24: The Perfected State of the Ancient Body Refining Technique

Above the wasteland, the dead silence was shattered by an overwhelming, irresistible pressure!

At the peak of the firmament, a massive face covering the sky suddenly appeared, its eyes like cold stars, looking down upon all living beings.

The majestic sound waves rolled and exploded across the wasteland like billions of thunderbolts, each syllable striking deep into the Souls of the surviving Ultimate Realm Experts:

"The third checkpoint: Physique limit challenge!"

"You will all be banished to the 'Nirvana Void'! There, your prideful combat power, spiritual energy, Mental Energy, and even all extraordinary attributes—will! Return! To! Nothingness!"

"You will return to—the body of a Mortal!"

"Only one thing will accompany you—the 'Ancient Body Refining Technique'! This is your only reliance! Twenty days! You only have twenty days to comprehend and Cultivate this technique! Those who cannot enter the gate within twenty days—will be eliminated!"

"After twenty days, you will return to reality, and the memory of the 'Ancient Body Refining Technique' will be erased by the power of the Heavenly Dao! However, the Physical Body combat power you gain through tempering with this technique will be eternally branded onto your bodies, becoming your true Foundation!"

"Remember! One moment in the outside world is twenty days in the Void! Race against time, and go fight for that fortune of becoming a saint through the Physical Body! Young ones!"

Boom—!!!

Before the voice died away, a brilliant beam of light containing the power of time and space, piercing through heaven and earth, descended like divine punishment! It instantly swallowed all the remaining Ultimate Realm Experts on the wasteland!

Lin Yuan only felt his consciousness being fiercely pulled and stripped away by an irresistible force! The light and shadows before his eyes twisted and shattered crazily!

The next moment, absolute nothingness enveloped him.

He found himself in a boundless, purely white space that was unsettling. There was no sound, no smell, no gravity, and he couldn't even feel the passage of time—absolute "Nirvana".

Even more terrifying was—power! It had disappeared! Completely and utterly disappeared!

The spiritual energy that surged like a river in his body had dried up.

The Mental Energy that was vast as the sea in his Sea of Consciousness had fallen silent.

The purple-gold divine patterns that flowed with destructive power beneath his skin were like they had been completely sealed, dim and cold, without the slightest supernatural essence.

Even the tiny bit of strength brought by his Golden Body had vanished!

A long-lost, bone-deep sense of weakness, like a cold tide, instantly submerged Lin Yuan. He subconsciously clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white from the effort, but he only felt a powerless tremor. Fingers that could once easily crush mountains now seemed unable to shake even a stubborn stone.

"Is this... the limit of a Mortal fleshly body?" A trace of heaviness climbed into Lin Yuan's heart for the first time. Having lost all his extraordinary abilities, he truly understood the insignificance and fragility of a Mortal.

Just in this extreme nothingness and weakness, a scripture radiating an endless, ancient Aura was forcibly carved into his Sea of Consciousness like a brand—the "Ancient Body Refining Technique"!

The opening of the Cultivation Technique was the suffocating Nine Revolutions Realm and its terrifying bonuses:

First Revolution: Break the Mortal body, combat power + 100 stars!

Second Revolution: Temper the tendons and bones, combat power + 200 stars!

Third Revolution: Refine the internal organs, combat power + 300 stars!

...

Ninth Revolution: Perfection Realm, combat power + 900 stars!

Nine Revolutions complete, the Physical Body becomes divine! Total combat power bonus—4500 stars!

Lin Yuan's pupils shook violently! 4500 stars! This was almost equivalent to most of the power he had painstakingly acquired before! Without any hesitation, he immediately sat cross-legged, his mind sinking into the profound and difficult scripture, like a true Mortal apprentice, beginning the most primitive search.

On the first day, the scripture was as obscure as a heavenly book! Every character seemed to contain the ultimate truths of heaven and earth, yet they were interconnected, forming an impassable maze. Lin Yuan's prideful Comprehension Ability seemed to have turned into a blunt knife in the face of this ancient Body Refining technique. He mobilized all his focus, struggling to analyze, deduce, and attempt to guide the barely perceptible "Origin Power" in the void space to temper himself.

Sweat soaked his Mortal clothes, and his muscles tore from the incorrect guidance. For a whole day, without sleep or rest, with his mind exhausted, he finally opened up the first faint, almost extinguished vortex of Qi and blood in his body!

First Revolution, barely entered the gate! A weak but real warm current flowed with difficulty throughout his body, bringing a trace of strength.

[combat power bonus: 100 stars!]

Lin Yuan stood up, panting, and looked around. In the Nirvana space, countless Ultimate Realm Experts were like headless flies, some roaring madly, some crying while holding their heads, others sitting blankly. The vast majority of people hadn't even managed to condense the first vortex of Qi and blood! The Aura of despair permeated the whiteness.

The third day.

Another two days of almost self-abusive hard cultivation! The exhaustion brought by high mental concentration penetrated his Soul, and the hunger, thirst, and muscle soreness of a Mortal body tormented him at every moment. Every time he guided the Qi and blood to impact the barrier of the Second Revolution, it was like scraping bones with a dull knife! Finally, on the verge of his mental collapse, the vortex of Qi and blood in his body suddenly grew and surged!

Second Revolution, complete! A more powerful current rushed through his limbs and bones, his tendons and bones resonating together!

[combat power bonus: 200 stars! Accumulated 300 stars!]

At this moment, some Prodigies in the space had barely stepped into the First Revolution, but there were very few at the Second Revolution. More people were still struggling and sinking in the initial quagmire.

The seventh day.

Time was like a heavy millstone. From the fourth to the sixth day, Lin Yuan was completely immersed in the deduction of the increasingly profound Cultivation Technique. The difficulty of the Third Revolution increased several times! It required drawing in purer Origin Power to temper the fragile internal organs in an extremely complex way! Blood overflowed from his mouth and nose, his body was like a broken bellows, and every breath brought tearing pain. Finally, on the seventh day, accompanied by a muffled roar in his body, his internal organs seemed to be wrapped and reshaped by a gentle and powerful force!

Third Revolution, complete!

[combat power bonus: 300 stars! Accumulated 600 stars!]

Lin Yuan opened his bloodshot eyes, exhaustion almost crushing him. "The difficulty of the Fourth Revolution doubles again... Twenty days, my limit is the Fourth Revolution..." A huge pressure, like a dark cloud, shrouded his heart. This "Ancient Body Refining Technique" was simply making things difficult for Mortals!

The fifteenth day.

Torment! Unprecedented torment! Every step of the Fourth Revolution's Cultivation was like dancing on the tip of a knife, walking on the edge of a cliff. The required precision of Origin Power control and the complexity of the Qi and blood circulation route far exceeded the previous ones! Lin Yuan's body was on the verge of collapse time and time again, only to be pulled back by his steel-like will.

Finally, on the fifteenth day, an overwhelming force suddenly erupted from the depths of his bone marrow, connecting his whole body!

Fourth Revolution, complete!

[combat power bonus: 400 stars! Accumulated 1000 stars!]

However, the short-lived joy was instantly extinguished by the cold time! The twenty-day deadline only had five days left!

"Fifth Revolution... the difficulty is more than twice that of the Fourth Revolution... Five days? Absolutely impossible!" Lin Yuan's heart sank to the bottom. Looking at the accumulated 1000 stars of bonus, and thinking of the unreachable 4500 stars of the Nine Revolutions, a huge sense of loss and unwillingness welled up. Did he really have to stop here? To have a treasure mountain but be unable to take everything?

evolution points! The road to heaven in a desperate situation!

Just at this moment of near despair!

Hum—!

A line of text flashing with mysterious golden light, like the dawn breaking through the desperate night sky, appeared domineeringly in his field of vision:

[Detectable evolvable Cultivation Technique: "Ancient Body Refining Technique"!]

[Current progress: Fourth Revolution]

[Consume 20000 evolution points to Breakthrough to—Ninth Revolution · Perfection Realm!]

Lin Yuan's pupils suddenly shrank to needle points! His breathing stopped instantly!

"evolution points... can directly... upgrade this Cultivation Technique?! Directly... Perfection?!" After the huge shock, a joy like a volcanic eruption instantly swept through his whole body! Survival in a desperate situation! No, this was the great road to heaven!

He turned his thoughts quickly and pulled up the long-silent panel:

[evolution points: 44233 points!]

"Consume! Consume 20000 points immediately! Breakthrough! Ninth Revolution!" Lin Yuan roared silently in his heart!

[Ding! Consumed 20000 evolution points!]

["Ancient Body Refining Technique" Breakthrough to—Ninth Revolution · Perfection Realm!]

Rumble—!!!

It was as if the first thunder of the Universe's creation exploded in Lin Yuan's body! There was no need for him to struggle to guide or painfully temper anymore!

A vast, boundless, and purely ultimate Origin Power, like a bursting galaxy, was poured out of thin air into every tiny particle of his body! His tendons, bones, flesh, internal organs, bone marrow, and even every strand of hair were emitting deafening roars!

"Urgh ah—!" The intense feeling of metamorphosis made him unable to help but let out a low roar.

On the surface of his skin, the sealed, dim purple-gold divine patterns, as if injected with the Origin of life, instantly erupted with unprecedented brilliant light! The patterns spread, intertwined, and became more profound, as if containing the ultimate mystery of Physical Body power!

His Physique did not expand, but the "density" and "texture" of his whole person underwent a earth-shattering change! Standing there, he was like a piece of Chaos divine iron that had been tempered by heaven and earth for billions of years, emitting a terrifying Aura of immortality and breaking all laws!

[combat power bonus: 4500 stars!!!]

"Is this... the power of Physical Body Perfection?" Lin Yuan slowly raised his hand and clenched his five fingers tightly! Without using any extraordinary power, just the power of his Physical Body, he actually caused the surrounding white Nirvana space to emit a faint, unbearable "crack" sound! It was as if the space itself was about to be crushed by his bare hands!

After breaking through the Nine Revolutions, Lin Yuan did not rush for success. The Physical Body with a soaring 4500-star combat power bonus needed to be stabilized and adapted.

"If the Foundation is not stable, power is vanity." He sat cross-legged again, like an old monk entering meditation, mobilizing that Perfection Body Refining power to wash, nourish, and consolidate this body that had already become extraordinary and holy, over and over again.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

When Lin Yuan opened his eyes again, the purple-gold divine light was contained within his pupils, and his whole body's Aura was harmonious and unobstructed, like a divine weapon that had been tempered a thousand times, its sharpness completely restrained, yet containing the power to destroy heaven and earth. With a thought, the familiar data panel appeared.

And at the very bottom of the panel, a line of text that had been deliberately forgotten, but was now shining with tempting light, instantly seized his mind:

[fate dice: Number of throws available (4 / 4)!]

Four times! Four whole opportunities for the favor of fate!

This mysterious dice that accompanied his early rise, with the soaring of his strength, the power of the "fate events" it could trigger had long since changed!

"Good! If heaven gives it and one does not take it, one will suffer the consequences!" A fiery light burst out in Lin Yuan's eyes, "First time, throw!"

Hum!

Deep in his Sea of Consciousness, the illusory dice engraved with mysterious runes turned violently, stirring the river of fate! The light flowed, and finally—

1 point!

[Ding! Triggered fate event—Equipment Evolution!]

[taiqing xuana sword, evolved into—taiqing bixiao sword!]

Clang—!!!

A clear sword cry that pierced through the Nirvana space suddenly sounded! The three-foot green blade that had accompanied Lin Yuan for a long time at his waist suddenly flew out of its sheath and hung in mid-air! On the sword body, the original ancient runes were like coming alive, crazily collapsing, reorganizing, and evolving! Blinding green divine light erupted!

The light faded, and a divine sword, carved entirely like flawless green jade, with strands of green Chaos thunder light that seemed to have life entwined on its blade, floated quietly! The sword body flowed with the peerless sharpness that could destroy all laws and sever rules!

[taiqing bixiao sword]

[combat power bonus: 300 stars]

Breaking the boundary: Where the sword blade points, ignore 50% of the target's base defense!

[Wearing requirement: Body combat power ≥ 1000 stars]

"Good! What a Bixiao divine sword!" Lin Yuan reached out and grabbed the hilt, a sense of majestic power connected to his blood and mind instantly flooded his whole body! The sword blade trembled slightly, and the whiteness of the surrounding Nirvana space was faintly pushed back by that green thunder light! With the divine weapon in hand, his killing power was more than doubled!

"Luck is flourishing! Second time, throw!" Lin Yuan did not hesitate.

The dice turned crazily again! The light froze—

3 points!

[Ding! Triggered fate event—Sea of Consciousness Immeasurable · Mental Sublimation!]

[Mental Energy + 50 stars!]

Boom—!!!

It was like the creation of the world! Lin Yuan's Sea of Consciousness space shook and expanded violently! The Mental Energy that was originally like a lake instantly turned into a surging ocean! The Mental Energy became incomparably condensed and pure, and his perception range, insight, thinking speed, and even the precision of energy control all underwent a qualitative leap!

[Mental Energy: 120 stars → 170 stars!]

[Mental Energy conversion combat power: 170 stars × 5 = 850 stars!]

A cool and vast feeling filled his Soul, the mental fatigue brought by the previous cultivation of the Body Refining technique was swept away, and his mind was clearer than ever before!

"Unstoppable! Third time, throw!" Lin Yuan's Aura was like a rainbow.

The dice turned for the third time with the glory of fate! This time—

1 point!

[Ding! Triggered fate event—Equipment Evolution!]