Destiny in Cinders

The sixth and seventh seals of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal were applied to the sinew and membrane. Where cultivation techniques were concerned, sinew didn’t just refer to tendons or muscles specifically, Instead, it was an abstract concept without clear boundaries. In a sense, it referred to the connective tissue that was wrapped underneath skin, including muscles, ligaments and even blood vessels. To sum it up, the sinew referred to the substance in between which connected the flesh, organs, skin and bones, down to the ligaments too.

While the sinew wasn’t the source of energy, it connected the organs to flesh, supported the bones, held up the skin and was crucial for any kind of energy exertion. Hence the saying, ”an extra inch of sinew grants ten times the power.”

After Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal reinforced the sinew, it was as if the entire body of flesh and blood had transformed into an unbreakable steel spring or metal lever. When the seal manifested, An Jing felt a numb sensation spread across his body before a wave of pleasurable relief washed over him as an even more harmonious energy surfaced within him. The energy had existed within him this whole time, but his constitution didn’t meet the conditions to leverage it properly.

However, that wasn’t the limit of his progress. An Jing was able to manifest the next seal for his bodily membrane right after that because of the guidance he received from Ming Guangchen and Jin Yanhua to nurture his qi essence with Minor Yang Sword Art, reaching the Fortification Realm and having the support of Heaven’s Child Art.

Just like the abstraction of sinew that referred to all kinds of connective tissue, the membrane didn’t just refer to the skin itself. Instead, it referred to all manner of protection that surrounded the innards, which included the periosteum membrane and all cartilages.

Innards would typically be damaged if too much energy circulated through them. But once the membrane seal was established, the body would be unified inside and out. This allowed for incredible energy circulation without risk of backlash.

Refining the membrane involved the internal organs in minute detail. As the seal would cause the operation of some internal organs to stall, the process had to be completed within a limited amount of time. This was by no means easy and should have only been done after the seal of the flesh was manifested.

Typically, the seal of the flesh was one of the prerequisites of the first nine seals of Qi Refinement as it represented the source of energy. However, An Jing could afford to gloss over such details thanks to Temporal Grasp and Heaven’s Child Art. Any cultivation process that was high tension and time sensitive became something he could slowly ponder and execute while the speed of his thoughts was accelerated. It was nothing more than a routine exercise for him.

When he was done with the seventh seal, he felt so bored that he almost yawned. Having mastered Temporal Grasp, cultivation techniques that could be used at the start of the Spirit Awakening Realm, even those that could be used all the way to immortalhood, became far too easy and wasn’t fun or challenging in the least.

”I suppose I should be grateful for the spirit wine that my master brought here.”

Having finished manifesting two more seals, An Jing was covered almost entirely in white patterns before they seeped deep into his body. As Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal was a proper immortal cultivation technique from ancient times, it required lots of resources and nourishment. An Jing was only able to progress so fast due to benefiting from the resource imbalances between both worlds.

Even then, he did feel like the spirit wine he had consumed the day before worked wonders. It was a spirit item that could even get sages drunk. Though it helped dispel his restlessness, the spirit wine’s warm and vibrant vitality remained deep within his body and helped him advance much further than he otherwise could.

Ming Guangchen and Jin Yanhua had opened up the spirit wine because they wanted to make sure that An Jing wouldn’t have to leave the compound for cultivation resources while they were away. However, they had underestimated how impressive his cultivation technique was; it had used up all the benefits from the spirit wine that should’ve lasted him days. The effects, however, couldn’t be argued against.

An Jing grabbed some fine dirt off the ground and gave it a hard squeeze in his palm, creating a bundle of sparks that could ignite a fire. Then, he opened both hands and looked at them.

They were still relatively small and untouched by puberty. The Imperial Sky Art and Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal were techniques that didn’t change his outer appearance, so his hands were still fair and slender with youthful flushes of red.

In the next instant, his childlike hands bulged and turned red! His clothes tore as massive green-black muscles surfaced on his arms, spreading throughout them like climber vines. His arms looked like green-black metal, cold and shiny. He brought his palms together forcefully, generating a thundering shockwave that could be seen with the naked eye.

”I see! So this is what Vajra Arms are like!”

When An Jing relaxed his power, his arms returned to their former state. Nothing about him seemed different apart from his slightly torn clothes. He experimented with other applications of force, expanding and contracting his arms in different ways. Vigor circulated nonstop through his body, but it didn’t wear his body out in the slightest after his sinew and membrane seals manifested.

”Vajra Arms, Corbel Hands and Wavemaker... So the true essence of wonders was the stabilization of structures produced by different types of applied force. After strengthening them enough, they become close to abilities in power.”

An Jing was satisfied with the testing he had done. After manifesting both seals, he sensed that his body’s constitution allowed him to endure an even stronger intensity of aura infusion. By doing so, he would be able to strengthen his body to wild extremes, allowing him to modulate his strength and flexibility.

The prerequisite of being able to use Vajra Arms was strengthening the arms with explosive power and solidifying it with metal-aspect spirit qi. As An Jing’s body manipulation and force application was still quite far off from the real Vajra Arms wonder, he wasn’t able to use it to block a straight blast from the sword case and get off with only light injuries.

By the same token, he could use Armorpierce Impetus to reinforce his arms to achieve the similar superstrength effect of the Corbel Hands wonder, allowing him to throw cars that weighed a few tons.

At the end of the day, wonders were minor abilities that came about from rigid applications of the capabilities one gained during cultivation. They also formed the foundation for formations and grand abilities that martialists could further develop in the future.

The reason for An Jing’s experiments was that he wanted to learn how many wonders he could possess at most. While cultivators typically only had five wonders, he cultivated on the martial and immortal paths, which seemed to imply he could possess more wonders.

The answer to that question was surprisingly trivial. Abilities of the immortal qi cultivation path occupied a portion of the spirit energy within the cultivator’s body, isolating that part of spirit energy from the major energy cycle and forming its own minor cycle. Wonders also occupied a portion of a martialist’s vigor and qi essence.

The stronger a human being refined their physical body, the stronger wonders they would be able to manifest. At full capacity, humans would only be able to manifest five wonders regardless of how strengthened their bodies were.

There were only two ways more than five wonders could be manifested. The first was possessing a bloodline that was superior to that of humans. The power of such bloodlines could allow one or two more wonders to manifest apart from the usual five. One such example was the imperial bloodline. You Ruhui, for instance, was born with Grand Immortal Voice and Ebony Sun Eyes.

The other way to do so was to consume many spirit items that improved vitality and qi essence or having a strong lifearc to serve as an external foundation to manifest additional wonders.