Calamity Poison Body at the Start

Jia Ma Empire, Black Wind City.

This border stronghold, adjacent to the Tagor Desert, was hardly a conspicuous presence on the map of the Jia Ma Empire. Yet for mercenaries and merchants who traveled along the desert's edge year-round, it was an indispensable place to rest and resupply.

Black Wind City's walls were built entirely from black rock. This stone was extraordinarily hard, far tougher than ordinary bluestone, and remarkably resistant to erosion. Even after years of relentless wind and sand, only fine, shallow marks had been left upon its surface.

An arrow tower stood every hundred zhang along the city walls. The towers were likewise built of black rock, rising grimly as they overlooked the endless yellow sands beyond the city.

Such painstaking fortifications had naturally not been built merely to ward off sandstorms.

Deep within the Tagor Desert lay the territory of the Snake-People Tribe. Every so often, the Snake-People Tribe would organize raids on the border towns, and Black Wind City bore the brunt of them. Without these black rock walls as a barrier, it would likely have been reduced to ruins long ago in the countless sieges.

At that moment, inside a room at an academy in the city, the room was small and sparsely furnished.

There was a wooden bed, a low table, and an oil lamp upon it. Its flame was as small as a bean, bathing the entire room in a dim yellow glow.

Su Zhao sat cross-legged on the bed, his breathing even and unhurried. With every breath, faint purple vortices emerged around his body before sinking back beneath his skin.

He had maintained this posture for an entire day.

Suddenly, the vortices around him became active!

Bang!

An incomparably muffled sound came from within his body. The purple vortices swirling around him abruptly expanded, growing denser from their previous thinness, their color deepening as well.

A brand-new force, far more powerful than before, surged from his dantian and flowed through his limbs and bones!

Su Zhao slowly opened his eyes.

His black eyes appeared especially tranquil beneath the dim lamplight. A faint purple glimmer flashed deep within his pupils before vanishing.

He lowered his head to look at his hands, feeling the abundant power within him that seemed ready to overflow. The corners of his lips could not help but curve upward slightly.

"Finally... I've broken through to the Dou Zhe realm."

He murmured softly, a hint of relief in his voice.

Cultivating during the Dou Qi stage had truly been grueling.

Five years ago, he had transmigrated into this world and taken over the body of a ten-year-old child. Starting from scratch, he had sensed Dou Qi, guided Dou Qi, accumulated Dou Qi, and made his way step by step to where he was now.

Breaking through to the Dou Zhe realm at fifteen made him a genius even within the Jia Ma Empire.

His thoughts drifted into the distance.

When he had first transmigrated five years ago, the confusion and panic still remained vivid in his memory.

In his previous life, he had been nothing more than an ordinary office worker. He had been playing Delta, and after finally getting an ultra-secret server, he was somehow body-snatched. Furious, he had punched a hole through his computer. When he opened his eyes again, he was already in the body of this ten-year-old child.

After some sorting through his memories and careful probing, he had finally confirmed which world he had transmigrated into—Battle Through the Heavens!

When Su Zhao had first figured everything out, he had been excited.

Who had not dreamed of transmigrating when they were young? Roaming the continent, subduing Heavenly Flames, defying fate—just thinking about those standard transmigrator plots was enough to make one's blood boil!

Yet that excitement did not last long.

He soon discovered an extremely concealed seven-colored pattern on his lower abdomen. Su Zhao's heart sank, and a name instantly surfaced in his mind: the Calamity Poison Body!

After several cautious tests, he had finally confirmed his judgment beyond doubt.

Anyone who had read the original knew what this constitution meant!

There was no need to absorb the energy of heaven and earth like ordinary people. One only needed to consume poison, and the toxins would automatically be refined into pure Dou Qi within the body. The speed of cultivation advancement was astonishing.

But everyone who understood this constitution also knew its other side. Once the poison body accumulated to a certain degree, it would completely lose control. When it erupted, everything within a thousand li would become poisoned earth, all life extinguished. Its bearer would also die as countless poisons devoured their heart!

The only path to survival in the original was the Poison Pill Method in Yao Lao's possession.

It required three kinds of Heavenly Flame, the magic core of a seventh-tier magical beast—the Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast—and Bodhisattva Transformation Saliva. Every single one was a supreme treasure that could drive the continent's experts mad with competition!

But at least he had a direction. Su Zhao was not someone who would sit around and wait for death.

Since there was hope of controlling the Calamity Poison Body, he would not wait to die!

Thus, over the past five years, Su Zhao had chosen the most foolish yet safest path: he would not touch poison under any circumstances.

No matter how the craving for toxins deep within his body tormented him like a disease gnawing at his bones, he had gritted his teeth and endured it, never allowing even the slightest trace to taint him.

He had poured all his energy into the most fundamental cultivation of Dou Qi, tempering his foundation day after day.

Step by step, he had made it to this day!

How could he hope to control the poison body in the future without strength?

Su Zhao rose from the bed, stretched his somewhat stiff neck, then walked to the window and pushed open the wooden shutters, roughened by years of wind and sand.

A dry, coarse gust of air rushed at him, carrying fine grains of sand that struck his face.

"The road ahead is long, and the burden is heavy."

He sighed softly. Just as he was about to close the window, a clear, ethereal voice suddenly rang out in his mind—

[Ding, congratulations, Host, on successfully breaking through to the Dou Zhe realm. Breakthrough successful! The "Invincible Breakthrough System" has officially bound itself!]

[Ding, congratulations, Host, on achieving your first breakthrough. You have been rewarded with one "Beginner Gift Pack"!]

Su Zhao's fingers tightened sharply around the windowsill.

A system?

His entire body froze. Five years—an entire five years. He had long accepted the fact that he had no golden finger, had long abandoned that hope, and had diligently relied on his own cultivation all this time.

Yet the moment he broke through to the Dou Zhe realm, the system had arrived?

"Damn it..."

He could not help muttering a curse.

"Why did you only come now? Five years! Do you know how I've spent these five years?"

There was only silence in his mind.

Su Zhao took a deep breath and suppressed the turbulent emotions within him. He steadied himself and began to sense the system that had suddenly appeared.

Fine, fine. At least it came. Late was better than never.

Before long, he had figured out its functions.

As its name implied, the "Invincible Breakthrough System" would grant corresponding rewards whenever he broke through a major realm. The quality of the rewards would also increase with the difficulty of the breakthrough.

"The reward for my first breakthrough is a Beginner Gift Pack?"

Su Zhao silently recited in his heart, "System, open the Beginner Gift Pack."

[Ding, the Beginner Gift Pack has been opened!]

[Ding, congratulations, Host, you have obtained: Fire Spirit Physique! (A physique of myriad flames, an innate master of fire, able to command all flames in the world!) One Dou Huang guard! (A bodyguard at the Dou Huang realm, absolutely loyal, protecting the Host through the early development stage!)]