Chapter 105: The Path of Physical Cultivation

Thud, thud, thud...

Two disciples of the Sword Sect staggered back, their palms split and bleeding at the tiger's mouth. The swords in their hands were knocked flying, and they stared at Xu Xuan with terror and disbelief.

At the entrance of the Windfeather Immortal Sect, disciples of both sects nearby stood dumbfounded, their faces frozen in astonishment and shock.

He had broken a magic weapon with his bare hand?

For a moment, everyone present was struck speechless, their faces drained of color.

When had Xu Xuan's strength reached such a terrifying level? Not only could he withstand the force of magic weapons, but he had also knocked them straight out of his opponents' hands.

Just a moment earlier, Zhong Hong had been sent flying by a single slap from Xu Xuan, vomiting blood from the impact.

His face was ashen and livid, his mind engulfed in waves of disbelief. How could this be? He was only a mundane practitioner, perhaps just stepping into the path of martial cultivation—how could he possess such fearsome power?

If it were a martial cultivator at the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining, this might be expected. But Xu Xuan did not appear to have progressed beyond the fourth level.

The other two Sword Sect disciples, hearts pounding with dread, retrieved their swords, unable to stop their gazes from drifting to Xu Xuan’s hand, as if hoping to discover some secret.

But Xu Xuan’s hand was empty, fair and slender, faintly glowing with a sheen of light, utterly unharmed.

It was unimaginable that such a hand could unleash such terrifying, bone-chilling power.

“Could this be the strength of a ninth-level Body Cultivator?”

Zhong Hong wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his expression alternating between gloom and pallor, his heart filled with fierce unwillingness and hatred.

From beginning to end, Xu Xuan had not even used his elemental force. First, he sent Zhong Hong flying with a slap, then, in a flash, knocked aside two magic weapons!

Sheer, unadulterated strength.

The nearly extinct inheritance of ancient body cultivation was now making an appearance in the Tiny Fish Realm, revealing just a trace of its power. What kind of tempest would it stir in the future?

Even Xu Xuan was astonished at his own strength; he could feel boundless power coursing through every inch of his flesh and bone.

The arena fell into absolute silence, broken only by the sound of each other’s breath.

Xu Xuan stood atop the steps, gazing coldly down at the three Sword Sect disciples, until Yu Qin behind him regained her composure. Her clear eyes shone with delighted joy. Perhaps she did not understand why her senior brother had suddenly become so formidable, but that did not stop her from feeling happy for him.

“Xu, you brat! This time I was careless and did not bring my weapon. Next time, you will pay for this!” Zhong Hong gritted his teeth, his face twisted with rage.

At this moment, injured and lacking the courage to fight, he looked for excuses. In his mind, his defeat was due to underestimating his opponent and engaging in close combat, which was not his strength. Moreover, as a sword cultivator, he had not brought his greatsword with him—naturally, he would not carry such a cumbersome thing when pursuing a girl.

“Junior sister, let’s head up the mountain.”

Xu Xuan ignored him completely—defeat was defeat; what use were excuses?

“Thank you, senior brother.” Yu Qin’s smile was like the morning sun after rain. Since leaving the secret realm, she had rarely been so happy.

As the two departed, Zhong Hong’s face darkened, his fists clenched and trembling as he spat, “I will never let anyone take Junior Sister Yu from me. Whoever stands in my way will not come to a good end.”

“Senior Brother Zhong was just careless this time, and didn’t bring his weapon. Next time, he’ll win back his honor and avenge us,” the other two Sword Sect disciples said, their tone fierce but their hearts full of fear and resentment.

...

Xu Xuan entered the inner sect of his clan, parted from Yu Qin, and returned to his small abode on the northern cliff.

Near the Abyss of Infinity, guards remained strict, with many law-enforcing immortals patrolling back and forth.

At noon, an elder from the Sword Sect flew up from the abyss’s depths and returned to the sect’s mountain gate.

Xu Xuan was puzzled. “The last opening of the secret realm should have ended. Why is the atmosphere here still so tense?”

After much thought, he could only conclude that it was due to the restoration of the secret realm’s stability.

At present, both sects on Starfeather Mountain were insignificant in the grand scheme of the cultivation world. If the secret realm here could remain stable year-round, both sects would surely rise to a new height within a decade, perhaps even a few years. If they could continue to rely on this secret space, it might not be impossible to restore the former glory of Starfeather Sect.

“In the end, secret realms are an extremely precious resource in the cultivation world. I just hope the two sects of Starfeather Mountain do not play with fire and bring disaster on themselves.”

Xu Xuan murmured to himself, a vague unease stirring in his heart, his thoughts inexplicably turning to the traitorous Senior Brother Jiang.

Night fell.

Xu Xuan drifted into sleep, naturally entering the Sea of Memory Stars.

His past-life remnant soul stood in the brightest region, waiting patiently. His expression calm, he spoke: “Now that you have set foot on the path of ancient body cultivation, have you decided to open this gate of cultivation methods?”

“Yes,” Xu Xuan answered without hesitation.

Without another word, the remnant soul reached out and drew the floating “Purple Soul Jade” into his palm.

“It’s time to begin...”

The purple soul jade in his hand erupted with dazzling, misty radiance, transforming into a vast sphere of light that shot into the depths of the starry sea.

Boom!

In the distant depths of the memory star sea, a colossal star several hundred miles across was bathed in the purple light, illuminating a tenth of its surface.

In the next instant, the purple soul jade in the remnant soul’s hand vanished into nothingness.

Swish, swish!

With a mere thought, Xu Xuan and the remnant soul appeared beside the star.

“This star is enormous—hundreds of miles in diameter! And yet, even with all the purple soul jade, only a tenth of it is unlocked.”

Xu Xuan gasped in awe, unable to imagine the scale.

Such was the magnitude of memory contained within this star.

“Hmph, you call this big? This is only a satellite-class starlet,” the remnant soul said with a hint of disdain.

Satellite-class?

Xu Xuan gazed down at the massive sphere beneath his feet, which dwarfed all the stars he had previously unlocked by tens of thousands of times.

“This entire Sea of Memory Stars is arranged according to the laws of the great cosmic starry sky. The true starry cosmos is vastly larger than your ‘Tiny Fish Realm.’ Here, the smallest ‘star sand’ represents the tiniest fragments of memory. Slightly larger fragments are the ‘star stones’ you’ve unlocked; they rarely exceed a hundred miles in diameter. Above the star stones are satellite-class stars, and beyond those, there are stellar-class, galactic-class, and even river-of-stars class...”

As the remnant soul finished with some pride, Xu Xuan was utterly shaken.

The scope of the memory star sea was far greater than he had ever imagined, making him even more awed by the unfathomable power of his past self.

To arrange all of one’s life memories according to the cosmic rules of the starry sky—such a feat was unheard of.

“All right, a tenth of this satellite-class memory star has been unlocked. That’s plenty for you to digest and comprehend.”

The remnant soul smiled faintly and vanished.

Xu Xuan nodded gravely, then merged his form into that bright tenth of the vast satellite, where torrents of memory flooded over him, making his soul tremble. He hastened to compose himself and began to sift and absorb.

After a long while, Xu Xuan emerged from the star, his face showing exhaustion.

“I never imagined the path of body cultivation would be so boundless, with countless divine arts, secret techniques, and methods...”

He exhaled deeply, his heart still pounding.

In the unimaginably distant primordial era, ancient humans struggled for survival and the propagation of their race. They fought against natural disasters and savage beasts, constantly strengthening themselves, striving to refine their bodies to the ultimate peak, to carve out a foothold in the world—a place where their tribes might flourish.

Thus, after heaven and earth themselves, there appeared the true “man.”

Heaven, earth, man.

These three stood as equals. But “man” here was not an ordinary living being, nor even the humans of later times, let alone future cultivators. They were the ancient body cultivators of the primordial age—beings whose flesh was so powerful as to stand alongside heaven and earth.

Those ancient body cultivators were without exception gods and demons who could shatter mountains and rivers or pluck stars and moons from the sky. Even compared to later immortals and demons, they were immeasurably stronger.

Within the memories Xu Xuan absorbed, one fragment shocked him most: a titan, towering above all, born of chaos, split heaven and earth with a single axe. His peerless flesh gave rise to all things—the clouds from his breath, the sun and moon from his eyes, mountains and rivers from his body and blood, spawning the entire world...

That legendary figure proved the Dao with his strength, creating all things, and only then did the myriad paths of the future unfold.

“Such strength!” Xu Xuan’s blood burned with awe, yet he could not help but sigh. “But after that... there were almost no true body cultivators left in the world.”

Of course, this memory was but a legend, representing the peak glory of an ancestral body cultivator.

Within that vast stream of information, Xu Xuan found the cultivation methods of the ancient body cultivators.

True body cultivation could not be measured by conventional realms, only by stages of bodily refinement or tempering.

From the memories, Xu Xuan learned the stages, from lowest to highest: Body Forging, Meridian Flow, Shattering, and Annihilation.

The simplest stage, “Body Forging,” as the name implies, was to forge a new and powerful body, transcending ordinary beings.

Once Body Forging was complete, one’s flesh would become unbreakable—an indestructible golden body.

Such an existence was nearly unrivaled in the cultivation world.

And Body Forging was only the beginning; this stage would last for a long time.

For example, the “Shattering” stage involved even more terrifying methods, refining every cell and particle of the flesh to the utmost, even imprinting one’s will and memory into each particle, so that as long as a single one remained, the body could be reconstituted—true immortality...

Such methods could hardly be measured by conventional realms.

In absorbing these memories, Xu Xuan reached several conclusions.

For example, his own current strength could hardly be judged by the standards of the cultivation world.

If one insisted on a comparison, the elemental energy within Xu Xuan was roughly equivalent to the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.

“Body Forging—I must first forge a mighty body!”

Xu Xuan quickly resolved his path and stage of cultivation.

Body Forging—by every means, to create a stronger body.

The first tier was the “Bronze Body.” At this level, the body was as tough as bronze, almost impervious to magical weapons, and immune to some spells and divine techniques.

The quickest and most effective way to cultivate the “Bronze Body” was to use vast quantities of spiritual treasures to temper and strengthen the body—something that required immense resources.

“Wait, isn’t there a storage pouch in the star sea that I haven’t opened yet?”

Suddenly recalling this, Xu Xuan’s gaze fixed on a certain storage pouch within the sea of stars.

This was the pouch left by a Core Formation expert that had once stirred the higher-ups of Windfeather Sect into a frenzy, unable to resist its allure.

Xu Xuan’s heart beat with both nervousness and excitement. What treasures might lie within?

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