Inside the damp basement of the sanatorium, the silence felt like a ton of weight pressing down on his shoulders. Lin Xuan stood before the blue glass tube imprisoning his mother, but his eyes no longer stared with anger. He had reached a point where anger would only be a hindrance.
"You think my wealth is the source of my power, Jin-Ho?" Lin Xuan's voice was very soft, yet it resonated throughout the room. "You are wrong. Wealth is merely the effect. The cause is my intention. And tonight, I will show you what happens when I withdraw all those effects to be transformed into one pure intention."
Lin Xuan closed his eyes, he began to perform a process that in the world of mental cultivation is considered the taboo of De-Manifestation.
In downtown Jianghai, at the same time, the Lin family's financial miracle began to collapse. The stock charts of the Aura Nexus company on Song Jin-Ho's monitor plummeted in a terrifying vertical line. The lights in Lin Xuan's office building suddenly went out, major contracts that had just been signed were suddenly canceled due to nonsensical technical reasons. Physically, Lin Xuan was losing everything.
"Look! You are ruined, Lin Xuan! You have nothing left!" screamed Song Jin-Ho through the speakers, his voice filled with insane joy.
However, Jin-Ho did not see what was happening inside that sanatorium. All the energy of luck released by Lin Xuan from the outside world did not vanish into thin air. That energy was pulled back into the cells of Lin Xuan's body. A golden light began to seep from the pores of his skin, so bright that the shadows in the room disappeared.
"The world sees destruction when a man loses his wealth," Lin Xuan murmured, his voice now sounding like a choir from another dimension. "But the universe sees rebirth when a man releases his attachments for something more precious."
Lin Xuan placed both palms on the glass surface of the Frequency Cage. Instantly, violent vibrations surged through his entire body. The Nine Heavens seals protecting the tube reacted, sending jolts of blue energy that tried to burn Lin Xuan's nervous system.
Blood began to seep from the corners of Lin Xuan's eyes and ears. The back pressure was so immense that the bones in his arms made faint cracking sounds. However, he did not pull his hands away. Instead, he forced his heart frequency to slow down, synchronizing it with his mother's weak heartbeat inside the tube.
"Xuan... stop... you will die..." A soft voice echoed in Lin Xuan's subconscious. It was his mother's voice, speaking through the resonance of her locked soul.
"Don't throw away your future for me, Son..."
Lin Xuan smiled amidst the pain that was shattering his body. In his mind, he answered. "My future means nothing if there is no one in it to teach me the meaning of love. I returned to the past not to become the ruler of the world, Father and Mother, but to be the son who is no longer late coming home."
Suddenly, the golden light from Lin Xuan's body swallowed the blue light from the tube. Not by destroying it, but by embracing it. Lin Xuan did not use violence, he used Absolute Acceptance. He accepted the entire energy attack of the seals into himself so that the tube would lose its reason to persist.
Wuuush!
The glass tube did not shatter into sharp fragments. Instead, its material evaporated into soft white grains of light. The Nine Heavens seals were completely neutralized by Lin Xuan's sacrifice. His mother's body fell slowly, and Lin Xuan caught her with the remainder of his strength.
"Mother..." whispered Lin Xuan. He felt his mother's breath, which was now stable and warm. Her soul had returned whole.
"NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" roared Song Jin-Ho from behind the screen. His arrogant face was now filled with fear. "Activate the self-destruct system! Bury them there!"
Siren sounds began to wail. The ceiling of the sanatorium building began to crumble, dropping giant concrete debris. Lin Xuan, now energetically weak, tried to stand while carrying his mother. Han Seo-Ah appeared from behind the ruined door, running toward them.
"Xuan! Quick! This building will collapse in thirty seconds!" shouted Han Seo-Ah. She held Lin Xuan's shoulder, channeling her remaining energy of courage to help Lin Xuan walk.
They ran through the violently shaking corridors. Lin Xuan used the remnants of his consciousness to create a small Space Shield above their heads. Every time concrete fell, it was miraculously deflected as if an invisible hand were parrying it.
As they jumped out of the main door, a massive explosion leveled the sanatorium to the ground. Dust billowed high, obscuring the view.
A few minutes later, under the pouring rain that began to fall, Lin Xuan sat on the wet grass, still hugging his mother who was beginning to open her eyes. In the distance, car lights approached. Grand Master Gu got out in a hurry, followed by his private medical team.
Master Gu looked at Lin Xuan, then looked at the tablet in his assistant's hand which showed that Lin Xuan's wealth had completely vanished on the stock market tonight.
"You lost everything, Xuan," whispered Master Gu in a moved tone. "Aura Nexus, the capital I gave you, your social position... all gone in an hour."
Lin Xuan looked at his mother who was smiling weakly at him, then he looked at Master Gu. His aura no longer radiated luxury, yet there was a peace so deep and an authority so pure that Master Gu felt like bowing in respect.
"The treasure most difficult for your enemies to steal is the character and composure you build in the middle of a storm, Master Gu," answered Lin Xuan, his voice calm and steady. "Wealth can be rebuilt overnight for someone who possesses a free soul. Tonight, I lost nothing. I just traded fleeting gold for something eternal."
Han Seo-Ah knelt beside him, grasping Lin Xuan's wounded hand. On the hill, the three Elders of Nine Heavens who watched from a distance looked at one another. They realized one terrifying thing—Lin Xuan had reached the level of De-Manifestation, a level where a human being no longer depends on the outside world to be powerful.
Lin Xuan was now poor according to numbers, yet he was the most powerful person in Jianghai according to the laws of the universe.
Sacrifice is not a loss, but an exchange of energy to a higher level. When you dare to release your attachment to worldly possessions for the sake of truth and love, you will find that the universe no longer has a way to threaten you. The void you create with sincerity is a space for a power that cannot be destroyed by anyone.