The remaining passengers quickly lined up and started entering the ship again, returning to their quarters. They were not mad at Tobyn for not storing the rest of them away inside his interspatial ring alongside the crew and the cargo, after all, they were just passengers who had paid to hitch a ride, Tobyn owed them nothing.
As they entered the ship, they failed to notice a few scrutinizing gazes sweep through the crowd of people. Some of the gazes came from the other passengers, landing on people they felt had shown surprising power in the previous battle.
But two of the gazes came from Saraya and Tobyn. Saraya's gaze landed on Yao Jun, amazed at how much power he had shown for someone so young, he was even younger than her! Tobyn's gaze on the other hand simply swept through the entire crowd a few times, carefully examining everyone. He had felt the might of the sealing array that Garin had sent out, there was no way it would suddenly loosen like that.
That could only mean that there was someone amongst the passengers that had been able to loosen it, even able to do so without either him or Garin noticing. And for someone to be able to do that, there were only two explanations Tobyn could think of, the person either had higher cultivation than them or cultivated a mighty law. Sadly, he had been completely focused on Saraya's battle, so he had not seen any of the laws Yao Jun used. Because of that, his eyes only stopped on Yao Jun for a short second before continuing their examination of the other passengers.
Everyone quickly boarded the ship, allowing it to continue on its journey toward the Earthen Peak planet. They had already driven off the worst bandit group in the area, so there was nothing else for them to worry about on the journey, allowing the passengers to enjoy the last days of the ride in peace and quiet.
Yao Jun let Little Gray and the others out of the gate again once they boarded the ship, allowing them to once again roam around freely. While they were doing so, he returned to his quarters to study the book on body cultivation, as well as continue working out the finer details of the attack he had come up with during the battle against Barda.
Yao Jun could strengthen his body through absorbing Demonic beasts and other training methods, but that was only strengthening his body. If he actually cultivated his body, not only would it grow stronger, it would give him greatly strengthened regenerative power. Mixing that with his strong laws, it was like adding wings onto a tiger.
Yao Jun was hoping that the Heaven's Secrets Company had the information that he was looking for, but he was also preparing for the possibility that it didn't. The grand competition where he could get the medicine needed to heal Guo Luo's eye was only a little over two years away, time which could easily pass in the blink of an eye, so he had to raise his strength as quickly as possible.
Even if he managed to get his hands on the information he needed and was lucky enough to be able to buy the needed medicine, he still had to raise his strength as much as possible. Qiao Xian Yi and Yuan Shen were most likely still alive somewhere, and they still had someone above them, someone who wanted Yao Jun and Guo Luo dead. As long as that mysterious person still lived, Yao Jun and his close ones were never safe.
The book on the early stages of body cultivation was very thick, but that was mostly because it spent a lot of time explaining the pros and cons of body cultivation, as well as detailing the various resources one needed to cultivate one's body.
Just using Qi wasn't enough to cultivate the body, nor was it enough to use just physical training. One had to use a mixture of Qi, physical training, as well as resources, mostly Demonic beast blood or herbs of specific elements.
The book Yao Jun had only detailed up to the Boulder Crusher realm, the stage that corresponded to the 9th Xiantian Heaven. Yao Jun's body was already stronger than this, but he still chose to follow the cultivation manual, aiming for a perfect foundation to prevent any mistakes in the future.
Yao Jun was quite lacking in the needed herbs, as he had fed most of his non-medicinal herbs to Ba-Shei and the others so that they could strengthen themselves. But if there was one thing he was not lacking, it was the blood of Demonic beasts. All it took was a quick question, and Zhuyin and the others were more than willing to give him some of their blood.
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While the book only detailed the early stages of body cultivation, it also briefly mentioned what some of the future steps were. In the early stages, one would focus on strengthening their bones and their marrow, as they would have to bear a lot of pressure in the future stages of cultivation. In the process, one would also open 3 of the 361 acupuncture points, as well as carve three new ones.
The next step focused on strengthening the tendons and the muscles, as well as opening more acupuncture points and carving new ones. The next part focused on strengthening the organs, then on the flesh and the skin. The book didn't mention anything beyond this, but it did state that if there came a point where one had opened all 361 acupuncture points, as well as carved 361 new ones, they would reach such a height in body cultivation that they could face Godkings head on.
It did not take long for Yao Jun to memorize the book, so he quickly got to work on following the instructions. He sat down on his bed and crossed his legs, three fist-sized orbs of blood floating out from his interspatial ring, silently circling around him. The three orbs of blood came from Little Thunder, Zhuyin, and Zhuanxu, as their elements were well suited for tempering the body.
He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, slowly gathering the Qi in the surroundings and infusing it into the orbs of blood using a specific pattern. After spending a good bit of time doing this, the three orbs exploded, turning into hair-thin threads of blood that surrounded Yao Jun like a cocoon.
He turned the threads onto his own body, having them pierce through his skin and dig into his bones and joints. Six of the threads contained far more Qi than the rest, as these threads would be the ones responsible for the acupuncture points. Usually, one would do this slowly, one acupuncture point and bone at a time. But since Yao Jun's body was already so strong, and he was a bit pressed for time, he decided to finish it all at once.
The six threads dug into his neck and throat, slowly drilling into his body and forcing the new paths to stay open by flooding them with Qi. Creating and opening acupuncture points was an excruciating process, the pain similar to continuously breaking your bones. But how much pain had Yao Jun already experienced during his cultivation, so there was no way he would stop here.
While the six threads were working on the acupuncture points, the other threads were working on digging into his bones. The threads were like an extreme form of acid, shattering and disintegrating his bones wherever they moved. Body cultivation was the same as shattering one's body and rebuilding it stronger, so this process was necessary. The more thorough he was here, the better it would be for him in the future.
He disintegrated his bones to a state where there wasn't even dust of them left, leaving his entire body without bones. But even then, the third channel of the Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique still remained in place, waiting for a new spine and new ribs to grow and cover them.
With all his bones gone, the only thing that kept his body from falling apart was the Qi within his body, as well as the bloody threads that had disintegrated his bones. 1/9th of the threads suddenly started to grow, turning into new bones that filled Yao Jun's body. Once they were fully formed, he once again disintegrated them using the remaining threads, repeating the process of disintegrating and rebuilding them for a total of nine times.
After repeating the process nine times, his already strong bones had only grown a little stronger, but they had set the foundation for continued future cultivation. As for the six threads that were responsible for his acupuncture points, they required even more time, only halfway finished with their task even after Yao Jun had completed nine cycles of bone disintegration.
They continued to dig into his body, slowly connecting with his veins and the Qi that flowed within them. The acupuncture points wouldn't become new veins that could hold blood, they would become tiny lightning rods that automatically attracted the surrounding Qi, even storing it within them to keep it as emergency reserves if he should need to quickly restore his Qi.
And since there were now also more paths for his Qi to flow, paths that were already filled with Qi, his Qi could move faster through his body, allowing him to somewhat increase the speed at which he could launch certain attacks.
That was the reason that the 361 points clearing pill that Leylan had spoken about was so powerful. It instantly opened all 361 acupuncture points, drastically increasing the speed at which one absorbed and restored Qi. Of course, while the pill opened all the normal acupuncture points, it did not carve new ones, nor did it strengthen the body like body cultivation did.
By the time he had finished the cultivation and reached the Boulder Crusher stage, a month had already passedand the ship was only a day or two away from Earthen Peak planet. Since he had finished his cultivation, and they were so close to his goal, Yao Jun took a quick shower and put on a fresh robe. Now he would just have to check with the Heaven's Secrets Company and then decide how he would proceed after that.