The Path No One Saw

Chapter 8: Beyond the Veil of Flesh

The morning wind carried the scent of wet earth, moss, and crushed herbs as Wu Yuan sat quietly beneath the old spirit tree in the courtyard. Mist curled around the garden's edges, soft and watchful, like the mountain was holding its breath.

The sky above was painted in muted grays, but his thoughts ran deeper—darker, like thunderclouds gathering behind his eyes.

Today, he turned inward.

The murmurs of the previous day's clan ceremony, the sidelong glances, the pitiful stares—none of it mattered now.

Laid before him was the jade scroll, still opened to its final page.

But it wasn't the clan's breathing exercises that gripped his focus.

It was the system's Heaven-Level cultivation manual:

Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction

Its thunderous lines still rang in his skull:

Lightning does not flow—it strikes.

Wu Yuan exhaled softly, eyes narrowing. With a thought, he reopened the technique in his mind, attempting once more to decipher it.

Yet again, his understanding slipped.

The technique didn't contain many words—only a brief introduction. Most of it was composed of intricate diagrams, swirling meridian paths, and strange symbols etched in an ancient script. The words themselves seemed to shift subtly each time he read them, as if the meaning wasn't fixed, but shaped by the reader's understanding. Even with the clarity honed from his past life, it remained distant, alien—like a language half-remembered from a dream long forgotten.

"How can this be so difficult?" he muttered. "I've lived two lives. I survived a lightning strike. And yet this… this is beyond me?"

His hands tightened into fists on his knees.

He stared at the open manual in front of him, the swirling diagrams and shifting script offering no comfort—only silence.

"What am I missing?"

The courtyard was quiet, save for the distant murmur of wind through trees and the soft hiss of mist rolling past the stone walls. The spirit tree above didn't answer. The sky didn't shift.

No guidance. No hint. No path forward.

Only the overwhelming weight of something just out of reach.

"Is this really what it takes to become strong?" he said under his breath. "No shortcuts. No grace. Just this... constant struggle?"

No answer came from the heavens.

Then—a memory surfaced. Sharp. Clear.

System Points: 24

He blinked.

Of course. The system.

He still had SP.

And there it was.

In the corner of the shop menu, a previously gray icon now pulsed with pale golden light:

Temporary Clarity Scroll – 10 SP

Description: ???

The name alone was enough. Wu Yuan purchased it without hesitation.

Purchased: Temporary Clarity Scroll

Remaining SP: 14

A roll of parchment appeared in his hand, warm to the touch, glowing faintly as if stitched from threads of dawn.

No inscription. No complex glyphs. Just a quiet stillness.

He unrolled it.

At once, his mind cleared.

It was like plunging into a still lake after days in a storm. The scattered thoughts, residual fatigue, even the doubts—they evaporated. The world around him dulled, muted. His inner world sharpened into crystal clarity.

System Update: Clarity Scroll has been consumed. New Description Available.

Temporary Clarity Scroll: Clears all mental fatigue and enhances comprehension speed by one major tier. Can be repurchased multiple times.

Wu Yuan didn't spare the notification a second glance.

His mind was already immersed.

Lightning danced across his senses—not chaotic, but patterned, musical, devastating.

Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction

It was violent.

That was the only word that truly captured it.

Where most cultivation manuals gently eased Qi through defined paths, Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction demanded lightning be torn into the bones.

Yes—the bones.

The dantian was bypassed entirely in the beginning. This method forged a new path: one that tore open dormant nerve lines, awakened lightning-sensitive meridians that most cultivators didn't even know existed.

Every cycle of cultivation didn't just refine Qi.

It shattered the body—and reforged it stronger.

More shocking than its brutality was this:

It could be practiced right now.

Even in the Body Tempering Realm.

Wu Yuan stared at the floating golden diagrams forming in his mind. Complex arrays mapped out energy veins across the skeletal structure, lightning circuits glowing with condensed fury.

It felt like heresy.

And yet it was perfect.

 "The Wu Clan doesn't even have a real cultivation method for Body Tempering," Wu Yuan whispered. "Just breathing techniques and movement forms."

Even the manual his father gave him wasn't meant for use until Spirit Initiation.

That had never made sense—until now.

His father didn't expect him to use it.

Only to find inspiration.

"But this… this is a real method. This is a weapon."

If he could activate even the first cycle, his body would begin transforming into a living conductor. Muscles would compress and pulse Qi. Nerves would spark like divine wires.

And with every repetition—

His body would be tempered by lightning.

"If I can fully grasp this… I'll reach Spirit Initiation in ten days."

A laugh escaped him—half disbelief, half hunger.

That sort of speed?

Even noble scions with imperial backing would envy it.

He leaned back slightly, letting the information flow and settle. The footnotes in the scroll and the system's appended explanations outlined the great stages of cultivation.

Body Tempering → Spirit Initiation → Qi Condensation → Foundation Establishment → Core Formation → Nascent Soul

Each wasn't just a stage—it was a fortress.

And fewer and fewer ever climbed past the next.

Body Tempering was where it all began.

Here, the cultivator forged their body into a vessel. There was no true Qi manipulation yet—only preparation. Strengthening muscle, bone, and skin through grueling physical trials.

Martial drills. Cliff runs. Beast hunts. Meditation under crashing waterfalls.

For the wealthy: spiritual medicine baths, Qi-infused herbs, body-hardening pills.

But even among them, no one dared touch a true Qi Pill before Level 4 of Body Tempering.

To do so meant death.

"Blood would boil. Meridians would rupture. Bones would collapse under pressure."

"Only geniuses can survive that early," Wu Yuan mused. "Geniuses… like me."

Most commoners only began consuming pills at Level 7.

But Wu Yuan?

He had this brutal, tailored cultivation manual—and backing from the Wu Clan. Even if they weren't on the level of Verdant Kingdom, their resources would still fuel his rise.

Everything is different now.

The Great Wall of Core Formation

His mind wandered to the higher stages.

Spirit Initiation allowed the cultivator to sense Qi in the environment.

Qi Condensation allowed them to draw it inward, refining it.

Foundation Establishment formed the continuous internal circuit—where true cultivation began.

But after that…

Came the wall.

Core Formation.

It didn't matter how talented you were, how ancient your techniques, how perfect your elemental affinity.

To form a Core was to compress all your Qi into a single, radiant golden sphere.

A second heart.

Failure meant spiritual collapse.

"Even Wu Lingtian—the Clan Leader," Wu Yuan whispered, his fingers tightening.

He remembered now. His mother's words. The way she had spoken of Lingtian.

"He reached the peak of Foundation Establishment. But never stepped beyond."

And his father?

Wu Lin.

Also Foundation Establishment.

Just half a step behind the Clan Leader.

Frozen before the wall.

"And Grandfather…"

A pause.

A shiver.

His mother's voice returned to him.

Your grandfather reached Core Formation… but vanished after that."

The man who once led the clan—who stood proud before even Verdant Hill's top powers—gone without a trace.

"Did he die during breakthrough?" Wu Yuan murmured. "Or did something worse happen?"

He didn't know.

But he could feel the weight of that realm pressing down even now.

"One day," he whispered, "I'll break that wall."

"And shatter whatever lies beyond it."

No more musing.

He returned to the technique.

The clarity granted by the scroll still lingered, and he began the first cycle of Heaven-Eating Pulse Conduction.

He chanted softly.

Unbeknownst to him, the chaotic lightning from his past life stirred within his marrow.

And it moved.

He focused on the technique's instructions, mentally tracing the described flow.

The first step was clear: gather essence at the base of the spine, then guide it upward through the central meridian toward the crown of the head.

And at first, it felt like it was working.

A sharp pain ignited at the base of his spine, distinct from anything he'd felt before. Alive. Potent.

"I almost fainted from it," he whispered.

"There. That must be it," Wu Yuan thought, steadying his breath.

But then… nothing happened.

No upward surge. No movement. No circulation.

The spot that had moments ago blazed with blood-wrenching agony fell eerily silent—vanishing into stillness, as if it had never existed at all.

His focus faltered.

And then—a new sensation.

A subtle movement, not in his spine, but at the top of his head.

He frowned.

"What? That's… not what the diagram shows."

The energy was forming—but in the wrong place. Backward. Uncontrolled. Or maybe… something else entirely.

But why?

He stared blankly ahead, trying to make sense of it—but there was nothing in the manual to explain this.

"Am I doing it wrong? Or is… something wrong with me?"

"Why…?" he whispered. "Why is it going in the wrong direction?"

Panic rose.

Had he misunderstood?

Was the technique broken?

He began doubting himself. Doubting the scroll. Doubting the system.

Then, a golden screen appeared before him.

System Notification

Mission Completed: First Time Cultivated

Reward: 5 SP

New Store Item Unlocked: Lightning Liquid

Cost: 5 SP

Description: While immersed in this liquid, circulating a lightning-type technique grants wonderful benefits. Especially effective during the Body Tempering Realm.

Wu Yuan blinked.

Then scowled.

 "Wonderful benefits?" he muttered. "Seriously?"

He stared up at the sky in frustration.

 "Other transmigrators get immortal-grade systems, cheat artifacts, and divine bloodlines. It's been three years for me—and this broken system can't even give me proper item descriptions?"

Still, despite his frustration, he sighed in relief.

The mission completion proved one thing.

The technique hadn't failed.

It worked.

"Tch. Fine," Wu Yuan grumbled. "Let's try your so-called wonderful liquid then."

He opened the system store and confirmed the purchase.

[Purchased: Lightning Liquid][Remaining SP: 14]

A glowing bottle materialized beside him, faintly humming, its contents swirling with thin streaks of stormlight—like lightning trapped in liquid form.

The usage instructions were simple: mix it into a barrel of water and soak the body directly.

Wu Yuan narrowed his eyes, then stood and began preparing exactly as instructed.

No hesitation. No guesswork.

If this was the next step, he'd take it head-on.

"One more cycle. Let's see what these 'wonderful benefits' really are."

And with that, he took the first step beyond flesh—into lightning.