Ming Ren headed to the forest called the Vagrant Woods, a common spot for spirit beast hunters and anyone willing to brave its dangers. The level of the beasts on the outer perimeter was not high, but deeper fearsome beings made their lair.
Most solo hunters avoided going deep, hunting the weaker creatures as they still provided an excellent meal, skins, and parts to sell. The spirit beasts only formed cores at their Spirit Sea Realm equivalent, when their value and power increased. Hunters feared spirit beasts not only because of their fighting prowess but also because many possessed unconventional means and mysterious skills, increasing their threat, even with limited intelligence.
Ming Ren wanted to rush through at the fastest speed but changed his mind after some thought. To him, the memories of the clan and parents were as fresh as yesterday, but they happened ten years ago. If he rushed to the Jade Clan, what guarantee did he have his mother would be there? What if his mother or the other clan members didn’t leave for another province but stayed hidden?
His mother knew he was at the clan back then, she could have gone back there to look for him. Yun Shufen bringing him to the Cloud Clan would be no secret either.
Ming Ren lacked strength. He had knowledge and experience but low cultivation and his techniques weren’t good enough. How could someone that saw the myriad of mysteries and techniques be satisfied with the current arts of the Bright Clan?
Formidable in the past, declined in the present. He couldn’t decide right away so instead headed to a secret spot. Ming Ren, Bai Xun, and Yun Shufen explored many places before, including this forest. They never ventured deep but found a cave belonging to a senior. It had a nice foundation for cultivation, in an area with good spiritual energy.
He got there, and, as expected, it was still hidden. Monsters avoided the cave, and no one used it since the last time. The youth sat cross-legged and circulated Qi inside his body, checking once more the [One Breath Luminescence] law.
Ming Ren shook the head. He would waste too much time building his foundation using this low-grade cultivation law, and the result would be too disappointing.
How did the seniors before him create techniques? Repeating the same move, merging different principles? Learning mysteries of the world and imbuing them into the technique? How did cultivation laws work?
He learned inside the Bright Scripture that cultivation laws were rules. How one should breathe in and out, how to circulate the Qi inside the body, how to wash one’s marrow and clean impurities, and how to strengthen the body to the limit.
Cultivators taught them by spiritual sense, spoken word, writing, or through mystic items such as jade slips or the Bright Scripture. Simpler laws required simple steps, anyone with high enough comprehension could understand a cultivation law written in a common scroll.
Some laws carried an inheritance, transferring mysteries to whoever comprehended the secret. Some required a certain element, bloodline, energy, or principle. Some were born spontaneously, such as spirit beast cultivation, others condensed by powerful beings through the strength of the Rule of Heaven.
The One Breath Luminescence was a low-grade earth rank Body Tempering Realm law in its current form. The Bright Scripture and elders passed it through oral teachings and writings. It contained broad guidelines and not specific ones, so each cultivator would have to adapt to any flaws encountered along the way.
Cultivators had different constitutions and flaws. If the law matched one constitution, cultivation speed soared. If not, it reduced its effectiveness, creating the so-called bottlenecks. Mistakes caused disasters during cultivation, the greatest cultivation law would be tailored according to the constitution. Expert seniors created them after themselves, fitting them perfectly, but not everyone else.
But Ming Ren was different!
He had the experience of a thousand lifetimes.
Even if he couldn’t recall the complete knowledge and realm reached inside the scripture right away, they will eventually merge. He could transform laws to suit his needs.
Ming Ren started by fixing the flaws in the One Breath Luminescence. He roughly divided cultivation law merits into five categories: Qi gathering speed, Qi distribution precision, internal spiritual energy conversion to external spiritual energy, Qi might, and potential of body strengthening. All interlinked and dependent on each other.
Qi gathering speed related to breathing control and the amount of the Qi of Heaven and Earth the cultivator gathered with a breath using the law. Normal gathering techniques were common, advanced ones required the strength of principles, mysteries, elements, bloodlines, or others. The higher the grade and realm of the law, the more Qi it could gather.
Qi distribution precision showed how well the creator of the technique understood anatomy, the meridians, and the flow of Qi. It determined how precise the technique distributed Qi through all channels and organs inside the body.
Higher grade techniques might not fare any better than lower graded ones as this step linked directly to knowledge and not realm. They could tailor this part of the law to suit each different cultivator. Bodies differed from birth because of defects or other situations, like birth injuries, Qi deviation, and hidden dangers.
Internal spiritual energy conversion to external spiritual energy did not appear in Body Tempering Realm laws, only Spirit Sea Realm cultivators and above used external spiritual energy. Because of this, Body Tempering Realm laws were the simplest to learn and master.
Like Qi gathering speed, normal conversion techniques were common, advanced techniques required help from principles or other sources. Ming Ren considered this step one of the most important to cultivators as it determined how fast someone could use Qi and the quality of his spiritual energy.
Some types of energy needed specific forms of conversion, the rarest becoming complex. Supreme powerhouses simplified their cultivation laws so disciples of the lower realms could practice, and most didn’t account for those rare energies. The best law produced energy of great purity and concentration.
Qi might referred to the amount of power the cultivation law generated through the accumulated spiritual energy in the Spirit Sea. The cultivator could transfer the power to a technique or use it as external energy for other reasons. Cultivators also used other means, such as burning life essence, to increase Qi might. Spiritual energy conversion could either amplify or reduce Qi might.
Potential of body strengthening commanded how Qi strengthened the body, how it washed the marrow, cleansed impurities, and enhanced tendons and bones. This was the most important aspect of a cultivation law of the Body Tempering Realm, as the cultivator molded the body into a foundation to reach greater heights. Without a solid foundation and a tyrannical body, one could not become an existence that towered over all others.
Most cultivators of the Lower Realms didn’t know or care about those merits. They judged arts or laws by their rank, and often Qi might.
The One Breath Luminescence art of the Bright Clan was lacking in almost all areas compared to other earth rank laws. Qi gathering speed, Qi might, and body strengthening only reached low-grade, but Qi distribution was peak-grade.
An earth rank law had middle-grade merits, and heaven rank high or peak-grade merits. Only because of Qi distribution it could be considered earth rank. The creator named it One Breath Luminescence because it possessed an innate connection to the True Element of Light. The way Qi flowed through the meridians formed a pathway that increased the element’s power.
Ming Ren first breathed through the technique once. He easily corrected the mistakes on the breathing steps, taking Qi gathering to the perfection grade, which only appeared when the law matched the cultivator one hundred percent, surpassing peak grade.
Next, he circulated Qi inside the body and approved the precision, worthy of peak grade at that tier. He took it one step further, changing it to match his constitution, and turned it into perfect grade Qi distribution.
Ming Ren got up and executed the Bright Fist art. He observed the path Qi took and mapped the best way through the channels, lowering lost energy and reducing consumption. He still hadn’t cleared all the meridians, but the technique itself had no problems. From breathing to distribution and transference to techniques, it was flawless.
The last step consumed the most time. Changing how the law tempered the body meant choosing where spiritual energy focused the most, and how it transformed the affected part.
Ming Ren evenly distributed the flow of Qi to important organs and parts of the body, strengthening them as a whole. This translated into the technique tempering the body to a tyrannical level, but also consuming a lot more energy in return. Even with the improved Qi gathering, it would still take a long time to reinforce the body without a lot of resources.
Ming Ren finished improving the One Breath Luminescence to the best of his current abilities. All merits turned into perfect grades. Sitting cross-legged again, he circulated Qi one more time…
… Reaching frightening speed!
The One Breath Luminescence cultivation law reached the peak of heaven rank, an almost perfect cultivation law. If other cultivators knew Ming Ren used less than half an hour to overhaul an earth rank law into peak heaven rank, would they die of jealousy on the spot?
He experienced more tyrannical cultivation laws in the Bright Scripture, but supreme seniors created those with access to a lot more resources and powers. In the lower realms, together with his Divine Light Dragon Body, he would not be below anyone in the same realm.
The Divine Light Dragon Body received the name for being an innate light element physique that needed an enormous amount of experience and knowledge to activate. True light dragons regarded knowledge and experience as their greatest goal.
Legend says their sacred dragon light could completely remold most being’s bodies. When activated at the greatest level, their power emitted a bright light capable of blinding the Heavens, the same as the Bright Senior in his visions.
Ming Ren had the One Breath Luminescence law with an innate connection to the True Element Of Light, and also a tyrannical light innate physique, all true inheritances of the Bright Clan. Just how domineering was the clan in the Upper Realms at its peak?
Ming Ren cultivated for half an hour before breaking through to the fifth layer of the Body Tempering Realm, something he couldn’t do in four years!