8 Chapter 7: Abnormal
(Changed bone tempering to body tempering)
Ulquiorra was led to a courtyard by Jiayi. There he found the other two disciples which were Zhifeng and Zhou. The two were standing in front of each other with swords in each hand. Zhifeng took a stance that had his sword pointed downward with his right foot forward while Zhou had both his hands on the hilt of the sword.
Zhou made the first move. He dashed in with a speed faster than even what a good olympic althete could do. He shouted as he slashed at Zhifeng with both hands. It was a slash that emphasized explosiveness.
Zhifeng merely smirked as he sidestepped away from the telegraphed slash. He brought his hand upwards, and hit Zhou's wrist with the hilt of the sword as Zhifeng brought his hand downward. Zhou cried as the sword he let go of his sword and held wrist.
"Why must you always hurt me like this, Senior Zhifeng?" Zhou said in sadness as he clutched his wrist.
"To always charge at opponents blindly like a boar is the same as asking to be hunted! You must understand that explosiveness does not equal brashness! I've told you this many times!" Zhifeng scolded.
"But!" Zhou complained.
"No buts! Ask master about this later. Nothing I say gets through you." Zhifeng said.
Zhou made a sad face, but then noticed Jiayi and Ulquiorra on the side. Zhou's sad face lit up as if nothing happened just now. He ran towards Ulquiorra, and as tried to hand him his sword.
"Junior brother Ulquiorra, want to spar? I'll go easy on you don't worry!" Zhou said energetically.
"You fool! Have you forgotten why we're here? We didn't go to the sect library to get some body tempering techniques just for you to suddenly ask juunior brother to spar!" Zhifeng said angrily.
"Ah!My bad hehe" Zhou scratched his head as he stepped back.
Zhifeng sighed. Why were all his fellow direct disciples so eccentric? Wang Yang was too carefree, Jiayi was a battle addict, and Zhou was simply a numbskull. Zhifeng sighed again as he walked towards Ulquiorra.
"Here is a middle Earth rank bone tempering tome. Only direct disciples and the elders would get this type of high ranking technique scroll even if it's just a body tempering one." Zhifeng said as he handed Ulquiorra a brown tome that had two stars on the front cover.
"What do you mean by middle earth rank?" Ulquiorra asked plainly.
"Glad you asked! Cultivation techniques are mainly divided into four main ranks which are the Human, Earth, Sky, and Heaven ranks. These four ranks can be ranked even further between each other. This would be where the low, middle, and high subranks come into play. They represented by the stars on the front cover while the main ranks are decided by the colour. Human rank is yellow, Earth is brown, Sky is blue, and Heaven should be white. Our sect is good enough to have tomes up to the sky rank. As for which subrank, I don't know. Heaven rank tomes are far beyond our reach." Zhifeng explained.
Ulquiorra nodded. At the very least, the Espadas didn't have such a concept when it came to techniques in his former world. He also believed that the Soul reapers also lacked such a thing. Ulquiorra looked at the tome he held. He flipped over to the pages, and found out he could not read most of the characters on the scroll.
"Unfortunately, I can't seem to read most of this." Ulquiorra said blankly.
Zhifeng flinched. His damned Senior brother didn't mention anything about this. Did he not know? Even though He, Zhou, and Jiayi were from the streets when they got picked up, they were formally from a family that had decent resources so they learned how to read. It was merely due to certain circumstances that they ended up this way. Zhifeng was in a dilemma, but the voice of his saviour arrived.
"Don't worry, Ulquiorra. I'll teach it to you myself. I'll also get someone to teach you how to read." Nian Zhen said as she came from the house.
"""Master!""" Zhifeng, Zhou, and Jiayi said as they all went in front of Nian Zhen, and bowed to pay respect.
Nian Zhen nodded, and said for them to rise up. She walked towards Ulquiorra, and scrutinized him again. Ulquiorra merely stared back emotionlessly.
'This kid....truly someone different. Looking at him again still causes me to feel that I'm looking at something that is not of this world.' Nian Zhen thought in her mind.
"Come, I'll teach you all about the things you need to know before you start cultivating. Listen well. As for all of you, go play somewhere else." Nian Zhen as she took Ulquiorra, and signalled the rest to leave.
After the other disciples left, Nian Zhen said for Ulquiorra to sit down, and loosen the upper portion of his robes. Ulquiorra looked at her blankly. Nian Zhen's brows furrowed.
"What's the matter? Why aren't you loosening your robes? Doing it allows me to be able to properly teach you about the body's pathways and meridians." Nian Zhen said.
"I believe it would be best for me to learn while I have my robes completely on." Ulquiorra said blankly.
While he may not understand exactly what a "heart" is, Ulquiorra knows what fear is and what causes it. He already surmised that it would cause problems if people were to see the hole on his upper torso. Right now, his aim was not to cause fear, but to settle in this sect for the time being. Knowing this, Ulquiorra came up with a reason.
"Right now, I do not wish anybody to see what's under my robe. It would do well for both of us if things were kept hidden. As for what I'm hiding, you can consider my past before coming here as the main reason for it." Ulquiorra said as he stared into Nian Zhen's eyes.
Nian Zhen frowned. She didn't erupt in rage nor did she question further. She had this feeling that this would indeed be the best. She had pretty good instincts which was why she lived to be this old as a cultivator. In any case, she guessed that there may be "marks" of a dark past under Ulquiorra's robes that he didn't want anybody to see. Maybe this was also why he put up with such an attire the first time he came here. Nian Zhen sighed.
"Fine, but it would be harder for me to help you familiarize yourself with the body if wedoing what I'm planning to do next would not nearly be as effective." Nian Zhen said.
"I do not mind." Ulquiorra said.
Nian Zhen nodded. She then made Ulquiorra sit down, and she put her palm on Ulquiorra's back. She then tried to send her qi towards Ulquiorra's back, and then circulate it. Ulquiorra felt the unknown energy circulating through him.
'So this is the energy of this world' Ulquiorra thought.
Nian Zhen on the other hand furrowed her brows. She felt as if something was weird about Ulquiorra's pathways. It was similar to a human's, but there was a section that circulated weirdly. It seemed that it was around the middle chest area. Did Ulquiorra's body have a problem? Still, the circulation still continued nornally. It just felt weird for her.
"Remember this pattern. This body tempering technique is called "Beastly Golem Body Technique". The flow of the qi must be stable yet rigid. Make sure tha-" Nian Zhen said, but was cut off as she suddenly heard bone breaking sounds.
Nian Zhen backed off in shock. She looked at Ulquiorra with an incredulous expression. This was because bone breaking should only happen when break through to the middle stage of the Body tempering stage. Ulquiorra wasn't even a first stage Body tempering cultivator based on her observations.
What she didn't know was that Ulquiorra's body was beyond common sense already. To accomodate for Ulquiorra's immense power when his soul went in it, the body he occupied already went through body reforging. The difference was that this time, it was for the slight adjustment for the body to be able to utilize qi too. Nian Zhen could now sense Ulquiorra absorbing the qi in the surroundings greedily.
3rd stage
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4th stage
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5th stage
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9th stage
Ulquiorra broke through to ninth stage of Body tempering all in one stroke. He went through bone reforging, muscle reconstruction, and organ strengthening. These were the three major changes that should happen before one reaches the peak of body tempering stage, and Ulquiorra went through all of it within the time an incense stick would burn.
Nian Zhen was frozen in place. She couldn't recognize the method Ulquiorra did. Ulquiorra seems to have utilized qi in a way that it didn't emphasize rigidness in stability like the body tempering technique she was teaching him. It seemed as if the qi was utilized in way thay emphasized destruction and maybe even death. She could see the grass and plants around die as even the natural qi they had were sucked away. Nian Zhen looked at Ulquiorra in fear.
'Ulquiorra, what are you?'
