Chapter 35

Inside the courtyard, chilly drifting snow fell silently.

It quietly covered the earth with a spotless white robe.

Li Che's lips curled slightly with a smile, his mind sinking inward.

He then saw that atop the Dao tree, which rose from the vast wilderness, another Dao fruit had formed, like a seven-colored glazed gem.

The third Dao fruit!

Following 【Immortal Craft】 and 【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】, this is the third!

【Immortal Craft】 enhanced Li Che's skill, while 【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】 strengthened his external tempering, giving him an unparalleled physique and skyrocketing his martial talent!

Yet despite this, Li Che still could not deduce what the third Dao fruit would be.

He felt the anticipation and excitement of opening a blind box.

【Immaculate Heart (Dao Fruit): The spirit is clear and pure, like bodhi, unstained by dust, nurturing the nature.】

As his heart and mind fluctuated, the prompt and description about 【Immaculate Heart】 appeared before his eyes.

"The spirit is clear and pure… like bodhi."

"Unstained by dust, nurturing the immaculate nature…"

Li Che murmured the description, his breathing gradually growing a bit hurried.

"Nurturing nature… nurturing divinity?"

In this realm, cultivation is divided into three types: body tempering, inner strength, and divinity!

Divinity is the most difficult, yet also the most miraculous, with tremendous power.

To cultivate divinity, besides needing a divinity cultivation method, one must also bring body tempering and inner strength to a strong level; in short, body tempering and inner strength… are preparations for cultivating divinity.

Li Che had once curiously asked Xu You about the content of divinity cultivation, and Xu You had not concealed it.

"Body tempering must reach the blood-exchange stage; only in the blood-exchange realm can one move blood to stimulate the five viscera and six bowels to draw out stored divinity, while inner strength must reach the third heaven to cultivate divinity."

"What is divinity? All things in heaven and earth possess spirit, but humans alone have divine essence, which is divinity; drawing in divinity, tempering divinity, transcending the material world, is the root of humanity's preeminence!"

Xu You introduced this to Li Che.

"Human divinity can be divided into the seven emotions and six desires—joy, anger, worry, thought, sorrow, fear, shock—each of the seven emotions can form a major category of divinity, the six desires can also be distinguished, but the seven-emotion divinity is more common."

"Each major category of divinity can be further subdivided into contexts, each context capable of forging a divine foundation; for example, the Si family's 【Angry Cry Suppress Ghosts】 divine foundation belongs to the 【Sorrowful Divinity】 lineage, and likewise, the divine constable Zhang Xiangyang of the Nei Cheng prefecture's 【Intimidating Fear Chase Light】 divine foundation belongs to the 【Fearful Divinity】 lineage."

A gentle breeze stirred, the winter chill sharp.

Li Che felt the newly obtained Dao fruit 【Immaculate Heart】; with stimulation, his six senses seemed to sharpen, able to capture the wandering divinity between heaven and earth.

In his vision, many divinity glowed faintly, like fireflies in the night sky, drifting endlessly, slowly gathering bit by bit around his body and seeping into his interior.

Finally, it accumulated within the Immaculate Heart.

"Can the Dao fruit 【Immaculate Heart】 allow me to cultivate divinity?"

Li Che's heart leapt with delight.

Xu You had said that divinity cultivators' combat strength far surpasses that of body-tempering and inner-strength martial artists; if one forges a divine foundation, it becomes terrifying to the extreme, unless one is a meridian-penetrating master, otherwise facing a divine-foundation cultivator will surely result in being easily crushed.

Divinity techniques are exceedingly precious, forming the foundation of a clan; even the Xu clan rarely impart them to outsiders, and even if one becomes a woodcarving master, what one can obtain is at best the most inferior divinity technique.

"Xu You once explained to me the realms of divinity cultivation: the first realm is nurturing nature; achieving even a hint of nurturing nature is not weaker than the blood-exchange stage, and perfecting nurturing nature can even contend with a meridian-penetrating martial artist; the second realm is the divine foundation, forging the root of divinity, shedding mundane nature, and even a meridian-penetrating martial artist can be suppressed!"

Li Che drew a deep breath, his mind recalling the divinity information Xu You had mentioned.

……

【Name: Li Che】

【Bond: Li Nuanxi (daughter)】

【Dao Fruit: Immortal Craft (lv3, 5%), Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra (lv1, 70%), Immaculate Heart (lv1, 0%)】

【Divine Ability Prototype: Immortal Craft·Thousand Analysis Hand】

……

Before his eyes, the panel popped up.

Over the past year, the Dao fruit 【Immortal Craft】's progress, after reaching lv3, has become increasingly slow, of course also because Li Che has devoted more time to martial cultivation.

However, mainly it is because the mechanism Li Che intends to manufacture is extremely difficult.

The Tangji Jianji Yaowu records twelve mechanisms; among them, three are relatively basic, and Li Che has already completed their construction.

The remaining nine are all linked to qi and blood and inner strength, and even… involve divinity.

Thus, the difficulty skyrocketed; Li Che spent a year, fortunately aided by the lv3-level 【Immortal Craft】 Dao fruit, plus material gathering, and finally produced the mechanism ranked seventh in the Tangji Jianji Yaowu.

【Wooden Ferry Crow】, ranked seventh in the Tangji Jianji Yaowu, is a mechanism beast, and was crafted by Li Che with great effort.

As for bodily cultivation, the martial talent boosted by the 【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】 Dao fruit enabled Li Che's cultivation to progress from perfected tendon forging to successfully entering the bone-tempering stage.

The bone-tempering stage is arduous grinding work; besides daily training and forging, it also requires substantial nourishment.

Li Che's bone-tempering method was obtained from the market, titled "Eighteen Tiger Bone Forging and Tempering Method," costing eight hundred taels, likewise from the merchant who sold him the "Xu Nine Sinews Method."

Unfortunately, that merchant lacked the ability to procure a superior inner-strength method.

Rising amidst wind and snow, his bones cracked throughout his body like exploding firecrackers; a single punch thrust forward like a long spear, seeming to split the very air!

The martial art White Tiger Chaotic Wind Fist had already been mastered by Li Che to a master level, only half a step away from reaching the transformation realm.

Any martial art, according to mastery level, can be divided into entry, minor accomplishment, major accomplishment, master, and transformation!

Once one attains the transformation realm, they can even stir the divinity between heaven and earth, greatly enhancing the power of their martial techniques!

"Bone-tempering major accomplishment, master-level fist technique, and master-level bone-shattering spear…"

"Nowadays, even without activating the 【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】's Vajra transformation, my cultivation in the Fei Lei Wai Cheng is already top-tier…"

Li Che's lips curled with a smile.

But this is only in the Fei Lei Wai Cheng; in the outer city, bone-tempering martial artists can already show off their might, yet upon entering the inner city… not to mention the scions of great clans, nurtured from childhood with nourishment, there are also superior cultivation methods.

Whether body tempering or inner strength, they far surpass the outer city martial artists, after all… only the blood-exchange realm can nurture divinity, becoming a nurturing-nature divinity cultivator.

"If I were to trigger the Diamond Transformation…… I wonder if I could pound to death a Blood Exchange Martial Artist?"

Li Che pondered, as he had never crossed blades before, not quite sure how strong a Blood Exchange Martial Artist was.

The surge of physical strength brought by the Diamond Transformation should be able to reach the level of one force breaking myriad laws, right?

"Too bad, the Dragon Elephant Diamond's progress is too slow; to reach level 2, perhaps I need my physical martial cultivation to break through to Blood Exchange before I can achieve it."

After practicing the Xu Ji Eight-Link Bone-Shattering Spear for a while in the courtyard, Li Che then sat cross-legged, calmed his mind, and intended to start trying the effects of the Dao Fruit 【Immaculate Heart】.

He sat cross-legged on the ground, allowing the drifting snow to settle on him without moving.

His mind and spirit immersed, flowing into that beating Dao Fruit 【Immaculate Heart】.

It was as if an extra heart had grown inside his body; with each faint beat, it drew forth the divinity between heaven and earth.

One moment, two moments, three moments……

Li Che's thoughts were clear and pure, like an old monk sitting in meditation.

Snow piled up thickly outside his body.

After an hour.

Only then did Li Che open his eyes; a faint white light flickered from the depths of his gaze.

【Dao Fruit: Immaculate Heart (lv1, 1%)】

Although he had no divine techniques and had never cultivated divine arts, the Immaculate Heart could still help him absorb the divinity of heaven and earth, akin to the effect of a divine cultivation method.

"The divinity I cultivated is clear and pure, spotless and stainless, not belonging to any divine lineage……"

Li Che's brow involuntarily furrowed……

"Then…… how should this be calculated?"

"In the future…… what kind of divine foundation should I forge?"

Suddenly, Li Che seemed to think of something, his eyes flickering slightly……

His heart jumped, ambition surged wildly!

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