Purple Meridian Poison
Overpowering astral spirits and integrating their power into his own was only a matter of time in Yaan's eyes. Now that he had over a day before his next battle, compared to under an hour like before, he no longer needed to worry about this matter.
In all honesty, so long as he was in good condition, Yaan didn't believe that anyone on the 4th level could defeat him in a one-on-one battle. Even though his next opponent was the highest ranking person in the lower 4th level's leaderboard, Yaan wasn't particularly concerned.
First of all, Yaan skimmed through various books, studied different resources and pills, and examined some of his treasures, before deciding on his way forwards. As he did this, he diverted half of his attention to subduing the astral spirits. The astral spirits had no hope of overpowering him at this point, but they were too persistent. Even if it was hopeless, they would continue resisting.
Ever since he finished reading the complete Fiend Transformation Technique, Yaan had experienced a big change when it came to his perception of cultivation itself. In truth, the 'Fiend Transformation' could indeed be looked at as just that; a singular transformation into a 'fiend'. Of course, from there, the fiend could follow their own path which suited their race well.
The technique provided insight into the fiend, including information regarding their body, their Innate Qi, their strengths and weaknesses, and the most optimal cultivation paths that could be pursued by the fiend.
Innate Qi and the body. Initially, Yaan believed that these were his two choices. They were two paths that could be cultivated side by side, but eventually, one would have to be dropped in favour of the other.
As time passed by and he ventured out into the world, away from Rui's watch, Yaan started to have other thoughts. The more he cultivated his Vital Energy, the more he felt like it was actually just a unique form of energy cultivation, rather than purely body tempering.
In truth, Vital Energy was indeed an energy, but it was an energy that served the sole purpose of strengthening the body at all times. Vital Energy could even be thought of as the link between energy cultivation and body cultivation.
But most importantly, cultivating Vital Energy was the most tried and true method of developing the body into something which was more suited towards true body tempering.
In essence, as a fiend, a demon born from a human, Yaan should be striving to cultivate his Vital Energy to build up his body's foundation…but he also needed to build up the fleshly body itself!
There were countless cultivation paths, but they could be grouped into four principle pathways. This was especially true for those at the 'Foundation Step'.
This 'Foundation Step' was something that was talked about clearly in the complete Fiend Transformation Technique.
The Foundation Step referred to all cultivation before immortality. All mortal beings would need to find their own path to progress through the Foundation Step, until they eventually attained Nirvana. Eventually, a cultivator could go through the final stage of the Foundation Step, the point at which they shed their mortal skin; Nirvana Rebirth. As the realm name implied, this was the process of quite literally being reborn.
These things were far away from Yaan right now, but learning about these matters resulted in his growing interest in the various paths of cultivation. There were many different means of strengthening the fleshly body, but some of these methods, if attempted without supporting power, would only result in the cultivator's demise.
In the Fiend Transformation Technique, many body tempering paths were mentioned, but only one path was truly explored in detail.
This path was called the true body tempering path.
The more Yaan studied the Fiend Transformation Technique and the body tempering methods contained within, the deeper his awe grew towards the founder of this path.
Yaan had recently learned that in this world, beings of certain races were born with monstrously powerful 4-Star bodies, allowing them to cultivate the true body tempering path directly. Humans, on the other hand, often needed to transform into a different race entirely if they wished to pursue body tempering. In order for humans to step onto the true body tempering path, they needed to cultivate Vital Energy…but they also needed to cultivate their fleshly body!
Rui had never told him this, but unknowingly, Yaan had already taken the first steps down this path.
Back in the Heavenly Path Sect, he consumed the Rank 2 Bone Strengthening Pill. By a stroke of good fortune, he developed the Progressive Bones Constitution at the Iron Rank. Later on, he managed to improve this constitution to the bronze rank, and he also developed the Progressive Flesh Constitution to the Iron Rank.
He even suspected that he may have progressed even further than this after his absorbing the vitality from the spatial vortex!
Unfortunately, even now, Yaan could not be said to have taken the 'true' first step.
Progressive Bones Constitution, Progressive Flesh Constitution, Progressive Organs Constitution, Progressive Tendons Constitution, Progressive Blood Constitution. By developing these five constitutions and then successfully fusing them together, the body would undergo a drastic change, becoming a vessel of pure physical prowess and potential.
In a way, Yaan felt hesitant to go forward with this. After completing this fusion, the body would be changed too drastically to sustain Qi refining cultivation ever again.
"No, that's not right!" Yaan suddenly sat up and his eyes shone brightly.
"People are always saying that you can only follow a single path…but why? I might just be an ignorant youngster, I might only be a 3-Star Realm demonic body cultivator, I might have only just embarked upon my path of cultivation…but why would any of that be relevant, when I already know what it is that I desire?!"
"Why would I follow the sensible advice of others, when my drive to progress stems from exploring the unknown, uncovering the mysteries of this world and the impossibilities that we witness in our day to day lives!"
"I won't do it…I will not follow the path that my predecessors have laid out! Such a confined path which cannot be called my own, means nothing to me anyway!"
A determined look flooded Yaan's gaze as a feeling of defiance rose up within his heart. He had clearly come to a decision.
He would take every path, he would embrace every power, he would explore every truth, he would become the embodiment of a true cultivator!
Yaan's goal in life had been unclear ever since he left the Heavenly Path Sect, but there was one thing that he knew - he wanted to go on. He wanted to cultivate, to pursue strength, to see what lay at the end of this path.
He was not sure why he felt this way, but the feeling of refusing to give in had caused a certain defiance, a resistance towards the inevitable, to arise within his heart.
With this thought in mind, he decided to finally start tempering his body using some of the unique resources that he had obtained in the inheritance. At this point, the astral spirits were almost entirely subdued, and Yaan no longer needed to spare much conscious effort in order to suppress the lingering remnants of their power.
Whoosh!
With a wave of his hand, three pills, two potions, and a branch covered in sharp thorns, all appeared in front of him.
Yaan slowly reached out towards the thorn branch. There were 108 thorns on this 'purple meridian poison branch'. This resource only had one medicinal usage, which involved stabbing one thorn into each of the 108 meridians in the body to drastically improve the body's resistance to poisons and toxins.
He started with this before anything else because tempering his body with the purple meridian poison would improve his resilience when utilising other damaging and dangerous body tempering resources and medicines.
After examining the branch for a few moments, he took out a knife and started cutting off the thorns.
One by one, he sliced the thorns away. Eventually, the branch was completely smooth, leaving 108 sharp and cleanly cut thorns on the ground ahead of him.
"Phew…" He took a deep breath, knowing that this wouldn't be pleasant.
This was simply the nature of body tempering cultivation. Of course, these intense, painful sessions, tended to result in immediate and tangible improvements!
Yaan swallowed the first potion and the first two medicinal pills. After consuming these things, he acted quickly.
One by one, he stabbed the thorns into precise positions across his body.
For a normal human, pushing these toxic thorns directly into the body's meridians would be fatal, but Yaan was a fiend, not to mention that his dantian was already crippled. Even so, when he forced the largest thorn directly into his dantian and watched it disappear within, the pain was truly horrendous.
This was only possible because his Qi refining cultivation had been crippled. If a Qi refiner attempted this, they would just be seeking death.
The potion balanced out the toxic effect of the poisons, keeping the poison localised within the 108 meridians.
Once the potion had secured the poison within the meridians, the first pill kicked in. The medicinal effect released by this pill fused with the poison, before the fused mixture was forced into his blood stream, causing Yaan to grimace. It was painful, but he was in no real danger, because the second pill protected his blood and blood vessels from being damaged by the poison.
As the poison flowed past each meridian, each meridian became filled with the poison. One by one, this caused the meridians to expand and corrode the meridian walls!
After a few minutes passed by, Yaan had managed to force all of the toxins into his 108 meridians. The poison didn't only widen the meridians, but also completely melted the thorns which were all embedded within the meridians!
Yaan finally swallowed the last pill. Without this pill, he would die quite soon, but so long as he took this pill at the right time, all would be fine. Whilst this might seem dangerous, he had prepared everything needed beforehand, there was no chance of him actually dying here.
The final pill's medicinal energy instantly dispersed throughout his body. Just as the poison was about to slowly leak out from his meridians, the pill's medicinal energy forced it back in, then congealed a gel-like substance over and around the meridian. This substance fused with the damaged meridian walls, condensing multiple times, until the meridian walls became multiple times stronger than they were originally.
At this point, Yaan carefully laid down, then didn't move for the following hour. He did this to ensure that his meridians were properly sealed before moving, which could risk dislodging some of the poison into his blood stream.
An hour passed by and thankfully, all was well. Despite knowing that he had undertaken this process perfectly, entrusting his life to the proper working of various medicines was still uncomfortable for Yaan.
Yaan sat up, then retrieved the Rank 3 General Poison Antidote pill from his spatial bag. This medicine was used as a general treatment for poisons, but it wasn't especially effective for any one poison. However, this sort of mild medicines was exactly what he needed right now.
After consuming the pill the medicinal energy slowly spread into his bloodstream, before making contact with the 108 sealed meridians. Upon contact, the external layer of the gel like substance around his meridians dissolved, causing the remnant poison within his meridians which had not been absorbed, to suddenly release into his body!
Yaan waited tentatively with his hand hovering over the box of ten pills, all of which would allow him to salvage the situation if he found that his body was unable to handle the poison.
After some time passed by without anything happening, Yaan opened his eyes, then looked down. He stared blankly for quite some time, but he couldn't be blamed for reacting this way.
His entire body was now purple! After a few more seconds, this purple colouration spread into his eyes, then his internal organs, his flesh, tendons, bones and even his blood!
Yaan was now a completely purple person.
Yaan felt stunned. Even though he knew that he should be able to endure the remnants of the poison after tempering his meridians, he didn't expect that he would feel completely fine!
After calming himself down, Yaan decided to sit and wait.
Half an hour later, the poison was naturally detoxified from his body and he returned to normal. Almost instantly, his skin regained its ever so slightly pale shade.
After looking through the seer's notes once again, he understood why everything had worked so smoothly. In truth, he had already
'I've sorted the portions for you such that, assuming you do it right, you will be fine. Body tempering is only dangerous because most body temperers are morons. Be smart, take the right doses, and you will be fine.'
In truth, he had already seen this note previously, but he didn't think much of it until now. Yaan's experience with body tempering had always been excruciatingly painful, and often very dangerous. It was only now that he realised that the pain and danger could actually be reduced by such a significant degree.
Yaan still had some time left until his next battle. After experiencing the old seer's perfectly arranged body tempering process, Yaan felt curious to see what else he had available to him.