Gong Lu now had around four months left in the womb and was able do nothing but cultivate.
He had decided to cultivate his Infinite Force technique the whole time, because the Force affinity was the one that Gong Lu would mostly be using. Then, he could spend time in the real world to work on his other affinities.
The next step, after creating the Qi form, was to refine the body. starting this step would bring Gong Lu to the Martial Refiner realm, in which the body was purified and refined.
Different cultivation techniques contained different methods to do so. These methods were classified into four groups.
Infusion was the weakest. Methods of this group simply multiplied the body cells while infusing them with Qi. This was the fastest and least painful group.
Expulsion was the second weakest. This group focused on getting rid of the impurities within the body and infusing the cells with Qi. The methods of this group were somewhat painful and inconvenient(and the impurities smelled horrible), but had better results than Infusion.
The next was Transformation. These cultivation methods strengthened the body by rebirthing them using Qi. This was quite painful, but had very good results.
The final method was Tempering. This used incredibly painful methods to accomplish all of the things that the other groups did, but better with more noticeable increases. While an Expulsion method might increase strength by a factor of 6, a Tempering method increased it by a factor of 15.
The method that Infinite Force detailed, of course, belonged to the Tempering category.
And within this category, Infinite Force easily placed at the top. That meant that it would have the best results, but also be the most painful. By far.
But Gong Lu was okay with that. After all, he had spent decades training it was inevitable that he got experienced pain - the point of training was to break down your muscles and rebuild them, after all. Gong Lu also had a naturally high pain tolerance, one that many had labeled as 'unusual'.
Upon examining the method Infinite Force detailed for Body Tempering, Gong Lu quickly saw a problem.
He would not be able to do it within the womb.
First off, just the part of impurities being extracted and expulsed was problematic. Gong Lu's method did this by a combination of external force on the body, infusion and transformation of the cells with Force Qi, and internal manipulation of the meridians and acupuncture points in order to create an extremely effective method of body tempering.
It was within the "external force" part that lied the problem. If he actually employed the method that Infinite Force detailed, then Gong Lu's mother would be unexpectedly attacked by Force formed hammers, halberds, spears, axes, and various other weapons. If his mother did not have experience cultivating, she, and by relation, he would most likely die. Fun!
So, what was Gong Lu to do? He had a surplus of time remaining, and was at the same stage for each affinity, unable to continue because his circumstances did not allow for the methods his cultivation techniques detailed. So... he could practice Qi control, but Gong Lu did not want to impose that boredom on him or the readers. Wait, the readers? Where did that come from?
Anyways, there was a way out of the situation he was in, an extremely simple way that honestly, Gong Lu was surprised he had not remembered earlier. The Life affinity is an extremely nurturing one, and of courses, even if its body tempering technique is of the Tempering category, it would naturally not pound the body with force. This belief was, thankfully, upheld in Legacy of the Immortal.
While there was indeed outside force, it was unlike the tyrannical pounding of the Infinite Force technique nor the overbearing pressure of the Unyielding Bastion technique. It was more like a gentle force massaging one's entire body, coaxing the impurities out and painlessly strengthening the body. Also, due to the proximity of the massaging Qi, Gong Lu would indeed be able to cultivate it in the womb, and it would not affect his mother at all.
And, when thinking about it further, Gong Lu found it likely that there would be even more benefits. According to most of the xianxia and wuxia novels he had read, the earlier impurities were purged out of the body, and the earlier the perfect body was obtained through cultivation, the better. And from Gong Lu's understanding, purging impurities also developed a resistance against them, and while in the womb, a body was in its purest state, before being contaminated by the outside world. So, if Gong Lu was able to develop a resistance against impurities before coming into contact with the outside world, he would have a drastically reduced amount of impurities within his body.
Of course, Gong Lu would not be completely free of hidden filth within his body, as the very sustenance his mother provided to him via umbilical cord while in the womb was tainted with impurities. He knew this through simply sensing the nutrients and examining them, and Gong Lu truly found it a tragedy. This would not reduce the advantage cultivating in the Legacy of the Immortals would give him, though. Hypothetically, however, if Gong Lu's mother was a peerless expert who had cultivated to a high level, the food would be completely purged of impurities after digestion and Gong Lu would have literally nothing to get rid of. But this was all in the hypothetical.
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It was enough time that he had spent dilly-dallying, and Gong Lu wanted to get right into the heart of the matter. And that was cultivating.
It was quite colmfortable, Gong Lu would say. Very comfortable, in fact.
It matched the Life affinity, he supposed. A type of Qi focused solely on nurturing and healing would naturally not bring pain to the user, no matter what. This was why its attack, defense, and other attributes were so poor.
So, compared to the Force, Fire, Lightning, and other tyrannical affinities, Legacy of the Immortal provides incredible comfort to the person practicing it, all the while making their body purer. Of course, the lack of violent tempering resulted in a shortage in terms of body toughness. The Legacy of the Immortal technique would make the body a sacred palace, body combat-wise, it was not as effective as Infinite Force or Unyielding Bastion. Still, though, it did play in important part in Gong Lu's cultivation, as the impossibly pure body Gong Lu would gain would make separate body-tempering techniques progress exponentially faster, and make it far easier.
The Legacy of the Immortals tempering technique was quite simple. It simply required time, and the cultivation would be completed without any major difficulties. Of course, the area of focus changed based on the location in cultivation that the cultivator was at:
Within the nine levels of the Martial Refiner stage, six of those were geared towards different parts of the body. The first level purified the skin, the second level the muscles, the third level the tendons, the fourth level the bones, the fifth level the blood, and the sixth level the viscera. The final three levels were different. The seventh level used the Qi to transform the whole body, increasing the traits of the entire body to a whole new level. The eight level used the Qi to unify the body, increasing coordination, control, and sensitivity. The ninth level fused the traits of the martial spirit with the body, making the overall quality skyrocket. All Martial-Refiner-stage cultivation techniques did this, though some better than others.
Gong Lu was currently on the skin, and had just begun the first level of the Martial Refiner stage.
It took him nine days before he achieved full completion in the skin, moving on to the muscles. Gong Lu, because he was still in the womb, had no idea on how to check the effects of his cultivation, but knew that they were drastic.
The muscle stage took eleven days, the tendons twelve, the bones fourteen, and the blood seventeen. Before Gong Lu knew it, he only had a few days before the nine-month mark. He already found himself pretty lucky that his mother hadn't given birth early, and didn't want to bank on her giving birth late. So, he estimated he had around ten days left. Could be more, could be less, but Gong Lu had to work as hard as possible in order to finish up the sixth stage in purify his viscera. The final three levels weren't as important, because, while they would be helpful, they wouldn't really purify his body any further, and whether he completed them before or after birth wouldn't affect his potential or ease of cultivation at all, unlike the first three levels.
But to talk about the seventh, eighth, and ninth levels, Gong Lu first had to finish up the sixth. He had just started it, and had, if the previous patterns were to go by, a serious shortage of time, about a week less than necessary. And what did that mean? Ultimate cultivation Gong Lu mode!
Basically, he had been not cultivating laxly, but he wasn't really squeezing every ounce of energy just to progress a bit faster either, when he was cultivating previously. But now, for the sake of his ultimate convenience, Gong Lu had to do so. He simply had to(more like strongly wanted to)!
It was five days, and Gong Lu was barely over halfway done. However, after now sleep for three nights in a row, Gong Lu was exhausted. He knew that if he slept then, he would waste at least a day of time, and that was unacceptable! He had to persevere!
Ordinarily, Gong Lu would be worried about the lack of sleep he was getting in the womb, but as a cultivator, his bodily needs were reduced. While, as an infant, he would need to get at least 16 hours of sleep every day, as a monstrous cultivating infant, that was reduced to 6. Still, though, that was eighteen total hours of sleep Gong Lu needed to catch up on, and oh, how he wanted to! How he wanted to close his eyes and just sleep!
So he did.
Gong Lu woke up to a tremendous pressure around his entire body, and, suspecting what was happening, immediately shut his eyes and tried to ignore where he was right then. Gong Lu started singing an old nursery rhyme, but that made his treacherous mind start thinking about mothers, then birth, then...
So he endured. Gong Lu's mind fleeted from subject to subject, but he managed to keep from thinking about what he was going through right now.
(Author's Note: You might be thinking that since Gong Lu is 104 years old mentally, he should not be disturbed by what was going on at that time, but thinking about giving birth, or being given birth, does not compare to actually going through the process. Sure, I on't know how horrifying it would be, either, but I'm guessing. To those that still have a problem, try to picture that happening as realistically sa possible. Now, stop! You're giving me goosebumps from way over there! Geez...)
After the mental discomfort, came the physical one. Gong Lu immediately felt his whole body being clogged with fluid and tried his best to cough it back up with his strong, cultivated body. He was given help by an outside force, and within minutes, Gong Lu was free of the sticky, thick liquid. He could breathe!
And hear, evidently. People seeming to speak a variation of the Chinese that Gong Lu knew, not the actual version, but quite similar, were discussing him, or it looked like it, at least.
"Milady, the baby seems to be unusually strong! I believe he will turn out to be a great warrior! Congratulations! What shall you name him?"
"I think... Yishang Tian! He shall be a Paragon!"
Gong Lu immediately thought: Oh, this is gonna be annoying...