Cultivation World - Body Destroying Sect Hot Springs
Zulu sat waist-deep in the naturally heated spring, steam rising around his scarred and battered form as he reflected on the brutal week behind him. The contrast between the freezing mountain air and the volcanic-heated water was jarring, but his body had begun to adapt to temperature extremes in ways that would have been impossible for his earthly form.
His current progress sat at roughly fifteen percent completion of the first body refining stage—a number that had been earned through systematic destruction and reconstruction. Each percentage point represented countless hours of "Body Breaking" followed by the excruciating process of "Essence Infusion."
The economics of body cultivation were staggering. In just one week, he had consumed materials worth nearly a hundred spirit stones—crushed beast cores, powdered spirit crystals, refined metal essences, and exotic herbs that most qi cultivators would never see in their lifetimes. His body had become a living furnace, burning through resources at a rate that would bankrupt most.
"No wonder so few choose this path," Zulu muttered, examining the latest changes to his physique. Where ordinary cultivators refined their qi to enhance their bodies, body cultivators rebuilt themselves from the ground up using the most expensive materials available.
His skin had already begun to show the transformation. Everything was tougher, with a subtle metallic sheen on his skin from the iron essence he'd consumed two days ago. The wolf claws that should have left permanent scars had instead healed into barely visible silver lines that actually strengthened the surrounding tissue.
His bones were denser now, reinforced with powdered spirit stones that made them harder than most metals. His muscles had been torn down and rebuilt with beast core essence, giving them explosive power that defied his relatively modest frame. Even his blood had changed—infused with minerals that allowed it to carry far more oxygen and qi throughout his system.
But this was only the beginning. Kane had explained the stages that lay ahead. After completely reconstructing his flesh with qi infused materials and flesh he would move to the next stage.
Stage Two - Meridian Fusion: Instead of clearing and widening meridians like qi cultivators, body refiners would systematically crush their qi channels and merge them directly into their flesh. This created a body where every muscle fiber, every bone cell, every drop of blood could channel qi directly. The process required materials worth thousands of spirit stones and had a thirty percent mortality rate.
Stage Three - Vessel Perfection: The final transformation involved destroying the dantian entirely and rebuilding the body as a perfect cultivation vessel. No longer would qi be stored in a single location—the entire physical form would become a living dantian capable of holding and channeling power that dwarfed normal Golden Core experts. But the materials required were so exotic that many body cultivators spent hundreds of years just gathering the resources needed for the attempt.
"The path of flesh and bone," Zulu whispered, remembering Kane's words. "We become living weapons forged in pain and quenched in impossibility."
The hot spring around him was tinged pink with blood from his morning training session. Kane had introduced him to "Bone Deep Conditioning"—a technique that involved systematically fracturing and healing every bone in his body while infusing them with increasingly potent materials. Today's session had used fragments from a level 9 earth beast.
But the sect provided everything its disciples needed, funding their transformation through contracts with wealthy nobles and dangerous expeditions to harvest rare beasts. Body cultivators might be expensive to train, but a single perfected body refiner was worth an entire army of normal cultivators. Thus they were the perfect mercenaries. The sect would hire them out and the money would be used for more materials for the cultivator and the future generations.
Zulu closed his eyes and felt the changes continuing even as he rested. The beast essence was still working its way through his system, strengthening ligaments, reinforcing joints, creating a foundation that could withstand forces that would shatter normal human frames.
On Earth, his paralyzed form sat motionless in its wheelchair drible leaking down its chin, but his consciousness was here—in a body that grew stronger every day, in a form that could run and fight and feel every sensation with perfect clarity. Each percentage point of progress was a victory over the limitations that had defined his entire life.
"Fifteen percent," he said aloud, watching the steam rise from the bloody water. "Eighty-five percent to go before I have fully fortified this weak flesh."
The path ahead was long, expensive, and would require him to endure pain that would break most people. But for someone who had spent twenty years trapped in a broken body, the chance to build something unbreakable was worth any price.
Tomorrow would bring new training, new materials to consume, new ways to push his flesh beyond its current limits. And Zulu would embrace every moment of it, because this was what freedom felt like—not the absence of pain, but the power to transform that pain into strength.
Cultivation World - Body Destroying Sect, Volcano Path
Zulu approached Elder VolCartin just before dawn, when the ancient cultivator began his daily pilgrimage up the volcanic slopes. The Nascent Soul body refiner was an imposing figure—over eight feet tall with a physique that seemed carved from living marble, his skin literally glowing with swirling patterns of golden light that pulsed with each heartbeat. The radiance wasn't just qi energy; it was the visible manifestation of a body so perfectly refined that it had transcended humanity.
"Elder," Zulu called out respectfully, his breath forming white clouds in the frigid mountain air. "May this humble disciple accompany you on your walk?"
Elder VolCartin's ancient eyes—pools of molten gold that had witnessed millennia—studied the young initiate with mild curiosity. "You may walk beside me, young Zulu. But I will not slow my pace for your comfort."
What followed was the most excruciating experience of Zulu's new life. Elder VolCartin's "walk" was a steady upward climb over jagged volcanic rock and through knee-deep snow, maintaining a pace that would have challenged a horse. The elevation gain was brutal, the thin air burning Zulu's lungs as he struggled to keep up. The waves of power that bellowed from the volcano made Zulu struggle step by step.
After only two hundred meters of the multi-kilometer ascent, Zulu's legs were screaming in agony. His fifteen percent body refinement, impressive though it was for a beginner, felt pathetic compared to the casual power radiating from the elder. But he gritted his teeth and endured, matching the ancient cultivator step for agonizing step.
"You endure well," Elder VolCartin observed, not breathing whatsoever. "Most initiates would have collapsed by now. What drives you to such extremes?"
Zulu gasped for air before responding. "Elder, I seek knowledge of ancient methods. Is it possible... to repair a broken body... in a world where qi does not exist?"
The question made Elder VolCartin pause mid-stride, his golden eyes narrowing with interest. "A world without qi? How curious. And why would someone in such a place require body refinement?"
Zulu Thought about lying but he saw something in VolCartin's molten eyes that said nothing would get past him. "I have... another form," Takeshi admitted carefully. "One that is completely paralyzed. I hoped that perhaps the techniques of this sect..."
"Ah." Understanding dawned in the elder's expression. "You speak of soul refinement integrated with flesh cultivation. A path so forbidden that we do not even acknowledge its existence officially."
Elder VolCartin gestured toward the volcanic slopes above them, where thousands of massive stone boulders dotted the landscape like ancient monuments. Each boulder was covered in intricate carvings—cultivation techniques, insights, and methods accumulated over millennia of sect history.
"This entire mountain serves as our repository," the elder explained. "Every significant breakthrough, every technique worth preserving, is carved into these stones by those who achieved mastery. But there is one set of inscriptions that we warn all disciples to avoid."
They continued climbing, each step sending fresh waves of agony through Takeshi's legs as Elder VolCartin told the story:
"Three thousand years ago, there lived a cultivator named Ethis. He was born cursed—his body could not absorb a single drop of qi, making traditional body refinement impossible. For decades, he struggled with our normal methods, consuming fortunes in beast cores and spirit stones only to watch them pass through his system uselessly."
The elder's voice grew somber as they navigated around a particularly treacherous section of loose rock. "Most would have given up, accepted their fate as a cripple. But Ethis was... obsessed. He theorized that if his body could not hold qi, perhaps his soul could serve as the vessel instead."
"He developed a method of soul refinement so extreme, so agonizing, that it drove him to the very edge of madness. Instead of infusing qi into his flesh, he learned to weave his soul directly into his muscle fibers, his bones, his blood. He made his soul essence physically manifest within his mortal form."
Zulu's breathing was ragged now, both from exertion and fascination. "Did it work?"
"Brilliantly," Elder Volcartin replied grimly. "By the time he completed his transformation, Ethis possessed power that rivaled Demigod level cultivators. His soul-infused flesh could regenerate from almost any injury, his strength was limitless. He eventually left our world entirely, seeking greater challenges among the stars."
They stopped as VolCartin pointed to a massive boulder 500m ahead covered in the most complex inscriptions Takeshi had ever seen. The carved symbols seemed to writhe and shift when viewed directly, creating patterns that hurt to look at for extended periods.
"These are Ethis's methods," the elder said, pointing to the stone. "Complete instructions for soul-flesh integration, preserved exactly as he left them. But in the thousand years since his departure, every cultivator who has attempted to follow his path has been driven completely insane by the pain."
Elder Volcartin's golden eyes fixed on Zulu with uncomfortable intensity. "The process requires you to systematically twining your soul into thread and sew it into your body. Imagine the agony of our normal body breaking techniques, but applied to your very soul rather than mere flesh. Most practitioners begin screaming within the first hour and never stop."
"Those who survive the initial stages often spend decades in catatonic states, their minds shattered by sensations that the human psyche was never meant to endure. The few who maintain any semblance of sanity become... changed. They often lose who they are by what they have done to their soul."
Zulu stared at the inscribed boulder. He couldn't get there yet. Maybe in a week or two he would be strong enough to reach that high up on the volcano path. But the possibility of repairing his earthly body, of never having to face another day trapped in that wheelchair...
The ancient cultivator resumed his climb up the volcanic slopes, leaving Zulu staring at the boulder up the mountain path with the inscribed boulder and its promise of freedom for his earth body.