Ye Ling carefully read through the entire scripture. The more she read, the more shocked and delighted she became.
This body-tempering cultivation method gifted to her by the senior item spirit was named the 《True Dragon Unfettered Art》.
Even though it was only a remnant of the first volume, its rank had already reached Profound-grade peak-tier, which was simply unheard of.
The Qinglan Sword Sect had been established for a thousand years, yet its own sect-protecting body-tempering cultivation method was only Profound-grade high-tier.
A single remnant volume already surpassed the thousand-year heritage of the entire sect.
The origin of this cultivation method was also incredibly terrifying. It was created by an ancient, peerless powerhouse who had observed the various behaviors and habits of true dragons.
She had fought life-and-death battles with true dragons numerous times, comprehending the Great Dao from the combat mysteries of their supreme dragon bodies, and ultimately created this art.
The complete cultivation method was divided into upper and lower volumes. Through layer upon layer of tempering, reaching Great Perfection in it would allow one to forge an Undying Dragon Body.
True dragons were one of the top supreme demon races on the Xuantian Continent; a newborn true dragon possessed Wangzuo Realm combat power the moment it was born.
An adult true dragon had a baseline combat power of the Venerable Realm, and the most powerful ones could even rival the Emperor Realm!
However, the reproduction of the dragon race was difficult, and with the rise of the human race, true dragons had long since gone nearly extinct across the entire continent, making their traces almost impossible to find.
Amidst her wild joy, Ye Ling also harbored some concerns.
The cultivation requirements for such a heaven-defying body-tempering divine art were bound to be extremely harsh.
But after reading through the entire text, she finally breathed a great sigh of relief.
The 《True Dragon Unfettered Art》 followed the natural source path of the true dragon. Cultivating it did not require the assistance of any pills or spiritual medicines, directly saving her the trouble of accumulating rare herbs.
However, the price was equally immense. It relied entirely on spirit stones for cultivation, and the consumption of spirit stones was terrifyingly massive.
The first volume of the cultivation method was divided into six layers. The first layer's physical body would crush ordinary Xiantian Realm martial artists, the second layer's physical body would rival the Xiantian Realm Great Perfection, and the third layer's physical toughness would be comparable to a Tongxuan Realm expert.
However, after reaching Great Perfection in the third layer, if she wanted to break through to the fourth layer, she had to fuse with a drop of true dragon essence blood.
But now, when even the traces of true dragons were impossible to find, how could she possibly obtain their essence blood?
In all likelihood, she would be stopped at the third layer for the rest of her life.
Nevertheless, being able to forge a Tongxuan-level physical body while in the Xiantian Realm was already an immense opportunity.
She calmed her mind and took stock of her resources.
When she first entered the sect, the Sect Master and the various Peak Masters had gifted her a total of 18,500 low-grade spirit stones.
She had previously taken out 2,000 stones to give to her parents, leaving 16,500 in reserve.
Combined with the fixed monthly allowance of 1,000 spirit stones for the Tenth True Disciple, she had accumulated over 10,000 stones over the past year, though she had not yet collected them.
Summing the two up, she held over 26,000 low-grade spirit stones, which should be more than enough to support her in reaching the Entry Level of the first layer.
With her mind made up, Ye Ling raised her hand and channeled her storage bag. Countless lustrous white spirit stones flew out, piling up into a mountain of spirit stones inside the bamboo house.
Spiritual light soared into the sky, and the spiritual energy in the room condensed into substance, turning into thick, milky-white spiritual currents that drifted about. The spiritual energy in the entire cabin was so dense it was nearly liquefied.
Ye Ling sat cross-legged on the futon, closed her eyes, focused her mind, and guided the spiritual energy into her body according to the first layer's mental cultivation method, cleansing her meridians and forging her bones.
A massive amount of spiritual energy surged into her body, circulating along her meridians in complete cycles, washing over her flesh, tendons, and bones again and again.
The blood and qi throughout her body surged rapidly, boiling hot like a rushing river, and the subtle, crisp sounds of bone-tempering echoed from deep within her muscles from time to time.
The turbid qi of her mortal body was forced out layer by layer, and her skin was gradually coated in a warm, lustrous white glow.
However, this ancient dragon art was far too profound, its principles incredibly obscure, far surpassing the ordinary body-tempering methods of the world.
Even though Ye Ling possessed Heaven Rewards Diligence and her comprehension topped the entire Qingyun Kingdom, she still could not achieve success overnight.
Time flew by. For a whole month, Ye Ling did not step outside. Day and night, she sat on the futon, tirelessly running the first layer's mental cultivation method without sleep or rest.
The mountain of over 16,000 spirit stones was frantically drained of spiritual energy day after day by the True Dragon body-tempering cultivation method.
The consumption of this cultivation method was far more terrifying than she had anticipated. When cultivating ordinary body-tempering methods, only thirty percent of the spirit stones would be consumed to reach Great Perfection.
But the 《True Dragon Unfettered Art》 was domineering to the extreme. Every single spirit stone was squeezed dry of all its spiritual rhythm until it turned into ash-white powder.
Day after day, the massive quantity of spirit stones was rapidly consumed.
The piled-up mountain of spirit stones slowly grew shorter and thinner, eventually turning entirely into rustling ash that covered the floor of the bamboo house.
Over 16,000 low-grade spirit stones were completely depleted, with not a single one left.
Exhausting all her resources and spending a full month of hard work, Ye Ling finally planted a wisp of pure True Dragon Dao Seed within her dantian and flesh, stepping into the first layer.
The moment the last wisp of spiritual energy entered her body and the cycle reached Great Perfection, Ye Ling's entire body shook violently.
A searing surge of blood and qi erupted from her dantian, flowing endlessly through her limbs and bones.
She could clearly feel every inch of flesh in her body vibrating violently. Fine power was filling, tightening, and reinforcing the gaps between her bones, as if she were being reforged from the inside out.
Beneath her skin, her muscles became dense and tight, and her tendons stretched, extended, and then rapidly contracted.
A faint blue-gold luster emerged on the surface of her skin, as if she were covered in a layer of scales that was nearly invisible to the naked eye, sinking deep into her muscles in an instant.
She could hear the sound of her blood flowing—dull and powerful, like an underground river rushing.
The silent flesh, tendons, and bones within her body had undergone a complete, thorough transformation.
The blood and qi throughout her body were like the flowing water of a dragon's abyss—steady and heavy, carrying the wild, domineering, and indestructible blood charm of a dragon's body.
Her bones and muscles were dense and solid, her flesh was flexible and refined, and the turbid impurities of her mortal body were completely washed away.
She clenched her fists, and her knuckles let out a series of crisp, dense cracks. The sound was much deeper and more solid than before, like two pieces of iron colliding.
Slowly opening her eyes, a very faint golden-patterned dragon light flashed deep within her gaze, vanishing in an instant.
She stood up in the room and looked down at her arm.
On the surface, it looked no different from before, still fair and slender, but she knew that the texture of her flesh had completely changed.
She tapped her forearm with her knuckles, producing a dull thudding sound like knocking on thick ironwood, the echo short and solid.
To precisely verify the strength of her physical body, Ye Ling raised her hand to grip her sword. Condensing a tiny amount of Xiantian spiritual energy onto the edge of the blade, she slashed it straight down toward the skin of her arm.
Clang!
A crisp, ear-piercing sound of clashing metal echoed throughout the bamboo house.
When the blade struck her arm, instead of cutting her skin in the slightest, it felt as if it had struck thousand-year-old steel.
Tiny sparks flew, and the blade vibrated slightly as it bounced back.
The skin on her arm was as smooth as before, without even a single white mark left behind.
A look of joy flashed deep in Ye Ling's eyes. The True Dragon Unfettered Art was indeed incomparably domineering.
Having only trained to the first layer, the toughness of her physical body at this moment already completely crushed ordinary early-stage and mid-stage Xiantian Realm martial artists.
Even if she clashed head-on with the physical body of a late-stage Xiantian Realm cultivator, she would not be at a disadvantage at all, and might even have the upper hand.
With a cultivation that had only just entered the Xiantian Realm, relying solely on the first layer of the dragon body, she could suppress her peers across several minor realms.
If the outside world were to find out, they would surely be shocked out of their wits.
She gently sheathed her sword, her fingertips brushing against her arm, which was as hard as steel.
Although this cultivation session had depleted all her spirit stones and reduced her resources to zero, the physical strength of this layer of the dragon body was absolutely worth the price.
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