As the six bone piles clattered, the ever-growing Blindlight jumped down from a nearby tree. He then proceeded to absorb the Spiritual Energy, condensed into small singularities of energy, to enhance his cultivation base even more.

Another trait of Primordial Beasts was that, thanks to their experience from their previous life and innately powerful bodies, they had close to no trouble with consecutive breakthroughs. As such, there was no need to plan and space out his advancements, leaving him free to eat as much as he wanted. When the dragon was finished with the remains of the six cultivators, even the bones had turned into dust and they scattered into the wind.

With a sigh, Cheng Hao sat back down and began to thoroughly absorb the fleshly energy that he had gathered from those unlucky cultivators. Soon, that fleshly energy had turned into a pellet, which he popped in his mouth. As he sensed its quality he was inwardly perplexed for a bit, but the puzzlement suddenly turned into joy as, with a loud *boom*, Cheng Hao's body trembled and glowed! Tremors spread across the air as the youth immediately took off his clothes and sat down cross-legged and with his torso bare.

At this point, Cheng Hao felt great pain as the energy from the pill radiated from deep in his body, a peculiar radiation that targeted the genes of a few cells in his bone marrow. There, blood cells rapidly mutated and the changes quickly spread into his whole body through his bloodstream and eventually reached his muscles and organs. At that time, the transformations his body was undergoing grew more and more evident as his muscle fibers snapped and were stitched back together again and again, as if he were undergoing intense muscular training over a period of many months.

By then, his bones and muscles, which were currently undergoing thorough remodeling, failed to support his body and weight. Like so, he fell from his sitting position onto his back, a slight hiss escaping his lips as the impact sent the blood in his body into even more of a frenzy.

The great energies at work produced extreme heat, and this made Cheng Hao feel as if he were aflame. Surprisingly, even this unbearable heat served to fuel further changes to the child’s body as blackish ooze began to pour out of his pores: they were dead cells and impurities that were being expelled. This cleaned up the interior of the child’s body, with the bigger focus being on his muscles and bone marrow, and further refined his physique into a being approaching perfection.

After a short while, the feeling, like that of scalding needles being stabbed into his whole body over and over again, finally stopped, although a sensation of discomfort lingered even as the pain faded.

Having regained the faculties of his body again, Cheng Hao sat up: every single muscle in his body felt somewhat tense and heavy, as if they were being pulled. However, Cheng Hao knew this was merely a sensation that came with an increase in muscle mass and in its density. Raising a somewhat numb arm, he took out a gourd of water from the Heaven&Earth Pouch and poured it onto his filthy body.

Then, he took out a fresh sect robes and put them on, replacing the dusty and dirty set that he had hurriedly thrown on the ground earlier.

"You broke through to Outstanding Mortal Tier Physique already? That’s quite the harvest you had there!" Even Goldy couldn't help but praise.

Cheng Hao furrowed his brows, "Mmm… That peak level Basic stage guy had quite the right to act arrogant: he had a cultivation technique that focused on improving his body. Thanks to that, my own fleshly body cultivation increased to Outstanding Mortal Tier Physique."

"The Golden Aura can refine my body from Initial Mortal Tier to Outstanding Mortal Tier at the price of roughly one hundred Initial Mortal Tier Physique cultivators, and that guy alone was worth more than ninety normal Initial stage Fleshly Bodies!"

"He had such a powerful fleshly body, almost at the Outstanding Mortal Tier himself. With such a body and cultivation he would be undefeatable under the Advanced stage and could put up a good fight with some Advanced stage cultivators... Did I actually involve myself with some guy with a huge background again? Ugh, this is such a pain!"

"But still... I finally have the level of Physique necessary to use the Black and White dragon flames at their lowest output! This is a huge improvement in my current capabilities!"

Although only at their lowest level, the Ying and Yang Dragon Flames were still incredibly powerful! Using them, Cheng Hao would have no problem defeating peak Advanced stage cultivators, and even low level Superior stage cultivators would have to bow down to him if he truly tried.

Of course, truly trying would mean blowing up his Pseudo-Core, thus losing most of his fighting prowess afterwards, so he would prefer not to engage those existences yet, at least not without the lotus hairpin at his disposal: the golden drop of Immortal Realm blood was a cheat great enough that he would probably find no opponent amongst Mortal Realm cultivators and was currently the most useful trump card at his disposal when it came to fighting.

…

Physiques were similar to Martial Cultivation in many ways, even the ranking system was similar, just that it consisted in twelve stages called ‘Tiers’ instead of fifteen, and those twelve were distributed equally, having four Tiers for each of the three Realms, namely Mortal, Ageless and Immortal. Those were Initial Realm Tier, Outstanding Realm Tier, Summit Realm Tier, and lastly Paramount Realm Tier.

However, although this kind of division was similar, the two kinds of cultivations were not the same: for starters, while one’s Physique still depended a bit on one's cultivation base, one’s cultivation base was for the most part unrelated to the attainments of one’s Physique.

A high-end Physique required a high-output cultivation base, or else the body wouldn't be able to wield its newfound power and would either be unable to display its full potential or outright break down: the Spiritual Energy and Qi were the fuel required to power up the mighty bodies of those powerful Summit Tier and above powerhouses. In a place such as the Immortal Ascension Tower, where there was no Spiritual Energy to replenish the expenditure of the body and soul, even an Immortal Realm Heavenly Beast, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon, had suffered the withering of both the Physique and the cultivation base, like a tree drying up as its surrounding land turned into a desert.

At the same time, although cultivation power did place a bit of burden on the muscles, organs, bones and the like, actual damage would only appear if one truly overexerted themselves or used techniques that forsook the side effects in exchange for power; were that not to be the case, even the lowest Initial Realm Physique would be enough to withstand any skill or ability, provided that one spared some time to let the body adapt after each breakthrough.

Meaning that while a Reverend Stage martial artist might only have an Initial Mortal Tier fleshly body, an Inferior Stage cultivator could not possibly attain a Summit Tier Physique.

Being Outstanding already reached the limit of the capabilities of a body not supported by the Spiritual Energy of at least a Basic Stage’s Qi River/Sea: anything beyond that by far surpassed those very capabilities. To achieve such heights, one also needed an appropriate cultivation base to go along with it. However, even at the peak of a Realm, surpassing the limits of one’s body would not be easy…

At every ‘big breakthrough’ of entering a new Realm, the Sensed Qi of cultivators makes a huge qualitative leap, akin to the leap of a carp above the dragon gate. At that time, the Laws of the world would manifest and baptize the cultivator.

One such example would be the pillar of light that would rise from one’s body after attaining the Inferior Stage, becoming a Mortal Realm cultivator!

From that moment onwards, although one would still call themselves so, in truth they have already took their first step off the path of mortals, the only thing keeping them anchored to the ground being their aging bodies: an Initial Mortal Tier Physique would automatically be attained then, one that could then be molded into the desired direction through the methods of bodily cultivation.

The Ageless Realm marks the second baptism, and at that time one would forever discard their aging flesh to attain an ‘ageless’ physique, the Initial Ageless Tier Physique! No matter how mighty the former Mortal Physique might have been, all advancements would still be thoroughly cleansed at this point in exchange for the fleshly body of a timeless deity. Were it to be otherwise, even solely an immortality in the body alone would be a pipe dream as the mortal flesh rotted, let alone one where even the thought and will lives on forever!

The third ascension is that of the Immortal Realm: at that time, the body itself would be fully discarded and the word ‘Physique’ would attain a whole new meaning that could let even the soul linger on by itself and truly leave mortality behind… Even then of course, one would automatically gain a so-called Initial Immortal Tier ‘Physique’.

As the saying went: the Initial was the stepping stone, the Outstanding set one’s effort apart from the lazy and the slow, Summit represented heights not attainable through sheer effort and training alone, while reaching Paramount made one as unparalleled as its meaning foresaw!

Meaning, any cultivator would start from the lowest, Initial Tier of the cultivator’s Realm.

After the Initial Tier of any Realm is obtained via the worldly laws, one could seek to improve the body via ways that could vary from the most normal muscle training, to slightly less orthodox paths such as the cultivation of the flesh through techniques and scriptures. Completely unorthodox methods existed, of course, and there would be no better example than Blindlight’s ability to absorb treasures and other cultivators to enhance his own cultivation base and the Physique: Cheng Hao’s Golden Aura was none other than a derivation of the Heaven Devouring Dragon’s Internal Aura Manipulation skill, and was one that could be practiced even if one didn’t possess the traits of the Primordial Sky Dragons.

Golden Aura, or Xu Ling’s version of Internal Aura Manipulation, refined the opponent into condensed Spiritual Energy and Qi, and pellets of fleshly prowess. Although his body could intake the latter to improve the body permanently, the former could only be used to power abilities in place of his own cultivation base and not to increase his cultivation, and if left unused for long, the Spiritual Energy would dissipate into the environment and the Qi strands would unravel and weave back into the fabrics of reality: while changing the technique from one of a Primordial Beast to that of a human, even someone as knowledgeable as Xu Ling had lost the ability to permanently retain the cultivation absorbed. This only went to show the amount of effort that had gone into making the complex Internal Aura Manipulation and testament to the true genius of the once Lowly-Primordial-Sky-Dragon-turned-Heaven-Devouring-Dragon that had once created it from scratch, Dragon King Blindlight!

As one strengthened the flesh, it would eventually get to the point where it would become impervious to all works of mortal metalcraft: that would be the sign of having attained Outstanding Mortal Tier Physique! This level could be reached after sweating rivers and spitting vats of blood; indescribably hard and strenuous, but not yet impossible if one never ceased to put in the effort.

However, when it came to any Tier beyond the Outstanding, that would cease to be the case. The saying itself did not hide this, clearly stating: “Summit represented heights not attainable through sheer effort and training alone.”

In other words, to reach the Summit Tier, sheer effort and the natural aptitude of one towards body refinement would not be enough anymore: in addition, there is also the need for an appropriate method, destiny, and most importantly a cultivation base as its foundation! This is a level where the body alone could work in place of defensive treasures and skills to block the attacks of an opponent, turning the body into one’s very own treasured armor, one which even many powerful cultivators at the peak of a Realm could only shake their heads at and never break through!

And lastly, when one truly became unbreakable, immoveable in the face of all in a Realm, then one would truly represent the pinnacle of bodily cultivation…

An invincible and tall stance, a body that couldn’t be moved or broken!

An unparalleled existence, Paramount!

Paramount Tier Physique!

“The saying is the Initial as the supporting platform, the Outstanding as the demarcation between the talented and the hardworking geniuses, the Summit the breaking of one’s limits, and the Paramount as the peak of the mountain that is bodily cultivation: that is what the greatest geniuses of the world have passed on over the ages… However, there has always been a whisper, akin to an echo, telling of an ever higher level.”

Cheng Hao’s eyes gazed at his skin, where a shallow mark is all that was left after he had struck himself with an iron blade: he had formally entered the Outstanding Tier in body prowess!

“There is always something higher. Above the sea is the land, above the land is a mountain, and atop the mountain is a peak. However above even the peak there are the twinkling starts, lighting up the canopy of heaven at night! And going past even the Paramount peaks, are the Transcendent stars!”

The Initial was the stepping stone!

The Outstanding set one’s effort apart from the lazy and the slow!

Summit represented heights not attainable through sheer effort and training alone!

Paramount made one as unparalleled as its meaning foresaw!

“And Transcendence… places one forever above, to never be back below!” Cheng Hao voiced in his mind as he gazed solemnly at the sky.

To have attained Transcendence was to reach level that not only eclipsed any Tier or Realm below it… but also those above. It allowed one to cross the gap among Realms and let even Mortals face Immortals with their bare bodies! A body that had rendered even the Heavens’ monarch helpless!

To this day, Cheng Hao had only ever seen two such existences appear…

His master, the shackled Ancient, whose strength by far eclipsed that of any other… and himself.

“Outstanding Tier, uh… Still so far off! Nevertheless, a single step forward is still progress. If anything, at least those people served a purpose by dying here. May they find peace in the afterlife knowing that!” With those words, the golden-eyed youth threw a swirling ball of multicolored energy in the air. Immediately, the Spiritual Energy and Qi were gobbled down as Blindlight bit down and licked his lips.

“…Still…” Cheng Hao shook his head with a bitter smile, feeling shivers going down his spine “Having experienced the feeling of infallible success in my previous life, now that my attention has been brought to it, the difference truly is terrifying! Compared to the assured safety of before, it’s almost as if I was now stark-naked, looking up at an impending rain of blades… If attaining Transcendence with a normal body turns out to be impossible, then after all must I ultimately put my efforts into getting my older body back- Wait, why are my thoughts even developing in this direction in the first place?”

Thinking to this, an awkward chuckle echoed in the clearance immersed in the bright golden aura, “What is this I am feeling? Fear? Of death, of all things? I, of all people? How could Cheng Hao, the one reborn soul, possibly be afraid of dying?”

The smile soon vanished from the child’s face as a few robes lying on the ground caught his eye.

As Cheng Hao glanced at the remaining six sets of clothes atop the grass, threatening to turn into dust and drift away with the slightest breeze, he sighed, “Ah, I see, it was my mistake.”

“Fear of death? Not at all.”

“It is merely realizing that, now, my body also has an executioners’ blade to dread… And because I can’t help but fear my meaning being lost, my weak subconscious so used to safety and immortality is instinctively enticing me to follow the same, old, road; the one I already paved up to the unimaginable heights of deathlessness…”

“Well, that didn’t work in the first place, did it? So screw that! Forget Xu Ling and the path of a Transcendent!”

“There is always something above and beyond! And I firmly believe my current path to be the sky beyond even the sky, the land beyond the swirling stars and galaxies that can be seen at night, far off into the distance! As for what would that be?”

“The path I have now… Is that of Cheng Hao, wielder of the Immortal Ascension Tower, champion of the Sovereign Qi!”

“World, bend to my belief, the Will of the Sovereign!”

“I WILL so! And thus…”

“I! SHALL BE! SOVEREIGN!”