That evening, Yang Xiong prepared to begin implementing his intensive physical training plan.
Over the past few days, Yang Xiong had purchased various medicinal herbs throughout Seven Treasure City. As one of the most prosperous cities in all of Douluo Continent, it featured numerous herb shops offering almost every conceivable type of medicinal plant.
In Yang Xiong's room stood a massive iron bathtub filled with clear water. Charcoal burned beneath it, causing the water to bubble violently as if reaching a boiling point.
Yang Xiong retrieved numerous medicinal herbs from his storage soul tool and placed them into the bathtub. The clear water instantly transformed into a blood-red color that seemed almost ominous.
Yang Lin, who was standing nearby observing the preparation, appeared quite nervous. "Yang Xiong, you do not need to rush so intensively at your age. Physical training is beneficial and very suitable for your martial soul, but this seems far too early for someone so young."
Yang Xiong replied with determination, "Father, I have absolute confidence that this will not harm my body. Moreover, this formula is not simple or ordinary."
Some time earlier, Yang Xiong had discovered Bone Douluo's cultivation records titled "The Way of Defense" on the seventh floor of the library. As the continent's premier defense expert, Bone Douluo's methods required more than simply absorbing defense-type soul rings. Practitioners must also use external methods to bring their bodies to absolute extremes.
Such top-tier defense experts became fearless not only of water and fire but even of the most potent poisons imaginable. Only through this approach could one achieve the ultimate way of defense.
Yang Xiong had purchased many medicinal herbs according to the detailed instructions found in "The Way of Defense." Today marked his first attempt - a tempering of his body using fire attributes.
The herbs he had acquired were not particularly expensive, but they were all fire-attributed plants possessing certain degrees of toxicity. The process would prove extremely painful, but it represented the foundation of the defensive cultivation path.
Yang Xiong ignored all concerns and jumped into the bathtub without clothing.
Immediately, Yang Xiong felt as though his entire body had been plunged into a sea of flame. His skin seemed to burn from within, and as the red liquid seeped into his body through his pores, every muscle and bone felt as if it were being slowly roasted over an open fire.
Even when Yang Xiong summoned his martial soul for protection, it seemed difficult to withstand the intense heat and toxicity. His entire body began experiencing severe burning sensations. Despite Yang Xiong's naturally powerful physique, he could not help but grit his teeth, his face contorting with an expression of extreme agony.
After a full hour of this torment, the blood-red liquid in the bathtub began gradually losing its intense color. The medicinal power seemed to dissipate slowly after being absorbed completely into Yang Xiong's body.
Yang Lin quickly pulled Yang Xiong from the bathtub. At this moment, Yang Xiong appeared quite miserable, with patches of burns covering his entire body, resembling someone who had survived a serious fire.
His mother, Sun Yu, looked exceptionally distressed by his condition. "Yang Xiong, why must you put yourself through such suffering? I will take you to find a healing-type Soul Master immediately."
Yang Xiong shook his head firmly. "Mother, I can feel that this treatment is extremely effective. There is no need to seek healing from others. My martial soul should be able to heal these injuries quickly through natural recovery."
This represented the greatest advantage of possessing a Body Martial Soul. After the physical form sustained injuries, it could achieve rapid healing through the martial soul's inherent properties. In terms of pure recovery capabilities, the Body Martial Soul was definitely superior to all other martial soul types.
In the following days, Yang Xiong continued tempering his body with fire-attributed medicinal herbs for nine consecutive days. His entire body maintained a red color resembling fire itself, but miraculously, after meditating and cultivating for one night, his physical form could recover almost completely.
This success was partly because Yang Xiong had carefully adjusted the dosage of medicinal herbs to the minimum safe levels. If he had truly followed the later medicinal herb ratios and selections described in "The Way of Defense," ordinary people would probably dissolve completely within a very short time. Only intermediate and advanced Soul Masters could possibly withstand such intense treatment.
After nine days of fire tempering, Yang Xiong began using a completely different type of medicinal herb. The water in the bathtub was initially boiling vigorously, but after adding the new herbs, all the water transformed to a brilliant blue color extremely quickly. The previously bubbling and boiling liquid suddenly dropped in temperature dramatically and even began emitting bursts of frigid air.
When Yang Xiong jumped into this transformed bathtub, his entire body felt as though it had been plunged into solid ice. Endless waves of cold air began pouring into his body through every available opening. Each inch of his skin seemed to freeze solid, and his whole form became rigid like an ice sculpture. The degree of pain proved no less intense than the fire-attributed herbs had caused.
The ice treatment affected not only his physical body but seemed to freeze even his martial soul and soul power circulation. However, under these extreme conditions, he found it possible to understand and control the direction of soul power within his body with even greater precision.
This represented the cold air tempering aspect of "The Way of Defense."
After nine consecutive days in the icy bathtub, Yang Xiong began yet another aspect of his training regimen.
At this stage, the entire surface of the bathtub was bubbling violently, and the container was filled with an emerald green liquid. What had been placed within it were various poisons that Yang Xiong had carefully purchased.
Compared to the tempering effects of ice and fire, the poison attribute treatment seemed even more devastating to his physical form, and the pain reached even greater intensities. His entire body felt as though it were being bitten simultaneously by ten thousand venomous insects. As the toxins invaded his bone marrow, it seemed as though his entire skeletal structure was about to shatter completely.
Poison proved extremely destructive to human cells, flesh, and blood circulation, and the effects were difficult to dispel - clinging like parasites attached to bones.
The advantages of the Body Martial Soul were demonstrated once again through this process. Because the martial soul was literally his own physical form, the poison was actually absorbed by the martial soul and gradually converted into beneficial energy. The effects proved superior to both ice and fire treatments. This explained why Poison Douluos preferred to follow the path of potent toxins.
In the following days, Yang Xiong maintained all three aspects of training daily. The three methods of fire, ice, and poison were performed continuously for nine days each, with switches to different treatments occurring every nine-day cycle.
As time progressed, Yang Xiong felt that his body was becoming genuinely tempered through this process. Under the continuous treatments of ice, fire, and poison, his entire physical form seemed to be broken down repeatedly, then quickly recovered and rebuilt stronger than before.
The progress of his body training seemed to strengthen his martial soul as well. Even his physical strength and soul power levels showed marked improvement. After each body training session and meditation period, he noticed that his meditation speed had increased significantly - at least stronger than after ordinary medicinal baths.
Yang Xiong even felt that his meridians had become more robust under the tempering effects of ice, fire, and poison. Perhaps his innate soul power level had also improved to some extent through this intensive training.
Yang Xiong was pursuing all this preparation for his future development. The Body Martial Soul was extremely unique but also too weak during early cultivation stages. Only by desperately forging his physical form and following the way of defense might there be hope for achieving a second awakening in the future.
Of course, truly achieving a second awakening would prove much more difficult than his current efforts. A second awakening could only be triggered through extreme pressure between life and death - far beyond the pain he was currently enduring.
However, Yang Xiong had searched the entire library without finding any methods for cultivating mental power. It seemed that throughout the entire Douluo world, apart from Tang San's Purple Demon Eye technique, no one else possessed similar exercises.
According to Yang Xiong's comprehensive plan, body training could help his physical fitness achieve extremely powerful advancement, which could also be called qi and blood development. Strength-type soul rings represented the soul ring attribute that most effectively improved both soul power and qi and blood circulation.
Yang Xiong wanted to cultivate his qi and blood, soul power, and mental power to absolute extremes, combined with mastery of all elemental attributes. Through this approach, he could definitely reach unprecedented heights in the Soul Master world.
His next planned development involved learning energy manipulation techniques to compensate for his current shortcomings in ranged combat abilities. The foundation he was building through defensive cultivation would serve him well as he expanded into other areas of Soul Master development.
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