When Lin Xiao slowly placed in his palm the fourth-order ancient strange pill—the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Pill, enough to drive any Spiritual Movement Realm expert mad—and the blood-colored beast core containing the lifetime essence of a Third-Order Demonic Beast King, a frenzied seclusion destined to be recorded in Cloud Creek Academy's history officially began within this isolated blessed grotto-heaven—Tingzhu Pavilion!
He did not rush to swallow these two supreme treasures, either of which could instantly burst an ordinary Body Refinement Realm cultivator apart.
Instead, he spent three full days completely consolidating his cultivation, which had only just broken through to the Body Refinement Ninth Level.
Like the most devout ascetic, he circulated again and again the essential principles of the thousands of cultivation techniques he had thoroughly mastered and integrated into his own martial path!
He hammered and tempered the vast Spiritual Energy within his body, which had become slightly unstable due to his overly rapid advancement, until it finally condensed into liquid true essence as heavy and pure as mercury!
Only when he felt that every cell in his body had reached an unprecedented state of fullness and peak condition
did he slowly open those brilliant starry eyes, bright as though suns, moons, and stars rose and fell within them!
The time had come!
Without another moment of hesitation, he opened his mouth and swallowed in one gulp the fourth-order strange pill whose entire body was an eerie blood-red, within which seemed to be sealed the phantom of an ancient savage dragon—the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Pill!
Boom—!
The instant the pill entered his mouth, before it had even fully slid into his stomach,
a terrifying medicinal force, more than a hundred times more violent and scorching than the torrent of energy he had triggered when breaking through to the Body Refinement Ninth Level, exploded within him like a fully detonated billion-ton solar furnace!
Pfft—!
Even Lin Xiao's terrifying physical body, tempered by the Earth Core Body Tempering Milk and his own almost freakish body-refining methods until it was harder than refined steel, still seemed so fragile and vulnerable before this incomparably tyrannical power of dragon blood, enough to instantly level a towering volcano!
In merely one exchange!
His incomparably resilient meridians shattered inch by inch!
His iron-hard bones became covered in savage cracks like spiderwebs!
His muscle fibers, brimming with explosive power, were scorched into charcoal layer by layer by that terrifying, supremely yang and rigid heat!
A mouthful of dark golden blood, filled with endless scorching heat and destructive aura, spewed wildly from his mouth like breached magma!
Pain!
Unprecedented, horrifying pain—enough to tear a person's soul completely apart—came raging from every corner of his body!
It was as though hundreds of millions of bone-devouring flame ants were madly gnawing at his flesh, meridians, and marrow!
"Urgh... Aaaahhhh!"
Even with Lin Xiao's terrifying will, tempered into stone by the hardships of two lifetimes, he could not help releasing a shriek so miserable it barely sounded human beneath this inhuman torment that could move even gods and Buddhas!
His entire body instantly curled into a ball like a pitiful shrimp tossed into an alchemy furnace!
The skin all over his body rapidly turned red-hot at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye, before cracking inch by inch like parched earth scorched apart by flames!
Terrifying dark golden blood streaks seeped madly from beneath that cracked skin!
From afar, he looked like a horrifying blood-covered man about to explode completely from within!
Yet at the instant Lin Xiao's consciousness was about to be utterly devoured by this endless agony capable of destroying everything,
an extremely cool and strange energy, filled with boundless vitality and tolerance, slowly flowed out without warning from the mysterious "system" that had long fused into one with him!
In an instant, it spread through all four limbs and every bone in his body!
It pulled back his shattered soul, already on the verge of collapse!
"You think you can destroy me that easily?"
"Still... nowhere near enough!"
Lin Xiao gritted his teeth. A savage smile filled with endless madness and unyielding determination actually appeared on his face, already thoroughly stained with blood!
Not only did he make no attempt to suppress the destructive power of dragon blood raging wildly within his body,
he instead took the initiative to abandon all resistance!
He completely emptied his mind!
He allowed that tyrannical energy, enough to melt steel into molten iron, to scour, destroy, and reshape every cell in his body!
—Without destruction, there could be no rebirth!
—Only after breaking could one stand anew!
This was Lin Xiao's martial path!
It was also the greatest source of confidence that gave him the courage to swallow this fourth-order ancient strange pill, enough to make any Body Refinement Realm cultivator turn pale at its mention!
Time passed second by second.
No one knew how long had passed.
When Lin Xiao felt that his battered physical body, which had already been completely destroyed no fewer than ten thousand times, was finally beginning to gradually adapt to that incomparably tyrannical power of dragon blood,
he finally slowly opened those terrifying dragon eyes, which had long been completely replaced by an eerie dark gold!
"Now..."
"It's your turn!"
Without another moment of hesitation, he swallowed in one gulp the beast core of the Third-Order Lower Grade Ironback Wolf King, likewise containing incomparably violent and pure energy!
Boom—!
An extremely yin force filled with endless coldness and killing intent instantly collided fiercely within his body with that extremely yang force brimming with endless scorching heat and tyrannical aura!
One cold, one hot!
One yin, one yang!
Two terrifying energies with utterly opposing attributes yet equal ferocity began a frenzied death battle within Lin Xiao's dantian, like two armies of Gods and Devils that would not rest until one side was dead, capable of tearing heaven and earth completely apart!
Pfft—!
Lin Xiao spat out another mouthful of blood, this time an even eerier black-gold color!
He felt as if his body had instantly fallen into a double hell that endlessly cycled between freezing and incineration!
The extreme agony of alternating ice and fire, cold and heat, was far more horrifying and torturous than the earlier body tempering with dragon blood alone!
Yet Lin Xiao still gritted his teeth!
He pushed his terrifying will, already tempered to be harder than divine iron, to its limit!
Then, like the most crazed gambler, he transformed his soul into an indestructible, invisible furnace!
He forcibly dragged and compressed those two terrifying energies raging wildly within him bit by bit toward the center of the furnace, ultimately attempting to completely fuse them into... one!
It was an incomparably insane act!
With the slightest mistake, he would be blown apart by those two terrifying energies, utterly out of control, until both his soul and body were annihilated!
But Lin Xiao still charged forward without hesitation!
Because he knew that risk and opportunity had always existed side by side!
He wanted to push his strength to an ultimate pinnacle never achieved before and never to be achieved again in the shortest possible time!
This was his only, and fastest, shortcut!
Three days and three nights.
For three whole days and nights, Lin Xiao sat quietly atop the Starwatching Platform without moving, like an ancient stone Buddha that had long passed into stillness.
Only the eerie divine light of gold and black that continuously flashed in alternation from his body, along with the thick black-gold blood crust that completely enveloped him, silently told of the terrifying and perilous life-and-death transformation he was undergoing!
Until the morning of the fourth day.
When the first strand of dawn's purple qi, brimming with boundless vitality, once again fell across this tranquil purple bamboo forest,
Crack—!
An extremely faint, crisp sound like an eggshell breaking suddenly rang out from Lin Xiao's body!
Then, unseen by anyone, the thick black-gold blood crust that had completely wrapped around him cracked inch by inch like dry, splitting shed snakeskin!
Finally, with a rustle, it completely peeled away!
It revealed the skin beneath, delicate and smooth like that of a newborn infant, faintly radiating a brilliant treasure-light like the finest mutton-fat jade!
"Huu..."
Lin Xiao slowly opened his brilliant starry eyes, now restored to their former clarity and depth, and let out a long breath of impure white air that no longer contained the slightest impurity!
He had succeeded!
Not only had he survived the double hell of ice and fire, enough to make any Body Refinement Realm cultivator perish in body and soul,
he had even turned disaster into fortune, completely fusing those two utterly different terrifying energies of yin and yang into one!
They had transformed into a wholly new, higher-tier energy that stood above all the Spiritual Energy he had cultivated before!
"Is this... the legendary Physical Body Extreme Realm?"
Lin Xiao slowly spread open his palm.
He did not use even a thread of Spiritual Energy!
With only the slightest movement of his will!
Beneath his jade-like smooth skin, a layer of extremely faint dark golden dragon-scale phantoms slowly emerged, carrying an endless mysterious and tyrannical aura!
A terrifying sense of power, born purely from his physical body itself, instantly filled his limbs and bones!
He possessed an exceptionally powerful confidence!
Even if he did not use any cultivation techniques or martial arts now,
with this terrifying body, already tempered by dragon blood and the Wolf King's essence until it had been riddled with wounds yet remained indestructible,
he could still confront head-on—and even tear apart—a true Spiritual Movement Realm expert!
This was the Physical Body Extreme Realm!
A legendary realm that existed only in ancient records!
A supreme myth capable of driving any Body Refinement Realm cultivator completely mad!
"It is time."
Lin Xiao slowly rose to his feet.
He did not immediately test this heaven-defying, terrifying combat strength of his.
Instead, he slowly cast his deep gaze toward the purple bamboo forest below the bamboo lodge, which had long been waiting.
He could clearly sense thirty resolute auras that were still somewhat youthful, yet had already been thoroughly tempered by iron and blood and the flames of war.
As well as an aged aura filled with endless majesty and satisfaction.
He knew.
His seclusion had ended.
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