Chapter 232 - Calamity Reversal and Body Tempering
The next day, Su Bai finally left the exhausted Outer Area and crossed into the first layer of the Inner Area.
Ashen-Blood Miasma immediately became noticeably denser.
After spending an entire month squeezing what little remained from the Outer Area, the difference was almost refreshing.
Su Bai glanced at the black-red haze drifting between the ruins before taking out the Petrified Calamity-Magnet.
The surrounding miasma slowly began gathering toward him.
He nodded in satisfaction.
There was plenty here.
For the next several days, Su Bai resumed the routine he had established during the previous month. He cultivated whenever the surrounding miasma was dense enough, moved whenever an area began thinning, and spent the periods between cultivation sessions studying the ancient weapons.
That was when he noticed something he had previously overlooked.
The saber, bow, hammer, and spear had all possessed mature artifact spirits long before the Fallen-Star Sanctuary became what it was today.
The other weapons were different.
Several of the artifact spirits accompanying him had only gradually developed complete intelligence after remaining within the Sanctuary for thousands of years. Their awareness had grown slowly from the spirituality already present within their weapons.
That explained their behavior.
Whenever the saber spoke, several of them instinctively quieted down. The hammer could chase one away from a position with a single irritated vibration, while the bow rarely needed to repeat itself.
They were not truly servants of the older artifacts, but the difference in seniority was obvious.
Su Bai found it rather convenient.
At least someone could keep them organized.
His experiments continued as they traveled deeper into Layer One, and his understanding of Flaw-Piercing steadily improved.
However, another discovery eventually drew his attention away from the weapons.
It began when Su Bai examined the inscriptions within the Dao-Devouring Blank Stele again.
Several complete cultivation methods remained recorded upon its surface.
The more he studied them, the stranger something felt.
These methods were complete, but they were not tailored to him.
Su Bai frowned.
When the Stele had absorbed the remnant souls and soul slivers within the Soul-Bloom Seed, it had extracted the cultivation methods belonging to those cultivators. It had restored missing portions and preserved their understanding, but the methods themselves still belonged to their original owners.
That was fundamentally different from what had happened with the cultivation method Su Bai personally practiced.
His old Sunflower Method had once been altered until it became the Void Sunflower Supreme Method, and after further changes, it eventually developed into his current Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method.
The difference finally became obvious.
Those transformations had happened because the method was already circulating through his body.
The Stele had been correcting something Su Bai himself practiced.
The techniques obtained from foreign souls had never passed through his cultivation foundation at all.
Su Bai stared at the inscriptions for some time.
A dangerous idea appeared.
If that was truly the distinction, then making one of these methods compatible with him required a very simple experiment.
He had to cultivate it.
Su Bai’s gaze settled upon one particular inscription.
War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture.
It was a body cultivation method that used battlefield pressure, killing intent, hostile spiritual force, and harsh external energy to temper the flesh, bones, marrow, and internal organs.
Su Bai studied it carefully before comparing it with his own physical foundation.
The difference was considerable.
The War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture tempered the body through a far more conventional progression. Different structures were strengthened step by step before being combined into a stronger whole.
Su Bai’s existing body foundation was nothing like that.
His whole-body Golden Core structure, Macro-Taiji Circulation, and previous transformations strengthened him as an interconnected system.
In comparison, the War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture felt almost crude.
That did not mean it was useless.
Su Bai was currently much more interested in what would happen if he actually practiced it.
And so, he began circulating the method.
The result came almost immediately.
A violent resistance appeared throughout his body.
The War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture attempted to guide energy through routes that did not agree with his existing foundation. Qi collided within several meridians, while the method’s tempering force tried to impose an entirely different circulation upon a body that had already been transformed according to another system.
Su Bai’s expression tightened.
There was a reason cultivators did not casually force incompatible cultivation methods into an established foundation.
Once the internal circulation had been fixed, introducing another system could cause Qi deviation, meridian conflict, Dantian instability, or even damage the Golden Core itself.
In severe cases, losing one’s cultivation would be the fortunate outcome.
Su Bai continued circulating the scripture.
The conflict intensified.
Hostile Qi surged through routes that rejected it, while the clashing circulation generated increasingly dangerous spiritual backlash throughout his meridians and cultivation foundation.
Finally, his Reversal Body reacted.
The harmful Qi deviation changed first.
Instead of disrupting his circulation, the reversed effect began reinforcing the pathways that had been placed under strain. The hostile spiritual force meant to destabilize his foundation was converted into beneficial energy that spread through the areas targeted by the body cultivation method.
Su Bai’s body shuddered.
The sensation was far from pleasant.
The War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture still placed genuine strain on his flesh, bones, and organs as it tried to temper them. That physical burden did not disappear, but Macro-Taiji Circulation immediately began repairing the accumulated damage while the reversed spiritual backlash continued feeding the tempering process.
Su Bai’s eyes gradually brightened.
One part tried to harm his cultivation.
Reversal turned that harm into benefit.
The body scripture then used that benefit to temper his physical foundation, while Macro-Taiji dealt with the actual physical strain left behind.
The three mechanisms were unexpectedly compatible.
After several circulations, Su Bai actually reached the scripture’s first minor accomplishment.
That was when the Dao-Devouring Blank Stele reacted.
Su Bai’s spiritual sense immediately entered his Crystalline Tree Spirit Root.
The inscription of the War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture remained exactly where it had always been.
Beside it, however, faint characters began appearing.
The Stele had recognized the method now circulating through Su Bai’s body.
More characters emerged as the original method, Su Bai’s abnormal foundation, the effects of the Reversal Body, and his whole-body Golden Core structure seemed to be compared against one another.
Su Bai watched without blinking.
Eventually, the new inscription stabilized.
Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture.
Su Bai read through the newly formed method once.
A smile slowly appeared.
The original War-Ghost Iron Body Scripture relied upon enduring hostile spiritual pressure and dangerous external energy before using them to temper different parts of the body.
The new version had been reconstructed around Su Bai’s peculiar constitution.
Rather than simply enduring harmful spiritual influences, the Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture deliberately drew them into its circulation.
Once those harmful effects triggered Reversal, the resulting beneficial energy was directed into the flesh, bones, marrow, tendons, and internal organs as tempering fuel.
The physical tempering itself remained real.
Bones could still ache beneath excessive strain, muscles could tear if pushed beyond their limits, and internal organs could still be injured if Su Bai became careless.
The difference was that the hostile spiritual forces accompanying the process no longer worked against him.
They worked for him.
Macro-Taiji Circulation handled the physical damage that accumulated afterward.
Su Bai immediately understood its value.
His Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method remained his primary cultivation method.
That was not changing.
But the Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture focused almost entirely on strengthening his physical body.
After what had happened against the Void-Shattering Returnee, that was precisely what he needed.
Su Bai withdrew his spiritual sense.
The ancient weapons surrounding him had been watching for some time.
The saber finally asked, "What exactly were you doing?"
"Body cultivation."
The hammer gave a suspicious vibration.
"You looked like your meridians were fighting each other."
"They were."
Several weapons became silent.
Su Bai ignored them and resumed cultivating.
What followed over the next few days made their silence considerably worse.
The Ashen-Blood Miasma was already filled with hostile spiritual properties, making it unusually suitable for the new scripture.
Su Bai allowed the method to guide that hostility through his body.
Whenever the harmful spiritual influence became strong enough to trigger Reversal, the transformed energy was immediately redirected into another round of tempering.
His flesh and bones still endured genuine strain throughout the process, but Macro-Taiji Circulation repaired the accumulated injuries while the new scripture continued strengthening the foundation beneath them.
The process was hardly elegant.
The improvement was undeniable.
Eventually, Su Bai decided the spiritual pressure produced by the surrounding miasma was no longer enough.
His gaze moved toward the war hammer.
The hammer immediately floated backward.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"I need pressure."
"No."
Su Bai looked toward the saber.
The saber moved away as well.
After several moments, the hammer was still the one forced to help.
It carefully restrained its physical power and released only the oppressive spiritual pressure belonging to the ancient artifact.
The atmosphere around Su Bai suddenly became heavy.
It was not a physical strike, yet the ancient pressure pressed directly against his spirit and cultivation circulation.
The Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture immediately responded.
Su Bai drew part of that spiritual pressure into the method.
At first, the burden remained manageable.
The hammer gradually increased it.
Soon, the hostile pressure began disrupting Su Bai’s circulation and bearing down upon his cultivation foundation.
Reversal reacted.
The harmful spiritual influence changed as it entered him, and the Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture immediately directed the resulting energy through his physical body.
His muscles tightened.
Bones groaned beneath the sudden tempering force, while Macro-Taiji Circulation quietly repaired the physical strain produced along the way.
The hammer increased its pressure again.
Even it seemed disturbed by what happened next.
Su Bai continued sitting beneath the oppressive spiritual force as though he had discovered an unusually convenient cultivation chamber.
Whenever the pressure became harmful enough to trigger Reversal, another wave of tempering followed.
The actual physical burden continued accumulating, but Macro-Taiji Circulation prevented those injuries from becoming permanent while the strengthened foundation remained behind.
The ancient weapons finally understood why the human before them had survived things that should have crippled someone at his realm.
Unfortunately for them, understanding Su Bai did very little to make watching him cultivate feel normal.
Fifteen days passed after he entered Layer One.
By then, several regions around his route had already become noticeably thinner in Ashen-Blood Miasma.
Su Bai sat beneath the remains of a collapsed supply zone while the Calamity-Reversal War Body Scripture circulated steadily through him.
The accumulation of the previous days had finally reached a threshold.
His muscles tightened beneath his skin as a deep vibration spread through his bones, tendons, organs, and marrow.
Macro-Taiji Circulation accelerated with it.
The repeated tempering had pushed every part of his body close to another transformation.
Su Bai remained completely still as the pressure spread through his whole-body Golden Core structure.
The final barrier gave way.
His physical foundation began transforming again.
The ancient weapons immediately moved farther away as the pressure around Su Bai rose.
His bones shifted beneath his skin while muscles, tendons, blood, and internal organs underwent another round of reinforcement. The changes did not occur separately for long. Macro-Taiji Circulation linked them together until the transformation spread throughout the entire physical structure.
Several breaths later, the violent fluctuations gradually settled.
Su Bai opened his eyes and slowly stood.
The eighth major body transformation had been completed.
He examined the changes carefully.
His physical foundation had become noticeably denser, while the connection between his strengthened body and Macro-Taiji Circulation felt smoother than before.
Whether this was enough to receive a serious Void-Shattering attack without injury was still questionable.
Su Bai did not care.
Fifteen days ago, he had entered Layer One with seven transformations.
Now he had eight.
More importantly, he had discovered a way to turn harmful cultivation backlash and hostile spiritual pressure into additional fuel for body tempering without confusing them with the physical injuries his body still had to endure.
Su Bai looked at the new inscription within the Blank Stele once more.
A faint smile returned to his face.
He had found another loophole.
The ancient saber noticed that smile.
For some reason, it felt that the Fallen-Star Sanctuary had just become slightly more unfortunate.
Su Bai looked toward the deeper regions of Layer One.
He had not returned here to hide forever.
The spear had bought him time, and Su Bai intended to make every day of that time expensive for the enemies waiting deeper inside.
He sat down again as the Petrified Calamity-Magnet began drawing the surrounding Ashen-Blood Miasma toward him.
His eighth transformation was not the end.
It was merely the point where he stopped being satisfied with surviving the next encounter.