Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 396: Tempering

Besides cultivating, Tang Jie also remembered to keep an eye on the Wei Clan’s situation. From Shi Meng, he had learned that problems were constantly cropping up for the Wei Clan, but as they were all small problems, they had yet to hurt the foundation. But the criticism in the Wei Estate against Wei Danbai was growing. It was said that the venerable master and lady were extremely dissatisfied with Wei Danbai’s actions, but Wei Danbai’s hold over the clan head position was still solid.

Tang Jie, who had already decided to leave things to the heavens, naturally paid this no mind and continued to cultivate.

Mu Yi had recently sent word that he had relayed the message concerning the Mountain River State Diagram. As this matter concerned a hidden realm, it had caused a stir within the Seven Absolutions Sect. The upper echelons of the sect were having a fierce debate, and it seemed like it would take some time for a decision to be made. As for Wang Juemie, he had already had someone send over the Undying Celestial Origin Pill. As the pill was meant for the original body, Tang Jie put it away.

After three months of cultivation, Tang Jie’s greatest harvest, besides the bean seeds, was the discovery that cultivating the Nine Revolutions wasn’t easy.

Unlike Hundred Refinement, which involved honing the muscles and bones, Nine Revolutions cultivated the organs. As for Cognitive Creation, that was when one cultivated Spirit Will.

The Mortal Shedding Realm existed for the cultivator to shed the mortal body, and the process of attaining the spiritual body was one that went from the outside to the inside. In this process, one also went from having form to being formless.

This was exactly why Nine Revolutions was far more complicated than Hundred Refinement.

Hundred Refinement was merely tempering the muscles and bones, something even a mortal could do. It was hardly difficult, only requiring time and diligence. This was also why, in the eyes of high-level cultivators, everything before Nine Revolutions was just an accumulation process. Simply by accumulating, one could eventually break through, and the occasional minor obstacle like the charge at Mortal Shedding wasn’t much of a problem.

Things changed at Nine Revolutions. A cultivator needed to temper their organs, nourishing them with spiritual energy every day and then tempering them through secret methods. This cultivation process was complicated, profound, and painful, the difficulty a hundred times greater than before. As it concerned one’s weak points, a lack of caution could result in self-injury, with energy corruption or death in the most serious cases. Many of the cultivation medicines Tang Jie had prepared were meant for treating injuries.

This was also why Nine Revolutions could be considered a dividing line for cultivators. Most of the cultivators who wandered the world stopped here. Without the guidance of a wise master, they would spend their entire lives being unable to pass this trial. But for cultivators who had the guidance of excellent masters in their sects, this trial was not difficult, merely a matter of how much time was spent.

As for the Cognitive Creation Period, that involved entering the plane of the formless Spirit Will, so it was even more difficult.

This was how the Mortal Shedding Realm was divided: external, internal, and mental.

Tang Jie spent every day cultivating the heart revolution. He first needed to send blood energy surging through his body, dealing a heavy blow to his heart. He then needed to gather spiritual energy into a powerful current and then send it sweeping through his body using a particular method so as to temper the heart, washing away the impurities and spiritualizing it.

Through this repeated process, the heart gradually began to lose its bloody color, becoming translucent and crystalline. This was the result of the spiritualization process.

When the heart was spiritualized to such an extent that it seemed to be made of crystal, this would be the climax of the heart revolution. As one continued cultivating from here, the heart’s color would return to normal, at which point one would be considered to have reached greater attainment in the heart revolution.

A heart of greater attainment appeared to be a mortal heart, but it was not. Blades and flames would not easily damage it, the pain one would feel from these wounds would be greatly reduced, and any such damage could be healed, even if it were cut in half. Even if the heart were scooped out, leaving only a little bit of the heart left, it could still be regenerated. Of course, the exact degree would depend on the entirety of one’s Nine Revolutions. There were those that focused on regeneration, others on defense, and others on offense. Focusing on different aspects would naturally produce different effects.

Gu Changqing had attained the heart revolution and head revolution, which was why he had remained alive even when his heart had been pulverized and his head had been punctured, as an example of the power these revolutions endowed.

But no matter how strong he was, without the head, he could no longer survive. Regrowing a head was a privilege exclusive to True Persons and above, and not all of them could do it.

Tang Jie had been performing the purging process for three months, but his heart was still faintly red and fleshy, far from having a crystalline luster, let alone reversing the process. With this level of process, getting to greater attainment would be difficult in the nine months left in the year.

He had initially believed that the remaining two years of time would be enough to reach his second revolution, but things apparently weren’t that simple. He really had no idea how the record of four revolutions had been achieved.

The only solution to this problem was increased tempering, having his heart experience greater shocks and stronger spirit currents, and this came with heightened risk. If his injuries were too serious, he might suffer some irrecoverable internal injury before he managed to spiritualize his heart.

Although Tang Jie had the Jewel Body and wasn’t afraid of these hidden injuries, the problem was that he had already taken these factors into account when calculating his cultivation time. Intensifying his cultivation further would be seeking death.

Today, as Tang Jie was getting frustrated over this problem, he saw Yiyi holding something and scolding Shi Jingzhai nearby. “So annoying! I taught you so many times, but you still don’t get it! Don’t touch what isn’t yours!”

Shi Jingzhai looked at Yiyi and giggled.

Tang Jie looked over and saw that Yiyi was holding the key for opening the ninth floor of Heaven One.

He had left it in the box that Xie Fengtang had given it to him in, but Shi Jingzhai had somehow taken it out to play with.

As he looked at the key, Tang Jie had an idea.

Yes, the ninth floor of Heaven One might have a solution to his problems.

The large amount of resources he had obtained was something he wasn’t willing to touch until he had the Mountain River State Diagram, but the ninth floor of Heaven One wasn’t included among them. It was just that he had been so busy cultivating that he had forgotten about the key.

He took the key from Yiyi’s hand and rushed straight off to Heaven One Pavilion.

The key was a key, but it really served as a certificate. With this key, he could go straight to the ninth floor with no one standing in his way. He had six hours, much longer than before, and he could choose between the Divine Firmament Sword Classic and Violet Jade Mantra.

After being inspected by the disciple watching the pavilion, Tang Jie went to the ninth floor and took the Violet Jade Mantra to read it.

But this time, he didn’t bring a formation diagram, obediently sitting there and pondering the mantra.

The Violet Jade Mantra was not a cultivation text. To be more precise, only a small part of it concerned cultivation. The vast majority of it concerned insights and experiences. The creator, the Water Moon Celestial Sovereign, had spent his early years wandering the world. He had a vast and deep range of experiences, and he had also comprehended the Great Dao and grasped Fate. He was an extraordinary talent of his generation, and the Violet Jade Mantra recorded his lifetime of cultivation insights. In truth, it was far more valuable than a cultivation text, and it was also suitable for all levels. For this reason, many people had perused it.

Heaven One Pavilion existed to serve the students, so only a part of the Violet Jade Mantra was kept here, and it mostly covered only the more shallow contents. But it was for this very reason that Tang Jie easily found the part he wanted: the knowledge on cultivating the Nine Revolutions. There truly was a solution for his problem within.

The solution wasn’t hard, so Tang Jie quickly memorized it. Seeing that he still had time, Tang Jie continued to look through the mantra.

As he read, he found that the Violet Jade Mantra was truly mystical beyond compare. There were notes and explanations on many things that had left him confused, and Tang Jie felt his horizons being broadened again and again.

In these eight years, Tang Jie had obtained quite a few secret arts.

The Celestial Treasure Supreme Heart Mantra, the Ghost Classic, and the Ninedark Mantra were all incredible texts, but as Tang Jie had never dared to reveal them, he could only ponder the problems they presented to him on his own, and there were many questions that were unanswered.

Only after he read the Violet Jade Mantra did all these riddles finally begin to come undone. He felt like a completely different person, like he had pierced through something. He felt like he was ascending in both body and mind.

Six hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Tang Jie reluctantly put down the mantra and left Heaven One Pavilion.

The two students watching the pavilion saw Tang Jie and were momentarily taken aback. They then bowed and said, “Great Brother, you’ve come out.”

Tang Jie grunted and left.

The two students looked at each other. One of them said, “Strange—why do I feel like the Great Brother that went in is different from the one that came out?”

The other replied, “I feel the same thing, but I can’t tell what’s different.”

They both had an indescribable feeling, and they looked at each other and shivered, not daring to say any more.

At the same time, within the Nine Executions Immortal Formation.

A giant tree exploded, and a giant man who was around five meters tall walked out from the debris, his copper skin gleaming with a metallic luster. This was none other than Tang Jie’s original body.

His body was bulging with muscles, a mighty strength running through. A light step made the earth tremble. He seemed only around five meters tall, but his weight was nearing a hundred tons, and the power packed within this body was even more astonishing.

But with all this strength, the original body was only at the Hundred Refinement Period, still far from the end.

Tang Jie looked down at his body and muttered, “I see… Only by refining the body a hundred times can one go a hundred battles without a loss… Diamond is achieved through a hundred refinements!”

He suddenly extended his hand and jabbed himself several times with his finger.

With these jabs, Tang Jie’s body erupted with energy that shot into the sky.

Tang Jie himself howled in pain.

His thunderous howls alarmed even the flame bird, which took to the skies and spat flames down below.

It actually broke out of the valley’s barrier and moved to attack Tang Jie.

Tang Jie’s eyes flashed when he saw this, but rather than dodging, he shook his fists and shouted, “Ra!”

With his arms raised, he simply allowed the flames to scorch him.

The flames of this enormous bird were so fierce that even He Chong couldn’t withstand them, and even steel would melt upon contact with it. Flames crackled as they struck Tang Jie, and as they raged, Tang Jie’s body was almost completely charred.

Even then, Tang Jie still didn’t die. The flames passed, leaving Tang Jie’s body scorched black. And then pieces of skin began to crack off, revealing the steely determination on his face.

He stared at the giant firebird and laughed. “The Diamond Body, the Hundred Refinement Tier… hahahaha, I was such a fool. I should have realized it long ago. Putting these two together is the perfect way to temper my body.”

Although he had reached the Diamond Body, he had never tempered himself before. It was only after encountering Wang Juemie that he had realized his mistake and sought He Chong for a battle. Alas, while he had managed to get a boost from that battle, this was no reasonable way to cultivate.

It was only when he read the Violet Jade Mantra and its various pointers on cultivation realms that he realized that he lacked depth in his understanding of cultivation.

In truth, each phase had a special meaning to a cultivator. For example, the Hundred Refinement Tier was meant for making the bones and muscle like steel, but as most cultivators weren’t body cultivators, they only used spiritual energy to nourish their bodies, never tempering it.

There was nothing wrong with spellcasters doing such a thing. In any case, their constitutions had limited potential, and torturing their bodies wouldn’t produce a signficant effect.

But for body refiners, this seemingly unimportant phase became the most important.

Only a hundred refinements could make Diamond!

This was what it meant to have a real Diamond Body.

If he hadn’t been enlightened by the Violet Jade Mantra, Tang Jie might have gotten all the way to Nine Revolutions without understanding this principle, and by the time he realized, he would have missed the ideal moment.

While the firebird’s flame had severely wounded Tang Jie, he felt as if the blood in his body was aflame, an irrepressible longing for battle surging from the depths of his heart.

He let out a howl and punched at the sky, sending a blast of air at the giant bird.

In truth, fighting the firebird at his current level of strength was suicidal. Even if he could withstand one blast of flame, he would never be able to withstand ten or a hundred. But Tang Jie refused to back down. He had an idea that made direct confrontation better than escaping!

He had only grown more confident in this idea upon seeing that the giant bird had broken precedent and left the valley to attack him.

The blast from his punch flew toward the firebird.

The firebird screeched and spat out another flame, easily obliterating the wind blast. Another wave of fire swept down, even stronger than the last.

Tang Jie cried out and flew into the air.

His body was instantly charred, but the scorched flesh cracked apart mid-flight, revealing the skin with metallic luster beneath, as if he was being reborn in the flames.

As the flames burned away, Tang Jie felt like he was getting stronger and stronger, about to explode. He let out a frenzied roar and punched at the firebird ten-some times.

The ten-some punches slammed into the mountain, causing the mountain to tremble and boulders to fall down, but the firebird simply spat out a flame and easily neutralized all these attacks.

It opened its mouth again, but this time, it was a fireball that came out.

Even though it seemed unimpressive, Tang Jie’s wariness hit maximum. He unleashed all his defenses, golden light and crimson light bursting from his body as he activated the Formless Golden Body and Blood Refining Spirit.

“Endure!” Tang Jie cried out.

That little fireball exploded on Tang Jie, instantly sending him smashing into a distant mountain. The mountain face collapsed as flames engulfed it. Countless streaks of flame shot in every direction, starting conflagrations wherever they landed and turning the region into a sea of flames.

The firebird screeched, and a moment later, the fires turned into streaks of flame that flowed back to the bird. Only the smoke plumes rising from the forest indicated that an enormous fire had burned here for about two seconds.

A blazing body plummeted from the sky like a meteor, slamming to the ground with an earthquake.

Tang Jie hadn’t gotten off easy this time.

Blood was seeping out from every pore, drenching him red, and sparks still danced on his body. These were bone-eating flames that continued to linger.

As the burned skin flaked off, flames would instantly engulf the area before the new skin could grow, in a process that endlessly repeated and left Tang Jie in immense pain.

“Aaaagh!” he cried out in pain, rolling on the ground. Wherever he rolled, the dirt would crystallize—such was the power of the flames.

Even then, Tang Jie didn’t die as he continued to roll around. The powerful life force conferred by the Diamond Body gave him a terrifying regenerative capability, particularly now that all of his latent potential was being unleashed. This made his life force more exuberant than ever before, allowing him to endure the terrifying flames.

The giant bird did not attack, only coldly watched.

The flames finally began to wane.

Crawling on the ground, Tang Jie panted for breath.

When the flames finally went out, his body immediately began to recover at astonishing speed, and he was soon fully healed. It was just his hair that didn’t regrow as quickly, and his entire body was now completely bare.

Most shocking of all was that his body of five-some meters had shrunk to a height of four-some meters.

Tang Jie didn’t mind. He looked at himself and muttered, “It was just show muscle before. Now I’m truly muscular.”

Despite his words, he knew that this ordeal had consumed too much of his energy, and he was no longer capable of taking an attack from the firebird.

The firebird suddenly turned its head and spat out another flame. A moment later, He Chong appeared, leaving behind a trail of black smoke as he shot off like a screaming bolt of lightning into the distance.

It turned to glance at Tang Jie before flying back to the valley.

Tang Jie chuckled. “I was saying: if you left behind this Immortal grass, why leave behind a firebird to guard it? If this was a test, then it’s not one that should be at the fifth trial. After all, even He Chong couldn’t beat it. It turns out that it was meant for tempering the Diamond Body.”

The Martial Lord had made his name through battle, and what he cared about the most was a will to fight. His chosen successor naturally had to be extremely courageous.

Thus, he had left this giant firebird at the fifth trial. This wasn’t only to temper the Diamond Body but also to test the will of his successor. Only the brave and pugnacious would dare to challenge the firebird and take on its heaven-searing flames.

If Tang Jie had not comprehended the Violet Jade Mantra and understood the connection between Hundred Refinement and the Diamond Body, he wouldn’t have realized how important this was, let alone called out the giant bird.

Tang Jie now roughly understood that the firebird had two missions. The first was to protect the valley, and the second was to help the successor temper their body. When it was protecting the valley, it would seek to kill. When it was tempering the body, its attacks would be very restrained.

The firebird flew to the valley and circled in the sky once before looking at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie realized something and walked over, stepping over the valley’s boundary line.

Sure enough, the bird did not attack.

Tang Jie tried walking a few more steps. He went up to a thousand-year Whitefiend Lotus and reached out, grabbing the lotus root. The little person on the lotus panicked and started throwing out lightning bolts and fire flowers at Tang Jie’s arm, but they did no damage.

Tang Jie pulled out the white lotus.

The moment the lotus left the water, its leaves curled inward. The little person inside fell over in the center of the lotus, gradually congealing into a human-shaped lotus heart, the curling leaves enclosing it.

This human-shaped lotus heart was where the essence of the Whitefiend Lotus was stored. The lotus leaves on the outside were the only means the lotus had to protect it, and once the leaves were removed, the lotus heart had to be used within seven days.

Cautiously putting away the lotus, Tang Jie looked at the other lotuses and then looked at the firebird.

The firebird threw its head back and screeched, and then it spat out a flame that whizzed right over Tang Jie’s head.

Tang Jie knew that this was a warning.

“It seems that passing one test means I can take one. So this is how I’m supposed to get them. Though I have to wonder what the next test will be like.” This first test had almost killed him, and even the mighty Diamond Body had been pitifully weak against the firebird’s fireball. But this also meant that he still had a lot of room to grow, so he couldn’t help but get excited. Fearlessly laughing, he said, “In the past, this lowly one was ignorant and disturbed your test many times, for which I seek your forgiveness. When I achieve more progress in cultivation, I will seek out your instruction again!”

Tang Jie retreated from the valley as he spoke. This was the first time he was able to back out of the valley without fear of the firebird’s pursuit.

The giant bird saw that Tang Jie had left, and with a screech, it flew back into the pool of lava.

Your daily dose of body cultivator masochism.