Chapter 738: The Nine Body Art Techniques of the Body Cultivation Secret Classic
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 738: The Nine Body Art Techniques of the Body Cultivation Secret Classic
"Sure! Of course I want to try!"
To be honest, when I first encountered Body Arts, I naively thought they were nothing more than techniques used purely for killing.
Later, after I obtained Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, I almost forgot about the skill entirely.
Back when Sister Bai first became a mentor, I actually had a plan to learn Body Arts. But I got so busy that I never found the time—mostly because Sister Bai was far too relentless in how she worked me as her teaching assistant!
But now... well, isn't Sister Bai still teaching me obediently anyway?
The Ritual War Dance I practiced back then could technically be considered a form of Body Art, but it was meant for strengthening the constitution and required the use of Body Refining Alchemical items.
Standard Body Arts, however, don't require such aids.
Sister Bai began explaining the fundamentals of Body Arts to me. The information was basic but incredibly dry. As she spoke, she used a [Transcendent Knowledge] Fragment from the Great Knowledge Seed to share the information with me directly, saving me a significant amount of time.
"The most basic entry-level Body Arts are simply a way of moving to train the body, used to mobilize the entire system into its peak state. The human body is a highly complex system. Because of this complexity, it is destined that a person's body is not always in a state suitable for combat. The adaptation process of Body Arts is about adjusting the body so it can reach a state of readiness at any moment..."
According to Sister Bai, if an ordinary person without any transcendent means wants to step onto the path of Body Cultivation, practicing Body Arts is the most fundamental way to strengthen the body.
There are almost no traces of the transcendent in the beginning. Compared to Spell Cultivation, it is much more tedious.
At the very least, a Spell Cultivator can constantly feel their mental power growing after meditation. Once they can manifest that mental power, they can begin to interfere with the level of transcendent energy.
But a Body Cultivator cannot.
Furthermore, there are far too many paths for Body Cultivation. Different worlds might give birth to different cultivation roads, and there is no such thing as an "absolute" orthodox method.
The best method is simply the one that best fits a world's rules or a race's specific traits.
However, Body Arts—which are the equivalent of a "basic attack" compared to the "spells" of a Spell Cultivator—are something that can never be skipped.
Even for the Five Senses Body Cultivation that Sister Bai and I chose, the path of the five senses corresponds to a specific type of Body Art.
Take the Body Cultivation Secret Classic as an example. It contains nine branches of Body Arts. The one corresponding to Five Senses Body Cultivation is "Five Senses Connection," a technique belonging to the "Perception" branch.
This isn't surprising. Just as spells are categorized into attack, defense, and perception, Body Arts are similarly divided.
Generally speaking, the stereotypical image people have of Body Arts involves attack and defense. This isn't wrong; these common types are indeed the most numerous.
After all, if given a choice in cultivation systems, most people with a brain would choose to be a Spell Cultivator, leaving Body Cultivation to those with more muscle than wit. Consequently, the derivation and development of Body Arts have never been as glorious as those of spells.
Though there are many types, most of them follow the same core principles.
It’s a bit like how the Fireball Spell evolved into Fire Snake, Explosive Spell, or Twin Fireball Spells.
Many people use different Body Arts to distinguish between various "sects," and these sects develop their own distinct styles.
According to Sister Bai, these styles eventually become cognitive limitations that cap a Body Cultivator's upper limit. This is an inevitable result of social comparison in the real world. Remaining unaffected by a sect is ultimately just a theoretical ideal; as they say, even in a world of killing, one must still navigate the ways of the world.
My Self-Awakened Body Cultivation perfectly bypassed the fate of "having to practice Body Arts to start the path, only to be eventually limited by a sect's style."
Furthermore, the Body Cultivation Secret Classic Sister Bai mentioned is a system without any specific bias. At least for now, no one dares to claim it belongs to any single faction. It is like the most widely circulated collection of Body Arts in the Void, devoid of any heavy stylistic leaning.
For instance, the most representative technique of the attack branch is "Sky Opening Break."
It represents the effect a person hopes to achieve through their understanding of attacking during the development of Body Arts.
The most direct attack, the clearest description: a single punch to shatter the shackles of heaven and earth. That is essentially what this technique aims to express.
The other techniques in the Body Cultivation Secret Classic are much the same.
"Guard Body" represents defense.
"Shadow-Step" represents speed.
"Wounding Bone Thorn" represents counterattacking.
"Healing Body Breath" represents self-healing.
"Five Senses Connection" represents perception.
"Severing Soul Purification" represents transcendent resistance.
"Sky-Breaking Strength" represents transcendent energy.
And "Realm Heart Enlightenment" represents meditation.
If Sister Bai hadn't introduced them, I wouldn't have even known there were so many branches within Body Arts.
There were many concepts that caught my interest. For example, "Five Senses Connection" is the most basic perception of the five senses, but I hadn't expected Body Cultivation to include meditation. However, after seeing the name "Realm Heart Enlightenment," I guessed it likely represented the Sixth Sense beyond the basic five.
As for why there were no corresponding techniques for the Seventh or Eighth Senses... perhaps the threshold is simply too high.
Or perhaps Realm Heart Enlightenment itself represents perception beyond the Sixth Sense?
After all, the Sixth Sense is the "understanding" built upon the perception of the five senses, while the Seventh Sense is the "control" built upon the understanding of Heart Sense.
Sister Bai spoke at length about "Sky-Breaking Strength," the Body Art representing transcendent energy.
This branch is often called the "spell" of Body Cultivation. It’s considered just as heterodox as "constitution-enhancing spells" are to Spell Cultivators who use them for melee strength.
To me, however, "Sky-Breaking Strength" seemed like another concept: "Body Cultivation Internal Energy." This technique appeared to be a skill for continuously developing that internal energy.
I have to say, all nine of these Body Art techniques are incredibly unique. The sense of novelty they gave me was no less than when I first encountered magic.
But that novelty vanished quickly.
Body Arts involve repetitive, grueling training—a process of constantly torturing the body to force it to adapt.
This training continued for several days.
Even after all that time, I was still practicing the very first attack technique: "Sky Opening Break."
The difficulty of Body Cultivation far exceeded my expectations, especially when starting from the basics, which requires a long-term commitment.
And this was just my main focus. I was also minoring in the "Realm Heart Enlightenment" meditation, practicing it alongside my daily Witch Meditation Method.
"Xiao Han, can you keep going?" Sister Bai asked with concern, supporting me as I stood there, panting heavily.
"I'm... I'm fine... huff... huff..." I stood up, my breath coming in delicate gasps. I began using the "Healing Body Breath" technique to adjust my breathing and repair the damage my body had sustained from the intense training.
"I feel... a bit better... I didn't expect Body Art training to be... so physically draining..."
"Of course. The intensity of the training must match the strength of the body, otherwise it won't have any effect. You really do need to practice more, Xiao Han~"
"I know~" Once I had stabilized my condition with Healing Body Breath, I began to rehydrate.
At the same time, I used my Self-Awakened Body Cultivation to reverse-engineer my body's adaptation to the technique.
This was where my advantage lay.
All other powerful Body Cultivators could only use Body Arts to influence the physical form, and then rely on the physical form to passively influence their life essence.
But from the very beginning, I could directly control my life essence to match the requirements of the Body Art.
Because of this, in just a few days, I had nearly reached a level that would take others years or even decades to achieve!
However, in terms of the actual understanding of the techniques—that accumulation of insight—I was perhaps still a bit behind those pure Body Cultivators.
Sister Bai comforted me, telling me not to worry.
She explained that long-term accumulation creates fixed mindsets. While that experience makes a person stronger at their current level, those solidified thoughts also become shackles that prevent further breakthroughs.
It went back to what Sister Bai had said: Body Arts are a means to exert power, a tool, not the entirety of one's path.
Sister Bai and I shared the same view. We respected the masters who spent their lives perfecting a single technique as their sole path, but I would never choose that road myself.
The life of a short-lived race is brief; focusing on one thing is their only choice to achieve their goals, a monument to their fleeting existence. But long-lived races have no such need.
It sounds cold, but lifespan truly dictates one's perspective.
Sister Bai was also working on reshaping both my cognitive outlook and her own. This was a necessary process for every Witch who ascended to become a Transcendent Witch.
During a break in our training, I pulled a piece of fruit from my storage equipment and took a large bite. Rich juice flowed down the corner of my mouth.
This fruit was called an Elf Sacred Fruit. One look at the name and you knew it was a premium item from Aphra's academy. Although it didn't come from their main World Tree sub-plant, it was still an incredibly precious treasure.
In short: it strengthened the constitution.
Many of the items Dean Mei had allocated to me were related to Body Cultivation—training aids, constitution-boosting fruits, and so on.
They weren't just from the Elf Academy, either. For example, the Abyssal Demon Academy provided Blood Refined Essence, a top-tier item for strengthening the physical body and enhancing vitality and self-healing.
Even though the name suggested a bloody production process... it wasn't actually made from human essence.
I had confirmed this through my Ley Line Identification Art. If it really were what I had feared, I definitely wouldn't have used it. It would just be gross. I have better options, so why use something that makes my skin crawl?
Fortunately, it wasn't. It was refined from the blood of powerful transcendent lifeforms—specifically, a type of flesh-and-blood creature bred by the Abyssal Demons.
Well... it still sounded a bit disgusting, so I planned to save that for last and use the better stuff first.
"Eat slower. Look, the juice is running down your chin~" Sister Bai reached out and wiped the corner of my mouth, catching the juice. Then, she put her finger into her own mouth and gave it a light suck. "The taste is indeed excellent. I can feel a dense aura of life. If others saw you wasting such a treasure like this, they'd be cursing you."
"Let them curse. It's just the impotent rage of the talentless~" I said dismissively. "Do you want some, Sister Bai? I have a whole basket of these fruits!"
"You should keep them for yourself."
"Eh? Are you sure? You know my physical stats. Once I've eaten about half of them, they won't have much effect on me anymore. After that, they really will just be 'tasty fruit'~" I explained again.
I knew Sister Bai wanted to save all the good things for me, but some things really weren't necessary.
"Alright, I'll have half of one~" Sister Bai was finally convinced. As long as it didn't negatively affect me, she was fine with it.
"Half? What kind of request is that?" I waved the fruit I had already bitten halfway through, quickly realizing Sister Bai's true intention.
"Hehe~ Sister Bai, you don't want... this one, do you?" I teased, holding up the fruit. It clearly bore the marks of my teeth, and the exposed flesh was glistening with juice—and likely a bit of my salivary amylase...
"Will you give it to me?" Sister Bai asked directly.
"Sure~ I'll feed you."
I held the half-eaten fruit to Sister Bai's lips. She didn't hesitate, taking a large bite until only a tiny sliver was left.
"Hey! If you eat it like that, I won't have anything to hold onto!" I said, pinching the small remains of the fruit near her lips.
But in the next moment, Sister Bai took another bite, taking the core, the flesh, and my fingers all into her mouth.
Her soft, slightly cool lips, smelling of fruit and moisture, dampened my fingertips.
As if savoring some divine delicacy, her nimble tongue brushed against my skin, seemingly by accident.
"Eh?" My eyes widened in disbelief. Before I could react, Sister Bai gave her lips a firm squeeze.
It was as if she wanted to suck away every last drop of juice clinging to my fingertips!
"Sister Bai, what are you doing! Are you taking advantage of me?" I quickly pulled my hand back and scolded her.
"The taste is truly wonderful~" Sister Bai said with a look of reminiscence. It was hard to tell exactly which "taste" she was referring to.
Then, she spat out a single seed.
"I'm too tired from training to argue with you right now, hmph~"
"So that means you're not going to hold it against me, right?" Sister Bai sat down beside me with a smile.
"Pretty much." My gaze fell on the seed she was playing with. "By the way, Sister Bai, do you think we can plant this? We have that World Fragment lying fallow anyway. It should be fine to plant a tree there."
"You want to grow this?" Sister Bai asked, tossing the seed.
"Is it not possible?"
"Most likely not. I've studied some knowledge regarding transcendent plants. The higher the grade of the plant, the more it has been subjected to transcendent induction techniques. They almost entirely lose the ability to produce viable seeds naturally," Sister Bai explained.
"Then... what about this seed?" I pointed to the one in her hand.
"This is just the original structure of the fruit. Through transcendent induction, it retains its appearance, but it cannot grow into a transcendent plant of this caliber."
"Eh? That's so sneaky!"
"Of course. It's to prevent unauthorized propagation. You can only plant them if you use special techniques to condense a proper seed. Xiao Han, you really need to brush up on your common sense."
"What kind of common sense is that!" I complained.
However, I did a quick search through the Tree of Great Knowledge and found that my knowledge reserves did indeed mention this... but if you weren't looking for it, you'd never know such a thing existed.
It’s totally counter-intuitive, okay?
No wonder there are so few transcendent plants in the wild, and even fewer high-level ones.