Body Tempering

Alright, so he had decided to cultivate. What now?

First thing first, he had to ensure his survival. Getting stronger is nice and all but if you died midway, it would just amount to nothing.

To survive, one would require two basic components: a safe shelter to recover their strength after a hard day's work, and a stable supply of sustenance.

While food was more important in the long run, finding shelter would be his top priority for the moment. His current location couldn't be considered an ideal place. The space was too open, and the presence of a river would entice wild animals to come over. With this untrained body, a confrontation with hostile beasts could prove fatal.

"If I extend my divine sense… as expected, the range was far too limited in my current condition."

Using it to enhance his physical senses was still doable, but as a long-range detection tool, it was still impractical. The farthest he could reach was around half an arm's length.

There were ways to improve it, but all of that had to wait until he reached Foundation Establishment stage.

As for shelter…

There was the choice of perching over tree branches above, or burrowing inside a hole underground. And of course, there was the always-popular option of inhabiting a nature-made cave.

Living in a cave seemed to be the best course of action. It would be easy to defend and didn't require excessive time to construct. Finding an empty one, however, was up to the grace of fate.

Suddenly, a low rumbling arose from somewhere in the distance. It sounded like an animal's cry, although he couldn't tell for sure what kind of creature made that noise.

'Anyway, it wouldn't be wise to stay here for too long. Perhaps I should try upstream…'

With the help of a moss-lathered branch lighting his path, Feng Chao followed the riverside all the way until he reached the waterfall. The water came from the top of the mountain, too far for the branch to illuminate. It looked as if the stream appeared out of nowhere from inside the pitch-black darkness.

Feng Chao inspected the base of the mountain, looking for some kind of opening between the rocks. He was just casually trying his luck without any expectation. To his surprise, he found a part that had crumbled, revealing a hollow space within.

The opening was rather small, requiring him to crouch to enter, but the inside was bigger than it looked. Perhaps water flowing through cracks within the rocks had crumbled the inside of the mountain, carving such place after tens of years had passed.

The cave was at the right distance to a water source, not too close, not too far. The entrance could be easily covered with grass as well. It should work well for a shelter.

It seemed that Lady Luck did smile at him!

"That's the shelter done. How convenient. Now, for food…"

As long as they have water, humans could survive without food for more than three weeks. However, Feng Chao had decided to cultivate, so he couldn't go without sustenance for too long. He would just end up destroying his body if he forced it.

If we were talking about procuring food in the wilderness, there were a lot to choose from. The easiest bet would be plants and fruits. For meat, there were aquatic animals like frogs and fish, and of course, hunting down wild games would provide him with enough food to last for a while.

Unlike when he was looking for shelter, finding food didn't turn out to be as easy.

He wasn't sure whether it was because of the forest's unique condition of being in perpetual darkness, but the various plants that he had found around the cave didn't seem to match with anything in his mental library. Their colors were also in similar shades of dark purple, like the grass that littered the forest ground. He decided to try a strand that looked similar to asparagus. The first bite was so bitter that he had to quickly spit them all out.

He didn't have a better result when he looked for fruits, either. The trees didn't seem to bear any kind of fruit, and when he found some bulging construct hanging on a branch, they were covered in hard scales, like the head of a pine.

What about fish?

He seemed to recall that when he was checking his reflection on the stream, the surface was quite still, without any movements underneath. A quick check later on confirmed his suspicion that there wasn't a single living thing swimming in the river for some reason. No fish, no frog, not even freshwater crab or aquatic snake. That was really strange.

Grumble…

"…"

His stomach… no, this boy's stomach was gurgling out of hunger. It seemed that he had hit his limit.

What to do? He could fetch more wild plants, see if he could chance upon something edible, or he could try hunting some animals.

…No, the latter was still too dangerous. He didn't know what kinds of creature lived in this forest. At the very least, he shouldn't try to hunt actively before he reached the first layer of Body Tempering. Only then would he have some foundation to protect himself.

Feng Chao sat outside his cave, mulling over which option would be best, when he spotted a small shadow fluttering by. He quickly swiped his moss-lathered branch at it. Before the thing could fly away, he had gotten a good look at the small critter.

It was a flying insect. The black, lustrous carapace that split open to reveal a pair of transparent wings was reminiscence of a beetle.

Hmm… insect…

Now that he thought about it, in the past, Feng Chao had traveled across realms, witnessing many strange things. There was this one place upon which he was offered a serving of roasted grubs as delicacies by the locals. They told him that adult insects weren't nutritious enough to be used as food. The larvae, on the other hand, were rich in protein and fat. As long as you roast or boil them beforehand to prevent any illness, they were perfectly fine for consumption.

Since it piqued his curiosity, he asked the locals to show him how to find those bug larvae. Apparently it wasn't that hard. All he needed to do was to find any mounds of dirt, where the adult insects had laid eggs. After a short dig, the mound would crumble, revealing the larvae resting inside.

Back then, he avoided eating the roasted grubs with difficulties. How ironic that he might be forced to actually do it for real this time.

Following what the local had taught him, Feng Chao managed to find some suspicious dirt mound near the base of a tree. He dug out the side of the mound with the help of a branch until it broke open.

Lo and behold, the inside were covered with fat, squirming larvae. They had shone with milky-white luster under the dim glow of Feng Chao's moss-torch, making a huge contrast with the dreary nature of the forest.

"…I really don't want to do this… ugh…"

An immortal like Feng Chao wouldn't back off just because their opponent was wriggling like a worm. What made him dread was the prospect of eating these disgusting creatures. For now, he pinched a couple of larvae off the dirt, and then wrapped them with a leaf.

Now, to actually cook the bastards…

His first attempt at making a fire went rather badly since the woods were too damp to be used as is. However, there was always room for improvement.

After scrapping at the riverbed for a while, he managed to find some black, sturdy rocks. Their properties were very similar to flint. They could be sharpened for cutting, but their most important feature was that they could produce sparks when scrapped against each other.

Feng Chao fashioned a crude stone dagger by hammering these rocks with a round stone. He used said dagger to shave off the outer layer of the branches that he had collected, revealing the drier inside part. The branches were then gathered into a pile in a small pit that he had dug near the entrance of the cave. Finally, all he had do to was ignite a spark, and hope that it could work.

Clink. Clink. Flasp. Crackle.

From the tiny sparks that fell into the wood pile, a fire slowly started from the bottom. Before long, the licks of flame grew stronger, more intense, and soon the world that was once covered in shadow had parted open, overwhelmed by the bright, reddish light. Feng Chao's eyes were stung by the sudden change, causing him to blink repeatedly until he felt tears welling up at the corner of his eye.

Finally, a proper light! It seemed like a long time had passed since he had felt such warmth, even though it hadn't been long since he had just woken up in this strange world.

Ah, right… since he had fire now, he should test out his meal for the day.

Feng Chao stabbed through the length of the larvae with a sharpened branch, and then erected a stand for the branch to hang over the fire. He let the flame slowly roast the grubs, rotating the branch from time to time to ensure that they were evenly cooked. In the end, the milky-white larvae had turned dark brown, letting off a smoky smell when sniffed.

…One, two, three…

Bite. Crunch. Chew. Try not to puke.

…Not… bad? Actually, they weren't that awful. The outside was crispy, while the inside was soft and chewy. The taste was a bit earthy, rather bland but had a trace of saltiness in them, perhaps from the cooking process. All in all, it was passable. He might enjoy it more if he had spiced them beforehand.

As long as he didn't think about how they usually looked like, that is.

To be fair, they did alleviate his hunger, although eating another one might be a bit…

He didn't have much choice. As long as he was still incapable of hunting, he would have to rely on these disgusting creatures for a bit longer.

"Aargh, just train, train! The faster I get strong, the sooner I can eat better food!"

That's right, cultivation was the only way! For the sake of not eating bugs anymore, he would try his best! His very best!

With that said, let's begin our journey at Qi Condensation stage!

...Was what he would have wanted to do, but sadly it wasn't that easy.

Before entering the first step of cultivation, the Qi Condensation stage, there was a preceding, unofficial stage called Body Tempering. It wasn't an actual stage of cultivation as it didn't involve any movement of qi. Rather, it focused on physical strengthening, forming a strong foundation for further training.

Many sects started right from Qi Condensation stage because their direct disciples had been trained from a very young age, achieving good foundation by the time they started their cultivation. As for outer disciples, it was up to them to train their bodies beforehand. Tales abound of impatient fools who had ignored Body Tempering stage and reaped their just reward later on, their cultivation stagnating without any hope of continuing any further.

His current body in particular was severely undertrained. Before he could start cultivating, he had to temper his flesh and bone, creating a suitable vessel.

As for what one had to do in that stage… it was fairly straightforward. Move your body. A lot. Running, push-ups, sit-ups, practicing footwork, exercising every bit of muscles in human body until one could surpass the limitations of a mortal.

Unlike the rest of cultivation stages where cultivators could sense their progress through distinct ranks, sensing different levels within the Body Tempering stage was a hard thing to do, since the differences were so miniscule. Ideally, one would only advance to Qi Condensation stage after reaching the peak, but knowing whether they had reached it or not would require the help of a master.

Feng Chao didn't have a master right now, but it wouldn't be a concern, since he had achieved the peak of Body Tempering stage in the past. The sensation had already been deeply entrenched in his mind.

The biggest problem would be time.

How long one would spend in Body Tempering stage depends on how hard they trained. If they did it leisurely, it would take hundreds of years to reach the peak. The more one moved their body, the more one pushed the limit until their bones turned to dust and their eyes cried tears of blood, the faster they would finish it.

"To reach the peak as soon as possible… Ugh, I wish I have elixirs right now."

Every cultivation sect would employ various elixirs to help their disciples train their bodies. The elixirs weren't used to artificially strengthen them, but instead for healing the wounds after excessive training. Cultivators would intentionally train until their bodies were ragged and bruised, and then healed them back with elixirs, ready to be abused the next day. This continuous process of rapid breaking and healing would accelerate their growth, achieving growth in Body Tempering stage at tremendous speed. The more extreme the process, the faster it would be.

That was indeed the best method, but… even if the body was willing, Feng Chao didn't have any elixir right now, not even the lowest quality healing tonic. If he tried that method, relying only on his body's natural regeneration, he would spend more time bedridden than actually training.

It was quite a dilemma. He sat cross-legged near the bonfire, flipping his brain for ideas until suddenly, a light bulb flashed in his mind.

"…Wait a second. How about using 'that' method. It might just work."

Feng Chao was rather close with one fellow heavenly immortal, the Thousand-Mountains Hermit. He had another name though, the less-benevolent title of Mad Mountain Geezer. The title was imparted not just for his hobby of making a spiritual body with the appearance of a ridiculously-long bearded old man, but also for his fondness of doing unnecessary experiments.

'How to quickly master Body Tempering stage if you're poor and have no elixir?'

He had once touched on this topic. Feng Chao remembered that his answer was quite novel. To put it simply, the method would ask for a master of Nascent Soul stage or higher to supervise the training. After securing such person, the practitioner would proceed with the usual training. Keep training until they were on the verge of death. That's where the master would step in.

The master would then direct external qi into the practitioner's body, circulating it over the veins so that they would latch on the wounds like salve. It was different from Qi Condensation stage since the energy wouldn't be stored and refined within their meridian, but absorbed by their physical body to accelerate healing. In a sense, this was a more primitive form of restorative elixir.

Convenient! That was the first reaction when the Thousand-Mountains Hermit revealed this theory. With such method, would there be any need to guzzle down an excessive amount of elixirs? Wouldn't it help decrease the budget of sects? But enthusiasm soon died out when the Mad Geezer told the crowds about the method's slight downside.

It wasn't much, really. Just that the human body wasn't supposed to absorb unrefined qi directly like that. If the master misread the amount needed and made even the tiniest mistake, limbs and internal organs miiiiight go boom.

Oh.

Needless to say that everyone immediately left while cursing the geezer for raising their hopes up only to slam it back to the ground with a vengeance.

If this was the normal situation, Feng Chao would have scorned this method as well. After all, who had the gall to risk their future just for a few elixirs? Money could be gathered again, but you only have one life! However, his current situation was rather dire. The longer he took to train, the lower his chance of survival would be. He would rather gamble it all instead of becoming some random beast's dinner.

Now that he had some plan in his mind, he decided to start right away. After putting out the bonfire, he proceeded to the first item in the menu: long-distance running.

It would become a problem if he ran wildly and lost his bearing within this vast darkness, so he placed two glowing moss-lathered branches a few distance away from each other to function as beacons. He would then run from one branch to another, repeating the process for hundreds of laps until his legs turned into jelly.

After that, he got into position for push-ups. One, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred… by the count of two hundred, he fell face-first onto the grass, his arms continuously twitching.

Just in time, his legs had recovered somewhat, so he proceeded to bunny-hops, although it took even less time before he collapsed again.

Finally, he rolled onto his back and used the rest of his strength to do sit-ups. At seventy-two, he stopped moving altogether, his entire body screaming for injustice.

"Ah… not good… I have to remember next time to save some energy for the healing process…"

Still lying on his back, Feng Chao lifted his trembling right arm, and then activated his divine sense, taking in the flow of qi around him. With subtle movements of his fingers, he directed strands of qi to gather around his body before suffusing them through his pores with a slight twitch of his index finger.

The Mad Geezer's method required a Nascent Soul cultivator as supervisor not because of the required strength, but because it required someone with precise control and deep understanding of qi flow. Nascent Soul cultivator was guaranteed to have this ability, although the quality might differ between individuals.

While Feng Chao's current body wasn't even considered a cultivator just yet, his soul was originally that of the Heavenly Immortal stage. In terms of control, he would easily trump over mortal cultivators of any stage. As such, he was able to perform this delicate method of putting just enough amount of qi to heal his battered body, not more, not less.

Well, that, and also the threat of blowing up like fireworks forced him to work extra-cautiously, so his control had to be godlike lest he could say bye-bye to this cruel world.

"…Done!"

Before, he could only felt intense pain scouring his body, but now a layer of warmth was covering him, granting him a powerful respite. It wasn't far off from the taste of real healing elixir. No, it might be even more effective, since he could control how much energy he needed to use for specific spot. The effectiveness hadn't been tested yet but he had confidence that it might just work.

"…Hmmm? Hoh…"

Eh, he got really sleepy all of the sudden. The moment he closed his eyes for a blink, he couldn't pry them open anymore.

'Ah, not good. I need to… get inside…'

Without his consent, his mind blacked out, not allowing for the slightest bit of resistance.

Thus ended his first day in the Forest of Eternal Night.

"Woah! That was scary!"

He didn't know how much time had passed. When he finally woke up, however, his body felt light, without a shred of fatigue from yesterday's training. Aside from the usual slight aches around his joints, it was all good.

"Dang. Geezer, your method actually worked. I wish I could tell you now and see that maniacal grin of yours again… oh well, nevermind."

He managed to reincarnate, so there was a chance that his friends did as well. If fate allowed it, then they should be able to meet again. There was no need to rush.

But what happened yesterday was truly reckless of him. The drowsiness that came after the recovery process had started was no joke. Not even the strongest, most potent sleeping tonic could even compare. Thankfully nothing happened last night, or else he would've been dead without even realizing it. Next time, he should retreat back to the cave before he lost consciousness again.

Adding to that, he also prepared a bundle of grass near the entrance of the cave.

A bonfire was useful for many things, but it also broadcasted his current position to the denizens of the forest. As such, he shouldn't start one if it wasn't really necessary. To make it safer, he should be ready to retreat back into the cave at a moment's notice. Wild animals were afraid of fire by instinct. As long as they couldn't find him, they would naturally stay away from the area after satisfying their curiosity.

Of course, there was also a small chance that a fellow human would notice the bonfire and came to check it out, but… he shouldn't rely on it.

At the end of the day, you can only rely on yourself. Become stronger first. Things will get easier after that.

He could feel that yesterday's training had some effect on his body. Just some slight improvements, but it was worth it.

After a quick supper of yet another serving of roasted grubs, Feng Chao started his training regiment, pushing his limit a tiny bit further than before. Ending his training at sit-ups, he dragged his limp body toward the cave, and then pulled the grass bundle to cover the entrance. His divine sense expanded, his fingers directing the flow of qi to gather around him, and then he resumed the healing process.

As expected, hard-knocking wave of drowsiness struck as soon as he finished, so this time he embraced it all and fell into a deep sleep.

Feng Chao settled in a comfortable set of routine. Wake up, roast some grubs, train until he was half dead, took a break while roasting some more grubs, resume training until he was near death, and finally crawl back into his cave and get knocked out.

Minutes, hours, days… within this blanket of darkness without a trace of sunlight, a day only started when he had woken up, and a day would end when he fell asleep. With such arbitrary sense of time, five days passed in the blink of an eye, and finally Feng Chao felt a long-overdue sense of accomplishment.

He finally reached the first layer of Body Tempering stage.