Cultivation Begins from Infancy - Chapter 435

Volume 3 - Chapter 126: The Divine Blood Dao Body and the Rising Sword God - Part 1

In recent days, after chatting frequently with Lin Shanhai and other alchemists, Li Hao gained deeper insights into incense power and matters related to saints.

Incense power cannot be borne by ordinary people; it requires a perfected Dao Body!

Over these days, Li Hao continuously transformed his Dao Force, filling all his apertures and major meridians to capacity. His Dao Body had reached a level comparable to the perfection of the Dao Law Realm.

After achieving perfection in the Dao Law Realm, the next step forward would be to accumulate incense power.

The incense power that gathered in Li Hao's body could not be impeded. It slowly sank into his body, turning into specks of dust-like incense, gradually condensing into a grain-sized particle resembling a soybean.

This particle was the nascent form of a single stick of incense.

To ascend to sainthood, one must accumulate enough incense power to form three sticks of incense!

Currently, the incense power within him had only condensed to about one-tenth of a single stick of incense.

This was mainly because he had just perfected his Dao Body, allowing him to perceive and receive incense power. The incense power he absorbed now stemmed from prior accumulations and deposits.

Yu Huang had once promised him that in ten years, the Great Yu Incense Power would be transferred to him.

Li Hao had fled across the void for ten years, during which a century had passed in the mortal realm.

As his Dao Body reached perfection, the incense power accumulated over ninety years in the mortal realm surged toward him and condensed into a grain the size of a soybean.

However, the once torrential wave of incense power became less intense as the previous accumulation subsided. Even so, fine strands of incense power continued to trickle in, arriving daily.

Li Hao had not expected that incense power could traverse the immortal gates unimpeded, flowing from the mortal world to the Land of Saints.

It truly lived up to its reputation as the force capable of making one a saint!

At the current rate of accumulation, Li Hao estimated that simply lying still for three hundred years would suffice for him to condense into sainthood.

In the Land of Saints, three hundred years equated to three thousand years in the mortal world.

Three thousand years of incense power to cultivate a saint was relatively fast, primarily because the Great Yu Divine Dynasty was a populous nation, a mid-sized divine dynasty within the entire Eastern Desolation.

In contrast, for the small barbarian kingdoms surrounding Great Yu, it might take seven to eight thousand years, or even over ten thousand years, to cultivate a single saint through worship.

This was why the small barbarian kingdoms had never produced saints since ancient times.

After all, dedicating seven to eight thousand years of incense power to a single individual was almost impossible.

Political upheavals, court struggles, natural disasters, and human calamities would all disrupt faith.

Absorbing the faint strands of incense power drifting toward him daily, Li Hao couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia for the mortal world.

Incense power was extremely precious, yet Yu Huang had kept his promise.

Even to a saint, incense power was a highly desirable resource, leading saints to spread their teachings and gather faith.

The incense power Li Hao absorbed now could be used, requiring only his divine sense to ignite it. However, once burned, it would be gone forever. For those beneath the rank of saint, burning incense power was a desperate measure used in life-and-death situations.

Being forced to burn incense power in battle typically signaled an irreconcilable vendetta.

After achieving sainthood, however, the three sticks of incense would become perpetual. Even when ignited, the Saintly Dao would sustain them, akin to the steam in a sealed boiler, endlessly cycling.

At that point, saints could wield incense power freely in battle. Until then, it could only be accumulated but not utilized.

Now that his Dao Body had reached perfection, Li Hao’s physical body had been refined to an extraordinarily terrifying level. He had pursued Dao through his physical body, making his bones, blood, and flesh his Dao. His body alone could resist Dao techniques and divine abilities.

However, pursuing Dao through the body had its limitations: Li Hao could not yet manifest his will as law.

In simpler terms, though his cultivation had reached the perfection of the Dao Law Realm, he was not truly there yet.

Thus, it was.

The Body Dao was the path of refining the body, effectively condensing Dao Force and laws within oneself.

To manifest his will as law, Li Hao would need to elevate his mastery of Dao Manipulation to the ninth tier, enabling him to summon the winds and reverse rivers with a single thought.

When his Dao Body reached perfection, Li Hao realized that his physical strength had ceased to increase.

In his normal state, his physical strength remained at a constant million jins, fluctuating only slightly. This appeared to be the physical body’s limit.

It was only then that Li Hao understood the meaning of the phrase, “Human strength has its limits.”

This was no longer an issue of cultivation but a constraint of life itself.

Like a bottle filled to capacity with water, adding more would only cause it to overflow.

The physical body was the same; no matter how much more one cultivated or refined, the body itself had reached its peak—what could be called a state of becoming a god in the flesh.

“At the ultimate boundary... cultivation ends here!”

Through unrelenting effort, one could perfect a skill or ability.

But this represented the limit of effort, not the inherent limit of the thing itself. Most things in the world could not be reached, no matter how much effort was applied.

The ultimate boundary represented the limit of the thing itself. Even when walking the most flawless path, one could only reach the end, for there was no further road to take.

However, while Li Hao’s normal strength of a million jins had stabilized, the combination of Divine Force and his perfected Dao Body allowed him to briefly unleash ten times his usual strength. When paired with Dao Force, the explosive power was even more terrifying, capable of effortlessly shattering mountains and tearing apart the earth.

Most crucially, the Dao Force coursing through his entire body rendered him immune to the Dao techniques of others, allowing him to break myriad laws through sheer power.

Still, Li Hao felt that the current perfection of his Dao Body was not his ultimate limit.

Perhaps due to the nature of his Divine Blood, even after reaching perfection, his Dao Body could continue absorbing and converting Dao Force, integrating it into his Divine Blood.

His Divine Blood, like a sponge, absorbed vast amounts of Dao Force. The conversion capacity far exceeded that of others at the Dao Seeking Realm.

As time passed, the Dao Force within Li Hao’s Divine Blood grew increasingly abundant, becoming as deep and boundless as an ocean. His body contained ultimate-level power while also carrying unimaginable reserves of Dao Force.

Li Hao realized that cultivating the Body Dao might be one of the essential paths to reaching the limits of the Dao Seeking Realm—and even the ultimate boundary.

The ultimate boundaries of each martial path appeared interconnected, able to complement and influence one another. Li Hao could not imagine what kind of terrifying existence one might become if all paths were perfected. Even saints would likely pale in comparison, left far behind in the dust.

...

The days passed quietly and uneventfully.

Li Hao had grown accustomed to his life here, following a routine that revolved around three main activities.

The first was occasionally helping Lin Shanhai purify medicinal ingredients.

The second was converting Dao Force into his Divine Blood and cultivating on his own.

The third was spending time alone in his small courtyard, painting and sculpting as he immersed himself in self-reflection and comprehension.

The occasional interruptions came when he received invitations from alchemists to assist them.

With his unparalleled skill in culinary refinement and purification, Li Hao became highly sought after by alchemists. His lack of interest in alchemy and his affable, non-competitive nature made him a neutral figure that everyone welcomed in the alchemy circles.

Even alchemists who bore grudges against one another would refrain from hostility in his presence, treating Li Hao with nothing but smiles.

As a result, the reputation of the Qingfeng Dan Master spread widely, even among the disciples within the Sword Ancestor Holy Land.

Many disciples knew of this unique figure among alchemists. While there was debate over who among the alchemists possessed the highest skill in pill refinement, there was no dispute that Li Hao was the most well-liked.

This drew the attention of numerous inner sect prodigies, as well as some Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, who either visited him personally or sent emissaries bearing gifts to express goodwill.

After all, requesting a high-level alchemist to refine rare medicines typically required providing one’s own materials and obtaining the holy land’s approval. Success also depended on gaining the alchemist’s favor, which often involved offering them substantial benefits.

If the offering was insufficient, there was always the fear that the alchemist might not give their full effort—or worse, fail to refine the pill entirely, wasting the rare and precious materials.

Given the inherent high failure rate of alchemy, particularly with advanced divine pills, such incidents would be chalked up to bad luck.

Even if one were unlucky enough to face failure, they could only blame their own fate. No grievances could be directed at the alchemist.

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