The screen appeared before my eyes.
[ Physique Changing Card - Activation alert
-Detected Severe bodily restructuring
-High pain tolerance required
Energy Requirement: Spirit Stones ×1000
Warning:
Once activated, the process cannot be interrupted.
Confirm?
[YES] / [NO] ]
-------
I stared at the notification for a long moment. One thousand spirit stones...
With a thought, I opened my inventory. One thousand spirit stones materialized around me in an instant, falling softly onto the wooden floor and forming a loose circle that glowed with pale, ethereal light.
The room brightened immediately, as if a second moon had descended into my small chamber. The moment the stones appeared, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.
Spiritual energy poured from them in visible waves, transforming the air into a misty fog that swirled and danced. Each breath I took felt heavy, saturated with spiritual power, making my skin tingle with anticipation.
I didn't hesitate and clicked. "Yes.", but the moment it did, everything changed.
--------
Outside, the world convulsed. Dark clouds surged across the sky, covering the entire prefecture Shen yuan was living in, as if summoned by an invisible, wrathful hand.
Within moments, the stars in the night sky vanished completely. The moon disappeared behind a wall of churning blackness, and wind howled across the fields, bending crops low and rattling doors throughout the village.
The air itself felt heavy, oppressive, suffocating, as if something vast and terrible had descended upon the land.
Thunder rolled, deep and distant, yet filled with warning that made mortals tremble in their beds.
Far beyond the village, across the entire prefecture, cultivators felt it. In the smaller sects scattered through the valleys, alarm bells rang with urgent intensity.
In the larger sects perched on distant mountains, elders rose abruptly from meditation, their eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
"What's happening?" "Heavenly pressure! No, this abnormal phenomenon!" "Deploy defensive formations! Seal the mountain gates immediately!" "Send disciples to investigate the source!"
Envoys were dispatched in haste. Spies began gathering information from every corner, seeking answers that no one could provide.
Several ancient cultivators, hidden in seclusion for decades, woke from their deep meditation. They attempted divination, seeking the source of the disturbance with their profound cultivation.
But the moment their divination touched the unknown source covered in haziness, they were backlashed violently. Blood sprayed from their mouths in crimson arcs.
One collapsed entirely, unconscious before he hit the floor. Another clutched his chest, breathing raggedly, face twisted in pain and terror.
"Impossible," one of them whispered, his face pale as death. "Heaven's Will itself… is shielding it."
Black clouds churned endlessly above, swallowing the heavens whole, as if the world itself held its breath.
Inside Shen Yuan's house, Mo Ling woke with a frightened cry. "Thunder!" Lightning flashed, illuminating the small hall in stark, blinding white.
Mo Fan sat up immediately, wrapping his arms around his trembling sister. "It's okay," he whispered, though his own voice shook. "It's okay, Ling'er. I'm here."
Another thunderclap crashed overhead, closer than before. The house creaked ominously, and Mo Ling buried her face in her brother's chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"ahh...browther mo ling is scared…waahh" "I know. I know."
Grandfather Shen appeared silently in the doorway, his weathered face calm despite the chaos outside. His gaze was fixed, not on the sky, not on the storm, but on the closed door to Shen Yuan's room.
His expression was meaningful, knowing, as if he had seen something like this before.
He walked over and knelt beside the children, placing a gentle hand on Mo Ling's head. "Don't be afraid," he said softly. "It will pass."
Mo Ling clutched his sleeve desperately. "Grandpa… why is the sky so angry?"
The old man stroked her hair with slow, patient movements. "Sometimes," he replied quietly, "the heavens don't like it when people try to change their fate."
Mo Fan looked up, his young face confused. "Change their fate? Who would…"
Grandfather Shen smiled faintly, his eyes distant. "Someone brave. Or perhaps someone foolish." He glanced toward the closed door again. "Or perhaps both."
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Inside the room, I felt none of the chaos outside. Pain exploded through me like a detonation, overwhelming every sense.
The instant I confirmed the activation, the card flashed brilliantly in the air. It began to rotate, faster and faster, filling my vision with radiant, blinding light.
Then, without warning, it shattered. The fragments dissolved into streams of golden energy that rushed forward like living serpents, wrapping around my body and coiling tightly.
I gritted my teeth so hard I tasted blood. Heat flooded through me, no, not heat but molten fire, searing and relentless, surging into my body like a tidal wave.
It rushed through my meridians with brutal, merciless speed, tearing them open and widening them by sheer, overwhelming force.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sounds echoed from within my body, sharp and unmistakable, as if something deep inside me was breaking and being reforged.
My meridians split apart. Then, in the same instant, they were reforged, stronger, broader, denser than before.
I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth might shatter. My acupoints ignited one after another, blazing with searing heat that felt like stars being born inside my flesh.
My muscles convulsed violently. Fibers shattered and restructured into something purer, something beyond mortal flesh, something that transcended ordinary limits.
My bones vibrated deep within, humming as if struck by an unseen hammer forged in the heavens themselves.
Impurities and waste blood burst from my pores in thick, foul-smelling streams, black and sticky and revolting. My vision blurred, red tinged the edges.
Endure, I commanded myself. Endure or die.
The energy plunged deeper, into my bones, into my marrow, into the very essence of my existence.
Then, something moved inside my robe. My consciousness sharpened despite the agony threatening to drown me.
The seed!
With trembling, unsteady fingers, I reached into my robe and pulled it out. The strange seed I had bought at the market, It was soaked in my blood , was shaking violently.
Cracks spread across its surface, glowing faintly with an otherworldly light. Before I could even examine it properly,
Crack!
The shell split apart completely.
A small sapling emerged, growing rapidly before my eyes. It reached about three inches in height, its form delicate yet impossibly strange.
Two leaves unfurled slowly, their surfaces shimmering faintly. They were etched with patterns that felt wrong, not dangerous wrong, but wrong as in they didn't belong to this world.
The structure defied logic. The leaves reflected light at impossible angles, as if overlapping layers of reality were folded within their fragile form.
I stared at it, mesmerized despite the pain still racking my body. "What… are you?"
The sapling didn't answer. Instead, it shone brightly, bathing the room in ethereal luminescence, then it plunged into my abdomen at terrifying speed.
"What?!" I couldn't react, couldn't even scream. The pain surged again, more violent than before, forcing my consciousness to the very brink of collapse.
The sapling slipped into me as though my body welcomed it, as though it had been waiting for this moment all along. I had no strength to investigate, no strength to resist.
The transformation had reached its peak.
The mysterious energy from all parts of my body converged violently at my dantian.
Everything went still, deathly still. Then, BOOM, the energy exploded inside my dantian, merging with it in a violent fusion.
The dantian boundary began to expand outward, not slowly, not gently, but at a pace that defied all natural laws in cultivation.
1.3 meters. Two meters. Three.
Then I felt slight resistance and boom again the boundary expanded.
Four. Five. Finally, six meters.
The expansion stabilized only when the dantian reached a full six meters in diameter, a vast, impossibly dense space far beyond what any Qi Refining Second Layer cultivator should possess.
My cultivation stabilized at the peak of Qi Refining Second Layer. At the same time, two distinct warmth's bloomed inside me, one deep in my lower abdomen, radiant and comforting, one between my brows, sharp and clear.
The pain finally began to recede like a tide withdrawing from the shore. Clarity returned to my eyes.
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Outside, the entire prefecture descended into chaos. Thunder roared like the heavens themselves were screaming in fury, and wind tore across the village, ripping loose tiles from roofs and overturning carts.
The storm reached its absolute peak, then abruptly, it dissipated. The clouds scattered as if commanded by an invisible force, and the wind calmed instantly.
Silence returned, eerie and oppressive. Cultivators across the prefecture stood frozen, staring at the now-clear sky with expressions of disbelief and fear.
"What… was that?" "It vanished as quickly as it came." "Did anyone locate the source?" "No. Nothing. It's as if the phenomenon never existed."
In the darker corners of the larger sects, old monsters opened their eyes slowly. Their gazes were sharp, calculating, filled with ancient wisdom and suspicion.
"Something has changed," one whispered. "The balance has shifted." "Should we investigate?" "No. If Heaven itself shields it, we are not meant to know. For now."
-------
Back in my room, a translucent screen unfolded before my eyes.
[Transformation Completed]
[Congratulations, Host!]
[You have obtained: Physique: Dust-Free Immortal Body]
[Mortal impurities and hidden injuries purged completely Flesh strength greatly enhanced Resistance to toxins, decay, and corruption increased significantly Body naturally repels mundane dirt and spiritual contamination]
[Soul Update:
-Soul Damage Fully Healed
-Dual Soul Integration Completed
-Soul Strengthened and Reinforced
-New Ability Unlocked: Spiritual Sense
Spiritual Root Update:
Five Element Roots: Low Grade => High Grade
Special Note:
Dantian Expansion Efficiency Increased: +3 meters per Qi Refining layer ]
I exhaled slowly, my breath trembling with exhaustion and exhilaration. "So that's it…"
My spiritual roots had jumped from low grade to high grade. That alone was miraculous, a transformation that would make even sect elders jealous.
In the cultivation world, spiritual root quality determined everything. Low grade meant a lifetime of struggle, while high grade meant limitless potential.
But the more number of root one possess, the more harder it will be to cultivate.
Its like best in the worst.
And I had crossed that gap in a single night. But before I could reflect further, pressure surged inside me again, wild and uncontrollable.
A breakthrough. I was about to advance, and my cultivation couldn't be suppressed any longer.
Without hesitation, I summoned another two hundred spirit stones from my inventory. They materialized around me, forming a second circle of glowing power.
I sat cross-legged and began absorbing their energy with the Longevity Breathing Technique cultivation. The stones shattered one after another, releasing torrents of pure spiritual energy that flooded into my body like a river breaking through a dam.
Crack! Qi Refining, Third Layer. My dantian expanded violently, six meters becoming nine meters in an instant.
The sensation was overwhelming, intoxicating, like drinking starlight itself. Crack! Qi Refining, Fourth Layer. Nine meters became twelve meters.
My meridians hummed with power, vibrating like taut strings ready to sing.
Crack!
Qi Refining, Fifth Layer. Twelve meters expanded to fifteen meters.
The breakthrough finally stabilized. I opened my eyes slowly, breathing heavily, feeling the immense power coursing through my transformed body.
It was already deep into the night. The room was utterly silent, and my body was covered in hardened scabs of expelled impurities, black and disgusting.
I activated the cleaning function embedded in my robe. The scabs evaporated instantly, leaving my skin smooth and unblemished, glowing faintly with inner vitality.
I stood slowly, testing my new strength. Light, stable, terrifyingly solid.
Fifteen meters. A peak Qi Refining cultivator typically possessed a dantian around nine meters at most, and I had already surpassed that standard by far.
I searched internally for the sapling that had entered my body. Nothing. No trace, no warning, no indication of where it had gone or what it was doing.
Why take stress.
So, I let it go. After all, if the system had deemed it dangerous, it would have warned me, and strangely, I felt fine, better than fine, I felt complete.
An hour later, my body fully stabilized. My mind, however, was utterly exhausted, drained beyond measure despite my strengthened physique.
The torture of transformation had depleted my consciousness to its limits. I lay down on the bed, barely managing to pull a thin blanket over myself.
And then, I slept, deeply and dreamlessly, surrendering to the darkness.
Morning came late, or perhaps I simply slept longer than usual. Sunlight filtered gently through the window, warm and golden, coaxing me back to consciousness.
I woke feeling refreshed, though a faint mental fatigue still lingered at the edges of my awareness like distant thunder.
I stood and stretched, feeling the incredible changes in my body immediately. Every movement felt lighter, smoother, more precise, as if I had shed invisible chains.
My muscles responded instantly to my thoughts. My breathing was deeper, more efficient, drawing in spiritual energy with every inhalation.
Even my vision seemed sharper, clearer, able to distinguish details I had never noticed before.
I cleaned myself thoroughly with the help of my robe's enchantment, then activated its concealing effect with a thought.
In an instant, my overwhelming presence vanished completely. To any observer, I now appeared ordinary, harmless, just another village youth with mediocre talent.
My cultivation fluctuated faintly at Qi Refining First Layer. Even spiritual senses would find nothing unusual, sliding past me without catching on anything remarkable.
Perfect concealment, just as the robe was designed to provide. I examined myself in the small bronze mirror hanging on the wall.
I was slightly taller than before, more muscular though not bulky. Lean but robust, like a blade forged through relentless tempering.
My face looked the same, but there was something different in my eyes, a depth that hadn't been there before, a knowing that came from touching something beyond the mortal realm.
Good, I thought. This will do. I dressed carefully, making sure everything appeared normal and unremarkable.
Then, I stepped outside into the morning light.
..._