Rank 3 Unique Body Tempering Pills

Yaan started practising his sword arts almost all day everyday.

He of course wanted to improve his body with resources, but the requirements of a 3-Star demonic body were simply too ridiculous. At his current level and with his current assets, he could barely afford to improve his Vital Energy by even 3-4%.

He did, however, seek out the Rank 3 versions of the unique body tempering pills. The Rank 2 unique body tempering pills were so useful when it came to enhancing his physical body; he definitely wanted to use these medicines at every rank if possible. There were other body tempering medicines, but none were as powerful or as effective as these. Especially when it came to directly nourishing his physical flesh beyond his Vital Energy, these pills were a cut above any others that Yaan had come across.

Unfortunately, the Rank 3 versions were all exorbitantly priced.

"The Rank 3 Bone Strengthening Pill costs five Rank 4 recovery pills…the Rank 3 Flesh Nourishing Pill costs five Rank 4 recovery pills…the Rank 3 Organ Hardening Pill costs 20 Rank 4 recovery pills…and the other two don't exist in the city, neither the pills nor the recipes can be found anywhere."

Yaan now realised that these pills were not commonly used at all, so he would need to find a Rank 3 alchemist and ask them to refine each pill specially.

Only, no alchemist in the city was well versed with these pills, meaning that they would definitely encounter at least a few failures. Failing in a pill refinement meant wasting materials, time and money. The pills were not worth this much, but there was no other way to procure them.

Of course, true value was determined by one's need for the item, and these medicines were more useful to Yaan right now than anything else.

Yaan arranged for someone to refine the Bone Strengthening and Flesh Nourishing Pills for him…that was all he could afford without selling his spiritual treasures and other things. He only had 12 Rank 4 recovery pills remaining, but he spent ten of them in one go, just like that…

"So wasteful, but this is really the best I can do to prepare for the inheritance." Yaan decided not to stress about it. It was better to squander his money in order to improve his strength right now, than to be a cheapskate and lose his life later on in the inheritance.

This was especially so given the nature of this inheritance, which seemed to give an unfair advantage to those with strong fleshly bodies. It was almost as if the inheritance favoured powerful fleshly bodies above Vital Energy attainment! With this information in mind, Yaan would have to be stupid to not put his all into developing his fleshly body.

After issuing the request, he forgot all about this matter and wholeheartedly focussed on his sword arts.

He performed the stages which he knew well to warm up, then went on to practise and comprehend the 3rd and 4th stages of the Flowing River Blade Art. Out of his various sword arts, only this one was based purely on the element of water. Although the art as a whole certainly wasn't up to par with the three-stage Agile Sword Arts, if he mastered the first four stages of the Flowing River Blade Art, then it would definitely overtake his 1st stage mastery of the Agile Sword Art!

As he engrossed himself in practice, months passed by without Yaan even realising it. Winter cleared away and brought in the new season of spring. Fragrant herbs and bright flowers sprouted up bountifully throughout Yaan's temple's back garden.

He enjoyed practising outside, standing within the 20 feet wide circle of grass that was surrounded by a thin and shallow rocky stream. The sound and sight of the trickling water helped him to feel the essence of the Flowing River Blade Art, allowing him to picture both his blade and his body as water itself.

Someone entered the garden a few minutes ago, but before they called out, they became entranced as they watched Yaan's movements in wonder.

It was as if Yaan had fused with his surroundings; the thin stream around him, his own body, and his metal sword, were all one and the same. This was clearly just an illusion, but it was still a thought that would flash through anyone's mind after witnessing Yaan's display.

Swoosh…

Even though his final strike was gentle, it was extremely shocking. Despite the blade stabbing forwards through the air and never making contact with the water below, the circular stream parted for a moment. The water was held up in this unnatural position by an unknown force, only splashing down and returning to normal after Yaan lowered his sword and exhaled slowly.

"I see, so it's like that. The 1st stage is to move the body like water. The 2nd stage is to move the sword like water. The 3rd stage is to move the surroundings like water!"

He slowly stepped forwards and pushed forth with his sword once again. The man waiting at the gate was completely stunned, watching in total disbelief as the soil around Yaan, travelling parallel to his either side, parted in an identical fashion to the water from just now!

The moment his foot landed, Yaan withdrew and sheathed the sword. An overjoyed look flashed through his gaze, because he had mastered the 3rd stage of the Flowing River Blade Art! He was now able to treat the surroundings as water, and with his strange ability to turn his sword outs into an illusory reality, he could quite literally part the earth as if it was water!

The man by the gate blinked and rubbed his eyes, only to find that the grass and soil was perfectly intact. Not a single change could be seen, nor were there any signs of damage.

'Did I imagine it…?' He wondered. In the end he shook his head and called out.

"Young master Yaan, I have a delivery from Alchemist Handi!"

Yaan's eyes lit up and his body blurred. He appeared beside the gate and quickly grabbed the box from the man's hands.

"Thanks." Yaan nodded. The man bowed towards Yaan, then took his leave and departed.

Once he was alone, Yaan sat down in the centre of his garden and opened the box. A faint medicinal fragrance spread outwards. The two Rank 3 pills within the case were nothing special to look at, he had seen higher ranked pills than these after all.

Yaan didn't hesitated to swallow the first pill, which was white in colour, oval in shape, and weighed multiple pounds. This was the Rank 3 Bone Strengthening Pill. He felt a bit nostalgic as that familiar effect started to surge through his body. Of course, compared to the Rank 2 version, the Rank 3 Bone Strengthening Pill was multiple times more powerful!

The pill was extremely heavy, weighing at least ten pounds. This mass was caused by a form of compressed energy, which charged into his bones in a single rapid burst as soon as it entered his stomach. An ordinary person would be taken by surprise and waste a large portion of this burst of energy, but Yaan had already experienced this once before, plus, he was familiar with the medicinal energy belonging to body tempering resources. It could be said that he was experienced when it came to efficiently absorbing body tempering medicinal energy.

Yaan circulated his Vital Energy and used it to force every scrap of medicinal energy into his bone marrow. Now that he had attained the 3-Star Realm, his control over his Vital Energy many times greater compared to his control at the 2-Star Realm.

Whilst it took some effort, he was able to manipulate his Vital Energy through his flesh and blood, but this was his current limit. It only became possible at the 4-Star Realm to shift Vital Energy outside of the body.

Once the medicinal energy was trapped within his bone marrow, he deliberately kept his body tense and stiff. Yaan coated his bones in Vital Energy, then used this shield of energy to push down and apply even more pressure on the medicinal energy within his bone marrow.

Every now and then, he recovered his Vital Energy with a Rank 3 Vital Recovery Pill. It wasn't difficult at first, the difficulty lay in sustaining this effort for as long as possible…preferably, he wanted to sustain this until every last drop of the pill's medicinal energy had been entirely absorbed into his bones.

He attempted to absorb all of the medicinal energy into his bone marrow, but it was inevitable that some of the power would escape into the outer layer of bone. Yaan used this released energy to temper the outer bone. Because of this, the outer bone was being thoroughly hardened, whilst the marrow was growing in density, reaching a state wherein it became able to regenerate his Vital Energy more rapidly.

Time passed by painfully.

The normal usage of this pill would only last for a period of two hours. Typically, most people would simply allow the pill to run its course through the body. Even just this was extremely painful, but Yaan refused to waste any of the medicinal energy. As such, Yaan's forcefully retained as much of the medicinal energy within his bone marrow for as long as possible. Over time, this became excruciatingly painful!

In the end, he wasn't able to retain 100% of the medicinal energy, but he managed to absorb 92% of the pill's total power! Compared to the norm, which lay in the range of around 20-30%, the difference was like that of night and day.

As soon as the pill was exhausted of all of its power, Yaan's eyes lit up with joy. His bones, previously covered in a faint grey sheen, now resembled a dull, unpolished bronze.

"Bronze Rank bones!" Yaan laughed loudly.

He had hoped that this would happen, but he couldn't be certain of anything until now. His Progressive Bones Constitution originally developed after using the Rank 2 Bone Strengthening Pill, and now, he could confirm that it had a decent chance of improving further by using the higher ranked version of the pill!

By absorbing 92% of the pill's medicinal energy, he really did manage to increase the rank of his constitution!

There were many different types of constitution in this world. Some affected talent. Some provided the cultivator with an immediate and powerful, but set and unchangeable effect. Other constitutions could progress and evolve.

Elia's Heavenly Light Constitution affected her talent, regarding anything to do with light. This included light based spells, her cultivation in areas of extreme light, the development of a light attribute in her Innate Qi, and so on.

Yaan's constitution started off weak and barely even noticeable, but it had endless potential and could be upgraded time and time again given the right conditions. That said, these constitutions were far more common than heavenly constitutions, yet not nearly as highly valued. Just because they had the high potential for growth, didn't mean that they would actually ever progress beyond the initial stage.

But, with these Bronze Rank bones, Yaan's bones wouldn't break even if a building collapsed on top of him! Whilst it wouldn't necessarily increase his combat strength, his ability to endure for longer during battle had definitely improved, and by no small margin.

Although this was certainly something to be happy about, Yaan quickly calmed his mind and heart. There was still one more pill to use, the Rank 3 Flesh Nourishing Pill.

His experience not too long ago with the lower ranked version of this pill was enough to make him grimace when he thought about going through it all again. This time however, he was prepared.

Gulp!

Yaan swallowed a concoction of pills and three different potions. Instantly, he could feel his recovery rate accelerating beyond safe levels - this was an example of how too much of a good thing could become dangerous. If he didn't injure himself somehow, his body would swell up and transform into a mountain-sized tumour.

Next, he took the skin-coloured Rank 3 Flesh Nourishing Pill, and before long, that recovery rate had its work cut out.

Since Yaan had already experienced all of this in the past and optimised his method in advance since last time, he attempted to keep his mind clear and lucid, whilst ignoring the excruciating pain shooting through his body.

Like before, once he felt the pill's energy slipping out from his muscles, he forced it back in with his Vital Energy and then swallowed another handful of medicinal pills. This was where his usage of the medicine differed from most others; typically, others would stop here, but Yaan moved on to begin the 2nd cycle!

Blood exploded from his pores all throughout this 2nd cycle, but naturally, the 3rd cycle was an order of magnitude worse. By the time he finished some time later, everything in his garden had been died red with blood. The previously green grass was now soaked in a crimson paint, whilst the water features now looked like a river and pond of blood.

Yaan exhaled in relief after finishing the process. The pain from the Flesh Nourishing Pill was so intense that it could send weaker cultivators insane. In fact, Yaan had heard that some weaker-minded individuals would kill themselves to escape from the agony!

When he used the Rank 2 Flesh Nourishing pIll last time, he lost consciousness immediately afterwards. This time, Yaan forced himself to remain conscious with the assistance of certain medicines. These medicines forced him to stay awake, allowing him to witness an extremely bizarre scene.

The blood throughout his garden which he had lost due to the Rank 3 Flesh Nourishing Pill started to tremble. At first, the individual droplets shook about, but before long, this faint vibration transformed into a very purposeful movement. Soon after, the blood formed a whirlwind around him, when suddenly, the crimson vortex imploded inwards, storming into Yaan's body and vanishing instantly!

Somehow, he felt like simply witnessing this scene had caused him to undergo a certain change, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what sort of change this was. No matter how hard he searched, Yaan couldn't find the answer, so he gave up and went to sleep.

Over the next few days, Yaan realised something slightly unexpected. Because he absorbed so much of the Bone Strengthening Pill's medicinal efficacy into his bones properly, he actually didn't improve his Vital Energy by as much as expected.

He didn't regret his decision though. Many resources could increase a body temperer's Vital Energy, but very few things could alter and optimise the very structure of the bones. On top of this, improving his physical flesh was highly desirable, because the inheritance seemed to favour those with strong physical bodies!

Two weeks later, Yaan was startled once again as he investigated his condition. He realised that by developing Bronze Rank bones and absorbing so much of the pill's power into his very bone marrow, his Vital Energy was slowly increasing without him even doing anything! Perhaps he hadn't actually lost out on the Vital Energy improvement after all!

In the end, his Vital Energy increased from 12% to 16%, but this number was still rising as the days passed by, albeit incredibly slowly.

This progress was extremely slow, wiping away any lingering thoughts that Yaan had about potentially sticking to the body tempering path. If the 3-Star Realm body was so difficult to improve, then what about the 4-Star Realm, or the 5-Star Realm? He now understood why Rui said that reaching the 5-Star Realm was beyond difficult, and that Qi refining was the superior path for all intelligent life.

In the end, humans, and also demon, were more suited towards Qi refining cultivation. For now though, Yaan could only continue to walk this path, no matter how arduous it may be.