Starting with being handed over to the Imperial Concubine, building a family with a thousand-year hi

It was barely enough to fill our stomachs.

"Godfather, I'll go start a fire and cook."

"Go."

While Cheng Ping'an was busy, Su Mu quietly dissolved a Body Tempering Pill in water and watched the child drink it. This was crucial for building a solid foundation and couldn't be skipped.

After a simple dinner, Cheng Ping'an went to bed early due to the drowsiness brought on by the effects of the medicine.

Su Mu sat cross-legged on his cold, hard bed, took out a Body Tempering Pill, and swallowed it without hesitation.

The pill felt warm at first after entering the stomach.

But after only a few breaths, the heat suddenly became violent!

It felt as if an invisible flame exploded inside my body, not warm, but scorching with a tearing sensation, frantically washing over every inch of my meridians and pounding against every bone!

"Well--!"

Su Mu groaned, a fine layer of cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead, his cheek muscles twitching slightly from the intense pain. He clenched his teeth, formed hand seals, and exerted all his strength to activate the rudimentary guiding technique recorded in the basic chapter of the "Imperial Supreme Body Technique," trying his best to guide the violent medicinal power.

This is a complete transformation, a metamorphosis, a preliminary leap in the level of life, and it is destined to be accompanied by pain.

Time passed slowly amidst the intense agony.

It took two full hours for the earth-shattering "war" within my body to gradually subside.

The pain receded like a tide, and Su Mu felt as if he had been pulled out of the water. His whole body was soaked in sweat, but an unprecedented sense of ease and strength also surged through his body!

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air with a slightly fishy smell, opened his eyes, and his eyes shone brightly, revealing an undisguised joy beneath his exhaustion.

I got out of bed and went to the quiet courtyard.

With a slight stretch of his muscles, a series of soft crackling sounds emanated from his body, as if rusty mechanisms had been revitalized. He could clearly feel that his strength, speed, and even his five senses had all increased significantly! His body felt light and agile, and his energy was abundant, as if he had suddenly shed a heavy burden of more than a decade.

He walked to the corner of the yard, where there stood a stubborn rock used to weigh down the pickled vegetable jar, which normally required considerable effort to move even a fraction of an inch. Now, he crouched down, gripped the base of the rock with both hands, and used his core strength—

Up!

He steadily lifted the bluestone, which weighed over 300 pounds, and raised it more than a foot off the ground!

"A Yellow-grade elixir, with such miraculous effects!" Su Mu gently put down the stone, his heart filled with excitement.

He then began practicing the "Wind Shadow Step" in the open space of the courtyard. His footwork was indeed much lighter and faster, and the sound of the wind he created was also much subtler, but it was still far from the realm described in the technique as "like a ghost, leaving no trace on the ground".

"It's not that I didn't try hard enough," Su Mu stopped, his mind clear as a mirror, "it's just that my foundation is too shallow, and I have no internal strength at all, so I can't support the true essence of this exquisite footwork. Without enough power to drive it, I can only ever learn the superficial aspects."

Improving our strength is the most important task at present!

After adjusting his breathing and washing off the grime with well water, Su Mu returned to the quiet room.

He held his breath and, following the unique method recorded in the introductory chapter of the "Imperial Supreme Body Technique," attempted his first formal "Qi-inducing" practice.

For those with mediocre martial arts talent and no teacher to guide them, the very first step of "entering stillness" and "perceiving the spiritual energy of heaven and earth" is enough to stop most people. Only by successfully introducing a trace of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body through the breathing techniques recorded in specific cultivation methods, and nourishing the meridians, can one truly step into the "Qi-Inducing Realm" and become a martial artist.

As a peak Heaven-rank cultivation technique, the "Imperial Supreme Body Technique" naturally possesses an incredibly profound introductory breathing method. Not only is its efficiency in drawing in ordinary spiritual energy far superior to that of ordinary techniques, but more uniquely, it can sense and absorb a trace of the "Imperial Dragon Qi" drifting between heaven and earth!

Using the imperial dragon energy as a guide, one can forge the foundation of an unparalleled domineering body—this is the core and domineering aspect of this technique!

However, the imperial aura is ethereal and sparse, almost impossible to find in ordinary places. It is only relatively concentrated in the center of dynastic power and the places where emperors reside.

Being in the Great Xia Imperial Palace was undoubtedly Su Mu's greatest advantage. However, his cultivation aptitude was truly ordinary, and he had no experience whatsoever. Even with the Body Tempering Pill improving his physique to some extent, this initial hurdle remained difficult.

He cleared his mind of all distractions, immersing himself completely in the strange breathing rhythm, trying to capture the faint energy of heaven and earth, and the even more elusive aura of imperial power...

The night was long and the small room was quiet.

Only a faint yet tenacious aura was slowly circulating, attempting to knock on the door to a completely new world.

The imperial aura, ethereal and mysterious, is a manifestation of the nation's destiny and the emperor's will in the unseen realm, extremely rare to find in ordinary mountains and rivers. Only in the capital city of a country, especially in the inner palace—the core of power and the emperor's residence—will a trace of it condense, though it is still faint and difficult to detect, after years of being worshipped by the people and imbued with the emperor's aura.

The Great Xia Imperial Palace where Su Mu resides is undoubtedly the best breeding ground for this energy.

However, his own martial arts aptitude was truly mediocre, and he had absolutely no cultivation experience. Even though consuming the Body Tempering Pill had initially improved his physique and enhanced his affinity for the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, mastering the unique and profound breathing techniques of the *Imperial Supreme Body Technique* remained difficult. He concentrated completely, his mind immersing itself in that strange rhythm, meticulously sensing the most subtle changes in the flow of energy within his body, attempting to capture that elusive imperial aura…

Until the early hours of the next day, as dawn broke in the east, a faint wisp of purple light seemed to seep through the window with the sunlight.

Right now!

Su Mu was suddenly inspired, and his breath and mind finally achieved a perfect synchronization. A warm current, a hundred times finer than a strand of hair, yet carrying an indescribable sense of nobility and weight, was actually drawn out from the surrounding void and slowly sank into his dantian along a specific meridian path!

It worked!

Although it was only a trace, and it subsided instantly and could not be sustained, it undoubtedly proved that he had initially mastered the introductory breathing method of the "Imperial Supreme Body Technique"!

What remains is persistent, meticulous work, and... the accumulation of resources.

The core of the Qi Induction Realm lies in "drawing spiritual energy into the body," transforming external spiritual energy into one's own internal strength. With abundant spiritual energy, this accumulation process can be greatly accelerated.

Without hesitation, Su Mu took out a Spirit Essence Pill and swallowed it.

The pill melted instantly upon entering his mouth, and a pure, gentle torrent of spiritual energy, requiring no effort to purify, surged into his limbs and bones in an instant, more than ten times more efficient than what he could draw from the world on his own!

He immediately activated his cultivation technique, guiding the spiritual energy along the familiar path to circulate throughout his body, gradually transforming it into his own internal energy, nourishing and expanding his fragile meridians.

Time flies by while I am diligently cultivating myself.

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

After consuming a full ten Spirit Essence Pills, supplemented by three Body Tempering Pills to further solidify the foundation of the physical body—

At midnight, all was quiet.

Within Su Mu's dantian, the originally fine and intermittent internal energy finally accumulated to a certain critical point and suddenly trembled!

Like a dam opening its gates, all rivers flow into the sea. All internal energy surges and converges spontaneously, condensing and compressing at the center of the dantian, ultimately transforming into a single drop of crystal-clear true essence, like a liquid pearl!

The true essence spun around, generating its own suction force, more efficiently drawing in the remaining spiritual energy of the elixir within the body, and began to slowly and steadily absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the outside world.

Primordial Realm, broken!