Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Final Hurdle
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At Baek Hyun's words, Maeng Yeon's expression was dyed with shock, while Muk Heon voiced his doubt.
"Physique... what!? Wait, then you...!"
"What does that mean? Physique has evolved. What... does evolution even mean?"
Muk Heon's question came a beat late, and Maeng Yeon belatedly clamped her mouth shut.
In front of another possessor, she'd grown too comfortable and nearly made a careless slip.
The possessors Baek Hyun and Maeng Yeon naturally knew all about the evolved form of the Solar Body.
But Muk Heon, a native of this world, knew nothing of that physique's details.
The evolved form of the Solar Body was, in the game's lore, a physique no one in history had ever attained—practically an Easter egg.
In other words, at this very moment, Baek Hyun had become the first in history to reach the Solar Body's complete form.
It was only natural no one knew of it, and if the two of them acted like they knew about the physique, they couldn't avoid drawing suspicion.
Aware of that, Baek Hyun suppressed the shock surging from deep in his chest as best he could and continued on with feigned nonchalance.
"Ah, my tongue got twisted and the words came out wrong. What I meant was... it feels like something has fundamentally changed about me."
"Hmm, I see. Well, it would be hard to sum up such a major change in a single phrase. Let me take your pulse—give me your hand."
With that, Muk Heon grasped Baek Hyun's wrist and began examining his meridians.
Baek Hyun reflected on his rash slip-up from moments ago, but the changes in his body still didn't feel real, so he sat there dazedly, letting Muk Heon continue for a while.
He only snapped out of it after Muk Heon finished inspecting his body and rendered his diagnosis.
"Indeed, something has changed dramatically. Your whole body was once brimming with yang energy, but now that amount has shrunk considerably, and I can't sense the intense yang from your heart anymore. Could it be... your physique vanished...?"
The moment he trailed off there,
Muk Heon sensed that the internal energy he'd injected into Baek Hyun's body had transformed.
'My internal energy... it's turning into yang energy?'
He hadn't manipulated it at all—he'd merely scanned Baek Hyun's body briefly.
Yet his internal energy had already become pure extreme yang qi, permeating Baek Hyun's body.
It was an alien situation he'd never encountered in decades roaming the martial world.
Even Muk Heon couldn't hide his fluster in that moment.
"Master, it seems... my body now has the property of converting all energy into yang energy."
Baek Hyun, who knew the new physique's traits in advance, pretended to be flustered while naturally revealing the information step by step.
The pinnacle of the Solar Body—and hailed as Dominating the World's strongest physique—this body's power was remarkably simple.
Converting all surrounding energy into yang energy and wielding it freely.
It shared some similarity with the Solar Body in terms of converting energy to yang, but the key difference was...
Its limit was infinite.
-Roarrrrr!!
With a light surge of energy through his body, the natural qi present anywhere in the world instantly converged on him, igniting fiercely throughout.
Far more potent than the constant circulation of scorching thermal yang qi from his Solar Body days.
Even a single strand of hair, infused with yang energy and fluttering like a heat haze—that sight evoked the image not of a man, but an immortal.
"! Wh-what... is this...!"
"Whoa... that presence is insane."
Muk Heon recoiled in shock at the ethereal display, while Maeng Yeon—who knew the physique's power ahead of time—could only gape in awe.
But admiration lasted only a moment. Maeng Yeon suddenly realized something, rushed over, and viciously pinched Baek Hyun's side while whispering fiercely.
"You heartless bastard—evolving your Solar Body at this timing...? Be honest: you loaded up cheat mode before possessing, didn't you?!"
"No, I really had no idea it'd evolve this soon either!"
Baek Hyun protested with an aggrieved look amid Maeng Yeon's grilling but quietly endured her petty retribution.
Even he knew it made no sense to evolve the Solar Body before reaching the Peak Realm.
The Solar Heavenly Spirit Body was a physique of extreme difficulty—treated as an Easter egg even among veterans—with acquisition conditions as follows:
1. Possess the Solar Body.
2. Master the One Yang Divine Art.
3. Undergo Marrow Cleansing and Bone Transformation, or an equivalent bodily mutation.
4. Supply an enormous quantity of yang energy to the body during that mutation.
Obtaining even top-tier physiques was endgame content in itself—an utterly unreasonable difficulty.
That was why even he, with thousands of hours sunk into a Starpoint Sect build, had only learned of the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body recently.
Not only was acquiring the Solar Body a hurdle, but fulfilling the rest was next to impossible.
The One Yang Divine Art was one thing, but a bodily mutation rivaling Marrow Cleansing was a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal even for ordinary martial artists.
And supplying massive yang energy at that juncture? It'd require dumping every yang-attribute spirit medicine in existence.
Well, he had eventually discovered a loophole: perfect the Tianzhu Oil Fire Divine Art like Sam-soon, then leap into a volcano on the brink of eruption.
But even that exploit was so brutally hard that he'd only planned to attempt it upon reaching the Mythic Realm.
Who could've guessed he'd snag it before Peak...
"Still, this boosts our story clear odds, so good is good, right?"
"I get that, buuut...! This is just straight-up unfair!!"
"Y... yeah, it is."
The unseemly sight of the two fine specimens of man and woman huddled close, whispering furiously.
Muk Heon felt a twinge of exclusion and subtly averted his gaze.
Baek Hyun, meanwhile, quietly endured Maeng Yeon's grumbles—laced with petulant frustration at the world's injustices—as her voice tickled his ear.
It wasn't unreasonable for Maeng Yeon to react that way.
The Solar Heavenly Spirit Body was far too overpowered for this stage.
Its signature abilities were as follows.
First: Internal energy limit removed.
Unlike the Solar Body, which converted and stored gathered internal energy as yang for later use,
the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body held no internal energy in the body at all—instead converting the world's ubiquitous natural qi into extreme yang qi on the spot.
Thus, its internal energy would never run dry so long as the world's qi didn't vanish.
An obvious cheat ability.
Yet freely wielding ambient qi with no internal energy cap was a shared trait of all Mythic Realm martial artists.
In PvP after every player hit Mythic, it held little weight.
The physique's true worth emerged with its second ability.
Second: Output limit removed.
This physique's tolerance for yang energy was beyond imagination.
Even molten lava, glowing red-hot, was no different from air or water to them.
And with infinite usable internal energy, output could theoretically scale infinitely... but.
'The catch is that the output scales with the user's enlightenment.'
Converting natural qi to yang on the fly demanded far more intricate handling techniques and insight.
Thus, the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body's output was proportional to the user's enlightenment.
Mythic Realm masters wielded yang qi so overwhelming it befitted the title 'Fire God.'
But for him now, he could only handle yang slightly stronger than before.
'Still, output isn't everything. This'll do for now.'
The third ability was no different from the second.
Third: Infinite stamina and ultra-high-speed regeneration.
The final ability cementing the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body as supreme.
Infinite stamina had existed since the Solar Body era, but evolution added top-tier regeneration.
This too varied wildly by the user's enlightenment.
Far trickier than wielding yang qi, so the current him couldn't even use it properly.
'Still, there's no PvP ability quite like it.'
It demanded intense focus, crippling output and preventing techniques during use—but his combat style let him pull back mid-fight for safe heals regardless, making it his go-to.
"How the hell do you get a solo-potion physique this early... Haa, life is so damn unfair."
Maeng Yeon's PTSD-like reaction likely stemmed mostly from the regeneration.
Just as her PTSD-fueled tirade wound down and she began pulling away from Baek Hyun,
"If your private chat is over, it's time we discuss matters between the 'Starpoint Sect' and the 'Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.' I know your bond is tight... but those are separate issues."
The massive problem they'd momentarily forgotten hit them, freezing both possessors' faces.
Now, it was time to mend the disastrously fractured ties between the two factions.