Chapter 64: Bone and Flesh Reborn

The secret realm has no sun or moon; no one knows how long this ritual refinement has lasted.

Lu Xingzhou's Dao cultivation is only at the Seventh Grade; although he does not need to generate his own Dan fire, the mental depletion is extremely grueling.

But he dared not ask anyone else for help under any circumstances; apart from wiping away sweat, Shen Tang could not assist. Lu Xingzhou had prepared a ring containing spirit-restoring medicine, which he consumed continuously like eating candy beans.

At last, the furnace lid opened by itself, and a crimson leg bone floated out of the furnace mouth; the fibula, kneecap, ankle, and foot were all complete, as if treating it as a prosthetic limb after an amputation.

Shen Tang sighed, thinking silently that although Lu Xingzhou had previously said he had never considered the issue of "replacing with a prosthetic," he must have dwelled on it countless times in the dead of night; the shape of this leg bone seemed carved into his heart.

"I have no strength left; I need to rest a while before refining the second one." Lu Xingzhou reached out to summon the leg bone, with a hint of anticipation: "Perhaps I should put this one on now; you help me."

Seeing the bright, expectant look in his eyes, Shen Tang could not help but smile: "You... now you finally look like a young man."

Both simultaneously recalled the "you do not look like a young man" from their first meeting, and both smiled at the same time.

"You are clearly only nineteen; with that act you put on, anyone would think you are ninety-nine." Shen Tang laughed and scolded: "Fine then, tell me how your big sister should help you?"

Upon hearing the words "big sister," Lu Xingzhou paused, staring blankly at her smiling face, somewhat lost in thought.

"What's wrong?" Shen Tang waved her slender hand before his eyes: "Why are you suddenly spacing out?"

"Nothing." Lu Xingzhou lowered his gaze slightly: "My big sister... is not easy to be."

Shen Tang paused, then laughed: "You mean you want me to touch your leg?" Her eyes shifted, her gaze falling on Lu Xingzhou's leg: "Right now, aren't you begging me to touch you?"

Lu Xingzhou: "..."

"Enough." With the main task at hand, Shen Tang did not tease him further: "How should we proceed?"

Lu Xingzhou looked down at his left leg; it had been shattered by vines while he was providing cover for Du Qingli. Since he had already planned to replace the bone, whether it was shattered or not was irrelevant. Fortunately, the muscles and tendons were still connected; the tendon-repairing pill refined from that "fruit" earlier had worked quite well, so while the bone was broken, the tendons remained intact.

In this situation, amputation was unnecessary; after all, causing flesh, blood, and meridians to grow spontaneously outside the bone would be an extremely troublesome matter. His own flesh and blood, though atrophied, still existed; keeping them was called "flesh and blood revival," while cutting them off would be "rebirth of flesh and blood," so it was better to keep them.

"I need to pick out all the bone fragments from my lower leg; it is not convenient for me to look down and find them myself, and there might be omissions..."

Shen Tang said no more; she sat on the dragon bone nearby, lifted his left leg onto her knee, thought for a moment, first took out a pearl of night light to hang before her face, then took a sword to slice straight open his leg, and under the light bent her head to pick out the bone fragments.

Theoretically, once the tendons were repaired, sensation should return, but Lu Xingzhou's condition still suffered from dull sensation; even having his bones smashed did not hurt much. The same was true now; there was very little blood, and Shen Tang picked out the bone fragments one by one without him feeling much pain.

He simply stared blankly at Shen Tang's serious profile, his lips pressed tightly together. The light of the pearl of night light cast a soft halo around her; at this moment, she looked particularly beautiful.

The tenderness in her eyes when she wiped away her sweat earlier, he had not dared to be distracted by, deliberately choosing not to think about it. Seeing it now, he felt his heart melting away.

Her leg was healed by him; now, his could be considered healed by her as well... so gentle, so focused.

Big sister?

Once, this term belonged exclusively to Yuan Muyu; now...

Reflecting on their interactions, Lu Xingzhou preferred to call it mutual redemption.

Whether it was both of their legs, or her withdrawal and his darkness born from the past, all of these had gradually dissolved through their mutual contact over these days.

A-nuo said her master had arrived in Xiazhou, and her heart harbored a murderous rage reaching the sky. Although this rage still lingered these past days, it had visibly decreased by a great deal.

At least in front of her, not a trace of it remained.

"Does it look good?" Shen Tang suddenly asked.

"It looks good."

"Is it as good-looking as your little Bai Mao?"

"..." Lu Xingzhou held back for a moment, then said: "I have said it; my feelings for Miss Qingli are not the kind you think..."

"Perhaps not before, but now you two are stacked together."

"That was an accident."

Shen Tang finally looked up at him: "Why are you willing to explain now?"

Lu Xingzhou remained silent.

Shen Tang's hand paused slightly, and she said in a low voice: "After your leg is healed, will you leave?"

Lu Xingzhou said: "If you need me to stay, I will stay. When the day comes that Her Highness the Princess feels Lu Xingzhou is of no further use, then I will leave."

Shen Tang picked out the last bone fragment: "Then it will be quite difficult for you to wait for that day."

Lu Xingzhou did not answer.

After checking repeatedly several times and confirming no bone fragments remained, Lu Xingzhou carefully took the kneecap and thigh bone to splice them together, then took the lower leg bone to connect to the knee, and then spliced the ankle...

Shen Tang found it quite interesting. Although it looked like assembling a doll, very much like playing house, after every bone fragment was spliced, a soft light flashed at the junction, and then the bones truly "grew" together, with meridians connecting and flesh and blood adhering.

It was truly miraculous.

This was not splicing; this was bone refinement.

Others had even extracted their spinal columns to replace them with Immortal Bones, or dug out people's Supreme Bones to replace them... Shen Tang had previously not known how this was done; now, seeing it this way, it was not so rare, because Immortal and Spiritual things inherently possessed such Immortal significance; during the ritual refinement, after being endowed with the attribute of "bone" through various auxiliary materials, they could naturally adhere and grow, taking on the function of bone themselves.

Otherwise, how could they be called "Immortal"?

Lu Xingzhou also found it quite amusing looking at his own leg. Originally, his lower leg was deformed and his muscles atrophied; supported now by the normally shaped bones, that little bit of flesh and blood could not fully cover it, leaving gaps everywhere where the fiery red inside showed through, looking just like a Terminator.

He had prepared ointment and bandages in advance, wrapping them tightly layer by layer: "This is the most appropriate use for the fruit you gave me earlier; using it just to repair tendons is a waste; its main value is flesh and blood revival. Wrapped like this for a while, the flesh and blood will recover completely; the newly grown flesh will be very tender then; I will have jade feet."

Shen Tang could not help but laugh: "Just you? I think it's more like a ham."

Lu Xingzhou was stunned for a moment; it really was a ham...

"Hiss..." He suddenly clutched his foot, his expression turning painful.

Shen Tang was startled: "What's wrong?"

"The sensation of this flesh and blood recovering rapidly is unbearable, numb and itchy... and the surging Fire Yuan energy inside this dead ham is surging wildly; I'm hot..."

After saying this, he suddenly froze.

Shen Tang blinked her eyes looking at him, then suddenly smiled.

"I have sensation... I have sensation! Ha, hahaha..." Lu Xingzhou excitedly grabbed his lower leg, bent his knee and then straightened it, laughing loudly: "I can move!"

This was the first time Shen Tang had seen Lu Xingzhou laugh like a child; her heart felt somewhat soft, and she felt it with him.

Wasn't the day she healed herself the same feeling? And Lu Xingzhou had held it in for a full ten years!

She leisurely took the Spirit Water Condensed Crystal, tapped Lu Xingzhou's shoulder: "Don't get happy too soon; rest enough and continue; you still have one more leg."

Lu Xingzhou took the congealed crystal, grinned, and said: "As you command, my Princess."

The sacrificial refinement of water bone is a bit different from fire bone; melting it soft is simple enough, but the worry is that water and fire repel each other and blow up the furnace.

But after just having cultivated the Extreme Yin-Yang Intent, he already had some insights into this kind of control and harmonization. Lu Xingzhou carefully performed the sacrificial refinement, and in the end found it faster and simpler than refining fire bone.

Watching the water bone float out of the alchemy furnace, Lu Xingzhou stroked his chin, lost in thought.

The process of sacrificial refinement itself is a rehearsal for harmonizing water and fire. From the experience just now, with the Extreme Yin-Yang Intent Art active in the body, this water bone really can coexist with fire bone — with the cultivation method in place, there will be no conflict.

This means the path ahead is fixed; he can never switch to another.

Then the direction of Dao cultivation is also fixed — he must find the Dao cultivation portion of the Extreme Yin-Yang Intent Art. That is the main goal going forward.

Shen Tang was helping shave off his right shin bone; this side wasn't shattered, so removing it was simpler.

Lu Xingzhou carefully brought the water bone up to his leg.

The instant they fused, the power of water and fire surged simultaneously from the calf to the thigh, then to the lower abdomen, converging in the dantian, and began to run wild.

On one side, scorching and violent, burning everything away; on the other, gentle and inclusive, yet hiding deadly intent within.

Lu Xingzhou forcibly endured the numbness and itch in his leg and the bizarre sensation of water and fire battling in his lower abdomen, while running the Extreme Yin-Yang Intent Art at full capacity.

The true qi, which had originally looked like a chain of DNA strands, rapidly swelled, spun madly, and before long transformed into a red-and-blue yin-yang fish, hovering gently within the dantian.

The qi is visible — its form is established.

This is not ninth grade to eighth grade.

This is a direct breakthrough from the lower three grades to the middle three grades.

Under the terrifying energy of two heaven-spirit treasures and the harmonizing operation of the corresponding cultivation method, Lu Xingzhou stared in astonishment… he had reached his own sixth grade…

A true… rebirth of flesh and bone!

One can see that before true spiritual materials of heaven and earth, the lower three grades don't deserve to be split into three tiers — it's just one insignificant little level… though the hurdle of the middle three grades is still worth a glance.

In a corner there was still a wisp of black qi — the foundation of his own unorthodox Dao cultivation method — trembling under the overwhelming yin-yang power, fully suppressed.

Lu Xingzhou blinked, braced himself on the wheelchair, and carefully stood up.

Both feet touched the ground; the power of the earth's veins surged straight into the Yongquan points, while spiritual qi from above pierced straight through to the crown of the head.

If Wu Xiu is cultivating the self, then Dao cultivation is cultivating the connection between heaven and earth, commanding external things.

Previously, Lu Xingzhou's Dao cultivation grade had been stuck at seventh grade, unable to advance — because his leg was severed, preventing the qi from reaching down to the Yongquan points, making it impossible to achieve the meeting of heaven and earth, and impossible to break through the great hurdle of the middle three grades.

But now, once it took shape in a single moment, under the influx of spiritual qi from this secret realm, it broke through with the greatest of ease.

That trembling black qi suddenly puffed itself up, like a little demon standing with hands on hips before the red-and-blue yin-yang fish, trying to provoke a fight.

Then it discovered that the grade had risen, but the quality couldn't keep up.

This unorthodox cultivation method practiced for ten years simply couldn't stand up to the Extreme Yin-Yang Intent, which had only been practiced for a day. The black qi was beaten by the red-and-blue yin-yang fish, kicked into a corner, and went silent.

Lu Xingzhou opened his eyes and withdrew from inner vision.

He couldn't see it himself, but his eyes flashed red on the left and blue on the right, generating lightning in an empty room within this dark secret realm.

Lu Xingzhou, cultivating both Dao and Wu, broke through to sixth grade in both simultaneously.

The next moment, his legs went weak; the freshly fused leg bones couldn't endure such prolonged standing, and he stumbled, nearly taking a tumble.

Soft jade pressed close, a warm fragrance assailing him. Shen Tang gently reached out and supported him in her embrace.

(End of chapter)