Body Cultivation Innate

Zhao Ping'an looked at the cultivation method that followed and felt a thick wave of malice.

Although he had created the Game Panel, he was not the one who had written the simplified versions of the cultivation methods.

"If this were in my previous life, it would completely count as disturbing the peace! I'd wanted to test it out tonight, but it looks like I can only go practice in the Deep Forest tomorrow..."

At dawn the next day, Zhao Ping'an rose early and headed into the Deep Forest to begin his first cultivation session of Ironclad Art.

He now had to cultivate three methods at once: Qi Gathering Art for internal cultivation, Ironclad Art for external cultivation, and the technique Blade Draw Slash. All he lacked was a lightness skill to be complete.

However, he had heard Master Zheng Hetong say that even the weakest lightness skill was a Second-rate Cultivation Method, requiring inner force to cultivate. In his current state, he was not qualified to practice one.

Ironclad Art still granted one point of Training Progress for every hundred collisions with a wooden post. With Zhao Ping'an's current body, he could basically strike the post once per second, and keep doing so for more than five hundred strikes without stopping.

After that, he needed to rest for roughly a quarter of an hour before he could continue.

Dawn only lasted half a shichen, so he could complete at most two rounds of cultivation.

Before today, that quarter-hour of rest in between had been when he practiced Blade Draw Slash. Now, he had to add Qi Gathering Art to the routine as well.

So that Master, Mistress, and his Senior Brother Sister would not think he was insane, Zhao Ping'an did not rush to continue cultivating after practicing five sets of Ironclad Art.

Instead, he used the Hundred Refinement Blade to dig a huge pit into the ground, half a meter in diameter and two meters deep.

The inside of the pit resembled a large wine vat. Its widest point was nearly one and a half meters across, and its walls were uneven and pitted.

He remembered this as a soundproofing method used in cinemas when he was a child in his previous life. The memory had long since grown hazy, and he had no idea whether it would work.

"Phew... Let's test it out!"

Looking at the product of over half an hour's work, Zhao Ping'an let out a long breath and nodded in satisfaction.

After loosening up his body, he drew in a deep breath, lay prone at the mouth of the pit, and began to shout.

"Ahhh!!!..."

It took a full minute, and Zhao Ping'an only managed to endure it by taking two breaths midway through.

"Inhale, exhale... This is so hard?"

After covering his ears and taking several breaths, Zhao Ping'an finally climbed up from the ground.

The pit's soundproofing effect was quite good, but he simply could not hold out for a full minute in one go.

Fortunately, as long as the sound was not interrupted midway, it counted as one attempt.

"Next time, I need to bring earplugs, or my ears won't be able to take it."

The pit's soundproofing was indeed good. Beyond ten meters, the sound was already too faint to hear. But Zhao Ping'an himself had to bear the enormous echo.

After breakfast, he resumed his day-after-day bitter cultivation: eating, medicinal baths, sleeping, bitter cultivation, eating...

Simple, yet fulfilling.

Time flowed on like this without pause. The sun rose and the moon set; spring departed and autumn came.

A month later, Second Senior Disciple Brother Cui Kang'an and Third Senior Sister Mu Yunmeng successively broke through to the Martial Artist Realm.

After cultivating martial arts painstakingly on the mountain for another three months, they went down the mountain together.

The lively little courtyard instantly became much quieter.

By then, Zhao Ping'an's Qi Gathering Art had already broken through to the eighth layer. His five viscera and six bowels had undergone eight enhancements in succession, and he could long since complete a full minute of shouting with ease.

This also caused his Qi Gathering Art to cultivate faster and faster.

As for Ironclad Art, he had cultivated it to the seventh layer. When he circulated the art, his skin turned iron-blue, impervious to blades and spears (people of the same realm wielding ordinary blades and spears could not harm him; Divine Weapon sharp blades would certainly still get through).

Finally, Blade Draw Slash had already reached the realm of perfection. However, his total amount of [Deduction Points] was insufficient, so he could not deduce it further.

He needed to cultivate Ironclad Art to perfection, or cultivate a method one tier stronger than Qi Gathering Art to perfection.

In other words, his cultivation had to rise to the peak of Houtian Martial Artist Ninth Layer, or even the Innate Realm.

In the fifth month, Zhao Ping'an's Qi Gathering Art finally reached the grand perfection of the ninth layer.

At that instant, he clearly sensed the endless Heavenly Qi between heaven and earth. He successfully performed Qi Induction, opened his own Lower Dantian, and produced his first wisp of inner force.

His realm also became: Houtian Martial Artist First Layer!

Afterward, Zhao Ping'an consumed only 50% of his [Deduction Points] to deduce Qi Gathering Art into One Qi Art.

[One Qi Art (Second-rate Cultivation Method): 0/300 (Not Initiated, Simplified)] Meditate calmly and absorb Heavenly Qi for ten minutes to gain 1 point of Training Progress

Meditating calmly was precisely the cultivation method of the Houtian Martial Artist Realm.

By constantly drawing in and expelling Heavenly Qi, one would fill the qi sea within the dantian.

An ordinary martial artist could draw in and expel Heavenly Qi for at most two shichen per day before their body reached its limit.

Once the dantian was full, they needed to use the special method inherent to their cultivation technique to circulate and condense their inner force. In the process, the overflowing dantian would be expanded and stretched larger by the inner force.

Once completed, their cultivation would rise by one layer!

After repeating this cycle nine times, their cultivation would rise to the ninth layer of the Houtian Martial Artist Realm.

Then, after filling the dantian—expanded nine times over—with inner force for the final time, one would need to use that overflowing inner force to pass through the Heaven-Earth Bridge and open the Conception and Governing Vessels.

The moment it succeeded would be the day one broke through into an Innate Martial Master.

At that point, Heavenly Qi would flow in an unceasing stream from the Baihui Acupoint atop the head, pass through the Conception and Governing Vessels, and pour into the Dantian, where it would condense into Xiantian True Qi.

So long as they did not overuse Xiantian True Qi, an Innate Martial Artist's strength would be inexhaustible.

Of course, not overusing it was clearly impossible. And even if one had ample True Qi, physical strength and mental energy were still limited.

The cultivation of an Innate Martial Master involved opening up meridians, including the other six of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians besides the Conception and Governing Vessels, as well as the Twelve Regular Meridians—a total of eighteen meridians.

In other words, opening two meridians would raise one's cultivation by one layer.

Zhao Ping'an had slowly gleaned all this from his Master, Zheng Hetong, through indirect probing. As for the Grandmaster Realm beyond the Innate Realm, Zheng Hetong was unwilling to speak of it.

Afterward, Zhao Ping'an changed his training schedule. Every morning after getting up and washing, he no longer went to the woods behind the house to practice the Ironclad Art. Instead, he remained in his room, breathing in and circulating Heavenly Qi.

In the afternoon, he went to the woods to train in the Ironclad Art, then continued breathing in and circulating Heavenly Qi after dinner.

A month later, Zhao Ping'an had officially cultivated the Ironclad Art to perfection. He spent 100% of his Deduction Points to deduce it into the first-rate cultivation method, the Bronze Armor Art.

[Bronze Armor Art (first-rate cultivation method): 0/400 (Not Yet Initiated, Simplified) Continuously use the body to ram a stone pillar 100 times to gain 1 point of Training Progress]

The Bronze Armor Art was clearly much harder to cultivate. Not only did each layer require more Training Progress, but the wooden post had also been replaced with a stone pillar.

He had no stone pillars, but stone walls were everywhere.

He simply changed his afternoon tree-ramming into wall-ramming.

After half a month, Zhao Ping'an finally initiated the Bronze Armor Art, reaching the First Layer.

His Body Cultivation realm also naturally broke through to the First Layer Innate Martial Master Realm!