14 14

Deep within the forest, above an isolated plateau, a pink coloured cocoon laid upright unmoved moved by wind or sound for days . But one evening, when both the moon and the sunlight were simultaneously present, the stone slab on which the cocoon laid begin forming deep red glowing inscription patterns. They moved around like centipedes, changing their positions before rearranging into a pentagram with a star within.

Energy present in the surroundings began trembling as it was absorbed through these patterns before it was fed into the cocoon in a steady heartbeat like rhythm. This went on till it was midnight when small cracking sounds shattered the silence permeating the forest.

'crack crackle shutter'

The cocoon broke apart collapsing onto the ground, revealing a naked man who looked as if he was at his prime. Seemingly at the early twenties, the body looked as if it was created by heavens. Hong spent his time inside the cocoon training and tempering his body through the harsh environments it provided before successfully breaking through the physical limit using the innate qi absorbed from the beast corpses. After reforming muscles that contained more strength than normal muscles present within a human body, he spent the rest of his time circulating his internal energy which had increased in quite massive propotions, both qualitatively and quantitatively hoping to break through the new realm.

Body reforming realm martial artists use qi to break down their body before recreating it to its physical peak ,thereby allowing them to utilise the full potential presented by their physical body. And after using the ritual, the potential presented in Hong's physical body increased beyond any human limit. With the ritual, Hong not only managed to reach body reforming realm, but also fulfilled the requirements needed to cultivate his body .

Feeling an unobstructed connection to his body like he had never felt before, a grin formed on Hong's face. The difference between before and after the ritual was quite large. It was like comparing remote controlled movements to actual body movements. He clenched his fist tightly with satisfaction, causing muscles on his arm to bulge making his previous muscled look like they were grass snakes. Thankfully he had made his gauntlets adjustable along with his boots. Otherwise he would have to create new ones again. Looking down he saw his body was easily above six feet tall, packed with muscles but not in a way that would slow his speed like a body builder's. Instead it was something like the body of a professional foot ball(american) player but better. Built for speed, agility,durability and strength without hindering the development of any of the aspects.

Hong spent a few moments contemplating on whether he should introduce the ritual to glory city or not, but ultimately decided against it. Not wanting anyone else to find or use the array he had used, he took a piece of rock and rubbed the slab till it was void of any inscription pattern. Then he punched it right in the center, completely shattering it to pieces before throwing them in different directions. There's no harm in being cautious he mused inwardly as he watched the pieces of rocks fly far away out of his sight.

Delivering some punches and kicks to thin air, Hong tried to gauge his current physical strength. When he was at five star bronze level, his physical strength had exceeded 900 points ,or in earth terms, above 90 kilogrammes per punch. when in reality he presumed that his striking strength was at about 120~140 kilogrammes per punch. But now, after the ritual, he estimated that his striking strength had reached beyond 2500 points or in other words 250 kilogrammes without using soul force or qi , which was almost thrice the amount he had before the ritual.

If he was to put his maximum effort as well as use internal energy he estimated that his current strength should exceed 500 kilos per punch ,that's more than half a ton. And if he were to use his martial arts, the damage should exceed the strength of a normal body reforming level martial artist or a peak black gold level spiritualist without a demon spirit can display.

Hong continued testing his body and found out many changes that didn't exist beforehand. For one , the qi energy was denser and more powerful than before, not to mention the density of bones, muscle and efficiency of organs were much more higher than before.

To his pleasent suprise, he could feel the presence of his soul force was much weaker than before, this meant that he could advance to a silver ranked spiritualist without losing his martial art realm.

Sitting cross legged on the dry earth, he began chanting the exquisite heavenly demon cultivation technique, absorbing energy from the surroundings. Yin and yang , oppositely attributed energies began conflicting with each other within his body as they circulated along his meridians. Resulting energy exploded outside, dealing a massive burden on his internal organs,but thanks to his new and improved body there was no permanent damage. Instead he grasped the escaping energy, converting it to his soul force before sending it towards his soul realm. Hong felt his soul realm advance foreward as every second passed. The soul force climbed up rapidly, 569, 579, 589 ,599 and then 600.

Suddenly huge amount of aura gushed out of all his acupoints as his soul realm advanced from bronze rank to silver rank bringing a qualitative change to his soul force. The new soul force then flowed to his heart and qi center bringing his upper, middle and lower dantians to balance and making Hong reach the intermediate level of body reforming realm.

This proved Hong's hypothesis as well as to why martial arts weren't used much within the entire realm. To advance martial arts , one would need to improve all three aspects of the body. Otherwise the realm of martial arts would fall with every realm advancement.

Finishing up , Hong used lightweight arts to travel from above the trees. The demon beast hoard had occurred eight months after the exams in his past life, but according to the novel, due to Nei Li's actions, it was hastened to three months. And with his own actions of displaying martial arts and rituals he performed on the disabled by fusing demon beast parts, he expected the demon beast hoard to be even larger than shown.

And as a citizen of glory city for two lifetimes, it was a part of his obligation to take out many of them as possible. With the destination of saint ancestor mountains in mind, Hong increased his speed hoping to meet up with the demon beast horde. The saint ancestor mountains was the area the demon Lord first escaped to , generations earlier, so it's a logical conclusion that the base of the dark guild is also in such area. And if he could follow a member of the dark guild, then he should be able to ,find out where the beast horde currently is.