Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art

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 place, the villa district? Once you gather the guards under your command, you'd have enough strength to fight those homeowners for control."

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

"Because this time, we're cooperating with the homeowners. The condition is that if we eliminate Song Tianhu's side, we get to absorb eighty percent of their abilities. But in the end, we have to 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, don't you?" Jian Hanyao absorbed the news quickly. Her surprise faded, and she instead asked with remarkable calmness.

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

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

Jian Hanyao was not stupid. She understood who was truly beneficial to her.

"In principle, I don't approve of you fighting, but you already possess the qualifications of a warrior." Pang Xuejun decisively dropped the previous topic and returned to the original one. "You're a combat-type ability user. If you participate in tonight's battle, it will help both sides to a certain extent, and we'll also give up some 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, assuming a stance ready for battle.

"What is it?" Pang Xuejun abruptly rose to his feet. An oppressive, mountain-heavy aura surged from him as his eyes swept the room, his entire body on guard.

"Hehe, it's nothing." Jian Hanyao's eyes darted around. She withdrew her battle stance and sat back down, looking sly and mischievous as she smiled. "I just wanted to test Uncle Pang's reaction speed."

"Is that so?" Pang Xuejun frowned, sensing that there was something strange about this girl today.

"Of course." Jian Hanyao once again put on an innocent, guileless smile. "I agree to fight tonight. Tell me the meeting place and the time we're moving out."

After Pang Xuejun told her the time and meeting place, he did not stay long. He bade farewell to the strange little girl and left the villa.

"What did you use to poke me just now?" Jian Hanyao's flame-like eyes were wide open as she glared fiercely at Mu Xiao, who sat on the sofa opposite her.

Jian Hanyao had been about to refuse Pang Xuejun and decline tonight's battle plan, but Mu Xiao had touched her back with his mind power, startling her. She quickly realized that someone was playing tricks on her. Aside from herself and Pang Xuejun, the only people here were An Rongru and Mu Xiao, who were hidden in the room.

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

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

As he spoke, a strand of mind power flicked Jian Hanyao's delicate nose. Caught completely off guard, she instantly hopped around in pain.

"You're asking to die!"

Jian Hanyao covered her little nose, feeling as though someone had truly flicked it with a finger. Just as she was about to pounce on him, Mu Xiao's mind power bound her entire body, making it impossible for her to get close. At that moment, she realized that when Mu Xiao had fought her before, he had not used his full strength at all.

Unable to struggle free, the girl completely gave up on trying anything against that bastard Mu Xiao. 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 talk about tonight's battle plan," Mu Xiao said.

"Hmph!"

Jian Hanyao acted as though she could not be bothered with him, sulking angrily.

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

Mu Xiao had originally planned to settle down somewhere before slowly sorting through the chaotic cultivation memories from before his rebirth.

After all, he had lived from the beginning of the apocalypse through the great age of evolution, into a new world with an entirely new order. Along the path of evolution, he had gone through countless battles while continuously learning the cultivation methods of every stage and exploring the mysteries of evolution on his own. Most of the vast amount of cultivation knowledge he had accumulated was uneven and disordered. Especially during the early days of the apocalypse, no one considered cultivation at all. Just like now, people relied more on innate abilities than on true power acquired through personal cultivation.

The secret cultivation manuals of the early New World period were incredibly difficult to find. In the New World era, most new humans possessed "peak" physiques, with their gene resonance fully optimized. There was no need to study early-stage cultivation methods. Unlike the first generation of new humans now, who had to complete gene optimization step by step before exploring higher evolutionary realms and gradually developing all kinds of cultivation methods.

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

Therefore, most of the "soul secret arts" and "Source Force Martial Arts" in Mu Xiao's rebirth memories could not be cultivated during the gene resonance stage. At the very least, one had to fully optimize their bloodline genes and successfully "lay the foundation" for their own evolutionary potential before they could truly begin cultivating.

However, Mu Xiao still remembered one cultivation method that was especially suited for the beginning of this apocalypse. Among the many cultivation methods he had picked up, it was the best body-tempering art for forging the physiques of powerful new humans, and also the only body-training 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 intended to teach her first anyway.

Mu Xiao could not stay here for long. His sister at home was still on his mind. At most, he could stay one night to deal with the trouble in the villa district, then set off for home early the next morning. Before this, he had planned to leave as soon as he brought An Rongru back, but he had not expected the villa district to hide such a danger.

"Take off your equipment first. Otherwise, some of the movements will be difficult to perform," Mu Xiao said as he undid the mechanical inner armor on his body.

"Do I need to as well?" An Rongru asked in surprise.

"Yes." Mu Xiao said, "You're about to break through to an SS-grade physique. If you successfully complete the first three forms and repeat them a few times, you should be able to break through."

"What about me?" Jian Hanyao asked eagerly.

"Your physique is quite good. You've absorbed an enhancement-type ability source before, 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 be able to determine roughly what ability source she had absorbed.

"More or less. I remember killing something stronger than the other zombies." Jian Hanyao described the characteristics of the ability source.

Mu Xiao quickly understood that she had absorbed "Flexibility Enhancement." Like the ability source he had absorbed from the mutated cat, it strengthened the flexibility of the body'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 and hard as refined steel. Jian Hanyao's eyes gleamed at the sight. It was difficult to imagine that such a pure and adorable young beauty could possess such an intense thirst for strength.

Mu Xiao recalled the details of the movements contained within the "Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art."

This was a body-tempering art that could be cultivated up to a "Guarding" physique.

In the future great age of evolution, the common physique realms of new humans were divided into: Peak, Tyrannical, Guarding... Each major realm contained twelve minor levels.

The "Top-tier" physique realm was a foundation for New Humans. The physical body could withstand impacts of five to sixteen tons. In the "Tyrannical" physique realm, the body's explosive force lasted longer, and repeated bursts would not damage the body, allowing strength to erupt from thirty to over fifty tons. In the "Guard" physique realm, one's blood and vitality automatically protected the body and offset damage. Attacks below fifty tons of force were halved or even completely negated, 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 "Guard" realm was already a super expert in their own right on Earth.

Physique cultivation did not involve realms or abilities; it was purely physical strength. Most New Humans did not treat it as their primary cultivation path because physique training was far too difficult and time-consuming. Moreover, every breakthrough in one's bloodline genes naturally strengthened the physique to a certain extent, fully meeting the needs of cultivating other martial arts and secret techniques, with virtually no effect on combat power.

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

Beyond "Guard," there were two further major realms—terrifying existences that surpassed normal strength. Yet New Humans capable of successfully cultivating their physiques to those final two major realms were exceedingly rare. As far as Mu Xiao knew, only a few terrifying beings among the pseudo-gods on the moon had reached those final two physique realms.

Other than them, there was also—Water Bailan.

Back then, Mu Xiao's physique had only been at the sixth level of the "Guard" realm, which was the mid-stage. Now that he had been reborn with an immense advantage, he could forge his physique realm anew from the beginning. Furthermore, he had mastered a body-tempering art that could be cultivated up to the "Guard" realm. In the future, he might even have a chance to challenge those final two major realms and surpass his former self.

By the time the evolution era of the future New World arrived and those powerful figures realized the importance of physique cultivation, Mu Xiao would already have surpassed them all and stood at the pinnacle.

The Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art contained more than eight thousand movement details in total, including the rhythm of breathing, the circulation of blood and vitality, the exertion of force through movement... and so on. These movement details activated the body's functions, thereby tempering both external and internal strength.

It was an increasingly complex and cumbersome training method.

In the early stage, each form had thirty-three movements. In the middle stage, each form gained thirty-three new movements, which, together with the thirty-three from the early stage, made sixty-six movements in total. In the late stage, each form gained another thirty-three movements, bringing the total to ninety-nine when combined with the previous two stages. Since each stage added thirty-three new movements to every form, it was called the Eighty-One Forms Body-Tempering Art.

The early stage had twenty forms, each containing thirty-three movement details, for a total of six hundred and sixty movement details. By practicing them repeatedly and without interruption, one could hasten the cultivation of the peak "Top-tier" physique realm. 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, he would decide later depending on the circumstances. After all, there were too many movement details, time did not allow for more, and their physiques could not withstand such intense expenditure.

However, he could not teach them everything in a short time. Even if he did, neither Jian Hanyao nor An Rongru—nor even Mu Xiao himself—could smoothly complete every movement in succession. Forcing it would only damage the body. Everything required a process, especially since the two of them had yet to attain the "Top-tier" physique of a New Human. Only the three basic forms before them were barely within the limits of what their physiques could endure, allowing them to achieve the effects of body tempering.