Strength akin to that of lions and elephants roamed within his body, as Li Hao slightly clenched his fist, feeling as if his small hand could effortlessly crush a large rock!
Merely moments ago, he was a mere mortal, but now, in a short span of time, he had become a cultivator!
The Power Passage Realm is the first realm of martial arts, focusing on strength!
Strength pervading the entire body is called Power Passage.
After long years, each level of the Power Passage Realm has been clearly defined, with the first level being the ability to lift a tripod, which is to say a 200-jin arm strength.
Ordinary families, through common sustenance and exercise, could also barely match the first level of the Power Passage Realm.
But to reach higher levels, one either needed to be born with great strength or had to enhance it through cultivation.
With each advancement of a level, the strength increased by the weight of an additional tripod.
Seven levels equated to seven tripods; that is to say, Li Hao at the age of five, could now lift an object weighing 1400 jin.
And that was just the strength of his arms; the power that could burst forth from his entire body would allow him to easily leap a hundred meters, move as fast as lightning, and effortlessly combat a hundred ordinary robust men.
"I can finally cultivate, at least now I have the power to protect myself," he thought with excitement.
Li Hao felt that with just a bit of effort, his entire body tensed, and the surface of his body became incredibly thick, although still tender to the touch. But if one were to pinch him, the skin wouldn't pinch up easily; it was like stretched oxhide, impossible to twist!
"However, this is probably just the limit of the Stone Skin Hundred Refinements. If I were to cultivate those two secret manuals, my cultivation level should increase further!"
Li Hao thought to himself.
He took a deep breath, adjusted his body's condition, and waited for the reddish hue on his skin to gradually disappear and revert to normal, before leaving the room.
Next, Li Hao called for Zhao and asked him to send word to his aunt.
Soon, his aunt's response came, still accompanied by the maidservant named Xuejian.
This time, he went straight to the sixth floor, picked up the two secret manuals, and began to leaf through them one by one.
With his understanding and insights from the initial segment of the Physical Body Path, Li Hao found many previously incomprehensible sections suddenly clear to him.
"Learned the basics, would you like to record them?"
Yes!
After consecutively recording both secret manuals into the panel in less than a moment, Li Hao had Xuejian take him downstairs.
Although Xuejian felt helpless inside, she didn't show it on her face. After all, the child was just playing, so she indulged him. As for understanding the secret manuals—well, not to mention this short amount of time, even if he studied for several more days, if he could understand them, that would be something.
Even the secret manuals on the first floor, which would be considered mid-tier if taken outside, required at least three to five days of contemplation to learn the basics.
Let alone those on the sixth floor.
The more powerful they are, the more difficult naturally, with higher thresholds for cultivation.
But Li Hao was unaware of the young girl's thoughts, and even if he did know, he wouldn't care. After all, who takes a child's notions seriously?
Back at the Mountain and River Courtyard, before starting his cultivation, Li Hao had the maidservants prepare some food and drink.
After cultivating Stone Skin Hundred Refinements, he felt a great depletion in his body, and now, in just a moment's time, he felt ravenously hungry.
"Is this little bit enough for anyone?"
"Bring me another serving, I mean one more of each item. I am still growing, don't you think I can't eat that much?"
Under the dumbfounded gazes of the maids, Li Hao ate an entire table's worth of meat, and after wiping his greasy little mouth, he felt only six parts full.
But fearing to scare the servants, he did not continue. Instead, he swaggerishly returned to his room and began to cultivate.
The previously obscure Thousand Jiaos Holy Body, had four layers, and when he recorded it onto the panel, only the first two layers showed as mastered.
The first layer, Jiao Fiend Body, conferred a body with bones as hard as the hardest substance and skin like dragon scales, impervious to blades and swords.
The second layer, Jiao Dragon Body, contained half-dragon's strength, further enhancing various aspects of his body.
Phew!
Li Hao took a stance, his body crouched like a fierce tiger, his spine arched like a drawn bow, and his bones made a light crackling sound.
With the understanding from the initial segment of the Physical Body Path, he was opening the secret gates of his body.
Every cell in his body seemed to be stimulated, his blood circulation accelerated once again. This time, Li Hao also felt a cool, subtle energy permeating from the outside world and seeping into his body.
This was the Power of Taiyin from the celestial energies.
As the Power of Taiyin entered his body, Li Hao's previously reddened flesh gradually returned to its normal hue, while his flesh and blood rapidly transformed.
The secret gates were opened, refining himself with the forces of heaven and earth.
As more and more Power of Taiyin surged in, Li Hao's skin turned pale and then a shade of blue, as if he were a corpse. Even on the surface of his skin, faint protrusions akin to dragon scales started to appear.
After three incense sticks of time, the first layer's cultivation was complete.
Li Hao glanced at his cultivation level, and to his surprise, it had risen from the seventh level of the Power Passage Realm to reach the tenth level, perfection!
The first nine levels of the Power Passage Realm were not significantly different, each with a 200-jin increase as the boundary, but the jump from the ninth to the tenth level was a threshold, where the strength would double!
The tenth level signified complete Power Passage, strength reaching through the whole body, perfectly unified!
And the strength he could lift with both hands would reach 3600 jin!
Overjoyed, Li Hao meticulously felt his physical body, and immediately a tinge of regret crossed his mind—Divine Blood had not awakened.
Those with the inheritance of Divine Blood would awaken it upon reaching Power Passage Realm perfection, at which point their strength would increase again, reaching 7200 jin!
Such a gap was sufficient for those of Divine Blood in the Power Passage Realm to easily sweep across peers in the same realm, and even make up for differences in technique, forcefully breaking through with strength!
It was like the difference between a big-spender and an ordinary player in a game.
It looked extremely unfair, but that was normal because Divine Blood inheritance required a parent to reach the Three Immortal Realms, and across the nineteen states of the Great Yu Dynasty, few reached such a realm.
Without the enhancement of Divine Blood, Li Hao was not discouraged but simply adjusted himself a bit and continued to cultivate the second layer of the cultivation technique.
Half an hour later, he slowly finished his practice. As he opened his eyes, divine light seemed to burst forth, and his pupils appeared even darker and more profound.
He felt his own body, the strength was significantly greater than just before, at this moment he even wanted to find someone to spar with, to test out his exact level of power.
Bringing up the panel, Li Hao was astonished to see that he hadn't made a breakthrough in realm; his cultivation level was still at the tenth level of the Power Passage Realm.
His strength had clearly surged, yet it did not reach the Zhou Tian Realm?
Li Hao was startled for a moment before he realized that he still did not know how to channel his qi.
After reaching the Power Passage Realm Perfection, a kind of energy known as "qi" had emerged in his body—where there is strength, qi follows.
This sensation of qi was like the feeling of power swelling in the biceps.
However, the qi roamed through his body uncontrollably.
Li Hao suddenly remembered that the second layer of the Thousand Jiaos Holy Body did not seem to mention how to channel qi either.
And for the third layer, with his current understanding of the Physical Body Path, it was beyond his ability to comprehend.
"With the Jiao Dragon Body, commanding the power of the half-dragon, I wonder how much strength I possess now?" Li Hao mused silently. He could feel that he was much stronger than before, at least twice as much, if not more.
Li Hao was not in a hurry to test his strength but turned his attention to another Body Refining Skill:
The incomplete "Primordial" volume.
With the insights of the Physical Body Path bolstering him, Li Hao quickly understood much and began practicing immediately.
The general outline of the incomplete Primordial volume recorded that this Body Refining Skill has five realms.
However, the incomplete volume in Li Hao's hands only contained the first two realms; the latter three had been lost.
Just the first volume of the Primordial Secret Technique required one to open the secret gates within the body, to feel the power of the sun and the power of Taiyin from the heavens and earth, and to achieve the simultaneous infusion of both Yin and Yang forces to temper the body.
Without the aid of the Physical Body Path, it would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens for ordinary people to complete the first step.
But at this moment, Li Hao handled it as if it were second nature, with ease.
As the Yin and Yang forces converged in his body, his physical form was continuously transformed.
By the second volume, it was about using the Yin and Yang forces contained within the body to draw in the power of the stars, cultivating a Starry Body.
This was a physique more domineering than the Jiao Dragon Body, containing the power of both Taiyin and the sun within, with the body as the furnace core like that of a star, brimming with vigorous heat and strength.
When Li Hao opened his eyes again, it was already the middle of the night.
He had been practicing for seven or eight hours without realizing it.
His eyes were retracted and calm, slowly opening, his breath deep and continuous like a coiled dragon resting.
His hearing and vision had been greatly enhanced.
Li Hao could even hear a faint whooshing sound within the courtyard, not of the wind, but of swords.
Someone was practicing swordsmanship.
With Li Hao's swordsmanship realm, he could visualize a person's sword-fighting stance and style based solely on the sound of the sword wind.
It was that little girl.
Was she also working so hard?
A smile appeared on Li Hao's lips as he then checked his status on the panel.
[Name: Li Hao]
[Age: 5]
[Cultivation Level: Power Passage Realm Level 10]
[Swordsmanship: Level 2]
[Skill: Endless Sea·Tide (Sublime) [Forbidden]]
[Physical Body Path: Level 1]
[Skills: Stone Skin Hundred Refinements (Great Accomplishment) Thousand Jiaos Holy Body (Small Success of Jiao Dragon Body) Primordial (Starry Body Beginner)]
[Chess Tao: Level 3 (0/5000)]
[Chess Manual Collection: 0]
[Artistic Skill Points: 0]
"Still at the Power Passage Realm?"
Li Hao was somewhat surprised. He could feel tremendous changes in his body, several times stronger than when he had just reached the tenth level, and he believed that even using the Sublime level of the Tidal Sword Skill would be effortless for him. Yet, he still had not broken through.
However, up to this point, he indeed did not know how to circulate qi throughout his body.
These first two volumes of the Primordial Body Refining Skill seemed only to be applicable within the Power Passage Realm.
Yet, the strength they brought was far beyond the Power Passage Realm.
The only problem was that cultivation was extremely difficult!
Even with his current insights at Level 1 of the Physical Body Path, he was barely a beginner. Ordinary people would probably take ten or twenty years to reach this level.
By that time, they would have likely already stepped into the Zhou Tian Realm.
After all, compared to entering the Zhou Tian Realm, this seemed even harder.
Li Hao stood up and got used to his body before he opened the window and saw indeed, in the courtyard under the starlight, a small figure was practicing swordsmanship.
However, to Li Hao's surprise, compared to the clumsy and awkward sword swinging in the morning, she was now wielding the sword with proper form.
That little girl actually had some talent.
Li Hao smiled and, with a push of his hand, flipped through the window, landing agilely on the ground.
He went to another part of the courtyard by a rockery. Zhao had mentioned that this rockery was personally carried back by his father in his youth, weighing a hundred cauldrons!
Crouching slightly, as all the house servants and maids were resting and a few guards were patrolling elsewhere, Li Hao took advantage of the absence of others. He went to the front of the rockery, found a groove in a stone cave, and tried to push it.
Gurgle!
To Li Hao's amazement, when he exerted all his brute strength, he actually lifted the rockery weighing over ten tons!
As the rockery moved, the water in the nearby pond surged and backflushed beneath the rockery.
At the Power Passage Realm level 10, without Divine Blood, capable of lifting ten thousand catties!
Startled, Li Hao quickly let go, gently setting down the rockery.