Between life and death lies a profound terror.

With the prompt from the system interface, Chen Jue felt the temperature of his entire body begin to rise sharply. The vital energy and blood within him started to surge like a tidal wave, and wisps of white vapor began to steam off his body.

The entire ground-floor room grew pleasantly warm, heated by the thermal energy radiating from him.

Circulating his vital energy and blood along the routes of the major and minor heavenly cycles, Chen Jue used his internal vision to discover that the vast majority of the cells in his body were accelerating their absorption of the innate vital breath radiating from the meteorite fragments.

His cells were rapidly growing stronger, and upon reaching a critical point, they would divide on their own. The original cells accelerated their aging and death, while the newly divided cells grew robustly, breaking through their former limits.

Not only that, but Chen Jue's various attributes also began to scroll upward, surging fiercely as if he had consumed some miraculous elixir.

Of course, this growth was not endless. It came to an abrupt halt only when the dark golden patterns on the meteorite fragment held in Chen Jue's palm completely disappeared, and the innate vital breath drifting in the air was entirely absorbed into his body.

Meanwhile, the [Major and Minor Heavenly Cycle Circulation] skill on the interface had risen to Level 1 (5/200). But the very next second, a terrifying siphon effect spread throughout his entire body like a overwhelming tide.

Through his internal vision, Chen Jue discovered that those newly transformed cells suddenly became restless and frantic at this moment. Deprived of the energetic support of the innate vital breath, these cells actually began to accelerate their extraction of the nutrients and energy remaining in Chen Jue's stomach, intestines, blood, and body fluids.

This extraction was precisely the siphon effect triggered during a skill breakthrough. Previously, Chen Jue had not yet awakened internal vision, and thus was unable to observe the true operational principle of this siphon effect.

Now, owing to his successful formation of the internal elixir and the breakthrough in the major and minor heavenly cycle circulation technique, his internal vision reached straight down to the cellular level of his body, finally revealing that this so-called siphon was simply his body's cells accelerating their absorption of nutrients.

Seeing that those cells were about to hollow out his body, Chen Jue thought to himself, "Not good!"

He hurriedly ceased his cultivation, sprang up from the sofa, bounded up the stairs in a few leaps, pulled open the bedside drawer, took out the Golden Dew and human nutritional supplements, tore open the seals, and began pouring them madly into his mouth.

However, taking in energy and nutrients through such a primitive method of eating and supplying simply could not keep up with the siphoning demand of his body's sixty trillion cells.

Chen Jue discovered through his internal vision that many of the transforming cells, upon failing to absorb nutrients, actually began to devour nearby cells. It was as if the cells had gone mad with hunger, turning on each other in mutual slaughter. The interior of Chen Jue's body turned into a battlefield governed by the law of the jungle.

At the same time, his body's fat content plummeted rapidly, and a massive amount of water was consumed. His skin and muscles, which had originally been plump, quickly shriveled up.

"Am I going to be sucked dry by my own cultivation breakthrough?" An absurd thought flashed through Chen Jue's mind. He wanted to go downstairs to continue eating food for replenishment, but his feet felt as though they were nailed to the floor and refused to move. He hurriedly gathered his focus, forcibly controlling his vital energy and blood to merge into a single mass, using the state of his formed elixir to stubbornly resist this bodily mutation.

Finally, his mind buzzed and his vision went black, much like a severe attack of anemia, and he collapsed unconscious onto the bed.

...

I do not know how much time had passed when Chen Jue woke up from his deep sleep.

Scattered all over the floor by the bed were the packaging shells of the Golden Dew and human nutritional supplements, and his body had successfully weathered the previous siphon effect.

Just as the Taoist classics state: "Between life and death lies great terror; it is born in the heart and manifested in the body."

Chen Jue had experienced an unprecedented barrier of life and death through his cultivation breakthrough.

Simply put, the energy supply could not keep up, and it had almost drained him to death.

Fortunately, the Golden Dew and human nutritional supplements he had managed to swallow at the last moment slowly replenished the deficit left by the previous siphon. Waking up the next morning, Chen Jue found that aside from a touch of weakness and thirst, his body had no major aftereffects.

He climbed out of bed and glanced at his attribute panel:

Name: Chen Jue
Age: 27 years old
Health Index: 189%↓ (Mild malnutrition)
Strength: 3.77 (+0.26)
Agility: 2.96 (+0.57)
Constitution: 4.01 (+0.16)
Intelligence: 1.70 (+0.09)
Free Attribute Points: 0.69
Acquired Skills: Maximum proficiency omitted... [Crouching Dragon Sleeping Elixir Technique Lv2 (133/500)], [Wudang Golden Toad Technique Lv0 (9/100)], [Major and Minor Heavenly Cycle Circulation Lv1 (5/200)]
State Bonuses: Known omitted... [Unknown Sealing], [Internal Vision]

All of his attributes had received massive boosts under the breakthrough of the major and minor heavenly cycle circulation, and he had even awakened a brand-new state bonus.

[Internal Vision]: Look inward into oneself to clarify the mind; pierce the void to perceive the divine!
State Description: Death and life are a continuous cycle of returning. Upon awakening this state, one can move from the macroscopic to the microscopic, observing changes such as renewal, decline, aging, and death within one's own body through internal vision.

"After a single sleep, my attributes have actually grown by this much."
"Even the Sleeping Elixir Technique has broken through by a level."
"Was the siphon effect too strong, causing malnutrition?"
"Internal vision... piercing the void to perceive the divine... No wonder the internal elixir classics say that spirits dwell within the human body. So it was the light emitted by the meridians, acupuncture points, temples, and sensitive spots in the organs." Chen Jue examined the panel, muttering to himself.

The brush with the barrier of life and death the previous night had led Chen Jue into an extremely profound state of microscopic insight into his own body.

He could perceive the transformation of the cells all over his body, and he could also witness the replacement and death of cells, much like the Buddhist classic where the Buddha held up a flower and Venerable Mahakasyapa smiled, imparting an eternal Zen principle: "A single flower is a world."

Presumably, Shakyamuni Buddha also used a method similar to Chen Jue's internal vision to move from the macroscopic to the microscopic, seeing the cells within the human body and the cells hidden within the flower, just as if a world were concealed inside.

Reaching the realm of cultivation that Chen Jue had attained was like Tang Sanzang and his disciples in Journey to the West experiencing the eighty-one tribulations, arriving at the Western Paradise, and beholding the countless Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats hidden within trillions of Buddhist realms.

The journey to fetch the scriptures was not about retrieving written Buddhist sutras, but rather about continuously unearthing the hidden mysteries within the body throughout the process, until one beheld the Buddhas and deities hidden within oneself, becoming the master of one's own body and governing the acupuncture points, tissues, organs, and cells that harbored "divine spirits."

However, this process required massive amounts of energy and nutritional support. Had it not been for the innate vital breath carried by that small meteorite fragment the night before providing the majority of the energy, along with the subsequent ingestion of the Golden Dew and human nutritional supplements, Chen Jue feared he would never have survived the siphon effect triggered by the breakthrough of the [Major and Minor Heavenly Cycle Circulation] technique.

...

Stepping out of bed, Chen Jue tidied up the garbage upstairs and watched the morning sun slowly rise outside the window.

Having experienced the barrier of life and death, Chen Jue found that he harbored a trace of unknown fear toward the evolution of life and the transformation of his body.

Even with the state bonus of [Red Dust Immortal] strengthening his mind and will, and even having personally experienced the early demise of his family and witnessed the passing of Old Master Huang, Chen Jue had thought he could view life and death with detachment.

He had not expected that when life and death ultimately descended upon him, his heart would still generate an irresistible fear.

"The fear between life and death... the mystery of eternal life... the innate vital breath..." Chen Jue mumbled to himself as he went out for a stroll and ate a remarkably extravagant breakfast in Linjia Village.

When he returned home, Chen Jue picked up his phone and found a message from Linglong: "Fellow Daoist Chen Jue, I apologize for breaking my word... I have accepted the invitation from the Hongmou Group, as they offered conditions I simply could not refuse... If Fellow Daoist is interested, you are welcome to come and meet for a discussion..."

Looking at Linglong's message, Chen Jue wore a thoughtful expression.

Recalling the radiation energy contained within those meteorite fragments, Chen Jue felt that any master of the golden elixir would find it difficult to resist the temptation of that innate vital breath.

Considering that if things continued this way, his wallet would no longer be able to sustain his subsequent cultivation, and items on the level of Golden Dew and human nutritional supplements would likely fail to support his future progress, Chen Jue sat and pondered for a long time.

He finally dialed the number he had noted down earlier. He intended to go and see what tricks this Hongmou Group was really up to, and to check if there was any chance to freeload a few more meteorite fragments.