Reading through the information about the Heavenly Queen's 1st Star, there was only one word Li Yang could think of to describe this body cultivation technique, perplexing. It wasn't straightforward like other cultivation techniques, it didn't even completely describe just how you were meant to cultivate it.
After going over all the information stored within the bone, Li Yang understood the essence as 'feel the overwhelming force, conquer the force, merge with the force and crush all dissidence.' This was the best he could come up with in the end, but he had no clue exactly what sort of overpowering force was the proper one to use, nor did he even know how to conquer or merge with it.
He could guess that the force should be something overwhelmingly destructive, it might actually just be the law of crushing based on the final clue he extrapolated. But these were just guesses that he had no way of discovering if they were correct, he would have to ask the Heavenly Queen herself if he wanted to get a proper answer. But that was clearly impossible, even if she hadn't vanished long ago, there was no way she would bother even noticing an existence such as his.
Since Li Yang had no way to get the true answers, he could only move forward with the answer he had come up with one his own. Force, pure and untainted, overwhelming and merciless, that was what Li Yang decided on. And with his choice of force made, the first step was sensing the force and properly understanding it.
"Guess we'll start with the most obvious..."
Li Yang stretched out his left arm while muttering, closing his eyes and focusing his senses on his left pinky. His Qi seeped out from his body and gathered around his finger, slowly interfering with the natural gravity in the area. A field of reverse gravity appeared beneath his finger, a field of heightened gravity appearing above it. The two opposite fields started to act upon his finger, squashing it between them while they were trying to force it to move away.
The fields were weak at first, only producing a slight discomfort in Li Yang's finger. But he slowly increased the strength of both fields, the discomfort quickly turning into pain as his flesh and bones were squeezed tighter and tighter. His brows furrowed somewhat due to the pain, but he kept his senses locked on his finger, focusing on the force that was currently causing the bones within said finger to creak and moan.
He could definitely sense the force that was moving through his bones and flesh, he sensed it so easily that it was almost astounding to him. The force practically pulsed through his finger, rushing up and down like a trapped rat that tried to flee. The force was different from the gravity that acted upon his finger, it would be more fitting to call it the energy that came about as a result of gravity acting upon his finger.
Li Yang continued to sense the force, but the amount produced by his gravity wasn't quite enough, it was too faint for him to get a truly good feel of it. He tried to increase the gravity further, but he encountered a problem after the gravity reached a point where his bones started to bend and a slight tear appeared in his skin.
His own Qi that was being used to sustain the gravity started to seep into his body, sinking into his bones and forming very faint and tiny runes. The reason this was a problem was that while it was indeed the most orthodox body cultivation method, it was also the weakest. And with his own Qi seeping into his body again, it polluted the pure force that he was aiming for, making it useless to him.
He quickly lowered the force of the gravity and forcefully extracted the Qi that had started to seep into his bones. This orthodox and normal body cultivation path wasn't what he was looking for, it was too weak and didn't feel worthy. In fact, while his father and the others thought he simply had no interest in body cultivation, just like they previously thought he had no interest in cultivation, he had actually looked over all the body cultivation manuals that the sect had to offer.
He fought using his own body as his weapon, a strong body meant a stronger weapon so it was only logical for him to train his body. But none of the body cultivation manuals owned by the sect felt worthy, his instincts subconsciously rejected each and every one of them. As for the voices that he heard whenever he closed his eyes, they never spoke about body cultivation so they weren't of any help to him.
But this body cultivation technique left behind by the Heavenly Queen, it was something left behind by a peak existence. When it came to this cultivation manual, both his mind and instincts were in agreement, it was worthy. His own Qi stopped polluting the force he had set his sight on, Li Yang's thoughts quietly moving as he worked to come up with a different way to increase the force so that he could get a better feel of it.
One of his brows twitched slightly as an idea popped up in his mind. He stood up from his seated position and made his way over to the stone wall right in front of him. He clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall, maintaining the two gravitational fields around his finger all the while.
The punch sent an aching jolt straight up his arm, his flesh quivering slightly before the resulting force of the punch dissipated. It was a bit painful, but it provided Li Yang with what he was looking for, a force that was pure and untainted. But he couldn't stand here and keep punching the wall, and he certainly wouldn't be able to do it with his back or thighs if he wanted to sense the force through them.
"Guess I gotta go take a trip."
Li Yang opened his eyes and pulled back his Qi, shaking his left hand to subdue any residual aching as he turned around and left the training room. He packed a few things into his interspatial ring and then left his house, making use of several spatial arrays to make his way to the very edge of the island.
He arrived inside the hollowed-out trunk of a massive tree, reaching one of the few spatial arrays that actually had two armoured guards standing watch by it. He kept his hands behind his head while walking in a nonchalant manner, casually stating his destination as he approached the spatial array.
"Third island of Emerald Lake Archipelago, the spatial array closest to the 15th training area."
This island was the main base of the Deepsea King sect, but it wasn't the only one they operated on, there were several smaller island and archipelagos in the area that they also controlled. But those places were mostly used to rear certain beasts, herbs, or to house some of their specialized training areas, very few people actually lived on them. One of the two armoured guards stretched out his arm and opened his mouth, but the other guard quickly silenced him by hitting him over the head.
"Please produce a writ of ac...Ghh!"
The other guard sent a glare at the one that had just spoken up, signalling him that he should just stay quiet. He then gave Li Yang a polite bow and gestured towards the spatial array standing right behind them.
"Certainly, please just step onto the array."
Li Yang lazily nodded his head at the guard and stepped onto the array, the guard quickly inserting a few Spirit Stones into specific spots of the array. This array was slightly different from the others in the sect, it would send you to a different place based on where the Spirit Stones were placed. As a result, these people weren't here just to guard it, they were also in charge of configuring the array for those that wanted to use it.
The array was activated and Li Yang was sent away, a bright light blinding him for a short while before it vanished and revealed his surroundings. The place he arrived was the branch of a massive winding and coiling tree that rose up from the ocean, thousands of smaller roots covered in moss and algae stretching out beneath the water and dyeing it a deep emerald. Several tens more such trees rose up from the water around him, forming what was known as Emerald Lake Archipelago, a collection of demonic trees planted by the founder of the Deepsea King sect.
The trees were actually just floating on the water, the roots not long enough to reach the bottom of the ocean. The roots absorbed the needed nutrients from the surrounding water as well as the underwater Demonic beasts that got too close and ended up getting snatched up by the roots. The underwater roots were somewhat vicious, but the roots and parts of the tree that reached above the water were harmless, only existing to draw in sunlight to further feed the hungry roots.
Each of the trees was between 10-20 kilometres wide and about three times as high, making their appearance exceedingly strange. They were also covered in caves and stairs that had been carved out directly into them, each cave serving as a training ground while the stairs were there to make accessing the caves easier.
Li Yang didn't head straight for the cave located at the base of the branch he was standing on, turning around and gazing out across the vast ocean. He sucked in a deep breath of salty air, his practically sparkling gaze sweeping across the seemingly infinite ocean. From this position, even the island that the grand and majestic Deepsea King sect was on seemed so infinitely small, he only had to stretch out a single finger to fully blot it out.
Overlooking the ocean from here made it feel like he was standing at the top of the world, overseeing all creation. But raising his head revealed that there were many more branches above him, culminating in the crown of the massive tree. No matter how much it felt like he stood at the top of the world, there was still more above him, restricting his wings and vision like a prison. He turned his gaze away from the ocean and placed his hands behind his head, humming a soft tune as he headed for the cave at the base of the branch.
The wood around the cave was covered in engravings lined with blood, the engravings actually stretching into the darkness that was the mouth of the cave. These engravings formed a powerful spatial array that not only expanded the space within the cave but also altered it so that it suited the need of the sect. The blood and other ingredients used to create these arrays were much more expensive than a normal spatial array and it was thus completely forbidden to touch the arrays. The sect would be notified the moment they were touched or altered, and the punishment reserved for those who did so was death.
Li Yang stepped into the cave and entered the array, a bright light washing over him as his surroundings changed. He didn't end up inside a wooden cave but rather on a barren prairie, several small and craggy mountains rising up all around him. He only gave the grey mountains a cursory glance before bracing his body and calling out.
"Level 1!"
The mountains quivered slightly after his voice sounded out, hundreds of small rocks splitting off from them and hovering in the air above Li Yang. The stones started to descend one by one, smashing into Li Yang before falling to the ground and dissipating into energy that once again sank into the mountains. This was one of the body cultivation training rooms of the sect, it was mostly geared towards disciples who trained in the Herculean King technique which required one to withstand countless blows to slowly strengthen the body.
Li Yang closed his eyes under the constant barrage of attacks, the dull thuds coming from his body practically forming a rhythmic tune as more and more stones smashed into him. Each hit caused some force to course through his body, his flesh and bones quivering faintly as the force pulsed through them.
Li Yang stood still and endured the attacks for a few hours to sense the force that each of the hits unleashed, but it still wasn't enough. He managed to get a preliminary grasp of the force, but every time he tried to pry a bit deeper it would dissipate, having used up all the energy within it. As such, he could only let out an unsatisfied click of his tongue, his teeth gritting slightly as he called out once more.
"Level 2!"
The intensity and strength of each stone immediately increased after Li Yang called out, his knees bending slightly from all the attacks that crashed into him. But stronger attacks meant more force, which allowed Li Yang to study it even more deeply than before, the preliminary understanding slowly deepening as he understood the force more and more.
He knew that he had already completed the first step to cultivating the Heavenly Queen's 1st Star, sensing the force. But when it came to the second step, conquering the force, he still wasn't quite sure how to complete it. He had a faint idea, but once again he had no idea if it was the right one. But since he had no other choice but to move forward with his own answers, the hours quickly passing made him settle on attempting his idea. But just as he was about to open his mouth to call out once more, a different voice reached his ears.
"Well I'll be damned, you're actually cultivating? Are our pigs about to start flying? Are the seven realms of Naraka about to open and unleash all their tainted spirits?"
The barrage of attacks stopped as the voice sounded out, Li Yang opening his eyes with some surprise. The tall and curvaceous Ting Miu was walking over with a swaying gait, her dark orange hair cascading down her back while her brown eyes were looking at Li Yang with slight amazement. She was clad in a tight-fitting blue shirt and wore a somewhat short and frilly skirt, showing off her long and slender legs.
Li Yang gave his somewhat sore body a few stretches while looking at Ting Miu with slight confusion, a seemingly bashful smile quickly forming on his face as he twisted and covered his chest.
"Fairy Siter Miu, you actually missed me so much that you sought me out on your own? Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy to see you, but Fairy Sister...I'm so dirty right now, I don't dare to show you my body. Is there any chance that you can contain your carnal desire for me until I've gotten to take a shower and become presentable for someone as... devilish and lustful... as you?"
An immense amount of pressure bore down on Li Yang's the moment he finished his words, his body immediately ending up getting squished against the ground. The pressure was so intense that it was almost hard for him to breathe, but at the same time it caused a large amount of force to pulsate through his flesh, making it incredibly easy for him to study it. And as he was getting crushed against the ground, Ting Miu walked over with a smile that wasn't a smile, her eyebrows twitching faintly.
"What's the matter, weren't you happy to see me, why aren't you 'praising' me more?"
Ting Miu stopped right in front of Li Yang, who had to struggle just to raise his head out from the dirt so that he could just barely direct his gaze upwards. His mouth opened as he started to stutter out a few words, but Ting Miu spoke up before him.
"Your father sent me here, he asked me to use my law of pressure to help you with your cultivation. So, what do you say, shall we have some fun cultivating?"
The smile she flashed him contained some playful maliciousness, he kept on teasing and playing around all the time so this was the perfect chance for her to get some payback and reclaim her position as the senior sister. But then Li Yang finally finished stuttering, his trembling finger just barely able to point upwards.
"Fairy Sister... Miu... I prefer... White ones..."
A sliver of confusion flashed through Ting Miu's pupils before she understood what he meant, an enticing shade of red spreading on her face as she quickly tucked the bottom of her skirt between her legs. The pressure bearing down on Li Yang immediately intensified, Ting Miu's slightly embarrassed voice sounding out.
"Level 3!"
The attacks that had stopped earlier immediately started up again and bore down on Li Yang, now far more ferocious than earlier. Coupled together with the pressure that Ting Miu was unleashing, a massive amount of force was constantly rampaging through the body of the weakly snickering Li Yang.
The pressure and force rendered him unable to speak now that it had increased so he focused fully on sensing and understanding the force. And as his understanding of the violent force grew greater and greater, thin lines started to gather within his dantian, a small rune shaped like an imploding star starting to form.
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