Suppleness Realm

"Hehe."

Fang Xuan grinned foolishly and wolfed down the fried little fish in his hand.

"Delicious."

Zhao Xuemei's eyes were full of amusement, but she said disdainfully, "You're covered in stinky sweat. There's hot water ready for you in the room, so hurry up and take a bath. There are still two dishes left. You can eat when you're done bathing."

"Mother still loves me best. Once my martial arts achieve success, I'll earn you an Imperial Mandate," Fang Xuan said loudly.

Zhao Xuemei tapped Fang Xuan on the forehead and said irritably, "I'm not asking you to earn me any Imperial Mandate. I only want you to stay safe and sound. You're already sixteen this year. Next year, I'll have First Madam arrange a marriage for you. Let your mother hold a grandson sooner."

Fang Xuan's mouth twitched. You know I'm sixteen, yet you want me to get married and have children at sixteen? Wasn't that a bit excessive?

Still, it was better not to argue over such matters. He grabbed another fried fish, stuffed it into his mouth, and returned to his room to bathe.

Fortunately, he had been born into a family like the Fang Family. Otherwise, even bathing every day would have been difficult. Water was easy enough to obtain, but firewood was not.

The city had hundreds of thousands of residents, and the amount of firewood consumed each day for cooking was impossible to estimate.

He bathed, ate, and returned to his room.

Resting was out of the question. He removed his upper garments, revealing a perfect physique. Every muscle looked as though it had been carved from marble, filled with harmony and strength.

Even though the two maidservants had seen this sight many times, their faces still flushed with shyness.

They skillfully took out a jar of ointment from a carved wooden box and applied it to Fang Xuan's body.

The ointment was called Whale Leopard Balm. It was refined from deep-sea giant whales, fire leopards, and hundreds of precious medicinal herbs. Applied over the entire body, it accelerated physical recovery while strengthening the muscles.

It was extremely valuable. Even Fang Xuan could receive only one small jar every ten days.

As the ointment was applied, Fang Xuan felt his skin burn. Then, a stream of heat entered his body through his pores, accompanied by a wave of pain.

After a while, the heat faded. Fang Xuan felt power surging through his entire body, while the exhaustion from his earlier training was swept away. He felt incomparably comfortable, as if he had received a full-body massage. He felt like he could go train for several more hours.

Glancing at the empty jar, Fang Xuan sighed. "What a pity there's too little. If I could apply it every day, I'd enter the Suppleness Realm within three months."

The Suppleness Realm was the union of hardness and softness, where flexibility and coordination reached an extreme. Rise like the wind, descend like an arrow, as agile as a civet cat or ape.

Looking at the sky outside, Fang Xuan shut the doors and windows, sat cross-legged on his bed, and closed his eyes to sense the countless Bright Points in his sea of consciousness.

"It's time to give it a try."

He had transmigrated to the Profound Yellow Great World a year ago. His Golden Finger had arrived half a year earlier, but at that time Fang Xuan had still been lingering in the Body Tempering Realm.

The Body Tempering Realm mainly involved running, weightlifting, jumping, striking sandbags, kicking, squatting, tumbling, walking plum blossom stakes, and countless other methods to train the muscles in one's limbs, waist, and abdomen until they became full and powerful, greatly surpassing ordinary people in strength and agility.

Yet it only meant surpassing ordinary people. For the sake of safety, Fang Xuan had endured until reaching the Technique Realm before beginning to study his Golden Finger.

The countless Bright Points in his sea of consciousness were individual worlds. The points varied in size, representing the grades of those worlds. The larger a world was, the higher its level of power.

Fang Xuan could use these Bright Points to connect to the worlds of All Heavens and enter them.

However, he entered them to kill people.

And the person he killed was "himself."

That was right, himself.

The planet Fang Xuan had lived on in his previous life had a theory of parallel worlds. Legend claimed that every parallel world contained another version of oneself, and all these selves jointly shared all their power. Therefore, as long as every version of you in parallel worlds vanished, all that energy would gather within the last remaining person.

When the Golden Finger had first arrived half a year ago, Fang Xuan had been stunned by the information conveyed through his sea of consciousness.

Wasn't this a "Savior"?

Kill every version of himself, gather all their power, and become the legendary Savior.

Of course, being a Savior was a joke in the Eternal Life Great World. However, killing every version of himself and gathering their power into one body could also be understood through another concept.

A Golden Immortal of Grand Luo.

Gather the timeline, collect the power of countless selves into one body, and achieve Grand Luo's immortality and indestructibility.

That was also why Fang Xuan had the confidence not to cling to Fang Han's thigh.

With a thought, Fang Xuan connected to the smallest Bright Point in his sea of consciousness. It looked like a speck of dust.

Fighting monsters? Of course he had to start with the weakest ones.

The next second, Fang Xuan suddenly opened his eyes.

His gaze shifted to the side, where a drop of wax had just trickled down the candlestick.

"Time had stopped? How mysterious," Fang Xuan muttered.

In that instant, Fang Xuan had activated his Golden Finger and traveled to another world. It was an utterly ordinary world, much like his previous life, without any trace of the supernatural. Its technology was somewhat developed, though.

Using the special connection between them, Fang Xuan easily found his counterpart. This version of himself was rather interesting; he was actually involved with the underworld. Then, beneath the man's shocked gaze, Fang Xuan snapped his neck with a single strike.

It was his first time killing someone, and the person he had killed was "himself." It felt rather strange.

The dead counterpart turned into a stream of energy that flowed into Fang Xuan's body. It did not directly increase his strength, but instead became a foundation.

How should he put it?

A mouse and an elephant were both living creatures, but could their vitality truly be considered equal?

That was the difference in foundation.

At that moment, Fang Xuan felt different all over. His mind was clearer, and things he normally could not understand now blossomed with insight, becoming easy to comprehend. Physically, he also felt light and agile.

Without the slightest hesitation, he leaped from the bed, strode out of the room, and entered the courtyard.

His courtyard also had a small Martial Arts Practice Field. Though it was not as spacious as the Myriad Phenomena Garden, it was sufficient.

Fang Xuan did not waste any time and began practicing the Pine Crane Longevity Fist.

He seemed drunk yet not drunk, awake yet not awake, existing in an extraordinarily mysterious state. Many things he normally could neither grasp nor comprehend suddenly became clear. The moves that Giant Spirit Hand Fang Tong had taught during the day also continuously emerged in his mind.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The various moves of the Pine Crane Longevity Fist arose at his will. Power rose from the soles of his feet, surged toward his great spinal dragon, and then spread throughout his entire body.

His blood and qi churned between his sinews and bones. A faint wave of heat spread in every direction, while steam rose from above Fang Xuan's head.

One hour.

Two hours.

Fang Xuan continuously practiced the various moves of the Pine Crane Longevity Fist, honing his martial arts. During this time, he felt as though he were an ancient evergreen pine, its roots driven deep into solid rock. Yet when he struck, boundless power surged forth like a nimble crane.

Movement and stillness.

Still as a maiden, swift as a startled hare.

Rise like the wind, descend like an arrow, as agile as a civet cat or ape.

Train until the body takes the form of a crane; beneath a thousand pines lie two cases of scriptures.

The fourth stage of the Body Tempering Realm, the Suppleness Realm, had been achieved.