Chapter 21 - Progressive Bones Constitution

Upon Yaan’s return to Hun Village, he unexpectedly ran into his teacher for the first time in a full month.

“Oh, Yaan! I heard that you used the Water-drop Slash spell in combat and defeated an Early Rank 2 beast? Impressive Yaan, good job!” Seeing his teacher’s kind gaze which was filled with earnest praise, Yaan couldn’t help but feel a little bit of happiness.

Since arriving in the Heavenly Path Sect, Great Elder Wan had unexpectedly become someone that he trusted more than any other person across this mountain. Rui tried to remind him that nobody could truly be trusted, but Yaan thought she was just being overly paranoid. Adding in the actual sense of love that Great Elder Wan felt towards his disciple, despite his resolution to see through his malicious plans, Yaan was totally fooled.

Rui frowned secretly. Great Elder Wan departed after awarding Yaan with some Rank 2 vital recovery pills and Qi recovery pills, as well as a special Rank 2 bone strengthening pill. Yaan felt quite content with all of this, whilst his heart was warmed by the generous and concerned actions of his teacher.

“Yaan-”

“Rui, do you really think that teacher is someone evil? He always acts upright, everyone trusts him, he’s simply shown me no reason to distrust him. I have taken your lessons to heart, I’m not naive and know that people cannot be trusted, but surely there are some exceptions, right? Or are cultivators destined to be forever lonely, never daring to place their trust in anyone throughout their lives?"

The was the first time that he had properly argued against Rui like this. She was taken aback, not by the fact that he refuted her, but by the obvious trust he placed in his teacher.

This was definitely a problem.

The reason she hadn’t told Yaan about his teacher’s true intentions, was because she worried that a Spirit Core realm Qi master would easily see through Yaan if he tried to lie or act before him. This was especially true now that they had grown closer and developed some understanding of one another.

However, the current situation was also something she didn’t want to see. If Yaan wasn’t on guard against the Great Elder, then he would be totally unprepared for the inevitable future conflict. Also, it could definitely deal a serious mental blow to him. It was unknown how bad this could become if Yaan truly grew to love and depend upon his teacher.

She couldn’t tell him directly, but she also couldn’t leave things as they were.

“Yaan, the reason I have been telling you to always remain cautious of people is in part due to your teacher. I noticed long ago that he is using you to further his own power, but I kept it a secret because if you know the full truth, then you will be seen through too easily."

Yaan’s eyes widened, but his expression quickly returned too normal. He had already somewhat expected this, but he’d honestly been avoiding thinking about it.

“I, I know that he might be using me for some gain, but it’s just to increase his reputation and position in the sect, right? I can tell that teacher truly does care for me. Maybe he didn’t in the past, but we have grown closer, so-”

“You’re right. This contradiction is causing a knot in his heart, making him feel confused and uncertain. Yaan, I cannot explain the details because that would endanger you, but you should be more cautious around him. Don’t get sucked into a real relationship, because I guarantee you that it will not last.”

Yaan became silent, his expression dark. Rui had basically just confirmed all of his worst suspicions, yet she was clearly still withholding information because the full story was apparently even worse. Honestly, he didn’t want to think about it.

Actually, he probably shouldn’t think about it anyway. Rui said herself that he would be in trouble if he discovered the full truth. At the same time though, she didn’t seem to be too worried. Her main concern was clearly that Yaan would either discover his teacher’s secret and be seen through by the scheming old man, or that he would become too attached to the Great Elder.

He sighed openly. When he thought about it, he felt certain that Rui was manipulating him. Telling him some things, lying about others…but he felt that she didn’t do this out of malice, since she even admitted to doing it herself. Her only goal right now was to help Yaan become stronger, strong enough that he could be of assistance to her recovery.

The safest course of action was certainly to follow Rui’s advice. He was sure that in time, she would eventually explain further.

Yaan pushed all of these worries from his mind, instead focussing on training. Rui realised that she may have given him some unnecessary stress, so comforted Yaan by guaranteeing that he would be in no danger so long as he trained diligently and acted as usual. The current situation where he didn’t meet his teacher very often was also quite useful for disguising Yaan’s doubts towards his gentle mentor.

Even then though, Rui was pleasantly surprised by Yaan’s acting abilities. He acted no differently around his teacher, only becoming slightly more reserved. Owing to the chaotic nature of the beast tide, his teacher wouldn’t notice or even care about something like this anyway. Besides, any minor changes in Yaan’s demeanour could be attributed to his young age and his ever developing personality.

Yaan’s fame steadily rose as he slaughtered beast after beast in the Northern wilderness. He battled and killed any beast he came across that he was able to handle alone. This led to a fast development of his Yuan Qi, as well as steady improvements to his demonic body. Fight after fight, Yaan was like an obsessed hunter, spending most of his time at Hun Village and around the outskirts, defending the place against the never ending influx of beasts.

His actions not only increased his reputation further, but allowed him to gather a large quantity of merit points. To Yaan, this latter benefit was far more important than the first.

Another ten months flew by. It was December and Yaan was now 11 years old, though he looked identical to himself from ten months earlier. No, perhaps his bearing had changed slightly, becoming increasingly refined, yet also colder and more brutal. Despite having the physical appearance of a child, his gaze and demeanour no longer resembled a naive youngster.

During this time, many developments continued to unfold around the ongoing beast tide situation. Shockingly, the beast tide had now fully enveloped each and every one of the nine organisations in the Greenwood mountain range! Even the Yuso Clan, the strongest of the groups situated on the largest central mountain, was suffering great losses. It could even be said that the beasts were devoting one third of their total power against that single mountain! The other two thirds restrained the remaining groups, preventing them from providing any assistance to the struggling Yuso Clan.

Though, many of the other organisations hated the Yuso Clan to the bone and would never assist them anyway. That clan claimed the best mountain as their own, lording over the rest and suppressing them with their strength. It should be known that this clan actually possessed three Origin Soul realm Qi masters!

The difference between the Spirit Core realm and the Origin Soul realm was like that of day and night. Origin Soul realm Qi masters possessed an origin soul, they were a fundamentally higher form of life than those lower cultivators with mere mortal souls.

Each of the clans possessed Origin Soul realm Qi masters, which was also what separated them from the other five surrounding groups. Generally speaking, thanks to their bloodline ties, clans were even more unified and nurturing towards their members than a school or sect, allowing situations like this to be commonplace throughout the world.

The increased intensity of the beast tide also led to another startling change; the tournament between the Greenwood mountain groups would be pushed forwards by over a year, now taking place in one month’s time!

The reason for this was quite simple; this January was predicted to be the coldest month in over a decade. The beast tide would retreat temporarily, only sending out the bare minimum in their assault to maintain pressure and keep the sects on guard. Beasts were generally quite stupid, but a Rank 5 spirit beast was oftentimes more intelligent than most, even rivalling ordinary humans. It seemed like the mysterious beast leader was not willing to throw away its subordinates’ lives needlessly when it could just patiently wait out the harsh winter months.

There were supposedly extra political schemes behind the scenes of this tournament, but Yaan didn’t care about this. The important point was that this tournament provided him with the opportunity to earn some serious rewards.

A few years ago, he had planned on staying more low key, but that was now impossible. Due to the constant messengers travelling between mountains during the beast tide, his name had spread throughout the Greenwood mountain range. Yaan was already a high key character, a highly coveted and feared individual for his potential, so why bother holding back now? Rui agreed that this would be an excellent opportunity to earn some valuable medicinal pills and perhaps even spells.

High stakes bets between Elders were common, as were rewards for winning matches.

Over the previous ten months, Yaan had been crazily building up his liquid Yuan Qi by killing beasts, whilst strengthening his body by consuming their meat. He also continued to train his Agile Sword Arts.

In fact, Yaan’s training was so intense that for a while, he had completely forgone all rest with the exception of sleeping and eating. When his teacher noticed this, he was actually slightly alarmed, worrying that Yaan would tire himself to death. Whilst Yaan was reluctant at first, he ended up following his teacher’s advice, spending one or two hours each day relaxing by painting whatever came to mind.

With all the goings-on in the outer sect, Yaan had taken to painting the various scenes in and around Hun Village. He found it particularly interesting to paint those devastated disciples who returned from the outside following a crushing defeat. He still wasn’t satisfied with his ability to capture the full extent of their emotions, but he was certainly making progress as an artist.

Two months ago, Yaan reached the early stage of the True Yuan Qi realm. He now possessed a small pond of Qi, consisting of 10,000 drops and increasing this to 12,500 drops over the past two months. This may seem like a large amount of Yuan Qi to be stored within a single meridian, but the dantian was not something simple like a physical organ. The space within the dantian was far larger than the dantian itself, though perhaps describing its capacity in terms of physical size wasn’t quite right.

His body had also improved, just about reaching the qualification for an Early 2-Star demonic body! It was because of this that Yaan now sat alone in his humble home, holding a bone white oval pill. The pill shone with a dull white light and weighed 3 pounds, an extreme weight for a small inch long pill. This was the Rank 2 bone strengthening pill, a pill which his teacher gifted to him several months earlier.

Rui claimed that using this pill before reaching the early stage of the 2-Star realm would be wasteful, since he had other means to improve his body prior to this point. As such, it was only now that Yaan arrived at this stage that he decided to consume the pill, just in time for the competition in one month time.

Gulp!

Yaan swallowed the pill in one go, then braced himself for the coming pain. The bone strengthening pill was quite safe, but its usage was extremely painful. This Rank 2 pill could be used just single time, giving the user a strong boost in power, but making it completely pointless to attempt a second use of the same pill.

“Kuh…!” Yaan’s eyes widened as he felt a powerful and dense energy shoot directly into his bones. The marrow within the bones was forcefully refined by a powerful burning energy, removing any impurities and leaving a more pure and dense marrow.

The outer shell of the bone experienced a similar treatment. The hard but brittle layer underwent countless cycles of destruction and re-creation, over and over again. The white layer was gradually ground away, replaced by a dull grey metallic sheen.

This process didn’t take long to describe as it was simple repeating cycle, but Yaan was forced to endure this searing agony for almost two hours straight. When the process finally finished, he collapsed to the ground whilst panting for breath, eventually falling asleep on the wooden floor owing to his exhaustion.

When he awoke hours later, his first thought was to check the state of his body. He was shocked to discover the grey metallic sheen across the surface of his bones! This way very faint and could only be seen to Yaan when he sensed the insides of his body using his own Yuan Qi.

“What is this, did my bones become metal?!” He exclaimed in shock, his eyes boggling since he couldn’t comprehend what shocking change had taken place in his body.

“Of course not, you just obtained iron rank bones.”

“…?” Yaan didn’t even say anything, just staring at Rui questioningly as he waited for her to explain.

“The iron rank bones are the first rank to the progressive bones constitution. This can be attained by anyone, even Qi masters, but Qi masters can only go so far. For you, this is an excellent method to improve your body’s constitution, specifically gaining powerful bones. The ranks start at iron, then go to bronze, silver, gold and so on.” Rui explained.

“So is this the effect of the pill? How can the higher ranks be obtained then, if this pill can only be used once?”

“No, it’s not a direct effect from this pill.” Rui corrected him. “The progressive bones constitution can be gradually developed by anyone cultivating their body using various means, but it is usually random and fairly rare. Using specialist bone enhancement pills increased the chances of stepping onto this path. To obtain iron bones at Rank 2, you’re quite lucky. Also, check your cultivation level.”

“My cultivation…huh, my body improved so much?!” Yan exclaimed dumbfoundedly. He had spent so long just to reach the early stage, yet this single pill boosted his body from the 5% vital energy requirement for the early stage, all the way to 14%!

Vital energy was the energy that pervaded a body cultivator’s fleshly body, providing the ongoing strengthening effect as it flowed through their very blood stream. Like Yuan Qi, the amount of vital energy could be used to measure one’s progress through the realm alongside the stages from initial stage through to peak stage. Unlike Yuan Qi however, vital energy could not be manipulated or controlled, it was simply a component of the physical body.

“As I said before, rare resources are the best for body cultivation, but they’re extremely expensive and hard to come by compared to Yuan Qi based pills.”

Rui had become more informative to Yaan over the past months. Before, she often withheld much information about the future of his cultivation, but she now freely explained some things.

Yaan was uncertain about the cause of this change of heart. He thought that it was perhaps because he had been spending some of his merit points on resources that contained an element of blood essence. Blood essence was the best medicine to assist with Rui’s recovery, whilst resources containing the aura of life and death also provided some use. It would be a long time before she could fully recover her body, cultivation and everything else, but Yaan wanted to at least assist her with the healing of her soul, which was something he could begin doing right now.

The more Rui’s soul recovered, the more power she would be capable of using. Her spirit sense ability had developed further, now capable of detecting anything in great detail within a radius of 300 feet around her. Not only was this good for Rui, but it was excellent for Yaan, as she could act as his method of surveillance for now.

However, the most shocking thing that Rui revealed to him regarding his own cultivation, was that it was impossible to cultivate his body past Rank 3!

Well, this wasn’t entirely true.

Rui explained that both the Qi master and body refining paths would require one to form a core to achieve a Rank 4 cultivation. Human Qi masters formed the spirit core within the dantian, whilst demonic race Qi masters formed the demon core. Those cultivating a demonic body would instead need to form a ‘vital core’ within their physical body in order to reach the 4-Star realm.

It was impossible for the vital core and the demon core to coexist in the same body. For this reason, Yaan would eventually need to abandon one of his cultivation paths and instead focus on the other. Rui advised that he should focus on Qi refining, since this path would be far easier to achieve success with compared to body cultivation. Body cultivation required utterly insane quantities of resources at higher levels, even Rui admitted that it would be too difficult to reach the 4-Star realm, no matter going beyond this stage.

This isn’t to say that his efforts to strengthen his body were for naught, though. So long as Yaan broke through with his Yuan Qi and body simultaneously all the way through to Rank 3, then he could maintain a Peak 3-Star body forever after. This would provide him with an advantage beyond that of other Qi masters for a long time. A stronger body would make him more resilient against attacks that he failed to block, whilst also being able to exert more power in his own attacks. Not to mention that body cultivators possessed a superior physical recovery rate and the ability to survive from would-be fatal injuries.

Knowing this didn’t change anything for Yaan right now. In the end, he was only a True Yuan Qi realm Qi master with a 2-Star demonic body. Right now, he could only focus on taking one step at a time.