Ninth Layer of Body Refining

These corpses must have been Body Refining Realm cultivators when they were alive. After death, exposed to wind and rain, their bones had long since lost the hardness they'd possessed in life. Under Zhou Heng's sword, they fell one after another like rotten wood.

Fortunately, it was Zhou Heng. Anyone else, without the support of Flying Cloud Steps, would never have been able to avoid getting so much as a scratch while surrounded by so many walking corpses.

Poison wasn't something that had to hit a vital spot!

Smack, smack, smack—the corpses toppled to the ground, dust returning to dust, earth to earth. The green flames in their eye sockets went out as well.

A dozen minutes later, all several hundred corpses had been taken down. Zhou Heng stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow.

It looked like a great victory, but the fight had been perilous. If he'd let his guard down even slightly, those walking corpses would have grabbed him. And if he'd been tainted by their poison, he had no idea what might have happened!

Whatever it was, it certainly wouldn't have been good!

Zhou Heng looked toward the Blood-Colored Stone Stele and strode over.

Everything had been caused by this stele. It could "bring the dead back to life," influence and control minds—what exactly was this thing?

"Junior Brother Zhou, don't touch it. It's too sinister!" Han Yulian called shakily from behind him. She was terrified.

Zhou Heng waved a hand but continued forward, stopping in front of the stele.

This time, the stele didn't react at all.

He couldn't understand a single character on it. They were packed together like stars filling the sky. He paused, then slowly reached out to press his hand against the stele.

Han Yulian's heart leaped into her throat. She wanted to stop Zhou Heng, but her feet seemed nailed to the ground, and she couldn't move them at all. Her breathing grew labored, and she felt she might faint at any moment.

After all, the impact of seeing skeletons rise from the dead had been too great. She'd completely forgotten that her cultivation was still higher than Zhou Heng's, and was acting like nothing but a frightened woman.

As his hand drew closer to the stele, Zhou Heng seemed to hear a baleful wind wailing. A shiver ran through him, raising gooseflesh all over his body.

He was unafraid. His palm came down.

Boom!

A streak of blood-red light flashed across the stele and surged along his hand into his body. It hurled him into the air, and he crashed heavily to the ground. Zhou Heng's consciousness instantly retreated within him, and he could no longer sense anything around him.

Pain! Such pain!

Blood-red light filled Zhou Heng's entire body, as if it were about to burst him apart! Just then, the Black Broken Sword gave a slight tremor, and an aura that suppressed the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths swept out in an instant.

Like snow melting in boiling water, the blood-red light rapidly scattered, flowing into the flesh and meridians throughout Zhou Heng's body.

The Moon Shadow Heart Art began circulating on its own, trying to refine the power contained in the blood-red light!

Zhou Heng wanted to wake up, but there was nothing he could do. He had a vague feeling that he had to clear the blood-red light from his body.

You want to harm me? I'll drain you dry first!

He deliberately circulated the Moon Shadow Heart Art and began to wrestle with the blood-red light, refining it again and again!

Although the Black Broken Sword had dispersed the blood-red light and stripped away most of its power, what remained was still formidable. It stubbornly struggled against Zhou Heng, refusing to be refined easily. But inside Zhou Heng's body, the Black Broken Sword held it down, rendering its resistance useless.

One strand, two strands, three strands—the blood-red light transformed into pure energy, which Zhou Heng absorbed and converted into his own True Essence Power, rapidly building up his cultivation.

Over the past several days, the free-floating energy released by the Black Broken Sword had dwindled, but it had still brought him to the peak of the Seventh Layer of Body Refining. With the accumulation of this True Essence Power, he could now break through to the Eighth Layer of Body Refining!

Although he was half-conscious, this was certainly no good time to break through. But Zhou Heng was like an arrow already nocked—he had no choice but to release it!

Without a breakthrough, he couldn't contain any more True Essence Power. But the Moon Shadow Heart Art was still circulating on its own, and if he couldn't absorb the True Essence Power in his body, he would be literally bursting apart!

Then let's do it!

Zhou Heng's mind was clear as he began breaking through to the Eighth Layer of Body Refining.

After entering the Bone Refining Realm, each minor breakthrough became extremely difficult! By comparison, accumulating True Essence Power was no challenge at all, thanks to pills like the Spirit Gathering Pill. Some heavenly treasures could even let a person complete the accumulation required for a minor breakthrough in a single day!

But a breakthrough required more than an accumulation of power. It also required insight.

The higher one's realm, the more important insight became.

Zhou Heng's spiritual sense took the shape of a miniature human and strolled through his body, examining himself from within and guiding his True Essence Power against the barrier to the Eighth Layer of Body Refining.

The ability to examine oneself from within shouldn't have been possible for a Body Refining Realm cultivator. It was something one only gained upon reaching the Spirit Gathering Realm! Yet Zhou Heng had broken this rule. When others tried to overcome a barrier, they were like blind men feeling an elephant; they couldn't know beforehand whether they were doing it right or wrong, and only found out after making the attempt.

But Zhou Heng was different. He was like a god looking down from on high, with complete command of his own body. He only needed to make the most accurate choice.

And his insight?

Compared with the Heaven-Soaring Nine Styles, this was child's play!

In less than half an hour, his body suddenly shuddered, and his aura surged by a whole level!

The Eighth Layer of Body Refining!

But it was far from over. Countless strands of blood-red light still remained inside Zhou Heng. He continued to suppress, refine, and absorb them, steadily accumulating True Essence Power.

The process of accumulating True Essence Power was also the process of tempering the body.

As it continued, Zhou Heng's skin grew tougher, his muscles denser, and his bones harder. Only his blood could not be tempered; that belonged to the Blood Refining Realm.

The middle stage of the Eighth Layer of Body Refining, the late stage, the peak!

Just three short hours later, Zhou Heng had completed the entire accumulation of power for the Eighth Layer of Body Refining. He could now break through to the Ninth Layer of Body Refining!

"How is this possible?" Han Yulian finally came to her senses. She'd watched Zhou Heng break through to the Eighth Layer of Body Refining with her own eyes, and that alone had nearly stunned her into fainting. What happened next somehow made her hold on.

She could clearly sense Zhou Heng's aura rising from the initial stage of the Eighth Layer of Body Refining all the way to its peak. It was like a dream!

Had this guy eaten an immortal pill?

"That stele!" Han Yulian's beautiful eyes turned toward the Blood-Colored Stone Stele. Zhou Heng had changed like this only after touching it. Could it increase one's cultivation?

But she'd also witnessed the strange changes in Zhou Heng earlier. His body had been glowing with blood-red light, as if it were about to burst apart. If she touched it, would she be shattered into billions of fragments?

Zhou Heng had saved her from a helpless death not long ago, which showed he could resist the stele. But she... couldn't!

She might have been greedy, but she wasn't stupid. All she could do now was wait quietly. Once Zhou Heng woke up, if he was willing, perhaps he could help her get some benefits too!

Zhou Heng was oblivious to what was happening outside. He immediately began breaking through to the Ninth Layer of Body Refining.

It was too easy!

Another half hour later, the barrier opened fully to Zhou Heng once more. True Essence Power surged through every bone in his body. Now that the Bone Refining Realm was complete, his True Essence Power could enter every corner of his bones. The exhilarating feeling was beyond words!

"Hiss!" Han Yulian drew in a sharp breath. He'd broken through again!

She must have been seeing ghosts!

She'd been through it herself and knew exactly how difficult it was to advance from the Seventh Layer of Body Refining to the Eighth and Ninth Layers. The difficulty didn't lie in accumulating True Essence Power, but in breaking through. Take her, for example: she'd spent seven months going from the initial stage of the Seventh Layer of Body Refining to its peak, but breaking through the barrier had taken five months!

It had taken her nine months to advance from the initial stage of the Eighth Layer of Body Refining to its peak, and another nine months to break through to the Ninth Layer of Body Refining!

The higher one's realm, the more the time spent accumulating cultivation and the time spent breaking through reversed. After reaching the Blood Refining Realm, one might spend a year or two accumulating power, then three or four years making a breakthrough!

Zhou Heng was an absolute monster!

Her beautiful eyes shifted, and regret rose in her heart.

If Zhou Heng had been born ten years earlier, when she was still in the bloom of youth, she was confident she could have lured him into becoming her devoted lover! Unfortunately, though she was still as alluring as ever, she was seven or eight years older than Zhou Heng!

What am I thinking? She shook her head and laughed at herself, then turned her gaze back to Zhou Heng, worry showing in her eyes. If this guy died here, she'd be buried with him!

The blood-red light inside Zhou Heng hadn't been completely cleared yet!

Zhou Heng wasn't in a hurry to wake up. Instead, he hoped there might be even more blood-red light. He might as well break through all at once to the peak of the Twelfth Layer of Body Refining!

He believed that even the barrier to the Spirit Gathering Realm wouldn't hold him for long!

Only after becoming a Spirit Gathering Realm powerhouse could he go to White Jade Valley and slaughter them all!

The middle stage of the Ninth Layer of Body Refining!

The blood-red light had finally been completely refined.

Zhou Heng sighed softly and regained control of his body. He suddenly opened his eyes. Two flashes of brilliance gleamed, then quickly faded back to normal.

"Congratulations, Junior Brother Zhou!" Han Yulian said sincerely. She admired Zhou Heng's monstrous talent from the bottom of her heart, and now she truly wanted to become friends with him.

Zhou Heng smiled. "It was just a lucky coincidence!"

He looked back at the stele and saw that the blood-red glow on its surface seemed somewhat dimmer. Could he absorb some more? The thought stirred in Zhou Heng's mind, and he placed his hand on it again.

Boom!

The Black Broken Sword in his Dantian gave a spontaneous tremor. A large amount of blood-red light was drawn out, but this time, not a single bit went to Zhou Heng. The Black Broken Sword gobbled it all up!

The Black Broken Sword's pull was overwhelmingly powerful. In the space of a single breath, it had drained the blood-red light from the stele!

Zhou Heng couldn't help clicking his tongue in wonder. The stele had sent out only a single streak of blood-red light before, yet that alone had let him leap two minor realms. If he'd swallowed all this blood-red light, where would it have taken him?

The Twelfth Layer of Body Refining? Or straight to the Spirit Gathering Realm?

"Junior Brother Zhou, we should hurry and leave!" Han Yulian was still shaken.

Creak!

Just then, the stele pushed upward slightly, letting out an ear-piercing sound.

What was going on?

Creak, creak. As Zhou Heng and Han Yulian stared at it, the stele pushed upward again, and faster and faster.

Bang! Sand and dirt flew everywhere. The entire stele suddenly collapsed, and a shadow shot out.

"Wahaha! This seat is finally free!"

P.S. "This seat" makes its entrance. Please add to your collection and recommend!