Chapter 10: The Art of Body Tempering

In the Si Clan's great hall — where not even tea had been served this time — the atmosphere was far stranger than any clan meeting that had come before.

After listening to Si Shuo's stumbling, hand-waving account of what had happened, the room fell even quieter than the time they had learned Si Chen had reached Qi Refining, Ninth Layer in a single two-hour span.

Second Uncle Si Che held the Spirit-Sensing Stone and circled Si Chen three full times.

"It really is… a Lightning Spiritual Root." Second Master Si looked up at Si Kai, his face written over with pure bewilderment that said, "Elder Brother, this makes no sense."

It — it actually grew?!

Thud. The eldest of the clan elders clutched his chest and trembled back into his chair, murmuring, "The ancestral records… never — never recorded anything like this…"

Si Kai drew a long breath and let it out slowly. He felt the composure he had cultivated as Clan Head being tested as never before.

He looked at his Third Brother Si Shuo, whose expression plainly said "this has nothing to do with me," and asked in a low voice, "You are certain you only 'explained' it to him?"

Si Shuo looked close to tears. "Elder Brother! Heaven and earth are my witnesses! I just showed him what my Lightning Spiritual Root felt like — I swear I have no idea how any of the rest happened!"

Silence blanketed the hall.

How could anyone explain this? Tell outsiders that their child felt he was missing a Spiritual Root and simply grew one himself? The next moment every major sect would band together and exterminate him as some outer-realm demon!

Just then, Ye Fu arrived, having heard the news.

She swept into the hall, walked straight to her son, took his small hands in hers and examined them carefully — confirming that not a single hair was out of place — before finally exhaling with relief.

Then she swept her gaze around the room, taking in the utterly failed expressions of her clansmen and her husband, and raised a slender brow.

"Why does everyone look as though they've seen a ghost? What on earth is going on?"

She pulled Si Chen into her arms, her tone carrying the protective displeasure of a mother hen. "A Spiritual Root growing in is a good thing! It means our Chenchen has extraordinary talent! Don't tell me you were all hoping he'd stay rootless so people could look down on him?"

She gently pinched her son's cheek, her smile warm and proud. "Don't mind them. Chenchen is the best."

"…"

Every member of the clan — including Clan Head Si Kai — sank into an even deeper silence.

Well. In a mother's eyes, even if her son punched a hole through the sky tomorrow, she would probably only say, "My son is so amazing."

Si Chen leaned quietly against his mother. He had been about to speak — to say that this did not seem like such a complicated matter — but an unprecedented sensation made him swallow the words.

It was not pain. It was more like… a faint warning signal from deep within his body.

As though this small frame of his, having just undergone that impossible act of conjuring something from nothing, had become a little crowded inside, a little overwhelmed.

Even the spiritual energy flowing through his Meridians seemed heavier than before.

The feeling was strange — unlike anything he had experienced since his reincarnation.

He understood clearly: if he were to forcibly push his cultivation any further right now, this still-growing body would likely crack from within first.

Mortals were still too fragile…

Should he abandon this flesh that bound him?

Si Chen hesitated.

Even if this body collapsed, his consciousness would not be extinguished. A star's death, its transformation into a black hole, had already proven that. His consciousness was undying and imperishable.

Death, to him, was merely a return to his original form.

But abandoning the flesh meant abandoning the name "Si Chen."

Abandoning the identity of "son."

Abandoning the sweetness he had tasted on his tongue, abandoning the grounded sense of being cared for.

To return to that ancient, eternal solitude? He had experienced five billion years of it. He did not miss it.

Compared to the eternal "existence," these brief, fleeting moments belonging to "Si Chen the Mortal" felt far more precious.

He did not want to go back.

He wanted to stay, to continue this strange and wondrous journey called "life."

This seemingly fragile mortal body had become the ark he could not bear to abandon.

If that was so, then he needed to make this "ark" sturdier.

And of course, there was one more crucial point: if this body were destroyed and his origin returned to its source… what would happen to this world, even he did not know.

* * *

Si Kai noticed the faint distraction in his son's eyes and was the first to sense something was wrong. "Chenchen, how do you feel? Is anything wrong?"

Si Chen came back to himself and answered honestly. "Inside my body… it feels heavy. Like… there's no more room."

The moment those words left his mouth, several clan elders crowded around him, their faces tense.

"No more room? Could it be an unstable foundation?"

"Forcing a Spiritual Root to grow is unheard of — I feared all along it was defying heaven's order. It must have damaged his origin!"

The pride on Ye Fu's face instantly turned to worry, and she gripped her son's hand tighter.

Si Shuo looked at his nephew's slightly furrowed little brow, and whatever lingering thought of "let the world feel some pain" he'd had vanished entirely, replaced by pure anxiety.

"Stop guessing wildly, all of you!"

He slapped his own forehead. "Elder Brother! The way Chenchen describes it, it doesn't sound like a spiritual energy problem — it sounds more like… his physical body can't keep up with the progress of his soul and cultivation!"

The more he spoke, the more certain he became. "An ordinary Cultivator advances step by step — while cultivating, the body is slowly nourished and strengthened by Spiritual Energy over time."

"But this kid? His cultivation shot up like a meteor — how could his body possibly keep pace?! And that Spiritual Root, whatever it was, probably made things worse — like adding frost to snow — and blew the whole problem wide open!"

"You mean he needs Body Tempering?" Si Kai immediately seized on the key point. His Third Brother's words were rough, but the reasoning was sound. Right now, puzzling over how the Spiritual Root had appeared was pointless — solving the problem with Si Chen's body was the immediate priority.

"Exactly!" Si Shuo nodded. "And it needs to be a superior Body Tempering method. The gentle ones probably won't be enough."

One of the clan elders stroked his beard, his expression troubled. "We do have several Body Tempering techniques in the clan's repository. However… Body Tempering is not like ordinary Cultivation Techniques. It is painstaking, gradual work — results in a short time would be minimal at best…"

Another elder added, "There are faster methods, but they are mostly quite painful — only those with extraordinary willpower can endure them. Chenchen is still so young. I fear…"

Ye Fu's arms tightened around her son the moment she heard the word "painful."

Second Uncle Si Che pondered for a moment, then took up the thread. "Given the current situation, the two most reliable options suited to Chenchen's condition are these."

"The first is the Yimu Everspring Art. This method is gentle — it draws on the vitality of wood and plants to nourish the body, like a quiet rain soaking into the earth. It carries almost no risk and is the safest choice. However… progress is indeed slow. It may take several years before any meaningful results appear."

"The second," he glanced at Si Shuo, "is the Nine Tribulation Thunder Body that Third Brother cultivates. It uses the power of heavenly thunder to temper the body — domineering and fierce, with rapid advancement. But… thunder is merciless. The slightest misstep could scorch the Meridians. The risk is enormous."

"Use the Nine Tribulation Thunder Body!"

"Cultivate the Yimu Everspring Art!"

Two voices rang out almost simultaneously.

The first was Si Kai — he felt that now that the hidden danger had surfaced, it was like an anthill in a dam: delay was not an option.

The second was Ye Fu — she only wanted her son to be safe.

Every gaze in the hall instantly converged on Si Chen.

On one side stood his father's resolve and expectation; on the other, his mother's reluctance and worry.

Si Chen felt it all, and his desire to stay grew even stronger.

He looked at his parents, a trace of puzzlement in his eyes. "Why can we only choose one?"

Everyone was taken aback. This child made it sound so simple!

The Yimu Everspring Art nourished gently; the Nine Tribulation Thunder Body destroyed forcefully. One was life, the other death; one soft, one hard — their attributes clashed, their paths diverged entirely. Who in all of history had ever dared to combine Body Tempering methods in such a reckless way?

"Nonsense!" Grand-Uncle immediately bristled, eyes wide. "Chenchen, do you know that these two techniques have clashing attributes? Cultivating them simultaneously is no different from setting yourself on fire!"

"Indeed — Body Tempering is not child's play. One must specialize in a single path to see results…"

But Si Chen simply tilted his head, recalling the surge of thunder that had coursed through him moments ago, then reaching out with his senses toward the ancient tree in the courtyard outside the window — feeling its quiet, steady vitality.

Destruction and growth were not opposites in his eyes.

He had once been a star — both a source of life's light and a flame that could incinerate everything. Creation and destruction had always been two sides of the same existence.

"I want to try."

Si Chen raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the room before finally settling on his parents' faces. "My body… feels like it can hold both wood and thunder."

Beside him, Third Uncle Si Shuo looked at his nephew's earnest little face, and the firm "impossible" in his heart suddenly wavered.

He thought of this kid reaching Qi Refining, Ninth Layer in two hours. He thought of him replicating a spell after a single glance. He thought of that Spiritual Root that had simply grown on its own…

Talk sense to this kid? Sense was nothing but hot air where he was concerned!

A wild idea burst into his mind.

"Elder Brother!" he called out, startling everyone in the room.

"I think… what Chenchen said might not be impossible!"

Second Uncle Si Che frowned at him. "Old Three, do you know what you're saying?"

"I know! Of course I know! I have an idea!" Si Shuo rubbed his hands together and paced back and forth a couple of steps.

"Think about it — ordinary people can't do it because their mortal bodies can't take it! But is our Chenchen an ordinary person? He grew a Spiritual Root just by thinking about it! This body of his… might just be different from the rest of ours!"

The more he spoke, the more brilliant the idea seemed — as though it had been tailor-made for his nephew. "We could spend a few years on the Yimu Everspring Art first, lay a foundation, let the wood vitality nourish the body until it's good and solid — like… like soaking a piece of wood through with water. Then when we bring the thunder down on it — hey! Think about it: isn't wet wood harder to burn than dry wood? Maybe it'll be able to take it!"

The crude analogy made several elders curl their lips, and even Grand-Uncle couldn't help pressing a hand to his forehead.

Si Shuo spread his hands wide, his face lighting up. "And if it still feels like too much at that point, we just stop the Nine Tribulation Thunder Body and stick with the Yimu Everspring Art — it's not too late! This is called… this is called having a plan for both advance and retreat!"

He finished speaking and couldn't help nodding at his own cleverness, feeling the logic was utterly airtight.

The clan elders stared, dumbfounded. Si Che opened his mouth to argue, but found he couldn't quite find the words. Ye Fu was equally stunned, and looked to her husband.

Si Kai looked at his Third Brother's self-satisfied expression, then at his son — whose clear eyes seemed to genuinely believe he could accommodate both — and then caught a glimpse of his wife's expression, which mingled worry with a hint of being persuaded. He was silent for a long while.

At last, he spoke slowly. "Then we shall follow Third Brother's suggestion — cultivate the Yimu Everspring Art first. Once the foundation is somewhat stable, Chenchen himself will decide whether to attempt the Nine Tribulation Thunder Body."

He looked at Si Chen, his gaze deep. "The path is one you have chosen yourself. No matter how unthinkable it may seem, your father will allow you to try. But remember — if at any point it feels wrong, stop immediately. Never push through by force."

Si Chen met his father's gaze and nodded seriously.

And so, an unprecedented Body Tempering plan — one that sought to fuse the forces of creation and destruction — was decided upon, half through sound reasoning and half through sheer audacity, on the strength of Third Master Si's proposal.

No one could know what this path, which seemed like utter madness, would ultimately forge this mortal body into.

─────────────

Edited by Fat Goose