Chapter 378: Rank-5!

　　In the wilderness.

　　Old Man Li unleashed Vitality Force in outbursts and began suppressing the Celestial Bridges forcefully.

　　If he did not suppress it, Fang Ping would explode soon.

　　When others broke through Rank-5, five Celestial Bridges would connect end to end in a ring-like shape. It also meant that it was thriving.

　　When energy entered the body, five Celestial Bridges would absorb and convert it, containing it within.

　　But, Fang Ping… currently had too much energy, causing those long Celestial Bridges to be flattened.

　　The Celestial Bridge was actually a way of addressing energy passageways.

　　Under normal circumstances, when one encountered a situation whereby there was excess energy, the Celestial Bridge would only burst from being too full instead of being flattened.

　　Fang Ping’s Celestial Bridge, on the other hand, had been used by Fang Ping during the competition to convert into Celestiality.

　　Celestiality was much stronger than pure energy particles and Vitality Force.

　　During the championship, Fang Ping converted the Celestial Bridge into Celestiality. After that, he spent huge amounts of Vitality Force and Mentality to nurture it. He had already made the Celestial Bridge exceptionally firm.

　　Now, perhaps the absorbed Energy Essence should be called “Life Essence” instead, like how the Catacombs martial artists addressed it.

　　This was not pure Energy Essence. Through a Rank-9 tree monster’s conversion, it was carrying plenty of Life Force.

　　Now, these energies were expanding the Celestial Bridges whilst mending those collapsed and broken cracks, stuffing the Celestial Bridge more and more, flattening it more and more…

　　Fang Ping was aware. Watching the five Celestial Bridges flattening more and more, more and more… he had an impulse to cry.

　　“Is this still the Celestial Bridge?”

　　“Can I still keep it back inside my body later?”

　　The Celestial Bridge was not considered a solid substance, somewhat similar to the Sanjiao Gate, also nonexistent.

　　But at this time… it did not seem nonexistent at all. It was turning into a solid substance alright!

　　Such a huge “flatbread”. How was he supposed to keep it back inside his body?

　　Fang Ping was pondering over this question. Old Man Li was also pondering. Whilst suppressing the Celestial Bridge, he mumbled, “It’s too big. It may not be possible to keep it back…”

　　If this could not be kept back in, Fang Ping would become a wreck.

　　Well, not really a wreck. If he could not keep it back in his body, in the future, he could only leave the Celestial Bridge floating outside. By having such a huge target, anyone would hit this target if they fought him. If it was smashed, then Fang Ping might fall in rank due to heavy injuries.

　　“Try and see if you can keep it back in!” Old Man Li shouted.

　　Fang Ping heard that and began to try. He had just kept half of it when Fang Ping stuck his tongue out as if he was already full from eating too much. He said with difficulty, “I can’t. I feel like I’m exploding!”

　　Even Old Man Li was helpless. After a while, he said, “Compress it further then. Try compressing it smaller!”

　　Fang Ping wasted no time either and began shrinking it himself. Old Man Li began to cooperate with him.

　　A basin-sized flatbread was gradually shrinking. Smaller and smaller. The energy, though, became heavier and heavier.

　　Old Man Li mumbled, “Self- destructing is way better than other people’s destructive force.”

　　Fang Ping’s complexion was pitch black. What was this old man thinking?

　　Why would something so cruel such as self-destructing even cross his mind?

　　Ignoring him, Fang Ping looked at the Celestial Bridge that was being shrunken, and mumbled, “Will it shrink itself into a Gold Core? I’m opening up a new cultivation path to becoming an immortal.”

　　“Bulls*t!”

　　Old Man Li berated exasperatedly. He shouted, “Stop thinking about things that don’t make sense. Immortality cultivation is something that people have tried since ancient times. Whether it is real or not, it has now been proven to be heresy!

　　“An immortality cultivator cultivates Qi; Martial arts cultivates the body!

　　“Combining the inner and outer body into one, indestructible golden body, Mentality that lasts forever—this is the proper way!

　　“Don’t expect that gods and immortals are stronger than martial arts. Martial artists of our generation destroy immortals and slaughter the gods. Becoming powerful is fundamental!”

　　Seeing that he had said a bunch of things, Fang Ping was speechless. “I’m only saying. Why are you taking it so seriously.”

　　“I’m only reminding you. Don’t be misguided. Even if there really are immortals in the world, they will be destroyed in a punch when they encounter us!”

　　Old Man Li was exceptionally confident and fierce.

　　Even if there really are immortals, the immortals would also die when they confronted them!

　　Rank-9 golden body, indestructible golden body, and Mentality that lasted forever. Other than martial artists, who could kill them?

　　“Alright, it’s no wonder Governor-General Zhang’s cultivation methods names sound so much like an eighth-grader syndrome would come up with.”

　　Cultivation was something that had existed since ancient times. Martial arts had survived and endured for so long. This was also a validation on which cultivation paths were the right path and the universal path.

　　Martial artists were also exceptionally confident. They did not think that other practices could exceed martial arts. Actually, the Catacombs could become so powerful because they cultivated martial arts and themselves instead of cultivating everything else.

　　From what Old Man Li could see, what Fang Ping mentioned about opening up a new cultivation path was to skip the main road and take the winding narrow path instead.

　　This was the fight among different paths. Fang Ping said it like it was a joke, but Old Man Li thought it was a very serious matter, not something that could be treated as a joke.

　　Both of them said no more and continued shrinking the Celestial Bridge.

　　Gradually, the flatbread was compressed into the size of a bowl.

　　Now, it was already impossible to shrink further.

　　Old Man Li saw what happened and panted. “Try and see if you can keep it back in.”

　　Fang Ping wasted no time either, trying it immediately.

　　This time it was much smoother than before. He could keep it back in his body now.

　　However, the second it went inside, Fang Ping’s body suddenly swelled up. This frightened Fang Ping and made him panicky immediately. “Motherf*cker, it’s going to fill me up and explode inside of me!”

　　Old Man Li frowned, shouting, “Start honing your internal organs immediately! Consume these excess energies!”

　　Fang Ping did not delay nor sat cross-legged. Instead, he began cultivating pole-standing. Since cultivating the Flight Step, Fang Ping had rarely employed the stances.

　　Not only him, typical martial artists who had achieved the middle ranks rarely cultivated pole-standing.

　　But now, following Fang Ping’s stance and cultivation, the cells in his entire body were trembling. They began absorbing the energy from the flatbread.

　　Out of all the vital organs, the five viscera seemed exceptionally crystal clear at this moment.

　　His flesh and blood began energizing.

　　But, this was different from the Catacombs martial artists. Since the beginning of cultivation, the Catacombs martial artists had started energy conversion.

　　Actually, humans still preserved certain human traits.

　　What they produced in the body was still Vitality Force. Although the five viscera were energized, the heart core remained as flesh and blood of the body. This was the greatest disparity between humans and Catacombs’ martial artists.

　　When Catacombs martial artists reached a certain stage, their organs would be energized completely.

　　The five viscera began turning crystal clear while other organs and internal organs began transforming too.

　　A Rank-4 honed the five viscera while a Rank-5 honed the six bowels. The six bowels were only an imaginary reference. In reality, what this really meant for a Rank-5 was that this rank would hone all human organs that had not been honed yet except for the skull.

　　Rank-5 was also a complicated process.

　　In this stage, martial artists needed to hone all organs that were not honed yet. This included blood, flesh, and meridians in order to prepare for the golden body construction in the future.

　　One would only be considered as a Middle-stage Rank-5 after honing the internal organs like the gallbladder, stomach, large and small intestines.

　　Once the reconstruction of meridians was complete, only then would one be considered an Upper-stage Rank-5. Based on martial arts division, the human body has 14 major vessels and 206 minor vessels.

　　Once all 220 meridians were reconstructed, only then would one be considered an Upper-stage Rank-5.

　　Whereas for Peak Rank-5, after the reconstruction of flesh and blood, only then would one become a Peak Rank-5.

　　When human martial artists had achieved Peak Rank-5, other than the human brain, one would have already undergone a complete transformation.

　　At Rank-6, in sealing off the Sanjiao Gate and cultivating Mentality, cultivation was slightly more virtual at this stage.

　　Rank-5 martial artists’ honing process might sound tedious as there were more spots that needed to be honed, but the honing difficulty was not too high, actually. When the human body’s height was honed, localized honing would become easy instead.

　　Certain martial artists might find themselves stuck at Early-stage Rank-4 their whole lives, unable to transform their hearts. But, under normal circumstances, as long as a Rank-5 martial artist was willing to spend the time, one day or another, one would be able to cultivate up to Peak Rank-5.

　　Materializing the virtual Sanjiao Gate in the breakthrough from Peak Rank-5 to Rank-6 was difficult. Rank-6 was not so easy to achieve.

　　…

　　At this moment, Fang Ping unified the five Celestial Bridges and was considered to have achieved Early-stage Rank-5.

　　If he wanted to achieve Middle-stage Rank-5 now, he had to hone his six bowels.

　　Massive amounts of energy gushed out from the shrunken Celestial bridge and began honing his vital organs, gallbladder, stomach, and other organs like this. All of them began to turn jade-like.

　　This process happened very fast.

　　Old Man Li saw what happened and sighed in relief. Other than the slightly hideous looking Celestial bridge, it seemed like there were no other issues.

　　Other people at the Rank-5 stage had a beautiful circular-ringed Celestial Bridge. Fang Ping’s, however, was a lump of Baba [1]that looked beyond hideous.

　　It was still considered a flatbread earlier. When the flatbread was squashed together, it had now turned into a lump of Baba.

　　Seeing that Fang Ping was still digesting energy and honing his internal organs, Old Man Li thought for a moment, and said, “Take it easy. The six bowels will expel impurities when honed…”

　　As soon as the words left his lips, a series of noises were heard in the wilderness.

　　Fang Ping looked extremely relieved, looking completely satisfied. He moaned in pleasure. “How refreshing. I’ve not taken a dump for a few months now. I didn’t even fart…”

　　Old Man Li’s complexion was pitch black. F*ck, could you not put on a look like this!

　　It was only a fart. Those who had no idea would think that you were up to something!

　　The six bowels were related to the digestive system. Before Middle-stage Rank-5, martial artists rarely took a dump or urinated. Sometimes it would be once a few months.

　　But, after Middle-stage Rank-5, one could almost completely bid farewell to toilets.

　　After that, food that went in would be digested instantly, turning into energy and Vitality with extremely few impurities left. Very quickly, they would be expelled together with sweat.

　　In reality, however, other than satisfying one’s desire for good food, it did not really matter whether Rank-5 and 6 martial artists ate these ordinary foods or not.

　　After releasing a long and loud fart, Fang Ping stopped cultivating. After blowing out the air in his lungs, he left the spot and went far away. It stunk really bad, alright!

　　Although there seemed to be some energy mixed inside, there was not much. He had no intention of reusing it.

　　After unifying the Celestial Bridge, there was already much less energy leaking out of him now.

　　When the Sanjiao Gate had sealed off, martial artists would rarely experience situations in which Vitality and energy would leak. Except for critical injuries.

　　After he stopped cultivating, the first thing Fang Ping did was pull out the plants that grew rapidly from the leaked energy earlier.

　　Old Man Li raised his eyebrows after seeing that. Whilst pulling them out, Fang Ping explained, “Although they grew from the energy that I excreted, they’re still valuable. It’ll be the same when I sell it to others even if I don’t eat it.”

　　Plants that grew out of Life Essence. For many people, this was a holy medicine.

　　If Fang Ping brought it back to MCMAU and tossed it on the ground, many people might want to snatch it.

　　He had no interest in it, nor would he eat this thing that grew underneath his own butt. Others did not know about this. If they knew, they might not mind either. There were many fruits and vegetables grown from fecal matters too.

　　Old Man Li looked completely speechless. Ignoring him, he asked, “How do you feel?”

　　“Not so bad. I feel quite good…”

　　He had just spoken when Fang Ping’s expression changed suddenly, sitting cross-legged instantly, he forced out the words, “My Mentality is transforming. Stay away from me!”

　　Fang Ping had just said those words when a ripple surged around him.

　　Massive amounts of Mentality unleashed from Fang Ping’s body. Beside him, Old Man Li was not affected much. A hint of golden light emerged on his body instead.

　　“Good, kid!”

　　Old Man Li’s expression changed. This Mentality was not weak at all!

　　For a typical Rank-5 martial artist, they could only go up to more than 400Hz Mentality and that was it. Many people’s Mentality was stuck at 499Hz when they achieved Peak Rank-6.

　　On the contrary, Fang Ping’s Mentality had exceeded 700Hz!

　　In the air, a wave of ripple was rippling gradually. The surrounding plants were torn into shreds. Mud was blown away.

　　Old Man Li did not budge an inch. If this was in the past, he might take a few consecutive steps back. But now, though his Mentality was still weak, his Vitality Force was extremely strong. When a person had an extremely strong Vitality Force, this bit of Mentality from Fang Ping would not affect him much.

　　Once the Mentality ripples went nearer to him, they were crushed by Vitality Force from the tremors. If it was not because he was worried that he would injure Fang Ping, Old Man Li unleashing his full Vitality was enough to tear Fang Ping’s entire Mentality apart.

　　The breakthrough lasted for seven to eight minutes.

　　When Fang Ping reopened his eyes, there were slight changes. There was a deeper and more profound look on Fang Ping’s face now.

　　His eyes were brighter and much dazzling now.

　　If one did not look at his style nor the scars on his face, Fang Ping would look extremely handsome now.

　　But, after taking an overall look, he was a mud man, still wearing only underpants now.

　　Fang Ping did not care so much. He shook his body slightly. The mud on his body was shaken off completely. His skin was bronze-colored, looking like it was turning light golden.

　　“Kid, the strength of your body is nearly the strength of a half golden body, right? How much Vitality Force can you hold now?”

　　Old Man Li could not help but ask.

　　An ordinary Rank-3 had a 1000cal limit.

　　Rank-4, a 2000cal limit.

　　Rank-5, about 4000cal.

　　Rank-6, the limit would go up to ten thousand cal.

　　Of course, at that stage, the Vitality limit did not actually represent anything. When one fought to the point of exhaustion, 10 Rank-3 martial artists with 1000cal would total up to a thousand cal Vitality too. When confronting a Peak Rank-6, dying like flies with a smack would not seem strange.

　　At this stage, what the Vitality’s upper limit determined was the physique’s strength, the flesh’s degree of honing, and the power of Combat Techniques.

　　Judging from the appearance, Fang Ping’s physique was not weak at all.

　　A typical Peak Rank-5 might not be stronger than him.

　　Fang Ping made no reply. He took a close look at the new stats:

　　Wealth: 1.92 billion

　　Vitality: 1800cal (3999cal)

　　Mentality: 560Hz (725Hz+)

　　Bones honed: 177 bones (100%), 6 bones (90%), 23 bones (30%+)

　　Storage Space: 1 cubic meter

　　Energy Shield: 10 thousand Wealth per minute

　　Nearly 4000cal Vitality!

　　His Mentality had also broken through the 699Hz level, exceeding 700Hz.

　　3999cal Vitality meant that Fang Ping’s physique was currently similar to that of a typical Peak Rank-5.

　　Whereas he did not hone his six bowels yet. Even his meridians, blood, and flesh were not reconstructed. These few stages were stages for a thorough transformation.

　　Behind Mentality, a “+” sign appeared once more. This also meant that it could be raised further.

　　Of course, Fang Ping was not interested in raising it now. If he lost control in the Catacombs, it would be too dangerous. It would not be too late for him to try after he went back.

　　“I may become the strongest Rank-5 and Rank-6 throughout the ages…”

　　At this moment, Fang Ping’s confidence was swelling beyond comparison!

　　Guys like Yao Chengjun had just broken through as well.

　　Even Wang Jinyang broke through after he returned to Nanjiang. It had only been less than a week.

　　As for Fang Ping, he followed closely behind. One could almost ignore and disregard the disparity.

　　Moreover, he had huge amounts of Life Essence to hone his vital organs. Those fellows’ degree of honing might not be as profound as his.

　　To look at it from this aspect alone, his entering the Early-stage Rank-5 might far exceed the trio.

　　“How unexpected!”

　　“Not only did my combat strength surpass these guys, but I’ve also far exceeded their ranks now!”

　　Fang Ping sighed. 20 months. In 20 months, he had surpassed the guys he used to look up to.

　　He could not help but turn to take a look at Old Man Li, as if saying that you were not hard-working enough. Very soon, I would surpass you too.

　　Old Man Li’s complexion turned dark, ignoring him.

　　‘What’s so great about that!

　　“Merely a Rank-5!

　　‘I’m currently a half golden body. After nurturing my Mentality for a few months, I may really become a true Rank-7. Maybe I’ll become a true Rank-8. As fast as you are right now, do you think you can beat my speed?’

　　Although that was what he thought in his heart, when he recalled that Fang Ping achieved Rank-6 in mid-August and Rank-5 at the end of December…

　　Old Man Li was panicking inside. Motherf*cker. Moving up one rank every few months. Before he achieved Rank-8, this kid would have achieved it first, right?

　　[1] a type of thick, round, heavy bread that is prepared either plain or with various fillings