Madara sat cross-legged on the cave floor. His upper body bare.
"Let's begin."
He closed his eyes. Instantly, strands of blue energy were pulled through the cave's opening in continuous waves. They surged toward him, drawn in without resistance, and entered his body.
The energy didn't appear overwhelming, but it was immediately processed. It flowed through him—not just through his meridians, but through every cell, every bone, every fiber. It wasn't a chaotic rush. It was exact, steady, and deliberate. The flow reached his marrow, embedding itself deep within the structure of his body.
He didn't aim to activate his dantian right away. That would've been easy.
Instead, he broke the process down—multiple steps, each targeting a specific layer of his body. Muscle, tissue, nerves, bone, skin. He refined every inch. Not just for absorption—but for compatibility, durability, and function.
If any ordinary cultivator tried this, they'd need time just to grasp the logic. Mastery would take far longer.
Because this wasn't about channeling profound energy.
It was about controlling it.
Control beats raw power. Control creates efficiency. Control creates results.
Madara understood that having vast energy meant nothing if it couldn't be used properly. The more energy you release, the more gets wasted unless your control is absolute. Most cultivators spread their energy wide when they attack—releasing a powerful aura, generating force across a large area, trying to overwhelm through pressure. But the destructive potential of profound energy doesn't lie in how much you can release—it lies in how precisely you can release it.
A single point of profound energy, compressed and unleashed at the exact moment and location, has more destructive potential than a large, unfocused wave. Instead of radiating power everywhere, you hold it in. You direct it. And you strike with perfect timing. That's how you break through defenses. That's how you destroy opponents a realm higher. No wasted movement. No wasted energy.
It's not about force. It's about intention.
Release everything at once, and it spreads. Control it fully, and it penetrates.
Madara had already grasped that. The principle of maximizing output through absolute control.
A punch without aura, without visible energy, can carry more force than a grand technique—because it isn't about what people see. It's about what the energy does at the moment it's used.
That's how control becomes a weapon.
That's how destruction becomes inevitable.
And Madara didn't learn this from books alone. He understood it from everything he'd absorbed—from stories, from characters who condensed all their power into precision, not chaos.
His cultivation manual that he received from the starter pack, though labeled basic, wasn't basic in depth. It broke down the very structure of Profound Energy—The way it flows, how to use every particle efficiently, how it can be bent, shaped, compressed, or expanded. Even in the novel of the world he now resided in, didn't explore such fundamentals in this much detail.
That manual was basic in name only.
And with his Heavenly Restriction physique, everything became even more instinctual. His heightened senses let him feel energy in its purest form. Not just as a presence—but as a structure. He could detect movement, tension, density. That sensitivity made the control process natural.
What others had to spend years learning, Madara absorbed like breathing.
Control. Precision. Output.
This was only the beginning, as Madara continued circulating his profound energy until the process finally reached his dantian.
"Hmm." Upon contact, he frowned, noticing something different within his dantian—but he didn't dwell on the discovery as something unexpected occurred.
An ancient, evil-like hum resonated inside his dantian—not just a sound, but the presence of something awakening. Externally, his body began to slowly grow and reform, visibly changing as his physique adapted to the new contacted energy.
A moment later, the air around him vibrated, and his dantian emitted a dark red glow—marking his entry into the Elementary Profound Realm Stage 1.
However, the process didn't stop there.
A crackling sound followed, and black, ancient patterns appeared across his skin—each marking a point where the fifty-four Profound Entrances were located.
'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.' The first entrance pulsed and glowed dark red, followed by the second, third, all the way to the tenth, each activating in sequence with force and deliberate ease.
His profound energy burst outward, shaking the cave—but not collapsing it. Madara was deliberately controlling the outbreak to maintain stability.
Elementary Stage 1
Elementary Stage 2
Elementary Stage 3
Elementary Stage 4
Elementary Stage 5
Elementary Stage 6
The remaining energy, controlled with precision, was compressed tightly within his body. The circulation continued with maximum efficiency and no leakage as his cultivation base rapidly climbed.
The now-unlocked ten profound entrances allowed a far greater flow of profound energy, accelerating his rise.
Elementary Stage 7
Elementary Stage 8
Elementary Stage 9
Elementary Stage 10
Just like that, his cultivation rose from Stage One to Stage Ten in a single session. But Madara wasn't satisfied—he felt he could go further.
With one final circulation, he compressed all his profound energy into a single point within his dantian—then released it back through the ten opened entrances in a chain-like surge.
Both his dantian and the first ten entrances became visibly active on his bare body, glowing dark red and forming a chain-like pattern resembling thick tree branches.
Zheng
A metallic vibration rang through the air, like a desolate, ancient bell. Forbidden in tone.
Madara's body pulsed once more as an overwhelming wave of profound energy twisted the air around him, but he quickly retracted it before it could rage out. The surge stabilized into a calm red glow outlining his body.
Nascent Profound Realm
"Huu..." Madara exhaled slowly and opened his eyes, calm and composed, his mind lighter than ever.
His already-heightened senses had ascended to another level. He could feel everything around—clearly, sharply. Even his own self, how his cells, tissues, and every fiber of his body.
"This power... Amazing." For the first time since coming to this world, Madara smiled.
The strength now surging within him from cultivation was a new and profound feeling. Such power—something his former mortal self couldn't even begin to imagine—was now in his own hands.
It was refreshing.
But there was more. Madara discovered that his meridians, dantian, and profound veins were abnormally thick and dense—at least ten times more than that of an ordinary cultivator. In fact, there was no pain at all when he opened the first ten profound entrances, further confirming the unnatural structure of his physique.
If anything, this abnormality could be linked to the Heavenly Restriction Physique. After all, going against the very rules of the original physique might trigger changes like this.
He could also feel the physical growth in his body—both in strength and density. The hardness of his physique had now reached a level comparable to Earth-grade artifacts.
Yet, Madara wasn't done.
A blue pill appeared in his palm, radiating with rich profound energy. It was one of the five Profound Opening Pills he had received from the system's starter pack. For Madara, opening just ten entrances was not nearly enough—he needed far more.
He swiftly placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it.
Closing his eyes once again, he prepared to guide and absorb the pill's medicinal effects—only to suddenly halt.
'What?' Madara's eyebrows knit together in confusion as something unexpected began to occur.
The pill was dissolving as intended—but the profound energy it released was moving on its own, guided completely without his control.
He sensed the energy being directed with perfect accuracy and intent, as if something deep within him was instinctually guiding it.
The energy flowed in flawless harmony through his profound veins and meridians—reaching the eleventh blocked profound entrance.
'Huh?' Madara expected the energy to burst through the entrance—but instead, it simply vanished.
'Did the entrance just absorb the energy directly?' A faint dark red glow emitted from the eleventh entrance, lasting only a moment—the same time the energy disappeared. It dimmed again immediately after, meaning the energy had been completely absorbed, with no visible result.
That shouldn't have happened. The Profound Opening Pills, while only low Earth-grade, were meant to be effective for early-stage cultivators like him—each pill should open one to three entrances with ease.
Unwilling to accept the result, Madara summoned another pill and swallowed it.
The same thing happened.
The energy was absorbed instantly, and again, there was no visible progress.
He continued, swallowing the third, then the fourth pill. After the fourth, faint signs began to appear—the eleventh entrance started to show subtle reactions, as if preparing to open.
But it still wasn't enough.
Finally, he swallowed the fifth and last pill—and this time, the effect was far from painless.
A sudden jolt ran through Madara's entire body, making his expression harden.
His face froze in intensity as his teeth clenched tightly, enduring the hellish pain that surged through him. It felt like thousands of red-hot needles, bathed in molten lava, were stabbing into every inch of his body.
Sweat began forming on his face and upper body from the unbearable pain. The eleventh entrance, glowing visibly on the outside, pulsed brighter and brighter as it continued to force itself open.
Hum—
A low, ancient hum vibrated through the air as the entrance fully activated. The sound wasn't just a vibration—it felt like the hum of a thousand demons, echoing through his body. Ancient. Evil. Awakened.
Rumble—
A rumbling echoed deep within him, and the glowing entrance intensified as profound energy instantly made contact with it.
Spurch—
A tearing sound echoed—Madara's eyes widened slightly as some of the skin on his upper body burst open, blood spraying wildly into the air.
The explosive profound energy was simply too much for his body to endure—it raged wildly and chaotically, surging through and outside of him. But even then, he held firm.
He didn't lose focus, not even for a moment.
He immediately took control of the raging immense profound energy, circulating it throughout his body. The energy now flowing into him had tripled thanks to the newly opened eleventh entrance.
Nascent Profound Realm Stage 2
Nascent Profound Realm Stage3
Nascent Profound Realm Stage 4
Nascent Profound Realm Stage 5
Nascent Profound Realm Stage 6
His cultivation base soared five stages in a single session before finally settling.
The torn flesh across his upper body was already healing rapidly, regenerating as if time had been reversed.
"Hoo..." Madara exhaled sharply, his eyes returning to a calm state as the pain finally dissipated and his condition stabilized.
He realized that pain was now inevitable when opening new profound entrances from now on, different from the first time—but not to this extreme.
The pain he had just endured wasn't ordinary. For anyone else, it would have shattered their body and left them crippled.
Once again, he could only attribute this to his Heavenly Restriction Physique. His profound veins and dantian were ten times thicker and denser than average—so the level of such pain and opening difficulty were reasonable.
As for the pills?
Their effects were far weaker than expected. For Madara, low-grade pills simply weren't enough, and not suitable for him anymore.
If he wanted to open more profound entrances...
...then he'd need refined, high-purity pills from now on—something far beyond the standard Earth-grade.
His profound entrances would accept nothing less.
Though the good thing was—his physique seemed to instinctively be able to guide the energy of pills on its own, without the need for him to sit and meditate to control it.
He could just pop a pill in his mouth while on a stroll, without needing to sit down and focus to guide the pill's energy. It was a convenience even veteran cultivators would envy.
That probably also applied to the Body Tempering Pills he received from the system's starter pack. They were also low Earth-grade pills. If anything, he doubted they would work at all, even in the slightest bit, considering what kind of physique he was currently rocking.
Just to prove it to himself, he decided to test it out.
This time, Madara summoned all five green Body Tempering Pills together in his hand, intending to swallow them all at once—which he did the very next second.
And then…
Nothing.
Completely nothing.
As the pills dissolved, their energy vanished, instantly absorbed—having no effect on his body whatsoever. A complete waste.
"There is only one thing left to do in this situation." Madara stood up from his cross-legged position.
His height had a noticeable difference from before the time he started cultivating. His whole body was more developed than before, his muscles were now visible, defined and hardened from the internal changes brought by his physique and energy circulation.
Currently, he had no cultivation resources left to help him grow any further—and that couldn't go on.
What he needed now was obvious,
Soul Coins.
Without them, he had no way to advance. No pills. No support. Nothing.
Madara walked toward the pathway leading to the exit of the cave. He stopped at the ledge, overlooking the landscape below him, which was covered by towering ancient trees stretching far beyond the horizon as one thought crossed his mind.
'Kill.' He needed to kill to earn soul coins. And the perfect way to start was to hunt what was near him—the profound beasts that resided in the forest below.
He could sense it. While the profound energy in the forest wasn't that dense, he could still pick up on signatures.
There were definitely True Profound Realm beasts—and even a few in the Spirit Profound Realm—somewhere in there.
So, he would begin.
He would hunt.
Hunt until there is nothing left to hunt.