The Ninth Turn, the First Breath!

Wang Lin closed his eyes, attempting to harness the power of True and False Origins. Yet, here, they seemed to dissipate, offering no aid. For both truth and falsehood were dictated by the mind alone.

If Wang Lin’s heart was swayed, all else would follow!

The moment his eyelids sealed, Wang Lin’s eyes snapped open. Within them lay a pool of serenity. He understood – this trial was but a whetstone for the heart.

When the heart is still, the world is still. But stilling the heart is a daunting task, especially amidst chaos. Though Wang Lin appeared calm, he had not yet fully achieved true tranquility.

For now, he had only stilled his body!

As Wang Lin’s form gradually settled, the Five Elemental Stars, once a blur of swirling motion, began to decelerate. The shift was palpable, a sudden and drastic reduction in speed.

The Ninth Turn, the Second Breath!

With his body stilled, the Five Elemental Stars’ rotation slowed to a crawl. Though still a vortex, the dizziness, nausea, and disorientation that had plagued him now felt like a refreshing plunge into icy water on a summer’s day. His heart, for the first time, showed true signs of calming.

In turn, his soul followed suit, becoming still!

When the soul finds peace, the Five Elemental Stars’ whirlpool decelerated further, becoming a hazy blur. It teetered between a vortex and its true form as astral bodies. The maddening, disorienting cyclone seemed on the verge of collapse.

The Ninth Turn, the Third Breath!

As the third breath passed, Wang Lin’s body and soul now still, his spirit settled into serenity. The calmness of his spirit and divine sense granted him a sense of ethereal detachment. His white hair danced in the void, and his face, once pale, now possessed a tranquil, unyielding composure.

Gazing upon the Five Elemental Stars, their movement slowed even more. No longer a vortex, they resumed their true form as celestial bodies. Though their surfaces were not yet fully discernible, Wang Lin could perceive their rotation with his naked eye.

A faint smile crept across Wang Lin’s lips – a smile of peace and understanding, devoid of anger, born from seeing through the heart of things.

Time continued to flow – the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth breaths of the Ninth Turn…

Upon the Five Elemental Stars, an eerie silence reigned. Every cultivator of the Gui Yi Sect looked towards the heavens, their eyes wide with unimaginable shock.

The golden-robed elder, in particular, was ashen-faced and muttering incoherently. He could not fathom what he was witnessing. It defied his understanding and predictions, an utter impossibility.

He was not of the Cave World. He hailed from the Immortal Astral Continent, from the Gui Yi Sect. He knew all too well the power and terror of the Nine-Turn Heart Wheel Formation. In the Immortal Astral Continent, it was a legend!

He never dreamed that a cultivator of the Cave World could show signs of breaking the formation so quickly! Though the Nine-Turn Heart Wheel outside the Five Elemental Stars was weaker than its counterpart on the Immortal Astral Continent, it was undeniably the same formation!

“Impossible… Even if he understands the formation’s changes, time is running out at the Ninth Turn. He cannot fully stop the Heart Wheel before the Ninth Breath arrives!” The golden-robed elder clenched his fists, whispering words he himself did not believe.

Beside him, Na Duo trembled with fear. He, too, sensed the change emanating from Wang Lin. He understood the formation’s insidious nature all too well. Now, he could only gasp, rendered speechless.

His heart surged with fear and inexplicable dread of Wang Lin.

Outside the Five Elemental Stars, Grand Empyrean Xuan Luo watched Wang Lin with a strange glint in his eyes. He witnessed Wang Lin’s every action, and his heart began to race once more.

“Unable to achieve instant stillness of heart, he uses his body as a guide, his form as a vessel. Stilling the body is easier, leading the soul within to follow. From this, he controls his spirit, bringing it to a state of stillness…

With body, soul, and spirit stilled, one by one, the heart will naturally find its peace… For this child to devise such a method in so short a time is truly remarkable! Such a reaction and understanding are rare indeed!

This child… I will have him!” Xuan Luo’s eyes blazed with a rare excitement.

The Ninth Turn, the Eighth Breath!

Wang Lin’s heart was now perfectly still. Standing there with a faint smile, the Five Elemental Stars rotated so slowly as to be almost imperceptible. The surfaces of the stars became clear, revealing their features before Wang Lin’s very eyes.

As the Ninth Breath arrived, the Five Elemental Stars came to a complete standstill in Wang Lin’s vision!

Had he wished, he could have stepped forward and walked out of the Nine-Turn Heart Wheel, setting foot directly onto the Five Elemental Stars. But Wang Lin did not. In his path of cultivation, he never forgot a slight or injustice. Having nearly been consumed by the formation, he would not let it pass unpunished! To do so would be to deny his very nature.

“I know not the name of this formation, but it changes nine times, and each change forms a vortex… Thus, it is aptly named the Nine-Change Heart Wheel.

This formation… You cannot simply spin or stop as you please! ” A cold light flashed in Wang Lin’s eyes. He raised his right hand and pointed it towards the Five Elemental Stars, drawing a circle in the air in reverse.

“When the heart moves, the stars move. Now, my heart moves in opposition, forcing the stars to spin in reverse. You used this formation to trap me, and now, you shall experience its wonders firsthand!” Wang Lin’s right hand moved, tracing circles in the air again and again.

As his hand moved, the Five Elemental Stars, which had been completely still, began to rotate once more, but in reverse!

The moment they began their counter-rotation, Grand Empyrean Xuan Luo roared with laughter, his admiration for Wang Lin deepening even further.
“This whelp possesses a spirit akin to mine! Excellent, most excellent indeed!” boomed a voice from on high.

Yet, where the Grand Celestial Xuan Luo found delight, dread gripped the very souls of the Gui Yi sect cultivators upon the Five Elements Star. They had gazed skyward moments before, but in that instant, the heavens twisted. The wind screamed, and the firmament itself convulsed. The azure vanished, the light extinguished, and where the sky had been, there now yawned a terrifying emptiness – the void of space wherein the Five Elements Star itself hung suspended.

Within this star-strewn sky forged from the heavens, every Gui Yi cultivator beheld a gargantuan cultivation star. It was the Five Elements Star!

A disorienting sensation washed over them. Though they stood upon the very soil of the Five Elements Star, they now saw it hanging before their eyes, an alien orb amidst a manufactured cosmos. The sudden shift sent tremors of unease through their minds.

The golden-robed elder, too, was shaken. He staggered back, his face paling with sudden realization.

“By the ancient ones, no!” he gasped.

Then, in that sky of stars, the Five Elements Star began to spin, a low rumble building to a deafening roar. Faster and faster it turned, a dizzying vortex forming before their eyes.

Thought turned to action, and the star obeyed!

Their minds, already fractured by the surreal spectacle, were now wholly ensnared within the Ninefold Cycle of the Heart!

The spinning star became a blinding maelstrom. And this was but the eighth breath of the first cycle!

One by one, the cultivators vomited blood. They stumbled backward, their faces etched with terror, their cries of panic lost in the cosmic roar.

The second cycle crashed upon them like a tidal wave.

Nado coughed crimson, clamping his eyes shut, but the agony was relentless. The world spun about him, an unstoppable carousel of torment. He fought to center himself, but the more he resisted, the faster the Five Elements Star seemed to whirl within his perception.

The horrors of the past clawed at his mind, threatening to plunge him into madness.

The golden-robed elder was no better off. His face was ashen as he pressed a trembling finger to his brow, desperately trying to calm the storm within. But the screams and pleas around him were a discordant symphony, shattering his focus and driving him deeper into despair.

Before his eyes, the Five Elements Star had transformed into a blinding vortex, a swirling abyss threatening to swallow his very soul. Sanity frayed at the edges as his mind crumbled, spiraling out of his control.

The Ninefold Cycle of the Heart had reached its fourth rotation!

In that instant, all the cultivators, save Nado and the golden-robed elder, succumbed to the overwhelming pressure and fell into unconsciousness. Yet even in their slumber, their faces were contorted with lingering pain. Their life force drained away, their bodies withered and aged before the eyes, consuming not only their minds but their very lifespan.

Nado, barely clinging to consciousness, managed to endure the fourth cycle for a fleeting moment before darkness claimed him.

Only the golden-robed elder remained, fighting a desperate, losing battle. Veins bulged on his temples, madness flickering in his eyes as he howled in defiance. In his pupils, the Five Elements Star was reflected, a twisted and distorted image of a swirling chaos, no longer recognizable as a celestial body.

Time bled away. The fifth cycle. The sixth. As the seventh threatened to engulf him, the golden-robed elder choked on his own blood, his features now gaunt and aged.

Then, from the depths of the high tower, three roars echoed, emanating from the seventh, sixth, and fifth floors respectively. Three ancient figures, cloaked in shadows, burst forth like meteors, streaking through the air. Uttering incantations lost to time, they unleashed a mighty power, their sleeves billowing as they swept toward the star-strewn sky!

A thunderous explosion rent the air, a cataclysmic boom that reverberated through the cosmos.

The heavens shattered. The spinning Five Elements Star fractured into a million pieces, its illusionary grip forcibly torn asunder!

And amidst the wreckage, bathed in an ethereal light, stood Wang Lin, his white robes pristine against the backdrop of the shattered sky!