After perfecting the acupuncture body-tempering system using Bai Wu's Nine Yang clone, Lu Fan turned his gaze to the next subject—Bao Yu, the girl born with the rare Nine Yin Body.
Deep inside his cultivation hall, Lu Fan summoned Bao Yu's clone. It sat quietly, exuding a subtle chill even without cultivating. The ambient temperature around it dropped naturally, the yin essence within more profound than any normal technique could emulate.
Lu Fan once again separated a strand of his soul and possessed the clone.
The moment his consciousness entered the body, a piercing cold stabbed through his spirit. It wasn't physical—it was spiritual, almost emotional.
"So this… is Nine Yin," Lu Fan murmured, breath frosting in the air. "It's not just about ice—it's about absolute stillness, purity, and control."
He began cultivating using Moonlight Qi and Ice-elemental techniques. The body responded smoothly, embracing cold like a long-lost friend. The meridians flowed like frozen rivers—still, yet powerful. However, unlike the Nine Yang body, the Nine Yin body rejected all fiery or aggressive forces.
Curious, Lu Fan tried to inject a tiny wisp of Sunfire.
The reaction was violent.
The body shut down. Frost formed around the organs. Even his soul was nearly expelled from the clone. He quickly withdrew the fire, and the body calmed once more.
"So incompatible… Nine Yin requires something else—something deeper."
Over months of experimentation, Lu Fan meditated inside the clone, slowly understanding the unique rhythm of this physique. Instead of strength through destruction, it sought strength through clarity—a heart like still water, untouched by external chaos.
One day, as he cultivated beneath a full moon, a transformation occurred.
A crystal-like core formed within the dantian, shaped like a lotus made of frost. The entire body aligned around it, flowing in perfect balance. Thoughts became clear. Emotions vanished. Strength emerged from absolute calm.
Lu Fan realized he had stumbled upon a new path, exclusive to the Nine Yin Body.
He named it the Ice Heart Method.
This cultivation method did not rely on the violent expansion or reshaping of the body. Instead, it created a spiritual anchor, an ice-cold core that tempered the soul and body into one. The more peaceful the state of mind, the stronger the power.
He tested its applications—movement, defense, even Qi projection—and each time, the clone reacted with supreme efficiency and terrifying stillness.
"This method… isn't suitable for anyone but Nine Yin practitioners," he concluded.
When he attempted to use the same method on a normal female clone, the body refused to condense the frost lotus. In a male clone, the meridians outright fractured trying to adapt.
So he recorded the Ice Heart Method as a unique path, one that could only be walked by a rare few.
Returning to his main body, Lu Fan sighed deeply.
"I've created a thunder path, a flame path, and now… the path of absolute stillness. But only one who is truly cold in heart can master it."
Somewhere at the base of the mountain, Bao Yu's real body opened her eyes. A thin layer of frost formed on her skin, and her presence deepened subtly.
After finishing his study of the Nine Yin Body, Lu Fan's attention shifted to another rare and promising physique—the Jade Bone Physique, possessed by a young cultivator named Bo Lian.
Unlike the fiery explosiveness of the Nine Yang or the frigid stillness of the Nine Yin, the Jade Bone Physique radiated calm resilience and purity. It felt like a body forged from ancient jade—a harmony of durability, serenity, and latent power.
As always, Lu Fan began by possessing Bo Lian's clone and started conducting experiments. During early cultivation, he noticed how the bones shimmered faintly under the spiritual sense, as if they were carved from actual jade. They conducted Qi efficiently and resonated particularly well with earth and nature-aligned techniques.
"This body... It thrives on minerals," Lu Fan mused.
To test this theory, Lu Fan ordered artificial jade and diamond synthesizing machines online, modified them with cultivation arrays, and began producing refined jade essence. Once he absorbed it into the clone, the bones reacted immediately—becoming denser, brighter, and more spiritually active.
This led Lu Fan into a series of focused experiments.
He tried different materials—iron essence, copper dust, silver threads, diamond particles, even thunder-infused jade—and over time, developed a system of bone-tempering methods, each suited for different cultivators.
Iron Bone Method: Focused on brute strength and durability. Perfect for body cultivators who took the front lines.
Diamond Bone Method: Created unbreakable internal structure and energy resistance.
Copper and Silver Bone Methods: Balanced methods for defensive and agile fighters.
Jade Bone Method: Harnessed the full potential of Bo Lian's physique, producing smooth Qi flow and inner resilience.
Beyond the basics, Lu Fan created specialized methods as well:
Heavy Iron Method: A gravity-aligned art meant to crush and resist.
Thunder Jade Method: Combined jade resilience with thunder affinity for explosive counters.
Ice Jade Method: Slowed enemy attacks and enhanced defensive reaction.
Earth Jade Method: Linked the user to terrain and made their body immovable like mountains.
But the most groundbreaking of them all was the Spiritual Jade Bone Method.
Through countless experiments and refined control, Lu Fan found a way to stimulate the bones to produce spiritual Qi, much like a mobile spiritual vein.
"This… this is what cultivators dream of," he whispered as the clone's bones began to emit a soft light, forming a web of Qi circulation independent from the surroundings.
By the time he completed the third level of this method, the clone had reached the equivalent of cultivating on a Level 3 spiritual vein, even while isolated. Cultivation speed, Qi purity, and internal harmony all surpassed standard norms.
This method, while exclusive to those with bone-related physiques, could be adapted.
Lu Fan immediately recorded it into the Pillars as the Heavenly Bone Scripture, with pathways for:
Martial cultivators
Elemental mages
Dual-path cultivators
And rare physiques like Jade Bone or Diamond Bone
He tested its base form on regular clones—both male and female—and saw varying results. While no one could match Bo Lian's efficiency, even normal cultivators showed a 30–50% increase in efficiency when using bone-refining methods.
Thus, another path was carved under Lu Fan's hand.
And at the base of the mountain, Bo Lian sat with legs crossed, slowly absorbing jade essence gifted by Lu Fan. Her skin glowed faintly. Her breath was light. And from deep within her bones, faint traces of spiritual Qi began to rise.