Chương 78: Glass Immaculate Body

Outside Qinghe County, in an unnamed cave. Sitting in meditation, adjusting his breathing, Zheng Junqing was completely unaware of the approaching danger. Having escaped death by the skin of his teeth, he had traveled in secret, erased his tracks, and finally arrived here. Finding this deep, concealed cave, he hurriedly entered to hide and heal his injuries. For over a month, he had been hunted like a rat crossing the street.

His old wounds hadn't even had time to scab over before reopening again, causing him agonizing discomfort internally. While he was deeply focused on his meditation, a faint crackling sound reached his ears, making him open his eyes in suspicion. He hastily swept his gaze around, remaining vigilant. Suddenly: BOOM!

"Ahhh! Arghhhhh!" A deafening explosion was accompanied by a frenzied howl of agony. Song Que, who had been lying in ambush outside the cave entrance, hurriedly rushed in. The fifty-meter distance was covered in a flash. He saw Zheng Junqing curled into a ball, clutching his stomach and legs, which were now densely peppered with countless poison needles, thick as a cow's hair! At such close range, Old Zheng had eaten the full brunt of the Peacock Plume!

Without a moment's hesitation, Song Que swiftly snatched up the cloth sack, leapt far away, and observed warily. Everything happened too fast. Waking from the blinding pain, Zheng Junqing realized someone had snatched away his treasure sack and retreated to a distance. He roared in fury, wanting to lunge forward and tear the brat to pieces! But the moment he tried to stand, he realized he had lost all feeling from the waist down!

Looking down in horror, he saw the toxin rapidly spreading from his legs up his body; his skin was already turning a sickening shade of green! Gradually feeling his life force draining away, Old Zheng glared indignantly at the person near the entrance. His lips trembled as he struggled to ask:"Why...?"

"You can just be a confused ghost! Don't worry about why!" Song Que replied indifferently. This guy was no saint anyway—slashing randomly in the city and throwing a Thunderbolt Bomb that injured plenty of innocent people! Plus, he carried a heavy treasure on him; he deserved to die! Seeing Song Que taking his time, just standing far away waiting, even reaching into the cloth sack to pull out the secret manual to examine it, Zheng Junqing let out a miserable, tragic laugh.

The opponent wasn't giving him a single chance; he was just standing there waiting for him to die so he could claim the bounty with his head! To think that after a lifetime of roaming unchecked, he would ultimately die at the hands of a youth... he roared in indignant fury. Unrolling the silk scroll in his hands, Song Que was overjoyed. It was indeed a martial arts manual! The Glass Immaculate Body! Excitedly storing the manual into his Storage Space, he then leisurely observed Old Zheng.

By now, the man was barely breathing. His entire body had turned a purplish-green. He lay curled on the ground, his eyes bulging, black blood continuously oozing from the corners of his mouth. Looking at the dying Zheng Junqing, Song Que's mind raced. Earlier, in a moment of hot-blooded impulse, he had acted. But thinking it over now, this situation was quite tricky to handle.

If he handed the fugitive over now, regardless of the truth, all those martial artists would assume he had obtained the divine martial arts manual! Lingying Temple would think the same! The subsequent pursuit would bring endless trouble, perhaps even fatal disaster! If he said he didn't have it, they definitely wouldn't believe him. They would capture him, threaten him, and torture him severely until he spat it out! If he handed it over... who would he hand it to?

Those who arrived later still wouldn't believe he hadn't kept a copy. Harboring the hope that they might get lucky, they would still capture him and interrogate him! And he shouldn't expect Lingying Temple to protect him! They might even secretly hope he died early so they wouldn't owe him a favor! It wasn't that Song Que thought the worst of people; it was just that human nature could be truly that sinister. Never leave things to chance; it's better to be safe than sorry!

He had relatives and friends beside him now; he needed to handle things steadily and securely. Perhaps this was just his naturally cautious personality, but having been a doctor for years, being careful was ingrained in his blood! This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. So I just won't hand him over! But thinking of the Grandmaster's promise, Song Que felt unwilling to let it go. Only kids make choices; as a greedy adult, I want both!

Therefore, he had to rack his brains for a solution that gave him the best of both worlds. After pondering for a long time, a fairly feasible plan formed in his mind. But whether it worked or not depended on whether the Tesseract was up to the task! Locking onto Zheng Junqing with his Domain, he didn't dare relax and miss any movement. Against a martial artist who possessed An Jin, Song Que felt it was better to be cautious.

The dark cave was terrifyingly quiet, broken only by the occasional sound of Song Que's steady, powerful breathing. After a long wait, until Zheng Junqing's heart completely stopped beating, he finally slowly and carefully approached him. Confirming the man was dead, Song Que let out a breath and controlled a soul fragment to enter and take over the body! After a bit of initial clunkiness, he successfully took control of the corpse.

The physical injuries were obvious at a glance: internal bleeding, and toxins had seeped into the bone marrow. Ironically, the wounds caused by the Peacock Plume's needles were the lightest; the most terrifying aspect of that weapon was its poison! Attempting to use the Tesseract's energy to neutralize the toxin, Song Que's face lit up with joy a moment later. Under the stimulation of the energy, the poison in Old Zheng's body rapidly receded!

After about an hour, having depleted 70% of the Tesseract's energy, he stopped and admired his work. In front of him, 'Zheng Junqing' was jumping around lively! Aside from his complexion being a bit pale, he looked no different from a normal, living person! Satisfied, Grandee Song finally cleaned up the scene, picked up the Night-Luminescent Pearl and the spent poison needles, stored them away, and then the two of them headed back toward the city....

Remaining hidden along the way, when they were not far from the city gates, he placed Old Zheng entirely into the Storage Space. Using energy to continuously nourish the body to prevent it from losing its vitality, Song Que sprinted home. Regarding the Tesseract's Storage Space, he felt a bit regretful that it couldn't hold living creatures. It seemed the space rejected any conscious entity besides Song Que himself, even if it was just an insect! As long as it possessed consciousness, it was rejected!

Upon returning home, he barely had time to assure Brother Hong and Aunt Li that he was safe before vanishing into his room. He had Xiong Ba bring his dinner inside, his entire mind focused on the Glass Immaculate Body. The yellowed silk scroll exuded an ancient aura. The text and diagrams combined amounted to over ten thousand words! Much of it consisted of profound Buddhist scriptures and philosophies, taking Song Que nearly two hours to fully comprehend the content.

Placing the manual on the table, he frowned in thought. This was a body-tempering cultivation method! It was absolutely incredibly useful to him; all of Song Que's current achievements were built upon his extraordinary physique! The Glass Immaculate Body didn't contain a single offensive move or stance. The entire text taught how to refine every inch of skin and flesh on the body to the purest state, making it as unblemished and free of impurities as glass!

Reading through this cultivation method, Song Que realized that his previous martial arts training had many flaws. For example, the Black Tiger Fist only focused on tempering the arms and back; the Axe-Halberd Kicks focused on the legs and hips. There were still many muscles and bones in his body that hadn't been tempered! With the Glass Immaculate Body, every single part of the body could be tempered—from the teeth to the skull to the tailbone!

The more than 200 bones and 600 muscles in the human body were all addressed without omission! The more comprehensive the tempering, the more powerful the physical body! As Wu Yi had previously stated—that 1 Bear Force represented a Second-Tier martial artist—that was all pure nonsense! The reason Song Que's body was so freakishly strong was that the Tesseract's energy constantly helped him temper every nook and cranny of his body; its effects were fundamentally similar to this cultivation method! Divine Art!

This thing absolutely deserves the title of 'Divine Art'! Although it ultimately only helped one cultivate 'Immaculate True Qi', allowing the practitioner to reach the Seventh Grade—not the Grandmaster realm as rumored—its preciousness could not be measured by realms alone! Holding the silk scroll, Song Que hesitated slightly over whether to practice it or not. Was there a prominent line of text on the very first page staring him in the face? TO PRACTICE THIS ART, ONE MUST FIRST CASTRATE ONESELF!... Of course not.

It was a martial art designed for monks, not eunuchs! Naturally, self-castration wasn't required. What made Song Que hesitate was that the manual clearly stated: to practice this art, one must maintain a pure and untainted body. Meaning, until the divine art was mastered, one must not touch women! Was this not inherently perfectly suited for monks?! The book explicitly stated that cultivating this art required a profound grasp of Buddhist philosophy to help suppress evil thoughts.

Because the deeper one cultivated this art, the more condensed and blazing-yang the blood and Qi within the body became! Yet, breaking one's celibacy was forbidden! Wasn't this just torturing the practitioner day and night?! Therefore, this thing was most suitable for a monk to practice! Zheng Junqing obtaining this was simply terrible luck! He couldn't practice it, but it was a pity to throw it away. So he carried it around, ultimately leading to his death today!

Furthermore, the cultivation method was easy to learn but hard to master! To perfectly temper the physical body until it was like glass, one shouldn't even dream of achieving it without several decades of effort! According to the notes on the silk scroll, the fastest person to master it in Lingying Temple was the current Abbot, Zhi Kong, and even he took over 20 years! If he truly had to practice celibacy for another 20 years, even Song Que felt he would shrink back from it.

After struggling with it for a long while, he finally decided to practice it! For no other reason than he was confident he could master it rapidly! The Tesseract is omnipotent! I, Song Que, am omnipotent! I am a genius! Yes, I am a genius! Muttering this self-hypnosis, the effects were remarkably clear! Grandee Song, brimming with confidence and radiant with energy, spread out the Glass Immaculate Body and began cultivating according to the diagrams and text instructions.

He performed various poses in his room that were practically indistinguishable from advanced yoga. A few sets of movements felt slightly difficult for Song Que, but he managed to grit his teeth and execute them. Following the instructions beside the diagrams, he began using Ming Jin to generate force and temper his skin and flesh. When his body grew fatigued, he would use the Tesseract's energy to soothe it and then continue!

It wasn't until the Tesseract was completely drained that Song Que sat in the meditation posture described in the manual to adjust his breathing. The night quietly passed just like that.