Just like that, a month passed quietly. Song Changsheng had finally completed the eighth round of body tempering. Only one final session remained, and his physique would be fully refined.
This time, he would use eighty-one types of spiritual herbs among them, the Dragonblood Orchid, which he had traded from Shangguan Jian, would finally be put to use.
As the Dragonblood Orchid was tossed into the bronze cauldron, the originally dark green medicinal liquid instantly turned a blood-like crimson.
This time, he didn't dilute it with any spiritual spring water.
As soon as he immersed himself in the solution, Song Changsheng immediately understood what it meant to have one's heart gnawed by ten thousand ants and what it truly meant to wish for death.
The crimson liquid behaved like squirming maggots, burrowing into his body through his pores. Once inside his muscles, they transformed into an incredibly corrosive fluid. Even muscle fibers as strong as refined steel were torn apart inch by inch, only to be restructured again.
And with every reconstruction, his muscle fibers grew stronger until they reached a level comparable to a first-grade magical artifact.
That single hour felt longer than an entire lifetime. Song Changsheng lost consciousness multiple times but forced himself to stay awake through sheer force of will.
When the last drop of liquid had been absorbed into his body, he could endure no longer. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold.
By the time he woke again, he had no idea how many days had passed.
"Feels like I died once and came back…" Song Changsheng muttered, still shaken. "Using this method to strengthen the body there aren't many who could endure it."
The pain from this final round had nearly surpassed the sum of all the previous eight. Even his soul had almost collapsed.
He pulled out a dagger and, without hesitation, slashed at his finger. But instead of blood gushing out, there was only the sharp sound of metal striking stone.
"My physical strength has improved. Though I'm not quite on par with true body cultivators, this is more than enough." Song Changsheng was overjoyed. All the suffering he had endured had not been in vain.
"Now comes the final step inscribing the formation patterns and linking the acupoints."
The formation Song Changsheng intended to inscribe was called the "Yin-Yang Duality Array" a low-tier second-grade formation. Once activated, it would summon yin and yang energies to shield him, forming a protective domain several meters wide where enemies wouldn't dare approach.
Inscribing the formation was the last step and also the most dangerous.
It involved his dantian, meridians, bones, and acupoints. A single mistake could lead to minor consequences like a ruptured dantian and loss of cultivation or major ones like instant death.
Fortunately, he had a safeguard: the Heart-Guard Pill, which he had gone to great lengths to obtain. Holding the pill in his mouth, he could take it the moment things went wrong. It would buy him an extra hour of life enough time to fix the error and complete the formation.
After adjusting his physical and mental state, Song Changsheng calmed his mind and focused. With his consciousness sharpened into a metaphysical carving blade, he began to engrave the formation patterns.
He started with the bones the least risky and fastest part. Though somewhat painful, after enduring nine rounds of body refinement, Song Changsheng was nearly immune to this level of pain.
In just three hours, he had inscribed formation patterns onto all 206 bones of his body. Of course, this "inscribing" wasn't physical it was done with his spiritual sense, leaving behind illusory imprints that could be erased at any time.
Next came the more dangerous task: the acupoints.
The human body had nine orifices and 720 acupoints. In the manual of Inscribing Formations Into the Body, these were likened to formation flags.
To engrave a specific array, one had to connect these acupoints and orifices according to the rules of the formation forming the base structure of the array.
And the bridges that connected them were, naturally, the body's bones and meridians.
He went through each one: the twelve principal meridians, the eight extraordinary vessels, and the fifteen collateral channels.
Yingxiang, Chengjiang, Jinjin, Yuye…
One by one, the acupoints on Song Changsheng's body were connected by formation lines, forming a brilliant constellation-like map. In the end, all the formation lines converged toward the Guanyuan acupoint.
Suddenly, Song Changsheng let out a muffled groan, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. His face turned deathly pale in an instant.
The Guanyuan acupoint corresponded to his lower dantian, the spot he had chosen as the core of the array. Because the formation lines had converged there too quickly, they struck with tremendous force, injuring his dantian and causing his spiritual energy to surge out of control, triggering a backlash.
On the brink of failure, Song Changsheng decisively swallowed the Heart-Guard Pill in his mouth. Instantly, a strange power flowed through his limbs and bones, calming the rampaging spiritual energy and stabilizing his dantian.
He knew clearly that this was a life-or-death moment. Realizing that he had been too hasty, he quickly calmed his mind and resumed guiding the formation lines with renewed focus.
With the benefit of experience, he slowed his pace this time. Dense formation lines gradually converged into the dantian and connected seamlessly with the newly formed Dao Foundation.
"Buzz!"
At the moment everything connected, the bones and linked acupoints within his body suddenly radiated with a dazzling light so intense it pierced through flesh and skin.
From the outside, Song Changsheng looked like he was enveloped in a sphere of light.
Inside his body, spiritual energy surged wildly. An invisible domain expanded outward from his body, while black and white energies spiraled around him, exuding an awe-inspiring pressure.
The Yin-Yang Duality Array is complete!
Song Changsheng slowly opened his eyes as the radiant glow around him faded, leaving only the swirling black and white energy at his side.
"Did I… succeed?"
He stared in disbelief at the yin and yang energies spinning around him. Once he confirmed that the cultivation had succeeded, a wave of relief and gratitude washed over him.
When things had gone wrong earlier, he truly thought his soul was about to return to the heavens. He never expected a twist of fate would allow him to pull through.
"Senior He was a genius. If not for this Heart-Guard Pill, I'd be walking the road to the underworld right now."
Song Changsheng was filled with emotion. He Yunxuan, merely a low-tier third-grade formation master, had managed to pioneer a completely new path truly admirable.
He tried channeling the formation within his body. It ran smoothly and effortlessly, no different from operating a normal external array.
"Let's test its power."
He took out a high-grade first-tier magical artifact he had acquired in the past and tossed it high into the air. Then, he immediately commanded the black and white energy swirling around him to attack.
The black and white energies merged into the shape of a giant pair of scissors in midair. With a sharp "crack!", the artifact crafted from refined black iron was cleanly snipped in two and clattered to the ground with a crisp ring.
Song Changsheng's eyes went wide in astonishment.
"This is... insanely powerful! Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator wouldn't dare ignore it!"
But just as quickly, he frowned. He'd noticed that that single strike had consumed a third of his total spiritual energy.
"The energy cost of using this formation offensively is way too high. With my current cultivation, I can't keep this up."
Still, Song Changsheng quickly let it go. After all, nothing in the world is perfect. High consumption simply meant he had to use it with caution.
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