This body is far too fragile.
Back at the Demon Suppression Bureau, Lu Guan sat in a chair, examining the wounds covering his body as this thought crossed his mind.
He suddenly realized that he had far too little room for error when facing demons.
Previously, he had relied on his superior realm to overwhelm and swiftly kill them, giving the demons no chance even to fight for their lives.
In a way, it was very similar to a certain little-mustached man's blitzkrieg tactics.
Its advantages were speed, precision, and ruthlessness: tear open a breach, drive straight through, and take the head in one stroke, clean and decisive.
But its drawback was the high risk that came with it, which he had been ignoring all along.
Once he encountered a demon equally matched with him, or even fiercer and more ruthless, his frail flesh became a vulnerability.
A fatal vulnerability.
If that ape demon had risked its life to close in and fight to the death, Lu Guan had to admit that this body of his could not have withstood it.
How could I possibly allow that?
After this incident, Lu Guan suddenly felt an urgent need to master a life-preserving cultivation method.
This was no small matter. After all, who did not treasure their own life?
He could not go dying at a demon's hands before even using up his final year of lifespan.
He glanced at the cultivation on his panel, and his mind immediately settled.
Fortunately, he had no shortage of cultivation, enough to support his practice of another body-refining martial art for protection.
Lu Guan rose and headed toward the Demon Suppression Bureau's storehouse, following the location in his memory.
A large collection of martial arts was stored there, including body-refining cultivation methods.
"This subordinate greets the commandant."
When he entered the storehouse, the old officer on duty had been dozing, his head bobbing, drool nearly dripping onto the desk.
Hearing footsteps, he blearily opened his eyes. His gaze landed on Lu Guan's face, and he froze for an instant before jolting awake.
He hurriedly stood, banging his knee against the corner of the desk. The pain made him bare his teeth, but it also woke him completely.
"I've come to choose a martial art," Lu Guan said with a nod.
"You've come to choose a martial art, sir?"
The old officer looked slightly taken aback, then revealed an odd expression.
He rubbed his hands together and gave two dry chuckles. "You may not be aware, sir, but all the cultivation methods in this storehouse are at the Qi and Blood Realm."
"For anything a level higher, you'll need to apply at the commandery city's secret repository using your merits."
Lu Guan's expression remained unchanged as he said quietly, "Naturally, I know that. Just open the door."
Although the cultivation methods were low-level, fortunately, he had Dao Seeds that could extrapolate them one level higher.
Though intensely curious, the old officer could only suppress his thoughts, take out the key, and lead the way.
He kept muttering inwardly.
He's already a great expert in the True Qi Realm. What is he rummaging through a Qi and Blood Realm storehouse for?
Could Lord Lu have a hobby of collecting low-level cultivation methods?
Beyond a pitch-black corridor stood a bronze door, cast with a ferocious beast's head holding a ring in its mouth, its surface mottled with green rust.
The old officer inserted the key and turned it twice.
When the storehouse opened, a cold, gloomy breath washed over them, mingled with the smells of paper, ink, dust, and insect-repelling spices.
Lu Guan walked slowly inside.
Seven bookshelves came into view.
A label was affixed to the front of each shelf. The paper had yellowed, but the writing remained clear.
Internal cultivation methods, sword arts, saber arts, lightness skills...
Lu Guan scanned them one by one until he stopped before the shelf labeled "External body conditioning."
This shelf was particularly empty, holding only a dozen or so scattered copies of cultivation manuals. Sparse and thinly spread, they looked rather shabby.
Yet martial cultivation methods were so precious that even this number far exceeded Lu Guan's expectations.
The Demon Suppression Bureau's avenues for obtaining martial arts were extremely limited to begin with.
One was to raze mountain strongholds and temples, exterminating disobedient martial sects to enrich its own reserves.
The other was for the Bureau's high-realm martial artists to research them themselves and compile them into manuals.
Any martial artist who regularly robbed homes and plundered households knew that once you became addicted to stealing, you were truly hooked.
The Demon Suppression Bureau was no different.
If you could seize the whole lot and refine it, why toil away researching it yourself?
This had also led to the near-total absence of small sects within Great Li. Only a few major sects with deep-rooted lineages still existed.
Lu Guan stepped forward, casually picked up a cultivation manual, and began leafing through it.
Qi and Blood · Bronze Skin Art (Uninitiated)
An introduction beside it explained that this martial art originated from a small sect called the Iron Robe Sect and was later added to the Demon Suppression Bureau's collection.
Supposedly, the Iron Robe Sect's founding patriarch had comprehended it from a chunk of iron ore. Once mastered, it made the skin like bronze and iron, difficult for blades or spears to penetrate.
Lu Guan put it down and picked up another cultivation manual.
Qi and Blood · Rock Body (Uninitiated)
It also came from a small sect. Once mastered, it made the body as solid as a boulder, with the drawback that it was no longer nimble.
Lu Guan frowned and put this one down as well.
The underlying concepts of these two martial arts were quite ordinary. Even if he used a Dao Seed to extrapolate them to a higher level, they would hardly be of much use.
He decided to read all these cultivation manuals before making his choice.
Qi and Blood · Body Forging Instruction (Uninitiated) Qi and Blood · Metal and Stone Art (Uninitiated) Qi and Blood · Iron Shirt (Uninitiated) Qi and Blood · Golden Bell Shield (Uninitiated)
Lu Guan leafed through them one by one, his brows drawing tighter and tighter.
These cultivation methods were much alike, all following a hard, head-on approach.
Once mastered, they would indeed let him take hits and dish them out, but they were cumbersome and slow, essentially training him into a punching bag.
Qi and Blood · Dragon-Elephant Demon Suppression Art · Incomplete (Uninitiated)
"Hm?"
Lu Guan stared at the cultivation manual in his hand and blinked.
Something extraordinary seemed to have slipped in.
He read the introduction detailing this incomplete cultivation method's origins.
It came from an expelled disciple of the Vajra Chan Monastery, one of the four renowned major sects of You Province.
No one remembered that expelled disciple's Dharma name. All they knew was that he was a wine-drinking, meat-eating monk who had broken his vows, been driven from his sect, and drifted to Qianqiu County.
After drunkenly causing trouble and killing more than a dozen commoners, he had been slain on the spot by the previous commandant.
An incomplete cultivation manual had been found on his corpse and subsequently stored in the storehouse.
Even the incomplete version allows full cultivation through the Qi and Blood Realm. If it were complete...
He had a faint feeling that the foundations of this Dragon-Elephant Demon Suppression Art were far from ordinary.
With this thought, Lu Guan chose this cultivation method on the spot without hesitation.
Even if the complete version extrapolated using a Dao Seed only reached the True Qi Realm, it would still be stronger than something produced by a small sect, like the Bronze Skin Art.
He gathered his thoughts and exchanged for a Dao Seed.
[With a Dao Seed held within your chest, Heaven aided your progress.] [After a hundred years of contemplation, with the Dao Seed's help, you successfully completed the incomplete Dragon-Elephant Demon Suppression Art.]
Within his mind, the gates of nine heavenly palaces opened one after another.
Purple Qi came from the east. Amid the surging sea of clouds, a dragon and an elephant strode out across the heavens, blessing his body.
The dragon was a five-clawed golden dragon with magnificent scales; the elephant was a six-tusked white elephant with a body like a mountain.
[You named it the "Nine Heavens Dragon-Elephant Secret Record."] Gang Condensation · Nine Heavens Dragon-Elephant Secret Record (Uninitiated)
A body-refining martial art at the Gang Condensation Realm!
Although Lu Guan had vaguely suspected as much, when it was truly confirmed, he still could not help a flicker of delight from crossing his eyes.
Body-refining martial arts were unlike other martial arts.
They emphasized tempering the body, toughening flesh and skin, and forging sinews and bones, treating oneself as a piece of iron to be hammered and forged over and over, tempered a thousand times.
Once mastered, they made one a humanoid weapon.
Pure body-refining martial artists did not even practice internal cultivation methods. Through physical strength alone, they could contend with martial artists of the True Qi Realm or even the Gang Condensation Realm.
This also meant...
By cultivating the Nine Heavens Dragon-Elephant Secret Record, my physical body alone could rival the Gang Condensation Realm!