CHAPTER 33: FLAWLESS JADE BODY

Tian Lei continued to endure.

Minute by minute, heartbeat by heartbeat, the searing white light clawed at his insides, burning deeper than bone, reaching into the very fractures of his soul. But still... he held firm.

And then, something changed.

The flames shifted.

What had once been pure, blinding white began to shimmer—flickers of gold dancing at the edges of the light, until the color transformed entirely. The runes beneath him pulsed with renewed intensity, and the entire formation began to thrum like a living, breathing entity.

The white flame evolved.

Now it was golden, and it wasn’t just light anymore—it carried weight. A divine, oppressive gravity that pressed down on him from all directions, as if the heavens themselves sought to test his very existence.

Tian Lei’s eyes fluttered open, only to squeeze shut in pain as radiant gold seared the air around him. It wasn’t hotter. It wasn’t louder. It was purer. More refined. More ruthless.

From his pores, thin streams of black smoke began to rise—like ink bleeding into water, curling and dissipating within the golden glow. Every breath he exhaled carried a sickly dark vapor. The scent of rot permeated the surroundings.

Mu Qinxue frowned slightly, waving her hand to disperse the foul smoke before it could stain her garden. The corrupted vapors vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the pulsing resonance of golden flame.

Her eyes narrowed in mild surprise.

"...Already reaching the Golden Flame stage?" she muttered to herself. "He shouldn’t have advanced this quickly. Not unless..."

"..Unless his body was already pure to some extent"

More black fumes surged from Tian Lei’s skin, his mouth, from his pores itself.

It was working.

The purification was reaching its second tier—cleansing not just his physical form but the deeper layers of his soul.

And it hurt.

"GGHHAAAA—!"

Tian Lei screamed again—this time, not from his body, but from some unspeakable depth.

It felt like invisible blades were peeling him apart from within—not tearing his skin, but unraveling his mind, his spirit. His very self. Thoughts twisted and came undone like ancient scrolls burning in sacred fire.

Then, as swiftly as it had surged, the golden flame began to dim.

Not extinguished—transformed.

Its brilliance softened, shifting to something more elusive, more mystical. No longer radiant gold, the flame became translucent, like molten crystal refracting divine light. It didn’t burn—it hummed, whispered, and flowed like liquid starlight.

Mu Qinxue’s pupils shrank slightly.

"What...?" she breathed.

The golden flame stage—the most brutal, most prolonged of the Three Source Cleansing stages—had concluded.

Just like that.

In mere breaths.

"That’s impossible," she muttered, arms still folded though her voice cracked with disbelief. "Even I... I barely survived halfway through it before passing out."

The golden flame wasn’t just about cleansing the body. It was the trial of the soul. The phase where one’s very will was tested—where the line between life and death blurred into spiritual judgment. Ninety-nine out of every hundred cultivators broke here. Even she, possessing the Soul-Ensaring Divine Body, had nearly been consumed.

And yet...

"He passed through... like it meant nothing."

Her gaze lingered on him longer now, searching for a clue—some sign, some symbol.

’Is it a soul-based physique? A rare bloodline affinity? Some innate resilience?’

Then it struck her. Not with force, but with certainty.

"...No," she murmured. "It’s not that he resisted it. His soul is simply... too pure. No stains. No regrets. No darkness. The flame couldn’t latch onto anything."

Unbeknownst to Tian Lei, the true reason was the awakening of his Infinite Fortune Emperor Soul—a divine, ancient soul construct of unimaginable purity and depth. It wasn’t that the flame couldn’t reach him.

It’s that it found nothing to burn.

The golden flame had tested him...

And moved on.

Now, the final stage began.

The translucent flame shimmered across his form—no longer a raging inferno, but an intricate current of divine energy. It did not seek to break or burn, but to refine. To sculpt. It reached into his energy channels and began its final task:

Cleansing his spirit energy.

His qi—his cultivation essence—was being refined, thread by thread. Each current of internal force was sifted, filtered, and purified, like gold melted free of slag.

Tian Lei exhaled slowly.

The pain remained, but it had changed. It wasn’t chaotic or overwhelming—it was sharp. Precise. His meridians pulsed, not with suffering, but with reformation. As if every spiritual channel was being carved anew, made perfect.

He opened his eyes again—just briefly.

And for the first time since stepping into the formation... they were still.

Not at peace. But focused. Centered.

Mu Qinxue took a measured step back, her arms finally lowering to her sides. Her face, usually serene and unreadable, now held a flicker of something else.

Awe.

"He’s already entered the final stage..." she whispered. "Could it be...?"

Her gaze swept toward the glowing runes of the formation, now surging with translucent light.

"Could he really achieve it...?"

The Flawless Jade Body.

It was the ultimate outcome of the Three Source Cleansing Formation—an ancient cultivation relic of her Azure Feather Sect, passed down for over ten thousand years. Records spoke of only three individuals in the entire sect’s history who had endured all three stages of cleansing to completion, forging a Flawless Jade Body.

It wasn’t just a myth.

A perfected body, immune to future impurities.

A body that amplified cultivation speed exponentially.

And now... she was witnessing the fourth.

Tian Lei, meanwhile, remained unaware.

Still cross-legged, eyes closed, posture serene within the gentle flow of the final flame. His body no longer trembled. The last of the fumes had vanished. Even the formation itself had quieted, as if it is nearing its end.

Within, his spirit energy gleamed.

Not chaotically. Not explosively.

But with purity.

Like a forge burning steady and eternal, tempering the weapon it would one day unleash upon the world.

A day passed.

The process, long and grueling, was nearly complete.

Tian Lei sat, still in quiet meditation, stripped of all worldly trappings—his clothes having long since disintegrated in the sacred flame. He sat exposed before the formation, yet there was no vulgarity in it.

Only divinity.

His entire body shimmered with a lustrous glow—skin polished like jade, flawless, unmarred, radiant.

Mu Qinxue stood in silence, her gaze fixed on his form.

"So... this is the Flawless Jade Body," she murmured, voice a whisper lost to the breeze.

Her eyes traced the contours of his body, now sculpted to unnatural perfection. Tian Lei had always been handsome—but now? Now he looked like a figure carved by gods themselves. Not just handsome, but transcendent. Unreachable.

"Did I really just accept this monster as my disciple...?" she muttered, almost dazed.

She shook her head, forcing herself to steady her thoughts. The formation around him began to dim, the runes losing their light—signaling the conclusion of the final phase.

He had done it.

Tian Lei had achieved what only three others in over ten thousand years of sect history had done.

The Flawless Jade Body.