Chapter 282: Earth Stage

Although Wang Wei just got out of seclusion, he still went back in to prepare for the fight against Lin Fan. He was confident that he would win but still decided to take it seriously. After all, a lion has to use all his strength even when hunting a rabbit.

After sitting in the lotus position, Wang Wei began to check his body and cultivation. Since the [Ancient Desolate Body Refining Scripture] allowed him to temper his body, the human stage of the Divine Body Realm means little to him.

Nevertheless, there are notes on this scripture explaining how to take advantage of his cultivation realm to further temper the body.

According to traditional medicine theories, the human body has 5 Zhang organs and 6 Fu organs, which are also connected to one another. The 5 Zhang organs are the heart, lungs, kidneys, livers, and spleen.

The 6 Fu organs are the small intestine, the large intestine, gallbladder, urinary bladder, stomach, and lastly, san jiao also known as triple energizer.

Additionally, the organs follow the theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements Balance. The Zhang Organs are Yin in nature, while the Fu organs are Yang in nature.

The heart (fire) is connected to the small intestine, the lung (metal) is connected to the large intestine, the liver (wood) is connected to the gallbladder, the spleen (earth) is connected to the stomach, and the kidney (water) is connected to the urinary bladder.

According to the [Ancient Desolate Body Refining Scripture], Wang Wei has to temper all his Zhang organs to perfection, then the energy of these organs will in turn strengthen the Fu organs.

However, many people of the past that have cultivated this scripture found it more useful to use the Divine Body Realm to actually temper the Fu organs, thus further strengthening the fleshly body to a more powerful and perfect state.

So, that's what Wang Wei did during his retreat on top of refining his Proven Dao Artifact. Now that he succeeded in his task, he can now step into the Earth Stage of the Divine Body Realm.

In this stage, cultivators have to use their Good Fortunate Flame to open their Nine Orifices--which are the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, external genitals, and anus.

Of course, the Orifices are not referring to these body parts, but to "hidden gates" in the human body located in these locations. These gates are like restrictions or inhibitors in the human body, and by opening them, humans can slowly uncover their potential and ascend to higher beings or lifeforms.

Additionally, the process of opening these gates is a way of cleansing the spirit until it reaches a state where it is one with the world, where it can process the way that the natural world functions and develops.

After closing his eyes, Wang Wei soon discovered 9 doors inside his body--located in the places of the orifices--that were glowing. However, he soon discovered that one of his gates seemed weaker than the others and he knew the reason for that.

The Nine Orifices are linked to the Zhang Organs. Without properly tempering them in the human stage, cultivators are unable to open the orifices in the Earth Stage.

As for him, his organs have been tempered beyond the required level. Nevertheless, his heart--without absorbing the needed material--does not equal in strength to his other organs, hence the reason that the Orifice linked to it is so weak compared to the others.

So, he ignored that one for now and focused on the other ones. According to his knowledge, these Nine Orifices can also be open with spiritual qi between Heaven and Earth, but it is better to use the Good Fortune Flame.

Wang Wei began to open the Gates to the Ears, Genitals, and Anus Orifices. The reason was that these orifices are linked to the kidney, so it is possible to open them all in a very short period of time.

After slamming open the Gate in the Ears Orifice, mysterious energy rushed out to baptize Wang Wei's entire body.

The process only lasted for a brief moment, but immediately afterward, Wang Wei could hear things a few kilometers away. It took him a moment to control that ability.

After opening his Genital Orifice, his Primordial Yang Energy dramatically increased, thus further increasing his blood energy, thus, in turn, increasing the strength of his fleshly body. 

Of course, the only thing in his mind after that was: 'Maybe I can finally keep up with the wife. Oh, how hard it is to be and have a powerful girlfriend.'

Lastly, Wang Wei opened his Anus Orifice. Now, he is no longer required to defecate anymore. Although this kind of thing was no longer applicable to him before, that was only because of spiritual qi and the fact that his stomach could process all the nutrients he took in. Now, he just had the natural ability or instinct not to ever go to the bathroom again.

By the time Wang Wei was finished, a month had already passed and it was time for his battle with Lin Fan. After looking at the changes that occurred in his body, Wang Wei muttered: "Not bad."

Of course, he was just being ridiculous. The speed at which he opened these Orifices is unheard of. This is a process that usually takes decades if not hundreds of years. The only reason that he could open 3 in just one month was because of how powerful his body is and because he used all the accumulation he had beforehand.

In the future, the process will not be so easy. Although he will be faster than most of his peers, it will still not be that fast.

After leaving his seclusion, he headed straight for the fighting site. For protection reasons, this battle did not take place in any of the Domains belonging to either of these factions.

…

Lin Fan looked at Wang Wei standing across from him with a serious look on his face.

'Wait,' thought Lin Fan to himself. 'His aura, that's the aura of the Earth Stage of the Divine Body Realm. I just finished tempering my skin in the Human stage, how come he's already in the Earth Stage?'

His mind rapidly calculated, 'It should be because of his fleshly body; it should have been tempered to withstand the Power of Law long ago. In that case, should I rush to quickly go through the human stage? No, I need to establish a firm foundation.

'The final destination of all of us is to become Great Emperor, and without the Heaven Will, the highest cultivation level we can reach is the Quasi-Emperor Realm. So, it doesn't matter who gets there first.'

Lin Fan took a deep breath to reign his thoughts and calm himself down.

'According to the Academy, Wang Wei is a person that does everything with a purpose, so there must be a reason for him to challenge me out of nowhere. I need to discover that purpose, while at the same time try to gauge his level of strength.'

Meanwhile, Wang Wei also checked out his opponent; he could see a level of calmness and confidence that was not there before.

"I'm surprised that you accepted my challenge despite knowing that you have no chance of winning. I thought you would say something like you will accept my challenge 10 years from now, then go on an adventure to get stronger.

"After countless life and death situations, your strength would have reached an unimaginable level. Then, you will defeat me and reclaim your lost honor."

"Wait," said Wang Wei as he crossed his left arm and placed his right hand under his chin. Then, he started caressing his non-existing beard.

"I think I got it all confused. This only happens after the villain easily defeats the main protagonist and beats him like a dead dog. So, this should happen after the fight."

Then, Wang Wei seemed to realize something.

"Why am I the villain in this scenario? If there is going to be a protagonist then, it should be. As for Lin Fan, he should be one of the lesser villains that shows how awesome I am to the reader."

Meanwhile, the few spectators in this battle were quite speechless, especially Lin Fan. The odd thing was that he knew that he could actually say something like that if he lost the match.

Once again taking a deep breath to calm down, Lin Fan said: "If you are trying to rile me up before the match, don't waste your time. I've learned from my mistake."

"Is that so?" replied Wang Wei. "But that will still not change the fact that you will lose miserably today."

"Any battle is constantly changing, so there is no 100% guarantee that a person will win. Plus, so what if I lose? Just like Ji Song used to say, one failure means nothing to us. The only thing that truly matters is who gets to sit in that throne at the very end."

"Haha," laughed Wang Wei out loud. "You are correct. I have to say, my evaluation of you has risen after this encounter. Nevertheless, come get this ass-whooping."

Meanwhile, Yan Chen secretly shook his head after hearing this. His young master can be as graceful as a Sovereign, as overbearing as a Tyrant, as prose as a Sage, or as vulgar as a Street Vagabond.

'Well, I guess his personality fits his pursuit of being free and unfettered; if he desires, he can be all these things or none of them.'