Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 273 Lin Yan's Suicide Attempt

After spending more than twenty days in the village, the matter of helping the villagers get their food rations was finally settled. Standing on his sword, he looked back at the familiar green hills and bamboo forests gradually shrinking before turning around and hurrying away.

After leaving Zhuxi Village, Lin Yan boarded his flying sword and headed southeast.

To the southeast, the landscape was a series of rolling hills. Mountains upon mountains, ridges upon ridges, with occasional glimpses of villages nestled in the valleys, wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys. He flew low, but could clearly see the terraced fields cultivated on the hillsides, like green ribbons draped across the mountain range.

The air gradually became humid, the sky darkened, and muffled thunder rumbled in the distance. He then realized that he was almost at the seaside; below him were still rolling mountains, but the slopes were gradually gentler, and he could see the hazy sea in the distance.

The wind grew stronger, carrying a salty, fishy smell. He was traversing a gap between two hills, having unexpectedly encountered a typhoon. Trees were blown about wildly, and swathes of bamboo groves fell and bounced back. This wind was far wilder than the mountain winds in the bamboo forest, carrying the force of the sea, rampaging and crashing about.

He simply sheathed his flying sword and landed on a cliff overlooking the sea. Standing on the edge and looking down, he saw waves crashing against the rocks, the spray reaching halfway up the cliff face. The sky grew darker and darker, the clouds hanging low, and the distant sea was already a black expanse.

The sight made his heart tighten, yet he also felt a surge of excitement. The sea breeze, carrying raindrops, lashed against his protective aura. He took to the air again on his sword, this time heading straight for that dark sea.

Lin Yan flew over the sea, and the wind grew stronger.

At first, they just pushed him along, then they started tugging at his clothes. Further on, the wind seemed to come alive, whipping the seawater upwards. He squinted as he looked ahead; the waves were torn into white foam, the sky and sea merging into a hazy gray.

Then he saw—

It was a sight he had never imagined. A gigantic, slowly rotating funnel stood between heaven and earth, the surrounding cloud walls like billions of tons of dirty cotton forcibly twisted together, emitting a rumbling, muffled sound. Pale white lightning occasionally flashed through the clouds, but strangely, there was no thunder—all sounds were swallowed up by the howling wind.

He took a deep breath, steadied his flying sword, and plunged it against the wind.

This journey was absolutely suicidal. The wind felt like countless hands, some pushing, some pulling, as if trying to tear him apart. Rain flew horizontally, stinging his face. He gritted his teeth, putting all the understanding of the wind he had gleaned in the bamboo forest into practice, his body slightly adjusting to the airflow, like a leaf spinning in a torrent.

The further he flew, the more erratic the wind became. But strangely, he no longer felt uncomfortable. His body knew exactly how to twist and turn, sometimes gliding with the wind, sometimes using it to propel himself upwards. He could even close his eyes and sense the direction of the airflow just by feeling his skin.

When he finally passed through the thick wall of clouds, the world suddenly became quiet.

All the noise was left behind. This was a huge circular space, dozens of miles in circumference. Above, the sky was a clear blue, and it was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat. The four walls were slowly rotating cloud walls, so high you couldn't see the top, as if supported by invisible hands.

He was suspended in the very center, gazing at this wonder of nature.

The wind outside was still swirling wildly, but this area in the center was eerily quiet. A series of thoughts flooded my mind—the wind is strongest when it's quietest. Just like people, true skill isn't about reckless action, but about maintaining composure in chaotic situations.

He sheathed the Star Sword, slowly closed his eyes, and let his body float in the eye of the wind.

This stillness, ironically, connected all the fragmented insights he had previously gathered. The gentleness of the bamboo forest, the spirit of the mountain wind, and the force of the typhoon before him, both violent and calm—after an unknown amount of time, the essence of the wind slowly solidified in his mind, transforming from a small blue vortex into a vortex three inches in diameter.

The Essence of Wind - Advanced!

Lin Yan, at the eye of the storm, felt an unparalleled harmony between his aura and the surrounding天地 (heaven and earth). He glanced at the unusual blue sky above and knew it was time to leave.

With a thought, he was like a weightless feather, naturally carried by the surrounding air currents, drifting towards the huge cloud wall that slowly rotated around him.

Upon entering, it felt as if I had stepped from a tranquil paradise into a boiling hell.

The scene before him was instantly overturned. No longer was it uniform grayish-white vapor, but an extreme, churning inky black. Huge clouds surged like boiling asphalt, each flash of lightning a stark, white blast like the dawn of the universe, instantly turning the entire world into an overexposed photograph. Thick, dragon-like branches of lightning tore through the clouds just a few hundred meters in front of him, the intense light almost blinding him. Even more terrifying were the ball lightning, like eerie blue will-o'-the-wisps, drifting erratically within the clouds, radiating chilling energy fluctuations.

The sounds in his ears transformed into pure violence. The howling wind became background noise, and most terrifyingly, the thunderclap that followed the lightning! The sound was no longer a "boom," but a "crack—bang!" It was as if the giant pane of glass of the sky had been shattered, the sound waves like tangible iron hammers slamming into his protective true energy, creating ripples. His eardrums were ringing, and the whole world was shaking.

The chaotic airflow intensified several times over, and the air was filled with a strong, acrid smell of burning ozone. Each breath felt like tiny sparks of electricity stimulating his lungs. What terrified him most was that the hairs on his body stood on end involuntarily—a sign of the powerful static field in the air, a warning that an even more terrifying lightning strike could strike at any moment!

A shiver, stemming from an instinct for survival, swept over him, sending chills down his spine.

"This damn place..." he cursed inwardly, it was several times more dangerous than the area he had come from!

But the next moment, his advanced Wind Intent activated on its own, and his body reacted even faster than his mind. Just as a blinding bolt of lightning exploded in front of his left, the surrounding airflow naturally carried him to the right, narrowly avoiding the core energy channel of the lightning.

Sensing this new and more harmonious interaction between himself and the storm, Lin Yan was not surprised but delighted, a hint of madness and heat flashing in his eyes.

"Since we're already here..." He licked his lips, tasting the peculiar mixture of rainwater and ozone, "How about... we go big!"

Instead of speeding up his escape from the thunderstorm area, he spread his divine sense as far as possible, like a spider web, no longer just sensing the wind, but also sensing the violent fluctuations in airflow and energy caused by the birth, eruption, and disappearance of lightning.

He completely immersed himself in this land of destruction, treating this natural disaster as the best training ground to hone his skills and explore the essence of thunder!

He was like a ghost traversing a forest of lightning, following the trajectory of the laws of destruction, going against the current.

Lin Yan weaved through the thunderstorm clouds, each lightning bolt that brushed past him bringing a chilling shiver.

He danced on the edge of a knife, pushing the essence of the wind to its extreme. His body transformed into a wisp of silk, swaying between the raging lightning bolts. Ball lightning grazed past his ears, the scorching heat making his sideburns curl.

"I see..." he murmured, staring at the branching lightning that exploded in front of him.

In the instant the lightning tore through the sky, he caught a certain rhythm—that chaotic fury, the most resolute destructive will in the world. Destruction at that moment presented an astonishing beauty, so pure it was breathtaking.

He pursued this enlightenment with obsession, even actively approaching the stray bolts of lightning.

The atmosphere of danger is growing stronger.

As the third bolt of lightning exploded beside him, he finally glimpsed a corner of the true meaning of thunder. It was an undeniable brutality, the most primal punitive power in the world.

And at that very moment—

"boom!!"

A thick, purplish-white electric python suddenly slashed down from above his head, leaving him no time to dodge. The lightning struck him precisely on the back, shattering his protective inner energy like paper.

Excruciating pain! Indescribable pain!

His internal organs felt as if they had been thrown into a furnace, every cell groaning in agony. A tyrannical electric current surged through his meridians, leaving a trail of charred black in its wake. He suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood crackling with electricity, and plummeted like a kite with a broken string.

Even more terrifying, this destructive energy actually rushed straight into the sea of ​​consciousness along the meridians!

Just as the lightning was about to tear apart the sea of ​​consciousness, the millstone of gods and demons floating in the center of the sea of ​​consciousness suddenly moved.

The ancient, ever-rotating millstones emitted a deep hum, as if they had smelled something delicious. The raging lightning, drawn by an invisible force, flowed like rivers into the sea, all disappearing into the millstones. As the millstones turned, the violent lightning was crushed and purified, transforming into the purest energy to nourish the sea of ​​consciousness.

A noble purple light quietly appeared beside the illusory human figure, and a barely perceptible lightning pattern silently lit up on the millstone of gods and demons.

His last thought was, "I've messed up! The Jade Skin Realm can only withstand physical attacks, not magical ones!"

Then it plunged into complete darkness.