15 Body Cultivation

Little did Jack know of the words he spoke to Liam Retrona. In fact, many years later, they would become a blight on his almost impeccable credentials and he would often have feelings of tearing Jadelere into a thousand pieces whenever he thought back at it. However, what was done, was done, and there was nothing more to be said about the matter.

What Jack couldn't have known, though, was that 'good mister Retrona' had once suffered from a terrible malady involving his manhood. Due to a deviation of qi during his cultivation, he simply wasn't able to summon his sword to pierce his lovers anymore. This, of course, was an incredibly shameful matter that Liam Retrona thoroughly investigated. In fact, he became heavily indebted to the Calles family because of the costly medicines he purchased from their businesses and the fact that he demanded the utmost level of confidentiality.

Confidentiality that was, of course, not respected.

Soon, news of Liam Retrona's ailment spread all over Groamburk and the Retrona family became a laughingstock in the entire region. Although the Retrona family denied all the rumours, it wasn't enough to curb the enthusiasm of the masses. After all, it wasn't often that they got to enjoy spitting on the good name of a powerful family. People were like that.

Given the desperate nature of his situation, Liam was forced to go to a soothsayer for a solution. And she was able to point him in the right direction. However, the right direction involved him performing certain oral… acts… to a beast.

Liam was enraged and very nearly slaughtered the soothsayer and her family. Thankfully, wiser opinions remained prevalent, as soothsayers were protected by ancient covenants with the gods and no one dared to touch them; and seldom were their visions proved to be wrong. And so, after much careful deliberation with his most trusted aides and family members, he decided to go along with it.

As such, they sourced an orc, a humanoid type of demonic beast that was relatively weak individually, but because of its gregarious nature it was exceedingly hard to deal with when in a group. In any case, they managed to procure one, made certain that all of its limbs were crippled, and prepared for the Retrona family patriarch to perform this… obscene act… in the highest level of secrecy.

Secrecy that proved to be as useful as lead shoes are good for swimming.

Ichabod Hare got wind of the ritual being performed and contacted the Retrona family offering a deal. He would provide them with a safe space to perform the ritual and he would guarantee that he wouldn't leak anything to the citizens of Groamburk. Of course, this would be in exchange for an exorbitant amount of resources. Albeit unwilling, the Retrona family had no choice but to accept Ichabod's conditions with gritted teeth.

The ceremony ultimately proved to be a success, but Liam Retrona was left with a terrible case of horrible case of halitosis as a result. Since then, the ceremony had become a taboo for Liam and it went so far as the humiliation to cause him to suffer from cultivation deviation and never be able to transcend to the middle stages of the Nascent realm.

It was to be expected, then, that Jack's casual remark almost caused Liam to die from anger on the spot. In fact, it was only Ichabod's quick reaction and pulling the child away that stopped the Retrona family patriarch from killing him.

After that, and a few heated exchanges with the representatives from the Retrona family, the birthday party came to an early finish and all the guests were invited to leave; a party that would leave much to be gossiped about in the coming months.

Jadelere, of course, was severely reprimanded by Ichabod as he was, after all, the one who inadvertently taught Jack those words. And by severely reprimanded, Leah very nearly killed him by cutting him into a thousand pieces and feeding them to the demonic beasts of the Groam forest. Adras agreed with her wholeheartedly. Ichabod, however, thought differently.

Although it was true that Jack had learned a terrible expression, it was undeniable that he'd learned something after many months without barely making a sound. Jadelere was the only one who had managed to accomplish that. Logic dictated that the child remain under his tutelage. Additionally, Jadelere was a genius accountant, tactician, and historian, and could very well nurture the child.

If he managed to curb his tendency for profanity, of course.

In the meantime, Jack himself didn't know the small storm his words had caused. He wouldn't find out about the meaning of them until a few months later and afterwards he would regularly think back to them and a sudden urge to kill Jadelere would cross his mind. In fact, he would purposefully make things difficult for the man to the point that Jadelere lost all of his hair and his elegant voice would go coarse.

That, however, is a story for later on.

Whilst Ichabod was ardently arguing with Adras about the future of Jack's education, the boy in question was resting in a crib and pondering on his first necessary steps towards cultivating the Harmony of Everything.

The method required him to first cultivate both his body and his soul before he could truly take his first steps onto the path that was this cultivation method.

As such, he needed to change himself fully.

A complete reforging.

Only the sturdiest of vessels could hope to contain diametrically opposing forces.

The introductory passages described martial methods for the body and soul that one needed to practice continuously to break through the shackles of a mortal and gain greater degrees of completion in the Harmony of Everything. In other words, these methods had nine levels, each of which one corresponded to the chapters in the Harmony of Everything.

To summarise what Jack had gained enlightenment on, body cultivation could grossly be categorised into two different types which could further be divided into six different aspects. The first was external, revolving around the flesh, the muscles, and the tendons in one's body. To strengthen the flesh meant to make the body impenetrable; to strengthen the muscles was to give the body a living armour of power and protection; and to strengthen the tendons was to allow the muscles to explode with immeasurable potency and force.

Internally, there's the bones, and the internal organs. By strengthening one's bones, the core structure of the body would remain unbreakable and firm against any impact. Next, strengthening ones interior organs would allow for a qualitative change in the body's physiognomy ultimately allowing the practitioner to draw on more energy and achieve greater clarity in comprehension; effectively turning a human into a higher being.

And finally, but far from least, was the strengthening of meridians. Meridians represented the foundation from whence martial practitioners managed the flow of energy from their dantian to the rest of the body. The Harmony of Everything demanded that the meridians be completely destroyed and reformed following its indications into an existence that could support the flowing of massive amounts of energy, far beyond what any practitioner of the same level could accomplish.

These six methods intertwined with one another and yet were wholly distinct, in the sense that you first had to cripple yourself and then begin the process of renovating by starting with the flesh, then muscles, tendons, bones, internal organs, and finally meridians.

To an ordinary person, this was tantamount to destroying one's future. In fact, if most people read this method of reforging their body, they wouldn't believe it for a second and would instead discard the Harmony of Everything as a sham. Only Jack, who'd experienced its mystical properties back in the Abyss Library, had felt it drag him out from the Abyss into this world, knew full well of the immense heaven-defying potential of the Harmony of Everything. Therefore, he didn't hesitate for even a moment to practice it.

Only someone with determination as hard as steel like Jack could do it.