The beams of red light didn't fade; they slammed into us with the weight of a falling mountain.
The moment the light entered my chest, I didn't feel the collision. I felt pain.
CRACK.
My knees buckled. I hit the frozen ground hard, curling into a ball as a scream died in my throat, strangled by the sheer intensity of the sensation. It wasn't pain in the traditional sense; it was the feeling of being disassembled.
It started in the marrow.
My bones, originally normal but strengthend from the yang release dual cultivation with yue yin, began to vibrate. They heated up, feeling like molten lead had been poured into my skeleton. Then, they fractured. Not a break, but a microscopic disintegration. Millions of micro-fractures opened up in my femurs, my ribs, my skull.
"Ju Yang!" Yue Yin screamed, rushing toward me.
"Stay... back!" I gasped, my voice sounding like grinding gravel.
This was the price.
The un named gu was rewriting my body's dao marks with incredible speed . It was forcing the dao marks of a Ten Extreme Physique—a vessel designed by the heavens to hold infinite strength—into the body of a mortal. Even if it were only fragments it was not something ordinary people could tolerate.
My muscles tore. Every fiber in my biceps and quads snapped, only to be instantly stitched back together by a flood of chaotic, silver-laced energy. The new fibers were denser, darker, woven like steel cables rather than flesh.
My heart stopped beating for seconds. When it restarted, the sound was terrifying—a slow, heavy THUD that shook my entire ribcage.
But i couldn't appreciate the amazing scenery az the pain was going to completely reck my nervous system and soul which i pretty much was sure existed now. It was the pain of evolution something like that must not be forced in seconds that's the first rule of evolution which i broke here cousing this pain.
Then, as quickly as the pain arrived, a cooling sensation washed over me.
I looked at my right hand—the one I had slashed to provide the blood catalyst. The wound was deep, cutting down to the metacarpal bone.
But as I watched, the flesh rippled.
Granulation tissue formed in a blur of motion. Skin knit together. The scar formed and vanished in the span of three heartbeats.
Swish.
My hand was whole. Not just healed, but pristine. The skin was tougher, slightly darker, glowing with a faint, metallic luster.
I clenched my fist.
Clench.
It was amazing the shear amount of strengt i felt was something even the rank 2 wolf strengthgu should not be capable of providing and thats without the usage of gu worms. The pressure created by my grip was enough to create a miniature vacuum boom.
I pushed myself off the ground. I felt heavy. My body density had tripled, I've become taller yet I moved with a fluid, terrifying grace. I looked at the granite boulder next to me—a rock the size of a carriage.
Without using a single drop of primeval essence, I punched it.
BOOM.
The boulder didn't crack. It exploded.
Rock dust rained down on me. I stared at my fist. There was only a little scratch mark left.
"This strength..." I whispered, my golden eyes widening. "This is beyond what she displayed earlier as i didn't use any strength path gu worms till now. This isn't Rank 2 strength."
I looked at the empty stone trough where a million primeval stones had vanished.
A realization hit me like a bucket of ice water.
"A million stones... for a Rank 2 refinement? Impossible. Even a Ten Extreme Physique shouldn't require that much energy to stabilize."
Unless the target changed during the process.
I whipped my head around to look at Hei Ziyu.
She was standing up.
The steam was gone. The purple bruising was gone.
She stood amidst the wreckage of the ravine, her black armor looking too strange for her now. Her presence was suffocating. She had a diffrent air about her , not from heat, but from the density of the aura uncontrollably radiating from her aperture.
She opened her eyes.
They were no longer blazing violet. They were a softer shiny purple, as if a greate pressure has been left aside.
I activated the Unlucky Gambling Eye.
The pillar of luck above her head had transformed. The Black Lightning of imminent death was gone. In its place was a towering, invisible aura not to be outdone by yue yins.
"Rank 3..." I breathed, the words understanding the full reason for the anomalies in the refinement process. "She broke through."
It made perfect sense. The Great Strength True Martial Physique accumulates energy until it explodes. But I had drained the pressure while simultaneously dumping a million stones' worth of pure Heaven and Earth Qi into refinement the aura leaking must have been absorbed by her allowing her smooth breakthrough in that situation.
I hadn't just saved her. I had provided the perfect fuel for her ascension.
The vacuum I created by draining the blockage allowed her aperture to take a breather. The stones had filled the new space instantly.
Hei Ziyu had advanced to Rank 3 Initial Stage her aperture now producing rank 3 white silver primival essence.
That was why the refinement consumed so much wealth. That was why the pain was so excruciating. The gu had to forcibly upgrade itself during the creation process to bind a Rank 3 entity.
I had refined a Rank 3 Gu with a rank 2 cultivation thats an amazing feat in itself.
Hei Ziyu looked at her hands, clenching and unclenching them. The air rippled around her fingers. She looked confused, overwhelmed by the power flowing through her veins—power that was finally under her control.
She turned to me.
The connection thrummed in my chest. It was stronger now, a thick cable binding us together. Because she was Rank 3, the "share" I received was far greater than I anticipated.
I possessed the physical strength of a Rank 3 quasi_Ten Extreme Physique, while only having Rank 2 cultivation level and to top it off he had near zero strength path foundation before.
She took a step toward me. The ground didn't crack; she controlled it perfectly now.
She looked at me—the man who had flayed her, drained her, and then rebuilt her with a fortune that could buy a tribe.
Slowly, the Rank 3 powerhouse dropped to one knee.
"Master," she said. Her voice was no longer a growl. It was a resonant alto, clear and undeniable. "The fire is gone." Showing how much torture she had to endure before,and the Northern plains straight attitude .
strong rule over the weak, that's the rule in every place but sometimes the weak don't understand this rule but in Northern plains everyone knows this and that's how the world turns around?.
Yue Yin, hiding in the shadow of the canyon wall, dropped her dagger. Her mouth hung open.
"Rank 3..." the thief whispered. "We kidnapped a Rank 3 commander of the enemy?"
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, feeling the terrifying power coiling in my own muscles.
"We didn't kidnap an enemy commander, Yue," I said, a cold smile touching my lips.
I walked over to Hei Ziyu and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her armor felt like paper under my new grip.
"We invited a new family member using all the fund we had "
I looked at the sky. The sun was setting, casting long shadows over the Northern Plains.
"Let's go home. My father is going to have a heart attack after all this commotion"