Chapter 687: Tempering The Demonic Physique At The Breach

Li Fan followed the sound. Near the very center of the great whirlpool, where wind and thunder raged in a frenzy, a cultivator stood roaring at the sky. His upper body was bare, his frame slender but packed with the stark, knotted muscles of a man who had tempered his flesh relentlessly.

Countless barely visible cyclones orbited his form. At the heart of each vortex sat a patch of absolute blackness, as if space itself had been torn open.

The brawny man floated within the storm, and miniature tornadoes were born and extinguished with every motion he made.

Even Li Fan, still some distance from the whirlpool's core, felt the biting gale scouring his skin. But the man at the epicenter wore no protection at all. He simply let the raging winds slam against his body. A crisp, metallic ring rang out with each impact, like bronze striking bronze.

He is…

Li Fan narrowed his eyes.

This was his first encounter with the man in this life, but in his previous life, their paths had crossed once.

It was Dongfang Yao, the man who had overseen the construction of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array at the Spirit-Transforming Ravine in the Searing Wastes of Ten Thousand Li. He and Huangfu Song had been close as brothers.

Back then, Dongfang Yao had already reached the Spirit Transformation realm. Now, he had yet to make that breakthrough, still stuck at the Nascent Soul realm.

Interesting. Li Fan thought. No fluctuation of spiritual qi at all. He's blocking the full force of these raging winds with nothing but his physical body. The body-tempering methods of the Xuanhuang World are supposed to be heavily constrained by the heavens, with progress slowing to a crawl past a certain level. How did he train his body to this degree?

Li Fan didn't approach recklessly. He kept his distance and watched Dongfang Yao from afar.

The tempest howled, and the currents of the great whirlpool grew more violent still. Dongfang Yao struggled to stabilize himself within the storm, pressing forward step by step toward the whirlpool's core. Each advance drew an audible creaking groan, the sound of his body compressing under immense strain.

"Hmph!" Dongfang Yao let out a thunderous shout. The veins on his neck bulged, and a faint golden sheen settled over his muscles.

Grim and determined, he kept pressing toward the whirlpool's center.

Suddenly, a rift of pure darkness, like a bolt of black lightning, appeared out of nowhere and struck him like a blade.

Boom! The impact was deafening, piercing through the howling wind and rain. A bloody gash opened on Dongfang Yao's body, and the blow drove him back several paces.

Yet he didn't flinch. Joy sparked in his eyes instead.

"I've been waiting for you!"

A strange, guttural cry tore from his throat. In an instant, the grievous wound on his body closed and healed completely. He stomped against the empty air, and his body shot forward, covering dozens of zhang in the blink of an eye.

A vast black rift appeared, as if it had always been there, hidden since the dawn of time, and only now choosing to reveal itself.

Black light, sharp as a sword, sliced down the center of Dongfang Yao's body.

Sssk!

His flesh split open. He hurled himself backward, retreating a thousand zhang in an instant, and landing safely at the periphery of the whirlpool. A moment slower, and he would have been disemboweled on the spot.

"Are you alright, Fellow Daoist?" Li Fan asked, seeing that the moment was right.

He didn't approach. Instead, he flicked a healing pill toward the man, a Hundred Ailments Healing Pill that Liu San had specially prepared for him before the expedition. It was no holy medicine capable of reviving the dead or regenerating bones from nothing, but it was a top-tier remedy for wounds. For most injuries, it would take effect in moments.

Dongfang Yao caught the Hundred Ailments Healing Pill, glanced at it once, and swallowed it whole.

"Just a scratch! Thank you for your concern, Fellow Daoist!" Even as he spoke, the horrific wounds on his body had already mended completely.

Not even a scar remained.

Part of that was thanks to the Hundred Ailments Healing Pill. But far more of it came from Dongfang Yao's own terrifyingly resilient constitution.

"How should I address you, Fellow Daoist?" Dongfang Yao paused his cultivation amid the wind and rain and flew over to Li Fan.

"I am Li Fan. I heard of the magnificent whirlpool in Ningxu Province and came to see it for myself. I never imagined I'd meet someone as extraordinary as you!" Li Fan's gaze swept over Dongfang Yao's sharply defined, muscular body, a flicker of awe in his eyes.

"My name is Dongfang Yao!" He waved a hand dismissively. "Extraordinary? Hardly! I'm just a bit stronger than most, that's all!"

"Fellow Daoist Dongfang, you're far too modest. Even the legendary body cultivators of ancient times might not compare to your monstrous physique." Li Fan marveled.

Dongfang Yao laughed heartily. "I like the sound of that."

He was about to continue, but suddenly turned his head toward the center of the whirlpool.

Amid the howling wind and crashing thunder, a black shadow seemed to surface once more.

"Hold that thought, Fellow Daoist. I'll be right back!"

His voice still echoed in the air as he shot toward the whirlpool's heart like a bolt of lightning.

A tremendous boom rang out, and the clash of forces sounded once more.

A few breaths later, Dongfang Yao was back beside Li Fan, his body drenched in blood and thoroughly battered.

This time Li Fan didn't offer another Hundred Ailments Healing Pill. He watched silently as Dongfang Yao healed himself.

The injuries were worse than before, but Dongfang Yao took only a moment longer than last time to restore himself fully.

"So I worried for nothing," Li Fan said, feigning dismay. "All I did was waste a perfectly good pill."

"Haha! It wasn't wasted. I've still got it tucked away in my stomach," Dongfang Yao said. He patted his belly with a hint of pride, a grin spreading across his face.

Li Fan blinked, then shook his head with a wry smile. "Fellow Daoist, you truly are a character!"

Dongfang Yao smiled but said nothing.

"To linger so long, so calmly, at the site of an ancient boundary breach, Fellow Daoist Li, you must be a master hiding your light," he said after a moment, his gaze piercing as it settled on Li Fan.

Li Fan's face took on a helpless expression. "The Xuanhuang World is riddled with danger. Without a few tricks, who would dare wander around? But mine are just some methods for recovering spiritual qi quickly, nothing compared to your skills.

"I've heard body refinement is an incredibly difficult path to cultivate," Li Fan added, his tone full of admiration. "To reach such a level makes you a peerless prodigy!"

Dongfang Yao muttered something about being flattered, but the pride in his heart was impossible to hide.

"It's only that my physique is somewhat special by nature."

As he spoke, the black fissure at the whirlpool's center reappeared. Dongfang Yao broke off the conversation and charged into it once more.

When he returned, wounded, he picked up the conversation with Li Fan again.

And so it went, back and forth. Slowly, Li Fan began to glean more details from Dongfang Yao's words.

It turned out that Dongfang Yao, like Ye Feipeng, carried a trace of primordial demonic beast bloodline within him.

Over thousands of years, the bloodline had thinned to almost nothing, but during a fortuitous encounter, Dongfang Yao had obtained an esoteric treasure that fully unlocked its potential.

"I was originally worried I might turn into something neither man nor beast," Dongfang Yao said with a sigh of wonder. "But that thing was truly miraculous."