To put it more precisely, cultivation truly has no shortcuts.
Since it is the crystallization of countless generations of cultivators' efforts, anything that could be simplified in the overall path has already been stripped away by those predecessors.
So in theory, there are no shortcuts in cultivation.
Everyone absorbs Spiritual Qi, raises their cultivation realm, and tempers their Dao heart. The only differences lie in cultivation methods and innate talent, which vary from person to person but never to an absurd degree.
However—
"My good disciple, your Master is going to apply some force."
As Bai Yiyi's clear, gentle voice rang out, Ye Ling felt his body shudder. In the next instant, he completely lost control over it.
Gradually, his senses returned, and along with them came a faint sense of comfort.
"Cough, cough…"
He instinctively raised his hand to catch what he coughed up, then froze.
What he had braced himself for was blood, but what he saw instead was black sludge. And it wasn't just from his mouth. His hands and even his body were covered in black filth.
While Ye Ling stood there stunned, Bai Yiyi's envious voice sounded beside his ear.
"Truly worthy of my good disciple. You actually completed Cleansing Marrow and Purifying Body so easily."
[Bai Yiyi's Envy Toward Host +15]
Perhaps because she had already received enough stimulation yesterday, Bai Yiyi didn't provide Ye Ling with many Emotion Points today.
The first step of Body Tempering was Cleansing Marrow and Purifying Body, which meant expelling the impurities from one's body.
But this process was extremely painful. Without great perseverance, it was impossible to endure.
That was why most cultivators chose to use pills to cleanse their marrow and purify their bodies, though the results were far inferior to those achieved through proper cultivation methods.
Ye Ling, however, was different.
He had jumped straight to the Third Level of Qi Cultivation yesterday, and his Spiritual Qi had not yet circulated throughout his entire body. As a result, his physical body was still essentially his original one, what people called a mortal flesh body.
Cases like his, getting on the train before buying a ticket, were exceedingly rare in the cultivation world. Unless someone encountered a great fortuitous opportunity, it made no sense for a cultivator to already have cultivation while still possessing a mortal body.
In fact, the real difficulty of Body Tempering lay in the fact that a cultivator's body already contained Spiritual Qi. Body Tempering meant expelling impurities from the flesh without disturbing that existing Spiritual Qi.
It was like asking a powerhouse to perform surgery, demanding precise control over their strength, never allowing them to use full force.
After all, with a cultivator's methods, there were countless ways to clear impurities from a body.
The problem was that after using those methods, whether the owner of that body would still be alive was another matter entirely.
In short, when impurities were removed, the person usually was too.
But Ye Ling was different.
The amount of Spiritual Qi in his body was extremely low. Bai Yiyi only needed to go all out once, using True Essence to flush through his body, and the impurities would be swept away.
If this had been done to an ordinary Body Cultivator, Bai Yiyi's move would have directly crippled them. At its core, using True Essence to scour the body was equivalent to destroying one's foundation.
Yet Ye Ling's body was so utterly worthless that instead of being ruined, it was reborn under the massive influx of True Essence.
"Tha—"
Ye Ling had just opened his mouth to thank her when something soft blocked his throat.
It seemed his body was truly too useless, filled with impurities even on the inside.
"No need to say anything. I understand."
Seeing that Ye Ling was a polite and well-behaved disciple, Bai Yiyi manipulated her True Essence and lifted him up.
"Behind the rear cliff there's a Spirit Spring. Go wash off all this filth first, and then your Master will continue teaching you the Body Tempering method."
As Bai Yiyi dragged Ye Ling toward the Spirit Spring at the rear cliff, she continued speaking. "What I did today was only to flush and cleanse your physique. The strengthening afterward will depend on you. But with your aptitude, my good disciple, you should be able to condense a Dao Body fairly quickly."
A Dao Body was the ultimate goal of Body Cultivation.
Dao Cultivators possessed Heaven and Earth Dharma Forms, while Body Cultivators forged Immortal Dao Bodies.
The former symbolized merging oneself with Heaven and Earth, while the latter meant making Heaven and Earth serve oneself.
To put it more plainly, Dao Cultivators emphasized following Heaven and Earth, borrowing its power to defeat their enemies.
Body Cultivators, on the other hand, treated everything between Heaven and Earth as nourishment. They used Heaven and Earth as a furnace to temper their bodies while absorbing the essence of all things to strengthen themselves.
Only after condensing a Dao Body could a Body Cultivator truly be considered successful.
That said, Dao Cultivators usually condensed their Heaven and Earth Dharma Forms at the Nascent Soul Stage, while Body Cultivators had to wait until the Tribulation Transcendence Stage to forge an Immortal Dao Body. This was exactly why Body Cultivators could suppress Dao Cultivators again once they reached the Tribulation Transcendence Stage.
So while Bai Yiyi spoke with great excitement, Ye Ling, unable to speak at all, nearly choked on the black sludge still in his mouth.
Master, sure, cultivation knows no passage of time, and a thousand years can pass in the blink of an eye.
But for your disciple to reach the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, even at the fastest pace, wouldn't it still take at least a few decades?
Ye Ling had a very clear understanding of himself. The difficulty of cultivation increased exponentially. Yesterday he had still been at the Qi Cultivation Stage, and after completing his task he would reach Foundation Establishment.
But if he really advanced to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage at that kind of pace, he would absolutely be struck to death by the Lightning Tribulation.
The path of cultivation was filled with thorns. Even if he relied on the System to advance quickly, if he failed to temper his Dao heart, master his Dao techniques, and strengthen his physique, he would eventually be reduced to ashes beneath the tribulation lightning.
So by his estimate, even with the System, reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Stage would take at least several decades. Taking a hundred years would be perfectly normal.
Yet from Bai Yiyi's mouth, it became "very soon."
In the context of the cultivation world, reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Stage in a few decades wasn't just fast. It was practically light speed.
But Ye Ling had only been in this world for a single day. His mindset still needed time to adjust.
What's more, in his understanding, Bai Yiyi's "very soon" probably meant a thousand years. That was something he really couldn't come to terms with.
After washing his body clean by the Spirit Spring, Ye Ling slowly submerged himself in the spring water. Only at this moment did he feel like he had truly come back to life.
What Bai Yiyi had done earlier hadn't been painless. It had been so painful that he'd lost consciousness entirely. But after such a violent Cleansing Marrow and Purifying Body, the reborn body he now possessed felt remarkably refreshed. At the very least, enduring that hit hadn't been a loss.
He didn't stay in the water for long. Once he felt there was no obvious pain left, he stood up.
In an instant, a series of crisp crackling sounds, like beans popping in a pan, echoed through the Spirit Spring.
Ye Ling instinctively clenched his fists, feeling the power filling this body, and he couldn't help but fall into a brief daze.
Just then, a clear and pleasant voice rang out from behind him.
"Your Master… your Master only wanted to…"