Deep within the boundless mountains, a bitter wind swept through the forest, sending yellowed leaves drifting to the ground. Amid the woods thick with withered foliage, a figure slowly materialized.

After confirming he had shaken off the ambushers from earlier, Lin Zheyu came to a halt, breathing slightly heavily. With his current strength, fully activating the Earth Shrinking Technique and prying at the power of rules consumed an enormous amount of energy.

His spiritual sense spread outward, sweeping through his physique and soul again and again, yet he found nothing unusual. Immediately after, Lin Zheyu pushed his Perception Domain to its absolute limit and focused it inward upon his own body. At last, he discovered an extremely subtle, invisible strand of energy hidden near his heart.

"What a method!" Lin Zheyu frowned deeply.

That energy had definitely not been there before. It had appeared only moments ago.

"That old monster from Soaring Cloud Pavilion possessed strange and terrifying strength. That's the only reason he could plant such a hard-to-detect mark on me. And you lot think you can secretly leave a tracking mark on me too?" Lin Zheyu let out a quiet sneer.

The few who had attacked earlier were only at the Divine Repository realm. They merely relied on the power of their dharma treasures. Their actions had been well concealed, but they still could not escape Lin Zheyu's powerful senses. The moment that strange aura entered his body and reacted with the harmless energy that had long been lying dormant within him, he noticed it immediately.

His thoughts shifted, and the blood qi within his body surged wildly toward the invisible energy near his heart. Vast torrents of golden blood qi energy roared through him like crashing waves. Several minutes passed. Not only did the mysterious invisible energy fail to dissipate, it actually began absorbing Lin Zheyu's blood qi under the constant barrage, slowly growing stronger.

Hm? What the hell is this thing? I can't refine it away? No... it can absorb blood qi to strengthen itself. Is this some special mark specifically designed to target martial artists?

Lin Zheyu finally felt things becoming troublesome.

Since it could absorb blood qi to grow stronger, then he would simply cut off the power of blood qi and use true origin instead. With a thought, streams of true origin condensed throughout his meridians. The blood within his body began to reverse flow, surging backward out of his heart as veins bulged all across his body. After forcing the blood out of his heart, Lin Zheyu's heart stopped beating entirely, and the blood in his body became as still as stagnant water.

Lin Zheyu looked at the invisible energy still lurking deep within his heart, and the corner of his lips curled upward slightly.

"Good. The energy mark is hiding inside the heart itself. It doesn't move along with the flow of blood qi."

The initial step was successful. Now, Lin Zheyu faced the second. He couldn't sustain the halted blood flow and still heart for long. He quickly directed the grayish true origin through his meridians toward his heart. His face twitched, and large beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks. As the true origin departed from the heart and tried to refine the invisible energy, it caused severe damage, resulting in intense pain.

As the true origin circulated and refined the energy, sizzling sounds rose from the flesh around his heart. That invisible energy clung to him like a parasite embedded in bone. With Lin Zheyu's current methods, completely removing it would likely destroy his heart entirely.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Lin Zheyu finally stopped, drenched in sweat.

His brows remained tightly furrowed. The energy mark's troublesome nature had exceeded all expectations. Even after detecting it with his powerful perception, he still had no way to expel it.

If he truly wanted to remove it completely, he would probably have to forcefully erase it at the cost of severely damaging his strength, perhaps even leaving permanent hidden injuries behind. And before he could even begin, he would first need to visit an immortal market to buy medicinal pills, herbs, and other supporting resources.

A vicious look surfaced on Lin Zheyu's face as he muttered, "Better short pain than long suffering. It's just a heart. I don't need the damn thing!"

For other martial artists or cultivators, losing the heart meant death. But for Lin Zheyu, it was nothing more than wasting a single unit of Origin Force. He lightly patted his storage pouch, and eight low-grade demonic spirit stones instantly appeared in his hand. A ruthless gleam flashed through his eyes as his right hand curled into a claw and plunged viciously into his chest, seizing the beating heart within.

The intense pain instantly covered Lin Zheyu's forehead in sweat.

He lowered his voice into a hoarse growl. "Get the hell out of my body together with this heart!"

His right hand suddenly exerted force as true origin surged wildly outward. The instant the blood vessels connected to the heart were severed, his hand ripped the heart straight out of his chest cavity.

Even after leaving his chest cavity, the massive heart continued beating with tremendous force, each thud deep and heavy. Lin Zheyu's face had turned deathly pale, his expression twisted with ruthless ferocity. His perception spread outward. The invisible energy was still attached to the heart, while no trace of the energy mark remained within his body.

Lin Zheyu could feel his life slipping away rapidly. True origin surged wildly from within him, sealing the heart completely. With a slight movement of thought, a storage pouch floated out. He wrapped the heart in layers of true origin and stored it away inside the pouch for later use.

After finishing all of this, Lin Zheyu did not waste another second. The rapid loss of life made him feel the aura of death drawing closer.

Use 1 unit of Origin Force to cultivate the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner!

An immense amount of mysterious energy surged from the depths of his cells, sweeping up the energy within the demonic spirit stones and flooding into his body. Inside his chest cavity, where the heart had once been, new flesh rapidly condensed and formed under the influence of that mysterious energy. It quickly expanded and transformed into a brand new heart, powerful and vigorous.

The familiar sound of a heartbeat echoed once more within his chest. The pallor faded from Lin Zheyu's face, replaced by a healthy flush. Several breaths later, he slowly opened his eyes as a faint smile hung at the corner of his lips.

Lin Zheyu exhaled a foul breath and muttered coldly under his breath, "Hah... You cost me a unit of Origin Force. Woo Yixuan, the Woo Family, and the three great ancient martial families... Just you wait."

His powerful perception swept through his body once more, probing every inch of muscle, skin, tendon, and bone. Only after confirming there were no additional marks did he finally relax.

"What kind of method did that old bastard from Soaring Cloud Pavilion use? Even with the strength of my current perception, I still can't detect the mark he planted on me."

Lin Zheyu frowned lightly. No matter how thoroughly he examined himself, he could not find the mark left behind by Fan Hongwei.

That was the truly troublesome part. If he could at least locate the mark and remove it, this lingering sense of danger would not continue weighing on his mind. He shook his head slightly and forced himself to stop thinking about that old monster.

With a flip of his right hand, the heart he had just torn from his chest appeared in his palm. Even separated from his body, the powerful heart retained terrifying vitality, continuing to beat with heavy thumps. The invisible energy mark lurked deep within the heart's flesh, slowly absorbing the blood qi inside with every beat.

Lin Zheyu's thoughts raced, countless ideas of redirecting disaster onto others flashing through his mind. But he quickly abandoned them.

He had no idea whether Woo Yixuan had already issued assassination bounties in advance. Keeping this thing around would easily attract unknown experts. He was certain that whoever followed the tracking mark to kill him would never be Woo Yixuan himself. Risking danger just to scheme against those rats hiding in the shadows was not worth it at all.

A powerful true origin erupted, causing the heart to explode with a thunderous sound. Flames quickly followed. The bloody aura in the air was burned away by the intense fire, and the energy mark inside the heart vanished completely.

Once this was dealt with, a tracking compass appeared in Lin Zheyu's hand. He poured energy into it to confirm his direction. His figure blurred as he took a single step and vanished into the surrounding mountains and forests in an instant.