Gu Ningyun's sudden loss of consciousness in the marketplace earlier had not been caused by the wound on her shoulder.
In reality, it was because she had received a cultivation technique transmitted via the divine sense of a female cultivator while still possessing a mortal body.
Unable to process the influx of information all at once, her body had fallen into a coma as a protective instinct.
During the month she spent recovering from her injuries, Gu Ningyun pored over the technique in her mind repeatedly. Recalling the female cultivator’s words, the truth finally dawned on her.
It was no wonder the woman had said that no one without great willpower could learn it.
The 《Wooden Post Body-Forging Manual》 used the term 'wooden post' to mean that one must treat their own body as a post to endure attacks.
Body refining, in this context, meant using the technique as a foundation to convert the spirit energy from those attacks for one's own use.
With that spirit energy, one could temper the body from the skin to the flesh and finally to the meridians.
A cultivator could utilize the specific spirit energy corresponding to their own spirit roots.
Since Gu Ningyun possessed five-element spirit roots, as long as a cultivator of that type attacked her with spirit energy, she could use the manual to refine the energy absorbed into her body.
Even if her low-grade five-element spirit roots were considered trash, it didn't matter.
As long as the attacks were strong enough, she could circulate this body refining technique to borrow that force, aggressively driving the spirit energy into her meridians and dantian to achieve qi induction.
Once she reached qi induction, she could continue to use the force of such attacks to break through the twelve primary meridians one by one.
To practice this technique, being injured would become a way of life.
She thought of the age-old claim that those with five-element spirit roots had no hope of cultivation, and the alchemist's explanation for why such roots were considered trash.
She also considered her observations of Bai Yun and the children under her during the past month.
If someone with low-grade five-element spirit roots tried to achieve qi induction through conventional means, it would likely take more than three years to succeed.
She didn't believe that she could achieve something everyone else failed at for no reason.
There weren't that many miracles in this world.
If she wanted to cultivate, she had to find a different path, one that others had never walked before.
On the first day her injuries were healed and she earned her first spirit stone, Gu Ningyun went to find Bai Yun.
She gave her the low-grade spirit stone and asked Bai Yun to beat her with spirit energy every night.
One low-grade spirit stone for three nights of beatings.
Bai Yun possessed high-grade four-element spirit roots—metal, water, earth, and fire. Unwilling to become a handyman disciple in the Wushuang Sect, she had chosen to become a rogue cultivator and was currently at the first level of Qi Refining.
When she first heard the request, Bai Yun was shocked. she asked bluntly if Gu Ningyun had been beaten stupid when she took those hits for Jin Zhu earlier.
Gu Ningyun told a half-truth, confessing that the female senior who had helped her in the marketplace had given her a body refining technique.
She claimed she didn't want to let the senior down and therefore wanted to give it a try.
A cultivator could only practice one cultivation technique in their lifetime. If they wanted to change it, they would have to cripple their own cultivation and start over from the qi induction stage.
Even then, the body would have been influenced by the previous technique, leading to rejection of the new one and leaving behind hidden dangers.
A cultivation technique was the foundation of one's path. If the foundation was flawed, the journey would never be stable.
Gu Ningyun was honest with Bai Yun for several reasons. First, because of the dangers of switching techniques, it was highly unlikely that Bai Yun would try to steal hers.
Second, a body refining technique that required being beaten might not even interest her.
Third, it was a small play for self-preservation.
By saying she didn't want to disappoint the senior, she was implying that the woman might be keeping an eye on her because of the technique.
It was a subtle way of borrowing momentum.
Although she had looked into Bai Yun’s character, resources were scarce for rogue cultivators, and wealth could tempt anyone.
After hearing Gu Ningyun’s simple confession, a rare look of admiration appeared on Bai Yun’s face.
“I have to practice my spells every day anyway. Bringing you along is no trouble, so there is no need for spirit stones.”
Gu Ningyun insisted on paying, as this would not be a one-day task.
Unable to sway her, Bai Yun eventually accepted.
She also became more serious about the nightly beatings.
And so, Gu Ningyun began her cultivation journey of being beaten daily.
At the start, she could only grit her teeth and endure as Bai Yun suppressed her strength to fire water spirit energy spheres the size of watermelon seeds at her.
Until one day, she suddenly circulated the technique and absorbed her first wisp of water spirit energy.
Gu Ningyun was overjoyed and took the initiative to ask for two spheres.
She progressed from water spirit energy to all four elements—metal, water, fire, and earth. She even spent more spirit stones to ask another child to help beat her with wood spirit energy.
The spirit energy in her dantian increased bit by bit, but the wounds on her body never fully healed.
She had a little of the ointment the senior had given her left. She used it sparingly, only applying a tiny bit when she truly couldn't hold on anymore.
The children she worked with went from being shocked to being amazed, and finally to looking at her with hesitance.
Eventually, Jin Zhu couldn't take it anymore and carefully inspected the various wounds on her body.
Old scars were layered over new ones—burns, cuts, external bruises, and internal injuries...
On such a small body, there wasn't a single unblemished spot, except for her face, which she intentionally kept safe so as not to scare away customers and affect their business.
“Ningyun, cultivation isn't something that happens overnight.
You're only six years old. Why push yourself so hard?”
Gu Ningyun took her hand. “Jin Zhu, you have high-grade five-element spirit roots, so there is still some hope for you.
But for me... this is my only way.”
Unable to persuade her, Jin Zhu could only compromise.
“These injuries were caused by spells. Mortal ointments have no spirit energy and are useless.
There is a mountain outside the city that has a slight amount of spirit energy.
There are low-grade spirit herbs there with short growth periods. They aren't worth much, and most cultivators ignore them, but they should be enough to treat your minor injuries.”
No matter how much she saved the ointment, it would eventually run out.
She had already been looking for a new solution, and Jin Zhu’s words gave her a direction.
Every three days, she paid one spirit stone to Bai Yun or the child with wood spirit roots.
She saved the remaining two spirit stones for a year and bought a yellow-rank low-grade medical book.
From then on, she spent her mornings guiding cultivators, her afternoons outside the city searching for herbs to make medicine, and her nights being beaten.
Her cultivation was finally on the right track.
Another half a year passed. As the five types of spirit energy in her body reached a balance, they finally accumulated into a five-colored gas ball the size of a mung bean.
Achieving qi induction in a year and a half was something even those with mid-grade five-element spirit roots would find difficult to do.
She could no longer see how shocked Bai Yun was.
Mist suddenly swirled around her, and a line of cloud-white characters appeared out of thin air:
【Inner Disciple Promotion Competition · Desperate Situation · Pass】
A distant, ancient voice echoed in the void.
“So you were one of those who reached the top of the Path to Immortality a thousand years ago. No wonder you could exit the Phantom Cloud Mirror so quickly.”
Her mind swayed. When she regained her senses, she found herself in a realm of ethereal mist, standing on the boundary between reality and illusion.
Endless memories flooded back, along with information about the mirror and this assessment.
It turned out that the mirror on the Governing Peak plaza was called the Phantom Cloud Mirror, a companion immortal artifact of the Path to Immortality.
It could capture projections of the Three Thousand Worlds and weave them into illusions.
The countless worlds cultivators experienced within the Phantom Cloud Mirror were all projections of fragments that had once existed within the Three Thousand Worlds.
Unlike unchangeable projections, these illusions were woven by the immortal artifact and existed between the illusory and the real.
The 《Wooden Post Body-Forging Manual》 Gu Ningyun had obtained in the illusion was a body refining technique unique to a certain world.
Just like the other knowledge she had memorized in the illusion, it remained firmly within her mind now.
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