Chen Changsheng finally agreed to use Xiao Feng's back as a canvas and tattoo the Five Directional Divine Beasts onto him!
Meanwhile, Ouyang grabbed Bai Feiyu and insisted that he think harder about whether that old beggar had any peerless cultivation manuals he hadn't sold him yet.
Ouyang chattered on and on, saying that, according to the plot, the old beggar must have carried hundreds of cultivation manuals on him.
For instance, a method for breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Bai Feiyu shook his head and said that Ouyang had seen the state he was in when he picked him up. Forget having money-he hadn't eaten for three days.
Only then did Ouyang reluctantly give up.
Tattooing the Five Directional Divine Beasts onto Xiao Feng wasn't difficult. The hardest part was whether Xiao Feng could withstand the lightning tribulation that would follow if Ouyang awakened the beasts' intelligence!
Divine beasts were called divine beasts because they were the greatest wild cards in this world.
A snake had to cultivate for three thousand years to become a flood dragon, and a flood dragon had to cultivate for another three thousand years to become a dragon.
There were plenty of flood dragons in this world, but no one had seen a True Dragon in a very long time.
It wasn't hard to imagine what had happened to those flood dragons that tried to become dragons.
Let alone divine beasts made through Ouyang's shortcut.
And he was drawing five of them at once!
The fear was that the moment Ouyang awakened their intelligence, Xiao Feng would be struck by the lightning tribulation until not even ashes remained.
Bai Feiyu studied Xiao Feng with burning eyes. From his very first glance, he had noticed that the boy's root bone and dantian were completely ruined.
If he wanted to cultivate, body cultivation was his only option!
But even in the Elder Ancient Era, body cultivation had been the hardest path to follow.
It was brutal. Truly, unbearably brutal.
Every day, one had to temper the body, squeeze out every last drop of its potential, then absorb Heaven and Earth Essence to replenish oneself.
Temper muscles and bones by day, practice breathing exercises and cultivate by night.
Every waking moment had to be spent cultivating.
This continued day after day, year after year, with barely any perceptible improvement in cultivation realm.
Without extraordinary perseverance, no one could endure that double torment of mind and flesh!
He had eavesdropped outside the door earlier because he wanted to know how Ouyang intended to help Xiao Feng cultivate.
He hadn't expected Ouyang's method to coincide with those of the mighty Body Cultivation experts of the Elder Ancient Era.
It was even crazier!
In the Elder Ancient Era, Body Cultivation experts had only dared to use the soul essences of spirit beasts or Fierce Beasts to aid their cultivation.
Ouyang actually wanted to use divine beasts! And he had gone straight for the supreme Five Directional Divine Beasts.
Even in the Elder Ancient Era, no one had dared to do such a thing!
These were divine beasts!
The darlings of heaven and earth, born with tremendous fortune and blessings! They could be called incarnations of heaven and earth themselves!
Yet Ouyang wanted to manufacture divine beasts and merge Xiao Feng with them!
Madness! Audacity!
This was nothing short of stealing from heaven!
A handful of boys barely into their teens actually dreamed of robbing heaven!
Bai Feiyu thought they had truly lost their minds. His instinct was to stop them, but then he heard Xiao Feng's resolute words as he knelt.
Bai Feiyu, who had intended to stop them, suddenly began to laugh.
Wasn't being a thief who robbed heaven exactly what a boy of sixteen or seventeen ought to do?
This was the age of rebellion and fearlessness. They ought to do things that shocked the world.
How could something like this leave out someone who had just turned fifteen this year-himself?
So Bai Feiyu pushed open the door and entered, wanting in!
The four boys sat in their chairs, talking grandly and working out every detail of their plan.
Chen Changsheng would tattoo the Five Directional Divine Beasts onto Xiao Feng, using top-grade spirit stone essence as pigment.
They didn't have any top-grade spirit stone essence?
They would borrow some from the stone pillars in the Main Hall on Azure Cloud Peak. Azure Cloud Peak had vast holdings; losing a little of the stuff wouldn't hurt.
The task of borrowing it fell to Ouyang.
Bai Feiyu would teach Xiao Feng the Elder Ancient Era methods of body cultivation for him to practice in the future.
That was the plan, but the greatest obstacle remained the lightning tribulation.
"If all Five Directional Divine Beasts emerge together, never mind the lightning tribulation-Junior Brother Xiao's body alone won't withstand five divine beasts coexisting inside it," Bai Feiyu said, tapping the table.
"Then we activate two first: the dragon of wood spiritual energy and the Vermilion Bird of fire spiritual energy," Ouyang replied.
"That works. Wood feeds fire, and their force gives rise to wind!" Chen Changsheng, who specialized in formations, said with a nod.
Bai Feiyu continued, "After they're activated, the lightning tribulation empowered by two divine beasts will be the hardest part to survive. We can't help Junior Brother Xiao withstand it head-on. He has to get through it himself. But how can someone who has never cultivated survive the lightning tribulation brought on by the birth of divine beasts?"
This was the greatest problem troubling them all.
The lightning tribulation would arise because of Xiao Feng, so he had to undergo tribulation transcendence alone.
If anyone interfered, rather than helping him, they would double the lightning tribulation and end up harming him.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room grew stiff. Ouyang wasn't worried, though. If Xiao Feng, whose title came with parentheses, couldn't even clear the beginner quest, how could he call himself a Child of Heaven's Will?
But he couldn't say that outright. He could only pretend to rack his brains and sit staring into space along with the others.
Just then, Leng Qingsong pushed open the door and said calmly as he looked at them, "Unify the intent!"
Did these little ingrates all have the makings of paparazzi? Why did every last one of them like pressing against doors to eavesdrop?
Ouyang was just about to start cursing when he suddenly stopped. The corner of his mouth curled upward as he looked at the others and said, "Qingsong's right. We seem to have gone down the wrong path."
The boys looked at Ouyang, who said smugly, "Just as Xiao Bai said, we're creating divine beasts to help Junior Brother Xiao cultivate. But we aren't conjuring them out of thin air-we're using Junior Brother Xiao's body as their foundation! All we need is for Junior Brother Xiao to be the divine beasts, and the divine beasts to be Junior Brother Xiao!"
Everyone present was a genius of the age. Their eyes immediately lit up as they understood what Ouyang meant.
Maliciously creating divine beasts would bring punishment, but what if Junior Brother Xiao himself was a divine beast?
As long as Junior Brother Xiao seized the divine beasts' spirit platforms just after their intelligence awakened, before their consciousness emerged, it would work.
Then Junior Brother Xiao would be the divine beasts themselves.
Divine beasts were the darlings of heaven and earth to begin with. Before their birth, they had to undergo lightning tribulation, but once born, they enjoyed tremendous blessings.
What they were doing was fast-tracking the divine beasts straight to their post-birth state!
It was the equivalent of heaven and earth having already given birth to this child. No matter how much you disliked him, could you really kill him?
Intelligence and consciousness emerged at almost the same instant. Seizing the spirit platform immediately after intelligence awakened was virtually impossible. Even a great cultivator at the tribulation transcendence stage couldn't do it.
But the solution lay in the fact that Ouyang was molding these divine beasts with his own hands. When their intelligence and consciousness emerged was entirely up to a single thought from him!
Flipping a power switch-couldn't anyone with hands do that?
Xiao Feng had never cultivated and couldn't sense his divine soul. How could he control it to seize the divine beasts' spirit platforms?
One had to reach at least soul departure before one could sense and control one's own divine soul.
Ouyang looked at Chen Changsheng, who sat there with an amiable expression.
Little Mountain Peak had Chen Changsheng, a master at manipulating divine souls!
Taking the Puppetry Technique to its limits meant taking the manipulation of divine souls to its limits.
Ouyang looked at Chen Changsheng. Afraid that Ouyang would expose his hidden trump cards, Chen Changsheng hurriedly stood up and said, "I'll perform a ritual to draw Junior Brother Xiao's divine soul out of his body, then tear it into several pieces. Those torn fragments will enter the divine beasts' spirit platforms and take over their nests."
Chen Changsheng made it sound easy, but his words sent a chill through the others.
Looking at the utterly relaxed Chen Changsheng, they couldn't help having the same thought:
Could those hundreds of puppets that look so much like Chen Changsheng have been made by tearing apart his own divine soul?
Before you continue