Hermit in the Mountains

After completing a cycle of withering and flourishing, one enters the skin-refining stage, wielding immense strength and acquiring the withering and flourishing armor to achieve bronze skin.

Gu Changsheng experienced the joy of cultivation, and from then on, he cultivated, cultivated, and cultivated again every day, trying to deduce the techniques in his mind. Occasionally, he would take an hour or two to eat and farm.

He has replaced sleeping with meditation. He found that meditating at night to absorb the "moonlight" made him more energetic than sleeping, as if he had begun to develop the characteristics of a tree.

In the morning, there are two wisps of "purple aura," and at night, two wisps of "imperial nectar." During the day, he goes to the surrounding forest to absorb the "power of decay" from dead trees and the "power of prosperity" from other trees.

These four types of spiritual energy only require a few strands to be absorbed each day, yet their effects are the best.

"Purple Qi," "Imperial Dew," "Power of Withering," and "Power of Glory" are like precious tonics, while wood-attribute spiritual energy and other attribute spiritual energy are like ordinary energy needed by the body in daily life.

If absorbing wood spiritual energy for a day is equivalent to 'one' spiritual energy point, then the four strands of 'purple energy' and 'emperor's nectar' combined are also comparable to 'one' spiritual energy point.

There are more 'Power of Withering' and 'Power of Flourishing', and I can absorb eight strands a day, which is roughly equivalent to 'one' spiritual point.

By making good use of the time difference, he can double his cultivation speed every day.

However, these special spiritual energies are not unlimited.

The "purple aura" only appears at the moment the sun rises each day, and it disappears in an instant. If you lose focus for even a moment, you will miss the "purple aura" for that day.

The same applies to the "Imperial Dew," which condenses at midnight every day. Its production is extremely rare, with only a trace within a 10-meter radius, and it falls into the earth at an extremely fast speed.

The Power of Withering and the Power of Glory were ultimately beneficial to him; the only drawback was that refining these two spiritual powers was very troublesome.

It's not possible to extract even a trace of "power of prosperity" from every tree, and similarly, the "power of decay" contained in dead wood is also relatively scarce.

The advantage is that he is located in the Qinling Mountains, where there are the most trees and dead trees.

With the blessing of these four special spiritual energies, Gu Changsheng maintained the 'Dao Seed' at one growth cycle per day.

On the morning of the eighth day after the first "transformation of withering and flourishing", he completed another "transformation of withering and flourishing".

This time, he didn't go into the mountains to break through again, since he was absorbing the "Power of Withering and Flourishing" every day.

Inside the wooden house, Gu Changsheng sat upright on the wooden bed, the transparent vortex funnel above his head dissipating.

The sunlight outside the window shone on him, making the white hair by his left ear glow, and his hair had grown quite a bit longer.

The grayish-white nails that had been cut off have grown back to five centimeters.

Gu Changsheng's eyelids twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes. The gray-white and emerald green colors flashed across his eyes once again.

He raised his hands and flipped them from side to side, then sighed as he looked at his long, gray fingernails.

"It's grown back."

He tapped his two fingernails together, and the crisp metallic sound had a more metallic quality, proving that the hardness had increased again.

He doesn't plan to cut them anymore, he'll leave them to see if they'll continue to grow after the third "withering and flourishing transformation".

He pulled a strand of white hair from his left ear with his right hand, and glanced at it from the corner of his eye. There was about 20% white hair on the left side of his forehead and back of his head.

If this trend continues, after three cycles of "withering and flourishing" (a process of transformation and rebirth), the hair on the left side of his head will basically turn white.

He glanced at the jet-black hair beside his right ear and a guess formed in his mind: 'After five cycles of withering and flourishing, his hair will definitely become half white and half black.'

Perhaps this is the outward manifestation of the balance between the forces of flourishing and decay.

He looked himself up and down, and apart from his hair and nails, there were no major changes.

There were many changes inside his body; his physical strength doubled, reaching an astonishing two thousand jin.

His physical strength broke through to one ton, and his blood and qi became even more vigorous. He didn't feel cold even wearing a thin training uniform in the snow.

He can genuinely lift an object weighing one ton; he's not a strongman doing squats, bench presses, or deadlifts.

He hadn't studied martial arts techniques or power generation skills, but with his solid physical foundation, he could easily double his explosive power.

The "withered and flourishing armor" inside the skin does not increase like the annual rings of a tree; it remains a single layer of "withered and flourishing armor," but its defense, resilience, and recovery ability have doubled.

The newly added "Withering Armor" appeared inside his muscles, greatly improving his tendon toughness, thereby enhancing his physical speed and explosiveness.

Gu Changsheng recalled the three strands of "Power of Withering and Flourishing" floating around the "Dao Seed" in his sea of ​​consciousness, and was speechless.

The more he thought about it, the more something seemed off. Wasn't he supposed to be a cultivator of immortality? Now he'd turned himself into a body refiner.

The art style is a bit off; it feels like it's gone from cultivating immortality to fantasy.

If it weren't for the three strands of "Power of Withering and Flourishing" in his sea of ​​consciousness, he would have really thought that his cultivation path had gone astray and that he had embarked on a fantasy path.

Before he condensed the 'True Dao Seed', he possessed the Yin Spirit. The mere mention of the Yin Spirit evokes thoughts of cultivating immortality and the ability to travel thousands of miles at night.

Look at him now, his physical strength is skyrocketing, his body is building up armor, and he's definitely a physical cultivator who's stacking up defense. Where is there even a trace of his immortal aura?

He guessed that each time the cycle of "withering and flourishing transforms into seed" occurred, his physical body would be covered with armor once. According to his understanding of the realm settings in the "Scripture of Withering and Flourishing", the cycle of transformation into seed, sprouting, seedling, tree, flowering and fruiting, and then transformation into seed again would repeat endlessly.

His physical body will be layered with armor infinitely, and it's no longer clear whether he's cultivating immortality and refining his body, or refining his body while cultivating immortality.

But this is great, high defense, high health, high attack, speed, endurance, and burst damage all in one, an invincible hexagonal warrior.

With the Rooting Technique activated, one stands firmly on the earth, absorbing earth energy to restore spiritual power, becoming as impregnable as an indestructible fortress.

After stacking the 'Withering and Flourishing Armor' twice, he can activate it to generate a transparent armor film on the surface of his skin, which can resist external attacks.

How strong is its defense? Try it and you'll know.

Gu Changsheng bent down and reached into the bedside table to take out a pair of scissors. Without activating the "Withering and Flourishing Armor", he lightly sliced ​​the back of his left hand with the blade of the scissors.

There was no cutting sensation on the back of my hand, and the white scratches disappeared after a few seconds.

He placed the scissor blades on the back of his hand and pressed repeatedly to increase the pressure, but even with a force of 100 jin (approximately 50 kg), he still couldn't pierce the skin.

His eyes hardened, and he slid the sharp scissors quickly and forcefully with his right hand, producing a sharp, metallic clang.

Only long white scratches remained on the back of my hand; not even a red scratch appeared.

He then vigorously slashed the back of his hand back and forth, occasionally stabbing it hard, producing a series of crisp "clanging" metallic sounds.

If outsiders saw this, they would think Gu Changsheng was a madman harming himself.

As his strength surpassed 200 jin, red marks finally appeared on his skin. In the end, he tested the "Withering and Flourishing Armor" and found that he was no longer afraid of ordinary swords and blades.

If he had followed the traditional path of cultivation for three months, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and opening his dantian and qi sea, he would probably have already entered the qi refining realm and could probably deduce one or two techniques.

He has now embarked on the path of attaining enlightenment at the first level, and the gains are enormous. The downside is that he needs more cultivation resources than ordinary cultivators.

The resources required double after each "withering and flourishing transformation".

"Woof woof woof.........."

The barking of the big yellow dog brought Gu Changsheng back to his senses. He threw the dulled scissors onto the bedside table and stepped barefoot onto the cold floor.

"What's wrong with Big Yellow?" he called softly as he walked.