Chapter 37: Why Temper Your Body To Such Extent?
"What an incredibly sturdy body," the expert murmured again, his voice echoing clearly across the distance. Then, he sighed, a sound filled with genuine pity. "But what a supreme waste of time."
Lin Yuan slowly descended from the sky, his feet touching down a few dozen paces away from the expert. He did not speak. He merely circulated his qi, letting the dense spiritual energy soothe his body.
"I watched you, you know," the Nascent Soul expert continued, slowly pacing back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back. "Not just for the seven days you sat on my porch, but before that. I saw you slaughtering the beasts of this mountain. I saw you eating their raw marrow like a starving savage, subjecting your flesh to the agonizing crucible of body forging. You endured pain that would shatter a normal man’s mind, all to temper your body."
The expert stopped and looked directly into Lin Yuan’s eyes. The sheer conviction in his voice was hypnotic, carrying the weight of undeniable truth
"And for what?" the expert asked softly. "You survived my palm strike today, yes. But your arm is trembling. You relied on your bodily strength to fight the laws of the universe. It is a fool’s errand, junior."
The Nascent Soul expert raised his right hand, his fingers completely relaxed. "We are cultivators. We do not wrestle in the mud with beasts. We elevate ourselves beyond the mortal coil. The physical body is nothing more than a temporary boat designed to ferry our souls across the river of mortality. Once you possess true power, you must abandon the boat, not weigh it down with iron!"
He flicked his wrist.
Instantly, the sky above them darkened. The ambient spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth violently coalesced. In the span of a single heartbeat, ten thousand ethereal, glowing swords materialized in the clouds, blotting out the sun. Their collective killing intent was so absolute that the very bedrock of the mountain began to disintegrate into fine sand.
"Look at this," the expert commanded, his voice echoing with authority. "With a mere flick of my wrist, thousands of swords can descend. I can sever this entire mountain range, part oceans, and slaughter armies without shedding a single drop of sweat, without ever risking my own body. Why spend weeks tearing your muscles apart when the Dao provides infinite armor? Why forge your legs to run faster when teleportation bends space to your will?"
The expert dismissed the thousands of swords with another casual wave, the sky instantly clearing as if the it had never existed.
"Spells, spiritual energy, and the comprehension of the Great Dao—that is all that matters," the expert stated, his tone so incredibly reasonable and pragmatic that it felt like an undeniable truth. "Body forging is a dead path. It is a remnant of a primitive age before cultivators learned to harness the full power of the heavens. You are a peerless genius, junior. Your Golden Core is flawless. Do not shackle your limitless potential with wasteful efforts."
Standing amidst the rubble, listening to the Nascent Soul expert’s argument, it was easy to see why the entire cultivation world had adopted this mindset. The logic was pristine. Why suffer the excruciating agony of body forging when one could sit in meditation and command the elements with a thought? To rely on spells was efficient. It was elegant. It was the absolute pinnacle of power.
Yet, Lin Yuan did not utter a single word in response. He did not argue. He simply stood there, his pupils utterly calm, observing the expert.
In the quiet sanctuary of his own mind, Lin Yuan recalled the raspy voice of the old man with the brown sable.
"Most of your peers are foolish... They are building grand pavilions on foundations made of loose sand! They refine their souls and expand their dantians, but they neglect the very vessel that houses their power."
The modern era of cultivators had truly abandoned the way of body cultivation. They had bought into the exact lie this Nascent Soul expert was selling. They believed themselves to be untouchable gods simply because they could summon ten thousand swords from afar.
But Lin Yuan’s comprehension of the Ten Thousand Ways Return to One Heart Sutra allowed him to see the fatal flaw in the expert’s argument.
’A boat to cross the river,’ Lin Yuan thought inwardly, his Dao Heart remaining completely unswayed. ’But what happens when the river never ends? What happens when you reach the chaotic oceans of the higher realms, where the waves are made of greater energy? A wooden boat will instantly rot and capsize.’
The Nascent Soul expert spoke of infinite power, but external power was entirely dependent on external factors. What would this mighty expert do if he found himself in a forbidden domain where the spiritual qi of Heaven and Earth was entirely sealed? Without his spells, without his ability to teleport, his unfathomable Nascent Soul cultivation would be rendered utterly useless. He would be reduced to a fragile mortal in a silk robe, easily slaughtered by a common street thug.
What happens when a Heavenly Tribulation ignores magical barriers and strikes the soul directly? A fragile body would instantly detonate under heaven’s might.
Modern cultivators were nothing more than glass cannons. They possessed world-ending firepower, but their vessels were incredibly fragile.
’True invincibility has no blind spots,’ Lin Yuan reaffirmed in his heart, the conviction locking into Dao heart. ’If my qi is sealed, I will crush my enemies with my bare hands. If the heavens forbid my spells, my physical speed will shatter the sound barrier. Flesh is not an anchor; it is the absolute foundation. A sword can be broken, a spell can be countered, and qi can be exhausted. But the sheer strength of my bones belongs to me alone.’
By embracing body cultivation, Lin Yuan ensured that he would never be left powerless, regardless of the environment or the laws of the realm he found himself in. If the Heart Sutra demanded that his heart become the origin of all paths, then his physical body had to be the indestructible temple that housed that origin.
Seeing that Lin Yuan remained completely silent, his posture unbroken and his eyes radiating an unshakable resolve, the Nascent Soul expert paused.
The expert scrutinized the young man’s face for a long time. He sighed, shaking his head as the childish demeanor slowly crept back into his posture.
"Stubborn. Incredibly, foolishly stubborn," the expert muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "You have the eyes of a mule that refuses to stop pulling the cart. Fine! Rot in your primitive ways! Don’t say this senior didn’t try to enlighten you."
The expert waved his hand dismissively, clearly deciding that arguing with a rock was a waste of his time. He turned his attention to a completely different matter, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Lin Yuan’s waist, though there was no token there.
"Anyway, since you are a Core Formation expert now, it actually works out," the expert said, his tone shifting. "Tell me, junior, how are you preparing for the opening of the barrier realm?"
Lin Yuan blinked, the sudden pivot in the conversation catching him slightly off guard. His brow furrowed in genuine confusion.
"Barrier realm?" Lin Yuan asked.