For a man who had just been reduced to a bloody paste and then miraculously brought back to life, Rhys felt remarkably calm.
He poked a finger into his own arm. It was solid. Hard, even.
He felt like he was carved from dense oak rather than flesh and bone.
The system’s emergency healing had granted him the ’Flawless Adamantine Body’, and it was no joke.
This was the first of the Eight Stages in the Mortal World, Body Tempering, but it felt leagues beyond the grunting, sweaty sessions he’d seen his cousins endure.
They got stronger, sure, but he felt... optimised. Perfected.
"Right," he muttered, taking a moment to assess his situation. He was standing in an alley, covered in a drying layer of his own blood, looking like the sole survivor of a meat grinder accident.
Not an ideal look for someone trying to blend in.
His first priority was to get out of sight before some well-meaning town guard spotted the gruesome scene and started asking awkward questions he had no intention of answering.
He slipped out of the alley, his movements surprisingly light and silent, and began walking towards the edge of town, sticking to the shadows.
The Whisperwood Forest loomed ahead, its dark canopy a perfect place to disappear.
As he walked, he focused his mind inward, calling up the crisp, blue screen that had saved his life. It hovered in his mental vision, clean and efficient.
[Status]
Host: Rhys
Trait: Ageless body
Cultivation: Body Tempering (Low)
Foundation: Flawless Adamantine Body
Lifespan Remaining: Infinite
He smirked at that last line. Having read so many stories in his past life, he was half-expecting a catch, a hidden drawback, a soul-pact with a demon.
But no, the system seemed straightforward. The Lifespan Burning System was a miraculous tool that converted his unique ’Ageless Body’ Trait into a limitless fuel source, allowing him to trade time for power.
Because his lifespan was functionally infinite, the system’s costs were, for him, completely without consequence.
It was the most overpowered cheat he could have imagined.
"Let’s see what this baby can do," he murmured once he was safely under the cover of the first line of trees.
He found a small, hidden clearing and sat down, eager to explore the interface. He mentally swiped through the tabs.
The first was ’Skills’. It was a short, pathetic list that offended his sensibilities.
[Known Skills]
Basic Walking (Uninitiated)
Basic Breathing (Uninitiated)
Ashton Clan ’Spark Fist’ (Uninitiated)
Basic Stealth (Uninitiated)
Why are all my known skills uninitiated?
Rhys felt a little insulted.
The skills were graded into six states based on the user’s compatibility: Uninitiated, Initiated, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, and Perfection.
’Uninitiated’ was a state where a user couldn’t perform even the most basic aspects of the skill.
He was pretty sure he was at least an expert at walking, having done it for sixteen years.
He ignored the slight and moved to the most interesting tab: ’System Functions’.
This was the good stuff. The screen lit up with several options, a tantalising menu of possibilities.
[System Functions]
Comprehend Skill
Foundation Building
Analyse Object (Greyed out)
Repair Object (Greyed out)
Enhance Trait (Greyed out)
Cultivation Advancement (Locked)
The last one, ’Cultivation Advancement’, had a large, intimidating lock icon over it. A line of text appeared as he focused on it:
[Host must advance cultivation stages through traditional means. The System can only build the foundation, not the tower.]
"So no instant level-ups. Figures," Rhys mused, not particularly disappointed. "Makes things more interesting, I guess. Where’s the fun if there’s no journey?"
He then focused on the ’Foundation Building’ tab. It was lit up, but he assumed it was just to show what he had already received.
Out of curiosity, he opened it. The screen changed, and his jaw nearly dropped. It wasn’t a status page; it was a menu.
A list of options for the Body Tempering stage. The foundation he had received was just the default emergency package.
[Body Tempering Foundation Blueprints]
Ironbone Physique (Tier: Low): Strengthens bones to the hardness of iron. A solid, if unremarkable, foundation. (Cost: 10 years)
Riverstone Frame (Tier: Mid): Enhances muscles and skin to the resilience of river-worn stone. Excellent endurance. (Cost: 15 years)
Flawless Adamantine Body (Tier: High): Reconstructs the entire body with a flawless structure. Bones like steel, skin like leather. Possesses incredible resilience and minor regenerative abilities. (Cost: 25 years)
Azure Dragon’s Vessel (Tier: Peak): A mythical foundation rumored to mimic the vitality of a young dragon. Vastly increases Qi affinity and physical power. (Cost: 10000 years)
Void-Tempered Immortal Body (Tier: Transcendent): A theoretical foundation that tempers the body with traces of void energy, granting unparalleled potential for all future cultivation stages. Its strength and resilience are unmatched in the Mortal World. (Cost: 10,000,000 years)
Rhys’s eyes widened as he read the descriptions.
The ’Flawless Adamantine Body’ he had was the emergency auto-install. It had cost him 25 years because it was a rush job.
He could have settled for that. It was already far beyond what any other cultivator in Silverwood could dream of.
But then he saw the last two options. The Azure Dragon’s Vessel was tempting, but the Void-Tempered Immortal Body... that was on another level entirely.
Transcendent. The word itself radiated power.
The cost was astronomical—ten million years of lifespan. It was a price that would make any other being, even a long-lived cultivator, balk in terror.
Rhys wondered if anyone could even live that long.
After all, the maximum age a Stage 8 cultivator could reach was half a million years.
For Rhys, however, this amount of lifespan was merely a drop in the ocean.
"Why build a mansion when you can build a divine palace?" he chuckled to himself. "Go big or go home, and I’ve already been kicked out of my home."
He focused his will.
System, I want the Void-Tempered Immortal Body.
[Warning: This will overwrite your current foundation. The process will be excruciatingly painful. Do you wish to proceed? Cost: 10,000,000 years of lifespan.]
Pain is temporary, but a Transcendent foundation is forever. Let’s do it.