57: Chapter 57 The Fifth Life, The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (Part 5)

Elder Zhang brought Chu Shi onto the Jinwu Flying Boat, not stopping his pace, and led him straight to the top level of the flying boat.

This was the core area of the entire flying boat, completely isolated from the noise of the lower levels, with a spacious and airy layout.

Surrounded by panoramic portholes on all sides, one could take in the magnificent view of the sea of clouds from ten thousand meters in the air at a glance; inside the cabin, it was so quiet that only the faint rustling of the gale winds brushing against the hull remained.

Walking to the end of the corridor, he led Chu Shi directly to an independent, luxurious compartment, located right next to his own living quarters.

"Nephew Chu," Elder Zhang said, smiling as he pushed open the compartment door and stepped aside to let Chu Shi enter first.

"It will take a full half-month to reach our Great Sun Holy Land."

"During this time, if you have any questions regarding cultivation or any needs, you can come find me next door at any time. Please, don't stand on ceremony with me."

He was crystal clear in his heart that Chu Shi possessed a Top-grade Root Bone and an Innate Flaming Sun Body.

As long as he didn't perish midway, there was a high probability that he would break through to the Silver Marrow Realm in the future and become a peer.

He might even have the chance to undergo blood exchange more than four times, break through to the mid-stage of the Silver Marrow Realm, and become a titan of a region.

Establishing a good relationship now and pulling him into his own faction was absolutely a sure-fire, profitable deal.

If it weren't for the fact that he only had the cultivation of the second transformation of the Blood Exchange Realm and was truly too embarrassed to take on such a genius as a disciple, he would have already brought up the matter of taking him as a disciple on the spot during the aptitude test.

Chu Shi naturally saw through his thoughts, but did not reveal a single shred of it on his face.

He only wore a look of perfectly calibrated flattery, his tone neither humble nor arrogant: "Thank you for your concern, Elder, I will keep it in mind."

After seeing Elder Zhang off, Chu Shi closed the compartment door and prepared to tidy up the furnishings in the room.

At this moment, the entire Jinwu Flying Boat suddenly emitted a deep, heavy hum; the gilded hull vibrated slightly, and then it slowly ascended.

In an instant, it broke through the low-altitude mist, tore through layers of cloud waves, and sped off in the direction of the Great Sun Holy Land.

His movements paused, and he simply abandoned the thought of tidying up the room, walking quickly to the floor-to-ceiling porthole.

Looking down, the familiar Canglan State city beneath his feet rapidly shrank in his field of vision.

The streets and houses gradually blurred into a mass, eventually shrinking into an inconspicuous black dot, disappearing completely beneath the churning sea of clouds.

Chu Shi raised his hand to push open half of the porthole; the biting high-altitude gale instantly rushed in, carrying the damp, cold chill from the depths of the sea of clouds.

Looking up, at the end of the sea of clouds, a morning sun was slowly leaping over the horizon.

The golden light spilling down covered the entire layer of clouds, and when it fell on him, it faintly echoed with the Flaming Sun power within his body, causing a very faint layer of warm golden halo to shimmer around him.

Gazing at the magnificent scene of the ten-thousand-mile sea of clouds and the rising sun before him, a surge of overwhelming pride, suppressed through several lifetimes of reincarnation, burst forth in the depths of his heart.

In this lifetime, with a Top-grade Root Bone and a Blazing Sun Body, along with an aptitude that was not in the least bit inferior.

With such dual-assets, plus the Great Sun Holy Land as a stepping stone.

How could he worry about being unable to break through the shackles of the martial path and touch the true pinnacle of martial arts?

Chu Shi withdrew his gaze from the distance, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the storage bag at his waist, his eyes containing only cold clarity.

He turned and returned to the inner cabin, locked the door behind him, and completely shut out the faint noises from outside.

This was a private cabin on the flying boat exclusively for disciples with top-grade aptitude.

It not only had an independent bathroom but also a small, specially partitioned training room.

Compared to the large dormitory where a dozen people were crammed into one room on the lower level, the conditions were more than a grade better.

On the table were neatly arranged items received when boarding the boat:

A copy of the "Great Sun Body Refining Technique," ten bottles of low-grade body refining ointment, and that jade plaque with the Jinwu pattern that Elder Zhang had given him earlier.

That was the proof of identity for an Inner Sect Disciple.

The Great Sun Holy Land had an iron rule: all disciples joining the sect must cultivate the sect's basic body refining technique from the very beginning.

They were not allowed to privately use family-inherited or other cultivation techniques; this was to avoid conflicts in cultivation techniques and impure foundations, which could lead to falling into the trap of becoming possessed by the devil.

The flying boat sped steadily through the sea of clouds, and in the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

Chu Shi sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion in the training room, his fingertips picking up a bottle of body refining ointment.

Opening the bottle stopper, the pale green ointment immediately emitted a rich herbal medicinal power, wrapped in wisps of heaven and earth origin energy.

He applied the ointment evenly over his limbs and body, then stood up, sank his waist, and planted his feet firmly, slowly unfolding a set of "Great Sun Body Refining Fist."

When the fist technique first started, it was as calm as water, but as the moves progressed, the fist wind became increasingly fierce and sharp.

Every punch thrown carried a sharp sound that tore through the air.

The airflow in the cabin was stirred by the fist momentum; wisps of medicinal power crept into his body through his pores, coordinating with the qi circulation route of the "Great Sun Body Refining Technique," polishing his skin, flesh, and tendons over and over again.

During these three days, he got up before dawn every day to practice the fist techniques and temper his body.

After training to his limit, he would then turn to practicing sword techniques and comprehending sword intent.

He only stopped to regulate his breath late at night, almost never leaving the cabin for even half a step.

The experience accumulated from his previous lives allowed him to precisely control every inch of change in his body, tempering his entire skin and membrane at a speed far exceeding that of ordinary people.

After three days of arduous cultivation, he had already firmly stepped into the early stage of the Tree Bark Realm, only a step away from the mid-stage.

Among the disciples who boarded the boat in the same batch, even those with the same top-grade aptitude as him, after these three days, most would have barely grasped the cultivation technique's incantations and just touched the threshold of preliminary body refining.

But Chu Shi was different; the martial arts insights accumulated over several lifetimes of reincarnation allowed his understanding of the way of body refining to far exceed that of all his peers on the flying boat.

After completing the full set of fist techniques, the white mist steaming from Chu Shi's body slowly dissipated.

Just as he picked up a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead, a knock came from outside the door.

It was neither light nor heavy, carrying a deliberate gentleness; it knocked twice and then paused, as if testing the waters, and also as if gauging the proper measure.

Chu Shi's brows instantly furrowed.

For these three days, he had been cultivating in seclusion, and apart from going to the dining hall on time every day for meals, he had basically had no contact with anyone.

At a time like this, there was only one person who would come to knock on his door.

With a cold face, he pulled open the door, and standing outside was indeed Yun Mengyao.

Unlike the appearance in his memories—the exquisitely made-up face, the flowing eyes that had captivated his predecessor—

Today, although she had also dressed up carefully, there was an unhidden panic and grievance hidden in the depths of her eyes.

Her pale pink dress set off her slender figure; seeing Chu Shi open the door, her eyes immediately turned red, and she spoke in a weak, delicate voice: "Brother Chu, I..."

"Something up?"

Chu Shi leaned against the doorframe, his tone as cold as the gale outside the cabin, with no intention of letting her in at all.

After these few days of sorting things out, he had already made the ridiculous past of his predecessor perfectly clear.

Being played in circles by a gold-digging "green tea," turning against a childhood friend for a woman, and in the end, both of them becoming the laughingstock of the entire state city.

Looking back now, he only felt it was absurd and couldn't help but sneer.

In his previous lives, he had experienced hundreds of years of life-and-death battles; what kind of conspiracies and tricks had he not seen?

That his predecessor could actually fall for such low-level tactics was simply a total disgrace to him.

Chu Shi also couldn't understand, whether it was before he transmigrated or in these several lifetimes of reincarnation.

He had never been a simp, so where did this attribute come from?

Now that he had awakened his reincarnation memories, he didn't want to deal with any of the messy accounts his predecessor had stirred up.

For him now, in this lifetime, only the martial path was supreme.

Yun Mengyao was choked up by his distant, rejecting demeanor; tears instantly fell, and she spoke with a choked voice:

"Brother Chu, I know I was wrong before, I apologize to you."

"I just... I just wanted to come and see you."

"It's been so long since we boarded the boat, and you haven't paid any attention to me; I really feel very uncomfortable..."