“Body cultivation methods.”

Perhaps knowing that what she said was already shocking, Jian Chou repeated it very clearly.

Fudao Shanren finally felt his heart collapse…

He remembered what Qu Zhengfeng had said on Return-to-Sheath Peak—that perhaps Jian Chou was the most durable one. Unexpectedly, there was truth to those words.

“…You… are you sure you want to cultivate your body of your own will? You weren’t led astray by your Junior Brother Qu?”

Qu Zhengfeng’s physical strength was rare in the entire cultivation world.

Because no idiot would spend vast amounts of time on physical strength.

According to Fudao Shanren’s estimation, in these hundred-plus years, he had done nothing but temper his body.

After Jian Chou had fought with Qu Zhengfeng, she was probably stimulated.

Thinking that if Yashan’s first female cultivator went to temper her body, if others heard about it, there would probably be endless chatter about how Yashan didn’t treat female cultivators as humans…

Just thinking about it made Fudao Shanren sigh heavily.

Jian Chou herself was quite calm, saying, “Master once said I have a Heavenly Void Body. After sparring with Junior Brother Qu, I’ve also thought about it… The greatest advantage of the Heavenly Void Body is not only fast cultivation, but more importantly, I have no meridians to destroy. However, today, when sparring with Junior Brother Qu, the moment he attacked, my spiritual energy scattered… falling into my flesh and blood everywhere, unable to reconvene for a time.”

“That’s true…”

Fudao Shanren understood her meaning.

When cultivators absorb heaven and earth spiritual energy, they automatically guide the spiritual energy to circulate through their body’s meridians, taking the opportunity to temper their bodies. But for someone like Jian Chou, who had no meridians, the so-called “meridians” were just routes for spiritual power circulation that she conceived in her mind—they had no actual form and were thus extremely easy for others to scatter.

When a cultivator’s spiritual energy scattered into their meridians, it refined the meridians; when Jian Chou’s spiritual energy scattered into her flesh and blood, it refined her physical body.

Refining meridians was simple, but refining the entire body was very difficult and required too much effort.

But unfortunately, cultivators relied on meridians to cultivate, while Jian Chou needed her physical body.

Calculating this way, Jian Chou’s sudden question about body cultivation methods today wasn’t impulsive, nor was she influenced by Qu Zhengfeng…

At most, Qu Zhengfeng’s certain behavior had suddenly given her a little inspiration.

Fudao Shanren became troubled, “It’s not that I don’t have body cultivation methods… but… Master asks you, Do you truly want to cultivate your body?”

What was there to ask again?

Jian Chou remembered her earlier knee strike that she had thought was certain to succeed, only to be violently knocked back. An indescribable emotion filled her chest.

Whether Qu Zhengfeng liked her or not didn’t matter much to her.

She only knew that Qu Zhengfeng wasn’t wrong about one thing—in this land of Shijiu Zhou, being so weak, she truly wasn’t qualified to be called Yashan’s Big Senior Sister. More importantly, she might not even have the qualifications for so-called “revenge.”

Having never been such a weak nature to begin with, Jian Chou didn’t feel she should be crushed into despair by today’s defeat.

On the contrary, the most tenacious part of her nature had been激发ed.

Qu Zhengfeng?

Six hundred eighty years as a disciple, now only at Nascent Soul Peak.

But Jian Chou herself had the fastest-cultivating Heavenly Void Body. Using a short time to surpass Qu Zhengfeng might sound like a fool’s dream, but—

With so many dreamers in the world, why couldn’t she be one of them?

This was a dream that could make one burn with passion.

Jian Chou’s gaze became exceptionally bright.

She looked at Fudao Shanren and smiled, “Please guide me, Master.”

“…”

As if recognizing her anew, Fudao Shanren discovered…

She had become different.

The gentleness that had originally veiled her entire being suddenly faded, and beneath her bright eyes was a passionate spirit.

Such a gaze—Fudao Shanren had seen it many times before.

Those Yashan disciples who had been beaten by him, beaten by Qu Zhengfeng, lost many times, failed many times, yet continuously wanted to climb upward… didn’t they all have this same look in their eyes?

Body cultivation?

Then let’s cultivate the body!

Fudao Shanren directly waved his hand, “Follow me to the Scripture Repository! Master will pick you two good ones!”

“Snap!”

A token was directly thrown to the ground, and thus, a circular door directly emerged from the ground.

Fudao Shanren kicked the door open with his foot and jumped straight in, “Follow!”

Jian Chou looked at the door opening toward the ground, suddenly feeling her horizons broaden. Looking back at Return-to-Sheath Peak, hidden in the clouds, Qu Zhengfeng’s figure was naturally invisible.

She smiled slightly and finally leaped down into the Scripture Repository.

This time, the door didn’t open on the side of the Scripture Repository but directly from the dome.

Jian Chou fell straight down from above. Fudao Shanren was already clapping his hands and wandering around.

“Body cultivation is hard work, but since you’ve already asked me, you must be mentally prepared, right?”

“I have some understanding.”

But not much.

Jian Chou walked up and followed beside Fudao Shanren.

Shelf after shelf of books gradually passed before her eyes.

Fudao Shanren’s gaze also moved rapidly. He said, “I don’t know where that fool Qu Zhengfeng got his body cultivation method, but the body cultivation method I’m going to find for you might be a bit… uh, shocking to the world?”

“Shocking to the world?” Jian Chou was surprised.

Fudao Shanren said, “Our Yashan doesn’t have body cultivation traditions—physical strength is at most passable. Many sects in the cultivation world don’t have it either; physical strength just grows naturally with cultivation. After all, a cultivator’s greatest power comes from strong spiritual power, and what they mainly cultivate are battle discs. However, Yashan has deep foundations, and over so many years, quite a few miscellaneous cultivation methods have been passed down…”

While speaking, he looked around, seeming to have found what he was looking for, and stopped.

Countless books spread before them, labeled “Body Cultivation Methods.”

“This one.”

Extending his hand, Fudao Shanren immediately found the rightmost book and took it.

The Scripture Repository was formed by the “realm” of realm cultivators, so there was no dust inside. Even though this book had been placed for many years without anyone touching it, it looked completely dust-free, just somewhat old, probably already like this when placed in the Scripture Repository.

Jian Chou followed beside Fudao Shanren, leaning over to look. When she saw the large characters on the cover, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “Human Artifact?”

Correct.

This body cultivation method was called “Human Artifact.”

Fudao Shanren casually flipped through it, confirmed the book had no missing pages, then took down the jade slip floating above it. After checking everything again and finding no problems, he directly handed it to Jian Chou.

“So-called ‘Human Artifact’ means treating humans as artifacts. However, artifact refinement masters refine artifacts; humans cultivate their bodies the same way. Blazing fire burning, thousands of hammers and chisels—the human body is like a magical artifact, to be tormented however it should be tormented.”

This was indeed a fresh concept.

Jian Chou directly pressed the jade slip to her brow center, and the cultivation methods related to “Human Artifact” immediately drilled into her mind.

It truly treated humans as artifacts, divided into three major realms with nine layers total.

Each cultivation realm roughly corresponded to a magical artifact realm.

When body cultivation reached its highest point, it was written that the physical body could become like a mystical treasure, flying through heaven and earth. Even if the person died, the flesh would not decay, becoming a true “human artifact” that could even be refined into a magical treasure—truly terrifying.

However…

The cultivation methods were rather horrifying.

“Using a cauldron to cook medicine, fill with water, humans like sacrificial animals, enter the cauldron to be cooked; with good fire and boiling water, skin and flesh completely soft and rotten, then use Iron Condensing Grass juice to solidify it, extracting its flexibility…”

Just reading these opening sentences was horrifying.

Requiring people to be placed in boiling cauldrons for cooking, waiting until the flesh all over the body was cooked through, then using immortal grass spiritual juices for tempering…

Jian Chou read in a daze.

Fudao Shanren’s proud voice entered her ears, “This was stolen from the Southern Sea Chan Sect by some cultivation fanatic from our Yashan in the past, then improved to become even more horrifying—an improved work. Not bad, right? As long as you dare grit your teeth and cultivate it, you don’t need much—just cultivating to the fifth layer will be enough to make that fool Qu Zhengfeng cry!”

“I’ll take this one. As for Junior Brother Qu… please don’t worry, Master. This disciple bears no grudge against him.”

She just wanted to beat him up a little.

Jian Chou finished reading and put down the jade slip.

Her voice was calm, indeed showing no trace of hatred.

“However… Junior Brother Qu previously told Master about the sea incident. I wonder if there’s any conclusion now?”

The topic was suddenly changed.

Fudao Shanren remembered the result of his previous message exchange with that old monster Hengxu and felt nothing but anger.

He said, “Kunwu’s side says some demon evil is about to emerge, but demon evils that can ride Kun and depart—honestly speaking, aren’t something we can handle now. If we wanted to take action against something like that, we’d probably have to dig up those undying old ones from underground—then there might be some possibility.”

“The one riding the Kun was a demon, evil?”

Jian Chou suddenly froze.

Fudao Shanren had been walking forward and didn’t notice Jian Chou’s expression. He said, “Dameng Reef, Dameng Reef—isn’t there a legend about ancient divine beasts having a great dream here, a dream from which they never wake? I never knew until now that this legend was true. Among the great cultivators in Shijiu Zhou, I know at least eighty percent—not many have such abilities. Moreover, there are strange phenomena between heaven and earth, mayflies under heaven living and dying in a single day—truly unusual… This violates the rules of heavenly dao.”

Mayflies originally lived and died in a single day; wanting to live longer violated the heavenly dao. Now that they lived and died in a single day, it also violated the heavenly dao.

Heavenly dao was truly an interesting thing.

Jian Chou didn’t know why she suddenly thought of this point.

Originally, she actually knew some news about that young man, but after hearing Fudao Shanren’s endless chatter, somehow her desire to speak was extinguished.

Following Fudao Shanren, they walked through the Scripture Repository.

Fudao Shanren finally stopped before a bookshelf in the most remote corner and took out the thickest book.

This book had no corresponding jade slip.

“This is a book picked up from who knows where in the early years. It contains many things related to body cultivation. That ‘Human Artifact’ cultivation method is too horrifying—I’ve never cultivated it myself. But by analogy, this book covers miscellaneous topics and is worth reading.”

Speaking, he directly threw this heavy book at Jian Chou.

“Snap.”

Jian Chou hurriedly caught it but was almost bent over by its weight.

So heavy.

A thick volume—opening to the first page, she could see diagrams of human body meridians and acupoints, with dense, small characters beside them that were dizzying to look at.

“Hehe.”

Fudao Shanren smiled craftily, patted Jian Chou’s shoulder with a meaningful expression, “From now on, the heavy responsibility of teaching that fool Qu Zhengfeng a lesson is entrusted to you.”

…Master, are you sure it won’t be me getting taught a lesson?

Jian Chou had already prepared mentally for getting beaten up again and again.

She suddenly felt a headache.

Fudao Shanren said, “Study these two body cultivation-related books well when you go back, and cultivate according to what they say. There’s nothing much happening recently, so just cultivate well. In two years or so, there’s a small gathering in the Central Domain’s Left Three Thousand. If you can break through to Golden Core before then, you might qualify to enter.”

Golden Core?

Again, the Central Domain Left Three Thousand small gatherings.

Jian Chou frowned, “Must one have a Golden Core to qualify for entry?”

“Other sects aren’t like this, but for our Yashan, going to Left Three Thousand without at least Golden Core—how embarrassing?” Fudao Shanren touched his nose, still looking at Jian Chou with appreciative eyes, “Anyway, you have no problem. I still need to look for some things here, so go cultivate quickly.”

“Yes. Then this disciple takes leave.”

Jian Chou stored both books and the jade slip in her qiankun bag and finally left the Scripture Repository.

At this moment, on Yashan’s Lingzhao Peak, sunset was already approaching.

Jian Chou felt she had just come out of seclusion not long ago, went on a trip to the Western Sea where many things happened, and returning, she was going to continue cultivating willingly—truly unbelievable.

People say cultivation is a lonely and boring hardship, and it’s indeed true.

Da Bai’e was still paddling its webbed feet in the well water. Seeing Jian Chou reappear beside Guihe Well, it swam toward her.

Jian Chou walked over, crouched down, and reached out to touch the top of its head.

Oily feathers, exceptionally smooth. She smiled slightly, “Seeing you wandering here day after day without getting bored…”

Da Bai’e lowered its head and nuzzled Jian Chou’s palm.

Jian Chou was startled, only laughing—in this era, even big white geese understood human speech?

A group of red-crowned immortal cranes beside them seemed to watch this scene coldly, directly turning their heads and paddling to the other side of the water.

Da Bai’e called loudly toward them twice, like provocation.

Jian Chou helplessly covered her forehead—alright, actually this goose… was more like Fudao Shanren’s broken personality… indeed already a goose that followed his surname…

Feeling sentimental inside, Jian Chou patted its head, stood up directly, and walked toward the Pill Hall.

Having just read the Jade Slip, she had memorized the spiritual herbs and pills needed for body cultivation, and additionally…

She needed a “people-cooking” large cauldron.

She stood at the Pills Hall entrance, looking inside, feeling that the Pills Hall before her was somewhat similar to mundane pharmacies, except nine large cauldrons for refining medicine were arranged in the center, with several duty disciples holding jade slips checking the conditions inside the cauldrons.

The moment Jian Chou appeared at the entrance, someone noticed.

A young duty disciple immediately looked up. Seeing it was Jian Chou, he was surprised for a moment, “Great Master Uncle Jian Chou? Congratulations on ending your seclusion, Great Master Uncle.”

Not many people knew about her ending seclusion.

Jian Chou hadn’t expected the other party to be so polite to her. She clasped her hands, “Too kind. I came to take some spiritual herbs and pills.”

The duty disciple was quite familiar with the routine, directly handing Jian Chou a jade slip and asking her to record what she needed on it.

Jian Chou did as requested. After recording, she handed the jade slip back to the duty disciple.

The duty disciple took it and was about to prepare things for Jian Chou, but the moment he placed the jade slip at his brow center, he froze—why… was there also a large, large cauldron?

What did Great Master Uncle Jian Chou want this for?

For a moment, the duty disciple’s gaze became strange.

Jian Chou didn’t explain, only stood aside waiting.

Soon, everything was prepared…

Including…

“Clang!”

A huge sound.

The duty disciple had impressive arm strength, carrying a massive bronze cauldron two people tall and placing it directly before Jian Chou, “This is the largest cauldron the Pills Hall could find. It’s usually used for pill refining. Great Master Uncle, see if it’s big enough?”

Jian Chou looked up at the cauldron that was taller than herself, remembering each word from the “Human Artifact” method, and slowly exhaled.

She smiled and thanked him, “Thank you, Junior Nephew. This cauldron is sufficient.”

For cooking herself, it was sufficient.

Directly patting her qiankun bag, Jian Chou stored the large cauldron and bid farewell to the Pills Hall, flying directly toward her house on the Liwai Mirror.

The moment she left, Shen Jiu entered.

“Strange, Big Senior Sister also came to the Pills Hall…”

Muttering to himself, Shen Jiu in white robes walked directly in. Seeing the duty disciple, he greeted, “Little Radish, prepare two Rejuvenation Pills for me.”

“No way?”

The duty disciple called “Little Radish” heard this pill name and felt powerless, “Fourth Master Uncle, you’re about to use up this month’s pill allowance, and it’s all Rejuvenation Pills! Where do you get so many romantic opportunities?”

“Smack!”

Shen Jiu unhesitatingly flicked him on the forehead.

“What are you saying, taking Fourth Master Uncle for some improper person? These Rejuvenation Pills aren’t just for beauty preservation—I have other uses. You understand nothing. Hurry up.”

Holding his head aggrievedly, “Little Radish” truly didn’t even have the strength to cry.

“Great Master Uncle is still the best, even smiled at me.”

“That’s because your Great Master Uncle is kind-hearted. Hey, by the way, what did your Great Master Uncle come for?” Shen Jiu was purely curious.

“Just to get some simple spiritual herbs and pills, and also… also an especially large cauldron. Big Senior Sister said she wanted one that could cook people.” Thinking of this, Little Radish became somewhat spirited. Holding pills in his hand, he turned back to look at Shen Jiu, a strange light flickering in his eyes, “Fourth Master Uncle, does Great Master Uncle have… some special hobby? Like… like that hobby they say Second Master Uncle has…”

Special…

Hobby?!

Shen Jiu touched his chin, feeling a chill run up his back.

A cauldron that could cook people!

What exactly did Big Senior Sister want to do?!

He touched his accelerating heartbeat and wailed, “I’ve only heard that Second Senior Brother has the strange habit of eating people. How come Big Senior Sister is learning it now… Can our Yashan still be good?!”

Jian Chou’s small house.

She set up a simple protective array at the door to prevent others from trespassing, then returned inside.

A large cauldron was taken from her qiankun bag, filled with water. A few spirit stones formed a fire-gathering array beneath the cauldron, and soon a flame rose directly up, scorching the cauldron’s bottom.

Soon, steaming hot air rose from inside the cauldron.

Then, following what was said in the “Human Artifact” body cultivation method, Jian Chou successively added two liang of slender snow-white Tianxin Grass, six sections of jade-smooth White Jade Tree roots, eight Withered Leaf Lotuses that looked like pieces of dead leaves…

As more and more spiritual herbs were added, the color of the water in the cauldron grew deeper and deeper.

Jian Chou watched for a while, then walked back to the front of the large cauldron and slowly sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion.

Her originally churning emotions finally gradually calmed.

She had been in seclusion for a long time. The days after coming to Yashan were interesting yet boring, with seclusion taking up most of the time. But even so, her growth speed still couldn’t keep up with her needs.

Qu Zhengfeng’s words echoed in her ears.

To become Yashan’s Big Senior Sister, she needed to be stronger than them, more ruthless, suppress them while protecting them, become their great tree rather than a pearl held in their palms…

Although Jian Chou never felt she was particularly precious, she couldn’t deny that Qu Zhengfeng wasn’t wrong.

Others being good to her wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that she couldn’t be good to herself.

She simply wasn’t qualified yet.

She breathed slowly, but the images in her mind became clearer and clearer…

Turning her palm, Jian Chou slowly opened her eyes.

That silver lock lay quietly in her palm.

There was still a child waiting for her to seek justice for it…

What reason did she have to be good to herself?

Jian Chou thought she should be harsher on herself, even harsher.

If strong enough, she wouldn’t be knocked back by someone’s knee but would knock the opponent senseless with her knee.

If strong enough, it wouldn’t be Qu Zhengfeng beating her into submission, but her beating him into submission;

If strong enough, she could stand before Xie Buchen openly and tell him: Today, I come as promised to take your life;

…

“Bubble bubble…”

Streams of bubbles rose from the cauldron’s bottom, bursting the moment they surfaced.

Rolling hot waves rose from the water surface in the cauldron, carrying a medicinal smell that was hard to tell if it was pleasant or unpleasant.

The bronze giant cauldron was like a huge furnace.

Jian Chou finally stood up, stepping on the Liwai Mirror and slowly rising.

The shallow black medicinal water in the cauldron was already boiling vigorously.

Jian Chou blinked, exhaled, and calmed her mind.

She slowly removed the outer robe from her body and threw it on the floor.

With the thick outer robe removed, her thin body was exposed, slender, even frail.

The air seemed too cold, making her shiver, but the next moment, the suffocating hot waves made her vision blur.

Body cultivation.

Purgatory.

When she cultivated “Human Artifact” first layer’s Gold and Iron Body, she would come out to fight her “Big Senior Brother,” and as for the result…

Who cared?

She was just unwilling to accept it.

Even if she had to continue losing, she would continue fighting!

With this thought, Jian Chou finally closed her eyes, summoned her battle disc, using spiritual power to protect her bones throughout her body, and slowly sank her body into the giant cauldron.

The boiling medicinal water immediately surged toward her…

In the room, complete silence.

Outside the mountain wall.

Shen Jiu came out of the Pills Hall, smacking his lips, looking toward where Jian Chou’s small house was located, and couldn’t help pondering: what exactly was she going to cook? Why did everyone like using cauldrons to cook?

Walking step by step, Shen Jiu even had an impulse to ask that black-faced, blacker-hearted Second Senior Brother.

But at the last moment, he shook his head.

Forget it, better not seek death.

He sighed, just about to leave, when a “crack” of lightning suddenly tore through the crimson twilight and descended at Guihe Well.

Shen Jiu was startled, “What the hell! Can’t you just use wind messages properly?! Can our cultivation world have some public morality?! This could scare people to death!”

As his words fell, the silver light hidden in the lightning finally floated on the water’s surface.

Shen Jiu looked and sensed the silver light’s aura, but was startled: again for Senior Sister Jian Chou?