Advancement Complete!

Body, Mind, Qi, Essence, Intent, Spirit. These corresponded to the six core fundamentals of an Extraordinary's first major stage, and also the vast, unbridgeable chasm that ninety-nine percent of the world's Extraordinaries could never cross in their entire lives. "Essence" was the final threshold in an Extraordinary's path of cultivating the self. For the mid-level cadres upholding every major organization—such as Van Gogh and Anguissola—reaching this rank was typically the most basic prerequisite. Any further elevation that touched upon Intent would earn one the title of "Senior Extraordinary." *Hum!* Bai Zhou felt a tingling numbness spread through his entire body. His flesh and blood turned into rich soil, and the one hundred and eight motes of spirituality scattered throughout his limbs and bones became seeds on the verge of sprouting. Vitality surged exuberantly within Bai Zhou. Essence governed life—both vitality and lifespan. To many novices just stepping into the occult, Essence and Body seemed bewilderingly indistinct, yet the two were entirely different. Even an elementary schooler knew that essence was stored within the kidneys... Tempering the Body fortified blood and qi and strengthened muscle, whereas refining Essence was a direct sublimation of internal spirituality, transmuting post-natal essence into pre-natal essence. While it sounded esoteric, it was actually simple to understand. The human body held endless mysteries; only when the essences of father and mother converged could an embryo sprout into new life. This was documented in the *Lingshu: Channels and Vessels*, which stated: *When man is first born, essence forms first.* This innate essence inherited from one's parents was "pre-natal essence," holding the boundless mysteries of the origin of life. Meanwhile, "post-natal essence" referred to the water and grain essence-qi produced through digestion and metabolism after birth. The trace of pre-natal essence contained in the kidneys required post-natal essence to regulate the human body; reproduction, growth, development, the nourishment of the internal organs, and the generation of marrow and blood all relied on the concrete execution of post-natal essence. Conversely, post-natal essence required that trace of pre-natal essence to sit in the center and command it. The two relied upon and replenished each other, keeping the flame of vitality burning endlessly, jointly governing the body's birth, growth, vigor, decline, and death. —This was the principle behind Essence governing life. In a normal human's lifespan, starting around age seven or eight, the essence-qi stored in the kidneys gradually prospered, leading to permanent teeth and growing hair. By the teenage years of youth, the kidney essence-qi became even more abundant, bringing forth Tiankui: seminal emission in males and menstruation in females, granting the preliminary ability to reproduce life. By age fifty or sixty, kidney essence-qi began to wane, the physical form aged, and when the kidney essence-qi was finally exhausted, a person's lifespan reached its end. In other words... If one's essence-qi was abundant, the human body would naturally be free of disease and disaster, blessed with health and longevity. Ancient texts recorded the Yellow Emperor asking the Celestial Master: *"I have heard that ancient men all lived past a hundred years without their actions declining..."* To which Qi Bo replied: *"The ancients who understood the Dao patterned themselves on yin and yang, harmonized with numbers and methods... living out their natural lifespans and departing only past a hundred years."* —This was the principle behind Essence governing lifespan. Among this, "patterning on yin and yang, harmonizing with numbers and methods" contained the secret art of converging pre-natal and post-natal essence, linking inside and outside, to advance to Level 4 Extraordinary. By activating their pre-natal essence through the kidneys and harmonizing the internal organs, a normal Level 4 Extraordinary could, under ordinary circumstances, live to a hundred and twenty without illness or affliction! As long as their essence-qi did not leak and their spirituality was not lost, ordinary colds and fevers would never touch an Extraordinary again. —Of course, that was only under ordinary circumstances. According to Crow, at least, the vast majority of Extraordinaries in the mystical world had lifespans far shorter than ordinary people. Reaching fifty or sixty was already considered a seasoned senior and an exceptionally long-lived expert. In the Federation, with its advanced technology and comprehensive healthcare, the average citizen lived well past ninety, with a retirement age of eighty-one. Meanwhile, though the Federation's official Extraordinaries enjoyed generous welfare and retirement packages, almost no one ever lived long enough to claim them... quite a considerate saving for the Federation's treasury. *Thump... thump... thump...* Bai Zhou seemed to see two pulsing organs, hearing the reverberations of blood coursing through them. Not the heart, but the kidneys. A translucent, hazy warm current flowed like starlight, brimming over from his kidneys. This was post-natal essence. Next, the spirituality sublimated from the two Level 4 anomalies washed over Bai Zhou's entire body. Carrying the nimbleness of pre-natal essence, it gradually dyed the post-natal essence circulating within him in a resplendent glow. One place, two places... Like pieces of a puzzle coming together, as each muscular meridian in Bai Zhou's body lit up, all the post-natal essence coursing through them transformed into deep, agile pre-natal essence! Then, this pre-natal essence flowed backward into his kidneys, merging with that initial spark of pre-natal essence that governed the origin of human life, like torrential rivers emptying into the sea. *Hum!* At that moment, the two kidneys in Bai Zhou's body shone with light, followed by his internal organs, every internal corner from head to toe, and even every single cell! All the post-natal essence had sublimated into pre-natal essence. From this point forward, Bai Zhou's kidneys were capable of independently producing pre-natal essence. The post-natal element vanished without a trace. Bai Zhou's entire life form underwent an imperceptible leap in quality. *Boom!!!* In that instant, the substance known as "vitality" detonated within Bai Zhou! If every spark of pre-natal essence held the potential to nurture a life, then when countless sparks of pre-natal essence were packed into a single person's body, what level of existence did that person's essence of life reach? —This was the extraordinary nature of a Level 4. Only an Extraordinary who had achieved this step, only an individual endowed with this essence of life, was qualified to pursue the next advancement... In this moment, as if guided by divine inspiration, two hundred and forty-three moving images of a small figure wielding a blade flashed through Bai Zhou's mind, ultimately converging into a single strike. That was... *Nine Basic Slashes*, Fourth Form! Without needing anyone to teach him, the method to help Bai Zhou break through to Level 4 was inherently present within the *Nine Basic Slashes*! "Open!" Bai Zhou let out a low cry in his heart. Countless sparks of pre-natal essence condensed into a blade inside him. The blade followed his intent, arriving before a great door. The Gate of Essence, the Gate of Life—a threshold that countless Extraordinaries dreamed of yet could never fathom! It was this very gate that protected life while simultaneously confining it. It allowed living beings to exist as independent individuals under nature, yet it also completely severed the human body from the cosmos, thereby blocking the path of an Extraordinary from advancing further. Body! Mind! Qi! Essence! —When the inward path reached its end, the next step was naturally to seek answers from the boundless universe! *Rumble—* A vast river surged, descending from the heavens. Bai Zhou marshaled all the pre-natal essence in his body to condense a longblade, and then the blade fell. The door burst wide open! *Rumble!* Yet there was no expected torrent of vast knowledge, no joy of an elevated life plane—only an agonizing pain that corroded his skin, his brain, and his soul! Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain— His consciousness boiled, every thought screaming. As if his muscles were being crushed and reshaped, the body Bai Zhou had known intimately for over a decade grew alien at a terrifying speed. He even felt his brain gradually dissolving into nothingness. His blood began to flow backward, his muscles atrophied, his organs shrank... In a daze, Bai Zhou felt like he was reverting into a small child, then into an embryo, completing an entire cycle of reverse growth in the blink of an eye! It did not even stop there. The embryo shrank further, as if about to return to the world between heaven and earth, becoming a tiny mayfly suspended in the atmosphere. —The moment the door opened, the world had come to claim him! *No, this won't do...* Something was eroding Bai Zhou's sense of self, making him forget who he was. Yet Bai Zhou forcefully drove his gradually numbing, chilling consciousness, reminding himself at every instant: *I am Bai Zhou, I am Bai Zhou... I am human! I am fucking Bai Zhou!* *Hum!* Just then, countless motes of light faintly appeared in Bai Zhou's blurred vision. Those specks clustered into a river, wrapping around him and resisting the foreign erosion. The power of "Man" and the power of "Heaven" clashed against each other. Before achieving the compromise of unity between heaven and man, one first had to prove to heaven that one was an upright, unyielding human standing between heaven and earth! *These are... life, pre-natal essence!* Bai Zhou realized in a flash. No wonder the very first step in advancing to Level 4 had to be activating the pre-natal essence within one's body. Because without doing so, a human body that had not undergone this sublimation of life's essence could not withstand the world's erosion the moment the door opened, let alone channel power from the world afterward. Cold and heat intertwined within Bai Zhou, locked in a fierce tug-of-war, wearing down many of his newly formed sparks of pre-natal essence. Fortunately, just before they were completely ground down, the icy sensation abruptly vanished. Bai Zhou felt only a soothing warmth as his thoughts gradually returned to his brain. The Gate of Life before his eyes slowly closed once more, leaving behind only a crack. Through this narrow gap, a rainbow-colored ribbon drifted slowly inward from the outside, connecting to Bai Zhou's body. With a thought, Bai Zhou channeled his pre-natal essence into his spirituality. *Hum!* The next instant, the spirituality infused with pre-natal essence came alive, growing active and nimble as if endowed with a soul. In ancient times, legends told of senior Extraordinaries specializing in this path who could enlighten wild beasts and flora, awakening their sentience by bestowing spirituality infused with pre-natal essence! —Only such spirituality could maintain its independence amid the "erosion" of heaven and earth, thereby forging a connection with the outside world! Following the rainbow ribbon, Bai Zhou sent several motes of spirituality beyond the door— *Whoosh!* In an instant, winds surged around Bai Zhou, and a faint, translucent white light enveloped him. An incomparably miraculous sensation welled up in Bai Zhou's heart. Within a half-meter radius, most of the ambient spirituality could be governed to a limited degree by the "sublimated spirituality" he had sent forth! From that moment on, inside and outside formed their own circulation. A miniature world formed within inches of him, turning him into a governing deity! In ancient texts, this was called the "unity of heaven and man." It could merge with any of his secret arts, becoming the very power that Van Gogh and Anguissola had once wielded— A "domain"! Although it took long to describe, everything had unfolded in the world of thought; in the outside world, barely an instant had passed. Yet in that single instant, even the trio could tell that an earth-shattering, astonishing transformation had taken place within Senior Zhou! Immersing his mind to inspect himself, Bai Zhou discovered that his spirituality had split into two hundred and sixteen motes, filling every corner of his body. Each mote was entirely distinct from before. Bounding with spiritual vigor and containing pre-natal essence, each was like a tiny life form, constantly exuding abundant vitality that remodeled the flesh and bone surrounding it. Every inch of Bai Zhou's body was quietly transforming and glowing. His bones seemed to turn crystal-clear, ringing with dense, crisp chimes like jade under a chisel. Even his relentlessly rushing blood carried a faint rhythm, quietly purging impurities and waste from his flesh with every circuit, carrying out a form of self-optimization. The world before Bai Zhou no longer seemed so mysterious either. He could "see" the multi-colored spiritualities hovering in the air—the very elements composing the world's spiritual vitality—and he could also "see" the "kings of spirituality" he had placed beside him, commanding the other spiritualities. However, because Bai Zhou had not sent out fresh spiritualities, those few "kings of spirituality" were already on the verge of exhaustion... Fascinating! Bai Zhou blinked, feeling as though he had found a new toy that was well worth studying thoroughly. *The taste... can actually be this marvelous?* *Is this... a Level 4 Extraordinary?* With that, Bai Zhou completely finalized his advancement. He had become a Level 4 Extraordinary possessing Body, Mind, Qi, and Essence! What was more, he was a Level 4 Destined Adventurer who had mastered the Fourth Form of the *Nine Basic Slashes*! The road ahead was still long, but he had finally arrived at a new starting point. "The Major? The Fine Arts Society?" Bai Zhou looked down at his palm, then slowly clenched it into a fist. On the day the sky above Wancheng shattered, watching countless black robes beheaded and displayed to the public with his own eyes, Bai Zhou had personally crushed all his past preconceptions and dreams, coming to a profound understanding of a single truth. —No matter how great the authority, it could not compare to a fist falling from the heavens! If you want to kill me, I can kill you! *...I look forward to meeting you again.* Whispering the thought in his heart amid the drifting gray fog, a spirited Bai Zhou first turned to glance at the trio shivering in the corner, and then looked toward the two underclassmen, Pride and Sloth, who were on the verge of kneeling before him. Sensing the school uniform's hunger to continue feasting, the light in Bai Zhou's eyes grew brighter as he looked at the two underclassmen. *Step...* The youth picked up two student council badges that had fallen to the ground, pinning one on himself and tossing the other to the dazed Number 9. Then, he turned to the two underclassmen with an exceptionally warm and friendly demeanor: "Dear underclassmen." "Wh-what?" Black of Sloth and Blue of Pride were no longer arrogant. Collapsed on the ground, sheer terror covered their faces. To their eyes, this masked senior's sudden warmth and kindness looked no different from a demon lazily picking its teeth after a hearty meal— Just look between those teeth; they were still dripping with blood and stuffed with shreds of meat! Then, they heard the demon ask: "As student council officers, you must know... where the teachers and the principal are, right?" The two underclassmen: "...?" *What do you want to do?!* Bai Zhou blinked at them and offered a bashful smile: "As a newly returned student, I think it's only proper that I go report to them..." —Just by relying on the school uniform to "devour" two Level 4 student anomalies, Bai Zhou had advanced to this height. So, what if he devoured a "teacher" or the "principal"? Thinking this, Bai Zhou gazed toward the churning fog deep within the school, the light in his eyes burning ever brighter. How was Tinghai Middle School any kind of perilous deathtrap? It was clearly... a blessed land laden with a feast of delicacies! Wasn't that the old saying? In Wancheng, eating fish eyes cleared the vision, eating a rooster's comb let one stand out in the future; whatever you ate replenished that very thing— Then what if he wanted to become a man above men? In the eyes of others, these cold, lifeless anomalies were troublesome and unrewarding remnants of the Shadow Reaches, but to Bai Zhou, they were a gift from heaven. With these thoughts in mind, Bai Zhou looked down at the two trembling underclassmen, his smile radiant, his teeth gleaming white. It was time— To break the fast and feast!