Chapter 11: Eight-Nine Arcane Art
After Bei Bei had sorted out his Meridians, the slight stinging pain during spirit power circulation had indeed lessened considerably. The speed of his spirit power circulation had also increased significantly.
Moreover, as he cultivated his spirit power, his two Divine Rank Martial Souls also began to release their true power, further accelerating his cultivation speed.
Compared to his memory of cultivating before his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul had Awakened, it was much, much faster—almost the difference between a snail and an airplane.
Coupled with the assistance of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, his spirit power did not feel unstable either.
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm seemed to be in a deep sleep from which it wouldn't wake, leaving no one to chat with even if Huo Yuhao wanted to. The only thing Huo Yuhao could do was Cultivate.
Sitting cross-legged on the hard wooden bed for too long would make his legs go numb and swell. He would get up to stretch his muscles and joints every two hours of cross-legged cultivation.
He cultivated like this all night until a sliver of brightness appeared on the horizon. Huo Yuhao, with his eyes half-closed, noticed the change in light by the window and stopped executing the Mysterious Heaven Skill. He got up and went to the window, drawing a wisp of the purple energy from the rising morning sun into his eyes.
His already clear vision became even sharper, though it seemed this Purple Demon Eye couldn't enhance the Heavenly Eye Martial Soul at his brow. At most, it honed the innate abilities of his eyes themselves.
After a night of cultivation, his spirit power was now at its peak. It was time to begin cultivating the Eight-Nine Arcane Art.
Although the Eight-Nine Arcane Art was also a Cultivation Technique, it did not help strengthen spirit power cultivation. Instead, it consumed spirit power to temper the Physical Body, while also draining mental force and vital energy. Its many mysteries needed to be discovered one by one during practice.
Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged on the bed once more, his head and torso upright, his crossed legs as immovable as mountains. The Heavenly Eye at his brow emitted a faint, shimmering light, giving him an air of solemn dignity. His thin, gaunt body resembled that of an ascetic monk.
The golden light from the Heavenly Eye Martial Soul gradually formed vivid, irregular golden runes. Only Huo Yuhao himself could see these runes, and only he could understand their meaning.
Strictly speaking, these runes couldn't be considered a form of writing. Rather, when Huo Yuhao saw them, he could 'grasp the meaning' and know how to Cultivate.
It was like when someone says 'that thing,' it means 'that thing.' What exactly 'that thing' means differs according to each person's understanding.
'Cultivate the changes of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, and you may roam freely between heaven and earth.'
As Huo Yuhao gazed at the golden runes, this sentence suddenly arose in his mind. What followed were the specific cultivation methods.
First stage: Refine essence into Qi, solidify the foundation, achieving a complete Fusion of spirit power and the Physical Body.
Guide spirit power to wash over and nourish every muscle, bone, meridian, and internal organ in the body.
Huo Yuhao began to visualize, guiding his spirit power to transform into threads that penetrated into the tiniest particles of his body.
The golden runes also began to slowly rotate, like a golden bell jar surrounding Huo Yuhao's body, resonating distantly with his spirit power.
At the very start of cultivation, the first sensation was pain! An excruciating pain as if his entire body was being torn apart! Muscles, bones, internal organs—everywhere connected by nerves was in agonizing pain!
The tearing sensation then turned into piercing, and the piercing into hammering blows—a pain that penetrated deep into the Soul!
It was like the pain a man feels when accidentally hit in the family jewels, instantly going weak and breathless; or the pain a woman feels during her period, and the tearing pain of childbirth.
In short, it was incredibly painful!!!
After just thirty seconds of operating the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, Huo Yuhao's lips lost all color, cold sweat poured from his body, and he kept letting out low, muffled groans—only this made it slightly more bearable.
His spirit power, mental force, and vital energy were being consumed at a rapid pace.
At this rate of consumption, ignoring the excruciating pain, he would burn out in at most three minutes.
Beads of cold sweat the size of beans continuously dripped from Huo Yuhao's face.
After operating it for one minute, the sweat seeping from his pores carried a pinkish hue of blood. Now, he didn't even have the strength to cry out.
Despite this, Huo Yuhao persisted.
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm sensed Huo Yuhao cultivating but chose not to intervene. It wanted to see how far this human child could go.
It wasn't until he had cultivated for two and a half minutes that Huo Yuhao finally stopped.
The patched, coarse cloth clothes he wore were completely soaked through, the grayish-white short-sleeve stained a pale red. The bed board was also damp with a layer of sweat.
Huo Yuhao's originally bright eyes had become dull and lifeless, like someone who had pulled ten consecutive all-nighters. His breathing grew faint as a thread, more air going out than coming in—he was utterly exhausted.
"Hungry... so hungry..." Huo Yuhao's eyelids drooped weakly as he mustered all his strength to swallow with his parched throat. He felt his stomach was so empty it could devour ten oxen!
"Fish... right, I still have fish..." A thought flashed through Huo Yuhao's mind, remembering he still had about a hundred green fish in his storage soul tool ring.
Channeling his spirit power, a green fish as thick as his forearm appeared in Huo Yuhao's hand. He didn't care whether it was raw or cooked, scaled or not, and just started gnawing on it.
After a few bites, he tore off scales and flesh. A strong, pungent fishy smell filled his mouth and nasal cavity. The scales were somewhat sharp, but Huo Yuhao simply chewed them up hard and swallowed them down.
The flesh and blood just swallowed directly transformed into vital energy, nourishing his depleted body.
An unprepared green fish was thus gnawed by Huo Yuhao until its innards were exposed. After gnawing both sides down to the bone, Huo Yuhao took out the next one.
Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine!
His savage, raw-gnawing behavior was like that of a humanoid Spirit Beast, astonishing even the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm. However, it approved of Huo Yuhao stopping in time and leaving himself some leeway, not overdrawing himself out of greed for power.
Only after the ninth fish did Huo Yuhao start feeling a bit better, having regained some strength.
The reason he had lost gradually returned, and the intense fishy taste in his mouth instantly made him nauseous. He dry-heaved violently several times without making a sound, but nothing came up. It took a while for the feeling to subside.
Wiping away the tears caused by the dry heaving, Huo Yuhao shook his head painfully, panting heavily, "No more, I've learned my lesson. I won't practice for that long next time. It's true that too much is as bad as not enough..."
Gathering the green fish remains from the floor, Huo Yuhao went to wash his face and rinse his mouth. After cleaning up, he changed into his Shrek uniform, picked up the trash, and headed out.
After disposing of the green fish remains and other trash, Huo Yuhao went to the cafeteria.
It was early morning, just getting light, and quite a few students were already in the cafeteria. From a distance, Huo Yuhao could smell the aroma of food.
Walking through the aisles between tables, he saw some students eating meat stews made with Spirit Beast meat, containing nourishing herbs Huo Yuhao didn't recognize. Students with slightly poorer economic conditions were eating steamed buns with vegetables and eggs from Spirit Beast Red Brocade Chickens.
Huo Yuhao's stomach churned, growling loudly. He licked his dry lips. He only had five bronze coins on him, enough to buy at most two large steamed buns, leaving one bronze coin leftover.
Entering the cafeteria kitchen, Huo Yuhao found an uncle who looked relatively kind-faced. "Uncle, I'm hungry. Can I trade something for a meal?"
The group of kitchen staff busy at work all turned to look at this Shrek student who had walked in. The brand-new freshman uniform indicated he was a newly enrolled student.
In the past, there had been work-study students who took on tasks released by the school to work part-time in the cafeteria. But it was the first time they'd seen someone like Huo Yuhao come straight up and ask so bluntly.