Sharpening the Indestructible Vajra Body Through Diligence, Every Inch Reveals the True Chapter

The short knife made one final shave across the wood, sending a thin curl of wood shavings spiraling to the ground.

Ye Qingxuan weighed the carved wooden latch in his hand, then examined it carefully beneath the dim yellow lamplight. The latch was about a foot long and as thick as a child's arm. Both ends had been rounded smooth, while the middle retained the roughness of the raw wood for an easier grip. He lightly tapped it with the back of his knife. The sound was deep and solid. It was a fine piece of wood.

He rose and went to the back of the courtyard gate, then tried inserting the latch into the two mortises he had chiseled out earlier. The fit was perfect down to the slightest fraction. With a click, it slid in without the slightest gap.

"Clap, clap, clap."

Several crisp claps came from behind him.

Ye Qingxuan turned around and saw Ye Caiwei standing at the doorway to the inner room, her little face filled with admiration.

"Big brother, you're amazing! Your handiwork is even better than Uncle Zhang the carpenter at the alley entrance!" The little girl's eyes sparkled beneath the lamplight.

Ye Qingxuan smiled and walked over to ruffle her hair. "You certainly know how to sweet-talk people. Go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow."

"Mm!" Ye Caiwei nodded emphatically. She glanced once more at the sturdy door latch, then turned and went back into the inner room with peace of mind.

Listening as the breathing from the inner room once again grew light and even, the smile on Ye Qingxuan's face slowly faded. He returned to the outer room, pulled out the newly made latch, and inserted it again.

"Click."

That soft sound, in the stillness of the night, was like a calming pill. For the first time, it gave the dilapidated little courtyard the security of a home.

He drew a deep breath, shut the door securely, and walked to the bed.

Without the slightest hesitation, he removed the soap-colored uniform that had been washed until it faded, then took off the undershirt beneath it, revealing an upper body that was lean yet beginning to take shape. Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the window lattice, tracing faint shadows of muscle across his body.

From the old wooden chest at the foot of the bed, he dug out an undershirt he had changed out of only a few days earlier. Having been worn for a long time, the fabric had been softened by sweat and repeated washing, yet remained remarkably tough. It was just right for what he needed.

Ye Qingxuan sat cross-legged at the edge of the bed and wrapped the soft old undershirt tightly around his right hand, until his palm and knuckles were covered by a thick layer of cloth.

He closed his eyes. In his mind, every word of the cultivation method for Indestructible Vajra Body flowed past.

"The skin is a person's armor. It binds the muscles and bones without, and enfolds the organs within. The beginning of external training must start with the skin..."

The method was not profound. In fact, it was somewhat crude—rubbing, grinding, slapping, striking.

He exhaled a breath of stale air, extended his left arm straight, and pressed the cloth-wrapped bundle in his right hand against his left shoulder.

He began to rub.

At first, there was only a faint itch where the cloth brushed against his skin, as though a feather were lightly teasing it.

He increased the force in his hand, and the gentle "rubbing" changed into forceful "grinding." The cloth bundle moved slowly down his arm, inch by inch.

The itch vanished, replaced by a wave of heat. Beneath his flesh, his qi and blood seemed to be stirred by the external force and began surging faster. His skin visibly flushed red.

Ye Qingxuan gritted his teeth and increased the force in his hand by another three-tenths.

The heat transformed into a searing pain.

It was not the sharp pain of a knife slash or sword thrust, but a heavy, dull burn that welled up from deep within his flesh. Every inch of skin passed over by the cloth bundle felt as though it had been seared by a branding iron, while needle-like stabs continued without end.

His breathing grew harsh, and faint veins throbbed at his temples. Beads of sweat seeped from his hairline, the tip of his nose, and his chin, gathering into thin streams that slid down his neck and disappeared into his chest.

The muscles in his arm unconsciously tensed and trembled beneath the unrelenting pain.

This was body tempering. This was external hardening.

He treated his body of flesh and blood as a stubborn lump of iron, hammering and tempering it with the most primitive, most clumsy method. The suffering involved was something only a person of tremendous willpower could endure. An ordinary person would cry out in misery after only a few days and abandon the effort halfway.

Yet Ye Qingxuan did not make a sound.

Compared with the torment he had endured on the sickbed in his previous life, what did this little pain amount to?

The pain back then had been despair, decay, and helplessly watching life slip away before his eyes.

But the pain now was rebirth, tempering, and the true sensation of power taking root in his bones.

Sweat ran into his eyes, stinging them until he could barely keep them open. Relying only on memory and instinct, he rubbed and ground his left arm again and again along the route recorded in the method.

He did not know how much time had passed. Just as his arm had gone numb and sore, and his strength was nearly exhausted—

That silent scroll in his mind quietly emerged.

On the scroll, the area representing Indestructible Vajra Body suddenly lit up with an almost imperceptible point of light.

Beside it, an ancient-looking line of text slowly appeared:

[Merit: +1]

The next moment, a strange warm current surged from the depths of his sea of consciousness and instantly spread through his limbs and bones.

Under the wash of that warm current, the searing pain in his left arm rapidly faded, transforming into an interwoven sensation of soreness, numbness, and tingling. Beneath his flesh, it felt as though countless tiny ants were crawling, mending, and bringing new life.

Ye Qingxuan stopped moving and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air tinged with the smell of blood. He spread out his left arm and examined it beneath the lamp. The entire arm was bright red, covered in fine red specks—the signs of surging qi and blood and stimulated skin.

With a thought, that familiar scroll unfolded clearly in his sea of consciousness.

[Martial Art: Indestructible Vajra Body]

[Realm: Not Yet Initiated (Progress: Zero Inches)]

[Merit: 3/5]

Three out of five!

Adding the two points he had accumulated over the previous two nights, he now had three points of Merit. He was only two points away from completion. Once he had them, the progress of Indestructible Vajra Body could advance by one inch, truly reaching the "Initiated" Realm.

The oppressive air in his chest was expelled with his heavy breathing, transforming into an indescribable exhilaration.

He clenched his fist. His knuckles gave a faint series of crisp cracks. At that moment, the sound was indescribably pleasing to his ears.

The door to the inner room was quietly pushed open a crack.

Ye Caiwei poked her little head out from behind the door. Holding the coarse porcelain bowl in her hands, she tiptoed over to Ye Qingxuan.

"Big brother, drink some water."

The little girl's voice was kept low, as though she feared disturbing him.

Ye Qingxuan turned and accepted the bowl. The water was warm, neither cold nor hot, at exactly the right temperature to drink. He drained it in one gulp and handed the bowl back to his sister.

"Go back to sleep."

"Big brother, why is your arm so red?" Ye Caiwei looked at his flushed arm, her little face full of worry.

"It's nothing. I'm practicing." Ye Qingxuan smiled. "It's the same principle as Butcher Wang at the alley entrance pounding pork every morning. The more you pound it, the firmer the meat becomes."

The comparison was somewhat crude, but Ye Caiwei understood it. She nodded as though she understood and yet didn't, then returned to the inner room, looking back three times with every step.

Ye Qingxuan sat by the bed for roughly half an hour. Once the hot sweat on his body had receded and the burning sensation in his arm had eased considerably, only that persistent tingling remained.

He picked up the old undershirt he had wrapped around his hand once more.

He could not let a single moment of the night go to waste.

He was prepared to do it again!

However, when his cloth-wrapped right hand pressed against the skin of his left arm again, a piercing pain several times more intense than before suddenly shot through him!

Ye Qingxuan's body shuddered uncontrollably.

The skin he had rubbed was bright red and almost translucent beneath the lamplight. Every pore stood erect, and the surface was covered in fine red welts, as though blood might seep out at any moment.

This did not feel like practicing martial arts. It felt more like repeatedly grinding a piece of raw flesh with coarse sandpaper.

He stopped after rubbing only twice.

The muscles in his arm spasmed violently from the agony.

No.

He reached an immediate conclusion.

He was not a rash brute who could not adapt. Though Indestructible Vajra Body had the assistance of the Heavenly Machine Codex, sparing him the risk of qi deviation, it could not conjure strength from thin air. Its foundation was still this body of flesh and blood.

The first cultivation session had tempered his body and stimulated his qi and blood.

But this second session came before his flesh had recovered and his qi and blood had settled. Forcing himself to cultivate now would not be tempering. It would be self-mutilation.

Once his foundation was injured, forget about making progress—he might even lose the progress he already had.

Greed made the bite too large to chew.

He slowly lowered the undershirt, walked to the water vat in the corner, ladled up a scoop of icy well water, soaked a strip of cloth, and gently placed it over his burning arm.

Only when the cold seeped into his flesh did the searing pain ease somewhat.

It seemed that this body could not yet endure two sessions in one night.

Then he would practice once in the morning and once in the evening.

Ye Qingxuan had already settled on a plan. Patrolling the streets during the day might look like doing nothing, but it would let him move his muscles and bones and keep his qi and blood flowing. Once he returned home at dusk and rested through the night, his body would recover, making it just right for another session at dawn.

That way, he could accumulate two points of Merit each day.

Tomorrow, or the day after at the latest, he would have all five points of Merit. Then he could make Indestructible Vajra Body truly enter the Initiated Realm!

He lay back down on the hard plank bed and stared at the pitch-black rafters.

Without the Martial Path Heavenly Machine Codex, relying solely on those vague lines in the manual—"rub and grind the flesh, temper the muscles and bones"—he might have spent his entire life without glimpsing the path to mastery.

The proper degree, force, and timing had to be exact. A difference of a hair could lead a thousand miles astray. One careless mistake could leave the skin torn and flesh raw at best, or throw the qi and blood into disorder, injure the organs, and leave behind a lifetime of illness at worst.

Martial cultivation had never been easy. Xiong Tiezhu possessed innate Divine Power, yet he practiced the brute-force boxing style that consumed the most qi and blood, so his progress was slow. As for men like Wei Datong, they could not even enter the gate and could only watch from the sidelines, envious and complaining.

But he possessed a road to heaven invisible to everyone else.

The soreness in his body intertwined with the anticipation in his heart, transforming into a powerful wave of sleepiness.

The night was still long.

But dawn would always come.