The night sky was filled with countless stars. Evan Chu sat quietly on a patch of open ground in the rear garden of the City Lord’s Mansion, slowly practicing the family’s cultivation technique—the Violet Nether Star Art.
Specks of starlight poured into his body, and he entered a state of complete selflessness.
His body’s stellar force was already saturated, so the newly absorbed stellar force had nowhere to settle and began rampaging through his body.
At first, Evan didn’t notice anything unusual—just a faint swelling pain in his meridians.
But as time passed and more stellar force was absorbed, the swelling pain became increasingly intense, as if his meridians might burst.
“Why is this happening? Luna, what’s going on?” It was Evan’s first time encountering such a situation, so he couldn’t help but ask.
“Don’t you know it’s really annoying to be woken up?” Luna’s voice came, full of irritation.
“You need to sleep too?” Evan asked, enduring the pain.
“Of course! I do whatever I want, whenever I want. What’s it to you? Just bear with it—this is a rare chance for star-forging body tempering.
The more you can endure, the greater the benefits. It’s all about persistence!”
Evan Chu had heard of cultivators using stellar force to temper their bodies, but that was something only the truly powerful dared attempt—because stellar force was notoriously domineering.
One careless mistake could throw your meridians into chaos, even rupture them outright. It was incredibly dangerous.
Right now, Evan felt like he was riding a tiger—unable to get off no matter how much he wanted to. The stellar force rampaged through his meridians completely beyond his control.
The force surged faster and faster, and the pain became more and more unbearable. Evan gritted his teeth, hanging on for dear life.
Sweat soaked through his clothes long ago. More than once, Evan wanted to give up, but fate refused to let him off so easily.
Even if he stopped trying to absorb stellar force, it would still flood into his body on its own. The realization left him utterly shocked.
He wanted to ask Luna, but worried she’d just scold him. Still, a suspicion crept into his mind—could this have something to do with the Chaos Qi she’d mentioned?
Evan endured the agony alone in the garden. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the City Lord’s Mansion, another person was also fighting desperately to absorb stellar force.
Muttering under her breath, she cursed, “That damn guy! Because of him I’m stuck here risking my life to absorb stellar force. If he ever dares cross me again, I’ll make sure he pays.”
She added, “I wonder how he’s doing now. I heard he’s already awake. Is he also struggling to absorb stellar force like me?”
Evan couldn’t hear Jenny Sima’s words at all—right now, every ounce of his focus was locked on resisting the agony inside his body.
The stellar force he’d just absorbed suddenly dragged along the stellar force and Chaos Qi stored in his dantian, sending them rampaging through his meridians as well.
He could barely handle the absorbed stellar force alone—let alone the immense power and domineering Chaos Qi surging from his dantian.
In no time, the stellar force tore through Evan’s meridians like a raging storm, devastating them until nearly every channel was ruptured.
But that was just the beginning. With his meridians destroyed, the stellar force and Chaos Qi surged into his muscles next.
The pain nearly knocked Evan out. First time tempering his body, and his meridians were already ruined—luck like this was almost absurd.
The pain in his muscles was even worse than in his meridians. Evan could clearly see blood slowly seeping out from his torn flesh.
Within moments, his whole body was a bloody mess. His muscles started to crack open, and he could even glimpse the white of his own bones.
Looks like this time I really am doomed! Evan thought, despair washing over him as he felt his life force slipping away.
When all the blood in his body ran dry, that would be the end—death, no question.
Luna—the Sword Spirit—still hadn’t shown herself, which baffled Evan more than anything. He wanted to call out to her, but forced himself to hold back.
If Evan had taken a closer look at his body, he might not have felt so lost.
His torn muscles and ruptured meridians were slowly knitting themselves back together. The process was slow, but undeniably real.
Now, the stellar force and Chaos Qi inside him had stopped their wild rampage. Instead, they flowed in steady circuits through his body, and with each pass, his wounds healed a little more.
Bit by bit, Evan realized the soul-tearing pain was fading. Seeing his split muscles mend before his eyes left him utterly speechless.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually all the pain vanished, replaced by a surge of raw power flooding every inch of his body.
A rank stench hit him, making Evan nearly retch. His whole body was coated in a layer of black, greasy filth, mixed with dried blood.
What shocked him most was that his shattered meridians had miraculously healed—and they were noticeably wider than before.
“I’ve got to find somewhere to wash this junk off—this stench is unbearable!” Evan muttered to himself.
If only he could see himself now—apart from his eyes, his whole face looked like it’d been smeared with coal, pitch-black and unrecognizable.
Anyone who saw him right now would probably think they’d stumbled on a ghost.
The City Lord’s Mansion was huge, but Evan barely knew his way around. He didn’t dare wander off—if someone mistook him for a thief, especially looking like this, he’d be in serious trouble.
It was still dark, so there wasn’t much he could see. Evan wandered through the rear garden, searching for water, until he finally spotted a pond not far away.
The pond was overflowing with lotuses. Even though the blooming season was long past, the leaves and stems were still thick and lush.
Without a second thought, Evan jumped right in—the stench on his body had pushed him to his limit. All he wanted was to wash off the grime as fast as possible.
The water wasn’t very deep, just waist-high. Evan quickly stripped off his filthy clothes and started scrubbing himself clean.
“Man, that feels good!” he couldn’t help exclaiming.
“I have to say, you’re a total freak. In just this short time, you’ve healed completely—anyone else would need at least three or five days.” Luna chimed in, her tone blunt and amused.
Evan was enjoying his bath when Luna’s voice suddenly echoed in his head, making him jump.
“Luna, can’t you wait until I’m done washing? I’m taking a bath here—doesn’t that mean you’re seeing me completely naked?” Evan blurted out, suddenly realizing the problem.
“You didn’t complain when you were getting intimate with Roxanne Lin, did you? What’s the big deal—there’s nothing to be embarrassed about!” Luna shot back, her fierce side showing.
“You… you…” Evan stammered, completely at a loss for words.
“Hahaha! That’s the best—watching you squirm never gets old!”
“Just wait—when you finally help me get my body back, I swear I’ll watch you right back! I won’t let you down!” Evan nearly added something about showing her the power of his Pure Yang Qi.
But then he remembered how mad she’d gotten last time, so he quickly changed the subject.
“Save it for when you’re strong enough to restore my body! Right now, you’ve reached the first level of Starforge Body—once you break through all nine layers, maybe no one in the world will be able to match you.”
Evan stopped, stunned. Luna’s words about the Starforge Body and his future potential sent his mind spinning once again…