Body Forging

Meng Tian was casually reading through but as he found out the efforts of the ancestors and their deaths, he could not help but get emotional. He felt proud to be a member of such a great race that did not bow down to the changing world.

They struggled to stand on their own and finally made their place in the world once again. He prayed for the souls of everyone involved in the war for survival. He sighed a little and continued reading.

"Usually, a person had to possess enough talent in any one of the five elements to feel the elemental energy around the world. Talents are usually divided into four levels- Black, Human, Earth and Heaven levels. These four levels correspondingly show how better one can manipulate the energy around them."

"Increase in cultivation also increases your understanding of Qi and to manipulate it better. But in order to reach higher cultivation levels, you'll need a better talent at the initial stages."

"You have to use the Qi to slowly open up your clogged meridians in order to cultivate. Over the years, many different cultivation methods have been created, which use different meridian combinations to create various circulation patterns in the body. You only need to follow the specified paths to store energy in your dantian, to increase your power and thereby... your cultivation realm."

"There are however, some conditions to begin Qi cultivation. Your body needs to have the strength of at least a Martial Apprentice, for the Qi to travel in your meridians without actually crippling or killing you. Once you start using this method, your body gradually becomes much stronger."

"Hence, this stage of cultivation is called the 'Body Forging Realm'. This is the first cultivation realm with nine levels in total. As you keep washing the meridians with Qi, it gradually refines different parts of your body- Skin, Muscle, Bone, Tendon, Marrow, Blood, 5 Viscera, 6 Bowels, and the 12 Meridians."

"This process of forging your body using Qi is fundamental to store Qi in your body. As you keep on refining your body, the amount of Qi stored in your dantian increases as well. When you finally complete the refining of your 12 major meridians, your body would have already saturated itself with enough Qi for you to breakthrough to the next cultivation realm."

"There are certain cases where some humans are born with a 'Flawless body'. This type of constitution is inherently connected to nature and can only be formed naturally. All those with flawless bodies can immediately start cultivation as soon as they are born."

"Their meridians are completely unlocked and the flow of energy is very smooth. If you are one with a flawless body, the Body forging realm is another blessing for you."

"You can refine your flawless body using Qi without the pain associated with it. As the meridians are already open, Qi can smoothly flow through it. It will get absorbed by the meridians over time to automatically refine your body parts one after another. Hence, the cultivation speed is phenomenal and the amount and quality of Qi absorbed is also higher than normal humans."

Meng Tian was completely immersed in reading and analyzing the Qi circulation manual and time passed slowly. He only stopped reading after hearing the bell ring, signaling the end of class. He went to the next class and engrossed himself in the manual again.

[Qi Cultivation Experience +90]

[Energy Schema Unlocked: Qi Cultivation]

[Cultivation: Body Forging Level 1 (0/10)]

A series of prompts awoke Meng Tian from his stupor and a bright smile appeared on his face. He was a bit confused by the sudden appearance of an entirely new term 'Energy Schema'. "Would it mean that there are other mechanisms or kinds of energy or something else, which can also increase my power? But, I have no one to ask about it."

He immediately wanted to use up his Energy Points to level his cultivation up, but stopped himself after thinking about the recovery serums in his consciousness space. He planned to consume them during the interval after this class, as he was worried some kind of commotion might ensue when leveling up his cultivation.

In the mean time, he started reading through the Intermediate Sword Manual left behind by his Master. However, as he had already reached the Intermediate level in the Sword (Level 2 in Sword), this manual was of no use to him. He finished reading it very fast but did not notice any increase in his Sword level.

He finally put his hands on the finger-sized jade token given by his Master for emergency. It had a very unique design and texture. The front face had two characters written in a script, which almost looked like some kind of an ancient language. The back side of the token had several rows of characters, densely filled together. He started observing each character trying to see if he could find anything interesting.

[Runic Inscriptions Experience +10]

Meng Tian, once again, was ushered into a new Experience... where hundreds of characters of some kind of an ancient language kept on piling up in his mind. Although he could not read these characters, he could somehow understand their meanings.

After about a second, he got out of his stupor and finally looked at the Experience he collected. But, he did not currently have any books on these Runes which could completely fill his Experience. Meaning, he could only wait for his luck to shine and to get his hands on something like this again.

During the interval, Meng Tian decided to use one of the gym's shower rooms to start adding Energy Points to his Stats. Unlike the usual, the shower rooms in the gym area were very spacious, private, and had huge full length mirrors fitted inside. It was well-lit and quite convenient.

He chose this place as it was usually empty during the morning classes, except for some third year seniors who had special permission to practice. He was even the School Principal's Junior Brother, and was therefore fearless while using the gym facilities.

He saw the 100 bottles of recovery serums in his consciousness space and was smiling like an idiot in front of the shower room's mirror. These were the set left behind by his Master for him to use in training. They should have been enough for him to train for a few months after which his Master would return to test his progress.

But Meng Tian had plans of his own. He started drinking these serums one after another until he finished half of them. All these serums were extremely precious even for Martial Apprentices already enrolled in colleges.

They were used to recover after a heavy training session and would only be used sparingly. Meng Tian was a Wargod's personal disciple which was the only reason he could obtain such a large quantity at once.

If they knew how Meng Tian was drinking them up like water, they would bleed tears of blood... and howl at the injustice. Each bottle gave him a thousand Energy Points, totaling 50,230 including the points he saved from before and the ones obtained from eating food. His thoughts immediately turned to the new 'Cultivation level' that he obtained.

He initially added 100 Energy Points to the Body Forging level, and immediately several strands of Qi magically started to gather in his dantian out of nowhere. This gaseous Qi gently flowed through his meridians and reached his skin.

Just as the Qi exerted some pressure, his entire skin completely broke down into small particles at once. His clothes also experienced the same fate and he was thus naked.

These broken down skin particles mixed together with the Qi and started generating a new layer of pale white skin on his body. The refinement process continued and his skin gradually started changing color. It went from white to black, then to silver, then to gold, and finally to crystal-clear.

Meng Tian was stunned to see the changes occurring to his skin. He did not feel any kind of pain what-so-ever, throughout this entire refinement. Although Meng Tian felt like a long time had passed since this process started, hardly a couple of dozen seconds passed in real-time.

[Body Forging Level 2 (0/20)]

Meng Tian was extremely pleased with this warm and gentle Qi flowing around and strengthening his body. Hence, he ignored everything else and decided to continue leveling up his cultivation. He added 200 Energy Points this time.

The gentle Qi suddenly started forcing his muscle tissues to break, which were then fragmented into microscopic particles. These particles were mixed together by the flowing Qi and a pale golden colored muscle fiber was generated.

This process repeated for all of his muscle tissues which were continuously being broken down and refined to finally become pure golden muscles. Towards the end, his muscles started condensing to reach some kind of a limit, and the transformation was completed.

[Body Forging Level 3 (0/30)]

[Speed +1]

[Intelligence +1]

[Primary Stat Synchronization Complete]