Ancient Prodigy

"Fusheng, do you now feel as if there's an energy in your Qi Sea, like a fetal membrane enveloping your physical body and bones?" Old Huang asked.

Seeing him nod, Old Huang murmured, "So, the legends are true, cough cough... they're actually true!"

"What legends?" Chen Fusheng knew that Old Huang's previous cultivation was at the Star Guiding Realm Completion, but his cultivation had scattered due to a strange illness.

"Remember when you asked me why the Furnace Contemplation Method isn't called the Furnace Meditation Method? I'll answer you now. It's because meditation methods rely on spiritual power to condense energy, while contemplation methods rely on the physical body to condense energy!"

"Since you succeeded in Star Guiding, it means you purely relied on your physical body to contemplate the energy of heaven and earth, subverting the common sense known by all cultivators!"

"What? How is that possible..." Chen Fusheng was shocked. Wouldn't that mean that one could cultivate without spiritual power? Could also eat and stay warm? Could also earn money to buy medicine?

"Grandpa didn't believe these things before, but you really did it. Meditation methods can only store energy in the Qi Sea, while contemplation methods cultivate the physical body and bones! This is the major difference between the two."

Old Huang continued, "As long as you continue to cultivate, the foundation of your physical body will become stronger and stronger. Then, in the future, your physical body will be the root system of your growth!"

"The physical body is the talent for cultivation? Spiritual power is not important anymore? Who exactly wrote this contemplation method?" Chen Fusheng still felt incredulous.

"It originated from an Ancient Prodigy. He also didn't have spiritual power for cultivation, but he created the Furnace Contemplation Method, this world-shocking feat, with his mortal body!"

"He could even create his own cultivation method?" Chen Fusheng was dumbfounded.

"It sounds unbelievable. It is said that the prodigy spent five hundred years creating five extraordinary feats. On the day of his success, an instant of awakening shocked the heavens and the earth, shook the Cosmos, and the All Worlds Star Palace trembled for it."

Old Huang exclaimed. A mortal not only figured out a cultivation method but also reached an unspeakable height. How could it not be shocking? Not chilling? Not awe-inspiring!

What truly crowned the world was that the Ancient Prodigy blazed a second path of cultivation.

Meditation and contemplation, what a great achievement this was!

"I have a great wish, to reopen the Xuanhuang of the universe, to seal the All Worlds Star Palace, to establish a heart for the heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for mortals, and to wish that all living beings in the world are brilliant giant stars standing in the sky!"

Old Huang suddenly said the words that the prodigy once said.

Establish a destiny for mortals?

Chen Fusheng's mind buzzed. His life was rewritten because of the prodigy!

"Seal the Star Palace? Was the Star Palace in the inner courtyard sealed?" He was even more shocked.

The Star Palace was built by drawing on the power of the stars, hanging high in the sky, possessing the supreme right to govern the world's Star Masters, and those who lived inside were all high and mighty Star Officials!

Old Huang couldn't help but smile, "Fusheng, do you know how big the Abyss Realm is? This territory of ours belongs to the Tian Yuan Kingdom. There are about ten Star Palaces in the Tian Yuan Kingdom, but the vast Abyss Realm can have ten thousand kingdoms."

Chen Fusheng couldn't imagine what kind of scope this was. Old Huang had never told him these things before.

"Fusheng, I want to remind you that the contemplation method is a forbidden chapter. If the Star Palace Enforcers find out that you are cultivating it, you will be directly beaten to death!" Old Huang warned with a grim expression.

"What! Why?" Chen Fusheng's body trembled.

"A more precise answer requires you to find it yourself. Alright, Fusheng, I'm tired. Go cultivate."

Old Huang sighed. How could those high and mighty terrifying Star Masters tolerate mortals disrupting the order and associating with them?

He had learned before that the Ancient Prodigy preached the Dao to the world but was regarded as a heretic and burned all the scriptures he left behind.

He estimated that the prodigy's remarks were probably said after being blocked by all parties.

In fact, Old Huang used to think that the legends were false. How could mortals defy fate?

Until he met Chen Fusheng...

Ten years ago, while he was exploring the Cold Abyss Forbidden Zone to excavate treasures, he picked up a child on the road, and inside the child's swaddling clothes was this Furnace Contemplation Method!

He identified it through the patterns and paper, confirming it was passed down from ancient times.

"I wonder who Fusheng's biological parents are; perhaps this child is destined to walk this path."

Old Huang sighed, "The Cold Abyss poison is beginning to devour my final life force. I'm afraid I won't live to see the day Fusheng becomes a strong cultivator. I wonder how many setbacks he will experience in the future. I hope this child can endure."

Chen Fusheng's mind was a bit muddled. First, he patched up the window paper, and then he brought in the decocted medicine.

Coming to the courtyard, the cold wind made him a little clearer.

"If the Star Palace Enforcers discover that I'm cultivating a forbidden path, both Grandpa and I will lose our lives. But if I don't cultivate, I can only be a handyman for the rest of my life, and Grandpa will only suffer. Why shouldn't I cultivate?"

Once he figured it out, he sat down cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes, faced the sky with his five centers, gathered the energy of heaven and earth into his body, and his body quickly became warm.

"My physical body feels like it's getting stronger. Huh, the Star Chart Heavenly Pillar isn't actively absorbing energy?"

Chen Fusheng tried to guide the energy to gather towards the Star Chart Heavenly Pillar. He found that after the Heavenly Pillar finished absorbing, dense beast-shaped carvings appeared at the base of the Heavenly Pillar.

There was an evil tiger pouncing on its prey, a violent ape beating its chest, a spirit snake spitting out its breath, a flood dragon churning the sea, a Qilin gazing at the moon, a fierce bird spreading its wings, a horse galloping across the sky, a dragon snake rising from the land...

While Chen Fusheng was examining the carvings, he suddenly heard grand syllables.

"Furnace Contemplation Method, observe the way of birds and beasts, spend one hundred and eight years, record more than five hundred kinds of exotic beast carvings, simplify them into one hundred and eight kinds of posture diagrams. If you can use the Furnace Contemplation Method to lay the foundation of the physical body, you can lift mountains and communicate with the stars in the sky with your physical body, plundering the power of the stars to temper your body..."

Lift mountains? According to his understanding, it requires the second realm, the Other Shore Domain, to do so.

After the nine heavens of the Star Guiding Realm, spiritual power uses meditation to imagine traveling in the starry sky, sailing to the other shore of destiny, finding one's own natal star in the vast sky, and resonating with it, hence it is called the Other Shore Realm.

Other Shore Realm Star Masters can absorb the material of their natal stars and catalyze it in their Qi Sea, thus possessing powerful combat abilities!

But as everyone knows, ninety-nine percent of Star Masters can only gain the recognition of one natal star.

So according to the Star Chart Heavenly Pillar inheritance, he can use the power of the stars to temper his body in the Other Shore Domain.

"So these carvings are the roots of the contemplation method. Can't I follow the path of the Ancient Prodigy through these carvings?"

Chen Fusheng communicated with the Evil Tiger Diagram, and suddenly felt that he had become a mighty and terrifying tiger. He suddenly tensed his body, his limbs were like tiger claws pressing on the ground, his body was arched, his eyes were fierce, and he rose from the ground and pounced forward!

"Bang!"

Chen Fusheng didn't control his strength and slammed into the wall, breaking his head and bleeding.

"Ah, my mother..."

He rolled on the ground holding his head. If his physique hadn't been strong, his brains would have probably come out. His limbs were even more torn and painful, and his spine seemed to have exploded.

"I just watched the Evil Tiger Diagram, and I became an evil tiger, but I don't have the corresponding power to leap and pounce."

"However, these carvings allow me to move like an evil tiger in the mountains, so as to find out the defects in my own physique."

Chen Fusheng endured the pain and drew out the energy of his Qi Sea to nourish the wound on his forehead, and soon it was cool and comfortable.

"The wound is starting to scab over... It's great to be a cultivator; when you get injured, you don't need to buy medicine."

Just as he thought this, he realized that the laceration would be difficult to heal in the short term.

Instead, the Evil Tiger Diagram on the Heavenly Pillar suddenly emitted a stream of golden energy, nourishing his body. It felt numb and tingly, and soon became exceptionally comfortable. Not only did his internal injuries heal, but his muscles and bones also became stronger.

Apart from these changes, the other parts of his body remained at their original level.

"So these energies can also assist me in cultivating the Evil Tiger Diagram, nourishing my muscles and bones."

However, Chen Fusheng noticed that after the Evil Tiger Diagram released energy, it became dim, waiting for him to replenish it with energy so that the diagram could glow and heat up again.

During his research, he discovered that he could select a diagram to charge.

Chen Fusheng continued to gather energy until dawn. Facing the morning glow, he communicated with the dazzling Evil Tiger Diagram. As his spine gradually tightened, his limbs pressed against the ground with force.

Chen Fusheng endured the urge to leap and kill, comprehending the mysteries of the diagram. His body leaned forward, then backward, then twisted.

After a brief few dozen breaths, his physical strength was exhausted, but with the nourishment of the diagram's energy, an unspeakable power erupted from his muscles and bones, filling his limbs with strength.

Moreover, he found that his hearing and sense of smell had significantly improved, truly like a tiger seeking food, sometimes crawling, sometimes leaping forward.

"The true mystery of the Evil Tiger Diagram is the explosive power of the human body, using the legs to generate force, with the spine driving the body, to pounce forward violently!"

Chen Fusheng's movements became larger, leaping up and down in the courtyard, immersed in cultivation. He could even distinguish directions by the wind, though limited to a radius of ten feet.

After a morning of hard practice, the Evil Tiger Diagram was dim and dull.

Chen Fusheng returned to normal, standing up slightly awkwardly. After straightening his spine, his overall aura became much more fierce.

He clenched his fists, the bones rubbing together to produce a crisp sound. His muscles and bones were strong and powerful, and he felt like he could beat a wild bull to death!

He also had a sense of sudden enlightenment, and a hundred and eight posture diagrams flashed through his mind, allowing him to comprehend a more profound path of the physical body.

"The simplified version of the hundred and eight posture diagrams is more suitable for the growth of the human race. On the contrary, when I used the Evil Tiger Diagram to cultivate just now, I had a kind of fierce wildness of returning to the primitive mountains and forests, which is not suitable for long-term immersion!"

"It's a pity that the Furnace Contemplation Method posture diagrams recorded on the Heavenly Pillar all need energy to activate..."

Chen Fusheng could only take out the scroll to study. He was engrossed in reading when a thunderous voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Chen Fusheng, why aren't you helping out in the cafeteria, what are you doing here?"

"Crap!" Chen Fusheng quickly put the contemplation diagram into his arms.

"Brother Lin, I overslept and was just about to go. Thank you for your trouble." Chen Fusheng forced himself to calm down and turned around.

The Tian Yuan Star Observation Manor doesn't support idlers. If he hadn't become a kitchen helper responsible for cutting vegetables every day, he wouldn't even have a place to live.

"What are you hiding in your arms?" The black-robed youth who came over was tall and burly, reaching out to grab it.

Chen Fusheng retreated sharply, smiling apologetically, "Brother Lin, it's just a travelogue. I'll go to the cafeteria now."

Teng Lin sneered, "Am I blind? Chen Fusheng, I find that you're getting bolder. Do you think Old Huang can still support you? I almost forgot that Old Huang hasn't completely died yet. What, do you want to leave him before he does?"

"Teng Lin, I'm just late, what are you trying to do?" Chen Fusheng was annoyed. In the past, Teng Lin had relied on being in charge of the cafeteria to deduct his monthly salary.

He could endure as much as possible while living under someone else's roof, but now the thing in his arms was really too scandalous to be seen.

"Still not honestly taking it out? You servants are becoming more and more unruly." Teng Lin's Qi Sea surged with three layers of yellow light, indicating the third level of the Star Guiding Realm.