Serious Body Tempering

Ghu Nadda followed through immediately with his promise of increasing Yaan's wage. He knew that in order to improve, Yaan needed resources…lots of resources.

Comprehension was also essential for assisting with the breakthrough to the 3-Star realm, but Yaan's comprehension had always been his strong spot, to the extent that he had never needed to worry about it. Whether it was his comprehension of himself, something Rui called the 'dao heart', or his comprehension of spells and the elements involved, he was excellent in both regards.

When breaking through to higher realms, it was necessary to comprehend oneself and the world around oneself. At higher realms, this 'dao comprehension' became the focus of cultivation. At lower realms, the so called 'dao comprehension' was more vague. The comprehension required to ascend to the 3-Star realm, was an understanding of the body tempering path itself. This comprehension was something that Yaan did not lack. Generally speaking, at this realm, only Qi masters would struggle with the comprehension requirements.

Yaan realised just how difficult it was to progress through the late stage of the 2-Star realm, normal materials were simply not effective any longer. Rank 2 beast blood, meat and hearts did nothing to assist him. Rank 3 beast materials were more useful, but these things were too expensive when considering the meagre effect they provided.

At this point, Yaan realised that he should endeavour to obtain the other unique body tempering pills. He had already used the Rank 2 bone strengthening and flesh nourishing pills. These pills were one time use, so he couldn't use them again.

The organ hardening, tendon tempering and blood refining pills were the other three most obtainable pills in this group of medicines, and each pill had Rank 2 versions. After asking Ghu Nadda, it seemed that he would be able to source all three, but they were quite pricey compared to the other two he used previously.

Well, Yaan's reason for using those other two already, was due to the lower cost.

Rank 2 pills didn't often cost more than a Rank 3 recovery pill, but all three of these did. The Rank 2 organ hardening pill wasn't so bad, costing one Rank 3 recovery pill and 20 Rank 2 recovery pills. The Rank 2 tendon tempering pillows more steep, at three Rank 3 recovery pills, whilst the blood refining pill was the most insane at a cost of seven Rank 3 recovery pills!

They probably weren't worth this in reality, but it was supply and demand…there was no supply and no demand. If he wanted these pills, Ghu Nadda needed to pay an alchemist to refine them all especially.

Luckily, Yaan's job was paying extremely well these days. As time passed by and their operations progressed, Ghu Nadda did as he said, focussing on rich clientele, whilst gaining more corpses by enticing strong Qi masters to fight to the death in the arena.

With the opening of the inheritance coming up in two years time, it seemed that many Qi masters were preparing by building up their own army of corpse puppets.

Every delivery was now involving Qi Temple realm corpses at the very least. Higher layer Qi Temple realm corpses were also not uncommon, and after two more months, Yaan was finally put in charge of delivering a Spirit Core realm corpse!

That sale alone earned him 40 Rank 3 recovery pills. Such refined corpses were exceedingly rare and their value was incredibly high.

Now, despite training every day using high quality pills and potions, Yaan finally saved up enough to purchase the three unique physique tempering pills. Besides the pills themselves, he also gathered the various supplementary medicines that would allow him to make the most of these high-end resources.

Firstly, Rank 2 tendon tempering pill.

The use of this pill was excruciating, not because of the level of pain, but because it lasted for three days and three nights. This pill was accompanied by an element of danger, in that the user needed to stay conscious, or else their arms and legs would explode into an irreparable mess the moment they fell asleep. Whilst remaining conscious for 72 hours whilst enduring the ceaseless exhaustion of this medicine was difficult, Yaan prevailed and reaped the rewards that he had very much earned.

The improvement was clear as day. His vital energy increased to 89%, whilst his physical strength increased by one third, just like that! Whilst strengthening tendons didn't produce much of a noticeable improvement to the body by itself, the strengthened tendons provided support to his enhanced muscles and bones, creating a very noticeable improvement. He was now able to exert more strength without injuring himself, but this was something that Yaan would need to practise in training.

Yaan rested for a full week since his mind was feeling strained after such torment. Soon after this week of rest, he jumped into the next enhancement with the Rank 2 organ hardening pill.

This pill was anything but simple. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as the others, but the duration of action was actually 99 days! During this time, Yaan was unable to move, or even sleep. He was forced to utilise multiple Rank 2 mental energise pills and Rank 2 physical energise pills just to remain conscious. This pill was perhaps the most dangerous of the unique body tempering pills; losing consciousness this time would spell his death!

He slept for two full weeks after that tiresome experience. Naturally, he was prepared for this. Yaan had already informed Ghu Nadda beforehand that he would be entering closed door cultivation for some time.

The organ hardening pill was slow in effect, so slow that it was difficult to properly notice the gradual change to his internal organs during those 99 days. It was only after completing the 99 day course and resting properly, that Yaan was able to carefully examine the changes in his body.

His vital energy ramped up to 91%, but the effect on his organs was far beyond this small improvement. It was as if his organs were made from a light metal, their durability was beyond belief, and their function improved drastically. He could hold his breath for hours whilst jogging, he could sleep for 10 hours per month and feel fine, he could consume an endless quantity of food. Even his mental processing speed, memorisation and reflexes all basically doubled!

In fact, when Yaan closely examined his organs, he realised that they had developed a similar metallic sheen to that found on his iron rank bones! This discovery excited Yaan greatly. It suggested that he might have developed a similar constitution affecting his organs, as the progressive bones constitution which provided an enhancement to his bones! Unfortunately, these 'progressive body constitutions' were not something he could find a trace of information about in North Ghu City. With Rui still asleep, he was unable to confirm whether or not he had truly gained a second constitution. For now, Yaan could only put this matter aside.

Before using the final pill, Yaan returned to work to assist Ghu Nadda in order to make up for his time off. He worked 4 or 5 deliveries each day, rapidly accumulating funds that would be essential to reach the 3-Star realm.

In Yaan's time off, he only trained his body for an hour or two each day using high quality pills filled with masses of extreme energy. Like this, he forcefully built up his vital energy at an excruciatingly slow pace. As for his other training…

He took it upon himself to buy as many different basic sword arts as he could find. After studying and mastering them all within a single week, Yaan realised that these were simply too terrible compared to his Agile Sword Arts.

Right, he was still trying to deduce the 2nd stage of the Agile Sword Arts! With his inability to cast spells or use spiritual treasures, Yaan's only method of properly utilising his bodily strength was through sword arts.

In the end, he wasn't actually very knowledgable about sword arts as a whole, so he went to Nadda for help at their next meeting. Ghu Nadda was happy to assist Yaan in anyway he could, after all, they would be working together when the opening of the inheritance site came around in 2 years time.

"Sword arts…? Hmm…could you show me your current sword art…?"

Nadda wasn't expecting much since Yaan was just a young demon with no background to speak of, but his eyes widened on seeing such exquisite movement and fast strikes. As the seconds passed by, the young ghoul's arms slowly dropped, as did his lower jaw.

He only recovered when Yaan finally stopped performing the 1st stage of the Agile Sword Arts.

"This sword art is excellent…you should have mastered the first stage, am I right…?"

"Mm, that's right." Yaan nodded, impressed that he could see through this at a glance. "I'm trying to deduce the 2nd stage since I don't actually possess it. I realise this will be extremely difficult, but I want to at least try…so I think I should learn some other sword arts to build up my understanding."

Although deducing latter stages in a martial art was a legendary undertaking, Ghu Nadda couldn't help but nod. He knew that Yaan not only looked young, but he actually was very young. To have such proficiency in sword arts at such a young age, he clearly had extreme talent in this area.

"Did you have any preference for certain spells when you could use Yuan Qi?" The ghoulish young man suddenly asked.

Yaan blinked, but then nodded as he thought back.

"Mm, I really enjoyed learning a spell that made use of water. I also like the air element and how it's used in my sword art."

"I expected as much…" Ghu Nadda nodded his head. "Those elements certainly suit you…"

Yaan didn't know what he meant by that, but stayed silent and listened to his following words carefully.

"I'll find you some good quality sword arts…ones that will help you comprehend this 'Agile Sword Arts' of yours…let's focus on air element, but also some water ones…I'll only bring the first stages though…decent sword arts are generally really expensive, so be prepared to fork out if you want to buy them all…"

Yaan nodded happily. He didn't mind if they were expensive, he could just sell them back later on.

He was now earning between one and ten Rank 3 recovery pills each day, but that wasn't including the bonus, which often ended up more than doubling his base wage. Yaan was becoming increasingly adept at scamming people 'justifiably'.

He didn't go in with the intention of pressuring them with ridiculous prices, but instead deliberately presented himself as anxious, ignorant and naive. Around two thirds of the time, this led to the seniors around him thinking they could save some money by pressuring him with their auras and statuses. Those people all ended up paying at least the half way price in the range, sometimes even the full maximum, a price that left them feeling angry enough to cough up blood.

With the inheritance opening coming up, more and more people were trying to strengthen their powers as much as possible in anticipation. Because of this, Ghu Nadda raised the prices on all of the refined corpses by as much as 10% each month. Even more people treated Yaan poorly due to this, leading to him righteouslyscamming them and earning that juicy bonus.

This did indeed lead to one or two close calls though. Sometimes, the seniors would lash out and attack him, but they didn't strike to kill and they underestimated Yaan's caution towards them, as well as the toughness of his body. Those strikes which intended to cripple or at least maim him, usually just sent him flying back miserably. He would get injured once or twice each month, but nothing serious that couldn't be recovered within a couple of hours. This was the benefit of the body tempering path over the Qi refining path; there were no injuries which couldn't be recovered from with enough medicine.

After reminding those seniors of his status and calmly and turning to leave, he was even able to earn some 'hush money' on a few occasions. He didn't hide this from Ghu Nadda, who simply laughed and just told him to be careful.

Remember, although they got along well with one another, neither Yaan nor Ghu Nadda were saints. Particularly the young ghoul, he couldn't care less about his clients' suffering, he just didn't want to lose business, or worse, damage the reputation of his clan in this city. So long as Yaan, an envoy of the Ghu Clan, was attacked first, then whatever he did was perfectly fine in Ghu Nadda's eyes, even if he was a bit shameless.

It took Ghu Nadda two months to find five different sword arts that fit Yaan's requirements. Yaan was shocked at the prices, totalling two Rank 4 recovery pills. That was almost half of what he had earned, but he didn't hesitate to go ahead and spend this. He also finally bought all of the pills needed to survive through the use of the 'Rank 2 blood refining pill'.

With this pill in hand, Yaan was too excited to hold back any longer. After months of training, his vital energy had reached 95%. Any of the other pills would be unable to take him from this point to the peak, but the blood refining pill was the most expensive, the most dangerous and the most impressive of the unique body tempering pills that he had used thus far.

The blood red pill was refined from the essence blood of 10,000 Rank 2 demonic beasts. It contained a ferocious aura that would send a normal Qi master insane. Yaan's eyes shone with excitement, then he quickly swallowed the pill. He didn't wait for the pill to begin taking effect, instantly swallowing a Rank 3 blood restoration pill.

This blood refining pill was only a Rank 2 pill, but it was definitely one of the most powerful Rank 2 pills in this world. Its rank was denoted by the mere fact that it could be refined by a Rank 2 alchemist, but the pill itself surpassed many Rank 3 pills ten times over.

Instantly, one half of Yaan's blood was burned away. It wasn't actually burned, but rapidly refined and compressed into a single drop of blood. He had expected this, but he still felt extremely dizzy and was forced to bite his lip to stay focussed. If he didn't focus and continued consuming pills to stabilise his condition, then he would die, no doubt about it.

A few seconds passed by and the Rank 3 blood restoration pill showed its powerful effect. Yaan was only a 2-Star demon, so this Rank 3 blood restoration pill rapidly recovered his blood…but it was hardly enough!

"Ugh…" Yaan almost fell forwards as half of his blood was again refined into a single drop. His volume of blood had only healed to 65%, so now, it dropped to 15% in an instant!

Yaan realised that even after being so cautious and extensively researching this pill, he had still underestimated it. He didn't hesitate to swallow another four blood restoration pills and a handful of Rank 3 vital recovery pills. This sort of concoction would be lethal for a 2-Star demon were they not in such a precarious state as Yaan in this moment!

Vital recovery pills and blood restoration pills had a synergistic effect, so his blood rapidly recovered. After nine seconds, his blood returned to 70%, when again…

Womp!

Yaan felt his mind trembled as his blood dropped down to 20%. A normal human would be long unconscious, and even he was struggling to keep a clear mind. Yaan resolutely grabbed a slim vial from his side. He had prepared an assortment of medicines for this blood refining pill, just incase he needed them. After gritting his teeth and trying not to cry over the value of this potion, he chugged the white glowing vial in one go.

Rank 3 mental clarity potion. A potion valued at 50 Rank 3 recovery pills, gone, just like that…

At least his mind rapidly cleared up, despite the severe blood loss.

The refining of half of his body's total maximum blood would occur every nine seconds. Yaan realised that he needed many more blood restoration and vital recovery pills, so he swallowed another multiple of each of the pills as soon as his blurry vision somewhat recovered. He only breathed out in relief once his blood recovered to 90% before dropping back to 40%. He tensely monitored his situation, only calming down after confirming that his recovery rate and blood refining rate were now approximately equal.

Of course, this was far from the end.

This blood refining pill was the shortest acting unique body tempering medicine, but also the most expensive to use. He needed to continually consume blood restoration and vital recovery pills just to improve his recovery rate enough to keep up with the insanely rapid blood refinement.

Many, many pills later, after burning through the majority of his funds, the Rank 2 blood refining pill's effect finally came to an end. Nine refinements spaced 9 seconds apart, 81 seconds total, but costing…too much.

His depressed mood didn't last for too long though, as Yaan examined his condition and realised that he was now infinitely close to reaching the peak 2-Star realm!

For the first time after using one of these crazy pills, he actually felt great! He wasn't injured at all, and once his blood fully restored itself, he devoured the lingering medicinal energy from the blood restoration and vital recovery pills, attempting to use this to increase his vital energy.

After his body's situation stabilised, Yaan found that his vital energy was at 98.7%, just a fraction away from reaching the peak 2-Star realm! He didn't immediately devour every remaining resource in sight though, because nothing in his possession would be effective in crossing this seemingly small gap.

As Yaan stood up, he paused. He almost forgot, but, the effect of this Rank 2 blood refining pill was actually quite incredible.

Some demonic beasts possessed blood essence, as did certain rare plants like the blood rose that Yaan used to help Rui recover somewhat back in the Northern wilderness. It was also possible, albeit difficult at lower realms, for Qi masters to obtain their own blood essence.

As for body cultivators, it was much easier than for Qi masters, but still couldn't be considered 'easy'.

The true purpose of this Rank 2 blood refining pill was to refine one's own blood into blood essence. It was the only pill useable by 2-Star demons that could grant them blood essence at this low of a realm. Some rare natural resources could also achieve this, but those things could only be found by luck, not actively sought out.

Now, Yaan had nine drops of blood essence flowing through his blood stream. Each drop was in perpetual motion, simultaneously existing as a drop, and as the entire flow of blood throughout his body. Yaan's aura underwent a subtle change. He now emitted an aura of primitive vitality that shouldn't be found on a 2-Star demonic body.

His recovery rate with these nine drops was actually 50% greater compared to before!

Yaan was beginning to realise that when it came to body cultivation, vital energy wasn't everything. Sure, vital energy was the foundation of the realm, but there were many other aspects which shouldn't be neglected if a body cultivator wanted to stand on equal footing with Qi masters.

Yaan had always preferred Qi refining. He didn't enjoy his cultivation technique that forced him to kill, but he found joy in learning and using his Yuan Qi spell, Water-drop Slash, and he desired to continue down this path, studying and learning more. Initially, he didn't consider body cultivation to be anything other than a supplement to his Qi refining path, then after his dantian was crippled, body cultivation simply became a means towards recovering his destroyed dantian.

Now though, Yaan saw through some of the complexities of body cultivation and realised that it was more interesting than he initially realised. Still, he fully intended to restore his dantian and switch back to Qi refining as his primary cultivation path, whilst his body cultivation would be a supporting secondary path.

Even if his body would one day be limited to the 3-Star realm, Yaan believed that he could still continue to enhance his flesh and blood using various means. If this really was possible, then even if his vital energy cultivation stagnated, he could continue strengthening his body!

Yaan shook his head and smiled wryly. All of that was too far off for now, there was no use even thinking abut it. Rui clearly said that his dantian could only be restored after reaching the 4-Star realm, but progressing through the 3-Star realm was a hundred times more difficult compared to the 2-Star realm.

For now, he needed to focus on increasing his strength as much as possible over the coming two years, before the mysterious inheritance site finally opened.