### Chapter 87: The Five Spirits Pagoda (Part 2)
Lin Yi's eyes widened, and he stumbled back two steps, staring into the first floor of the Five Spirits Pagoda. At its center stood a puppet, seemingly forged from water copper mixed with unknown materials, its arms hanging stiffly at its sides, empty eyes fixed on the entrance.
No stairs, no teleportation array—nothing hinted at how to reach the other seventeen floors.
Frowning, Lin Yi stepped inside, his heart racing. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, a crushing weight slammed down on him.
"Ugh!" He grunted, his face paling. *This pressure… and I haven't even fully entered yet.* Thanks to his tempered meridians, he barely withstood it.
He took a second step, half in, half out. The weight doubled, making his bones creak.
"What's going on?" he gasped. The pressure wasn't just physical—it tested his resolve, his body's limits.
With a third step, he fully entered the pagoda. The weight quadrupled. He staggered, but held his ground, his gaze locked on the puppet.
*Whoa!*
The puppet moved—faster than he could blink—shifting into a strange stance, like a statue frozen mid-motion.
Lin Yi's curiosity flared. *A technique? It looks like martial arts, but why would a cultivator's bracelet hold that?* The bracelet opened with mortal 内力 (qi), yet housed immortal inheritances. *This is getting weirder.*
He forced himself forward, step by step. Each step doubled the pressure, but with each step, the puppet shifted into a new stance—swift, precise, fluid.
By the fifth step, Lin Yi was sweating profusely, his muscles screaming. The puppet had struck five stances. When he mentally linked them, fragments of insight flickered—maybe because he'd mastered *Iron Sand Palm*, or because the *Five Spirits Technique* resonated with the pagoda's energy.
But the insights were scattered, too vague to grasp.
"Let's push further," he muttered, gritting his teeth. He took three more steps in quick succession.
*Crack!*
His knee hit the floor. Blood mixed with sweat, soaking his robes. The pressure was eight times what it had been at the door. His heart hammered, vision blurring.
Yet the puppet moved in sync, striking three more stances. Eight total—when woven together, they hinted at a cohesive pattern, a flow he almost understood.
*This is worth it*, he thought, despite the pain.
Then, something odd happened. A faint energy stirred in his body, mending his injuries.
Lin Yi's eyes widened. *That power…*
It was the 变异 (mutated) energy born from merging his *Five Spirits* power and spiritual energy—the tiny, thread-like force he'd never understood. Now, it pulsed to life, repairing his battered body.
Hope surged. He sank into meditation, guiding his *Five Spirits* power and spiritual energy to merge, nurturing the mutated force. Bit by bit, it grew, stitching his wounds closed.
The pressure remained, but with each breath, he felt stronger.
*So this is what that mutated energy does*, he realized. *It heals… and maybe more.*
He didn't try to advance further. Eight steps were enough—any more, and his body would shatter. But he'd glimpsed eight stances, and the mutated energy's secret.
Slowly, Lin Yi rose, reversing his steps. The pressure lessened with each backward move, until he stood at the entrance, battered but alive.
The puppet returned to its original position, as if nothing had happened.
Lin Yi touched his chest, where the mutated energy still hummed. "Eight stances… and a healing power," he smiled. "Not a bad haul."
He glanced up at the pagoda's upper floors, then back at the misty world outside the tower.
"Time to master *Blood Tempering*," he said. "Then… floor two."
With the eight stances etched in his memory and a new understanding of his mutated energy, Lin Yi exited the tower, ready to grow stronger. The Five Spirits Pagoda had more to teach—and he was eager to learn.