"Yuanzi, aren't you only at Skin Tempering Second Tier? How did you score so many points? And what was that you told Sister Wang about needing dozens of suits of leather armor? That would cost over a million!"
Back home, Xu Yuan had barely put down the beast hide in his hands before Zhang Yaying asked impatiently.
She had wanted to ask earlier, but had held back because she didn't want to discuss these things in front of outsiders.
"My score was high because I mastered a Transformation Realm martial skill. That earned me twenty extra points!"
Xu Yuan didn't hide it. "As for the leather armor, some classmates might need it. I'm asking around first. If I can get a big discount, I'll make a little on the markup!"
He didn't mention going out to hunt Weird Beasts.
There was no need.
Bringing that up would only make his mother worry for nothing.
"Oh, oh, I see." Zhang Yaying nodded, only half understanding.
"I'm going to cultivate, then."
Xu Yuan said no more and went straight into his bedroom.
Zhang Yaying hurriedly took out her phone and searched for Transformation Realm martial skills.
The results left her dumbfounded.
[Transformation Realm martial skills, martial arts prodigies]!
[Martial Skills Research Institute reserves]!
[No more than two hundred nationwide each year]!
[XX Martial Arts School recruiting martial arts prodigy-level instructors, annual salary five million]!
Hadn't Yuanzi said his martial arts talent was pretty good?
This... this was what he called pretty good?
Holding her phone, Zhang Yaying sat with her mouth open, unable to recover for a long while.
Inside the bedroom, Xu Yuan had no idea that Zhang Yaying was so shocked her scalp tingled. His consciousness had already sunk into his mind, and he was looking at the eerily ghostly scroll.
Can I take this thing out? It won't unleash ghosts if I do, will it?
Xu Yuan hesitated.
It would have been fine if he were home alone, but his mother was here now.
If he took it out and ghostly energy started spilling everywhere, wouldn't it scare his mother sick?
I'll see if I can read it first. If I can't read it directly, I'll find somewhere deserted to take it out.
After pondering for a while, Xu Yuan made up his mind and quickly pressed his consciousness toward the scroll.
Yet the instant his consciousness touched it, the scroll suddenly disintegrated.
"Huh? What's going on?"
Xu Yuan froze. The next moment, an enormous amount of information abruptly appeared in his memory!
Like a passage he had memorized countless times, it was etched deep within.
With the slightest recollection, the contents of this "passage" surfaced with perfect clarity.
[In ancient times, there was a demon named Huo. Huo wished to ascend to immortality and become a god, and knelt before the gates of immortals and gods for sixty years. The immortals would bestow no methods, and the gods would impart no Dao. Thus, Huo created this art, cultivated it to great mastery, and slew twelve gods with the flesh alone, shaking past and present!]
The opening introduction alone shook Xu Yuan to his core!
Slaying gods with the flesh alone-what sort of gods?
The Divine Realm of the Divine Martial Artist system?
The Divine Martial Artist system was divided into two major realms: the Physical Body Realm, and above it, the Divine Realm.
The Physical Body Realm consisted of Skin Tempering, Bone Forging, Blood Replacement, and Organ Refining!
His predecessor's memories contained little information about the Divine Realm.
He only knew that Divine Realm experts possessed divine abilities and were worlds apart from those in the Physical Body Realm!
Even an expert who had perfected Organ Refining and possessed several million jin of strength was nothing more than an ant a Divine Realm expert could casually crush!
If "slaying gods with the flesh alone" in the introduction to this "No Immortals, No Gods, Only I, the Evil Demon, Heaven-Shaking Art" meant defying the Divine Realm from the Physical Body Realm, then this cultivation method was truly terrifying!
And verifying that wouldn't be difficult. He only needed to look at how the method divided its realms!
With that thought, Xu Yuan continued recalling its contents.
He soon found the answer!
This really was a cultivation method belonging to the Divine Martial Artist system!
Because its realms were also Skin Tempering, Bone Forging, Blood Replacement, and Organ Training!
Holy shit, I've struck it rich!
It's just far too obscure. I can't understand any of it. I wonder if the Martial God's Brain can analyze it?
With a thought, Xu Yuan quickly transmitted the cultivation method's contents to the Martial God's Brain.
The brain that had been quietly growing on the ground suddenly began writhing rapidly!
As it writhed, it actually began to smoke!
"Holy shit, is it that difficult?"
Xu Yuan looked astonished. It had actually made the Martial God's Brain smoke. Just how difficult was it?
"No wonder the Beast Ranking rewarded me with the Martial God's Brain first. It must have been afraid that if it gave out the cultivation method first, its chosen host wouldn't be able to learn it!"
Xu Yuan seemed to understand.
Then does the Beast Ranking have lots of brains prepared inside it?
Otherwise, what if its chosen beast gets beaten to death before growing stronger?
Or can the Beast Ranking reclaim all the rewards it's given out if the host dies?
Xu Yuan's thoughts wandered until information came from the Martial God's Brain. Only then did he quickly refocus and begin absorbing and digesting it.
Then his eyes widened involuntarily!
How did Divine Martial Artists cultivate?
To use a somewhat imperfect analogy:
The human body was a water jar filled with soil. Cultivation meant digging the soil out of the jar, creating a pit, then filling that pit with water.
The water was divine substance.
And the cultivation method was the pickaxe used to dig the pit.
The higher the cultivation method's grade, the larger the pit it dug, and the more water it could hold. Naturally, that meant greater strength!
That was why someone cultivating the first-tier Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method was inferior to someone at the same realm cultivating the third-tier Thunder Tiger Vajra Body.
But this No Immortals, No Gods, Only I, the Evil Demon, Heaven-Shaking Art was badass. Not only could it dig all the soil out of the jar, it could also make the jar bigger!
In other words, someone's potential might originally have been a hundred, but after cultivating it, that could become two hundred, three hundred, or even more!
Yet that wasn't even the most outrageous part!
This cultivation method actually came with a divine ability!
Divine ability-Demon Descent!
According to the cultivation method's description, cultivating it allowed one to condense something called a demon descent mark!
A demon descent mark could be placed anywhere. Within a certain range, activating Demon Descent would instantly bring the user to the mark's location!
According to his predecessor's memories, unless someone was a one-in-ten-thousand awakened individual, they had to reach the Divine Realm before mastering a divine ability!
Yet the divine ability accompanying this cultivation method could be learned directly!
Was my predecessor's knowledge too limited?
Or is this cultivation method just that fucking amazing?
Xu Yuan didn't know and couldn't be bothered to investigate.
At this moment, he was already considering whether to switch to this cultivation method!
Why did he still need to consider it?
Because although this cultivation method was badass, it really was a demonic art!
Other cultivation methods could only absorb unclaimed divine substance for cultivation, but this one could even absorb divine substance that already had an owner!
What did "already had an owner" mean?
It meant divine substance that other people had already absorbed into their bodies!
According to the method's description, all he had to do was kill someone, and he could absorb the divine substance contained in the corpse!
If that didn't count as a demonic art, then there was no such thing.
So, should I cultivate it or not?
If I don't, it'd be such a waste!
If I do, will this cultivation method influence my mind and make me go around killing people to cultivate?
Xu Yuan frowned in thought.
A dozen or so minutes later, he suddenly gritted his teeth. "I'll do it! Even if it's just for Demon Descent, I have to!"
Although he still knew nothing about divine abilities, he absolutely couldn't pass up a lifesaving divine ability that allowed instant relocation!
As for whether it was a demonic art or not, why should an upright man fear an evil cultivation method?
He refused to believe that a living, breathing person like him could be controlled by a cultivation method!
With his mind made up, Xu Yuan hesitated no further and quickly began comprehending the Skin Tempering section of the No Immortals, No Gods, Only I, the Evil Demon, Heaven-Shaking Art!
After the Martial God's Brain analyzed it, the originally incomprehensible contents had become extremely simple.
In just half an hour, Xu Yuan successfully comprehended it and began circulating it within his body!
As the cultivation method circulated, the divine substance Xu Yuan could sense drifted toward him like specks of starlight, quickly merging into his skin and flesh.
It doesn't seem any different from cultivating the Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method.
Xu Yuan felt a little doubtful.
Cultivating the Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method had felt like this too.
But the very next second, he felt the difference!
A tearing pain suddenly surged from every part of his body like a tide, as though countless ants had burrowed into his flesh and were biting madly!
"Holy shit!"
Xu Yuan's entire body jerked violently, his expression instantly twisting with excruciating pain!
This fucking hurts way too much!
Was that Huo person a fucking masochist?!
Cultivating the Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method merely drew divine substance into the body to merge with the skin and flesh.
But when cultivating this No Immortals, No Gods, Only I, the Evil Demon, Heaven-Shaking Art, the divine substance entering his body seemed to tear his skin and flesh apart and reconstruct them... tear them apart and reconstruct them...
It was practically self-torture!
"What the fuck..."
Xu Yuan couldn't help wanting to stop, but he soon gritted his teeth and held on!
It's not like I'll die. What the fuck does a little pain matter!
Xu Yuan didn't think he had many strengths, but his ability to endure had always been a point of pride!
Of his twenty-six years in his previous life, he had spent eighteen enduring!
Enduring bitter cold, enduring an empty stomach, enduring others' scorn... enduring the loneliness of being all alone while lights shone in ten thousand homes!
He had endured all that. What did enduring a little pain now amount to?