Chapter 143: Chapter 143: I’ll Take It
It wasn’t just a surface injury. Yuan Shan could feel that every Profound Vein in his right arm had been shattered inch by inch by Ye Xuan’s previous strike, completely crippling it.
"You crippled my right arm," Yuan Shan snarled through gritted teeth, his heart swelling with monstrous hatred.
What? Yuan Shan’s right arm was crippled?
"So ruthless, so vicious." Shi San and the others trembled uncontrollably, their gazes a mixture of fear and horror as they stared at Ye Xuan. ’Thank God we didn’t attack. This man... he’s terrifying.’
Seeing the hatred in Yuan Shan’s bloodshot eyes, Ye Xuan said indifferently, "Don’t look at me like that. If I hadn’t blocked your last attack, my right arm would have been the one that was crippled. All I did was what you planned to do to me. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for failing to read the situation. Blame your own viciousness. If you had shown even a shred of mercy, I wouldn’t have crippled your arm. This is all your own fault."
Shi San and the others felt a jolt in their hearts upon hearing Ye Xuan’s words. ’He’s right.’ They had only been considering things from Yuan Shan’s perspective. From another angle, if Ye Xuan had lost, the outcome would have been his arm being severed by Yuan Shan’s Iron-Gold Martial Soul.
You couldn’t really call Ye Xuan cruel; he was just giving back what Yuan Shan had planned to dish out.
"Brat, you dared to cripple me! I’ll make you pay for this!"
Fixing Ye Xuan with a deathly stare, Yuan Shan slowly got to his feet, his eyes utterly venomous.
"Still haven’t gotten lost?" Ye Xuan took a step forward. Alarmed, Yuan Shan immediately leaped backward to the stairs, then flew down, disappearing from the ninth floor of the Cultivation Tower.
"You just wait! This isn’t over!"
Yuan Shan’s venomous voice drifted up from downstairs.
Ye Xuan sneered. ’It’d be better for him if he doesn’t come back. If he dares to show his face again, it won’t be this simple.’
"So, am I qualified to be here now?" Ye Xuan asked, looking at the remaining four people.
Shi San smiled faintly. "I said it before. If you had the courage to come up, you have the right to be here."
But the other three said nothing, their gazes flickering uneasily.
Just as Ye Xuan was about to sit cross-legged again, the stone door of the cultivation room directly in front of him suddenly opened, and a cold voice drifted out.
"Who was just banging on my door, disturbing my cultivation? Get out here and face death."
As the voice fell, a figure walked out, his sharp, cold gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"It’s that guy, Cheng Yu."
"Looks like this kid is in for another fight."
"Cheng Yu is at least as strong as Yuan Shan, if not stronger. I wonder what will happen if he makes a move."
The remaining few couldn’t help but focus their gazes, a sense of anticipation building within them.
"Are you talking to me?"
Seeing Cheng Yu walk out of the cultivation room, a sneer suddenly appeared on Ye Xuan’s lips as he slowly stepped forward.
"It’s you..." Cheng Yu’s expression changed abruptly, turning extremely ugly.
"You’ve come out. Does that mean your cultivation is finished? Perfect. I’m taking this cultivation room. Scram!"
With an indifferent expression, Ye Xuan spoke coldly, showing blatant disdain for Cheng Yu in front of everyone.
Shi San and the others’ hearts skipped a beat. ’Cheng Yu’s status in his family is extraordinary. He’s incredibly arrogant and conceited, especially in the advanced class. There’s no way he’ll tolerate a provocation like this.’
However, a scene that shocked everyone unfolded. Faced with Ye Xuan’s cold command, all the arrogance Cheng Yu had shown just moments before vanished. His gaze flickered, and his face turned ugly.
’Damn it, it’s this bastard! If I’d known it was him, I wouldn’t have come out for anything!’
Cursing himself internally, Cheng Yu’s expression was grim, his fists tightly clenched. For a moment, he was stuck, unable to advance or retreat.
"Well? Are you not getting out of the way?"
Ye Xuan said coldly.
"I just happened to finish my cultivation. If you want this cultivation room, you can have it."
Cheng Yu said through gritted teeth, desperately trying to save face under the incredulous stares of Shi San and the others as he prepared to retrieve his Cultivation Card.
Ye Xuan took a step forward. "Since your cultivation is finished, this Cultivation Card is useless to you. Why don’t you just leave it here? What do you say?"
Ye Xuan’s cold gaze was fixed on Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu froze. Under Ye Xuan’s stare, he retreated awkwardly, his heart weeping without tears.
’A cultivation room on the ninth floor costs five hundred Profound Coins a day! Just yesterday, I finally recovered from the injuries this bastard gave me. I found this room and was planning to go into seclusion for two months, so I loaded thirty thousand Profound Coins onto my Cultivation Card.’
’I never thought he’d plunder it all now.’
’And I’ve only used it for one day!’
’I’m such an idiot. Why the hell did I come out?’
Cheng Yu cursed himself repeatedly in his heart. He shot Ye Xuan a fierce glance, his figure flickered, and he left, heading downstairs. He had no choice but to give the cultivation room to Ye Xuan.
He knew that staying would only lead to more humiliation. It was better to leave sooner and salvage some dignity.
’The weak are prey to the strong, and power earns respect. It’s true even in this small academy. The world of Martial Artists is just built this way. You can’t escape this law, no matter where you go.’
Ye Xuan shook his head and walked into the cultivation room.
The stone door closed, shutting out the astonished and stunned gazes of Shi San and the others.
As soon as he entered the cultivation room, an incredibly dense wave of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi washed over him. Every pore on his body seemed to open instinctively, eagerly absorbing the Profound Qi from the air.
’The concentration of this Heaven and Earth Profound Qi is pretty good. No modifications needed.’
Ye Xuan nodded in satisfaction, found the spot in the room where the Profound Qi was most concentrated, sat down cross-legged, and instantly entered a state of cultivation.
The Nine Revolutions Sacred Body was a Body Refining Technique. To cultivate it, one had to adjust their body to its optimal state. Otherwise, the slightest oversight could have significant consequences.
Enveloped in dense Profound Qi, Ye Xuan absorbed the Heaven and Earth Profound Qi to his heart’s content, using it to bring every part of his body to an optimal state.
An unknown amount of time passed before Ye Xuan opened his eyes.
’That should be enough. Every part of my body has absorbed ample Profound Qi. It’s time to use the Power of the Five Elements to temper my flesh.’
With a thought, Ye Xuan took out the jade box containing the Five Elements Crystal and placed the crystal in his palm.
Under Ye Xuan’s guidance, a tiny thread of the Power of the Five Elements slowly entered his body.
"AHH!"
Ye Xuan’s eyes suddenly turned blood-red, and he clenched his jaw tightly.
The Five Elements Crystal was a Tier Five treasure, meaning the Power of the Five Elements within it was also Tier Five energy. Though Ye Xuan had only guided a thread as thin as a hair into himself, the moment it entered his body, that wisp of power swelled into a terrifying, colossal force.
SPURT!
Cuts suddenly split open all over the surface of Ye Xuan’s body, and streams of fresh blood shot out from them.
The Power of the Five Elements contained within the crystal instantly put Ye Xuan’s body in an extremely dangerous situation.
Right now, Ye Xuan was only at the First Layer of the Martial Master realm. In other words, by rashly consuming a treasure three Tiers higher than his level, he was practically gambling with his life.
The meridians in his body instantly shattered, inch by inch. Intense pain, as if a multitude of twisting knives were spinning wildly inside him, shredding his flesh.
PFFT!
Ye Xuan spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
But his blood-red eyes shone with steely resolve.
’Five elements to fix the heavens, in creation and destruction they weave. The myriad things transformed by the art, the singular Dao the heart perceives. Nurture the organs to birth vital essence; Annihilate the flesh to forge a sacred presence. It is stillness. It is void. It is the ten thousand things returning to one...’
Within him, the Heart Method of the Nine Revolutions Sacred Body began to circulate. The weak Profound Qi of a Martial Master First Layer, combined with his Soul Power, quietly enveloped the thread of five-element power. It slowly broke it down, refining it into the purest form of five-element essence, which began to merge with his shattered flesh, slowly integrating with his body.
If any other Martial Artist were to see this scene, they would be absolutely astonished.
The Power of the Five Elements within the crystal was Tier Five energy. Logically, only a Martial Ancestor of Tier Five or higher should be able to refine it using their own strength.
And yet Ye Xuan, a Tier Two Martial Master, was actually able to refine it, something completely beyond the capabilities of a normal Martial Artist.
Thread by thread, the Power of the Five Elements was thus gradually refined by Ye Xuan and integrated into his body.
At first, the integration of the five-element power was not obvious, but as his cultivation deepened, more and more of it was absorbed.
At the same time, the pain in Ye Xuan’s body did not lessen. Instead, it grew even more terrifying.
The impact of the Power of the Five Elements was painful, but it was only physical. Refining it, however, required the complete fusion of his body’s cellular energy with the external power.
It was as if Ye Xuan’s physical body was a piece of wood, and the Power of the Five Elements was a piece of steel.
The impact was the steel smashing against the wood; the fusion was trying to completely meld the steel and wood together.
This kind of pain was deeper, originating from his very soul, from every single one of his cells.
An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to endure it for long before their will would collapse.
But Ye Xuan knew this was one of the most crucial steps in cultivating the Nine Revolutions Sacred Body.
This painful process was not only a transformation of his body, but also a transformation of his will.
If he could endure it, he would successfully pass the first trial and complete the First Transformation of the Nine Revolutions Sacred Body. If he couldn’t, all his efforts would be for naught, and he would fail completely.
In truth, on the Celestial Profound Continent, any powerful Body Refining Technique was difficult to cultivate. One had to undergo countless inhuman tortures and trials.
In the Martial Artist Realm, there was even a consensus: the more cruelly a Body Refining divine technique tormented the cultivator, the greater their achievements would be. This was because Body Refining was, in itself, a method of cultivation that transcended the self.
For most powerful Body Refining Divine Abilities, the first layer mostly involved tempering the skin and flesh, so the pain was limited to that.
More powerful techniques might inflict some pain on the internal organs, but a technique that caused this level of agony right from the very beginning was unique to the Nine Revolutions Sacred Body.
