Chapter 101 - Body Tempering Elixirs

“Old devil…maybe we should change the rules again…” Old 4th spoke wryly to the devil spirit, who sighed and nodded his head.

“I did not expect him to hole himself up like this. If this training lasted only for a short period of time, it would be no matter, but looking at him now…he has no intention of leaving for a long period of time.”

“And he still has five elixirs remaining, he definitely plans to use them all before even going outside.” Old 4th sighed.

“Mm. Luckily, he started with the weakest, shortest lasting elixir. The effect lingers for 30 days, once that time is over, we can force him to enter the 7th pagoda.”

“Oh!” Old 4th’s eyes lit up, nodding in understanding.

“Good idea. There’s no reason to actually change the rules, we can simply tell him to enter the 7th pagoda, or else we will remove him from the 7th level abode and send him back down to the 1st. Normally, Rank 5 cultivation is needed to enter the 7th level abode. He can’t enter on his own according to the usual rules, but even if he gains that qualification, we could just alter the rules to prevent him from entering.”

“Right. It’s a bit forceful, but no matter, master would understand.”

“Mm.”

Two months had passed by since Yaan arrived on the 7th level. Since he was no longer being pressured by others, he saw no reason to waste his funds and enter the less optimal environment in the temporal acceleration pagoda. As such, Yaan started by training ‘normally’ within his new home.

This ‘normal’ training at first consisted mostly of subduing 4-Star astral spirits, whilst practicing his sword arts and flying ability. Flying on the 7th level was extremely difficult due to the high gravity, but this environment also made for excellent practise.

In terms of 4-Star astral tattoos, Yaan managed to increase his cultivation to 18 tattoos within this first month. He felt the strain increasing on his body with each subsequent tattoo formation, whilst his recovery from subduing each astral spirit was becoming longer and longer. Because of this, he stopped cultivating his astral power for now, instead turning his attention to the elixirs.

During his periods of recovery from training in that first month, Yaan learned as much as he could about these elixirs. He didn’t actually need to go anywhere to do this, as he found that in his possession, he actually had many books that discussed elixirs already.

Recently, the trial spirits for some reason had a change of heart, freely sorting through all of his resources, selling anything that was completely useless to him, and providing him with everything he asked for. It was extremely convenient, but to be honest, Yaan now possessed too big a volume of wealth, his stacks of astral crystals filled up multiple spatial rings. This was definitely a good problem to have though.

Anyway, he was able to identify these elixirs quite easily by consulting various guides, some of which he obtained recently through his exchanges with the trial spirits.

The elixirs in Yaan’s garden varied in terms of their effect and duration, from those usable by Rank 4 strength body temperers and lasting for 30 days, to those only usable by Peak Rank 5 strength body temperers, lasting for hundreds of days in duration!

And the specific effect of elixirs?

Well, in essence they opened up an entirely new method of cultivating the body! If this could even be called cultivation…

“Hah…hah…hah…” Yaan collapsed to the floor after completely exhausting his body and vital energy for the 45th time that day. As he fell to the floor, unable to move through the burning sensation coursing through his muscles, he felt a powerful but now faint energy being released from his stomach. This energy filled his body and rapidly replenished his exhausted state.

Yaan grinned, even laughing slightly, as he felt the minor improvement to his strength once again. Although this single improvement from one training session wasn’t overly impressive, he had experienced similar advancements tens of times everyday for the past month! The benefits rapidly stacked up, amounting to a rate of progress that left Yaan feeling joyous, especially when considering that this method of cultivating was not accompanied by any sort of risk!

In the next moment, his eyes widened in surprise, which quickly turned to joy.

Crack!

A faint cracking sound could be heard from his body as the golden glimmer on his tendons transformed into a sparkling shine.

“Mythril rank tendons!” Yaan exclaimed happily.

Elixirs were unlike any other body tempering resource Yaan knew. The effect was powerful, long lasting, and required copious amounts of physical exertion to actually achieve any effect.

In essence, the harder he trained during the elixir’s 30 day duration, the better the improvements he would reap!

In this month of training, where he exercised to the point that his body gave out, by performing countless mortal exercises whilst wearing weighted body training gear under enhanced gravity and spiritual pressure, Yaan had improved in no small way.

Not only did his progressive tendons constitution improve to mythril rank, but so did his progressive flesh and bones constitutions!

“That last improvement used up the remaining energy of the elixir. But still, to think one little fruit could actually have such a long lasting, incredible effect!”

From Yaan’s perspective, he merely consumed a single glowing green apple, but the effect actually surpassed any medicinal pill that he had used in his life! And that was only the weakest of the elixirs…

Looking at the glowing blue kiwi, the white melon, the golden cherry, the red pear and the multicoloured plum, Yaan’s expression brightened and his heart rate sped up. Just how strong could he become if he consumed all of these elixirs…?!

Right as Yaan stood up and approached the next weakest elixir, which he estimated should last him for 120 days this time, he paused and blinked in surprise. Following his surprise came wariness.

Facing the sudden appearance of the devil spirit and old trial spirit, Yaan wasn’t sure what to think. However, for the pair of them to proactively show themselves like this, he knew that it probably meant another change.

“Lord inheritor candidate…please challenge the 7th pagoda within three days, or else we will have to send you back to the 1st level.” The old spirit clasped his hands and smiled apologetically.

Yaan still felt perturbed by the now overly polite attitude of this old geezer…

“Pass on the 1st attempt.” The devil spirit added, then immediately after, the pair of them vanished.

Yaan stood there for a while as he pondered over why they were doing this, why this change had occurred, and what it meant for him. However, how could he possibly know these things? In the end, he merely sighed and shook his head.

“Looks like I’m heading to the 7th pagoda.”

Three days later, Yaan crossed the 7th level abode, only glancing around briefly at the various temples which towered along the cliff face, hiding their secluded gardens behind the large structures.

The 7th level pagoda was located at the end of the row of temples and palaces. It was actually quite small, comparatively speaking, and less grand compared to the homes of the residents on this level.

When Yaan arrived, he found the devil spirit and Old 4th waiting outside.

“Good luck, lord inheritor candidate.”

Yaan paused briefly as the old spirit smiled and gave him words of encouragement. He didn’t say anything, only nodding, before entering inside and not bothering with them anymore.

As for what lay within, Yaan had no idea. He had attempted to learn more about the 7th level pagoda during the past three days, but there was simply no information available. He learned the reason for this as soon as he walked in, when a stream of information was transmitted into his mind in the darkness of the hall.

After processing this information, Yaan silently considered things.

The information stated that he would only have at most three attempts at this trial. The contents of the trial were not to be divulged to the outside world, or else he would be demoted to the 1st level with no chance to return to the 7th.

“I accept.” Yaan stated after a few seconds. It’s not like he really had much choice, if he didn’t take on this challenge, then he would be sent back to the 1st level anyway.

Whoosh!

The moment Yaan spoke, the hall lit up, allowing him to see. The darkness from before was quite strange, as it even obstructed Yaan’s near perfect night vision.

As whooshing sounds resounded within the room, Yaan’s eyes widened. He watched as a white gas leaked down from the ceiling, forming ten whirlwinds which accumulated and condensed, until ten figures were revealed within.

The ten figures all looked identical to himself!

Yaan was startled at first, but calmed himself down quickly. Others would probably be more shocked on seeing such perfect copies of themselves like this, but Yaan had experienced the true-false illusion world, where he had already encountered a perfect replication of his past self. Seeing himself staring back at him was now not too strange for Yaan.

“Hmm?”

Before anything else happened, Yaan suddenly grasped at his body as an anxious look flashed across his face.

“What happened to my armour? Ah, and the stone ring!”

To his dismay, Yaan realised that his spatial ring, the golden armour and the stone ring had all vanished from his body! As for when this occurred, he had no idea!

As he inspected the ten figures which all resembled him to the finest detail, he relaxed slightly, realising that they were all in the same position. From this, he could more or less guess at the contents of this trial.

“Challenger…” A voice echoed from all directions within the small hall, drawing Yaan’s attention as he felt that the trial would soon begin. He looked around briefly, but could not locate the source of this voice, it was as if it was being emitted from every direction.

The voice sounded out once again.

“Your possessions will be returned upon successful completion of the trial. The ten entities before you are copies of yourself, possessing all of your strength and replications of your cultivation. Like yourself, these copies are unarmed. They are unable to use spells and arts at first, but if you use such a method a single time in this hall, they will gain the ability to use said technique. Successful completion of the challenge is achieved by defeating all 10 copies, surrender or death will result in failure. Begin!”