At the peak of Mending Heaven Peak, Lü Yang stood with his hands behind his back.

Behind him, the graceful figure of Madam Ruo Xiang quietly appeared, her beautiful eyes filled with surprise and envy as she softly approached and said:

“Congratulations to Yuan Tu for reaching the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, from now on longevity is within reach!”

She could not help but feel envious.

After all, they were both in the Foundation Establishment Realm, yet she had not even comprehended a single innate divine ability, let alone a gifted divine power.

Otherwise, she would not have been so eager to plot her reincarnation.

Compared to her, Lü Yang, who had only attained the Dao for less than a hundred years and was unimaginably young, had already broken through numerous barriers and reached the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.

How could Madam Ruo Xiang not feel envious?

However, she was clever enough not to let this envy affect her state of mind.

“Madam flatters me.”

Lü Yang listened to Madam Ruo Xiang’s praise and merely smiled faintly, then turned his gaze inward, silently sensing the changes brought by this newly awakened gifted divine power.

【Embracing the Mountain】

At this moment, he saw a towering mountain shadow appear within his Dao Foundation, balancing the Qi and stabilizing the heavens and earth, locking all his merit and fortune within his body.

“So this is a gifted divine power.”

Lü Yang murmured in his heart, feeling as if the world before his eyes had changed dramatically, gaining new insights into karma, fate, and even the very fabric of heaven and earth.

No wonder the gap between early and mid Foundation Establishment lay in whether one could awaken a gifted divine power.

It was not merely an additional powerful ability.

It was a fundamental enhancement of one’s standing, with the gifted divine power significantly boosting the Dao Foundation and even transforming the innate divine power with immediate effect.

“Embrace unity and defend the center, distinguishing the different from the same.”

As the name suggested, 【Embracing the Mountain】 not only possessed its own wondrous power but could also enhance Lü Yang’s innate divine power, 【Distinguish the Different from the Same】.

At this moment, when Lü Yang activated 【Distinguish the Different from the Same】 once again.

Countless lines of karma immediately appeared in his eyes, some bright, some dim, some thick, and some thin, densely packed.

These were all his karmic ties.

Among them, the most prominent was a black smoke that had almost tainted more than half of his karmic lines, wearing down his merit and fortune.

“Heavenly Tribulation Qi?”

In his previous lifetime, he could not even see this tribulation Qi, which led to him exposing a flaw before the Master of Mending Heaven Peak and nearly failing at the last moment.

But now, not only could he see the existence of this tribulation Qi.

As he activated 【Distinguish the Different from the Same】, the towering mountain shadow within his Dao Foundation resonated with it.

Under the washing brilliance of the divine power, the layers of tribulation Qi were actually dispersed, causing his karmic lines to shine brightly once more.

And this was only the enhancement of his innate divine power.

In addition to this, 【Embracing the Mountain】 itself possessed both illusory and tangible transformations, truly extraordinary.

In its illusory form, it could stabilize the mind and fix divine powers.

In its tangible form, it could balance the Qi and stabilize the heavens and earth.

This was what Lü Yang valued the most: it was especially powerful when suppressing weaker opponents.

When 【Embracing the Mountain】 took its illusory form, it did not manifest physically but became a mountain pressing down on one’s mind, which Lü Yang could place upon others with just a thought.

From then on, any cultivator suppressed by 【Embracing the Mountain】 would find it impossible to progress in cultivation.

Every step forward would cost hundreds or thousands of times more effort than others.

And if Lü Yang so wished, he could even forcibly reduce their cultivation, pressing someone at the peak of Qi Refining back down to the first layer!

Moreover, this effect could even be used against Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Before a battle of spells, he could first drop 【Embracing the Mountain】 onto his opponent, no matter how astonishing they were, it would unconditionally nullify one of their gifted divine powers!

Three powers would become two, two would become one.

And one would simply disappear!

“If I had 【Embracing the Mountain】 when I fought that Huanwu True Person from the Divine Martial Sect, he wouldn’t have even been able to use his innate divine power.”

How tyrannical!

Even more outrageous was that this suppressive ability could be freely chosen.

If desired, he could select any one divine power to suppress and erase.

Thus, it was extremely effective against those Foundation Establishment cultivators whose core combat abilities relied on a specific divine power.

For example, Wu Cang.

His strongest technique, 【Heavenly Furnace Departing Fire】, was a combination of the divine wonder “Wood-born Fire” within his innate divine power and his gifted divine power 【Relentless Southbound】.

At the time, it had caused Lü Yang considerable trouble.

But now, all Lü Yang needed was to smash him with 【Embracing the Mountain】, suppress “Wood-born Fire,” and instantly break Wu Cang’s strongest technique!

Of course, this kind of nullification had its limitations.

First, once the targeted divine wonder was chosen, it could not be changed for a short period.

Secondly, it prevented the use of 【Embracing the Mountain】’s other abilities.

When 【Embracing the Mountain】 took its tangible form, it could balance the Qi and stabilize the heavens and earth.

As the name implied, it could manifest a mountain shadow that suppressed all the spiritual Qi, karma, and fortune within an area.

No matter how many transformations one had, it was extremely difficult to escape.

This made it a very powerful trapping technique.

“Damn it, it combines both mechanics and numerical power.”

Opening his eyes, Lü Yang finally understood why the position of 【City Wall Earth】 was so highly sought after.

The related divine powers were either mechanic-based or numerically overwhelming.

Unfortunately, the karmic burden was too heavy.

“Although I will eventually have to abandon it, for now, it still has its uses.”

“Perfect for settling old and new grudges together, I’ll deal with a major threat to my heart today.”

With that thought, Lü Yang raised his head and said:

“Come out, why sneak around?”

As his words fell, under the dark night and high winds, the figure of a black-clothed man silently emerged, with a familiar face but without the overwhelming aura from the previous life.

“The latest novel is first released on 69shu.com!”

“Inferior one, Wu Cang, greets Daoist Yuan Tu.”

Hearing this, Lü Yang immediately smiled.

Though he knew well that the 【Wu Cang】 he last saw in his previous life was not the real Wu Cang, but a Dao Calamity Possession.

However, he was still no match for a Dao Calamity now.

Yet the suffocating resentment of being hunted down to self-destruction in his past life needed a target for release.

So he decided to settle the score with Wu Cang first!

“Yuan Tu, this man harbors ill intentions.”

Madam Ruo Xiang beside him showed a worried expression, but Lü Yang waved his hand to make her step back before speaking:

“I understand your purpose, Daoist.”

“Unfortunately, how could the hand-written letter of a True Monarch be given so lightly?”

As Lü Yang’s words fell, Wu Cang’s fake smile immediately faded, and he spoke coldly:

“So you want to suffer a little, Daoist?”

Lü Yang did not answer.

After breaking through to the mid-stage, he had seen some truths.

Wu Cang was originally a rogue cultivator who later joined the Primordial Saint Sect after reincarnation, retaining his rogue cultivator habits.

In short, most of his divine powers were focused on killing and had no involvement with karma.

Such people were too easily manipulated.

Thus, Wu Cang coming to cause trouble for him might not have been his true intention.

Thinking back to the heaven and earth killing intent upon him in his previous life, Lü Yang now suspected that it was likely the scheme of some great figure in the Primordial Saint Sect.

However, such manipulation could not come without a price.

Foundation Establishment cultivators stood beyond the mundane, with unique karmic threads.

To manipulate them would inevitably come at a cost, unlike the casual manipulation of Qi Refining cultivators.

In other words—

“Once karma is manipulated, any unexpected variable could trigger immediate backlash on the manipulator!”

And what was the variable?

The answer was obvious.

Since the opponent was using Wu Cang to deal with him, if he suddenly turned violent and killed Wu Cang, that would be the greatest variable!

With this thought, a crimson light flashed in Lü Yang’s eyes.

No matter who was plotting against him—whether Daoist Hong Yun or another True Person of the Primordial Saint Sect—they could never have foreseen that he had already broken through to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment!

After all, 【Embracing the Mountain】 itself had the ability to lock his merit and fortune.

From the moment of breakthrough, Lü Yang had kept all signs of advancement sealed within his body.

And with the Heavenly Observation Instrument concealing everything, not a single trace was revealed.

All of this had been in preparation for this very moment, to strike a heavy blow against the hidden mastermind!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep