CHAPTER 882: CHAPTER 869: THE WEAPON TO DEFEAT THE STRONG WITH THE WEAK

Half a month!

After Ye Zhen returned to Red Fire Martial City, he made some arrangements and then went into seclusion for half a month.

During this half-month period, Ye Zhen spent time assimilating the martial inheritance left by the Earth Core Fire Commander. Although there was almost no improvement in Ye Zhen’s own strength during these two weeks, his understanding of martial arts changed dramatically.

In the martial arts inheritance of the Earth Core Fire Commander, only half is related to the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture. The other half consists entirely of the Commander’s nearly millennia-long insights, summaries, perspectives, and various experiences and knowledge regarding martial arts.

At first glance, these things seem useless.

However, in reality, they suddenly elevated Ye Zhen’s understanding of martial arts to a level unattainable by ordinary martial artists.

It’s like building a house; many people only see the beautiful house, but few notice the foundation underground. Martial arts are like building a house; without a solid foundation, a house cannot be built at all.

A martial artist’s foundation on the martial path requires accumulation bit by bit over a martial career, and the martial insights, cultivation experiences, etc., that seemed unrelated to strength in the Earth Core Fire Commander’s martial inheritance are the most basic and important things for building this foundation.

These things require a martial artist’s time to slowly settle, and there is no other way around it.

Of course, different martial artists have different speeds of settling these foundational martial insights.

The Earth Core Fire Commander was one of the most talented martial artists of his time, so it’s clear how astonishing the value of the nearly millennia-long martial inheritance he settled is.

From a certain standpoint, this nearly saved Ye Zhen almost a millennium of time, placing Ye Zhen directly on the shoulders of a giant in martial arts.

Before Ye Zhen’s cultivation reaches the level of the Earth Core Fire Commander, Ye Zhen’s breakthroughs in martial arts will be smooth, with almost no resistance.

Because his martial foundations have already been laid by the Earth Core Fire Commander, what remains is pure accumulation and breakthroughs!

Of course, it is impossible for Ye Zhen to completely assimilate the nearly millennia of martial insights and cultivation experiences of the Earth Core Fire Commander within half a month.

The information contained in the Earth Core Fire Commander’s nearly millennia-long martial inheritance is too vast, and many of the martial insights and cultivation experiences were incomprehensible to Ye Zhen.

This is like giving a first grader a middle school curriculum; no matter how mysterious the middle school content, it is still unreadable.

Ye Zhen can only improve and absorb along the martial path.

But without a doubt, compared to others’ martial paths, Ye Zhen’s path will be a hundred times easier!

This is the truly valuable aspect of the Earth Core Fire Commander’s martial inheritance.

In this half-month, Ye Zhen also meticulously studied the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture.

Through this study, Ye Zhen discovered that the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture, along with the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein directly forged within him, is not just about emitting flames of incredible power.

Firstly, regarding the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein: Only by forging the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein can a martial artist practicing the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture truly begin their cultivation.

However, for an average beginner, the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein they forge is very weak, requiring a gradual enhancement of flame quality to expand the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein.

But here, the immense power accumulated in the Ground Fire Heart Palace over nearly ten millennia directly raised Ye Zhen’s Xuan Fire Heart Vein to a terrifying size of one fathom.

Even the Earth Core Fire Commander of the past took three hundred years of diligently practicing the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture to expand the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein to one fathom.

The size of the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein critically affects the progress of practicing the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture and the speed and quantity of enhancing flame grades.

When the Earth Core Fire Commander expanded the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein to one fathom, it simultaneously condensed several types of extremely powerful flames within it.

Most importantly, the strength of the Xuan Fire Spirit Vein has a vital impact on the speed of condensing the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body!

Once a martial artist reaches a certain level in martial arts cultivation, the fundamental factor becomes the Divine Soul. Especially concerning life and death, the death of the physical body is not true death—only the dispersal of the Divine Soul is true death.

It seems that the most important thing is the Divine Soul.

In fact, it’s not the case; the physical body remains the most important factor influencing combat power.

Without a physical body, no matter how strong the Divine Soul, the combat power exerted is extremely limited. A powerful body promises greater survival ability and stronger combat power; it’s a complementary principle.

Therefore, the enhancement of the physical body has always occupied a very important position on the martial path.

The initial Blood Training Realm at the beginning of entering martial arts is also a journey of physical cultivation, and it advances to the later stages like the Acquired Spiritual Body and Martial Arts Battle Body—all are enhancements to the physical body!

Based on the records of the martial inheritance Ye Zhen received from the Earth Core Fire Commander, after the Acquired Spiritual Body and Martial Arts Battle Body, the direction of enhancing the physical body leads to the Innate Battle Body!

In ancient times, there were various Innate Battle Bodies, such as the Innate Five Elements Battle Body, Innate Wind Spirit Battle Body, Innate Golden Body Battle Body, Innate Multi-Armed Battle Body, and Innate Undying Battle Body, among others.

Once a martial artist achieves an Innate Battle Body, they correspond to various Innate Divine Abilities.

For instance, the Innate Undying Battle Body is an extremely advanced Innate Battle Body whose power approaches that of the even more powerful Innate Spiritual Body.

Limb regeneration is child’s play. As long as the body hasn’t been instantly reduced to ashes, even if just a fragment of bone remains, a brand-new body can regenerate in a very short time.

As for limb regeneration, that’s the most basic ability of all Innate Battle Bodies.

Once an Innate Battle Body is achieved, any limb deficiency is impossible for a Martial Artist; newly born limbs only vary by the amount of Spiritual Power consumed.

Unlike now, where a Martial Artist with a missing limb requires some extremely precious Pill to regenerate the limb, and even the new limb has to be re-tempered.

Furthermore, Innate Battle Bodies possess many mysterious qualities, with greatly enhanced defensive abilities, and their every move can unleash world-destroying attacks, along with some special abilities.

However, to cultivate an Innate Battle Body, one needs at least Dao Entrance Realm cultivation to begin tempering.

Moreover, generally, for Dao Entrance Realm Martial Artists, achieving an Innate Battle Body is time measured in centuries, with an extremely slow pace.

But the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian is different. Martial Artists cultivating the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture can begin tempering their Innate Battle Body as soon as they forge the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian!

The Innate Battle Body recorded in the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture is known as the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body. Once cultivation succeeds, besides possessing the abilities of a general Innate Battle Body, it also has some special uses.

For example, faster cultivation speed, direct use of Fire Escape, and so on.

However, although Martial Artists who forge the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian can start tempering the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body early, the speed of tempering the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body is directly related to the strength of the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian!

Basically, a Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian about a foot in length has a tempering speed for the Innate Battle Body similar to that of a Dao Entrance Realm Martial Artist, measured in centuries.

Those who can cultivate the Innate Battle Body to Small Success within two hundred years are considered fast.

A Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian around two feet can typically achieve Small Success Realm of the Innate Battle Body within a hundred years.

The Earth Core Fire Commander did just that, achieving the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body in just over eighty years, laying a solid foundation for dominance worldwide.

According to the Earth Core Fire Commander’s Martial Inheritance, if the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian reaches a length of ten feet, the speed of cultivating the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body would be terrifying!

Depending on individual opportunities, it could be cultivated to success in ten to twenty years.

This discovery even once made Ye Zhen think, if he went into seclusion now and spent ten years to cultivate the Innate Fire Battle Body, would he be invincible in the True Spirit Domain by then?

Of course, this idea was just a thought; such a tedious task is not something Ye Zhen would undertake.

Nonetheless, the benefits of the Xuanhuo Spirit Meridian are evident from this!

Starting from the third day of seclusion, Ye Zhen began the initial tempering of the body, embarking on the path of cultivating the Innate Fire Spirit Battle Body.

There is not much mystery in this; the most important thing is persistence!

It’s like forging iron, hammering again and again, thousands and thousands of times, to create refined steel!

Half a month of seclusion passed quickly, but Ye Zhen did not emerge from seclusion, choosing to continue instead.

This time, the subject of contemplation was no longer the Impermanence Mysterious Fire Scripture, but the Mystic Sky Refining Technique!

Ye Zhen had also dabbled in things like Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and Formation in the past, but he always thought that the path of Martial Arts valued specialization.

A person’s energy is limited, and Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and Formation can take up a substantial part of a Martial Artist’s energy, affecting Martial Arts cultivation.

However, certain martial experiences and specific advice from the Earth Core Fire Commander’s Martial Path made Ye Zhen change this mindset, beginning to contemplate the Mystic Sky Refining Technique, preparing to advance into the path of Artifact Refining.

According to the Earth Core Fire Commander, Artifact Refining or Alchemy does consume a significant portion of a Martial Artist’s energy, having some drawbacks on Martial Arts cultivation!

However, overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages!

Moreover, the benefits of Artifact Refining far exceed the disadvantages!

The first benefit listed by the Earth Core Fire Commander was enticing for Ye Zhen!

Firstly, Artifact Refining can improve the finest control over Spiritual Power and fire.

This finest control cannot be attained simply by a strong Divine Soul but is slowly realized through daily practice over time.

In terms of honing the finest control over Spiritual Power and fire, Alchemy or Artifact Refining is the best method.

This finest control allows the same power to accomplish more, exerting greater force.

Only those who personally experience it will understand how powerful this finest control can be.

The Earth Core Fire Commander summed up its benefit with one phrase—an instrument for the weak to win against the strong, a killing weapon for challenging higher levels, simply indescribable! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qi Dian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)