Chapter 206 - 204: Indestructible Demon Body

Chapter 206: Chapter 204: Indestructible Demon Body

Seated cross-legged on a soft cattail hassock, Fang Can calmed his mind and began to cultivate.

Above him, the skylight was now wide open.

The noon sun shone directly down upon him, as if draping him in a layer of divine light.

Ever since his cultivation reached the Profound Gate Tenth Layer, he could feel that he was only a single step away from the threshold to the next stage.

It was just a tiny gap, one he could easily break through if he just took that step.

The feeling was like that thin membrane between him and the girls—it could be pierced in an instant, if only he were willing.

To be honest, however, Fang Can had no idea what the effects of this breakthrough would actually be.

The path in this world was called the Martial Dao, but that was really just the Body Refining everyone had to undergo to attain a Transcendent Body.

In truth, upon setting foot on the Heaven-Ascending Road, one would completely transition to a different system entirely.

Depending on the nature of one’s mind, the manifestation of a breakthrough differed for every system.

When a scholar broke through, the power of their mind transformed into literary qi, which was stored in their chest.

When a Martial Artist broke through, the power of their mind became True Essence, True Qi, or Inner Strength, circulating through the eight extraordinary meridians.

When a cultivator broke through, it became Spiritual Power or Spiritual Qi, stored within the Dantian.

There were even cases where, upon breaking through, the individual had no Spiritual Power in their body at all; their physical form would instead degenerate into that of a powerless mortal or even a pure ghost.

It varied completely depending on the Cultivation Technique, the system, and each individual’s understanding of their path.

As for the Great Sun Undying Demon Body that Fang Can cultivated, he had conjured it up himself through the sheer power of his mind, based on pure imagination. There were absolutely no precedents for him to reference.

Therefore, Fang Can himself had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

But none of that mattered. Fang Can knew in his heart that as long as he firmly believed he could break through today, that alone would be enough.

In a mind-based Martial Dao, the power of belief was infinite.

And reaching the Profound Gate Tenth Layer was like earning a certificate in Foundation Establishment; no difficulty could stand in his way.

With his current realm and talent, Fang Can could probably break through just by singing a song.

’Still, I might as well reference a predecessor’s experience,’ Fang Can thought, and began to crudely imitate the steps Old Yang had taken during his own breakthrough.

The first step was to reforge the physical body.

Old Yang had said to imagine energy flowing through every meridian in the body, forming an endless cyclical circulation.

In the Martial Dao (according to the theory Old Yang’s lineage had cooked up, not a commonly accepted one), this was called "returning from the acquired to the Innate," which allowed True Qi to generate spontaneously.

Next, he was to use his Heart Image to simulate the existence of every meridian, allowing his intangible mind to form a true image of the eight extraordinary meridians within his body.

After that, it was a matter of practicing the false until it became real, and meridians visible to the naked eye would actually appear inside the body.

As for why the meridians appeared, or why the body didn’t have an adverse reaction and reject them—well, you weren’t supposed to think about that.

Just answer this: did you succeed or not?

In any case, every single martial art in the Martial World was just blindly cobbled together by a bunch of illiterates who couldn’t even read.

The entire cultivation system was a giant black box. As long as you focused on breaking through, you were doing it right.

No need to get hung up on the specific details. As long as you supplied enough power from your mind, the wish-granting machine would fill in the gaps for you.

It was a good thing this humanoid wishing machine didn’t operate with the twisted logic of a Holy Grail War’s reward or a monkey’s paw.

Otherwise, given this "just-go-for-it" style of cultivation, it would be entirely reasonable for the wishing machine to produce some kind of Cthulhu-esque cultivation path.

Following Old Yang’s instructions, Fang Can slowly began to push his blood, causing it to flow within his vessels.

After all, Old Yang had talked about meridians, but Fang Can didn’t have any. He had even abandoned the cultivation of his former Tiger’s Baleful Grotto Heaven.

So now, the only thing he could move within his body was the blood in his vessels.

The blood felt like a surging tide. The blood vessels within Fang Can’s body—arteries, veins, and capillaries—had a combined length of roughly 96,000 kilometers, enough to circle the Earth 2.5 times.

The blood in Fang Can’s body coursed through his vessels, feeling as if it were exploding like lava.

As the blood surged, a tingling numbness spread through his body. He immediately coated his entire vascular system with the power of his mind, like a thin film, causing his skin to begin glowing faintly.

After this continued for a moment, Fang Can could feel a change.

His blood vessels were now emanating a feeling of extreme hunger.

In the blink of an eye, the countless vessels seemed to come alive, and they began to devour ravenously.

Their target was the flesh and blood surrounding them.

’Wait... something’s not right. That old geezer never said anything about this,’ Fang Can thought, feeling his flesh begin to wither away bit by bit.

It was the sensation of his own flesh being gnawed and devoured by his blood vessels—a pain intense enough to drive an ordinary person mad.

’Should I stop?’ Fang Can wondered. ’This seems to be deviating from my plan. No one said a breakthrough was supposed to be this painful.’

But then he dismissed the idea. ’I’m already halfway through, how can I stop now? It’s not like this is going to kill me, right?’

Adopting a "wait and see" attitude, Fang Can watched as his blood vessels, like gluttonous beasts, devoured everything else in his body.

Muscle, bone, skin, keratin, brain, marrow...

Everything except the blood vessels themselves seemed destined to be devoured.

Puzzled, Fang Can subconsciously opened his mostly-forgotten, bone-white attribute panel and looked at the description column.

Name: Fang Can

Body: 17

Spirit: 17

Qi: 17

Description:

The host’s will has converged. Using the Heart Image as an anchor, blood as the medium, blood vessels as the altar, and flesh as the sacrifice, a process of visualization and sublimation has begun.

[Perfect Body] → [Undying Demon Body]

Total time required: 2 hours, 57 minutes. Consumption: 70.651 tons of the Perfect Body’s flesh.

Upon successful transformation, base body stats will increase tenfold.

...

’Seventy tons? Is it trying to suck me dry?’

Fang Can was left speechless by the panel’s contents, but he still didn’t stop the process, allowing his blood vessels to continue devouring his body.

In just one minute, Fang Can was reduced to skin and bones, his insides completely hollowed out.

But just as his body was about to be drained dry, his second talent, [Indomitable], began to take effect.

An endless stream of energy emerged from the void, pouring into Fang Can’s flesh and beginning to regenerate him.

Soon, a tug-of-war erupted within Fang Can’s body. One force devoured while the other replenished.

Ten minutes later, after Fang Can had been devoured down to nothing, a humanoid figure composed entirely of blood vessels was sitting cross-legged on the hassock.

White silk robes draped over the cluster of vessels, which, with golden blood now flowing through them, resembled a tapestry of countless interwoven gold threads.

At this point, the tug-of-war finally reached an equilibrium. The regeneration from his [Indomitable] talent now officially matched the consumption rate of the blood vessels.

Without eyes, he silently sensed the state of his new body. After confirming that everything was stable, Fang Can decided to begin constructing the light of his mind.

He had named the legacy ability he was about to construct the [Forbidden Word Skill].