Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

Two items slid out of the envelope.

One was a letter, folded neatly into a square.

The other was an unknown animal hide, rolled to the thickness of a chopstick and the length of a pinky finger, tied in the middle with a red string.

Chen Cheng unfolded the letter first.

On it were columns of elegant, small characters. The ink was uniform, and the brushstrokes, gentle yet firm, were clearly Zhuang Zhen’s own.

The letter explained that Chen Cheng had helped her overcome her Heart Demon, allowing her once-declining Blood Qi to begin its recovery. She wrote that she had no way to repay this great kindness except by entrusting her family heirloom to him, imploring him to accept it.

The heirloom was the very same scroll of animal hide. It recorded an Upper Grade Martial Arts technique that one of her ancestors had acquired by a stroke of luck.

Her ancestors had once relied on this Cultivation Technique to rise to prominence, becoming a powerful clan in their region.

Unfortunately, cultivating this technique required immense Comprehension. Ever since her great-grandfather’s generation, no one in her family had managed to reach the Entry Level.

From then on, the family’s fortunes steadily declined, and they were gradually reduced to a Humble Family.

She had kept the scroll on her person for safekeeping ever since her father passed away.

Over the years, she had tried countless times, studying and pondering it over and over, but was never able to make any headway.

Gifting this Cultivation Technique to Chen Cheng now was partly a reward, and partly an act of hope.

With Chen Cheng’s extraordinary Comprehension, he might be able to achieve a breakthrough.

Bringing this Martial Arts back into the light, and preventing it from being lost to obscurity, would be the greatest tribute to her ancestors.

’Upper Grade Martial Arts?’

Chen Cheng set the letter aside, his gaze falling upon the animal hide scroll tied with the red string.

As for what constituted Upper Grade Martial Arts, Chen Cheng recalled Qian Baolu explaining it once. Besides their inherent complexity and power, their most crucial aspect was that after one’s Martial Arts reached a certain stage, only the Secret Techniques contained within them could enable further breakthroughs.

And these Secret Techniques were almost entirely monopolized by the official families, Sects, and Gate Valves.

For ordinary Martial Artists, participating in the Martial Selection was practically the only path to being taught such Secret Techniques.

’Logically, after Zhuang Zhen’s family declined, it should have been impossible for them to hold onto an Upper Grade Martial Arts technique, unless...’

Chen Cheng composed himself, slowly untied the red string, and carefully unrolled the animal hide.

The hide was thin enough to be nearly transparent, yet possessed incredible resilience. Once unrolled, it showed no signs of degradation from time, not even the slightest crease.

The hide’s surface was a milky white with a fine grain, covered in tiny, densely packed characters.

The script was neat and elegant, the ink sunk deep into the hide’s grain. It had likely been treated with a medicinal solution after being written upon, allowing it to endure for so long without fading.

Chen Cheng steadied his Heart Spirit and began to read, word by word.

「Some time later.」

Suddenly, the Vertical Eye Mark grew warm. The words before his eyes seemed to spring to life, unfurling into a series of images in his mind...

A figure stood high in the heavens, cloaked in radiant light. Four faint phantoms could be seen flowing between their muscles and bones.

A draconic beast roared, its cry shaking the wilderness. A myriad of auras condensed into a sun-piercing, golden rainbow that streaked across the void.

The radiant light plummeted, and the world tore asunder. Wherever the golden wind passed, all turned to ash.

In a trance... it was as if a flash of insight poured into the depths of his Heart Spirit.

[Four Gods Profound Body - Taming God Chapter]: Entry Level (0/300), Traits (None), Limit-Breaking (No)

As the information appeared on the panel, Chen Cheng had achieved perfect Entry Level mastery of this Martial Arts—or to be more precise, of its surviving portion.

It was, indeed, an Upper Grade Martial Arts technique.

However, it was split into two parts: the God Taming Chapter and the Unification Chapter.

What Chen Cheng had just perfectly mastered to the Entry Level was the first half: the God Taming Chapter.

The ”Taming” in the title meant to raise or nurture something.

The technique treated one’s Blood Qi as a ’God’ to be tamed. The minimum requirement for cultivation was to have Four Pillars of Blood Qi and have reached the Entry Level of Dark Force.

Building on this foundation, one used a unique Technique to repeatedly refine and nurture these Four Pillars of Blood Qi, raising them to a near-corporeal state.

The swirling fragrance of the blood could form golden rainbows, condense into godly phantoms, and temper the physical body.

Once the Four Gods reached Great Success, so too would the physical body.

After this, one would need to cultivate the second half, the Unification Chapter.

Cultivating it to the Perfection stage would result in the Four Gods Unification, granting one an Infinite Profound Body, making them impervious to wind and lightning and able to repel all evil.

’As I thought...’

Chen Cheng slowly rolled the animal hide back up and retied it with the red string.

’The missing second half must be the most critical part—the Secret Techniques... No wonder her family could hold onto this scroll even after their decline, without it being seized by outsiders...’

’I’ll worry about that later... First, I need to try this out!’

Chen Cheng’s gaze focused. Following the True Intent of the Cultivation Technique, he immediately began to circulate his Blood Qi.

In an instant, his Four Pillars of Blood Qi erupted as if scalded by fire, boiling violently.

The fragrance of his blood surged, rising in countless wisps that permeated his limbs and bones, reaching every extremity of his body.

The more potent the fragrance became, the more brutally it wrung out and overtaxed his physical body.

In just a few moments, an agonizing, tearing pain erupted from his muscles, sinews, skin, and even every single pore. It felt as if his body could completely collapse at any second, leaving him either dead or crippled.

Anyone else would not have dared to continue.

But Chen Cheng was different.

The Vertical Eye Mark had granted him perfect Entry Level mastery, giving him a thorough understanding of the Cultivation Technique.

Its core principle was to constantly touch upon the body’s limits and then shatter them completely.

He completed a full Grand Circulation.

The feeling that his body could collapse into ruin at any moment had intensified to its absolute peak.

In response, the Four Pillars of Blood Qi within him were boiling at maximum intensity, and the fragrance of blood surrounding him was at its most potent.

If the Blood Qi was the ’God’, then its fragrance was the ’incense’.

As the incense flourished, the god was nourished. At the location of the Four Pillars of Blood Qi, he could faintly visualize four blurry, godly phantoms.

Above these godly phantoms, the rising fragrance of blood condensed into minuscule golden rainbows, like divine radiance permeating his entire body.

In that instant.

His body, which had been on the verge of collapse, felt as if it were being infused with an indescribable vitality. The sense of despair from being pushed to his absolute limit was instantly and utterly swept away.