The next morning, a light mist blanketed the dim, early dawn sky.
Within a quiet courtyard on the side cliff of Wanxing Peak.
A youth who looked like an exiled immortal was practicing a strange stance. His movements were neither fast nor slow, and his expression was calm and patient. He resembled a historical chronicle of time, carrying a mysterious, ancient charm.
With every breath he took, nerves beneath his skin and flesh drew nourishment from his blood qi, taking root and spreading outward.
Once they had taken root in the final inch of his flesh, the nerves within intertwined seamlessly, leaving no empty space. An incredibly profound aura spread from the youth, as if a broken piece of jade had finally been restored to its complete form, welcoming an absolute sublimation.
Seventh Rank achieved!
Zhuang Xun's muscles and bones chimed in unison. He carefully sensed the changes within himself while recalling the details of his cultivation technique.
According to the 《Formless Phaseless Sublime Method》, at the Seventh Rank, the martial physique is newly formed, allowing the practitioner to mimic any low-tier martial arts in the world.
At the Sixth Rank, when the martial physique reaches minor accomplishment, they can mimic any mid-tier martial arts.
At the Third Rank, when the martial physique reaches great accomplishment, most high-tier martial arts can be integrated and used as their own.
Upon reaching the Zenith, with the martial physique at great perfection, there is no martial art in the world they cannot use!
Currently, he was in the newly formed stage of the Formless Phaseless martial physique. A feeling arose in his heart out of nowhere, as if every single inch of skin and flesh on Bai Yujing's body was completely under his control.
It wasn't just a feeling.
With a thought, his body began to "breathe" rhythmically.
It was not breathing as a single entity; instead, every part was exerting force independently and fulfilling its own role, completely unaffected by and without affecting the other parts.
He could easily control this body to mimic any movement he saw, regardless of whether it defied human anatomy.
Zhuang Xun slowly ended his stance. His limbs felt as light as a feather, as if he could leap a hundred feet high with a single bound.
This was not an illusion brought about by a sudden surge in strength—after breaking through a realm, one's strength and blood qi would experience explosive growth over a period of time.
But since he had only broken through a few breaths ago, his current strength did not differ much from before.
It was an illusion born from his increased control over this body.
Generally speaking, ordinary people could only utilize about twenty percent of their body's potential, exerting at most twenty percent of their actual strength.
Zhuang Xun, however, could now exert one hundred percent of this body's full power without causing any harm to himself.
This was partly due to the boost from the Formless Phaseless martial physique, and partly due to the body's own peerless talent.
According to the 《Formless Phaseless Sublime Method》, a practitioner could only gain absolute control over their own physical power once their martial physique reached minor accomplishment.
Yet, relying on his supreme talent, he had managed to achieve this step ahead of time when his martial physique was only newly formed.
Thinking of this, a martial arts technique recorded in the manual surfaced in Zhuang Xun's mind—the Six Harmonies Force.
The Six Harmonies referred to the coordination of the shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, hands and feet, heart and intent, intent and qi, and qi and strength.
The Six Harmonies Force was a unified force that integrated the strength of the entire body. When striking, it was no longer just an isolated body part exerting force, but the whole body working in unison. Wherever his fingertip pointed, his body would act like a drawn bow, unleashing his entire body's strength all at once.
This was a martial arts technique that practitioners of the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method could only comprehend when they reached the Middle Three Ranks.
However, Zhuang Xun felt that with his supreme talent, he should be able to master it ahead of time, just as he had with Spiritual Sight.
With a light leap, he cleared the courtyard wall and arrived before the cliffside. Forming his hand into a palm, he gently pressed it against a protruding rock.
Without any extra movement on his part, the sound of cracking stone echoed from the cliffside.
Centered around his palm, a dense web of cracks spiderwebbed outward.
He withdrew his hand. Sand and stone tumbled down, revealing an indentation about an inch deep.
“Oh... I wonder what would happen if I printed this onto a person?”
Zhuang Xun left several more indentations on the cliffside before withdrawing his hand, preparing to try and master another martial arts technique—the Heart Hibernation Technique.
The Heart Hibernation Technique was also known as the Breath-Concealing Technique.
By suppressing breath fluctuations, heartbeat, blood qi flow, and a series of other vital signs, one could minimize their presence to the absolute limit.
Anyone who had not mastered Spiritual Sight would be unable to detect the presence of someone using this technique.
Zhuang Xun experimented a little and quickly grasped the knack of it.
The profound, mesmerizing jade-like quality of Bai Yujing's entire body gradually faded. He became like an unpolished jade that had lost its luster, making him extremely difficult to notice.
Zhuang Xun went down the mountain for a walk. In the past, controlling Bai Yujing to go anywhere would attract a massive amount of attention, but this time, absolutely no one noticed him.
“Incredible, complete stealth.”
“This is pretty miraculous. With the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method, once your realm reaches the required level, you don't even need to practice; the martial arts techniques come to you naturally.”
Zhuang Xun remembered Mr. Zhang from the martial arts knowledge class mentioning that martial arts techniques were extremely difficult to comprehend. In the entire martial academy, no more than ten people had mastered any martial arts techniques, and in the entire Zechuan City, there were probably fewer than thirty.
Of course, this might be because Zechuan City was a remote place. Perhaps, just like in One Piece, once one reached the Grand Line, everyone would have all three types of Haki.
But this was also enough to prove the strength of the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method. Even without considering its most powerful mimicry ability, the multitasking capability that came with it was already worthy of being called the best among high-tier martial arts.
“The Formless Phaseless Sublime Method doesn't seem like a martial art that would appear in a starting village. Master must have come from a big place. Did he return to Zechuan City just to retire?”
“I wonder if he has enemies out there. Seeing how cheerful he is every day, he doesn't look like someone with a blood feud...”
“Well, in any case, I still need to keep my guard up.”
Zhuang Xun returned to the courtyard on the side cliff.
By now, the sun was high in the sky, and the horizon had turned a pale, milky white.
A sealed wooden bucket sat outside the main gate—now that he had become the Chief Disciple, someone naturally delivered his three meals a day.
Zhuang Xun picked up the wooden bucket, leaped over the courtyard wall, and entered the side hall. He took out the dishes from the bucket and laid them out on the square table.
The most eye-catching dish among them was a whole blue chicken.
It was a Blue-Feathered Chicken, a precious beast raised by the martial academy.
Zhuang Xun washed his hands, tore off a chicken leg, took a bite, and leaned back in his chair to chew, occasionally spacing out.
A stream of pure energy flowed into his body, replenishing the energy consumed during the shaping of his martial physique and stimulating the growth of his flesh. His strength and blood qi, which had already surged due to the breakthrough, began to rise even faster.
Given the intensity of Zhuang Xun's daily cultivation with Bai Yujing, he didn't need to worry about gaining weight like Yan Pingsheng did from eating this amount of precious meat.
In fact, with Bai Yujing's absorption, digestion, and metabolic capabilities far exceeding those of others in the same realm, he wouldn't have to worry about obesity even if he lay idle all day and ate precious meat for every meal, as long as he didn't greedily consume high-grade precious meat that had aged for too many years.
“Now that my realm has broken through, the grade of the precious meat I eat for every meal should be increased as well. Hmm... let's set it at the three-year-grade first. If it's not enough to cover my cultivation consumption, I can raise it further.”
Zhuang Xun thought idly as he chewed.
Precious meat was not better just because it was higher-grade; it had to suit one's physical constitution. Otherwise, if it exceeded the body's absorption capacity, aside from the minor issue of gaining weight, the fat would clog the meridians, hindering the flow of blood qi and subsequently slowing down cultivation speed.
After finishing his meal, Zhuang Xun cleaned up, returned to his bedroom, and sat cross-legged on the bed. Adopting the five-centers-facing-heaven posture, he began to practice the mental cultivation of the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method.
In truth, any posture worked for practicing mental cultivation, even lying down. It was just that the sitting posture of immortal cultivation looked much cooler.
Zhuang Xun visualized himself in his mind. After a moment, he lay down. By now, he had already visualized two selves, but when it came to the third, the visualization speed suddenly slowed down, though it still steadily took shape.
Is it actually going to succeed? Zhuang Xun thought, his interest piqued.
He couldn't have achieved this yesterday. It was likely because of his breakthrough this morning, which had boosted his mental power and subsequently elevated his mental cultivation.
Judging by the current momentum, he might be able to achieve three-way multitasking at the Seventh Rank.
According to the 《Formless Phaseless Sublime Method》, the absolute minimum requirement for a practitioner to achieve three-way multitasking was the Sixth Rank.
“My talent is truly terrif—whoa, whoa, whoa!” As Zhuang Xun's mind wandered, the two selves he had previously visualized began to dissipate.
He quickly pulled his thoughts back, focusing all his attention on his mental cultivation.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the third visualized self fully took shape.
But just as he tried to merge the three selves into one, he suddenly felt his brain capacity falling short. Either one was missing a hand, or another was missing a foot.
He tried a few more times, but still failed.
However, it wasn't a complete failure. He could now multitask three ways, even if he couldn't maintain it as a permanent state.
As for the specific duration...
Zhuang Xun tested it out. He could only maintain three-way multitasking for at most one shichen continuously. After that, his head would start to throb, his mind would grow dizzy, and his mental state would deteriorate severely, making it impossible to maintain the visualization of the three selves.
“One shichen, huh? It's not enough to maintain three permanent clones, but for killing... it's more than enough.” Zhuang Xun supported his aching head, but a smile curled at the corner of his lips.
Now that his strength had increased, it was time to tie up the remaining loose ends.
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