The first attempt at consuming the essence was a resounding success, and Lu Yao was in high spirits. From this, it seemed that it would take only a month to heal completely.
What needed to be done next was to rest easy and wait for the burn injuries inside his body to heal before continuing his efforts.
Burn injuries were particularly difficult to cure, requiring even a Martial Artist at the Flesh Realm to spend three hours for recovery.
However, at this moment, Lu Yao suddenly discovered—his body was recovering at an incredible pace!?
The entire process was magical, as if the injured area was being erased by an eraser and then perfectly depicted again by an invisible brush!
This scene felt familiar; his heart had recovered in the same manner after being damaged!
Lu Yao instantly understood what was happening—after undergoing the Heavenly Tribulation, the Divine Soul commanded his entire body, and the Divine Soul was a perfect reflection of his physical body, down to every nerve and blood vessel.
If the physical body was injured, the Divine Soul would act like a 3D printer, quickly depicting and repairing the damaged area.
Injuries that would normally take three hours to heal were restored to their original state in less than a minute!
Having experienced this personally, Lu Yao suddenly had an epiphany:
"Interesting, the Thunder Tribulation Realm in Spirit Refinement actually brings about such miraculous healing abilities to the body! Now, even if my head were chopped off, I could reattach it! With this, I don’t need a month to heal; a week is more than enough."
This was truly an unexpected joy, and Lu Yao gleefully took out a Gold Brick, biting off and swallowing a big chunk.
However, he then thought:
"Such an important characteristic and I am just now aware of it, the broken lineage in Divine Land is severe indeed. And... Xu Fu’s lost arm must have already healed long ago."
~~~~~~~~~~~
The way Xu Fu’s arm healed was similar to Lu Yao’s, only he had long been in the Golden Body Realm, having an even more robust physique, and thus recuperated faster.
While physical injuries were easier to heal, wounds of the heart were more difficult to mend.
At this moment, in the Izumo Imperial Palace, Xu Fu’s newly regrown left arm was once again reaching for the mask on his face.
Although he suppressed the physical anomaly with a single thought, he realized that this body was no longer serviceable.
Xu Fu felt a trace of regret, even though he had already obliterated all consciousness within this body, he still couldn’t erase its inherent will.
The cells, which make up the most basic structure of a living organism, all have their own most primitive will, such as reproduction, survival, and most importantly—seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.
The instinct to want to throw off the snake coiled around oneself is natural, and this was the fundamental reason why his arm kept trying to take off the mask.
A body of the Golden Body Realm must be extremely precious, yet Xu Fu’s face maintained a calm expression, showing neither rage nor pity.
He had long grown weary of mortal bodies; now, he sought only to possess a "Divine Body"!
Looking up at the second sun in the sky, Xu Fu revealed a look of intense greed and anticipation.
New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.
However, his good mood was soon interrupted.
Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi came to see him, bearing bad news: "The Yi Dynasty is mobilizing for war, intending to attack our homeland!"
"How interesting, this ’Child of Destiny’ truly has no fear."
Xu Fu laughed in extreme anger, "Does he think the same tricks that worked last time can be used against me a second time? Or has he had another fortuitous encounter... breaking through to the Golden Body?"
Ito Hirobumi bowed deeply and said, "We have made all the preparations, ready to serve the Emperor with our utmost loyalty!"
Otherworld’s Izumo, without the resources from Divine Land, was significantly weaker.
Facing the invasion of the Yi Dynasty, even the Prime Minister was prepared to defend to the death.
However, after contemplating for a while, Xu Fu thought it would not be bad for Lu Yao to come to him of his own accord.
The world behind him was just the right fuel for his own ascension to godhood.
~~~~~~~~~~~
At the same moment, Lu Yao was delighted to discover that he had underestimated the recovery abilities that the Thunder Tribulation Realm brought.
After swallowing gold three times, his Divine Soul had adapted to the same injuries, and the recovery speed was faster with each instance.
Now, being scorched for the third time, it took only five seconds to recover!
The only downside of this rapid recovery was the consumption of a vast amount of mind force and body energy, but the benefits were well worth the cost.
Lu Yao’s progress in swallowing gold skyrocketed, and he had refined and absorbed a hundred jin of gold in just two days.
His body cells had absorbed a large amount of "eternal immortality" will, and at this point, they could spontaneously exude the essence of "Eternal Immortality," which was the standard of a half-step Golden Body!
It should be known Yu Yanmei took over a month to reach this step!
This is the tremendous mutual promotion effect between the Martial Path and Spirit Refinement.
The progress was going incredibly well, and Lu Yao couldn’t help but fantasize, "Once I make a breakthrough, I must challenge Yu Yanmei to a spar and show her just how formidable I am!"
His previous experience of "knowing the door but not being able to enter" still preyed on his mind, and he had been fixated on getting revenge; now, the opportunity was about to arrive.
However, humans truly have a way of inviting fate; just as Lu Yao intended to rigorously test her, a loud cry came from the sky, and Yu Yanmei returned at that moment.
She leapt gracefully and landed nimbly in front of Lu Yao, her slender waist and long legs exuding the sensuality of a Female Valkyrie.
At that moment, the goddess stared at Lu Yao with unblinking beautiful eyes, then felt him with her hands and exclaimed in amazement, "You’re already at the half-step Golden Body!?"
She thought she would arrive just in time to witness Lu Yao swallowing gold, but his progress had far exceeded her expectations.
Lu Yao nodded with a hint of pride, "That’s right; I estimate it’ll take just another three to five days for me to break through."
"Indeed, you’re only lacking the complete understanding of the will of indestructibility by the body."
Yu Yanmei caressed her little man back and forth, her face full of surprise and her heart brimming with boundless joy.
In her eyes, climbing to the pinnacle of the Martial Path with her partner was a thing of poetic beauty, and nothing could be more romantic than this.
And what needed to be done next was to give her little man a perfect reference point.
As a result, Yu Yanmei unabashedly removed all her clothes and gathered up the most significant attribute of the Golden Body Realm—the will of Eternal Immortality!
Her flawless body instantly shimmered with a dazzling light.
Upon seeing this, Lu Yao instinctively felt an unshakable, indestructible presence!
This was not just a feeling; the perfect body before him could indeed withstand direct bombardment from naval cannons!
Lu Yao contemplated carefully and felt that every cell of his counterpart was radiating the will of "Eternal Immortality."
These wills combined to form an unbreakable "Mental Barrier."
It appeared as though each cell acted as a Fanatical Believer producing a continuous flow of mental strength, turning the Martial Artist’s body into an existence akin to a Divine Nation.
"How fascinating, the essence of the Martial Golden Body is actually the will of cells and the power of the mind."
Lu Yao couldn’t help but feel deeply moved, and it made him think:
"The Golden Bodies that I’ve seen before are limited by the weak stage of Spirit Refinement and didn’t unleash their full power."
The Scriptures labeled those with low Spirit Refining Stage, who by chance broke through to the Golden Body Realm, as "Strongmen," meaning they could only do brute labor, like unthinking thugs,
Essentially speaking, Zhang Wenda, Yuan Kaisheng, and others like them were considered Strongmen; they were unable to harness the full might of this realm.
"So... how strong will a cultivator like me, who advances in both the Martial Path and Spirit Refinement equally, become once I break through? I’m very curious!"