"Blood Refinement Major Achievement, this is the limit of contemporary martial men."
"But this is not my limit."
Chen Mu felt the power within himself, a sense of tranquility in his heart.
To the world, people like Qin Mengjun, Yin Heng, and even the Pavilion Master of the Mysterious Mechanism Pavilion, and the Cold North Heavenly Saber, Master Xuantian, these top-notch beings, their Body Refining Cultivation could only reach the Major Achievement of Blood Refinement as the limit, beyond which there was no further progression.
Recalling the past discussions he had with Yin Heng, Qin Mengjun, and others, it seemed that many of the concepts from those debates were both correct and incorrect. First of all, indeed, there existed a 'Ninth Realm' in Body Tempering Martial Arts, which was the cultivation of the Divine Body.
But people like Qin Mengjun were not just one step away from the Ninth Realm.
Their Martial Body had cultivated to the so-called 'limit' of Body Tempering Martial Arts, but in reality, it was just Major Achievement of Blood Refinement. According to the past transformations in Martial Arts, one would probably need to cultivate to Blood Exchange Perfection to have the qualification to impact the Ninth Realm, breaking the shackles of heaven and earth, cultivating the Immortal Divine Body.
And the martial artists of today could nearly never cultivate to Blood Exchange Perfection, thus they halted at the Blood Exchange Realm.
"Skin, flesh, sinew, bone, five viscera, six viscera, seven marrow, eight blood... If there is the Ninth Realm, it must be Immortal!"
Seven Marrow, Eight Blood, Nine Immortal!
This was Chen Mu's definition of the Ninth Realm in Martial Arts.
To break the shackles of heaven and earth and cultivate the Divine Body means to free the body from the constraints of longevity, thus achieving agelessness.
And now he nearly possessed the ability to regenerate limbs, once his physique could advance further, even his five viscera and six viscera might no longer exist, everything would return to a unified state, the body having no more weak points, thus an undying body.
Ageless and undying, this is Immortal!
"Keep going."
Chen Mu turned his gaze towards the half pool of Xunmu Spirit Liquid remaining below him.
This step from Blood Refinement Major Achievement to Blood Exchange Perfection was an insurmountable chasm for all martial artists of the present, but the system panel, as always, simply required accumulating enough Experience Points to achieve it. This step needed three thousand points of experience.
The Xunmu Spirit Liquid still had a bit over two-thirds left, but based on past accumulation experience, this half pool of Xunmu Spirit Liquid would at most translate into just over a thousand points of experience, which was insufficient to advance to Blood Exchange Perfection.
Chen Mu didn't think much further, closing his eyes to continue absorbing the Xunmu Spirit Liquid.
Time passed quickly.
The span of two months passed in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, in the undersea cavern, Chen Mu was still seated cross-legged within the Xunmu Spirit Pool, sitting at the bottom of the pool, but the Xunmu Spirit Liquid in the pool had dried up completely, with the last bit of residue floating in midair, continuously merging into Chen Mu's body.
Until the last drop of Xunmu Spirit Liquid disappeared on Chen Mu's skin, he finally opened his eyes slowly, summoning the system panel and turning his gaze to the Martial Body part of himself.
[Physique: Blood Refinement (Major Achievement)]
[Experience: 1337 points]
"Thus, it comes to a close."
With the exhaustion of the Xunmu Spirit Liquid, the resources he accumulated during his time in the Outer Sea were finally all used up, but unfortunately, it was still insufficient to cross into the level of Blood Exchange Perfection, touching the threshold of the Ninth Realm.
Several thousand kilos of Xunmu Spirit Liquid was no small quantity, being an extremely rare resource, a few kilos of Xunmu Spirit Liquid could exchange for Heaven and Earth Spiritual Items like Superior Grade Sea Calming Pearl. Several thousand kilos of Xunmu Spirit Liquid was accumulated over a thousand years by the Xunmu itself, fearfully the stock of top Outer Sea sects like Tingchao Cliff might not even compare.
In the future, finding enough resources to step into the realm of Blood Exchange Perfection would still be a significant undertaking.
But overall, his current strength had reached the limit that the heavens and earth could bear, any movement or gesture without restraint could easily shatter the void, even with full effort could punch out a void rift, and there was no longer any threat in the world.
Moreover,
Collecting a sufficient amount of resources in a short time to further enhance his physique was difficult, but in the realm of artistic conception cultivation, he was finally able to take another step forward. Previously, because he had not entered the Blood Exchange Realm, he couldn't comprehend the third step of artistic conception, reaching the level of Unity of Heaven and Man, but now, having entered the Blood Exchange Realm, he was just one step away from the Celestial Human.
Chen Mu once again summoned the system panel, looking at the part concerning artistic conception.
[Martial Art: Qiankun Artistic Conception (Second Step)]
[Experience: 27891 points]
When his artistic conception reached the limit of the second step and comprehended the Qiankun Domain, his cultivation of artistic conception had come to a complete halt, accumulating experience was of no use because without the basic conditions, further deductions could not be made.
Now having entered the Blood Exchange Realm, he had the foundations to grasp the third step and step into Unity of Heaven and Man!
Moreover,
His Power of the Soul was already stronger than that of ordinary Celestial Humans, even surpassing the common Celestial Human level!
"Needs a hundred thousand experience points? Still somewhat lacking."
Although he had traveled extensively, accumulating over twenty thousand experience points after mastering the Qiankun Domain, it still wasn't enough to take that step. To fully comprehend the third step of the Qiankun Artistic Conception and step into the realm of Unity of Heaven and Man required a full hundred thousand experience points!
But compared to the experience needed for Blood Refinement, acquiring the ten thousand experience points required for comprehension was much easier for Chen Mu.
After all, obtaining experience for artistic conception depended merely on comprehending heaven and earth, and for him now, it was a matter of traveling the lands, measuring the earth with his footsteps, traversing the mountains and rivers of Da Xuan, and he might accumulate nearly enough. On the other hand, advancing in Blood Refinement required tangible resources.
However,
Just as Chen Mu was thinking for a moment, intending to close the system panel, his gaze suddenly flickered, and somewhat unexpectedly, he noticed a new column had appeared under the Qiankun Artistic Conception in the system panel.
[Fundamental Dao (Divine): None]
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Chen Mu's eyes showed a trace of surprise.
He looked back at the cultivation notes in the artistic conception section and found that the Qiankun Artistic Conception belonged to 'Martial Arts,' while the newly emerged column was categorized under 'Divine.'
Clearly, this was a level of cultivation that transcended Martial Arts, or in other words, the cultivation path for those who reached the end of Body Tempering Martial Arts!
Almost reflexively, a thought emerged in Chen Mu's mind.
Void!
The Void Force was a power that could be comprehended and controlled, a cultivation path in itself, something he had already confirmed at Xunmu. This path undoubtedly exceeded Martial Arts, unattainable by mortals, fundamental to the existence of a world of mountains and rivers.
Undoubtedly, the Way of the Void was one of these so-called Fundamental Dao, a power that could only be grasped at the God Realm!
As for other paths apart from the Way of the Void after entering the God Realm, as speculated according to Xunmu, there seemed to be other choices available, but for now, the only clarity he had was the Void Dao.
"The Fundamental Dao is the power of the God Realm, why does the system panel present it now?"
Chen Mu's eyes showed a trace of contemplation.
But soon he had an insight, it should be because of his Soul Heart Level!
Having condensed a bit of 'Immortal' Spiritual Light, his soul heart had already initially exhibited immortal traits, and undying and immortal was the level of the God Realm. Since his soul heart exhibited a trace of the God Realm's traits, he was thus qualified to touch the Void Dao!
"Soul and body, complementing each other, only by solidifying the soul heart first can the will entirely detach from the flesh's constraints. The Immortal Aura must be the basic condition to cultivate the Immortal Divine Body, and by a stroke of luck, I have initially attained it."
Chen Mu murmured in his heart.
For ordinary martial artists, consciousness resided in the brain, and once the head was shattered, death was inevitable, with no chance of resistance, the will being extinguished in an instant.
Only in the Blood Exchange Realm did the soul heart initially take shape, even if the head was shattered, consciousness could briefly exist, but it could not control anything. Only at the Celestial Human level could it still exist briefly after the flesh was destroyed.
But even so, it was just fleeting existence.
The soul heart of a Celestial Master still could not exist in the world detached from the flesh, quickly extinguished, even now Chen Mu, with a bit of Immortal Aura, his soul heart couldn't exist forever separated from the flesh, if wandered in the world, it would swiftly be obliterated by the Power of Heaven and Earth.
"Void Dao... Could it be that I can now skip the artistic conception cultivation and directly comprehend the Way of the Void?"
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