The Secret of the Flesh and Blood Secret Technique (Part 2)

"If I remember correctly, back in that cave, when I cultivated this Flesh Rebirth Art to the threshold of the Perfection realm, the water drop showed a total cultivation time of one year and twelve days.

The proficiency display was only [1/500].

Afterward, I headed south all the way and tracked them here. A day has indeed passed, and I kept using this secret art to maintain my disguise throughout.

But now, this technique's total cultivation time has increased by a day, and its proficiency has become [4/500]. Doesn't that mean that as long as I use this art to maintain a disguise in the future, the secret art will essentially cultivate itself automatically?!"

This discovery was no small matter. If that were truly the case, then this flesh-and-blood secret art was practically giving the water clock cultivation time on auto-pilot!

More importantly, the Flesh Rebirth Art consumed a negligible amount of spiritual power. With He Sheng's current reserves, maintaining a disguise for several years would not be a problem.

"If it can truly passively increase cultivation time, couldn't I retreat endlessly in the future? Retreat whenever I hit the limit, retreat whenever I hit the limit—repeatedly grinding cultivation time this way?"

He Sheng grew excited. This was a tremendous discovery; the joy in his heart even washed away the disappointment of having failed to fully recover the hundred million in savings.

"Looks like I'm still far from reaching the limits of what I can develop from the Time-Reversing Water Clock. I'll need to experiment more in the future."

With that thought, He Sheng stopped dwelling on other matters and focused his mind on the plus sign behind Flesh Rebirth Art. The relevant cultivation information immediately appeared.

[After half a year of arduous cultivation, your Flesh Rebirth Art has entered the Great Perfection realm.

Not only can you alter your appearance as you please, you can now control the texture and color of every inch of your skin down to the finest detail. Even the rhythm of your breathing and the beat of your heart can be disguised without a single flaw.

This stems from your increasingly meticulous control over your skin, muscles, and bones. With the aid of the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, you can even perceive the minute changes within every particle of flesh and blood.]

[During this period of arduous cultivation, you vaguely gained insight into a certain profound mystery concerning "flesh-and-blood transformation." You attempted to continue delving deeper along that insight.

But you soon discovered that this secret art had already reached its peak, with no possibility of further progress.]

[You were not discouraged. Instead, you prepared to build upon the foundation of Great Perfection, casting off the old and forging the new as you attempted to carve out a path of your own.]

[A month later, you had no choice but to admit that, with the strength of your current body, you simply could not support this flesh-and-blood secret art in reaching a higher realm.]

The Flesh Rebirth Art was not an especially profound flesh-and-blood secret art. In just a year and a half, it had reached its ultimate realm.

[Flesh Rebirth Art (Perfection): 500/500]

(Total cultivation time: one year, seven months, fifteen days)

"Judging from the cultivation information, this secret art still has the potential to go further. But just like the Soul Imprint Art and the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, I currently lack the prerequisites to advance them further."

Whether it was the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm or the Soul Imprint Art, both required stronger divine sense as their foundation before they could advance further.

As for the Flesh Rebirth Art, if it were to break beyond its ultimate realm and open up a realm of "uncanny mastery" like the Clear Billows Water Control Art, it would require a more powerful physical body as a prerequisite.

"In simple terms, I need body refinement."

He Sheng murmured under his breath.

He had no aversion to body refinement. If he found a suitable technique, he could naturally cultivate it. After all, a stronger body would not only allow the Flesh Rebirth Art to advance further, but also give him another means of preserving his life in spell battles.

"If Brother Piao's body had been powerful enough, then even if he couldn't withstand a flying sword head-on with his flesh, he wouldn't have been instantly killed by that sword-bearing youth in a single blow, right?"

He Sheng once again recalled the sword-bearing youth's terrifying methods.

Strictly speaking, although the other party possessed a terrifying mechanism that ignored spiritual-power defenses, he could not ignore tangible matter.

The more He Sheng thought about it, the more necessary body refinement seemed.

"Still, body refinement cannot be rushed. It requires careful, long-term planning."

He Sheng circulated the Flesh Rebirth Art and made one or two minor adjustments. Once he looked so much like Wu Feng that even truth and falsehood were indistinguishable, he took a spare set of clothes from Wu Feng's storage pouch, changed into them, and prepared to leave.

"But... why is Wu Feng so damn poor?!"

He Sheng had not noticed before, but after sweeping Wu Feng's storage pouch with his divine sense, he discovered that the man was truly poor beyond measure.

There were fewer than five thousand low-grade spirit stones in the storage pouch altogether, along with only four magical artifacts: two top-grade artifacts and two high-grade artifacts.

Other than that, there were some second-rank talismans and a few pills.

Adding it all together, the total value of the items in the storage pouch was estimated not to exceed twenty thousand spirit stones.

He Sheng recalled the memory fragments of Wu Feng that he had seen while soul-searching, and only then realized that this man was actually an ascetic cultivator.

Simply put, although he was a second-rank lower-grade artifact refiner, most of both the annual stipend paid by the Celestial Sea Commerce Association and the spirit stones he earned from artifact refining were spent on pills that increased his spiritual-power cultivation.

The remaining portion of his spirit stones was all used to purchase Spirit-Fusing Sand and cultivate an artifact-refining-based secret art for tempering divine sense—the Divine Artifact Treasure Vase Forging Method.

"Still, judging from Wu Feng's memories, although he is a second-rank artifact refiner, his ability to earn spirit stones is not particularly strong."

As the resident artifact refiner of the Lower River Branch, Wu Feng received an annual stipend of eight hundred low-grade spirit stones. Each year, he was required to complete at least three custom artifact commissions for the Lower River Branch.

The payment for such custom artifact refinement was calculated according to the artifact's grade. Even a top-grade artifact only earned two hundred spirit stones in refinement fees.

In other words, Wu Feng could earn only a little over one thousand low-grade spirit stones a year from the Lower River Branch.

His other income mainly came from orders introduced by the commerce association, as well as clients who came to him on their own.

But artifact refining was slow work. From preparing the spirit materials, to controlling the fire and forging, to inscribing the restriction patterns, and finally collecting the artifact and shaping it—

Refining a single magical artifact could easily take ten days to half a month. If it was a superior top-grade artifact, taking one or two months in one go was also necessary.

And that was not even considering the possibility of failure in artifact refinement...

"On average, Wu Feng's annual income was roughly around three thousand spirit stones.

It may seem like a considerable sum, but after deducting the cost of pills that increased spiritual power and the expenses of cultivating the Divine Artifact Treasure Vase Forging Method, he only had a few hundred spirit stones left."

Judging by the income of a Foundation Establishment Early Stage artifact refiner like Wu Feng, He Sheng felt that he had still underestimated Brother Piao's savings.

After all, a Foundation Establishment Early Stage artifact refiner was, no matter how one put it, one of the foremost figures in the Silver Sand River region.

Even counting all those visiting cultivators, there were fewer than ten Foundation Establishment cultivators in the entire Silver Sand River region.

Yet Wu Feng, one of the very best among them, earned only three thousand low-grade spirit stones a year. After deducting the necessities of cultivation, his average annual disposable income was merely five or six hundred low-grade spirit stones.

"If Wu Feng is treated as a white-collar elite earning several million a year, then the resources Brother Piao accumulated in the He Family's secret treasury weren't just worth a hundred million—they were worth several hundred million, perhaps even close to a billion...

No!

Every last bit of that money must be recovered. Otherwise, if I have to accumulate the resources needed for Core Formation on my own afterward, I'll have to wait until monkeys grow old and horses turn gray!"

The next moment, He Sheng did not linger any longer. He transformed into a streak of watery-blue light and sped toward Lower River Market.