1 Flawless (Prologue)

Through the busy and crowded streets of the border city Ifre, an eight-year-old boy with short, spiky black hair and most vibrant azure eyes, deftly made his way through the crowd. His adorable face was a little tanned and his body was covered with tattered and dirty rags. All in all, he looked like just another street urchin in the busy border city.

But what unusual was that he was fast, faster than any eight-year-old has any right to be. Even among the busy markets of Ifre, his figure moved like the wind. Soon he left the market and made his way towards the giant walls of the city. Even at its lowest point, the wall was 100 meters tall and half that wide. Shouts of soldiers marching on it could be heard all the way to the bottom of the wall.

Without stopping, the figure jumped on the wall and started to vertically on the wall like it was even ground. Just as he reached the top, the figure immediately stopped, taking hold of the wall, suspending just below the top. His ears twitched, listening for any sound on the top.

"Left-Right-Left" voice of dozens of patrolling soldiers echoed, some quivering, others gingerly looking down of the wall and barely holding together.

"Put your back into it or I will personally throw you down the wall." An authoritative voice spoke, pumping soldiers with renewed vigor.

"Hehe, new recruits." figure gigged.

Soon the sounds of marching soldiers became a distant echo, the figure jumped onto the wall and made way towards the other side, before deftly climbing down and running away from the city and the enormous wall spanning the two horizons.

Under the deft feet, grassland soon gave way to rice fields and a small village in the middle of scenic fields, amidst the backdrop of tall snowy mountains and dark forests.

"Zhen" A burly figure working in fields shouted, "Where were you?"

Zhen burst into laughter, "You will not catch me, brother." and ran away.

"Get here Zheeen!!!"

Zhen did not look back, running away into the forest. Just as the treeline covered her brother's view of him, Zhen took to the trees. Jumping from one branch to another with great speed and dexterity, he soon reached a small clearing by a cliff. Steeping near the cliff wall, he tapped the wall in a pattern.

Like magic, a hole appeared in the cliff. The small hole in the cliff was surrounded with runes written in beast blood, forming a rudimentary array. If any cultivator was here, he would be astonished to see it, the runes used were not that have been ever seen in this plane of existence, and Zhen using them form an illusionary array despite not having a speck of essence in his body went against very principles of Array formation.

But Zhen did not care, he pulled out a small alchemy pot filled with curdling, putrid mudlike salve from the hole along with many alchemy ingredients. He then set up a small fire, pacing alchemy pot over it and adding some water to it.

Soon the mudlike mixture was boiling. Seeing this, he took a deep breath, his playful expression gone as he whispered, "Skyword"

A thin golden book that hid in its covers all knowledge of all universes, materialized, levitating in front of him. He further commanded, "Alchemy God's Miracle Almanac, Flawless Physique Salve."

Golden book shone and turned to a thin leather-bound book titled 'Alchemy God's Miracle Almanac.' Pages turned before stopping upon reaching the page containing the recipe he needed. Flawless Physique salve was created by alchemy God eons ago when he was experimenting with the most common alchemy ingredients and created it by accident. He did not even know what this did, its properties were too profound for even him, someone standing at the pinnacle of Dao of alchemy.

He tested it on a slave and when he thought it did not do anything, just threw him away. Unbeknown to him, that slave survived and gained the Flawless Physique, and went on to become a Realm King, with a pearless physique that was never seen before. In an act of revenge, he later killed the Alchemy God and destroying anything even remotely linked to him, along with notes on this miracle slave. Till the end, neither the Realm king came to know how he gained his physique, nor Alchemy God understood how he created his own doom.

No one ever knew that one of the most wonderous Physique was created in a lab using the most common alchemy ingredients. No one except him, for no secret is hidden from Heaven and everything Heaven knows is recorded in his book.

Looking at the instructions once again, he pulled out ice grass, a very precious alchemic ingredient from his robes. He was able to forge most of the ingredients in Indigo Forest but Ice grass was something he could not get anywhere else, so he had to steal it from Ifre's auction house. By now City lord will be furious, looking for it all over the city.

"Ha, Ice Grass may have been worth dirt to Alchemy God but I had to risk my life and limb to get my hands on it.", Zhen grumbled, crushing the ice like grass before adding it to the salve. The Ice grass cleared the mudlike salve, making it clear and pristine. Zhen smiled, he has been preparing Flawless Physique Salve for the better part of the year, and now, it was finally ready.

He stripped out of his clothes and picked up the now clear and fragrant salve. He had drawn formations around the clearing to keep the wild beasts away so he must be safe while his body evolved. If the Book of Hevan was correct, which it always is, the process should not be longer than an hour. Using his bare hands, he started to cover himself in the viscous paste.

When every part of his body was covered in Salve, he started to feel cool tingling sensations all over his body.

Smiling, Zhen sat down when suddenly every single sound around him froze. Zhen immediately realized something was wrong everything around him turned dark. Raising his head he saw angry black cloud churning directly over his head, ominous serpents of lightning rolling in them. And before he could blink, the cloud expanded millions of miles, covering his entire realm.

"What is That?" Zhen screamed in fear. Despite being reincarnated, Zhen was still an eight-year-old facing the enormity of Hevan and Earth.

The Skyword turned at his question, its golden pages fluttering angrily before stopping. Zhen got one look at it and all blood drained from his face.

'Heavenly Tribulation'

Just then a thick tendril of lightning struck him, throwing him back to the ground. Zhen burned and in pain, barely pulled himself to his feet.

"This was not supposed to happen, then Why?"

Skyword, a fragment of omniscient will answered him by writing, 'It's a Test'

Reading it, Zhen immediately stilled, before a smile bloomed on his pale face. In his fear, he forgot that Heaven Tribulations are near impossible to clear; near impossible, not impossible, never impossible. Heavenly Tribulations is a test, to see whether he is worthy of what he is about to be given.

Heavens never tested when Alchemy God experimented on the slave boy, but then he was not just a slave boy.

Looking defiantly at the dark skies, he pushed up his backing body and defiantly declared, "I am Zhen, and I am going to be the Greatest Cultivator of ALL"

Skies rumbled, in anger at his declaration or in respect to his resolve, he did not know. What he does know is that the lightning that struck him second was far more painful than first. And the one that struck him third was more painful than the second. And fourth far more painful than the third and so forth.

Soon he had reached the threshold of physical pain he could feel, but Tribulations did not relent. The silvery lightning turned red and when it struck, it bypassed his physical body and cause pure unadulterated mental anguish. He was in realms of hurt he could not even comprehend, living his every fear, his every inadequacy, he regrets.

And every time it struck, he relived that mental anguish, that pain. He did not know how long it continued but when the tribulations finally withdrew, he was struck on last time by a pure golden bolt of lightning. It did not cause any pain or anguish, but the moment it struck, Zhen fell to the ground, his mind drifting to unconsciousness. His body glowed in an ethereal Golden glow, as the Flawless Physique manifested, far greater than even its first holder.

But Zhen slept, unconscious and obvious to the monumental changes occurring in his body, and soul.