Chapter 237: Fourth-Order Late Stage Body Refining

[It is said that in ancient times, when heaven and earth's providence and resources were at their peak, rare treasure bodies and dao bodies could be born with potential comparable to the bloodlines of True Spirit immortal beasts.]

[But in the near-ancient era, this is impossible.]

[A pond cannot raise a whale.]

[After Li Yan stepped into the Nascent Soul Stage, you briefly checked on her condition and left behind a large stockpile of cultivation resources.]

[A significant portion of your harvest from the Tianzhu Grotto-Heaven still remained. These spiritual herbs and precious medicines could not see the light of day, so you could only consume them yourself.]

[Afterward, you spent a tender night with Li Yan.]

[This tenderness was strictly literal; you did not take the final step.]

[You planned to save Li Yan's first wisp of Primordial Yin Qi for your attempt to break through to Deity Transformation, so you naturally wouldn't waste it now.]

[On the bed, Li Yan pressed tightly against you, her tone laced with worry. "Master, Yan'er heard that the Central Continent Territory is incredibly dangerous. You must be careful..."]

[Over the years, you hadn't hidden your whereabouts from Li Yan.]

[Her behavior across several simulations had earned your trust, so you didn't mind letting her know where you were.]

["Incredibly dangerous?"]

[You wrapped an arm around Li Yan's soft waist, feeling somewhat amused.]

[With your current strength, very few places in the Central Continent Territory could still pose a threat to you—save for the headquarters of top-tier factions.]

[As for your power, while you wouldn't dare claim to be the strongest Nascent Soul Stage true lord in the history of the Human Realm, no Great Cultivator in this era could match you in a one-on-one fight without relying on external forces.]

[The next day, you inspected the numerous surrounding major domains once again. Only after confirming that the true lords of each domain were executing your orders did you return to the Central Continent.]

[In the past, your method of monitoring the true lords of the various domains had been the art of Divination. Visiting in person deepened your karmic connections with them, which would make future Divination even easier.]

[Year 160. You were 177 years old.]

[Inside your cave dwelling at the Heavenly Talisman Sect, you consumed a Dragon Scale Fruit.]

[You felt the scorching aura weaving through your body, continuously transforming your physical physique.]

[You sensed that your Body Refining realm was already approaching the Fourth Tier Middle Stage Peak.]

[Once you reached the peak, you planned to break straight through to the Fourth-Order Late Stage.]

[With your current foundation and methods, even without relying on magical power to protect yourself, you had the confidence to survive the Fourth-Order Late Stage Body Refining heavenly tribulation.]

[In your spare time between cultivation sessions,]

[you checked the refinement progress of the True Dragon Blood.]

[The power of Divine Ability Transformation swirled and intertwined. The drop of True Dragon Blood you had obtained from the Ghost Realm Trial Field was already more than seventy percent refined.]

[Year 170. You were 187 years old.]

[You possessed a puppet and made another trip to Tiangong Island, exchanging insights and discussing the Dao with the various puppet Grandmasters of the Human Realm.]

[Over the past few decades, this had become something you did every few years. You could feel your puppet-crafting skills drawing infinitely closer to the level of a Fourth Tier High Grade puppet Grandmaster.]

[Drawing on the combined expertise of yourself and numerous puppet Grandmasters, the construction of your Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet was nearing completion. Crafted entirely with biomimetic techniques, it lacked the rigidity of traditional puppets and was virtually indistinguishable from a living person.]

[You had chosen a male appearance for this puppet, with near-perfect height and bodily proportions. Its skin, flesh, and blood were forged from rare and precious resources, making it durable enough to withstand the attacks of an ordinary Late Stage Great Cultivator.]

[You carefully observed the puppet. Although it wasn't finished yet, you had a feeling it would be a success.]

[Once this puppet was successfully built and reached the Fourth-Order Late Stage, you would officially become a Fourth Tier High Grade puppet Grandmaster.]

[In the entire Human Realm, Fourth Tier High Grade puppet Grandmasters could be counted on one hand, and most of them resided on Tiangong Island.]

[Year 180. You were 197 years old.]

[Your heart stirred slightly, and you walked out of your cave dwelling.]

[You saw the somewhat restless Blood Roc.]

[The Blood Roc lightly spread its wings, landing in front of you and standing there obediently.]

["Not bad. You've completely reached your limit."]

[You raised your hand and pressed it against the Blood Roc's head. Boundless magical power surged into it.]

[As your spirit pet, the Blood Roc naturally didn't dare resist.]

[After cycling your magical power through the Blood Roc's body, you looked at this True Spirit Bloodline beast king and nodded. "You may break through."]

[Over the course of two hundred years, under your nurturing and guidance, the Blood Roc had truly reached the Rank 4 Early Stage Peak.]

[The cultivation of a True Spirit Bloodline beast king differed from that of a normal human cultivator. Their peak was also somewhat higher than the Peak of human cultivator realms.]

["Alright."]

[Excitement gleamed in the Blood Roc's eyes.]

[Over the years, it had frequently sensed that it had reached its limit and wanted to break through. However, without its master giving the word, the Blood Roc naturally hadn't dared to act on its own.]

[As your spirit pet, the Blood Roc could vaguely sense the quality of your magical power and the strength of your divine soul. They existed at a height the Blood Roc could never hope to withstand.]

[Half a day later.]

[The Blood Roc began its breakthrough.]

[Under your watchful eyes, the Blood Roc broke through smoothly, stepping into the Rank 4 Mid Stage.]

[At the Rank 4 Mid Stage, the Blood Roc could tap much deeper into the True Spirit Heavenly Roc Bloodline flowing through its body.]

[The worldly spiritual energy fluctuations caused by its breakthrough naturally drew the attention of the various true lords in the Heavenly Talisman Sect.]

["Is that... the spiritual energy fluctuation of someone breaking through from the Early Nascent Soul Stage to the Mid Stage? Is there a Nascent Soul true lord on Great Cultivator Qingyuan's dao ground?"]

["What kind of eyesight is that? It's clearly a Rank 4 Early Stage beast king breaking through to the Rank 4 Mid Stage. The quantity and fluctuation of the gathered spiritual energy are completely different from a human true lord breaking through..."]

["So it's a Fourth-Order beast king... It must be a spirit pet raised by Great Cultivator Qingyuan."]

[The various true lords and even the Great Cultivators of the Heavenly Talisman Sect weren't particularly surprised.]

[You were a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator and a Fourth Tier High Grade talisman Grandmaster. Raising a Rank 4 Mid Stage spirit pet was perfectly normal.]

[Even if some true lords of the Heavenly Talisman Sect noticed that the breakthrough beast king's bloodline was extraordinary, they didn't think much of it.]

[For a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator, raising a Rank 4 Mid Stage beast king with a True Spirit Bloodline was hardly unimaginable.]

[Limited by the near-ancient environment of the Human Realm, beast kings with True Spirit Bloodlines struggled immensely to reach the Fourth-Order Late Stage.]

[This was a restriction of the worldly environment, not a failing of the True Spirit Bloodline itself.]

[Inside the spirit vein dao ground, you began observing the Blood Roc's transformations.]

[After stepping into the Rank 4 Mid Stage, the Blood Roc's aura became increasingly profound. Faintly, it was fusing with the wind-attribute spiritual energy of the world.]

["As expected of a True Spirit Bloodline."]

[You nodded inwardly. Fusing with the world? That was a method only a Deity Transformation Heavenly Monarch could master.]

[Although the Blood Roc was only fusing with the world's wind-attribute spiritual energy rather than the world itself, it was still extremely unfathomable—something even a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator couldn't achieve.]

["Master..."]

[The Blood Roc spoke, taking the initiative to list all the improvements it had gained after stepping into the Rank 4 Mid Stage.]

[First and foremost was its speed.]

[At the Rank 4 Mid Stage, the Blood Roc could tap even further into the Heavenly Roc Bloodline, which manifested primarily in its speed.]

[Right now, the Blood Roc's ordinary flight speed surpassed that of a standard Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator.]

[If it utilized its innate bloodline talent to completely merge with the wind-attribute spiritual energy, its speed would skyrocket even further, allowing it to cover tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand li in an instant.]

[Even for a Late Nascent Soul Stage Peak Great Cultivator, divine sense only covered a few thousand li. Instantly crossing tens of thousands to a hundred thousand li? By completely escaping the range of their divine sense, even a top-tier Great Cultivator would have to spend a massive amount of time to hunt it down.]

[The Blood Roc's speed was purely physical, unlike the spiritual body speed of a human true lord's Nascent Soul.]

[You nodded slightly, quite satisfied with the Blood Roc's improvement.]

[To you, the Blood Roc was a mount, so naturally, the faster it was, the better.]

[Over the years, the Blood Roc had constantly traveled back and forth between the Eastern Wilderness Domain and the Central Continent on your orders. Now that its speed had soared, it would naturally be of even greater help to you.]

[Year 190. You were 207 years old.]

[Inside the cave dwelling, a male human puppet with a perfect physique, standing nearly two meters tall, rapidly took shape.]

[Wisps of mysterious patterns lit up across its body, and a spiritual pressure far exceeding the Mid Nascent Soul Stage emerged from it.]

["It's a success!"]

[Your eyes lit up as you stared at the male puppet.]

[At this moment, the spiritual pressure it exuded had thoroughly reached the level of a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator.]

[You conducted repeated tests on the puppet, confirming that its spiritual pressure, the destructive power of its strikes, and its capacity to channel spiritual energy had all reached the standard of a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Cultivator.]

["A Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet. It's done!"]

[You were in a fantastic mood. After a century of comprehension and countless trips to Tiangong Island, you had finally taken that step, forged a Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet, and become a puppet Grandmaster.]

[Your thoughts wandered, and you suddenly recalled the fifth simulation. One of the items on the reward list given by the Ghost Realm Trial Field had been a Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet.]

[At the time, you had weighed your options extensively before giving up on that Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet and ultimately choosing the Lotus Heart Seed.]

[In terms of sheer value, the Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet was definitely worth more. However, because it was an external object and you could run simulations, you placed greater importance on improving your own cultivation base, which was why you chose the Lotus Heart Seed.]

[Back then, you had been extremely reluctant to pass on the Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet.]

[But now, you were fully capable of crafting a Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet yourself.]

["Fourth-Order Late Stage puppets... If I could deploy four or five of them simultaneously to form a grand puppet array, even a top-tier Great Cultivator would have to back away..."]

[You thought to yourself: during the incident at Lingxu Blessed Land, if you had been a puppet Grandmaster and controlled four or five Fourth-Order Late Stage puppets, you would only have needed to set up an ambush in advance.]

[While you might not have been able to stop the Purple-Eyed True Monarch when he used his Substitution Technique, the other two—True Monarch Huanye and True Monarch Wugan—wouldn't have gotten off with mere injuries. It was highly likely their physical bodies would have been left behind, leaving only their Nascent Soul spiritual bodies to escape.]

[The greatest advantage of puppets was that they were completely unafraid of death, something other Nascent Soul Great Cultivators couldn't match.]

[A few Nascent Soul Great Cultivators joining forces to block a top-tier Great Cultivator? Facing a top-tier Great Cultivator's desperate killing blow, would an ordinary Nascent Soul Great Cultivator dare take it head-on?]

[A Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet would!]

[Even if a Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet was crippled in battle, you could still recycle some of the raw materials afterward to recoup your losses.]

["Hmm?"]

["Let's test if it can be used as a vessel for my Second Nascent Soul."]

[With a shift in your thoughts, your Second Nascent Soul stepped out from the crown of your head and took over the body of the Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet.]

[Whoosh—The Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet seemed to gain a soul; boundless magical power began to circulate, instantly reaching the level of a top-tier Great Cultivator.]

[Over the years, your Second Nascent Soul had also cultivated to the Late Nascent Soul Stage Peak.]

[Although it had never consumed a Nine-Star Ancient Soul Fruit or the Heart of Myriad Souls, making its magical power quality inferior to your primary Nascent Soul, it still enjoyed the enhancement of Surpassing Oneself by Half a Move.]

["Its divine soul has broken the limits of the Nascent Soul Stage. The magical power is slightly weaker, but it's also close to breaking the limit..."]

[You nodded slightly. Its divine soul strength was synchronized with your true body's, so it had naturally broken the limits of the Nascent Soul Stage as well.]

["With the Second Nascent Soul occupying this Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet, its true combat power is roughly equivalent to a legendary Great Cultivator whose divine soul has broken the Nascent Soul limit?"]

[You gave your assessment, a smile breaking out on your face.]

[This completely solved your weakness of the Second Nascent Soul struggling to exert full combat power after leaving your main body, should anything happen to your primary Nascent Soul.]

[With this Fourth-Order Late Stage puppet acting as a vessel, your Second Nascent Soul could also serve as the combat strength of a legendary Great Cultivator in times of need.]

[Year 200. You were 217 years old.]

[Inside the cave dwelling, you sat cross-legged. Qi and blood surged tumultuously within your physical body as an extremely oppressive and suffocating aura spread outward from you.]

["Finally... I've cultivated to the Fourth Tier Middle Stage Peak."]

[You slowly opened your eyes, feeling invigorated.]

[Relying on the numerous Body Refining resources from Lingxu Blessed Land, your physical body had improved by leaps and bounds. In just a few short decades, you had reached the Fourth Tier Middle Stage Peak.]

[Ever since your Body Refining realm had stepped into the Rank 4 Mid Stage, it had barely improved at all, firmly trapped by a bottleneck.]

["It's time to break through."]

[A thoughtful look crossed your face.]

[A breakthrough in body cultivation was different from dharma cultivation; you needed to face a Body Refining heavenly tribulation.]

[Therefore, the first thing you had to consider was choosing a location to endure the heavenly tribulation.]

[The Heavenly Talisman Sect was definitely out of the question. Currently, your public persona was that of an ordinary Late Stage Great Cultivator and a talisman Grandmaster.]

[If you exposed your Body Refining cultivation, it would be akin to actively linking yourself to True Monarch Golden Face, whose enemies were everywhere.]

[True Monarch Golden Face had just plundered Lingxu Blessed Land for numerous Body Refining resources, and now you were conveniently displaying a newly broken-through Fourth-Order Late Stage Body Refining realm?]

["I'll break through here."]

[A map of the Human Realm materialized before you, and you ultimately chose to break through in a desolate region of the Eastern Wilderness Domain.]

[The worldly spiritual energy there was thin, there were no Fourth-Order spirit veins, and there were no Nascent Soul-tier factions nearby.]

[One year later, in the Eastern Wilderness Domain.]

[Black clouds surged, and terrifying lightning crashed down ceaselessly.]

[At the center of the endless lightning stood a stalwart figure, continuously enduring the baptism of heavenly thunder and bathing in the strikes.]

[Boundless qi and blood intertwined like a vast ocean, fending off bolt after bolt of heavenly thunder.]

[Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the churning tribulation clouds dissipated.]

[Your eyes were slightly closed. Deep within your body, a complex and mysterious golden seal character instantly took shape and merged into your flesh.]

[At the same time, threads of golden essence radiating an indestructible aura began to continuously spread and diffuse through your skin, flesh, and blood.]