Outside the 【Black Armor Battalion】.
Shen Monkey and Xu Dog walked out of the tent side by side, still moving as if passing through an unpopulated wasteland. Not a single patrolling soldier noticed their presence.
After walking a distance, Xu Dog spoke in a low voice:
“What you did today wasn’t very wise.”
“Not only did you pass on the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】, but you also made empty promises about recruiting him. We don’t have that authority.”
“Among the twelve consecrated members, only the Chief can make that decision.”
“You broke the rules.”
Facing Xu Dog’s reprimand, Shen Monkey didn’t care in the slightest. He chuckled, “What, do you actually think he can learn it? I was just giving him a glimmer of hope.”
“The 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】 is an extreme cultivation method specifically created by the Chief to combat those Extraordinaries. Fundamentally, it’s not meant for humans to practice. So far, only people like you and me—those who stand out from mortals and possess the bloodline of an Extraordinary—have been able to achieve anything with it.”
“With that level of difficulty, who cares if it gets leaked?”
Shen Monkey sighed, “Besides us Imperial Retainers members, no one would practice this martial art. The losses completely outweigh the gains.”
“Furthermore, that kid has thin arms and legs. He doesn’t even have calluses on his hands. One look and you can tell he isn’t cut out for body-tempering. Since he doesn’t have secret medicines and precious pills to aid him like we do, how could he possibly succeed? He’d be lucky if he doesn’t ruin his own body by rushing for quick results.”
Hearing this, Xu Dog finally realized his intent:
“So, you just gave him hope so he would work harder and not die too quickly, saving us the trouble of throwing a stone into the water only for it to fail to make a splash?”
“What else?”
Shen Monkey said lightly, “You always have to give people something to look forward to.”
“But what if he actually succeeds?” Xu Dog pressed. “What if he actually masters the martial art and survives Longxing County? What do we do then?”
“Succeeds?”
A faint smile appeared on Shen Monkey’s face. “If he really succeeds, then we’ll recruit him. At worst, I’ll recommend him to the Chief myself.”
“If he hits the absolute ceiling, we’ll just drape this cloak you’re wearing over his shoulders.”
“…Don’t spout nonsense.”
Xu Dog hurriedly tugged at his cloak.
The Retainers Hall had strict ranks and hierarchies, and the cloak was the most prominent symbol of this. From lowest to highest, they were divided into three tiers: Black Cloak, Crimson Cloak, and Purple Cloak.
Those without great merit could not wear a cloak.
He had earned the Black Cloak he was wearing by putting his life on the line and narrowly surviving a chaotic disaster caused by an evil entity. It wasn’t something just anyone could have.
A mere newcomer would be thanking his lucky stars just to join the Retainers Hall, and he wanted to wear a Black Cloak? He shouldn’t overestimate himself. He’d better quietly serve in the Retainers Hall for a few years first; otherwise, one careless mistake, and he might end up like 【Hai Pig】 the other day—dead in a foreign land, where even having someone collect his corpse was an extravagant hope.
The figures of the two men gradually faded into the distance.
Meanwhile, inside the tent, Wang Ping’s eyes were shut tight, his spiritual sense locked firmly onto them. Only after a long while did he let out a long breath of relief.
Thank goodness, it wasn’t that I genuinely couldn’t detect them.
Under the lock of his spiritual sense, he clearly saw Shen Monkey and Xu Dog’s movements, finally understanding the secret behind how they could come and go like ghosts in a military camp.
Their boots must be a Renowned Treasure. Paired with a corresponding light-footwork art, it allows them to easily step into the visual blind spots of others.
This was no longer something achievable on a purely physical level. It was a mystical trait brought about by a Renowned Treasure-grade weapon. Because they constantly stayed in visual blind spots, these two could casually enter and exit the 【Black Armor Battalion】, even evading spiritual sense detection to appear silently near him.
It seems I need to be more careful from now on.
Wang Ping warned himself inwardly: After this rebirth, I haven’t officially begun cultivating immortality. The spiritual sense inherent to the 【Desire Realm Deva】 is still too weak.
I need to fix this as quickly as possible.
As long as my spiritual sense is strong enough to cover all visual blind spots and cancel out their Renowned Treasure’s mystical trait, they won’t be able to hide their presence from my eyes.
Wang Ping sat on his bed and calmed his mind.
The next second, the world ground to a halt and spun wildly. He entered the 【Morgue】 once more, shifting his gaze to a corner of the high platform.
There lay a mountain of “Life Force and Primal Qi Pills.”
His greatest harvest from the immortal sect world in his last life, paired with the 【Thief of Life】, was enough to make his cultivation advance by leaps and bounds even without a spirit root!
“No time to lose.”
Having made up his mind, Wang Ping reached out toward the mountain of pills. In an instant, the dense cluster of pills transformed into a roaring torrent that flooded into his body.
Rumble!
Instantly, sounds akin to exploding firecrackers roared from within Wang Ping’s body. His originally steady breathing suddenly grew rapid, carrying a heavy scent of blood.
“Fuck its hurt!”
Looking down, Wang Ping saw his entire skin flush with a layer of deep crimson. As time passed, this crimson hue slowly seeped deeper into his flesh.
During this process, the roaring inside Wang Ping’s body grew even more intense. Bones ground against each other, his skin undulated, and his muscles vibrated.
His physique expanded, and the skin that had absorbed his vitality shifted again, taking on a pale yellow tint. This color eventually deepened, reflecting a layer of brilliant golden light.
“…!!!”
This violent, inside-out transformation brought an agonizing itch and pain that felt like it originated from his very marrow, making Wang Ping nearly shatter his teeth from clenching them so hard.
Crack!
Accompanied by a crisp snap, Wang Ping felt a strange sensation in his mouth. Astonished, he opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth.
He had shattered them!
Tinged with panic, Wang Ping hurriedly touched his mouth. However, instead of feeling empty gums, his fingers met a texture that felt like solid steel.
These are… my teeth?
Stunned, Wang Ping simply used his spiritual sense to look. To his shock, he saw a mouth full of dense, finely jagged, bone-white teeth—a full forty of them!
Seeing this, Wang Ping couldn’t help but scratch his head.
Then he entirely forgot about the anomaly with his teeth.
Because as he scratched his head, a large clump of hair came away in his hand, and a bizarrely cool sensation spread across his scalp…
“Holy shit!”
Before Wang Ping could react, the cool sensation rapidly expanded. Large swaths of hair continuously fell out, drifting helplessly onto the ground around him.
I went bald!?
Wang Ping reached up to touch his head again, only to find that new hair had already sprouted from his freshly cleared scalp. In no time at all, it had grown back into a short buzz cut.
“Am I shedding my mortal body and exchanging my bones?”
Wang Ping finally began to understand. He stopped worrying about it, gritted his new teeth, and continued activating the 【Thief of Life】, frantically devouring the stored life force and primal qi.
After an unknown amount of time passed, he finally eased out of this violent transformation. It felt as if heavy shackles that had been weighing him down had finally been removed.
His arms and legs were several times more agile than before. With every clench and release of his fists, a terrifying sense of power flooded his heart.
“Incredible!”
Wang Ping inspected his transformed self. He felt his limbs had been stretched slightly, his height had shot up considerably, and his back and shoulders had grown exceptionally broad and robust.
The clothes that had previously fit him perfectly were now tight against his frame.
Even his little brother had grown quite a bit more robust.
“Fingers are the tips of the sinews, the tongue is the tip of the flesh, teeth are the tips of the bones, and hair is the tip of the blood. Sinews, flesh, bones, and blood… External martial arts perfection is absolute garbage compared to this!”
Wang Ping stretched his limbs with immense satisfaction.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Throwing two casual punches, the explosive force generated visible ripples of air pressure, producing sharp, whistling sounds as they tore through the space.
He then closed his eyes and sensed his body for a moment.
“Just as I expected, the 【Heavenly Roc Force】 is gone again.”
Just like his previous-previous life, the 【Heavenly Roc Capturing the Dragon Cultivation Diagram】 collapsed the moment he officially embarked on immortal cultivation due to its insufficient grade, reintegrating into his spiritual body.
Therefore, from the perspective of Great Shun’s martial arts, he was currently just an external martial artist.
“But compared to an ordinary external martial artist, I should be a tiny bit stronger.” Wang Ping circulated his spiritual sense, earnestly evaluating his current strength.
An Internal Force Master? He was far beyond that!
Wang Ping slowly exhaled and circulated his vitality. His pale yellow skin looked as if it were forged from gold, and the muscles and meridians beneath it brimmed with a lustrous glow.
This was the trait of the 【Flawless True Body】.
“Flawless True Body. Just as the name implies, as long as I have this trait, whatever I cultivate in the future, it will lock in the physical changes brought by that cultivation.”
Simply put, attaining it once meant attaining it forever.
“When mortals practice martial arts, they cannot afford the slightest slack, or they will immediately regress.”
“But with a Flawless True Body, a cultivator attains it once and forever. Whatever technique they learn, they will never regress. This is the true advantage of a cultivator.”
Not to mention the physical changes brought by the 【Flawless True Body】. Wang Ping felt that relying purely on his physical strength, he was currently no weaker than Xu Bingzheng!
“No, I should be stronger!”
At the very least, compared to the Xu Bingzheng of that day, Wang Ping felt stronger. And this was just a pure comparison of physical strength, not accounting for the scripture scrolls and spiritual arts he possessed.
“Phew!” Wang Ping let out a long breath, tempering his swelling excitement.
“I need to stay calm. Although that dog official is a Titled Martial Master, he ranks near the bottom of the Great Shun imperial court’s Weapon Register. He can’t serve as a standard reference point.”
Wang Ping thought of Shen Monkey and Xu Dog, whom he had just met.
Those two should also be Titled Martial Masters, but their strength clearly far surpassed Xu Bingzheng’s. He just didn’t know who would be stronger if they were compared to his current self.
Perhaps because he had just broken through, Wang Ping felt impatient, eager to find someone to test his fists against.
It took quite a while before he completely calmed down.
“It’s not over yet. I can become even stronger!”
The next second, Wang Ping returned to reality and took out the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】 Shen Monkey had given him earlier, reading through it earnestly.
As the name suggested, this martial art comprised thirteen distinct techniques: Iron Head Art, Iron Throat Art, Iron Arm Art, Iron Elbow Art, Iron Fist Art, Iron Sand Palm, Iron Finger Art, Iron Knee Art, Iron Leg Art, Iron Foot Art, Iron Shirt, Iron Belly Art, and Iron Bull Technique. It covered the entire body, leaving absolutely no weak points.
“Every martial art has a corresponding signature technique.”
After reading the contents of the manual, Wang Ping was astonished. “Good heavens, is this martial art meant to forge a person into a divine weapon?”
Extreme and pure.
While it was difficult to practice because it was extreme, it was also immensely powerful because it was pure. More importantly—this martial art was incredibly compatible with him!
I already possess the Flawless True Body. Practicing martial arts with a cultivator’s spiritual body yields twice the result with half the effort. Coupled with the buff from Spiritual Consciousness, my spiritual sense is vastly enhanced, allowing me to precisely control the flow of my vitality and boost the efficiency of my practice. As for the physical wear and tear, I can use 【Qi Ward】 to recover rapidly.
The dimensional strike that immortal cultivation delivered against martial arts was fully displayed in this regard.
If anything could slow down his martial arts progress, it was likely only his comprehension. But for a peerless genius taking out a loan like him, that wasn’t a problem either.
“【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】, grant me a loan!”
…
The next morning.
Wang Ping sat upright on his bed. Having stayed up all night, he was nonetheless brimming with energy. The morning sunlight spilled over him, faintly forming layered halos of light.
Every halo that landed on him made his appearance all the more solemn and dignified.
A bronze head and an iron forehead, arms capable of lifting thousands of pounds, standing firm like a Vajra.
A hundred-step divine fist, splitting monuments and cracking stones, stepping on land and piercing through steel.
Elbows heavy as mountains, knees like copper walls, a belly hard as armor.
Fingers piercing metal and stone, a throat locking steel blades, the golden spear never falling.
Bones of iron and sinews of steel.
A full thirteen signature techniques bolstered his body at this moment, making him look so imposing he hardly seemed mortal. Instead, he resembled a divine statue enshrined in a temple.
And when these thirteen signature techniques merged together, they formed an entirely new signature technique:
【Indestructible Vajra Body】!
“The person who created this martial art is an absolute heaven-sent genius!”
Only after truly mastering it did Wang Ping understand the core philosophy behind the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】, and he was deeply shaken by it.
“The creator likely intended to use this martial art to push the mortal body past its external limits. Upon reaching perfection, it could even rival the spiritual body of a cultivator.”
Wang Ping used his spiritual sense to inspect himself. He had the most profound understanding of the buffs provided by the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】. According to his estimates, even if an ordinary mortal could master this martial art, the resulting effects would likely approach a cultivation trait like the 【Flawless True Body】!
Entering the Dao through martial arts—this was precisely what that meant.
“Incredible, truly incredible.” Amidst his admiration, Wang Ping was in an excellent mood. After all, this was a massive fortune for him as well.
“As expected, one cannot underestimate the people of this world.”
“Although it doesn’t compare to cultivating immortality, Great Shun’s martial arts still have their merits. The elites standing at the absolute pinnacle might not be any weaker than cultivators.”
At this thought, Wang Ping looked again at the manual in his hand.
He hadn’t felt it before mastering it, but now that he had, he clearly sensed that this martial art was incomplete. At most, it was only the upper volume.
“There should be a more profound lower volume.”
Wang Ping’s eyes lit up. “Above external martial arts is internal force. In that case, could the lower volume be a corresponding internal force cultivation diagram?”
“…I’ll ask them another day.”
Recalling Shen Monkey and Xu Dog whom he met yesterday, Wang Ping felt a sense of anticipation. “With their seniority, as long as they master the upper volume, they can definitely obtain the lower volume.”
Although they were mortals unlike him, the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】 wasn’t exactly difficult. Surely they couldn’t fail to learn it, right?
…
Meanwhile, outside the 【Black Armor Battalion】.
Having also stayed awake all night training bitterly, Shen Monkey and Xu Dog opened their eyes. Beneath their gaze lay unconcealable exhaustion and a hint of disappointment from their fruitless labor.
“Still just a little bit off.”
Xu Dog sighed, “Why is this blasted martial art so hard to practice? I bet even the Chief who created this thing couldn’t master it, right?”
“Look on the bright side.”
Shen Monkey was equally helpless. “The signature techniques of the same type conflict with each other. Suppressing these conflicts is the biggest hurdle in practicing this damned martial art.”
“You barely managed to master seven, and I’m slightly better off with nine. Just reaching this point is already considered pretty good. After all, you and I are Titled Martial Masters and can use our divine intent to mediate the conflicts. If it were martial artists who didn’t even have divine intent, the difficulty would skyrocket to another level.”
Xu Dog frowned deeply. “Is there no other way?”
“It’s not completely hopeless.”
Shen Monkey chuckled coldly. “The conflict between signature techniques is ultimately just the body failing to adapt to the drastic changes they cause, unable to withstand the buff.”
“If you just let the conflicts run wild and damage your body…”
“And then take precious medicines afterward, slowly nursing your wounds and allowing your body to adapt to the transformation during the recovery process… that could greatly mitigate the harm caused by the conflicts.”
“But as the saying goes, a severe injury takes a hundred days to heal. Even with precious medicines, this method of self-mutilation to improve is incredibly slow. It could also leave incurable hidden ailments. Thus, it can only be used when all other methods fail and progress stalls completely.”
“Take that guy 【Chen Dragon】, for example. He’s recently been in closed-door cultivation, trying to use this exact method to break through to the thirteenth layer. Though I estimate his chances of success are low.”
Hearing this, Xu Dog was left speechless.
“In other words, if someone wants to practice this martial art to the thirteenth layer’s great perfection, their physique first needs to be incredibly strong. Then, they need body control that rivals, if not far exceeds, divine intent. Next, they must possess methods to rapidly heal their body, and they even need outstanding comprehension?”
Shen Monkey nodded. “Exactly.”
“This…”
Xu Dog’s scalp tingled, and he couldn’t help but say, “Are you kidding me? This martial art isn’t meant for humans to practice, is it? Maybe for an Extraordinary.”
“You’re overthinking it.”
Shen Monkey sighed. “Those Extraordinaries have their own immortal pills and wondrous medicines to enhance their physiques. Why would they waste precious time using our crude methods?”
Xu Dog fell silent.
Shen Monkey continued with a long sigh:
“That’s why, ever since the Chief created this martial art, aside from the Chief himself, not a single person has successfully cultivated it to the thirteenth layer of great perfection.”
“Never before.”
“And probably never in the future.”