Chapter 474 - 264: Returning to the Essence
Seeing his left hand drenched in blood, Lü Zhong cast several Rejuvenation Skills on it. The wound, which had already stopped bleeding on its own, immediately began to scab over. He estimated it would fully heal within a hundred breaths.
This recovery rate was perfectly normal.
A powerful physique didn’t just bring an increase in strength; his body’s self-healing ability was also enhanced, making him seem increasingly inhuman.
With enough time, he might truly be able to achieve a physique comparable to that of a Flood Dragon.
’I only used a tenth of my strength last time. Let’s see what happens with fifty percent,’ Lü Zhong thought as he continued his experiment.
He looked around and finally settled on a rock wall.
He wasn’t a Mystic Cultivator, whose entire strength resided in their physical form, but he still needed to understand his body’s limits to properly devise combat strategies.
This would prevent him from misjudging his own strength and ultimately meeting his doom.
After retracting his Star Yang Gang once more, Lü Zhong took a deep breath. He channeled his Magical Power into his fist and, just as he would during his daily practice, threw a light punch at the rock wall.
BOOM!
It was like a clap of thunder erupting out of nowhere.
Spiderweb-like cracks spread out from the point of impact, and the rock wall began to groan and crack.
CRUMBLE!
The rock face, dozens of yards high, completely shattered.
With a single punch, he had reduced a perfectly good, small, rocky mountain into a pile of rubble.
’Careless! I nearly fractured it!’ Lü Zhong pulled back his left hand and hastily cast two Rejuvenation Skills on it. He also took a Healing Elixir, as the force of the recoil had injured his internal organs.
He had also sustained numerous minor injuries, such as ruptured blood vessels and hairline fractures, all from that one punch.
Ordinarily, a Core Formation Cultivator shouldn’t have been injured by such a punch.
But Lü Zhong had done this to test his limits, retracting the protective Gang Qi that served as a buffer. For a cultivator who didn’t specialize in Body Refining, this was their last line of defense.
Still, he had achieved his objective.
With that single punch, he had successfully gauged the limits of his physical body.
’But compared to my fist...’ At this thought, Lü Zhong summoned Cyan Glaze and slashed at another stone mountain. This one was more than ten times larger than the last, standing well over a hundred yards tall.
The Sword Light flashed past, and the massive mountain was sliced in two.
The cut surface was so smooth and flat it was like a mirror.
He followed up with a wild flurry of slashes.
Soon, another pile of rubble stood in its place.
’For a Magic Cultivator like myself, Magical Treasures and Thunder Skills should remain my primary offensive tools. The results of my Body Refining can only serve as a supplement in combat, at best.’
Lü Zhong raised his hand and recalled Rouge, looking at the two piles of rubble, one large and one small, as he thought to himself.
...
In the time that followed, Lü Zhong focused his energy on the Barbarian Ancestor Heaven-Swallowing Mantra.
He spent his days in arduous cultivation.
He was either practicing his punches or his swordplay.
Whenever he gathered the necessary Spirit Medicines for a Pill Formula, he would refine them into Pills to maintain his daily training and prevent his cultivation progress from slowing.
His days were tedious, but it was the peaceful life he most desired.
’What was wrong with cultivating in peace and quiet?’
’All that fighting and killing all day long... sooner or later, you’re bound to die at someone else’s hand.’
Meanwhile, on the mainland, things were growing restless.
Lü Zhong had thought that with the various powers having gotten their spoils, the Southern Barbarian Immortal Cultivation World would see a century or two of peace. He never expected that less than ten years after the Lingyue Sect’s collapse, the Northern Beast Group and the Southern Wildborn Tribes would make their move simultaneously.
It was as if they had planned it.
Because of this, Shuini had to rush to the southern front lines.
Naturally, their plan to spend the Lantern Festival together had to be cancelled.
"Husband, this is from Master," Yu Feng’er said, entering the Waterside Pavilion and handing him a secret letter.
Lü Zhong took the letter and read it. In it, Shuini mentioned that the Wildborn Tribes’ offensive was ferocious and that the True Spirit Sect cultivators had suffered heavy casualties. They needed more cultivators to fill the gaps in the line and prevent any weak points from appearing, which could lead to severe consequences like a breakthrough or the collapse of their defenses.
The True Spirit Sect would bear all related costs, including compensation for the fallen, monthly stipends, and rewards.
In short, the Bihai Sect only needed to provide the people.
Lü Zhong was inclined to agree to Shuini’s request.
Whether for the sake of their master-disciple bond or to give his own disciples more practical combat experience, sending reinforcements was absolutely necessary.
However, as the patriarch of the Bihai Sect, he also had to consider the opinions within the sect.
While it was true that his word was law in the Bihai Sect, the disciples still had their own feelings. They would obey his command to go fight the Wildborn Tribes on the front lines, but they would harbor some resentment. If he didn’t take this into consideration, it would inevitably cause the sect members to become alienated from him.
’Then I can only call for volunteers and try to gather five thousand people that way,’ Lü Zhong thought to himself.
Afterward, he discussed the matter with Yu Feng’er and finalized the details.
He wrote out a command slip for Lu Baokui, putting him in charge of its implementation.
...
The days passed, one after another.
In the blink of an eye, another half a year had passed.
His progress with the Barbarian Ancestor Heaven-Swallowing Mantra was the same as ever, maintaining its previous pace. He managed to break through one Acupoint every three to five months.
Perhaps it was because he had performed Vein Tempering so many times.
Or maybe a quantitative change had finally triggered a qualitative one.
Just as Lü Zhong was soaking in the Vein Tempering Formula with Yu Feng’er as he always did, the meridians throughout his body suddenly lit up, emitting a hazy red glow that quickly dimmed again. A massive amount of nature’s spiritual energy surged into him uncontrollably, washing through his entire body and mending hidden injuries wherever it passed.
Then, the red glow flared again.
The speed of the Spiritual Qi influx suddenly skyrocketed.
Upon inspecting his meridians with Introspection,
Lü Zhong was surprised to discover that the jade-like quality of his meridians was receding, making them feel just as they had before he began practicing the Jade Vein Technique. This was clearly the phenomenon of "Returning to the Essence," which occurred after a Cultivation Technique reached the stage of Great Success.
At the same time, the speed at which his meridians absorbed Spiritual Qi was accelerating, far surpassing his previous cultivation rate.
’This... Is this what it feels like to have Three Spirit Roots?’
With the completion of the Third Layer of the Jade Vein Technique,
his ability to absorb Spiritual Qi now surpassed that of a cultivator with Three Spirit Roots. The resulting increase in his cultivation speed was far better than consuming one or two Spiritual Objects designed to improve one’s aptitude.
This strange phenomenon lasted for a full hundred breaths.
"Husband, are you all right?" Yu Feng’er asked, her hand on her chest and her face etched with worry. The sight of Lü Zhong’s entire body glowing a moment ago had given her a terrible fright.
"I’m fine. My Cultivation Technique just had a breakthrough," Lü Zhong said, shaking his head.
"You mean...?" A look of delighted surprise spread across Yu Feng’er’s face.
Only one who had personally experienced it could know the difficulty of cultivating the Jade Vein Technique. She, for one, found it immensely difficult. If not for her Ice Soul Spiritual Energy, which reduced the cultivation difficulty, she would have struggled to even master the Second Layer.
And yet now, Lü Zhong had actually mastered the Third Layer.
"Really?" She still couldn’t believe it.
Hearing Yu Feng’er’s words, Lü Zhong’s expression grew stern. He reached out, grabbed her, and said with a mischievous grin, "Why don’t you test it for yourself and find out if it’s true?"
"Ah?!"
It was nearly noon before the two of them emerged from the training room.
Lü Zhong walked out under his own power, but Yu Feng’er had to be supported, her body too limp and weak to even walk.
"So, did my Cultivation Technique break through?"
"Hmph!" Yu Feng’er scoffed under her breath, her face instantly flushing red.
’Who would have ever thought you could practice the Jade Vein Technique like that!’