Yang's body, which was as steady as a mountain, actually experienced a brief stagnation.

Although it only lasted for a moment, the Dragon-Locking Qi was automatically dispersed by the Xuanwu Zhenyue Body, but it was enough to surprise Lu Yang.

This was the first time since he obtained the Xuanwu Zhenyue back that his qi and blood had been affected from the outside.

Zhao Mingtang became even more excited.

"To be able to seal even Master's vital energy, this must be a rare divine skill in the world!"

Lu Yang looked at the stone wall again: "It does seem quite powerful."

Just now, when Zhao Mingtang was meditating cross-legged, the wind from his sleeves blew away the dust beneath the mural, revealing several lines of text that had been covered up.

Lu Yang bent down to identify it.

"The Dragon-Locking Technique originates from the Yin-Yang Harmony lineage..."

He paused slightly upon reading this.

Zhao Mingtang also came over.

The description of the cultivation techniques gradually came into view.

This skill is not for conquering the martial world, nor is it some peerless inheritance for subduing dragons and tigers.

The so-called "locking the dragon" does not refer to a real dragon.

Instead, it involves the woman's yin energy locking in the man's qi and blood between the man and woman's bed, making it difficult for him to exert his strength and circulate his qi.

To put it simply...

This is a bedroom secret technique for subduing a man in bed.

The stone chamber fell silent, and the excitement on Zhao Mingtang's face gradually froze.

Lu Yang looked down at the mural next to him.

After the dust settled, the painting no longer depicted a fairy locking up a dragon.

It was clearly a woman wrapping a man lying on the bed with a red silk ribbon.

It's just that the artist used exaggeration, which caused the misunderstanding.

Lu Yang looked at the murals, then at Zhao Mingtang, whose original foundation of cultivation had been lost.

"So you abandoned your previous techniques just to practice this?"

Zhao Mingtang's face instantly turned red to the roots of her ears: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"This technique must have another meaning!"

She re-examined the stone wall, hoping to find records that could prove the power of the Dragon-Locking Technique.

But the further she looked down, the redder her face became.

In the end, even her neck was tinged with a light red.

Lu Yang held back for a moment, but couldn't help himself: "At least you should have a great advantage if you encounter a womanizer in the future."

Just as Lu Yang was about to continue his research, another line of small characters appeared at the bottom of the stone wall.

"When first practicing the Dragon Locking Technique, one must use the person with the strongest Yang energy closest to them as a guide."

"The dragon's guidance is complete, the seals are linked..."

Lu Yang was reading halfway when he suddenly looked down at his wrist.

A faint red chain mark slowly appeared on the spot where the dragon-locking energy had just been entangled.

The same pattern also appeared on Zhao Mingtang's wrist.

The two marks echo each other.

Oh no! We're in trouble!

Lu Yang tried to create distance, but the Dragon-Locking Qi within Zhao Mingtang fluctuated accordingly.

Her newly reconstructed meridians were still unstable, and her legs immediately lost strength.

Lu Yang only had time to reach out and catch her before Zhao Mingtang threw herself into his arms again, her eyes glazed over...