Chapter 347: Self-Awakened Body Cultivator
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 347: Self-Awakened Body Cultivator
"Is that... Self-Awakened Body Cultivation? What? I don't understand!"
Faced with the scene before them, many Transcendent Witches cried out in soul-deep disbelief.
Although Ninglan New City, situated atop the ruins of the Main World, had become a way for the Transcendent Witches to "binge-watch" a show out of boredom lately, not every witch was idle enough to track every single development.
However, it was undeniable that those who cared about the Script would always pay attention when major events occurred—like right now.
"That... the disturbance from a Great Spellbook just now was unmistakable. Can the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art actually help someone achieve Self-Awakened Body Cultivation?"
"Wait, Body Cultivation requires an awakening?"
"Are you even a Body Cultivator?"
Suddenly, a flurry of ridiculous comments popped up. As Dean Mei Lind shared the "broadcast" permissions for this scene—spreading it beyond just the Witch Academy—many comments born of a lack of specialized knowledge began to appear.
This proved that even Transcendent beings aren't necessarily omniscient; they don't know everything.
Fortunately, some well-informed witches stepped in to explain.
"Body Cultivation doesn't require an awakening; it only has a threshold. It's similar to how Casters don't technically need an 'awakening' but do require mental power—whether that power is innate, awakened, or developed through meditation. Those are just entry requirements. Generally, those who focus on training Body Arts call themselves Body Cultivators."
"Then what is a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator?"
"Put it this way: if you are a Body Cultivator, you aren't necessarily 'Self-Awakened.' But a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator is definitely a Body Cultivator."
"That sounds like a load of redundant nonsense."
"It's a subset, right? So what's the difference? I heard someone screaming in shock earlier."
"Er... I'm not entirely sure. I just know that Self-Awakened Body Cultivators are incredibly rare. The criterion for judgment is total mastery over one's own body... I think?"
"Body Cultivation is the most primitive and ancient art of exploring the essence of life and excavating one's potential," Dean Mei Lind finally spoke up.
Body Cultivation was a craft that any being reaching a certain level of power would instinctively touch upon, so she naturally possessed deep insight.
"The 'Realm' aspect is difficult to describe. You can roughly understand it as an understanding of your own life's essence. Note: it is an interpretation of your own life. This interpretation isn't a matter of right or wrong—there is no right or wrong. 'Body Arts,' on the other hand, are the methods used to excavate physical potential. Usually, practicing a specific school of Body Arts is the pathway through which one digs out that potential."
"A 'Self-Awakened Body Cultivator' specifically refers to someone who, without receiving any formal training in Body Arts, achieves a specific physical state through their understanding of their life's essence, combined with a total comprehension and absolute dominance over their own body."
"To put it in layman's terms: she achieved 'Perfection of Realm' and 'Potential Excavation' before she ever touched Body Cultivation. This is the ultimate goal that the vast majority of non-self-awakened cultivators spend their entire lives chasing. She has just stepped through the gates of Body Cultivation, yet she is already standing at the finish line that all other cultivators strive for. That is what it means to be Self-Awakened."
After hearing Dean Mei Lind's explanation, the witches fell silent. They were truly stunned by the implications.
"Then... hasn't she basically ascended to heaven in a single bound? What is there left for the Witch Academy to teach her? Isn't she invincible now?"
"Are you stupid? Realm and potential aren't the same as combat power. Her life essence hasn't even touched the Transcendent level yet. How could she be invincible?" a witch immediately retorted. A few others seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; it seemed some of the less bright witches had truly been intimidated.
However, many witches soon realized something else. While they had just been educated on how rare Self-Awakened Body Cultivators were, there was one standing right in front of them.
"By the way, is there really a chance to become a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator just by dying once and being resurrected?" a witch asked.
"Aren't you already a Body Cultivation Witch? You've missed your chance. Didn't they just say it only counts if you've had zero contact with Body Cultivation?"
"Actually, even if you've trained in Body Arts, you can still 'Self-Awaken.' But that requires completely rewriting your Body Cultivation system, which is equivalent to resolving to abolish your own current strength. It's just that no one dares to do it."
"Besides, Body Cultivation is inextricably linked to the physical form. If dying really guaranteed a Self-Awakened, many people would try it. But if you die and come back, how much of your strength you retain depends entirely on the understanding of the one casting the Resurrection Spell. It's a massive gamble with your entire life's work on the table. Even if you win, it only gives you an excellent starting point. No one is that reckless."
"Um, are we getting a bit off-topic? I'm asking if it's even possible," the Body Cultivation Witch who had asked earlier spoke up again weakly.
"Of course not. The Resurrection Spell is used all over the Void. Have you ever seen anyone else become a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator after being revived?" The witch beside her crushed her fantasies with a blunt tone.
"Then how did she succeed?"
"Is it that hard to admit someone is better than you? At your age, if someone gave you a Resurrection Spell, would you dare use it on yourself? Oh, wait—if someone gave you a Resurrection Spellbook, you wouldn't even know how to cast it on yourself, because once you're dead, you can't cast spells."
"Alright, don't go back and try any foolish experiments with the Resurrection Spell. This isn't a 'low probability' event; the two things are simply unrelated."
Even Dean Mei Lind spoke up to dissuade them. She was genuinely afraid some of the "little idiots" would try it in secret. It would be a pointless waste of self. However, she wouldn't issue a hard prohibition; after all, the stubborn urge to flirt with death was part of a witch's nature and couldn't be suppressed.
Thus, she felt compelled to explain exactly what had happened.
"At the moment of her death, I sensed the traces of at least three things: the Practical Learning Spell, the Unity of Knowledge and Action, and the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art. Setting aside her own level of self-awareness, you couldn't even meet those hard requirements. Furthermore... the spells she used weren't the direct cause of her becoming a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator. They were merely the catalysts that helped her break through the final threshold. This means that even without this coincidence, she would have had a very high probability of completing her Self-Awakened at some point later in her life. So, wake up."
"She awakened through her own talent. Don't forget, she also possesses Spirit Vision—Floating World Level. I don't need to explain what that signifies. Moreover, a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator trains their Five Senses much faster. Once she promotes to a Transcendent Witch, she can almost seamlessly transition her Floating World Level Real Vision into the upcoming Real Five Senses. Therefore... I acknowledge her value."
With Mei Lind's statement of "I acknowledge her value," no one had any further objections. This wasn't just the Dean's recognition; as scholars and teachers of the Witch Academy, they recognized it as well.
* * *
Meanwhile.
In the Underground District.
"I'm... back."
I slowly opened my eyes. The Underground District looked the same, yet in my eyes, it was a brand-new world.
My control over my body was clearer than ever before. Faced with the predatory drain of the sacrifice ritual, I needed only a single thought, and that force could no longer breach my form, let alone wear down my flesh and blood into energy.
I could even plunder that flesh-energy using nothing but my physical body. But I didn't. It felt... too disgusting.
Faced with this anomaly, the Dream Demon's laughter stopped abruptly. She looked at me, standing there perfectly intact, and the mockery on her face vanished, replaced by creeping dread.
It was an inexplicable fear. It wasn't just the helplessness brought by a gap in strength or the countering of her methods; it was an intuition—an illusion that she might be punched to death.
Even though her opponent looked no different than before, the pressure I radiated was on a completely different level.
But my attention wasn't on the Dream Demon. It was on Sister Bai, who had rushed to my side.
"Sister Bai, don't come over here. This sacrifice ritual sucks out soul essence and devours flesh."
"Xiao Han, then get out of there quickly! If you know that, don't do something so stupid!" Bai Yu shouted at me, her voice thick with anxiety.
"Aren't I fine now? Don't worry~" I comforted her. But as I spoke, a pillar of light maintaining the sacrifice ritual in the distance shattered with a roar.
"Oh my~ looks like someone has started moving." Such a disturbance naturally drew many eyes. Logically, destroying the nodes of the ritual should stop it from continuing.
The tide had turned. For the Dream Demon, the situation seemed like it had never truly been in her favor.
Once the sacrifice ritual shattered, she would lose her last chance to flip the board.
"You... you people!"
Seeing me ignore her existence so completely, the Dream Demon was so enraged she could barely speak clearly. But she had finally caught my attention.
She charged toward me like a madwoman. Others tried to stop her, but whether they used attacks or barriers, they couldn't touch the Dream Demon, who existed outside of reality.
Clearly, her target was me—or rather, the massive clump of flesh-energy where I stood.
But I wasn't about to let her have her way. Even I wasn't sure what would happen to such a massive amount of energy. Perhaps it would be carried by the ley lines back into the depths of the earth, or perhaps it would return to the Main World's life cycle. Either way, that was the best possible outcome.
I had considered whether I could use the Resurrection Spell on the victims, but it would be a gargantuan project. it would take too much time, and I wasn't even sure if it would succeed.
To be cold: I didn't want to set that precedent. If there was a first, there would be a second, and a third. I wouldn't gain their love; I would only gain the curses and resentment of the families of those I didn't resurrect. Hadn't I experienced enough of the personalities of the people in the Underground District?
In three words: Not worth it.
I wouldn't even offer.
As for this Dream Demon, I was ready to test my brand-new method of attack. Now that I had total mastery over myself, I felt as if I had been reborn!
The control over every part of my body—dominance, even—every movement and every sensation was a fresh interpretation of myself.
Of course, the main reason was that the mana in my Mana Source was completely exhausted. In reality, I couldn't act as willfully as I did in the dream.
As my gaze locked onto the Dream Demon, I leaped forward. I felt the contraction and relaxation of my muscles, the supply of energy within my body, the friction of skin against air, and the whistling of the wind past my ears.
As I raised my hand, my body's attack even carried a trace of transcendent energy. Even without mental interference, this energy spontaneously resonated with my body, as if sounding a herald's cry before my strike.
In this moment, I felt my physical stats. I seemed to still be an ordinary person, not much different from before, but fundamentally, everything had changed. My strength was greater, my speed faster, and my attacks... fiercer.
Facing the Dream Demon lunging at me, shrouded in the power of an Abyssal Demon, she was met by my fist.
Intuition and confidence told me that this single strike could shatter her offensive.
BOOM—!
A powerful sonic boom of displaced air erupted through the residential area.
The power generated by my body was terrifying!
Even I was a bit stunned. It seemed the way my body channeled that force had created such a horrific blow. The strike shattered the Dream Demon's momentum and landed a solid hit right on her abdomen—a full-power punch from me.
The feeling of that power slamming into an enemy, the force penetrating through her entire frame... it felt incredible!
"This... impossible... You're a... Body Cultivator?!" The Dream Demon was sent flying, tumbling several times across the ground before coming to a pathetic halt. After enduring the massive impact, she looked up at me in disbelief and demanded an answer.
"Body Cultivator? Is this the power of a Body Cultivator?" Hearing the Dream Demon's words, I instinctively looked toward Sister Bai. After all, Sister Bai had mentioned she was a Body Cultivator herself.
"It is indeed the power of Body Cultivation..." Bai Yu was also deeply shocked by my strike. She didn't remember Xiao Han ever training in Body Arts.
Furthermore, with her years of experience in Body Arts, she could see many "uncoordinated" aspects in that strike just now, yet Xiao Han had still produced such a terrifying result.
"I see. Heh."
Having received Sister Bai's confirmation, I let out a light chuckle. Previously, people had suggested I try Body Arts; even the Dean had made a similar suggestion. What was this now?
Finding it without even looking?
"Now, I'll give you time to state your final regrets." I walked slowly toward the Dream Demon I had sent flying. She didn't dare enter the dreamscape now; if she did, she would be swarmed. But in reality... she had to face a monster she couldn't understand!
"No... wait... I still have so much to do! I can't die yet!"
"Are those your last words? What else is there? Summoning your little sisters? They'd just be more food for the table, wouldn't they?"
"If I'm really going to die! They can forget about living happily in the Abyss!"