Chapter 689 690: Terrifying Physical Body

BOOM!

Before Ye Xuan could even begin to process the sensation, a startling surge of heat suddenly erupted from the purple liquid. Like molten lava, it rapidly spread through his internal organs.

"Hmph!"

A pained grunt escaped Ye Xuan's lips. Beads of sweat, large as soybeans, quickly formed on his forehead as his entire body began to spasm uncontrollably.

His body felt like it was on fire. Intense pain washed over him as trickles of blood began to seep from his pores.

Ye Xuan gritted his teeth and persisted. He fully activated the Sixth Transformation to begin refining this medicinal power, but the moment he mobilized his Profound, an unbearable agony instantly flooded his mind.

PSH!

Unable to bear it any longer, Ye Xuan violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

"AHH!"

A miserable scream escaped his lips at the same time.

Pain. So much pain. Ye Xuan had never imagined that Body Refining could be such an agonizing affair.

The scorching medicinal power felt like countless steel needles, churning madly in every corner of his body, piercing his Profound Veins again and again.

The intense agony made Ye Xuan's entire body convulse uncontrollably.

What terrified Ye Xuan even more was the sheer potency of the power released by the Celestial Sage Purple Iris. In just a moment, his Profound Veins felt incredibly full. Gradually, this feeling of fullness turned into a taut, bursting pain, as if his Profound Veins were about to explode.

'This is bad.'

Ye Xuan was horrified. He knew the medicinal efficacy contained within the Celestial Sage Purple Iris was far too astonishing, exceeding the limits of what a Tier Seven First Layer Martial King like him could withstand. If his body couldn't take it, he would inevitably explode and die. There was no other possibility.

'I was too reckless.'

After a moment of alarm, Ye Xuan quickly composed himself. Forcing down the pain radiating from every part of his body, he frantically activated the Secret Technique of the Sixth Transformation.

He knew that if he didn't absorb the medicinal effects of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris in time, he would explode and die in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

But as soon as he operated the Sixth Transformation, the pain coursing through his body intensified. He was drenched in sweat, his face was contorted, and his muscles twitched nonstop. The sweat seeping from his skin was tinged with blood. He steamed from head to toe, completely transformed into a man of blood.

Yet, his gaze was incredibly determined, even taking on a hint of madness.

"Haha, exhilarating! This is what Body Refining is! This is what cultivation is!"

He roared hoarsely while frantically operating the Sixth Transformation, the agony on his face gradually morphing into a look of exhilaration, of conquest.

'What was a little pain? For my family, for my friends, for the sake of returning to the pinnacle of this continent—could I, the great Carefree Soul Emperor, not even endure this much suffering?'

'He remembered his past life. He'd possessed a useless martial soul yet had never given up, single-mindedly dedicating himself to bitter cultivation. After countless hardships, hadn't he become the most dazzling person on the continent?'

'In this life, could this little bit of pain possibly defeat me?'

As the medicinal properties spread, the pain inside Ye Xuan grew ever more intense, so much so that he felt he might pass out. A normal person would have sooner bashed their head against a wall until they were dead.

But Ye Xuan's contorted face, contrary to expectations, began to relax, filling with resolve and pride.

As he absorbed the medicinal properties, his body continuously expelled large amounts of stagnant blood. Within this blood, sticky, foul-smelling black impurities were also discharged.

BANG!

Suddenly, Ye Xuan let out a muffled groan and spat out a mouthful of blood.

If someone had been in the cultivation chamber at that moment, they would have seen fine cracks appearing on the surface of Ye Xuan's skin.

'This is bad! The medicinal effect of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris is too terrifying. My Sixth Transformation is actually too slow to resolve it.'

Ye Xuan's heart sank. He was already refining with all his might, but he hadn't expected to be unable to keep up with the spread of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris's medicinal properties.

If this continued, he would surely die.

At the critical moment, an idea flashed through Ye Xuan's mind.

'Since the medicinal properties of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris are too strong and are constantly trying to break my physical body, then I'll just have to constantly repair it. I'd like to see just how a Tier Nine Spirit Medicine is going to make me explode and die!'

A ruthless glint flashed in Ye Xuan's eyes. A vine over three feet long suddenly materialized above his head—it was his Three-Stars Life Martial Soul.

The Life Martial Soul swayed as if in a breeze, emitting specks of starlight that rained down on Ye Xuan's body, rapidly healing his fractured flesh.

He was actually using his Life Martial Soul to fight against the medicinal properties of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris.

If any other Alchemist knew what Ye Xuan was thinking, they would curse him for being a madman.

Generally, when medicinal power that enters the body is too terrifying to bear, the best method is to expel it, to let it drain from the body.

This was the simplest and safest method.

But Ye Xuan didn't use this method. Instead, he used his Life Martial Soul to continuously repair himself. One destroyed while the other repaired, pitting the two forces against each other in a cycle of conflict.

This method might not seem problematic on the surface, but it was an incredibly dangerous course of action.

After all, a Martial Artist's body has its limits. Once the Life Martial Soul could no longer keep up with the repairs, or if his physical body reached its breaking point, he would collapse from the inside out, and Ye Xuan would be utterly reduced to ash.

At this moment, the violent medicinal power of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris was constantly breaking through his physical body, threatening to tear him apart.

Meanwhile, the Life Martial Soul repaired him just as quickly, without rest.

'Hold on, just hold on.'

Ye Xuan roared inwardly, refining with all his might.

His physical body was rapidly improving. His tissues and cells were reorganizing at high speed, as if he were shedding his mortal coil and being reborn.

At first, the transformation was limited to his flesh and skin.

But gradually, the medicinal properties of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris permeated his internal organs, and all of them were reforged.

Eventually, even his bones and marrow underwent astonishing changes under the permeation of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris.

Ordinarily, healing with the Life Martial Soul was an extremely risky endeavor.

However, the most dangerous part of the process had actually been the very beginning.

Later, once Ye Xuan's body had improved, his physical form was already able to withstand the remaining violent medicinal power of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris.

'I've finally withstood it.'

Feeling his body gradually stabilize, Ye Xuan let out a long sigh of relief.

He had been afraid just now, afraid that his Life Martial Soul wouldn't be able to heal him in time and that his entire body would instantly collapse.

If that had happened, no amount of experience could have saved him from death.

But now that his body had stabilized, it meant the most dangerous moment had passed.

The reason he hadn't chosen to expel the medicinal power before was, in the end, because he hadn't wanted to waste the potency of the Celestial Sage Purple Iris and lose this chance for transformation.

His mind now calm, Ye Xuan once again sank into cultivation.

Time trickled by. An unknown amount of time later, a series of explosive cracks suddenly echoed from within Ye Xuan's body, sounding like popping soybeans.

The sounds grew louder, eventually resembling the rumbling thunder of tigers and leopards, echoing within his body before gradually weakening. A layer of black filth seeped out from the surface of his skin, emitting a foul stench.

This filth was continuously expelled. In the end, what came out were trickles of blood. At first, the blood was dark red, clearly containing many impurities, but eventually, it turned a vibrant red that was almost transparent.

Then his pores contracted, and the entire purification process came to a complete end.

"I've finally broken through to the Sixth Transformation."

Ye Xuan opened his eyes, a flash of pleasant surprise in them.

At this moment, he felt his entire body brimming with power, feeling an urge to move mountains and overturn seas.

Just as he was reveling in his surprise...

Abruptly—

Ye Xuan's Profound Sea suddenly swelled. The Heaven and Earth Profound Qi in the cultivation chamber began to spin rapidly, forming a vortex that surged toward his body.

"This is... I've broken through to the Tier Seven Second Layer!"

Ye Xuan was ecstatic.

He hadn't expected that the Tier Seven Second Layer, which he had been unable to break through to before, would also be achieved the moment his Sixth Transformation stepped into the Sixth Transformation. The entire process was as natural as water flowing into a channel, without any obstruction.

He quickly suppressed his elation and began to cultivate with his eyes closed. A massive amount of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi surged into his body, converting into even purer Tier Seven Second Layer Profound.

Several long hours later, Ye Xuan finally stopped cultivating.

He stood up and fiercely chopped forward with his palm.

BOOM! BANG!

A violent gale erupted from the edge of his palm, transforming into a whirlwind that slammed into the wall of the cultivation chamber. A huge gash appeared on the wall, which was made of Xuan-patterned steel, as if it had been struck by an axe.

'What terrifying physical strength.'

Ye Xuan was secretly astonished.

In that strike just now, he hadn't used any Profound at all, relying purely on the strength of his physical body.

'This level of physical strength... it's probably comparable to a Tier Nine Martial Emperor.'

Ye Xuan was intimately familiar with the physical bodies of Martial Artists at every stage. He had originally thought that when the Sixth Transformation reached the Third Transformation, his physical strength would be at most equivalent to Tier Eight Triple Peak, but he never expected it to be so much more.

His current physical body was not something a Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Sovereign could achieve; it was definitively at the level of a Tier Nine Martial Emperor.

"This Sixth Transformation is just too perverse. No wonder that in my past life, so many Martial Emperor experts were unable to cultivate to the Sixth Transformation."

The Sixth Transformation was obtained by a Nine Heavens Martial Emperor in a past age, who found it in an ancient ruin after experiencing life and death.

Later, after that Nine Heavens Martial Emperor perished, the Sixth Transformation subsequently circulated among the continent's most powerful, top-tier factions.

On the Celestial Profound Continent, experts who attempted to cultivate this Sixth Transformation were as numerous as ox hairs. However, because the requirements were so harsh, not many could even master it up to the Third Transformation. Those who could master it up to the Sixth Transformation were practically nonexistent.

Some great experts even asserted that this Sixth Transformation was a fundamentally flawed Body Refining Technique and was impossible to master.

At first, Ye Xuan had thought that those experts simply lacked the necessary willpower, perseverance, talent, and temperament to succeed.