Advancing to Postnatal

"Three EXP, hmm, not much," Zhang Wan murmured, looking at the EXP required to break through the Houtian bottleneck. Three EXP, even with bad luck, would be enough to accumulate in three days.

For his savings, it was but a drop in the bucket.

However, Zhang Wan didn't immediately use his EXP to break through.

He spent some time trying to break through on his own.

As a result, after a month, that door remained unmoved, showing no signs of being shaken.

This made Zhang Wan realize the difficulty of three EXP even more profoundly.

"To temper from a mortal to the Mortal Limit required thirty EXP. I spent over five years, plus a little EXP, to complete this stage."

"Three EXP, roughly converted, would be six to seven months of hard work." Zhang Wan knew it couldn't be converted so simply, but this conversion helped him gauge the difficulty of the breakthrough.

"Normally, I would need to cultivate hard for six to seven months to equate to three EXP, but breaking through the bottleneck requires me to achieve growth equivalent to three EXP in an instant."

"The difficulty is just… amazing…" Zhang Wan clicked his tongue, his face full of emotion.

No wonder Xu Hui and others, despite their decent talent, spent months accumulating after tempering their Blood Essence to the limit before successfully breaking through.

If it were him, it would probably take even more time.

Unless he could obtain top-grade elixirs or other heavenly treasures, and use their power to boost his breakthrough.

"Fortunately, I have EXP," Zhang Wan said with a faint smile.

After trying for a month with no progress and understanding the difficulty, he decisively gave up and directly invested three EXP.

Instantly, Zhang Wan felt the door blocking his path shatter, and the barrier between him and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth disappeared.

The Blood Essence tempered to its limit within his body circulated on its own at this moment, forming a vortex of Blood Essence according to the circulation method recorded in the Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist.

This vortex of Blood Essence drew external spiritual energy into his body.

The pure spiritual energy was refined and absorbed within the condensed Blood Essence, which was already at its limit.

Subsequently, a wisp of mana was born!

A moment later, this wisp of mana descended into the lower dantian, opening up the hazy lower dantian and making it a place to store mana.

Then, the mana circulated through his body once, opening the Niwan Palace, and divine sense was born.

During this process, Zhang Wan continued to absorb external spiritual energy, constantly strengthening this wisp of mana, and his physical body was also being continuously cleansed.

It was only after years of arduous tempering and a strong physique, with the Blood Essence tempered to its limit serving as a buffer, that Zhang Wan's body could withstand the scouring of spiritual energy.

An ordinary person would have been covered in wounds and blood by now.

About half a day later, Zhang Wan finished his breakthrough, officially stepping into the Houtian Realm.

Before Zhang Wan could savor the mysteries of the Houtian Realm, he smelled a foul odor.

During the breakthrough and the scouring by spiritual energy, the impurities within his body were expelled, forming a layer of black, foul-smelling grime on his skin.

The smell was unbearable.

Zhang Wan fetched several buckets of water to wash away the grime.

Feeling refreshed, he began to sense his current strength.

His body surged with power, four to five times greater than before the breakthrough, far exceeding the Mortal Limit.

His Blood Essence had also doubled.

These factors contributed to a formidable physique.

"The physical body is the vessel for crossing the world, so the stronger, the better."

"And much of a martial artist's cultivation is focused on the body." Zhang Wan tested the strength of his enhanced body, which had improved significantly in all aspects, leaving him quite satisfied.

Afterward, Zhang Wan closed his eyes and mobilized his divine sense.

Although it had just been born and was not strong, it allowed Zhang Wan to see clearly within a one-meter radius of himself.

Even with his eyes closed, he could see perfectly.

He also had a complete understanding of his own physical body.

He could see his flesh, bones, and internal organs clearly.

Under his divine sense, any damage to his body could be immediately detected and healed.

Finally, Zhang Wan mobilized the mana within his body.

This was the foundation for transcending in the martial path, the source of a martial artist's great power.

Although the mana within Zhang Wan was still weak, he could feel its potential.

With a slight mobilization of mana, combined with the Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist, the power of his punches and kicks immediately increased significantly.

It had improved by more than several tenths.

"The Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist is still just a mortal martial art. If it were a true martial cultivation technique or skill, the power displayed would be even more astonishing," Zhang Wan murmured, with a hint of excitement.

After assessing his condition, Zhang Wan finally opened the system panel.

Host: Zhang Wan (Ten years old)

Realm: Postnatal First Level (120 EXP to reach completion)

Realm Bottleneck: None

Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills: Mortal Martial Art Ox Demon Body Tempering Fist (7 EXP to reach completion / Completed)

Available EXP: 8146

"120 EXP to complete. That's four times the 30 EXP needed for a mortal's Blood Essence to reach completion. The cultivation difficulty has increased severalfold." This change was within Zhang Wan's expectations.

Cultivation was inherently more difficult the further one progressed.

This was also why he had been saving his EXP instead of using it carelessly, fearing that the cultivation difficulty would skyrocket later, requiring a surge in EXP that he might not have enough of.

However, if Postnatal First Level only required 120 EXP.

Then the entire Postnatal Realm, with its nine levels, even if the difficulty of each subsequent minor realm increased slightly, the total EXP required should only be a little over a thousand.

Even if it required 1200-1300 EXP, Zhang Wan could afford it.

With the amount of EXP he currently possessed, it was enough to easily surpass the entire Postnatal Realm.

But if the entire nine levels of the Postnatal Realm required over a thousand EXP, how much EXP would the subsequent Prenatal and True Core realms require?

"I still need to verify if the rate at which I gain EXP has changed."

"If the amount of EXP I gain daily increases as I break through to the Postnatal Realm."

"Then I can afford to be a bit more liberal with my EXP."

"Otherwise, it's still more sensible to use EXP slowly."

"Moreover, 120 EXP to reach completion. These words look fine now, but in the future, as I cultivate other cultivation techniques and martial skills, this kind of font might fill the entire panel."

As Zhang Wan's thoughts stirred, the "120 EXP to reach completion" on the panel changed to 0/120.

120 represented the EXP required to reach completion for the entire minor realm.

The 0 in front represented the EXP already invested and the progress made through his own cultivation.

Since Zhang Wan had only just broken through and hadn't invested any EXP yet, it was zero.

This number would begin to change once he started cultivating.

"Now, all I need is a cultivation technique."

When the morning training arrived, Zhang Wan rushed to the fifth training ground and found Instructor Liu, revealing his Postnatal cultivation.

Instructor Liu was overjoyed.

The more students under their guidance who advanced to the Postnatal Realm, the more generous the Sect's rewards would be for the instructors.

Therefore, seeing Zhang Wan advance, he was quite pleased.

Nor was he surprised.

Zhang Wan's progress had always been good, so his breakthrough at this time was not abrupt.