Chapter 43: The Changed Future
Inside the Lieyang Martial Arts Hall, Yuan Dang felt a wave of relief wash over him as he listened to the hall master’s scolding.
Taking the opportunity to de-escalate, he shot Fang Can a pitiful look. His meaning was clear: he was silently begging Fang Can to stop paying him so much attention, lest the hall master’s tirade continue.
Fang Can clicked his tongue softly in boredom. Seeing the disciple’s reaction, he lost all interest in finding out more.
Watching the crowd patiently attempting to gain enlightenment, Fang Can sat on the Grandmaster’s Chair, utterly bored, and continued to exert the pressure of his Heart Image upon them.
Since this wasn’t the large-scale output required for a life-or-death battle, and since Fang Can could recover his energy just by basking in the sun, his expenditure and recovery remained relatively balanced.
Driven by boredom, Fang Can decided to make use of the time and practice the *Taming Tiger and Dragon Golden Body* cultivation technique.
According to the cultivation technique’s description, it was a method that caused the epidermis to constantly vibrate, generating an intangible Gang Qi on the skin’s surface.
When practiced to a high realm, the skin would be in a constant state of slight undulation.
At that point, even blades and axes would be violently repelled by the extremely resilient skin. It could be called a superior technique for Blood Qi-type Martial Artists before the Heaven-Ascending Road, as it could be activated without any Inner Strength.
The reason for the existence of Blood Qi Martial Artists was that while this world’s cultivation system was called the Martial Dao, its underlying "wish-granting" mechanism for every person meant that all sorts of bizarre powers could exist.
Things like geomagnetic power, flesh and blood locks, divine domains, Dou Qi, Magic, Daoists, Buddhist power, karmic merit, and even poetry, song, and art—almost every kind of system existed.
Who the hell knew what wishes people would make, or what cultivation techniques they would manifest?
However, only after reaching the Heaven-Ascending Road could a Martial Artist store and release energy from within their body.
Therefore, "late-game" paths like Magic Masters, True Qi-based Martial Artists, the school of poetry, and Daoists were not particularly strong during the Transcendent Body stage.
Martial Artists who weren’t 100% confident in reaching the Heaven-Ascending Road mostly chose the Blood Qi Martial Dao or the Dou Qi system. They would systematically train their physical bodies and then look for a chance to make that ultimate leap.
So, before the Transcendent Body stage, the "stat monsters" were more favored.
The "mechanics monsters," on the other hand, needed to develop until the late game. Ninety percent of Martial Artists chose the "stat" path, since they had no confidence they could develop into the late game.
Leaning back slowly in the Grandmaster’s Chair, Fang Can released his Heart Image while simultaneously causing his skin to tremble, imitating the technique described in the manual to begin refining his epidermis.
As everyone knows, human skin cannot move freely on its own.
But this was the goddamn Martial Dao of the mind. As long as you were sincere enough and your realm was high enough, forget about trivial things like human anatomy—you could change the very laws of the universe.
Secretly using his blood qi to stimulate his flesh and blood, Fang Can actually managed to make the skin on his fingers start to vibrate minutely. The frequency was just very slow, about once or twice per second, and the amplitude was only one micrometer.
According to the cultivation technique’s requirements, to reach a passing grade, one’s skin had to achieve a vibration of at least eighty-one times per breath.
Feeling the rhythmic trembling of his skin, Fang Can’s thoughts began to wander. ’If I practice this to the extreme, achieving tens of thousands of vibrations per second, I could turn my body into a human-shaped high-frequency blade.’
’And why stop at just vibrating the skin? If I went deeper, to the cellular level, and made all the tens of trillions of cells in my body vibrate at a high frequency, wouldn’t that become Magnetic Field Rotation?’
But as this thought arose, he considered the time it would take to manifest such a reality and figured it wasn’t entirely out of the question.
He was also very curious about what kind of effect he would get by combining cellular vibration with the cell-deep *Great Sun Undying Demon Body*.
And so, straddling the Grandmaster’s Chair, Fang Can practiced this cultivation technique little by little.
After all, if he wanted to modify it, he first had to understand the martial art thoroughly. And right now, although he wasn’t using any elixirs, his cultivation was smooth and effortless thanks to the threefold boost to his aptitude that had been active since last night.
In the time it took for a single incense stick to burn, Fang Can had already managed to spread the vibration to his limbs and arms, though the frequency was still only once or twice per second.
But even at his current level, with just one more month of diligent practice, he could get his entire body—including his groin, the tips of his hair, his corneas, and his fingernails—into the high-frequency mode of eighty-one vibrations per breath.
’Why does it feel like I’m training my body to become a vibrator?’ Fang Can complained internally. ’At that point, with eighty-one high-frequency vibrations per second, even Kato Tsubasa would have to concede defeat.’
As time passed, Fang Can continued to release his Heart Image for a full hour. Feeling that it was about enough, he suddenly withdrew his Heart Image, and it was like he had just kicked a hornet’s nest.
"Please, Lord Fang, just a little more! I want to keep experiencing it."
"Lord, please release your Heart Image one more time! I’ll do anything, I’m begging you."
"Lord, your Heart Image is so pure! Just one more time, please, one more time!"
...
Looking at the Martial Artists before him, who looked like a bunch of addicts, Fang Can was a bit speechless.
But this group of Martial Artists didn’t care about their dignity at all. An opportunity like this—to have a Heart Image Martial Artist generously allow them to experience a Heart Image at their leisure—was a once-in-a-lifetime chance that would be of immense help to their Martial Dao.
Never mind begging; they would be willing to kowtow or even eat shit for it.
Even Ye Yonglie was now clutching Fang Can’s arm, tears streaming down his face as he lamented:
"I have lived a worthless fifty-six years, and I have only passed the Profound Gate Sixth Layer. I train diligently for twelve hours every day, just to barely keep my blood qi from declining."
"But my body grows older by the day. If I don’t awaken my Heart Image before I turn sixty, I fear I’ll never be able to advance another step in this life."
"My aptitude is mediocre. I have trained arduously in martial arts for over thirty years, wasting dozens of springs and autumns. If it were a matter of diligence, I should have awakened a Heart Image long ago! I only ask that you, little friend, grant my request. If I can awaken my Heart Image, I can die with no regrets."
By the end, Ye Yonglie’s face was a mess of snot and tears. He desperately clutched Fang Can’s collar, looking less like the master of a martial arts hall and more like a middle-aged man unable to let go of his obsession.
’Hmph, Master has gone senile. Crying and wailing like this, how disgraceful.’
Yuan Dang watched coldly from the side, having long forgotten that in his previous life, he had been even more pathetic than the hall master.
If it weren’t for Fang Can releasing cultivation techniques for all, he wouldn’t even have had the aptitude to cross the Heaven-Ascending Road.
’Next, Fang Can should refuse to stay. Then, the new Celestial Secret Tower rankings will be announced, and an enraged and humiliated Master will immediately report Fang Can’s situation to the Tiger Slaughter Sect, causing them to issue a bounty on him ahead of schedule.’
’Hunted by the entire world, Fang Can will lose an arm, a leg, and both his eyes. He’ll be driven to a dead end, but in just nineteen short days, he’ll break through the Ninth Layer of the Profound Gate and step onto the Heaven-Ascending Road.’
’Then, driven into a frenzy, he will slaughter tens of millions of living beings, including everyone in the martial arts hall, leading to the destruction of the Great Yan Country...’
’Only my senior sister, a few others, and I will survive by a stroke of luck, having been away at the time. To get revenge, we’ll train desperately, but we’ll only be able to watch as he soars higher and higher, right until my senior sister is taken from me.’
Thinking of this, Yuan Dang’s fear of Fang Can grew. ’This man’s terrifying power is beyond comprehension. I can’t oppose him head-on right now. I must bide my time and plan carefully.’
After the earlier stimulation, and without absolute confidence, he didn’t plan to change history. So, he just watched coldly, waiting for Fang Can to reject his master.
’I’m sorry, Master. This bastard Fang Can is despicable. This disciple won’t be able to care for you in your old age.’ Yuan Dang sighed internally, but then he suddenly heard...
"Uh, okay," Fang Can said, scratching his head with a smile. "I don’t have much going on recently anyway. I guess I can stay for a few days."
The moment these words were spoken, Yuan Dang felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him from above. He stood frozen on the spot.