Immortality Begins With Internal Breathing

By the Xilan River in the Dayang District, a gentle breeze brushed past, sending ripples across the water’s surface. Sunlight spilled down, scattering golden reflections. The Xilan River lay on the outskirts and was remarkably quiet.

Lin Zheyu’s rented courtyard stood right beside the Xilan River. Inside, his eyes were tightly shut as crackling sounds echoed faintly from within his body. A vast and mysterious power drew upon the medicinal strength of the Absolute Dust Blood Coagulating Powder, tempering and reinforcing every muscle, tendon, skin, and bone in his body.

A few breaths later, Lin Zheyu opened his eyes. The exhaustion that had clouded his gaze before was gone, replaced by calm and ease. After numerous rounds of enhancement, his physique had long surpassed that of an ordinary martial artist, reaching the level of a Marrow Refining Realm beast. The agony that once came with cultivating the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual no longer meant anything to him.

[Heaven Rewards the Diligent]

[Name: Lin Zheyu]

[Origin Force: 1]

[Skills: Raging Wind Slash (Perfection), Boiling Blood Secret Art (Competent 78%), Golden Goose Technique (Ninth Stage: 100%), Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual (Third Stage: 100%), Tortoise Breath Grand Method (Third Stage: 100%)]

Lin Zheyu looked at the data in his consciousness and saw that the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual had reached the perfection of the third stage. He took out a dagger from the room and slashed it across his arm with full strength. The blade left only a faint mark, not even breaking the outer layer of skin.

His skin appeared smooth and delicate—no less so than that of a woman—and showed no trace of ever having practiced body-refining techniques. Martial artists who trained in such arts were typically burly and rough-skinned, so Lin Zheyu’s fine and tender appearance was utterly deceptive.

All of this was thanks to the power of Origin Force. Training within the consciousness space allowed any wound to be perfectly healed, leaving not even a scar behind. Once cultivation was complete, the spirit would reflect upon the body, and mysterious energy would directly transform it without leaving any trace of training.

Lin Zheyu gradually increased the strength in his hand by unleashing his blood qi burst technique. He started at onefold power and gradually raised the force to threefold, until the dagger finally managed to pierce his arm’s skin.

”So strong! With my current defense, even if I stood still and let a fourth transformation martial artist strike me without using a special move, they might still fail to break through my defense,” Lin Zheyu muttered to himself.

The dagger he used was an ordinary one. If he had used a treasure blade like the Golden Scale Saber, it might have been easier to cut through his skin. However, even with this improvement to his defense, there remained a vast gap compared to the fierce beast he had faced outside the city.

”Let’s test my pure physical strength.”

After finishing his defense test, Lin Zheyu began testing his raw physical strength. The Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual primarily enhanced bodily defense, offering little improvement in strength. Still, since his physique had reached the level of a Marrow Refining Realm beast, his physical power had also grown considerably.

There were no professional tools for measuring strength in the courtyard, so Lin Zheyu could only make a rough estimate. After moving into this new home, he bought an iron birch wooden stake during his free time. Though it no longer served much practical use for him, it made do for testing his power.

Bang!

Standing before the wooden stake, Lin Zheyu struck out with a punch. Pure physical strength erupted as his fist collided with the iron-birch post, producing a deafening boom. When he withdrew his hand, a fist mark about half a centimeter deep was left on the stake.

It’s even stronger than I expected. Back when I reached the second transformation of blood qi, even at the peak of that stage, I could only leave a mark about three millimeters deep, Lin Zheyu thought in mild surprise.

He had assumed that after reaching Perfection in the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual, his raw strength would merely match that of a second transformation of blood qi. To his surprise, however, it surpassed that level and was approaching the third transformation. After testing his physical power, he let his blood qi surge, channeling it into his right arm. When he activated the blood qi burst technique, a terrifying force exploded from his muscles.

Boom!

A thunderous roar filled the courtyard as the iron-birch stake, hard as metal, shattered into pieces. Just as he had predicted, after perfecting the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual, his body could now withstand an astonishing sixfold surge of blood qi power.

”Sixfold blood qi power is the limit. Even if my defense improves in the future, I still won’t be able to unleash more through this burst technique,” Lin Zheyu murmured to himself.

He felt that with his current physique, sixfold power wasn’t truly his limit. Yet no matter how he tried to push further, he couldn’t draw out a stronger surge of blood qi.

The burst technique he had learned from the Mountain Shattering Palm carried its own inherent limits. Its principle relied on a unique method that allowed the body to release threefold its normal blood qi power in a single burst. As Lin Zheyu’s physique strengthened, his base blood qi output naturally increased.

Now that he had perfected the Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual, his ordinary blood qi strength had reached about 2.2 times its original power. So, when using the burst technique, which multiplied strength threefold, his total output only reached a little over sixfold. Any further attempt to push beyond that simply caused energy to leak away without converting into usable combat power.

”It still won’t do. If I want to further increase my explosive power, I’ll need to learn a new blood qi burst technique.”

Lin Zheyu tried again, but still couldn’t surpass the sixfold limit, and this was with his exceptional mastery over blood qi. For most martial artists, fourfold would have been the absolute peak.

However, unleashing his full sixfold power consumed an immense amount of blood qi. After testing, he found that even with his vast reserves, he could only maintain full output for about one minute.

If I combine the Boiling Blood Secret Art with the burst technique and the threefold-strength Raging Wind Slash, I wonder if I could slay that powerful beast in a single strike.

That beast was the strongest creature he had ever encountered. Every time he grew stronger, Lin Zheyu used it as a benchmark for his progress. The Boiling Blood Secret Art could awaken latent potential, increasing his power fivefold for a short duration.

When combined with the burst technique and Raging Wind Slash, the result would be terrifying; at least in theory, the combined might could reach ninetyfold power. But theory and reality differed. In practice, he could probably unleash only around fiftyfold strength, and perhaps even less. Even so, that was already astonishing.

It should be enough. Even without the Boiling Blood Secret Art, using just the burst technique alongside Raging Wind Slash might be enough to kill it, Lin Zheyu thought after a brief pause.

Back then, a twelvefold-powered strike had only been enough to break the beast’s flesh but not its terrifyingly hard bones. Now, after strengthening his physique, his burst technique could unleash sixfold power, while the peak of his Raging Wind Slash could produce eighteenfold strength; it was 1.5 times stronger than before.

Although he hadn’t managed to sever the bone back then, his blade had cut one or two millimeters deep into it. With 1.5 times that power now, he might be able to cleave through entirely. Still, given the beast’s massive size, breaking one or two bones would hardly threaten its life.

Next time I leave the city, I’ll seek out that beast to test my strength, using it to temper my Barbaric Ox Fist and refine my fist momentum, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.

With his defense greatly improved, he finally had the confidence to face that beast head-on. Within the Marrow Refining Realm, it was a formidable opponent, but not one beyond his reach. Its true strength lay in its terrifying defense; its offensive power, while strong, was not as monstrous as its resilience.

Previously, because his attack was high but his defense was weak, Lin Zheyu could only rely on his exquisite movement techniques to evade, never daring to let the beast’s blows land. Now, with his strengthened physique, he no longer needed to fear its assaults.

Before leaving Bafang City, Lin Zheyu planned to use that beast as a sparring partner to hone his Barbaric Ox Fist. Its thick hide, strong body, and lack of lethal threat made it the perfect target for live-combat training. Once he had practiced enough, he would try to use a heavy dose of sedative to bring it down and attempt to capture it for sale. But such a hunt would not be easy, and success was far from certain.

That beast’s body was far tougher than an ordinary Marrow Refining Realm creature’s, and its resistance to poisons and sedatives was extremely high. The toxins and drugs Lin Zheyu possessed would only work in large quantities, and finding the right opportunity to administer such a dose would be difficult.

”There’s still 1 unit of Origin Force left. I’ll use it to advance the Golden Goose Technique to the tenth stage.”

After testing his strength, Lin Zheyu began his second round of improvement. The more blood qi power the burst technique carried, the harder it would be to control as its energy grew increasingly wild and violent. At sixfold power, the Golden Goose Technique could no longer handle it perfectly; it needed refinement to adapt to such ferocity.

Fuse the Phantom Shadow Step into the tenth stage of the Golden Goose Technique, and at that stage, adapt it to the sixfold burst of blood qi power.

Lin Zheyu closed his eyes and sent forth his will. The data within his consciousness blurred for a brief moment, then, within two breaths, became clear again.

[Heaven Rewards the Diligent]

[Name: Lin Zheyu]

[Origin Force: 1]

[Skills: Raging Wind Slash (Perfection), Boiling Blood Secret Art (Competent: 78%), Golden Goose Technique (Tenth Stage: 0%), Hundred Refinements Treasure Manual (Third Stage: 100%), Tortoise Breath Grand Method (Third Stage: 100%)]

I wonder how much Origin Force it will take to perfect the tenth stage. It shouldn’t be too much, though.

His mastery of movement techniques had already reached an extraordinary level. With prior experience in both the Golden Goose Technique and Ten Thousand Troop Steps, learning the Phantom Shadow Step would be effortless. Moreover, the latter shared many similarities with Ten Thousand Troop Steps, allowing him to cross-reference the two and learn even faster.

As for adapting to the sixfold blood qi burst, that would be even easier for him. With his exceptional control over blood qi and his mastery of movement, he estimated that within a year, he could fully harmonize the sixfold burst with his techniques and integrate it seamlessly into his body movement.

Use 1 unit of Origin Force to advance the Golden Goose Technique to the tenth stage.

He closed his eyes once more and sent forth his intent.

This time, Lin Zheyu did not use the Absolute Dust Blood Coagulating Powder. Advancing the Golden Goose Technique to the tenth stage brought almost no physical enhancement, so the mysterious energy that welled up from deep within his cells when using Origin Force alone was sufficient.

A wave of dizziness passed through Lin Zheyu’s mind as he entered his consciousness space and began cultivating. The Phantom Shadow Step emphasized agility; its footwork was ghostly and elusive, and its movements were illusory and unpredictable.

Lin Zheyu’s movement grew more ethereal, and his form became increasingly ghostlike as the blood qi within him surged stronger and stronger, surpassing fivefold strength and steadily pushing toward sixfold.