Thinking quickly, Gong Lu, now - hopefully temporarily - named Yishang Tian, immediately started crying. He had decided to do so until he got a name that was at least somewhat similar to his previous name, and Yishang Tian, literally translated as "Above the Heavens", was both extremely different from that name and was extremely domineering. So, what could he do but shed a few baby crocodile tears and hope that his mother took it as a sign that he didn't like the name. Luckily, Gong Lu was not disappointed.
"My Lady, it looks like he doesn't like it. Might I suggest a name change?"
That was the attendant, and Gong Lu silently prayed that she would live a long a happy life.
"Alright Qin Er, since he's so disposed against it, I guess I'll choose a new name. Looking at him, he seems to be especially strong and healthy, so I'll name him Qian Feng."
While it wasn't very close to Gong Lu's previous name, upon thinking it through, he found that he quite liked it. It meant Strong Wind, and he decided to keep silent.
"Alright, milady, it looks like he's accepted that one. Now, you both need rest, so I'll set you to sleep." With that, the attendant exited the room and closed the window, blocking the light of day that was outside.
Normally, Qian Feng wouldn't go to sleep and instead just cultivate, but he was beat. He had been woken up for his birth, and hadn't been permitted to sleep out his full time, resulting in a large wave of fatigue that Qian Feng saw no point in holding back. After all, wouldn't it be strange if he, a newly born baby, did not even sleep after birth?
He woke up to darkness. It seemed that, while he slept, Qian Feng had been moved to a comfortable crib. And that was all well and good, but "comfortable" also meant "no pillow". Which, actually, turned out to be fine and comfortable. Gong Lu - no, Qian Feng had attributed this to body structure, and this sent him down a long road about if he would be raised up incorrectly due to the lack of technology, what would happen if he got severely sick as a baby(although this was unlikely; he had already undergone body tempering), if common health practices from Earth would be done, other things like that. After a few minutes of mental pondering and solo back-and-forth, Qian Feng began his cultivation. He wanted to finish the Legacy of the Immortals body tempering so he could move onto the others with a strong enough body that he would not get wounded or possibly killed by the tempering.
It took Qian Feng a month to finish the seventh stage, strengthening his entire body. Already, Qian Feng presumed he was looking like quite a bulky baby. The eight stage was a godsend, being finished in two months. This one was especially difficult, since Qian Feng was constantly growing, which required almost daily recalibration to his body. Hence, while the eighth level, which increased coordination and control, was possible, it was nonetheless rather difficult. However, the effects of finally mastering it proved extremely handy: thanks to his cultivation, Qian Feng was able to feel and control every inch of his body perfectly. Compared to his previous hapless state, the difference was like night and day. It was simply extremely convenient for Qian Feng.
The ninth stage was the most difficult by far. Taking Qian Feng a total of four months, the extreme difficulty was logical, but nevertheless, inconvenient. When one thought about it, since the ninth level was the permanent assimilation of the traits of the martial spirit into the body, it made sense that the more powerful the martial spirit, the longer the process would take. That didn't mean Qian Feng had to be happy about it, though!
The results were well worth the wait, however, upon completion of the ninth level and official beginning of the Martial Warrior stage, since his bodily strength skyrocketed, almost as much as the power of his Qi, symbolizing his step into the Martial Warrior realm.. QIan Feng didn't want to start that stage, though, until all of his cultivation techniques reached the same point he was currently at with Legacy of the Immortals.
Qian Feng's body had develoepd quickly due to constant cultivation, resulting in him, as an eight-month-old, having the body of a three year old. His mother, the only person he had seen in this long period of time that was essentially cultivating in seclusion, had expressed surprise at this, but nothing more.
As for Qian Feng's surroundings? Well, he had admittedly no idea where he was or what his background was, which was a problem. He had not been let out of the room he was born in, at all. Three times a day, a random person came in to feed him, and once a day, his mother came to talk to him and fawn over him. Thinking positively, at least he had found a difference in the upbringing of young children. Thinking normally, Qian Feng completely detested not knowing his background. He assumed that he would be let out sometime soon, but in the meantime, he could do nothing but cultivate and bide his time.
He also took breaks: times where he would just crawl around, doing baby things. All those milestones of his last life, though - crawling, sitting up, rolling over - meant nothing to him, as a cultivator already far into the world of cultivation.
By far, his least favorite time of the day was when maids came over to wash him. With his already experienced, mature mind, how could he possibly enjoy the experience of middle-aged workers stripping him and... well, the rest was implied.
The language seemed to come easily to him as well, perhaps the benefit of reincarnating. When he heard a sentence, only a bit of puzzling was necessary before he was able to determine the meanings of all their individual words, as well as where each word ended and another began. This certainly wasn't because of either his worldly experience or his cultivation, so Qian Feng could really only attribute this to a free, invisible boon the Karmic system granted him. If that was true, it certainly was convenient!
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Qian Feng recalled the random bloodline he had purchased with his Karmic Merit. It had shown no signs of resurfacing, to the extent that if he did not have a clear memory of purchasing a random bloodline, he would believe that he had none. Now, the question was if that meant it was a powerful bloodline or a weak one. Personally, Qian Feng hoped for the former, just as all his readers did, but expectations were just that. Expectations. Maybe he would be lucky. Maybe he wouldn't.
Qian Lu, oh, sorry, Qian Feng had decided to cultivate the Infinite Force technique next. There was a reason for this.
As a body tempering technique that cultivated mainly defense, Unyielding Bastion's Martial Refiner section was the most violent and forceful of the two, compared to Infinite Force. Infinite Force cultivated the strength and a bit of body toughness, which did require some tyrannical force in the tempering technique, but compared to Unyielding Bastion, the difference was large. And, since Qian Feng did not want to harm himself through overly damaging techinques, Infinite Force was the best technique.
Bracing himself, Qian Feng activated it, trying to softent he technique as much as possible. This would slow the progress, but would not be as risky.
The process began. It was a painful one, but through sensing the condition of his body throughout it, Qian Feng was able to determine that it did not cause any injuries.
Cultivating like this for the whole time, and stopping only to go to the bathroom, eat food, or not attract attention from the maids who arrived, Qian Feng cultivated for six months and finally reached the seventh level. By this time, he was incredibly large for a one-and-a-half year old, as well as extremely strong, fast, and tough. But the best was yet to come.
Three months later, Qian Feng mastered the seventh stage, successfully transforming his body. Four months after that, the eight stage was completed and Qian Feng could control his body fully. He now likely had several hundred kilograms of strength and was the size of a ten year old, with none of the baby fat. Finally, Qian Feng took an unknown amount of time to finish the ninth level and become over twice as strong as an average peak Martial Refiner.
The ninth level was especially remarkable. Having an extremely domineering martial spirit, Qian Feng felt huge effects from the ninth level of the Infinite Force technique and the Legacy of the Immortals technique. Of these, the Legacy of the Immortal was the less noticeable one, since it just raised his regeneration to incredible degrees, something that could only be discovered through being wounded. On the other hand, the Infinite Force techinque assimilated his body with that of the Empyrean Might Titan, drastically increasing his strength. In fact, it was by such a large degree that Qian Feng almost broke his crib the first time he moved.
As for the reason the time was unknown, Qian Feng entered a deep cultivation trance, making incredible progress but losing track of all time and being unable to eat. Luckily, when the maids stopped by, as well as his mother, they just thought he was sleeping, and assumed the abnormal growth was due to some strange bloodline he had inherited. His mother was eager to talk to him about this, but for some unknown reason, she held back.
It was also in this process that the perks of the Legacy of the Immortal really shone. Since the Infinite Force technique attacked his body as he cultivated it, Qian Feng would normally have to spend a long time recovering acter each cultivation session, in order to be at peak condition at every moment of cultivation. For an ordinary person, this recuperation process could take up to ten minutes between each session, a termendous waste of time when it was added up. But, thanks to the insane bodily regeneration rate granted to him by Legacy of the Immortal, Qian Feng barely needed thirty seconds before he was ready to go again.
But putting all that aside, Qian Feng then began the Unyielding Bastion technique. This would be the most painful, as it focused the most heavily on body toughness, but was a crucial part of Qian Feng's cultivation journey.
So, he started up the technique. Having repeated the process two times already, and being extremely smart, Qian Feng was intimately familiar with the body tempering process. What he was not familiar with, however, was the intense pain associated with it.
Having almost passed out the first time from the intense impacts, Qian Feng implemented a strategy to be able to cultivate for longer. He would start slow and relatively weak, but strengthen the power of his cultivation until it was at max. This conditioning significantly raised Qian Feng's pain tolerance and his ability to tolerate impacts. This pain tolerance was originally low, since Earth was a relatively peaceful place, and, with just having the ordinary pains of a human being, Gong Lu had never had to tolerate pain on a high level. Little did Qian Feng know that this pain tolerance would serve him immensely in the future.
Again, Qian Feng's insane regeneration rate served him immensely in his cultivation. With Unyielding Bastion, expecially, he was benefited tremendously, As the most violent of all of his body tempering techinques, in order to toughen the body's defenses, Unyielding Bastion required the most resting time between sessions. However, this time went from what would be fifteen minutes at least to a minute flat. This saved him tons of time.
Thanks to various factors, including his inhuman body purity, natural talent, ingenuity, and previous experience, Qian Feng's cultivation speed was amazing. Dspite having to resort to the method he had picked up with the Infinite Force technique, Qian Feng managed to reach the seventh level in six months, gaining a skin tougher than the high-quality crib he slept in. The seventh level transformed his body for the third time, now gaining a property of insane toughness. The eight level increased Qian Feng's coordination to the point that he could balance on his head while punching and kicking. After all, he had unified his body three times, bringing it to the peak of performance. The ninth level seemed to give Qian Feng's skin not only extreme defense, but also a slight reflective property. As for how useful this would be, time would tell, but Qian Feng thought it safe to assume that it would serve him well.
And so, upon reaching the Martial Warrior stage in all three cultivation echniques, Qian Feng was engrossed in silent, solo celebration, when he heard a knock on the only door in his room, and an old man he had never see before in his life came in.