The Eternal Heart

Chapter 18: Bronze Body

Translator: Alsey

Editor: Chrissy

They said the whole banquet was in Chen Yu’s celebration, but instead, the true limelight was on Chen Ying’er.

During the banquet, all of the sect’s higher-ups thought extremely highly of Chen Ying’er, and their words were mostly filled with praise.

Chen Ying’er wasn’t a modest person, often speaking in a ‘preaching’ manner to her ‘Little Older Cousin”.

Even clay figurines had somewhat of a temper.

Chen Yu wasn’t a clay figurine, neither was he broad-minded nor someone who requited kindness with ingratitude. Naturally, he was rather unhappy.

“Come, come, Chen Yu! You are the banquet’s center stage! Congratulations to our Chen Clan, another clan member established in the sect…”

Clan Head Chen Tianwei, mature and clever, saw the situation and took the lead to toast him, alleviating Chen Yu’s embarrassment.

…

Late at night, Chen Yu and his parents had returned to their own home.

“Yu’er, don’t take today’s banquet to heart. Ying’er is an intermediate spiritual being, and since she became an apprentice to the sect’s elders, her prospects in the future are boundless. It’s only natural that the clan elders flatter her and for your uncle to dote on her.”

His mother Liu Wen comforted her.

“It is indeed natural.”

Chen Yu forced a laugh, yet after the banquet, he truly didn’t care about it. After all, Chen Ying’er was his younger female cousin.

Not to mention, Chen Yu had witnessed too much of the hypocrisy of the world, as well as the fickleness of human nature in the sect.

But now that Chen Yu had returned to his clan, his feelings of considering it as his ‘family’ allowed him to perceive the contrast in real life.

At this moment, the fifteen-year-old Chen Yu finally understood.

Regardless of whether it was in the sect, in the clan, or in the outside world, the principle that the strongest are respected was applicable.

“It’s good that you understand this. Let’s hope that you and Ying’er can get along with each other…”

Chen Tiande smiled faintly.

…

Returning to his room, Chen Yu became still for a moment. As per usual, he was using “Fiendish Cloud Mental Technique”, his Inner Breath channelling through his meridians.

Accumulation over a long period of time was key to cultivating a mental technique.

Practicing for two to four hours a day was enough, and there was no benefit to doing more of it.

Four hours later, Chen Yu had already circulated “Fiendish Cloud Mental Technique” multiple times. He could not help but sigh.

In contrast, the progress on his Inner Breath was infrequent and ordinary, incomparable to his breathtaking performance in physical techniques.

One could imagine that Chen Ying’er, Le Feng, and the other geniuses were much better in cultivation efficiency and pace in their Inner Breath mental techniques when compared to Chen Yu.

Chen Yu couldn’t help but think of the red-faced elder’s comments towards himself.

Back then, the sect elder was praising him on one hand, while feeling sorry for him on the other.

“How about you try the [Bronze Statue Technique]?”

Chen Yu recalled the unofficial technique the red-faced elder had recommended.

At that time, Chen Yu had momentarily abandoned it as there was no Connective Meridian methods within the [Bronze Statue Technique].

This time, Chen Yu flipped through the [Bronze Statue Technique] again and saw the descriptions upon it.

On careful examination, Chen Yu became pleasantly surprised.

First, as an old body-tempering technique, [Bronze Statue Technique] specifically targets the cultivation of physical techniques. This agreed with his own innate talents.

Next, the might of [Bronze Statue Technique] was indeed pretty good. It could substantially strengthen one’s constitution, power, and above all, defense!

When [Bronze Statue Technique] is cultivated to perfection, one’s body would be akin to a bronze statue. They would be invulnerable to swords and spears, as well as possess extraordinary strength.

The first part of the [Bronze Statue Technique] was divided into three levels: Bronze Skin, Bronze Tendons and Bronze Bones. These just happened to correspond to the Body Tempering stage, the Connective Meridian stage, and the Visceral Tempering stage.

As described on it, if Chen Yu could practice it to ‘Bronze Skin’ level, he could basically ignore attacks from those in the Body Tempering stage. This included general sword attacks.

He could resist attacks from those in the Connective Meridian stage if he cultivated to the ‘Bronze Tendons’ level. In fact, even with just a strong build he could run amuck within the Connective Meridian stage, resembling a ferocious beast in human form.

As for downsides, naturally, there wasn’t much to pick from [Bronze Statue Technique].

But as an unofficial technique, it had very high demands towards one’s constitution and willpower. So much so that the time to cultivate it, as well as its difficulty was much greater than [Fiendish Cloud Fist] and other similar techniques.

“Oh! A unique Body Tempering method…’Bronze Statue Cast Technique’?”

Chen Yu found a specialized Body Tempering technique in [Bronze Statue Technique] as his eyes lit up.

Through actions involving various parts of the body and limbs, “Bronze Statue Cast Technique’ energized and hammered the body into shape.

These dozen or so actions consisted of massaging, kneading, snapping, bending, tapping, twisting, as well as other methods.

They targeted various tiny yet thorough areas in the body, including muscles of all sizes and bones across the entire body. It also included many joints and acupuncture points.

For Chen Yu, it was already an eye-opener just reading the diagrams and descriptions. He was gaining new experience towards the human body.

He never imagined that the human body would have so many muscles, bones, and joints, as well as countless acupuncture points and meridians.

“This [Bronze Statue Technique] basically treats the body like a ‘smelting iron’. All sizes of the body’s parts are energized and hammered into shape thousands of times before a real ‘Bronze Body’ is finally crafted.”

Chen Yu roughly understood the theory.

One feared that ordinary people simply couldn’t endure this kind of cultivating method. The pain itself was not something people could bear.

Among these, there were some who refined their bodies with the help of external environments, such as furnaces, ice, waterfalls and huge waves, and this was enough to scare off many.

The average person, despite having enough willpower and patience, would still be far from success.

This was because the body-forging technique contained some extremely challenging actions. Its demands for one’s constitution were extremely harsh. Given an ordinary person’s constitution, they would need around a fortnight just to accomplish the requirements for a small action.

Hu~

Chen Yu let out a breath of air. He finally understood why this rare volume had a layer of dust on top of it when it was taken out. Of course, the difficulty of this martial art did not intimidate him.

At that night, Chen Yu began cultivating ‘Bronze Statue Cast Technique’.

In his room, Chen Yu demonstrated each and every one of the delicate and detailed actions, as well as the challenging and excessive ones.

Some of the body refining actions required beating crucial points of the body. It even required extremely difficult twisting and crumpling.

However, these actions did not stump Chen Yu. Chen Yu’s constitution already couldn’t be examined through general means. He could bend and snap as desired.

Some of the ‘pounding’ actions were too easy for him. Perhaps, it was because his constitution was special, but the process of refining his body was a lot less painful than expected.

If to say, ordinary people could only accomplish 40-50% of these actions, then Chen Yu could exceed them and show 120%, surpassing the technique’s requirements.

Of course, a night was not enough to finish cultivating the diverse ‘Bronze Statue Cast Technique’.

And so tonight, Chen Yu mainly focused on his arms.

The next morning, Chen Yu saw a yellow, faintly crystalline layer appearing on top of his skin when he lifted his arms. It felt as tenacious as metal.

“This quick?”

Chen Yu himself was rather shocked.

In just one night, his arms became equipped with some of the ‘Bronze Skin’ characteristics.

He reckoned now that fighting attacks from those in the initial Body Tempering stage when used on his arms would be no different as being used against a wall.

Chen Yu was pleasantly surprised and excited at the quick pace of progress on the [Bronze Statue Technique].

He thought about it carefully. Perhaps it was his own constitution as his body had reached a high standard after merging with the mysterious heart.

With Chen Yu’s current constitution, ‘Bronze Skin’ would be quite ‘low-end’ for him.

Of course, Chen Yu’s strong constitution, as well as his abnormal ability to recover, and those body tempering methods, which would be extremely difficult to perfect, were also important reasons.

Over the following days, Chen Yu was simply engrossed in cultivating the [Bronze Statue Technique]. Besides from the regular moving of his Inner Breath and a bit of rest every day, most of his time was spent on hammering his body into shape.

In a blink of an eye, three or four days had passed.

Chen Yu had refined all of his body through the hammering described in the ‘Bronze Statue Cast Technique’.

On the basis of an average person’s progress, it would take a minimum of several months to a maximum of a year and a half to hammer the entire body. Moreover, the result would be far inferior to Chen Yu’s.

Late that night, Chen Yu was only wearing a pair of underwear as he exposed his skin, which was yellow and crystalline like bronze.

Hu~

He urged [Bronze Statue Technique] as a light bronze luster emerged on the skin on his entire body not long after. Furthermore, since he was using an astonishing method like this, he inflated like a bronze figure.

“Is this the ‘Bronze-Skinned Body’?”

Chen Yu was a bit stunned. While the technique was still activated, he took out a small ordinary knife.

Ding!

With the force of someone at the ordinary Body Tempering stage, the blade slashed the skin of his arm, but a crisp sound was heard and the latter was undamaged.

“Haha, at the very least, I have completed the basic form of ‘Bronze Skin’.” Chen Yu grinned.

The refining of ‘Bronze Skin’ involved the outermost surface layer. The next level, ‘Bronze Tendons’ involved muscles of a deeper level. The last level, ‘Bronze Bones’, refined even deeper bones.

Now Chen Yu’s ‘Bronze-Skinned Body’ was in its basic form.

This was because Chen Yu’s constitution was strong enough but his power had only creased slightly. His body’s defense had grown the most!

…

The next morning, Chen Yu went to find his father Chen Tiande.

“Father, I’m cultivating a body-refining technique and I need to buy some medicinal ingredients to match my body,” Chen Yu opened his mouth and said.

To cultivate [Bronze Statue Technique], one couldn’t rely on themselves only. They also required support from external resources.

Included among these was the Body Tempering Medicinal Fluid, which was a type of external support. [Bronze Statue Technique] involved many kinds of relevant prescriptions, ranging from low to high.

“Oh?”

Chen Yu took out two prescriptions for the medicinal fluid.

These two prescriptions for [Bronze Statue Technique] were the lower types.

The lowest one was known as a ‘commoner prescription’. Using gold and silver from the secular world, one could purchase precious medicinal ingredients.

The other prescription required some rare materials, and metastones may be required.

“The first prescription is not a problem. I might need some meta stones for the second prescription, so I will apply for this through your uncle. You have now broken through to the Connective Meridian, so the clan ought to give you some resources.”

Father Chen nodded his head and left with the prescriptions in his hand.

And so, Chen Yu continued painstakingly cultivating [Bronze Statue Technique] by relying on the advantage of his constitution.

Three days later, Chen Yu’s [Bronze Statue Technique] had successfully ‘Initial Form Bronze Skin’!

[Initial Form Bronze Skin] made the defensive ability of Chen Yu’s external body increase greatly once more. His strength also increased by a certain extent.

He reckoned that since he reached this level, ordinary attacks beneath the Connective Meridian level would be akin to tickling for Chen Yu.

Now, Chen Yu could feel the pace of his Body Tempering cultivation slow down as he was relying on himself.

Thankfully, at this moment, Father Chen had already gathered the materials needed for the Body Tempering Medicinal Fluid.

But Chen Yu was disappointed that Father Chen had only brought medicinal ingredients for the ‘commoner prescription’. It was the kind that could be purchased using ordinary gold and silver.

According to the descriptions in [Bronze Statue Technique], this prescription gave the worst results.

“Yu’er, for the time being, I can only find the materials for the first prescription. The second one, your uncle has said he needs to consider it first as it requires metastones as the clan is short on money.”

Father Chen said, his face showing shame.

Originally, he imagined that the clan ought to give him some resources to train him now that Chen Yu had broken through to the Connective Meridian stage.

Yet in the end, the Clan Head Chen Tianwei rejected him.

The reason for this was since Chen Ying’er had returned to the sect, she may need to rush through to the Visceral Tempering stage. And so, the clan’s enormous resources were almost completely poured out to her.