Chapter 143 The Five Elements of Creation, Using the Body
as a Seed
Time flowed forward, and in a blink, four months had passed.
Since Lucian and Carl parted ways, the political landscape of Aragon had grown even more
delicate.
Across the vast land, snow blanketed the mountains and valleys, turning the world into a
monochrome canvas of pure white.
Within the secluded chamber of De Molinos Clan’s treasury in Telles City, Arius slowly opened
his eyes from meditation.
A surge of powerful spiritual essence rippled from his body—he had reached the Peak of Level
1.
Compared to the Late Stage, the difference was stark.
His spiritual power had become far more concentrated, his foundation more robust.
And now—
The next step was to break into the Level 2 Realm.
Reaching Level 2 was both simple and difficult.
If one could successfully condense their spiritual energy, refine it into liquid form, and forge a
Dao Platform, they could step into this new realm.
Once the breakthrough was complete, not only would spiritual power undergo a qualitative
transformation, but one’s lifespan would extend to four or five centuries.
If Arius ignored the stability of his foundation, he could force his way through in just a year or
two, relying on sheer resources.
But to forge a flawless Dao Platform, that was another matter entirely.
A cultivator’s Dao Platform depended on several factors. Innate talent, spiritual foundation, and
the grade of one’s cultivation method all played a role.
Forcing a hasty breakthrough would result in nothing more than a perfect Dao Platform at best.
That was not enough.
Arius’s cultivation method was not an issue.
His Earth-Grade Spirit Root—while not the most outstanding—was decent enough.
The real problem lay in something else entirely—
His cultivation had advanced too fast, leaving his foundation weak.
Especially in terms of his physical body, which remained far too fragile.
For the past hundred years, he had been racing against time.
Before returning to the clan, his poor talent had already made cultivation a slow and grueling
process.
He had barely managed to cultivate even the most basic Qi-refining techniques.
There had never been room to temper his physique.
The Four Stages of Body Tempering—while they did enhance the body, were meant only for
early-stage cultivators.
Compared to true Body Refining cultivators, ordinary Level 2 disciples were as weak as mortals.
Of course— true Body Refining Cultivators were exceedingly rare.
Most of the time, body-refining techniques were only used to strengthen one’s foundation before
switching.
It was not an ideal primary path.
The reason was simple:
The lineage of Body Refining had been severed.
Most high-level body refining arts had been lost or fragmented.
Even if one dedicated their life to the path, there was little hope of immortality.
Furthermore, early-stage Body Refining was painfully slow and required astronomical resources.
Its only advantage was that even mortals without a Spirit Root could cultivate through sheer
strength.
But in the end, this was mostly a fantasy.
Many mortals attempted the Body Refining path, only to waste decades of their lives, unable to
break past the Skin Tempering Stage.
By contrast—
As long as one possessed a Spirit Root, even the most average Qi cultivator could surpass a
hundred Body Refining mortals in mere months.
The gap was immense.
After several more days of stabilizing his realm, Arius halted his cultivation altogether.
He no longer dared to absorb any more spiritual energy—
Any further, and he might accidentally step into Level 2.
That would be disastrous.
If he failed to forge a flawless Dao Platform, it would be a waste of all his efforts.
If he settled for a Flawless Dao Platform, or worse—a Perfect Dao Platform—
It would be a lifetime of regret.
Exiting the chamber, Arius sifted through the treasury, searching for manuals.
Within this treasury, he had collected techniques from the Bloodwolf Hall, the Ashfell Clan, and
various factions.
Most were Body Tempering techniques, but with the Insightful Immortal Mirror, he could
enhance them to higher levels.
Now, he needed a true Body Refining art.
If he was to strengthen his body, he would not aim for a mythical, godlike physique, just far
beyond his peers, enough to support a flawless Dao Platform.
Or perhaps—A Heavenly Dao Platform.
Sweeping his spiritual sense across the shelves, Arius flipped through each scroll, carefully
checking for anything of value.
Among the pile of techniques, he finally uncovered something unexpected—
A collection of over fifty fragmented manuals, all Body Refining techniques.
But—They were all incomplete.
Most of them contained only a few pages.
Some had just half a page left.
Still—Arius picked one up at random, unfurled the ancient parchment, and began reading.
The fragmented Body Refining techniques in the treasury—None of them could be cultivated
directly.
Not only were they incomplete, but some were highly unstable.
Arius’s first step was to filter through them, selecting only those that had potential value and
were compatible with his cultivation.
After that—He would use the Insightful Immortal Mirror to enhance and restore them.
The First Technique: Venom Scripture
“Refine the body through poison. Devour all the toxins in the world, and temper the flesh to rival
Level 5-grade artifacts.”
Downside: Risk of spontaneous death during cultivation.
Arius: “Too risky… Forget it.”
The Second Technique: Blood Sacrifice Grand Art
“Sacrifice one million cultivators daily. Bathe in their fresh blood. Achieve eternal indestructibility
for ten thousand millennia.”
Arius: “Sounds great… except where am I supposed to find a million cultivators every day?”
“Even if I slaughtered all of Mist Province, I wouldn’t have enough just to reach the entry stage!”
“Useless.”
“Seek a geomantic paradise. Bury oneself upright in the earth. Absorb the essence of the sun
and moon. Undergo ninety-nine metamorphoses. When crimson fur grows across the body, the
flesh shall rival the legendary ‘Drought Fiend’.”
Arius: “…No thanks.”
As he flipped through each technique, he found that most were either completely impractical or
borderline lunacy.
The concepts were intriguing, but in actual execution—They were utterly unreliable.
Just as he was about to give up, his fingers brushed against a particular scroll—The title caught
his eye.
《Genesis Five Elements Sutra》
Arius’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
The text was brief, only a few hundred characters, yet—
Within its words, he glimpsed a path to transcendence.
The method described was profound:
One must cultivate all five elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—simultaneously.
Only then could the Five Elements be fused, refining the body through their harmonic balance.
At its pinnacle
One would become the seed of creation itself, birthing a cosmic cycle within their own flesh.
This was no ordinary Body Refining art—
It was a fusion of Qi Refining and Body Refining, a dual cultivation path!
Arius: “This is it.”
Without hesitation, he pulled out a gold ingot, then summoned the Insightful Immortal Mirror
from his sea of consciousness.
His intent—
To fully restore the 《Genesis Five Elements Sutra》!
The gold ingot melted away, its essence consumed by the mirror’s ethereal glow—
Yet—
The text remained unchanged.
Arius frowned.
“That didn’t work?”
This was unusual.
A gold ingot of this size—twenty catties at least—
Was worth enough to buy an entire village filled with a hundred strong laborers.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been more than enough to elevate a Body
Tempering technique to the Peak of Level 1, or even Level 2-grade.
Yet—
This time, the enhancement had failed.