Nine-Rank Body Refining

Sky Snake Star, Xiūshé City, Second High School, Advanced Star Lord Class.

Homeroom teacher Du Chengze stood at the podium, looked over the thirty-four students below, and nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. Your Natal Stars have now all condensed First-Order Spirit Veins, given rise to your own stellar dependents, and advanced into First-Order Stars. Your foundations have been preliminarily laid."

"Your information, along with the basic information on your Natal Stars, has all been uploaded to the Star Alliance's official website on the Star Net."

The Star Net was the network the Star Alliance had built on the Celestial Star Array Diagram platform, referred to simply as the Star Net.

"Over the next period of time, some companies will contact you to discuss investments."

"You must choose carefully and cautiously. Read the rights and obligations clauses in the contracts clearly. Don't see a large investment sum and muddleheadedly sign away—only to sell yourselves without even realizing it."

"If there is anything you don't understand, or anything you find difficult to decide, you can come ask me."

"Your teacher has been teaching for many years. I know these channels and twists and turns very well."

The Star Alliance's currency system was divided into two sets. One was the Star Coin system issued by the Star Alliance, while the other was the Spirit Stone system.

Star Coins were used by countless people across the Star Alliance in their daily lives and cultivation. They could be used to purchase consumables such as low-grade spirit plants, Spirit Medicine, Spirit Pills, magical artifacts, and spiritual items.

Spirit Stones, meanwhile, could only be produced on stars possessing Spirit Veins. They were generally mined from the Natal Stars of various Star Lords. However, mining Spirit Stones damaged a star's Star Spirit Vein, so Star Lords were always extremely cautious when mining them, and the quantities were limited.

Low-tier Star Lords generally would not rashly mine Spirit Stones in order to protect their Natal Stars.

As for the various Main Stars of the Star Alliance, although they too possessed Spirit Veins, the Star Alliance prohibited the mining of Spirit Stones on any Main Star, lest it affect the Main Stars' Spirit Veins and weaken humanity's foundations upon them.

Thus, within the Star Alliance, Star Coins were easy to obtain, while Spirit Stones were hard to find.

Resources needed by Star Lords to cultivate their Natal Stars, such as Demon Cores, Spirit Roots, and Spirit Seeds, often could only be bought with Spirit Stones. Star Coins had a price but no market.

For many Star Lords of ordinary birth, gathering a basic set of Spirit Root and Spirit Seed resources in the early stages to complete the foundational cultivation of their Natal Stars was exceedingly difficult.

Take Liang Ji, for instance. With the combined efforts of his entire family and friends, they had only managed to provide him with the Five-Colored Spirit Grain Spirit Root, the Essence of Breathing Soil Spirit Seed, and the Tianyi Jellyfish Spirit Seed—three resources in all.

Yet to complete the foundational cultivation of his Natal Star, Dragon Soul Star, he needed at minimum the basic five-element Spirit Seeds. That meant he still lacked Spirit Seed resources of the metal and fire elements.

Relying solely on himself and his Lineage, buying those two Spirit Seed resources would undoubtedly be extremely difficult.

Thus, an investment system had long since formed within the Star Alliance.

The basic information of newly advanced Star Lords would be published on the Star Alliance's official website. Some companies within the Star Alliance could contact these newly advanced Star Lords and sign investment agreements, investing in them, providing the startup and development funds they needed, and helping them cultivate their Natal Stars.

For these investment companies, investing in newly advanced Star Lords was a lucrative business. Usually, they had no fear of taking a loss.

After all, Star Lords each controlled a Natal Star. So long as they put that star to use and cultivated resources such as Spirit Medicine, spirit plants, spirit minerals, and spiritual items, earning a great deal of money came easily.

Although, due to the special nature of Natal Stars, they could only cultivate spiritual items of a lower rank than the star itself—in other words, only Second-Order Stars or above could begin cultivating First-Order spiritual items—and although the effects and quality of such cultivated spiritual items were far inferior to those cultivated on the Star Alliance's Main Stars.

But they were abundant and fast-growing!

Take a Star Lord's Second-Order Natal Star as an example. Such a vast star could cultivate huge quantities of First-Order spiritual items, and at its fastest, could achieve a time differential of one day to a hundred years. If managed well, it was equivalent to harvesting a batch of thousand-year spiritual items every ten days or so!

Even if those thousand-year spiritual items were less effective and of poorer quality than hundred-year spiritual items from the Main Stars, sheer quantity could make up the difference.

The profits involved were easy to imagine.

Across the many Main Stars under the Star Alliance, countless cultivators of other orthodoxies—the Human Immortal Path, Ghost Immortal Path, Immortal Deity Path, Qi Refiner Path, and more—consumed astronomical amounts of all manner of spiritual items and resources every year.

It was precisely the vast quantities of resources and materials cultivated and harvested each year on the Natal Stars of the Star Alliance's many Star Lords that made it possible to support such demand.

Therefore, even First-Order Star Lords like Liang Ji and the others, whose Natal Stars could not yet cultivate useful spiritual items, would still find many companies willing to invest in them and provide their initial development funds. Once they advanced to Second-Tier Star Lords, those companies would naturally receive returns tenfold or a hundredfold greater.

Of course, where there was profit, there was no lack of risk. Naturally, companies of mixed quality would emerge, seeking to reap the greatest profits from low-tier Star Lords like them with the smallest possible investment, even tying them down and selling them off.

So, having investment companies come knocking was a good thing, but they still needed to be carefully assessed and contracts signed with caution.

If there was anything they could not determine, they still needed to ask their teachers for advice.

That afternoon, Liang Ji and the others moved from the classroom to a cultivation room for their lesson.

Teacher Du, their homeroom teacher, led in a burly man over two meters tall, built as powerfully as a bull, and introduced him. "This is your new teacher, Teacher Wang. He is a master of the Human Immortal Path and will be responsible for teaching you cultivation during the Body Refining stage. Everyone, welcome him!"

The students applauded.

The Path of the Star Lord cultivated the Celestial Immortal Path, which was divided into nine ranks: Nine-Rank Body Refining, Eighth-Rank Qi Refining, Seventh-Rank Soul Refining, Sixth-Rank Golden Core, Fifth-Rank Nascent Soul, Fourth-Rank Spirit Transformation, Third-Rank Void Refining, Second-Rank Dao Integration, and First-Rank Celestial!

Thus, the first step of cultivation for Liang Ji and the others was Body Refining.

Among the Star Alliance's flourishing multitude of cultivation orthodoxies, the Human Immortal Path possessed the most thorough research into Body Refining cultivation, having developed it to its peak.

Thus, the school directly invited a Body Refining master of the Human Immortal Path to teach them cultivation at the Nine-Rank Body Refining stage.

"Hello, students." Teacher Wang stepped forward, a guileless smile on his face as he greeted them. "My name is Wang Hu. I'm very pleased to meet you all."

"You are all Star Lords with boundless futures. Perhaps someday, I'll have to rely on your care!"

"I hope we can get along happily over the next half year or so."

After exchanging greetings, Teacher Wang immediately began discussing Body Refining cultivation.

"Body Refining cultivation is divided into four levels: tempering skin and flesh, tempering sinews and bones, tempering the viscera, and finally, Marrow Cleansing and Blood Replacement."

"In the Human Immortal Orthodox, each stage has its corresponding training method."

"For skin and flesh, there is the Ox Demon Great Strength Fist. For sinews and bones, the Tiger Demon Bone Refining Fist. For the viscera, the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound Method. Finally, for Marrow Cleansing and Blood Replacement, there are the Spirit Snake Nine Molts."

"In Human Immortal Path cultivation, every one of these training methods requires consuming medicinal pills internally, soaking in medicinal baths externally, and spending vast amounts of time, effort, and resources. Only after enduring repeated tempering can one achieve anything."

"But you do not need that!"

As Teacher Wang spoke, he looked at Liang Ji and the others, unable to keep a trace of envy from appearing on his face.

"You are Star Lords. The Star Power sent by your Natal Stars is the finest pill and resource. Not only can it support your Body Refining cultivation, but it is fast and highly effective."

"For Human Immortal Path cultivators, completing even one level of Body Refining cultivation requires at least several years of grueling work!"

"But you only need a few months."

"Moreover, your Body Refining results will surpass those of Human Immortal cultivators."

"Especially at the final stage of Marrow Cleansing and Blood Replacement. Human Immortal cultivators can only replace their blood nine times before reaching their limit, while you can replace it ten times!"

Teacher Wang sounded somewhat wistful, while Liang Ji and the others below could not help showing a measure of pride.

From the very beginning, every stage of a Star Lord's cultivation path surpassed those of other cultivation orthodoxies. With such advantages accumulated step by step, the difference between them in the end was destined to be as vast as heaven and earth.

"Alright, next I'll teach everyone the training method for the Ox Demon Great Strength Fist!"

As Teacher Wang spoke, he first performed the Ox Demon Great Strength Fist in its entirety before them, then broke it down and taught them each move and stance.

Liang Ji and the others practiced along with him several times and quickly grasped the moves and training method more or less completely.

Before class ended, Teacher Wang further reminded them, "This set of Ox Demon Great Strength Fist techniques has complete instructional videos on the Human Immortal Orthodox's official Star Net site, Human Path. You can watch them for a fee."

"Also, the form of this fist technique is easy to practice, but its intent is hard to attain! Human Path's official site also has supporting video materials of Void Monsters, Bull Demons. Those also cost money to watch."

"I suggest that you watch more of these video materials."

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