Chapter 185: Refining Body Stage 2 Midterm, Foundation Establishment Stage 4

"My left arm has finally returned after all these years."

Wang Yu's newly regenerated left arm was still very fragile. He needed to continuously channel the True Essence and Vital Blood within his body to fortify and cleanse his left hand, gradually bringing it up to the strength of the rest of his body. This process would take one to two years to subtly catch up to the physical body's level.

The Corpse Demon Secret Art came from Old Man Heavenly Cripple. This person was born without limbs, but fortunately, he possessed an Yin-attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root. After entering the cultivation world, he cultivated diligently for many years and ultimately created this secret art during the Nascent Soul stage. If cultivated to perfection, the blood in one's body would be filled with these Yin Blood Orbs, condensed from the secret power. With a single thought, severed limbs could be regenerated, and even if a fatal part of the body were injured, it would not be a major problem. This regenerative ability and vitality were relatively rare even among Nascent Soul cultivators, making it almost an indestructible body. Currently, Wang Yu could only glimpse a fraction of such power.

After his recovery was complete, it was already dusk. Wang Yu went out to entertain Zhuo Shouqing for another night, then prepared to enter seclusion for a breakthrough. Both his body cultivation and his Foundation Establishment Stage Three cultivation could advance further. According to the pattern, Unit Six was also about to emerge. This was a major event, one he had long anticipated.

"First, I'll try the Netherfiend Dragon Skill," he thought. "My physique at the early second stage has been perfectly refined, and my strength far surpasses those of the same level."

As the cultivation art circulated, dense vital essence began to emanate from Wang Yu's entire body, continuously overflowing from his muscles and bones. Yet, it was like a gloomy ghost mist, revealing a hint of malevolence. There was no trace of the scorching yang heat typical of vital essence; instead, it resembled the Yin and Corpse Qi. His already formed Dragon Spine twisted along a mysterious trajectory, stretching his tendons and bones inch by inch. The Netherfiend Dragon, formed from his vital essence, naturally appeared and continuously circled around him.

The essence blood within his body gradually condensed. The overflowing power began to retract, finally coalescing into ninety-nine drops of blue-black blood. This was the limit for a body cultivator at the early second stage. Nine-nine returning to one signified a breakthrough. After three cycles of condensation and dispersal, a single drop of fused True Blood would be obtained. At that point, the power of the True Blood would disperse throughout his limbs and bones, and his physique would undergo a minor transformation. At the middle stage, nine hundred ninety-nine drops would condense; at the later stage, nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine drops. These also required three cycles of condensation and dispersal, integrating the finally condensed True Blood into the body. Ultimately, one could break through to the third stage of body cultivation, equivalent to a Core Formation cultivator.

The path of body cultivation had long been abandoned by the mainstream cultivation world. Even if someone cultivated it, it would be combined with spirit refinement arts, such as the heritage of Barbarian Ghost Peak of the Inverse Spirit Blood Sect. It was rare for someone like Wang Yu to follow the path of a pure body cultivator. It was hard to say which was stronger or weaker, as there were naturally reasons why it was abandoned. Proper Qi refining cultivation didn't result in a weak physical body; it just wasn't as formidable as a body specifically cultivated, and its vitality was slightly lower. However, it allowed for mastery of even more wondrous True Essence and magical artifact power!

Pure body cultivators also absorbed spiritual energy for cultivation, but they lacked True Essence. They were also unable to control powerful external forces like magic treasures. Their weapons were called Bloodline True Artifacts. These were very rare now, and even in ancient and primordial times, pure body cultivators were uncommon.

Wang Yu's original intention was merely to strengthen his vital essence, to avoid failure during his Foundation Establishment breakthrough. For this, he even cultivated his divine sense, aiming for all-around proficiency. Ultimately, it all served his cultivation realm. The three stages of Foundation Establishment were one hurdle; the three stages of Core Formation were equally severe, with higher demands and greater difficulty. It was well-known that cultivating essence, qi, and spirit was difficult. Since he had this opportunity, he would continue persevering until the day he could act as he pleased!

"Condense!"

His mind was firm, and his physical body rippled. His already incredibly condensed essence blood fused once more, and three days passed in the blink of an eye.

In the secret chamber, inside Wang Yu's body, the blue-black essence blood, now shimmering with golden light, finally fused into the form of True Blood. As his hand seals changed, the roar of a dragon echoed within the confined space. His bones crackled, and the density of his physical body significantly increased.

"Disperse!"

The True Essence, having completed the three cycles of condensation and dispersal, integrated into his body, helping him complete the final step.

Boom—

Like a silent roar, the Netherfiend Dragon, formed from his vital essence, had repeatedly grown during this period. This time, it surpassed its ten-meter limit, skyrocketing to twelve or thirteen meters in one go.

Body cultivation, mid-second stage, achieved!

As long as Wang Yu channeled the vital essence of his physical body, the Netherfiend Dragon would accompany his fists and kicks, making splitting mountains and shattering rocks effortless. Even sturdy first-tier shield-type magical artifacts could be torn apart by his bare hands, or even crushed to dust. His raw power surged by a whole level, though he was slightly less proficient in mystical aspects.

After a long while... he concluded his cultivation.

After familiarizing himself with his new power, Wang Yu decisively opened his 'placement slot' interface, and his pupils involuntarily constricted!

"Where is my Unit Six???"

An unexpected situation had occurred. According to past patterns, a new placement slot would appear every time he broke through a minor threshold. But now—it was gone! As for whether it was because body cultivation didn't count, that was impossible. The last time, when he underwent Foundation Establishment through body cultivation in the Black Mountain Demon Land, Unit Five had appeared; there was no reason it wouldn't count now.

His thoughts returned to the beginning. He had one placement slot during his mortal period. After embarking on the path of cultivation and successfully breaking through to Qi Refining Stage One, he gained a second one. The third appeared at the mid-Qi Refining stage, the fourth at the late-Qi Refining stage, and the fifth at the Foundation Establishment stage. Now he was at the mid-stage... where was the sixth?

Although he had long anticipated that these 'slots' wouldn't appear endlessly, Wang Yu couldn't help but feel disappointed when it actually happened. Since it wasn't there now, it certainly wouldn't appear when he broke through to the late Foundation Establishment stage. He could only wait and see after forming his Core in the future. His intuition told him the placement slots might have a limit, but it definitely wouldn't be just five!

With difficulty, he adjusted his mindset. After half a day of sitting in meditation, Wang Yu's state of mind gradually calmed down. What was meant to be would come eventually.

Now it was time to break through to Foundation Establishment Stage Four. It was a coincidence that both paths converged at this point; it could only be said that the effects of the third-tier treasure, Blood Dragon Essence, truly had miraculous effects on his body cultivation.

Taking out a 'Single-Pattern Core Condensing Pill' from his storage pouch, Wang Yu swallowed it without hesitation. He needed to break through immediately, without any delay. As a renowned spiritual pill for breakthroughs, as soon as he began refining it, he felt its miraculous efficacy. The vast True Essence within his Dantian Sea of Qi converged into three small streams. From three starting points, they continuously swirled towards the center, spinning, accelerating... forming a funnel-shaped True Essence vortex. The medicinal power diffused. It seemed to have taken root in his Sea of Qi, and the Profound Origin Demonic Embryo also emitted a faint glow, as if it had been infused with some spiritual root essence? Perhaps. In any case, this threshold was not sturdy to begin with, and the Core Condensing Pill easily broke through it. In less than half a day, a spring of True Essence appeared in the center of his Sea of Qi. Wang Yu's body now possessed the ability to automatically absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Foundation Establishment Stage Four, achieved!

Wang Yu checked his placement slot interface again, still with a disappointed expression; it was still empty. It seemed he truly had to wait until after Core Formation to see. He never doubted whether he could form his Core; it was only a matter of time.

After entering Foundation Establishment Stage Four, it was still a matter of accumulating quantity. Cultivating from five hundred drops to eight hundred drops would allow a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment Stage Five. Accumulating up to one thousand two hundred drops would reach Foundation Establishment Stage Six. Once he reached the level of two thousand drops, he could begin his breakthrough. At that point, he would face the second core condensation, upgrading the 'Spring of True Essence' into a 'Lake of True Essence'. Cultivation in this stage would be relatively fast. Wang Yu had the assistance of supreme-grade Ice Spirit Pills. Two pills every four years would help him enter Foundation Establishment Stage Five, and only two and a half pills would be needed for Foundation Establishment Stage Six. On the surface, the difficulty of Foundation Establishment cultivation seemed greatly reduced.

However, this was not the case. The true difficulty of this realm lay in the late Foundation Establishment stage. Accumulating True Essence like a vast ocean was extremely time-consuming, and could only be accelerated through pills and various heavenly materials and earthly treasures. Even then, one might not necessarily reach the end of cultivation. The peak of Foundation Establishment Stage Seven was four thousand drops, Stage Eight peak was six thousand drops, and the standard for the final core condensation at Stage Nine peak was nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine drops! This showed how exaggerated the step-by-step progression was.

That was why, when Wang Yu infiltrated the Bai family estate at night back then, he knew very well that he couldn't defeat the Bai family's Grand Elder in a direct fight. He could only trap the opponent with profound inheritances and divine sense power. Even then, it didn't delay him for long, only about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

However— as cultivators condensed springs and lakes of True Essence, their cultivation speed would also greatly increase. However, a person who could reach the peak of Foundation Establishment solely through arduous cultivation, without anything other than a Heavenly Spiritual Root, simply didn't exist. That was why there was the saying that a Heavenly Spiritual Root guaranteed progression to Core Formation. Given ten years, he was confident he could break through to Foundation Establishment Stage Seven, but beyond that... he would truly have to grind slowly.

The further a cultivator progressed, the greater the disparity in strength. Especially after forming a Golden Core, while quantitative accumulation remained important, the profundity of methods also became crucial. In the Qi Refining stage, fighting above one's realm was common. In the Foundation Establishment stage, fighting above one's realm marked one as excellent talent. In the Core Formation stage, fighting above one's realm was a sign of astonishing genius. As for the Nascent Soul stage... no. Not to mention fighting across major realms, even fighting across minor stages was something only top-tier prodigies could achieve. In battles within the same realm, very few could actually kill their opponents. At most, they could destroy the physical body, but the Nascent Soul was difficult to extinguish. Of course, this was the situation in this world; he didn't know about other places.

After completing his breakthrough, Wang Yu meditated in seclusion for another three days. Once his realm was completely stable, he replenished the incubating zombie with a wave of Lunar Fiend energy before finally ending his seclusion. He would nurture this thing for as long as possible. He could feel that the more Lunar Yin Fiend energy it absorbed, the more powerful it would be after reanimation. With such an opportunity, any talk of 'early third stage being enough' was nonsense. His Yin Fiend Corpse Refinement Art had to be improved; otherwise, controlling the corpse would be risky. He would wait until the corpse could no longer absorb Lunar Yin Fiend energy before considering the matter of reanimation.

After emerging from seclusion, Wang Yu first sent someone to inquire about Zhuo Shouqing's whereabouts and gather some intelligence on Eastern Extreme Capital. He finally found Zhuo Shouqing outside the prison cell where Patriarch Guan was confined.

Seeing Wang Yu appear again, Zhuo Shouqing said crossly, "I wondered what you were doing. So it was a breakthrough. I almost misunderstood you."

"Misunderstood me about what?"

Wang Yu smiled but remained silent. He had always been excellent at concealing his cultivation realm, so he had nothing to say about being seen through at a glance now. A hint of gloom flashed in Zhuo Shouqing's eyes, clearly recalling past experiences.

"Never mind, you wouldn't understand if I told you anyway. Were the shackles on that fellow taken from Eastern Extreme Capital?"

"Yes, you've seen them before."

"That explains it," Zhuo Shouqing said. "The True Heir from the Evil God Workshop came here precisely for this thing."

Wang Yu's eyes immediately lit up.

"Tell me more—"

(End of this chapter)