Pain.
Not the dull ache of beaten flesh. Not the sharp sting of cuts and bruises.
This was something entirely different.
Agony operating on a level that transcended physical injury.
The Meridian Restoration Pill dissolved instantly in Chen Xuan's stomach, releasing its concentrated medicinal energy.
For one merciful second, he felt only warmth spreading through his core.
Then the reconstruction began.
Golden light exploded through what remained of his meridians.
Pathways that had been systematically shattered three years ago.
The pill's energy was like liquid fire.
And it burned.
Gods, how it burned.
Chen Xuan bit down hard on his sleeve, trying to muffle his screams.
The pain was beyond description. Beyond anything he'd experienced in either of his lives.
It felt like his entire internal structure was being torn apart and rebuilt from nothing.
The Eight Extraordinary Meridians came first.
The Du Meridian along his spine erupted in flame.
Chen Xuan arched backward involuntarily as the pathway reconstructed itself from his tailbone to the crown of his head.
Each inch a new torment.
The Ren Meridian down his front followed.
Ice-cold and piercing. The opposite of fire but equally agonizing.
It connected his lower dantian to his throat, and Chen Xuan felt like he was drowning and freezing simultaneously.
The Chong Meridian through his center came next.
Like a pillar of lightning being driven through his core.
His body convulsed. Muscles spasming beyond his control.
Sweat poured down his face in rivers, soaking his clothes.
His hands clenched so hard his nails drew blood from his palms.
But the reconstruction continued relentlessly.
The Dai Meridian wrapped around his waist like bands of crushing pressure.
The Yangqiao and Yinqiao Meridians up his legs—one side burning, one side frozen.
The Yangwei and Yinwei Meridians connecting everything together, weaving the network whole.
'I can't—' Chen Xuan's thought fragmented.
The pain was too much. His consciousness wavered, threatening to flee into the darkness of unconsciousness.
[Warning: Host consciousness fluctuating]
[Recommend: Focus on breathing technique]
[Primal Chaos Sutra contains breathing method for pain management]
The system's words cut through the agony.
Chen Xuan grasped at them desperately.
Knowledge flooded into his mind—a breathing pattern, ancient and profound, designed for cultivators enduring tribulation.
He forced his lungs to follow the rhythm.
In for five counts. Hold for three. Out for seven.
The pattern didn't reduce the pain, but it gave him something to focus on.
An anchor in the storm.
The Twelve Primary Meridians came next.
The Lung Meridian—his chest felt like it was being crushed and expanded simultaneously.
The Large Intestine Meridian—waves of nausea and stabbing pain through his core.
The Stomach Meridian—burning acid and grinding pressure.
Each of the twelve pathways connected to major organs rebuilt itself in sequence.
Heart. Liver. Kidneys. Spleen.
Every vital system experienced its meridian network being reconstructed from destroyed tissue.
Chen Xuan lost track of time.
Minutes? Hours?
The pain was eternal, consuming his entire universe.
His world narrowed to a single focus: survive.
Just survive. Hold on. Don't let go.
The lamp's oil burned lower.
Shadows danced on the stone walls.
Then came the countless minor meridians.
The small channels that allowed spiritual energy to suffuse the entire body. To flow through every finger and toe. To permeate skin and muscle and bone.
Thousands of tiny pathways.
Each one a pinprick of agony.
Chen Xuan's vision blurred.
Tears mixed with sweat on his face. His body trembled violently, exhausted beyond measure but unable to rest while the reconstruction continued.
Finally—finally—the acute pain began to fade.
Replaced by a deep, throbbing ache.
Chen Xuan's eyes snapped open.
He hadn't realized he'd closed them.
His breath came in ragged gasps, his throat raw from muffled screaming.
But he could feel it.
Something impossible. Something miraculous.
Spiritual energy.
The ambient spiritual qi in the air—thin though it was in this depleted chamber—now responded to his will.
It flowed into his newly restored meridians like water finding a dry riverbed.
Circulating naturally. Gathering in his dantian.
His cultivation had returned.
[Ding! Meridian reconstruction complete!]
[All pathways restored to perfect condition!]
[Congratulations! Host's cultivation foundation has been fully restored!]
Chen Xuan tried to stand but his legs wouldn't support him.
He looked down and noticed for the first time that his entire body was covered in a thick layer of black, foul-smelling substance.
Impurities.
The inherited memories identified it immediately.
The Heaven Grade pill hadn't just restored his meridians—it had cleansed his body of toxins accumulated over eighteen years of life.
Poisons from poor food. Pollutants from the environment. Even metabolic waste that normal bodies couldn't fully eliminate.
But that wasn't all.
[Detecting massive excess medicinal energy...]
[Heaven Grade Meridian Restoration Pill far exceeds minimum requirements...]
[Host's body was severely damaged—pill used only 30% of its power for restoration...]
[70% excess energy remaining...]
[Query: Convert excess energy to cultivation advancement?]
[Warning: This will cause rapid breakthrough. Process cannot be stopped once initiated.]
[Recommend: YES]
Chen Xuan didn't hesitate.
'Yes. Do it.'
[Automatic conversion initiated...]
Power surged through his newly restored meridians.
The excess medicinal energy, having nowhere else to go, began forcing its way through his cultivation bottlenecks.
Like a flood breaking through paper walls.
Body Tempering First Layer—the baseline he'd degraded to over three years—shattered instantly.
Second Layer.
His muscles didn't just heal—they strengthened. Fibers compacting and reinforcing themselves.
Third Layer.
His bones hardened. Calcium structures becoming denser, tougher.
Fourth Layer.
His organs vitalized, processing energy with newfound efficiency.
The breakthroughs came one after another.
Each one accompanied by a surge of power that made Chen Xuan gasp.
Fifth Layer.
His skin toughened, developing the first hints of spiritual energy reinforcement.
Sixth Layer.
His blood flow optimized, carrying oxygen and spiritual energy more effectively.
Seventh Layer.
His nervous system refined. Reactions becoming sharper. Senses more acute.
Eighth Layer.
His entire body achieved a new level of integration. Working as a unified whole rather than separate systems.
Ninth Layer!
The final breakthrough hit like a thunderclap.
Chen Xuan's body underwent a fundamental transformation.
Every cell was saturated with spiritual energy. His physical form reached the absolute peak of mortal refinement.
The pinnacle of Body Tempering Realm.
[Cultivation advancement complete!]
[Body Tempering Realm - Ninth Layer (Peak) achieved!]
[Achievement Unlocked: "Phoenix Rebirth"]
[Description: Rise from complete destruction to realm peak in a single day]
[Reward: 2,000 Devouring Points]
[Total DP: 3,000]
Chen Xuan knelt in the center of the formation array, his chest heaving.
The layer of black impurities covered him like a second skin.
But beneath it, he could feel strength unlike anything the original Chen Xuan had ever possessed.
He raised a trembling hand.
On instinct, he threw a punch at the air.
WHOOSH!
The sound of wind being split filled the chamber.
Spiritual energy—visible as a faint shimmer—surrounded his fist.
If that punch had connected with stone, it would have shattered it.
If it had hit a person, it would have been lethal.
This was Body Tempering Ninth Layer.
This was true power.
Chen Xuan stood slowly, testing his balance.
The weakness and pain that had plagued him for three years were gone.
His body moved with fluid grace, responding to his will instantly and precisely.
'System,' he thought, 'show me my updated status.'
[HOST STATUS - UPDATED]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Chen Xuan
Age: 18
Race: Human
Cultivation: Body Tempering Realm - Ninth Layer (Peak)
Bloodline: None Physique:
Mortal Body (Perfected)
Lifespan: 120 years remaining
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ATTRIBUTES]
Strength: 9.0 (Can shatter boulders, lift 1,000 kg)
Agility: 8.5 (Can dodge arrows, move faster than normal eyes track)
Constitution: 9.0 (Bones as hard as iron, immune to common diseases)
Spiritual Power: 2.0 (Basic spiritual energy manipulation) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The transformation was complete.
From 0.8 strength to 9.0. From being weaker than an average mortal to being able to fight a dozen normal men without breaking a sweat.
But Chen Xuan knew he couldn't reveal this power.
Not yet.
If the Ye Family learned he'd somehow restored his meridians and jumped nine cultivation layers in a single day, they'd strike immediately.
Ye Tianlong would return with his Absolute Yin Palace backing, and they'd eliminate Chen Xuan before he could grow stronger.
He needed time.
Time to consolidate his foundation. To learn techniques. To build real power that couldn't be easily crushed.
'System, do you have any techniques for concealing cultivation?'
[Searching shop database...]
Several options appeared, but one stood out:
[Breath Concealing Art (Spirit Grade - Mid)]
Cost: 500 DP Description: Allows user to suppress cultivation aura and appear weaker than actual level
Effect: Can lower displayed cultivation by up to one major realm Essential for: Any cultivator who wishes to hide their true strength
'Purchase it,' Chen Xuan decided immediately.
[Purchase confirmed!]
[Breath Concealing Art acquired!]
[500 DP deducted]
[Remaining DP: 2,500]
Knowledge flowed into his mind.
Circulation patterns for suppressing his spiritual energy signature.
Chen Xuan immediately put the technique into practice.
His aura, which had been radiating at Body Tempering Ninth Layer, suddenly compressed and suppressed.
The pressure filling the chamber vanished.
To any observer with spiritual sense, he would now appear to be at Body Tempering First Layer.
Barely recovered. Still essentially crippled.
Perfect.
But he still needed to deal with the impurities covering his body.
The black substance was unmistakable evidence of a body cleansing. Something that only happened during major breakthroughs or when consuming powerful pills.
Chen Xuan looked at the depleted formation array beneath him.
An idea struck him.
He reached into his newly accessible inventory and retrieved five low-grade spirit stones.
The stones materialized in his hand.
Each one a translucent crystal about the size of a coin, glowing faintly with contained spiritual energy.
He placed them at key intersection points in the formation array.
The effect was immediate.
The ancient runes began to glow with pale blue light. Spiritual energy surging through channels that hadn't carried power in decades.
The formation flickered to life.
Its original purpose reasserting itself—gathering and concentrating ambient spiritual qi.
Chen Xuan could feel the difference instantly.
The spiritual energy density in the chamber increased dramatically.
He had to work quickly.
The formation would attract attention if left running too long. Anyone with spiritual sense in the nearby area would feel the sudden concentration of power.
Using the concentrated spiritual qi and the Primal Chaos Sutra's basic techniques, Chen Xuan performed a simple cleansing.
He gathered spiritual energy in his hands.
Shaped it with his will.
And converted it to pure water through basic transmutation.
The water formed as a floating sphere, which he directed to wash over his body.
The black impurities dissolved instantly, flowing into cracks in the stone floor and disappearing.
His torn and bloodied robes received similar treatment, though they remained damaged.
That would actually help his cover story.
Five minutes later, Chen Xuan deactivated the formation and retrieved the spirit stones.
They'd lost perhaps 10% of their stored energy—a small price to pay.
He examined himself in the lamp's dim light.
The bruises from yesterday's beating had faded significantly but weren't completely gone.
The scars from Ye Tianlong's three-year-old attack remained visible.
The Meridian Restoration Pill had fixed internal damage but left external marks.
Good.
Those scars would help maintain his disguise as a recovering cripple.
Chen Xuan extinguished the lamp and ascended the stairs.
His movements now fluid and confident despite his attempt to appear weak.
Dawn light greeted him as he emerged from the storage building.
The compound was beginning to stir—he could hear movement from the servants' quarters.
He'd been in the cultivation chamber for nearly eight hours.
The sun was fully risen now, painting the shabby courtyard in warm morning light.
"Young Master?!"
Chen Xuan turned to see Liu Mei standing frozen in the doorway of the main building.
Her eyes wide with shock.
Time to put his act to the test.