"Huff!"
Ying Ji took a deep breath. He had originally thought that ruling over all realms would be his lifelong pursuit, but now it seemed far from simple. It was truly a long and arduous journey!
"System, how exactly do I cultivate the Eternal Emperor Scripture?"
"Your Highness, the realms before the first stage of the Eternal Emperor Scripture are the same as the two martial cultivation manuals you drew—the Tiger Demon Bone Tempering Fist and the Bull Demon Strength Fist—both belonging to the Acupoint-Refining Human Immortal martial system."
"And the Eternal Emperor Scripture has more functions than that. The most important element in cultivating it is to become the lord of a force and use qi fortune to cultivate, accelerating your cultivation speed. As the crown prince of Qin, you already have this foundation."
"Qin was the first unified dynasty in Chinese history, so it naturally possesses profound qi fortune. As the crown prince of Qin, you yourself also have a quite strong qi fortune."
"Although your position as crown prince has been deposed, you still retain a trace of the dynasty's qi fortune. If you cultivate the Eternal Emperor Scripture now, you should achieve some results!"
The System spoke in Ying Ji's mind. Upon hearing this, Ying Ji's heart leaped with joy. He knew the System was right—As the former crown prince of Qin, he had originally held at least forty percent of Qin's qi fortune. Even though he was deposed, his qi fortune was still far beyond that of ordinary people.
Without hesitation, Ying Ji sat cross-legged and began to circulate the general outline of the Eternal Emperor Scripture.
"The four poles of heaven and earth, the six harmonies and eight wastelands, the sun, moon and stars, the primordial universe, all realms and myriad worlds. The emperor dominates, the imperial emperor suppresses all existences, commands all races under heaven, suppresses all realms, establishes a dynasty, gathers the qi fortune of the world into one, transforms it into a qi fortune golden dragon to protect the dynasty, washes away karmic obstacles with supreme qi fortune, and blesses oneself with the dynasty's qi fortune. As long as the dynasty endures, one shall not perish; as long as one endures, the dynasty shall not perish. This is the first stage of the Eternal Emperor Scripture!"
Ying Ji slowly circulated the general outline of his cultivation manual. As he did so, unexpected changes began to occur in his body.
Golden threads gradually appeared above Ying Ji's head, circling around his body—something even Ying Ji himself did not notice. Qi fortune was inherently the most unpredictable existence in the dark.
Even many advanced cultivation worlds did not understand the role of qi fortune, or even whether such a legendary thing truly existed.
Even in the Primordial Flood, one of the top worlds in all realms, the sages standing at the pinnacle of all realms plotted countless struggles for qi fortune. Even all realms were like this—for the sake of seizing qi fortune, they could trigger bloody storms, even wars that swept across all realms.
Yet even in these constant struggles for qi fortune among sages, they never truly understood its real role. With their vision, they could naturally see that qi fortune had more uses, but they could never figure out its ultimate purpose.
As long as one had enough qi fortune, even if they were stained with boundless karma, they could turn misfortune into blessings and survive dangers. Even heaven itself could not arbitrarily interfere with such existences—one could imagine the importance of qi fortune!
As the deposed crown prince of Qin, Ying Ji's qi fortune was much less than before, but it was still hundreds of times that of an ordinary person. After all, the qi fortune of a dynasty was extremely vast.
Moreover, Qin was the strongest among the Seven Warring States. Although the qi fortune above Ying Ji's head seemed scattered, it was extremely pure—every wisp of qi fortune was extremely rich and profound.
As these golden, pure strands of qi fortune gradually gathered into a small golden light ball above Ying Ji's head, it directly merged into his head as he continued to circulate the Eternal Emperor Scripture.
The moment the golden light ball entered his body, Ying Ji immediately felt a warm, comfortable sensation spreading all over his body. As he circulated the manual, this warm feeling gradually flowed through his limbs and bones.
"Ah!"
Ying Ji couldn't help but let out a comfortable moan. The feeling was incredible—he wanted to indulge in cultivation forever. Fortunately, time in the outside world was still, otherwise he would have made a complete fool of himself.
As the warm feeling in his limbs and bones deepened, Ying Ji felt an indescribable change in his body. He even felt his muscles contracting continuously, eventually forming a streamlined figure that would be considered perfect even thousands of years later!
Black dirt and grease were constantly excreted from his body, and sweat poured out, forming a small stream at his feet. White smoke curled from his head from time to time. Ying Ji now felt his strength had soared—he even felt he could punch a cow to death with one blow.
In fact, his feeling was correct. Just now, Ying Ji had stepped into the Flesh Tempering Martial Student realm. With an ordinary cultivation manual, reaching the early stage of Flesh Tempering would give one at most one or two hundred jin of strength.
But the Eternal Emperor Scripture was truly a top-tier manual in all realms even in its first three stages—how could it be treated lightly?
From Ying Ji's own perception, he had at least a thousand jin of strength in the early stage of Flesh Tempering—ten times the combat power of an ordinary cultivation manual! The System also told him that the Eternal Emperor Scripture was definitely not just a simple tenfold increase in combat power!
Every breakthrough in realm would double his combat power, and there were many wonderful secrets. However, Ying Ji's current cultivation realm was extremely low, so he could not sense these secrets yet.
Only when he cultivated to a very high level would he discover the true wonders of the Eternal Emperor Scripture. He even felt he could fight ten Shadow Secret Guards or ten Luo Wang members—Ying Ji could now be considered to have achieved initial success in martial arts.
"Ding! Host, please do not get complacent!"
"Uh..."
Hearing the System's seemingly mocking tone, Ying Ji did not feel annoyed or angry. In his past life, Ying Ji had a deep mind, already reaching the state of remaining calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before him. If he did not have such perseverance, how could he hold his ground? Moreover, the future he had set for himself was to rule over all realms—deep scheming and unshakable calm were extremely important!
"Ding! Your Highness, although your current strength is second only to Zhao Gao and Zhang Han, and your own strength is indeed surpassing the ordinary members of the Shadow Secret Guards and Luo Wang, your actual combat experience is extremely lacking."
"What are the Shadow Secret Guards and Luo Wang members? They are the two sharp claws of Emperor Ying Zheng. To say each of them is a battle-hardened elite is an understatement. Every member of the Shadow Secret Guards and Luo Wang has fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. With your current strength, not to mention fighting ten at once—you might not even be able to defeat two!"
Ying Ji fell silent upon hearing the System's mockery. Indeed, the System was telling the truth. He was now like a brute—possessing great strength but not knowing how to use it, and having no experience in battlefield killings. His actual combat experience was extremely scarce.
"It seems I need to find an opportunity to slowly improve my actual combat ability!"
Ying Ji set a goal for himself in his heart, then withdrew his mind from the System. The moment he left, time in the outside world resumed its normal flow.
"What? Ji, why are you so dirty? Let Mother take a look!"
When Mi Yue saw Ying Ji covered in black, disgusting grease, she did not show any disgust—after all, he was her own son.
"It's okay, Mother. I'm fine, don't worry about me!"
Looking at Mi Yue's worried face, Ying Ji's heart warmed. As an orphan in his past life, he finally felt the greatest love in the world in this life. Even with his deep mind, he couldn't help but feel warm inside!
But it was different in Zhao Gao and Zhang Han's eyes. With their cultivation at the Bone Tempering Grandmaster realm, three great realms higher than Ying Ji's, they could naturally see the changes in his body: his muscles were tense, his strength was fully attached to his muscles, and a random punch could exert hundreds of jin of force—clear signs that he had stepped into the early stage of Flesh Tempering.
This was what shocked them. They had not felt anything amiss just now, yet in an instant, His Royal Highness had broken through to the Flesh Tempering realm. Although he was just a rookie in martial arts cultivation, with such talent, his future was absolutely unlimited!
Name: Ying Ji
Physical State: Healthy
Age: 17
Cultivation: Early Flesh Tempering
Talent: Spirit Rank (Talent Ranks: Mortal, Spirit, Small Thousand, Middle Thousand, Great Thousand, Legendary, Immortal, Divine Demon, Chaos, Eternal!)
Lifespan: 120 Years
Innate Divine Ability: None
Status: Deposed Crown Prince of Qin
National Fortune: Hundred-Year Dynasty
Realm Gate: None
Bloodline: Pure Human Bloodline
Physique: None
Weapons: None
Combat Arts: None
Cultivation Manual: Eternal Emperor Scripture
Companion: None
Pet: None
Merit Points: 990
Looking at the changes in his personal panel, Ying Ji was very satisfied. He was finally no longer an ordinary mortal. With his strength exceeding a thousand jin, after gaining enough combat experience, he could even fight Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu, to a draw. He was especially satisfied with the change in lifespan—a full 120 years!