Chapter 26: Peak Body Refining

A letter from the Sword Hut? Li Hao felt a slight surprise in his heart, and the image of that little girl who loved to cry couldn't help but surface in his mind.

It had been several months since she went to the Sword Hut; he wondered how she was doing and if she had gotten used to sleeping there.

Unsealing the letter, Li Hao read it carefully.

The elegant yet clumsy handwriting, which seemed to have been written by the little girl herself, expressed that she was safe and that she missed him.

Perhaps because it was rare to have the opportunity to write and send a letter, the paper was filled to the brim, recounting her daily life at the Sword Hut over the past few months—apprenticing, getting to know fellow disciples, cultivating, studying sword manuals, and so on; she had written down everything, word for word, regardless of how trivial.

Although she only described her daily routine, what she truly exhausted was her longing.

At the end of the letter, the little girl seemed to have finally realized that there wasn't much paper left for herself, saying that she would cultivate well and strive to come down the mountain as soon as possible, and that Li Hao must wait for her return.

Li Hao finished reading in silence, then gently folded the paper back up, tucked it into the envelope, and slid it into the brocade robe over his chest.

Nearby, Li Muxiu asked Li Fu what the situation with the Sword Hut was. Clearly, this old man, who either fished in the wild or stayed in the Listening Rain Tower, was not aware of the affairs among the third-generation juniors like Li Hao. If the news of Li Hao's "martial arts waste body" hadn't been so sensational, causing heated discussions all over the estate, he wouldn't have heard of it either.

Upon learning the ins and outs of the matter, Li Hao saw that the old man's first reaction was clearly one of relief.

The expression on his face seemed to say, "Oh, so Hao'er doesn't have sword talent after all; I almost thought that Master Master Jian Sheng was going to take him away to cultivate."

Although he didn't care about Li Hao's cultivation, he wouldn't have stopped him if Li Hao truly had exceptional talent.

Subsequently, Li Muxiu let out a cold snort, his expression displeased:

"That old fellow Jian Wudao, relying on his seniority, bullies Jian Lan because she doesn't dare to talk back to him, hmph! A Ninth-Grade Battle Body and a sword genius to boot—which prestigious sect wouldn't be fighting to have him if he were left outside? He got a bargain and is still acting coy, offering only a broken body-refining secret manual as compensation? One of these days, I must go to the Sword Hut to reason with him!"

Li Fu broke into a cold sweat listening to this, smiling bitterly in his heart, not daring to take up the conversation.

Others would be so excited they couldn't sleep at night if they could apprentice under the Master Master Jian Sheng; who would dare to haggle? "Second Uncle, how was the catch today? A big harvest, I bet!"

Li Fu changed the subject, knowing the old man loved to be praised for his fishing skills. This old warrior, who had always been upright and stern with an iron face in the army, now actually revealed a fawning and flattering smile, though it looked extremely awkward and embarrassing.

Not knowing how to flatter but trying to do so anyway was the most fatal.

Li Muxiu glanced at him indifferently and said to Li Hao, "Hao'er, see that? This is the importance of our fishing tradition. You must let people see your catch as much as possible; otherwise, those who don't know might think you came back empty-handed."

If you just go straight home, who would know you went fishing? And even if they knew, who would care... Li Hao muttered to himself.

"Let's go."

Li Muxiu ignored Li Fu and led Li Hao into the Listening Rain Tower.

Li Fu wanted to say something but stopped, standing on the spot and hesitating. Before entering the tower, Li Muxiu suddenly stopped, but without looking back, he said, "Little Fu, you don't need to worry about Hao'er's cultivation anymore. He does indeed have talent for body refining. I will teach him a thing or two while I'm fishing."

Having said that, he walked straight into the light and shadow inside the door.

Li Fu was stunned, and the complex and contradictory thoughts in his heart were suddenly cleared away, as if a great weight had been lifted.

He hurriedly bowed deeply and offered a word of thanks, feeling happy and excited for Li Hao in his heart.

If he could be personally guided and taught by Second Uncle, it would absolutely surpass any other instruction; after all, this Second Uncle was a presence that didn't pale in the slightest compared to that Master Master Jian Sheng...

Although Li Muxiu appeared to be an old man who didn't act his age, he was a man of his word, which was influenced in no small part by the family teachings of a military lineage.

Entering the tower, Li Muxiu found some firewood, set up a stove on the terrace, and while dissecting the fish demon he had caught that day, he said casually to Li Hao, "If you have anything you don't understand while cultivating, just ask; I'll help you answer them."

Li Hao shook his head slightly: "Not for the moment."

"None?"

Li Muxiu said irritably: "Are you saying you haven't encountered a bottleneck yet? Hmph, this body-refining technique is extremely powerful; it's good enough that you can even understand it. Forget it, demonstrate it for me once and let me take a look."

Li Hao thought to himself that it wasn't necessary, but seeing that the old man truly wanted to guide him, he didn't want to let down his good intentions, so he obediently took a stance and demonstrated it once.

Li Muxiu had intended to offer some pointers, but ended up finding that there were truly no flaws, and couldn't help but size up this little fellow once more.

To be able to cultivate to this level through self-study, he possessed truly astonishing comprehension! "Not bad, your current cultivation should already be at the Tenth Level of the Tongli Realm, right?" Li Muxiu said. Although he hadn't carefully sensed Li Hao, to be able to cultivate to the Second Layer, the Flood Dragon Body, his cultivation must have reached the perfection of the First Realm.

Moreover, compared to ordinary Tongli Realm perfection, the physical strength brought by body refining was greater, slightly stronger than peers in the same realm. Of course, this was in the early stages of cultivation, where body refining had an advantage.

As for the later stages...

There were no later stages for body refining.

Just as everyone said, it was a bitter path. One had to know that normal cultivation was already extremely arduous, and for it to be called a "bitter path" by them, one could see just how bitter body refining was.

Therefore, few people could persist to the end. Even those with great perseverance often ended up dying in despair because their cultivation progress was too slow, leading to the exhaustion of their lifespan and an inability to achieve a breakthrough.

"Yes."

Li Hao nodded in acknowledgment.

"Not even eight years old, and already at the perfection of the Tongli Realm. Such cultivation progress can be considered catching up to the heels of those top geniuses."

Li Muxiu said: "Next is the Zhou Tian Realm. When power is full, it becomes Qi; when Qi circulates through the Zhou Tian, you have two ways to impact the Zhou Tian Realm. The first is to enter the Hundred Flood Dragon Body and forcibly break through with your physical body. The Hundred Flood Dragon Body also involves techniques for circulating Qi; cultivating it to perfection can allow you to reach the supreme level of one hundred Zhou Tian circulations per pulse."

"It is precisely because of this point that this body-refining cultivation method could be placed on the sixth floor."

Seeing Li Hao sitting cross-legged and listening earnestly, Li Muxiu explained even more carefully: "The Zhou Tian Realm has ten levels, but the gap between them is immense. In the Tongli Realm, one increases strength through powerful techniques and awakens divine blood to widen the gap, whereas in the Zhou Tian Realm, it is through top-tier Qi circulation techniques that the gap between geniuses and the mundane is widened."

"Ordinary martial artists without a background mostly cultivate Lower Grade techniques, achieving about ten Zhou Tian circulations per pulse."

"Middle-Upper Grade techniques can reach thirty-six Zhou Tian circulations per pulse!"

"And superior techniques reach seventy-two Zhou Tian circulations per pulse."

He looked at Li Hao and said: "As for supreme techniques, they reach one hundred Zhou Tian circulations per pulse! This is the essence carried within the Thousand Flood Dragon Saint Body. Setting aside body refining, it can also be considered a top-tier Qi circulation technique."

"So that's how it is." Li Hao nodded slightly.

He had flipped through some books on the Zhou Tian Realm and had a slight understanding. If one Zhou Tian circulation per pulse meant one's own base strength, then ten Zhou Tian circulations meant ten times the strength! One hundred Zhou Tian circulations meant one hundred times the strength; this was the gap.

Especially as one advanced in the Zhou Tian Realm, the pulse opening at each level meant that the accumulated gap by the Tenth Level of the Zhou Tian Realm made the difference between ordinary Qi circulation techniques and top-tier techniques like heaven and earth.

Great powers, prestigious sects, and geniuses—when these factors were added together, top-tier Zhou Tian Realm martial artists, even if they didn't reach one hundred Zhou Tian circulations, would at least reach seventy-two, easily sweeping aside ordinary Zhou Tian Realm martial artists who were wandering knights without a background.

"A supreme Qi circulation technique, in any prestigious sect, belongs to the level of a sect-protecting treasure, mostly taught only to personal disciples or closed-door disciples."

"And in the Listening Rain Tower, there are three such supreme techniques; the Hundred Flood Dragon chapter of the Thousand Flood Dragon Saint Body is one of them."

Li Muxiu said: "But even so, in my Divine General Mansion, it is passed down only to the legitimate line and not the concubine-born, to avoid subverting the natural order and causing chaos in people's hearts."

"The gap in martial artist cultivation is ultimately for the sake of combat between people. Some people do not cultivate in pursuit of being the strongest, but to surpass others. Therefore, when they cannot surpass them, weakening others is also a means of surpassing, and it is even easier than improving through hard work oneself."

"This is the reason why top forces and prestigious sects seal away peerless cultivation methods and do not pass them on. Once leaked, those who obtain them might instead meet with a fatal disaster."

Li Hao asked: "Isn't cultivation for the sake of slaying demons?"

Li Muxiu paused, looked at him, and said mockingly: "Slaying demons is the business of a minority of martial artists, such as our Li family and other Divine General Mansions. But most people live within the borders of peace and prosperity, where demons are forbidden. Where would they have many opportunities to slay demons? And even if they did, how many would dare?"

"Have you ever seen an ordinary hunter, without any benefit, go out of their way to hunt a tiger or a giant bear?"

"My Great Yu is a prosperous age. In a prosperous age, the world seeks fame. Slaying demons is for the sake of fame, sparring and fighting is for the sake of fame, and founding a sect is also for the sake of fame!"

"For the sake of fame, wealth, and status, how many people follow one after another, their deaths not worth pitying!"

"Who doesn't want to be remembered by the world for ten thousand years after death, to enter the Martial Temple, to have a golden body cast, and to smell the incense of a thousand years?"

His voice was somewhat agitated, but it was not the agitation of longing, but rather seemed to contain some kind of suppressed anger.

"I don't want to."

Li Hao shook his head slightly and said: "If I could choose, I would want to live forever."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 27 =====