The moment I consumed the Nine Orifice Tempering Liquid into my stomach, I felt I swallowed a sun.
Vicious, hellish energy burst forth within me, hot and powerful enough to boil my insides with holy lava. The flesh of an ordinary human would have dissolved the moment it came into contact with it, into a cloud of steam. But this miserable vessel, this prison of flesh and bone, was not so. It was the dormant Primordial Chaos Body.
BOOM!
The energy, instead of killing me, slammed into seals on my meridians like a tidal wave hitting a dam. A scream of raw, unadulterated agony ripped from my mouth. It wasn't a boy's scream; it was the bellow of a soul being reshaped in a heavenly crucible. The pain was a thousandfold more intense than poison that killed my divine body. That had been a gentle disintegration into darkness. This was a howling, shattering resurrection.
My body burned red, with steam pouring out of each pore. The delicate jade dish I'd held crumbled to dust. Veins bulged across my body like writhing worms, and my bones groaned and cracked from the unbearable pressure.
Hmph. Pain? I, Ling Chen, bathed in a star's dying flames and hardened my soul with Netherworld lightning. That little bit of pain is nothing!
With an iron will forged over countless millennia, I asserted control. I did not let the rampaging energy get out of hand. I controlled it. My lingering divine soul was the general, commanding this wild horde of medicinal energy with accurate finesse.
"First Gate: Heavenly Gate! Open for me!" I roared in my mind.
I focused all the energy into one spot in my dantian. A spot so tiny it was almost an abstraction. This was the location of the first great seal, the one that shut off the entire foundation of cultivation.
CRACK!
A voice, not heard by the ear but echoing like thunderclap in my inner self, resonated. It was the cracking sound of a shackle, a chain that had held this body since it was born, breaking into a million pieces.
The moment the first seal was removed, the world changed.
Spiritual Qi, life force of the universe, which always disregarded this body, now saw it. And it did not only see it; it was drawn to it. A terrifying whirlpool of energy instantly formed in the room with me in the middle. The spiritual Qi of the Hundred Herbs Hall, then of the entire Green Leaf Town, was being pulled, ripped out of air and earth, and funneled directly into my body with crazed, ravenous speed.
Outside the room, Ya Fei and Alchemist Zhang walked with breath suspended. Immediately, they felt the air grow thin. The fragile spiritual energy in the air rushed like a river towards the third floor.
"What. what is this?" Stammered Alchemist Zhang, his face pale. "The Qi is. it's all flooding into the Young Master's room! Such a terrifying speed of absorption! Is he breaking through? No! This is not a breakthrough, this is divine retribution! No human body can withstand such a violent influx of Qi!"
Ya Fei's pretty face was creased with shock and a hint of horror. She leaned against the door, listening, but all that she could hear was a low, frightening hum. The boy inside was not just cultivating; he was devouring the world.
In the room once more, my body had become a bottomless pit. The Qi sucked in, and the medicinal essence, poured through my newly opened meridians. It was a purging flood. Black, loathsome impurities, the accumulated sixteen years' worth of mortal waste and the residual waste from the unhealthy diet of the original body, were purged from my pores. A thick, disgusting coating of black grime soon covered my entire body.
But the pain was fading, being usurped by a dizzying perception of power. It was an infinitesimal percentage of power, less even than a trillionth of what I once possessed, but it was mine. It was concrete.
Body Tempering Realm, First Layer!
Body Tempering Realm, Second Layer!
My cultivation skyrocketed. There was no bottleneck. The energy poured in, and my realm stepped up like running up a stair.
Third Layer!
Fourth Layer!
I had reached the pinnacle of the Fourth Layer of the Body Tempering Realm in minutes. The same level Wang Hu, the moron who had squashed the original Ling Chen to death under, was at. But that was where the parallel ended. Wang Hu's foundation was sandy, built on low-grade pills. My foundation was primordial chaos-stamped, divine medicine-casted. My own Qi was ten, no, a hundred times cleaner and denser than his. I could crush ten of him with one finger.
The spiritual whirlpool of Qi finally stopped. The Nine Orifice Tempering Liquid had spent its energy. I opened my eyes. A hot, golden light flashed in them before fading, leaving behind pupils as dark and deep as the starry sky.
I looked down at myself. I was covered with rank black slime. My tattered robes were soaked with it. But underneath the filth, there was a new, living strength. My senses were sharp. I could hear the beat of a mouse in the walls and detect the individual dust motes whirling in a shaft of moonlight.
My bones were iron-hard, my muscles coiled with explosive force. This was the true body of a cultivator.
I directed my new Qi according to my will. A small whirlwind of energy swept around me, clearing all the dirt from my body and vaporizing it into nothingness. My skin was revealed. It was no longer the weak, undernourished skin of the slum boy. It was now sleek and even, like polished jade, and had a barely visible, soft sheen. My build remained slender, but it was now splendidly proportioned, with a fear-inspiring power lurking just beneath the surface. My facial structure too had hardened, become more chiseled. The cringing, cowardly look was lost, and instead there was a natural, heavenly haughtiness.
I stood up and approached a nearby bronze mirror. The reflection of the stranger gazed back at me. A stunning young man with starry eyes and an aura surrounding him that set him apart from the world of mortals.
"This," I murmured, a shiver on my lips, "is more suitable for a god."
KNOCK KNOCK.
A fidgety knock on the door. "Young Master Ling? Are you. are you alright?" It was Ya Fei, with worry etched on his face.
"Enter," I told him.
The door creaked open, and Alchemist Zhang and Ya Fei came in. And then they stood there, their jaws wide open.
They looked at me, their mouths agape in wonder. They beheld the transformation. The boy that had entered the room was a sickly, downtrodden boy. The boy that stood before them was a heavenly prince. His aura, his presence, all were different. He was like an unsheathed heavenly blade, sharp, shining, and awe-inspiring deadly.
"You. you broke through?" Alchemist Zhang stammered, his divine sense washing over me. "Fourth Layer of Body Tempering! Heavens! How can this be achieved in under an hour?!"
Ya Fei's eyes were even more piercing. She was not just gazing at my cultivation level. She was gazing at the change in my very essence. A dangerous, seductive charm now radiated from me, an attraction that made her heart beat faster in protest. She found herself unintentionally swallowing, her throat now dry as dust.
I ignored their amazement. My eyes were drawn to a clean, black silk robe lying over a chair. I moved over and began to get dressed. While doing so, I spoke, my back turned away from them.
"I'll be away for a couple of days," I said, my voice even. "I've got some rubbish to get rid of."
"Rubbish?" Ya Fei asked, emerging from her daze.
I tightened buckling my belt and stood before them. A kill-or-be-killed spark showed in my eyes, cold and as fierce as deadly, and it made them both shudder involuntarily.
"The Wang Family."
The word hung there on the verge of hanging like a death warrant.
Ya Fei's expression became gloomy. "Young Master, I must advise you. The Wang Family should not be underestimated. Their chief, Wang Lie, is a powerful cultivator at the Ninth Layer of the Qi Condensation Realm. And he is also one of the three great masters in this town. And they have dozens of guardians."
"Then?" I interrupted her, my voice laced with disdain. "Are you suggesting that a dragon is supposed to be intimidated by a nest of ants?"
The sheer audacity of my words left her speechless. A Fourth Layer Body Tempering practitioner calling a Ninth Layer Qi Condensation master an ant? It was lunacy! But when she looked into my eyes, saw no bravado, no foolishness. She saw only raw, unshakeable confidence. It was as if my victory was already set in stone, something etched into the very fabric of the universe.
I took a step towards the door.
"Wait!" she cried.
I stopped, but did not turn around.
"You. you will come back, won't you?" There was a helpless shade of begging in her tone. She had just discovered a treasure powerful enough to change the fate of her Hundred Herbs Hall, a treasure powerful enough to change hers too. She could not possibly let it slip away.
I smiled in silence. "Woman, I've already taken this place for myself to stay. No one can steal from me what is mine." My own tone, masterful, like she and her entire business already were mine.
Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson. She was infuriated, mortified, and yet. a strange, thrilling shiver opened in her breast. She found that she did not loathe the feeling of being "taken" by this enormous, god-like youth.
"And besides," I added, glancing over my shoulder with a wicked grin. "I have yet to find a good chambermaid to warm my bed. The position is still open for you to apply for."
With that last verbal slap, I strode away, leaving a blushing, fuming, and totally captivated Ya Fei behind.
I descended the stairs and out of the Hundred Herbs Hall. The night air of Green Leaf Town was invigorating. The moon was suspended high above in the sky.
My destination was the Wang Family compound.
The first Ling Chen died because of them. A debt in life shall be paid with blood. This wasn't just revenge for a dead boy. It was a declaration. It was me, Ling Chen, the returned Alchemist God, announcing my return to the world.
And my first stepping stone would be the Wang Family's blood and screams.