Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art

Jian Hanyao quickly composed herself and asked in confusion, "If you successfully kill Song Tianhu, why not take command of those security guards and stay in this excellent villa district? Once you gather the guards, you'll have enough strength to fight those owners for control."

It was an ideal notion, but things were not as simple as this girl imagined.

"Because this time, we're cooperating with the owners. The condition is that if we kill Song Tianhu's group, we get to absorb eighty percent of the abilities. But in the end, we must leave the villa district and hand this base over to them." Pang Xuejun revealed a startling piece of inside information.

"By telling me this, you actually want me to join your side in the fight, right?" Jian Hanyao adapted quickly. Her surprise faded, and she instead asked with remarkable calm.

"That's right." Pang Xuejun made no attempt to hide his appreciation for Jian Hanyao. "Miss Hanyao, you have great potential to become a warrior. As long as you stay with us, we'll certainly focus on training you."

"I don't want to discuss that." Jian Hanyao pursed her lips dismissively. With Mu Xiao around, she knew how to choose. Especially since Mu Xiao surely knew far more than Pang Xuejun did, and his training methods would naturally be much better.

Jian Hanyao was not stupid. She understood who would benefit her.

"In theory, I don't approve of you fighting, but you already have the qualifications of a warrior." Pang Xuejun neatly dropped the previous topic and returned to the original one. "You're a combat-type ability user. If you take part in tonight's battle, it'll help both sides to a certain extent. We'll also give up a portion of the abilities to improve your combat strength."

"I still don't—ah!"

Suddenly, Jian Hanyao sprang up from the sofa like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on. She drew her Nuclear Energy Gun and raised a dark-blue energy shield, looking ready for battle.

"What is it?" Pang Xuejun abruptly stood up. A mountain-heavy aura surged from him, his eyes flashed sharply, and his entire body went on guard.

"Hehe, it's nothing." Jian Hanyao's eyes rolled, and she put away her fighting stance before sitting back down. With a mischievous look, she smiled. "Actually, I just wanted to test your reaction speed, Uncle Pang."

"Is that so?" Pang Xuejun frowned, finding that this girl had seemed strange in every way today.

"Of course." Jian Hanyao put on an innocent smile again. "I agree to fight tonight. Tell me the assembly point and the time of departure."

After Pang Xuejun gave her the time and meeting place, he did not stay long. He bid farewell to the strange young girl and left the villa.

"What did you use to touch me just now?" Jian Hanyao stared fiercely at You Zihao, who sat on the sofa opposite her, her flame-like eyes wide open.

Just now, Jian Hanyao had intended to refuse Pang Xuejun and not join tonight's battle plan. But Mu Xiao had touched her back with Telekinesis, startling her. She soon realized someone was playing tricks, and aside from herself and Pang Xuejun, only An Rongru and Mu Xiao were hidden in the room.

Since Mu Xiao was the most mysterious person, Jian Hanyao naturally assumed he was hinting at her. That was why she immediately agreed to Pang Xuejun's battle plan.

"Mind Source Force," Mu Xiao said. "An invisible force with the ability to kill without leaving a trace."

As he spoke, he flicked Jian Hanyao's delicate nose with a strand of Telekinesis. Caught completely off guard, she instantly jumped up in pain.

"Are you looking to die?!"

Jian Hanyao covered her little nose, feeling as if someone had truly flicked it with a finger. When she tried to pounce on him, Mu Xiao's Telekinesis restrained her entire body, making it impossible for her to get close. At that moment, she realized that when Mu Xiao had fought her earlier, he had not used his full strength at all.

Unable to struggle free, the girl completely gave up trying to lay a hand on Mu Xiao, that bastard. She could only express her dissatisfaction with a vicious glare.

An Rongru quietly tugged at Mu Xiao's sleeve, not wanting things between him and Jian Hanyao to become too tense.

"Let's discuss tonight's battle plan," Mu Xiao said.

"Hmph!" Jian Hanyao sulked, acting as though she could not be bothered with him.

"If you seriously follow my arrangements in tonight's battle, I'll teach you a set of movements for strengthening your physique."

Mu Xiao had originally intended to wait until he found a stable place to settle down before slowly sorting through the chaotic cultivation memories from before his rebirth.

After all, he had lived from the beginning of the apocalypse until the Age of Evolution, a new world with an entirely new order. He had experienced countless battles along the path of evolution, continuously studied the cultivation methods of every stage, and explored the mysteries of evolution on his own. Most of the vast amount of cultivation knowledge he had accumulated was uneven and disorganized. Especially at the beginning of the apocalypse, no one had considered cultivation, just like now. Everyone relied more on innate abilities than genuine power cultivated through their own efforts.

In the early days of the new world, cultivation manuals were extremely difficult to find. By the Evolution Era, most New Humans possessed an Apex Physique, with their Gene Resonance fully optimized. There was no need to study early cultivation methods. Unlike the first generation of New Humans now, they had to complete the process of genetic optimization step by step before exploring higher Evolution Realms and gradually developing all kinds of cultivation methods.

The previous generation planted the trees, and the later generation enjoyed the shade. That was exactly what it meant.

Therefore, among Mu Xiao's rebirth memories, most of the Soul Secret Arts and Source Force Martial Arts that could be cultivated were not suitable for the Gene Resonance stage. At the very least, one had to fully optimize their bloodline genes and successfully establish the Foundation of their own evolutionary potential before truly cultivating them.

However, Mu Xiao still remembered one cultivation method that was extremely suitable for the current beginning of the apocalypse. Among the many cultivation methods he had learned, it was the best body-tempering art for forging the physique of powerful New Humans, and also the only body cultivation method that could currently be practiced.

"Fine. But you have to teach me first." Jian Hanyao gave Mu Xiao no chance to make excuses and delay.

In truth, Mu Xiao had planned to teach her first anyway.

Mu Xiao could not stay here for long. He still worried about his younger sister at home. At most, he could stay one night to deal with the trouble in the villa district, then prepare to return home early tomorrow morning. He had originally planned to leave after bringing An Rongru back, but he had not expected the villa district to have such a hidden danger.

"You two should take off your equipment first. Otherwise, some movements will be difficult to perform." As Mu Xiao spoke, he also undid the Mechanical Inner Armor on his body.

"Me too?" An Rongru asked in surprise.

"Yes." Mu Xiao said, "You're about to break through to an SS-Class Physique. If you smoothly complete the first three forms and repeat them several times, you'll probably break through."

"What about me?" Jian Hanyao asked eagerly.

"Your physique is pretty good. You've absorbed an Ability Source of the enhancement type, right?" Mu Xiao could tell that the girl's vitality was vigorous. If she allowed him to feel her bones and muscles, he would definitely know what kind of Ability Source she had absorbed.

"More or less. I remember killing a guy stronger than the other Zombies." Jian Hanyao described the characteristics of the Ability Source.

Mu Xiao quickly understood that she had absorbed Flexibility Enhancement, just like the Ability Source he had previously absorbed from the Mutant Cat. It strengthened the flexibility of one's muscles and tendons.

Not long afterward, An Rongru and Jian Hanyao had both changed into sportswear. Mu Xiao wore only a tank top, exposing muscles as solid as refined steel. Jian Hanyao's eyes gleamed at the sight. It was hard to imagine that such a pure and adorable young girl could possess such a strong craving for power.

Mu Xiao recalled the movement details contained within the Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art.

This was a body-tempering art that could cultivate one to the Guardian Physique.

In the future Age of Evolution, common New Human physique realms were divided into: Apex Physique, Berserk Physique, Guardian Physique... Each major realm had twelve minor levels.

The Apex Physique was the foundation for New Humans, allowing the body to withstand heavy impacts of five to sixteen tons. At the Berserk Physique realm, the body's explosive power could be sustained for longer periods, and repeated bursts would not damage the body. Its strength could erupt to thirty, fifty, or even more tons. At the Guardian Physique realm, vitality protected the body on its own and offset damage. Attacks below fifty tons of force would have their damage halved or even nullified, while one could casually wield more than fifty tons of strength.

In truth, a New Human who cultivated their physique to the peak of the Guardian Physique was already a supreme expert on Earth.

Physique did not involve realms or abilities. It was purely physical strength. Most New Humans did not treat physique as their primary cultivation path because physical training was too difficult and time-consuming. Moreover, every breakthrough in bloodline genes naturally strengthened the physique to a certain degree, fully meeting the requirements for cultivating other martial arts and secret arts, with basically no effect on combat power.

Of course, New Humans who trained their bodies and combined that with Source Force Martial Arts would display combat power several times greater than New Humans who had not cultivated their physiques.

Beyond Guardian Physique, there were two more major realms, terrifying existences that exceeded ordinary strength. Yet New Humans who successfully cultivated the final two physique realms were exceedingly rare. As far as Mu Xiao knew, only a few terrifying existences among the False Gods on the moon had cultivated those final two physique realms.

Other than that, there was Water Bailan.

Back then, Mu Xiao's physique had only reached the sixth level of the Guardian Physique, the middle stage. Now that he had been reborn, he possessed an unparalleled advantage. He could forge his physique realm from the beginning, and he had mastered a body-tempering art capable of cultivating one to the Guardian Physique. In the future, he might even be able to challenge the final two major realms and surpass his former self.

By the time the powerful figures of the future Evolution Era realized the importance of physique, Mu Xiao would already have surpassed them all and stood at the pinnacle.

The eighty-one forms contained more than eight thousand movement details in total, including the rise and fall of breathing, the circulation of vitality, the exertion of force through movements, and more. These movement details activated the body's functions, thereby tempering both its exterior and interior.

It was an increasingly complex and cumbersome training method.

In the early stage, each form had thirty-three movements. In the middle stage, thirty-three new movements were added to each form, making sixty-six movements together with the initial thirty-three. In the late stage, another thirty-three movements were added to each form, making ninety-nine movements in total with the first two stages. Because each stage added thirty-three new movements to every form, it was called the Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art.

There were twenty forms in the early stage, each with thirty-three movement details, for a total of six hundred and sixty movement details. By continuously repeating them without interruption, one could speed up the process of reaching the peak of the Apex Physique. But Mu Xiao only intended to teach Jian Hanyao and An Rongru the movement details of the first three forms. As for the remaining movements and techniques, that would depend on the circumstances later. There were simply too many movement details, time did not allow for more, and their physiques could not withstand such intense exhaustion.

However, he could not teach them everything in a short time. Even if he did, neither Jian Hanyao, An Rongru, nor Mu Xiao himself could complete all the movements in one continuous sequence. Forcing it would only damage their bodies. Everything required a process, especially since the two of them did not yet possess the Apex Physique of New Humans. Only the first three foundational forms were barely within what their physiques could endure and could produce a body-tempering effect.