Everywhere here was a boundless expanse of white, with no distinct landmarks as far as the eye could see. Shi Yu released her restricted spiritual sense and walked toward the direction where the spiritual energy felt denser.
After walking about half a mile through the swirling ice and snow, two ice platforms appeared ahead. Each stood half a person tall and roughly ten feet wide, separated from one another by thirty or forty feet.
After a moment's thought, she leaped onto the left ice platform.
In an instant, dense and unimaginably pure spiritual energy gathered toward her. A gentle breeze stirred around her body, generated by the swirling fluctuations of the concentrated Qi.
Delight swept across Shi Yu's face. This ice platform was the very center of the Xuexiao Spirit Node! Sitting atop it, the spiritual energy density was double that of the outside world, making it the richest spot in the entire spirit node. Once she set up a Tier-4 Spirit-Gathering Array upon it, her cultivation speed would far surpass anything she had experienced before.
Not rushing to begin cultivating, she exhaled lightly and turned her head to look at the right ice platform. “President Cui mentioned that the Xuexiao Spirit Node also offers a body-tempering effect. He was likely referring to that platform?”
Curious to confirm her suspicion, Shi Yu rose from the left platform and flickered across the distance, landing on the right ice platform in a few quick flashes.
The moment she sat down, fierce winds howled around her, and snow surged in from every direction. An indescribable chill, seemingly welling up from the deepest depths of her heart, suddenly erupted.
“Ugh...”
The chill carried within the ice and snow rushed through her entire body in an instant, threatening to freeze her flesh and blood. Within her dantian, two wisps of Heavenly Fire suddenly flared, rising to combat the pervasive cold. Yet this chill felt as if the entire world were pressing down upon her; even the Heavenly Fire was suppressed, its flames flickering wildly back and forth between light and dark.
In just the time it took to sip a cup of tea, a thick layer of ice and snow froze over Shi Yu, and frost coated her hair and eyebrows.
Frowning slightly, a doubt arose in Shi Yu's mind. The intensity of the cold on this platform far exceeded her expectations.
Not daring to be careless, she hurriedly circulated her cultivation technique, converting the cold into energy for her own use and channeling it into her meridians and physical body.
After another cup of tea's time, the ice and snow on her skin congealed into a sheet of ice, thin at first, before rapidly thickening.
Her cultivation technique ran at maximum speed. Catalyzed by the 《Fate-Tapping Record》, spiritual energy surged endlessly through her meridians. Under the combined defense of her spiritual energy and Heavenly Fire, the layer of ice on her body formed, shattered into pieces, and fell away, only to freeze anew once more...
In this endless cycle, her flesh and blood underwent continuous tempering.
As time passed, Shi Yu gradually adapted to the bone-chilling cold, and the ice encasing her body grew thicker. She could feel her body undergoing a transformation, every inch of her skin honed by the chill and becoming increasingly resilient.
At the same time, her spiritual energy depleted rapidly. The spiritual energy throughout her body, which had long been polished to perfection and seemed incapable of further progress, found itself refined once more. Within the Qi sea of her dantian, the hundred spiritual energy clusters revolving endlessly around the Yellow Sprout Dao Foundation began to gradually shrink in size.
However, if she truly wished to step into the Foundation Establishment Realm, she still needed to compress these hundred spiritual energy clusters entirely into liquid—a process that would require considerable effort...
Though Shi Yu had never deliberately practiced body tempering before, she had consumed Life Spring water over many years, nourishing her limbs and bones daily with rich vitality. Furthermore, she had fused with two types of Heavenly Fire, both of which had refined her meridians, skin, and flesh when integrating into her body as natal fire. Consequently, her physical body was hardly inferior to body cultivators of the same tier; all she lacked was a dedicated body-tempering secret art.
Gradually, the cold seeped through her skin and into her marrow, and the ice layer on her body grew thicker and thicker. Her spiritual energy soon ran dry, and even her Heavenly Fire could no longer keep pace, its ability to melt the ice falling behind the speed of its formation.
Shi Yu opened her eyes, which were encrusted with ice crystals, and stood up. With a slight shudder of her body, she used the last dregs of her spiritual energy to shatter the thick layer of ice coating her skin.
Ice fragments clattered to the ground, shattering into pieces all around her.
Shi Yu rotated her wrists and ankles, then moved her stiff body to quickly leap off this platform and onto the left ice platform.
Rich spiritual energy enveloped her once again, still accompanied by unending wind and snow. However, the snow on the left ice platform was far gentler, relieving the pressure on Shi Yu in an instant. Soaking in the thick, soft Qi, she actually felt a sensation of warmth.
Composing herself, she retrieved the Tier-4 Spirit-Gathering Array, set up the array plate and flags, and inserted a handful of medium-grade spirit stones. If one wanted the best spirit-gathering effect, spirit stones were essential. At a time like this, there was no point in being frugal—if not now, when else would she use them?
Sitting cross-legged at the center of the Spirit-Gathering Array, the already dense spiritual energy of the spirit node grew even thicker. Taking a single breath refreshed her mind completely, making her feel light and ethereal.
Shi Yu closed her eyes, formed hand seals, and began rapidly absorbing Qi with her cultivation technique.
...
Outside the Xuexiao Spirit Node, President Cui stood guard, and before long, President Song and the others arrived to wait with him.
“Tempering bone and marrow through external forces yields exceptionally clear body-tempering results, but to achieve maximum effect, one requires a sufficient supply of Qi and blood...” President Cui mused quietly. “Shi Yu is not a body cultivator, so she likely has few items to supplement her Qi and blood. Therefore, she probably won't be able to stay on that tempering platform for long.”
The depletion of Qi and blood during body tempering required consuming massive amounts of meat to replenish, something non-body cultivators rarely spent the energy to gather.
President Song chimed in, “Girl Yu isn't a body cultivator anyway; polishing her flesh and blood to a decent extent is more than enough.”
President Cui shook his head slightly. “That is not entirely true. The stronger her flesh and meridians, the greater the benefits she will receive during Foundation Establishment. Naturally, she should elevate them as much as possible.”
President Song disagreed. “That is true, but items that replenish Qi and blood mostly consist of spirit beast flesh. Relying on such things to sustain body tempering inevitably leaves behind a trace of ferocity, which poses hidden dangers to one's mindset in the future.”
Otherwise, with his current Golden Core Realm cultivation, capturing plenty of spirit beasts to provide meat for Shi Yu's body tempering would be easy work. However, President Song refrained from doing so precisely out of consideration for the long term.
“That is also true.” President Cui spoke no further.
Yet inside the Xuexiao Spirit Node, Shi Yu did not stop body tempering due to a lack of Qi and blood as the two had anticipated. Instead, she regularly alternated between the ice platforms. After fully recovering her spiritual energy on the left platform, she wasted no time, drank a few mouthfuls of Life Spring water, and immediately returned to the right platform to continue tempering.
With a treasure like Life Spring water in her possession, why would she need spirit beast flesh to replenish her Qi and blood? Life Spring water was pure and undefiled; supplementing her Qi and blood with it naturally left behind zero ferocity or wild lingering intent.
“Foundation Establishment is the laying of the Grand Dao's foundation; it is the true first step in shedding mortal limits,” she thought to herself.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator possessed a lifespan of two hundred years, far exceeding that of mortals. This was the first step in defying the heavens, the beginning of casting off worldly flesh. At this stage, a cultivator could fast completely, travel by light flight, and easily traverse thousands of miles that mortals found dauntingly impossible. Facing the vastness of heaven and earth, they could roam the world with soaring grand ambition...
And her Dao path would not stop merely at Foundation Establishment.
Her journey was long, with an immense road ahead, so every single step had to be taken with absolute stability.
Since she was laying the foundation for her future Great Dao, Shi Yu refused to slacken in the slightest. Even body tempering, which ordinary cultivators might settle for merely being 'good enough', was something she strove to push to the absolute limit.
Rate on N.U.
