Chapter 427 Secluded Cultivation
In this world of fire and flame, Meng Hao decided it was time for him to move out. He had fought many of its creatures, and prevailed in most battles, bar a few dwellers of the deepest part of this fiery star, where even Meng Hao decided that it would be wiser to not provoke such creatures, he could be considered one of the strongest among the creatures here.
But, without any materials, resources, or anything to quell the empty feeling in his heart, he decided to venture out to worlds where humanity existed.
Though nothing can fill the emptiness that is filling him, he can at least offset it with some wine, it's been a while since he last dark.
Meng Hao took to the skies, his destination unknown.
***
Today marks the third year of my Secluded Cultivation. In three years, I managed to complete the first set of the Underworld Death Finger.
I can now use all of the demonic skill moves. All the way from the Five Finger Death Punch to the One Finger Heaven Suppression.
Though the name sounds grand and majestic, as a mere Nascent Soul formation cultivator, the effects are rather lackluster. Not to undermine the ability's power, since it's strong enough to rend a cultivator higher than my own realm completely useless.
It still leaves much to be desired. In terms of power of course.
I've been jaded to power, since I've been an Ascendant Class cultivator for a while and seen true might. The abilities of a Nascent Soul are rather… weak.
Complaining about things won't make them better. Also, I shouldn't be too hasty. Demonic Cultivation's power increases exponentially alongside the cultivator.
Also, there was one pretty damn surprising and amazing thing I discovered.
Demonic Qi is actually able to be fused alongside the Golden Titan battling mode.
Meaning that I can actually use the Fist of Roaring Ki, only it will be using Demonic Energy. Perhaps the Fist of Demonic Ki is a better name for it after I transform it to my own style.
The reason it didn't work the first time was simple.
Shen Mo's body was trash. Really, terrible at cultivating Physical cultivation methods.
Frankly speaking, my original body is the same, but I had the opportunity to drink the Stone Aged Milk using my original body which helped me surpass the weakness of the flesh.
Yet, Shen Mo had no opportunity like I did.
Secondly, it was the Qi quality. When I tried harnessing the Qi in my body to use the Fist of Roaring Ki, it was constantly being rejected since Shen Mo's body was full of impurities and his Qi levels were abysmally small.
In three years, however, I made sure to fix that.
I've come to the realization that a puppet or a corpse such as Shen Mo's body had no limitation.
Unlike a normal living human body, it isn't easy to surpass one's limitations. Take this for example, it takes the exact amount of pressure to snap a carrot using one's teeth as it would take to bite a finger off. (Pls don't try it)
The reason why we can't do it ourselves is that our brain forcefully stops us from harming ourselves. Thus limitations.
But here, Shen Mo's body is technically dead. Meaning, it has no limits in the terms of body. And if I wanted to exert a hundred percent of the body's power, I can do so with ease.
The problem however is the damage.
The limitations on the body aren't there just to stop you from using all of your power. But it is there to protect you from the damage afterward. A woman can easily lift a vehicle if her child is stuck under it. But the muscle tearing and pain from the exertion will only come a few minutes after.
Constantly surpassing one's limitations comes with the cost of great deterioration to one's muscles.
But, that's under normal circumstances. As for me, a pretty damn good alchemist. Muscle tear is solvable with a pill, and Muscle Tearing for a body-enhancing cultivator is actually a good thing. Since whenever one muscle fiber tears, three grow to take its place. Further strengthening the muscle. And for me, I can just overexert the muscles, pop a pill, and over-exert them again.
With this masochistic method of training, I was constantly and brutally overexerting Shen Mo's body, enough that I have torn every muscle fiber on this body a dozen times over and reinforced them back.
With this method, over three years, the scrawny-looking Shen Mo changed to that of a mediumly buffed and well-chiseled body. Able to exert power far beyond anything a Nascent Soul cultivator could ever dream of.
I achieved the muscle mass and power of the Stone-Aged Milk using this method.
However, that was only for the muscles. Otherwise, if things were this easy, the Stone Aged Milk wouldn't be among the greatest treasures of the cultivation world.
Since the Stone-Aged-Milk is able to enhance not only the muscles but the bones, internal organs, nerves, and even blood vessels.
Sadly, I cannot improve those. Although I gained some advancement in the blood circulation department since the constant training and exertion improved my blood flow. It was not enough to enhance the rest.
But, that wouldn't stop me.
Of my belongings, and the many holding bags I obtained through my ventures, one of them stood out the most. It was the holding bag of Servant Mao. He had a great number of pills, cultivation materials, spiritual herbs, and many treasures.
And a good majority of them were obtained from other Poison God cultivators, meaning that they are of pretty damn good value and use to me.
Skipping the treasures, the herbs in this holding bag were enough to help me refine many pills.
Marrow Cleansing Pills, Bone Enhancing Pills. Blood Pill. And even Qi Refining Pills.
With the swath of pills I created, I consumed and enhanced the overall function and ability of this body to the point I was actually able to use the Fist of Demonic Ki.
Though I could feel the slight pain in some areas of my body with the use of the Fist of Demonic Ki, it was tolerable. it was understandable, after all, even with so many pills it was still not as good as the Stone Aged Milk.
However, this had given me a great method to fight and cultivate my Qi.
Now, sitting atop the spirit vein, I was able to rotate my Qi using both the Demonic cultivation method, and the Fist of Roaring Ki method, which further enhanced my circulation.
An explosion of force echoed as I smiled.
"Finally, Soul Formation," I sighed as I was able to feel the power in this body increasing several folds.
It was good enough, I cannot push myself anymore, not for the lack of trying, but because I needed to cement my foundation.
This was never an issue with my original body. It only took me a few days to have a full grasp over my body. But that was because I wasn't using Heavenly Qi, but my own Poison Qi which was attuned to my body to perfection.
But for a normal cultivator, must stabilize their cultivation by harmonizing themselves with the increased volume of Qi they can now absorb.
To rise in rank in cultivation isn't simply a gain in power. But it's like having more pores in your body unclogged enabling you to 'breath' better.
And this makes it so that you'll always need to adjust the amount of Qi you absorb or use for all of your abilities.
If a Nascent Soul cultivator needs a set amount of Qi to use a single ability. A soul Formation cultivator will need less Qi to produce equivalent power. But at the same time, with the rise of the cultivation level, they gain the ability to produce more power from the same ability, thus they need to stabilize their foundations to know the limits and abilities they had gained.
I went back to the pagoda and had several bouts against X. I was only satisfied with my progress after a month had passed. With my abilities fully adjusted to my body, I decided that it was time for me to leave.
I walked out of the cave. The last time I was out, it was heavily snowing, but years and months after, now the weather was rather warm with an occasional breeze that would cool one's head.
Looking around, I saw many disciples staring at me strangely.
"He finally came out, it was about damn time," one of them said.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Elder Xian had ordered us to stay stationed here until your secluded cultivation is over. What were you doing there for three years?" one of them asked.
"What does that have to do with you? Also, what does elder Xian needs of me?" I asked.
"I don't know, it seems that you're late for your yearly assessment. By three years…" he said.
"You can't rush cultivation," I said "Lead the way, let's see what Elder Xian needs of me."
The disciple nodded and headed out, while I followed closely behind him.