Body Cultivator

As Lou Meng opened his eyes and got off the bed he had been laid on, he was surprised to see that the Fang Yun sitting in a meditative posture not too far from his. When he looked around himself, he realised that he had actually been taken to his young master's room.

"I'm alive...?" Lou Meng suddenly spoke in confusion as he clearly remembered how the suspicious old servant cut him down to the bone.

He wasn't that well-learned about biology but he knew there should have been no way for him to lasted long enough to get treatment. Another surprise came to him as he realised that there were actually stitchings on his chest, his eyes flashed as he remembered how he was saved.

"So you're finally awake." Fang Yun's calm but soft voice entered his ears.

Lou Meng turned his head towards his young master as he somehow felt unfamiliar with the tone of Fang Yun's voice. The young servant was Fang Yun's best friend and had even grown up with him from a young age, so it wasn't hard for him to detect the changes that occurred to his young master while he was unconscious.

"You don't have to look at me so suspiciously... almost dying really changes a person's mindset." Fang Yun lied as the explanation regarding his change was just too unbelievable.

"I'm sorry, young master, I didn't mean any discourtesy!" Lou Meng panicked as it was his first time committing such an offence. The servants of the Fang Clan knew their place well, if their masters were to be dissatisfied with them, it would lead to many problems.

"Don't be so stiff. We're friends, aren't we? Just because I've changed doesn't mean I think of you any differently than before." Fang Yun reassured him with a wry smile. He was appreciative of Lou Meng and had a very good opinion of him. If he didn't, then there was no way he'd have begged his grandfather for an Organ Mending Pill to completely heal his internal injuries.

"Thank you." Lou Meng stopped calling him 'young master' as he felt that although Fang Yun seemed like a different person than before, he was still the same person he grew up with.

They talked about miscellaneous things for a bit before Fang Yun brought up something he was really curious about.

"You've broken through to the ninth level of Nascent Forging, right?" Fang Yun asked while moving towards Lou Meng and observing the Qi within him using his unique Spiritual Perception.

He had gotten used to keeping an eye out with his Spiritual Perception whenever he could. Although it consumed some Chakra to keep his Spiritual Perception active, the only way he could increase his mastery and control over Chakra was by becoming more familiar with it through usage.

"How did you know? It's all thank the spiritual medicine you gifted me a few days ago that was able to breakthrough so easily." Lou Meng didn't hide it as he felt he'd definitely be able to forge his Spiritual Artifact before he became twenty years of age. Perhaps he will be considered the next Chu Rinyu if you were to look at his talents in combat.

Once reaching the ninth level of the Nascent Forging stage, there would be a period of stagnation where a Cultivator wouldn't be able to increase their strength until they are able to fully forge their Spiritual Artifact. The time it would take for someone to forge an Spiritual Artifact was dependant on how familiar they were with their weapon of choice or personal hobby.

"Good. Then it looks like I'll be able to get more results. Brother Meng, I need you to test a circulation technique I invented." He went straight to the point since he needed a guinea pig to better understand the connections between Qi and the 4 fundamental internal forces.

"You invented it yourself?" Rather than being happy, Lou Meng's expression showed just how much he was against using an 'invented' circulation technique. It was a well-known fact that those who circulated inner energy through their channels randomly could explode if they weren't careful enough.

"Don't worry. I've researched the Medical Dao for many years and know what I'm talking about. Do you think I'd let you train something that could harm you? Just have faith in me." Fang Yun persuaded him as he really didn't trust anyone else with his secrets besides Lou Meng and Chu Rinyu.

If he wanted to survive the Azure Sky Continent without having to always rely on his grandfather, he needed to find a way to cultivate. He was sure that he wouldn't be able to fight against the enemy hidden in the shadows if he didn't use the time he had to cultivate.

As for not having Spiritual Channels, it wasn't something he was worried about since it wasn't like he had any in his past life. All he wanted was to find a way to cultivate despite being a mortal.

"You have a point..." Lou Meng was able to find some sense in his words and decided to go with the flow. Since his young master had brought up the subject, he wouldn't be unconfident regarding how the circulation technique would affect his health.

"Okay then, how do you want me to circulate my energy?" Lou Meng agreed as he sat in a mediative position similar to Fang Yun's. A curious light appeared in his eyes as he patiently gazed at him.

"Do you know why I was sitting in a meditative position just a few moments ago?" Fang Yun asked in return.

"Not sure. To calm your mind?" He replied with a laugh. It wasn't as if there wasn't anyone besides Cultivators meditating to reflect on their life choices or other kind of reasons.

"A kick from the left side." Fang Yun spoke and didn't even give Lou Meng time to process his words before throwing out a kick towards his shoulder. Lou Meng quickly reacted to the attack and expected to be able to block the attack with one arm, yet he used both of his arms to block the kick instead since he didn't want to look too arrogant in front of his young master.

It was only after the kick landed did he realise that he had made the right choice. Even though Lou Meng's body was being constantly reinforced by Qi without him needing to consciously control its power, he tumbled off the bed and was blown onto the ground.

"What the heck was that?!" Lou Meng was so shocked that he forgot his previous mannerisms. A Mortal who completely mastered their form of martial arts could probably blow away a Cultivator of his level, but they wouldn't be able to do so this easily...

"This attack is called the Hammer Foot technique. Unlike many techniques of the continent, it only needs the user to harden his legs with Ki and throw it towards the opponent to create a big impact." Fang Yun explained while putting his foot down leisurely.

"Brother Yun, you can practice Qi without Spiritual Channels?" Lou Meng looked like his mind had blown after hearing Fang Yun's casual answer.

"I don't mean Qi with a Q, but Ki with a 'K'. They both sound similar but are entirely different. Ki is otherwise known as Hidden Strength while Qi is considered a kind of Spiritual Energy that can be stored and cultivated in Spiritual Channels." Fang Yun emphasised the difference in pronunciations as he explained. He didn't quite understand the difference between the spiritual power of Chakra and the spiritual energy of Qi but he knew that only those with Spiritual Channels could even store Qi.

"I've never heard of Hidden Strength before, and I've also never seen you practice this energy as well." Lou Meng couldn't understand why he hadn't heard of this energy before if it was as amazing as Fang Yun explained.

"It's a recent discovery. You don't need to meditate to practice Ki anyway. All you need is to exercise." Fang Yun glossed it over with an answer that was half the truth and half a bogus lie.

Lou Meng, as expected, didn't see anything wrong with the explanation since he wasn't really that bothered about his young master's secrets.

"I'm going to give you a technique known as the Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing circulation technique. It's a body cultivating art that is supposed improve physical abilities through cleansing the body of impurities. I don't know how your Qi will affect the technique but I'm completely sure it won't detriment your growth." Lou Meng was quite interested in the technique after hearing its strong sounding name and the fact that it was actually a body cultivating technique that didn't need him to look for rare or legendary herbs in order to train it.

Fang Yun patiently explained the fundamentals of Ki and many theories regarding how it could help one in combat and how to control it. Although Lou Meng wasn't the smartest person out there, but with Fang Yun's careful words, he was able able to grasp the fundamental knowledge of Hidden Strength to the point of intuitively understanding that he could train both Ki and Qi without exploding his body.

"I'll start cultivating now." Lou Meng then closed his eyes tried to grasp the 'Ki' within him. Oddly enough, even though many master martial artists on Earth were unable to even grasp the existence of Ki, he was easily able to locate the Ki within him before circulating the technique he was given.

Fang Yun realised that it wasn't that Lou Meng was monstrously talented in martial arts but that Cultivators of the Azure Sky Continent already had high awareness of their internal energies.

Perhaps stronger Cultivators had already grasped the use of the four fundamental internal forces but didn't see them as anything special since Qi gave more practical benefits while also having the power to mimic the effects of all four fundamental internal forces.

Fang Yang was a great example of this since he could use Fang Yun's Spiritual Perception technique without having to worry about wasting Chakra. He didn't know what were the differences between his grandfather's Spiritual Perception and his own but he knew that his grandfather's was easier to use.

Fang Yun watched Lou Meng with his Spiritual Perception intently. In his past life, this Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing technique was the core technique of the Harmonic Dragon's Angelic Halo hybrid style. The power of this self-created technique allowed him to gain a physical body that was impervious to even bullets. If it wasn't for the fact that his master had attacks that could even break through steel armour, he wouldn't have easily died.

In Fang Yun's Spiritual Perception, he could see Lou Meng's Spiritual Channels through concentration and watched the 'veins' of spiritual energy slowly integrated with his meridians.

Lou Meng's face darkened as he tried to stop the circulation of the technique but found his efforts to be useless. His expression slowly turned helpless as he found his Spiritual Channels were being permanently altered by the Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing technique Fang Yun taught him.

When he opened his eyes, he looked at Fang Yun with dissatisfaction that he couldn't voice. It was as if he was holding back his urge to curse.

"What's wrong?" Fang Yun couldn't help but ask after seeing his expression.

Lou Meng looked like he was deliberating over something before finally letting out a sigh. He reached into his clothes and pulled out an old book that seemed to be very ancient.

Fang Yun quickly flipped through the pages of the thick book and was genuinely surprised. He didn't expect his friend would actually have a technique that could help one enter the Core Formation stage. If this information was to be leaked, the amount of people who would greedily try and steal this technique wouldn't be any lower than the ones trying to stop his marriage with Chu Rinyu.

The technique used to breakthrough to the Internal Root stage was common but techniques that could help one breakthrough to higher levels were both extremely rare and monopolised.

"This is a circulation technique that was passed down by my ancestors called War God's Sword Tactics. As the name suggests, one would need a sword type Spiritual Artifact to train in the sword techniques that have been passed down by my family." Lou Meng spoke dejectedly. Fang Yun realised that he may have accidentally altered his friend's fate by passing on his Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing technique without properly asking about Lou Meng's path in cultivation.

The Metal Dao the ancient-looking cultivation technique described will be useless now that Lou Meng has become a 'true' Body Cultivator. There was no point in giving him a Tempered Weapon to use as a sword since it wouldn't be able to withstand Metal Qi.

"Okay. I know this looks bad, but I also have some fist and foot techniques as well. I'll even personally train you in my martial arts." If it was heard that the Blood Shadow of the Battlefields actually apologised to someone in his life, they wouldn't have believed it, yet here he was now trying to calm his own servant with words that made him sound like a kid who made a mistake.

"You have techniques as well?" Lou Meng was instantly hooked without him needing to say many words.

Although this cultivation deviation made it so he could only use his Qi to enhance his body, after further thought on the matter, it wasn't too much of a big deal if he was to have a matching set of fighting techniques on top of it.

The reason he was dejected beforehand was due to the fact that there was no way for him fight without proper techniques fit for a Body Cultivator. As for following the cultivation path of his ancestors... That didn't cross his mind even for a second. It didn't matter to him what path he took to get stronger!