The Primordial Path of Kong Xuanming

The Nine Revolutions Undying Life and Death Profound Art has extremely demanding conditions for cultivation. It requires the practitioner to undergo at least nine trials of death, each time doubling their martial arts cultivation, and so on. However, cultivating this technique demands the destruction of all one's cultivation, leaving only the technique itself. This is utterly intolerable for some powerful individuals who have already reached a certain level of mastery. For Yan Nanfei, although his skill is profound, he has only been cultivating for a few decades, so restarting wouldn't waste much time. However, because the Nine Revolutions Undying Life and Death Profound Art's energy absorption is too domineering and could cause significant phenomena, Yan Nanfei changed his seclusion location to an asteroid far from Earth.

The first step in cultivating the Nine Revolutions Life and Death Profound Art is to disperse one's internal energy, severing all seven meridians and eight extraordinary vessels in the body, and using all the true energy within to temper the physical body. Following the mental instructions for the first step is a message from the founder: This step is extremely dangerous, with only six out of ten surviving. Those without unwavering will must not attempt to cultivate this profound art.

Severing one's internal energy is no easy feat. To sever one's own seven meridians and eight extraordinary vessels renders one practically a cripple, making it impossible to practice martial arts. Anyone with even a basic understanding of martial arts would disbelieve this technique. If it were to spread, the number of people choosing to learn it would be no more than a handful. Most people would immediately give up upon seeing even the first step, let alone the first level of its mental cultivation. However, for Yan Nanfei, severing his own seven meridians and eight extraordinary vessels was a trivial matter. Decades of research into life cells had given him a thorough understanding of the most minute details of the human body. In his understanding, the more demanding and bizarre the conditions for mastering such a technique, the more terrifying its power would be once completed.

"Ah!" Yan Nanfei roared in extreme pain, his voice echoing through the heavens. Thousands of strands of blood seeped from his pores, even from his eyes, nose, and ears. This extreme pain was unbearable, even for someone who considered himself a tough man. In just a few moments, a pool of blood had accumulated beneath him.

With all his internal energy depleted, Yan Nanfei endured the excruciating pain and began circulating the first stage of the Nine Revolutions Life and Death Profound Art within his body. The first stage of the Nine Revolutions Life and Death Profound Art dictates that life and death are determined by fate. This is an extremely profound technique, and just reciting the incantation in his mind significantly lessened the physical pain. Soon, the miraculous effects of the first stage manifested. His severed meridians seemed to be infused with vitality, new flesh sprouting from the broken ends. These sprouts intertwined, quickly mending one severed meridian. The mending process was still extremely painful. The reason Yan Nanfei named this technique the Nine Revolutions Undying Life and Death Profound Art is because the pain during this foundation-building phase is unbearable for ordinary people, and compared to the pain of later cultivation, it is child's play.

Another month passed, spent in silent meditation, neither speaking nor moving. During this month, all the meridians in his body finally connected. When the last meridian connected, a weak true qi miraculously appeared within him. Although this true qi was very weak, only as thin as a thread, it was extremely pure, tens of thousands of times purer than the true qi he had originally cultivated.

The purer the true qi, the greater its power; this is common knowledge among martial artists.

The first stage of the Life and Death Mantra could be considered complete. All that remained was to increase the purity and quantity of the internal energy. Now, the most crucial part of the first stage arrived. Yan Nanfei unhesitatingly began circulating the energy within his body. Suddenly, the originally fluid internal energy became stagnant, its circulation speed dropping to one-thousandth of its original rate. A pressure condensed in his chest, almost suffocating him.