Within the confines of the secluded chamber's array, he was periodically nourished with vital essence and spiritual provisions, while the body-tempering concoctions he prepared were consistently replenished, all to sustain his extended seclusion.
Preparing mentally, he chanted.
"To refine the mortal body is to prepare the vessel for eternity. Each layer, each thread, and each pulse must be tempered into flawless unity."
His spiritual consciousness seeped into the infinitesimal—nerves, capillaries, veins, tissues, the labyrinthine membranes of organs and brain—all subjected to relentless qi purification.
"Let the rivers of life flow pure and unbroken. Strengthen the channels of vitality, awaken the threads of thought and command."
Progress was glacial. Two years passed in the time chamber as he honed every fiber and every membrane to induce slight spiritual nature.
"The heart beats strength; the lungs whisper balance. Purify the essence of earth and heaven within every organ."
When he finally stood at the pinnacle of mortal refinement, his body hummed with latent potential beyond initial level peak body refinement. The benefits would reveal themselves later—when his form transitioned to semi-spiritual true vessel, breakthroughs would come smoother, swifter.
"Step steady as mountains grow. Burn all impurities; leave no flaw. In patience lies the path to transcendence. When the mortal vessel is perfected, spirit awakens. Fuse the flesh with divinity; rise beyond the boundaries of mortality."
The Cellular Reformation
"The body is a vessel of transformation, evolving through purification, renewal, and transcendence. Each step refines mortality into divinity."
Han Chen's spiritual consciousness penetrated deeper than ever before - past organs, past cells, to the fundamental building blocks of life itself. His awareness unfolded at the pre-cellular level, where threads of nascent existence wove the fabric of his physical form.
***
"Purification arises not from external toxins but from the body's natural processes. Circulate energy to cleanse the blood, expel impurities, and refine the spirit. Strength lies not in poison but in harmony and balance."
For a heartbeat, his vision whited out—pain, raw, lanced through him. He grinned through bloodied teeth. Pain meant progress, and he endured.
For half a year, he worked at this microscopic scale. Earth Spirit Milk catalyzed the process as his spirit resonated with primal biological structures, weaving law energy into their very fabric. What should have taken decades condensed into a single year of relentless refinement.
***
"To transcend mortality, one must embrace death—not as an end, but as a release of limitation. Each gate opened is a cycle of shedding weakness and awakening new strength."
When he emerged from this cellular baptism, his mortal vessel stood nearly perfected - every capillary, every neural pathway, every membrane honed for efficiency. Yet this was merely preparation for the true trial ahead.
***
Taking a few hours to rest, he progressed to the next stage of refinement. Gate Opening Realm.
The Eight Divine Gates
"The human body holds 108 acupoints, each a key to unlocking the universe within. To awaken the body is to light each star, aligning them into a constellation of power."
Han Chen's Daoyun surged as he began unlocking the legendary gates of human potential with life law energy. His acupoints were already opened.
The scriptures of his Trinity Refinement Sutra guided each step:
Gate of Baihui (Crown)
"The first beacon, a bridge to the heavens. Align the divine light within with the celestial above."
For thirty days and nights, Han Chen meditated beneath the imagined vault of heaven within his consciousness. When the Baihui Gate finally opened, spiritual energy cascaded through his meridians. His every movement now carried the weight of heaven and earth - a subtle advantage that would compound exponentially in battle.
Gate of Shenmen (Heart)
"Where spirit and emotion converge. Temper this gate to master the balance of passion and stillness."
His two lifetimes of emotional trials made this gate surrender in mere hours. Where others required years of emotional cultivation, Han Chen's heart - tempered by betrayal, loss, and rebirth - stood unshakable. Empathy and resilience became reflexive.
Gate of Fengmen (Lungs)
"The passage of breath, carrying life and spirit. Purify the air within to enhance vitality."
His perfected mortal refinement allowed astonishing efficiency. In the time it took normal cultivators to complete a single breathing cycle, Han Chen had already synchronized his respiration with the pulse of spiritual energy through his martial veins.
Gate of Qihai (Dantian)
"The core of life's essence. Strengthen the foundation where energy is stored."
The twin dragon runes in his dantian blazed as this gate opened effortlessly. They were already made beyond perfection. His energy capacity already dwarfed even early-stage Golden Core cultivators - now it became truly endless someone of the same Qi realm..
Gate of Qinglin (Vital Blood)
"The reservoir of life's vitality. Merge the physical and spiritual bloodstreams to achieve boundless endurance."
For three lunar cycles, Han Chen's veins burned with transformative 9th layer life law fire. His blood underwent alchemical perfection, each droplet evaporating only to condense anew with golden essence as it developed spirituality.
When the process completed, his circulatory system had become a self-sustaining cycle of spiritual energy. A deep cut would seal before the blade withdrew; severed limbs would gradually regrow. His endurance transcended mortal limits - he could now fight for months without rest, his golden blood constantly replenishing itself from ambient spiritual energy.
Gate of Zaohai (Lower Sea)
"The depths of essence. Strengthen to awaken the hidden reserves of divine energy."
The lower dantian trembled as Han Chen's consciousness plunged into its depths. Where ordinary cultivators found stagnant pools of potential, he discovered roaring underground oceans. Seven days of meticulous channeling connected these reserves to a network of secondary martial veins previously refined and kept during spirit root creation - a feat that should have required decades of careful meridian expansion.
Now, his spiritual energy circulated in fractal patterns, each revolution compounding power like a self-feeding celestial mechanism. His metabolic processes accelerated to near-instantaneous efficiency - a single breath could sustain him for days..
Gate of Life
"Emerge into eternal creation. Through this gate, the body becomes a living artifact of the divine."
Eighteen months of cellular revolution followed. Han Chen observed with detached fascination as his DNA rewrote itself in glowing strands of spiritual code forming runes around them. Telomeres extended indefinitely; stem cells gained perfect plasticity to reform; mitochondrial efficiency surpassed theoretical limits.
His body became a self-contained ecosystem that has a spiritual nature synchronizing beyond neural connections - wounds healing faster than trauma could be inflicted, toxins neutralized before detection, aging decelerated at the molecular level. Even his microbiome evolved into symbiotic spiritual organisms, assisting his gut and skin continuously.
Gate of Death
"Confront the void within. Through this gate, all impurities are purged, and the form begins its rebirth."
The final and most dangerous trial. For two years, Han Chen walked the razor's edge between annihilation and apotheosis. Beginning layers of primary laws of life and death created samsara fire which consumed his soul and spiritual roots and gradually his entirety. His consciousness fragmented into billions of shards, each overseeing the controlled destruction of a single cell's imperfections.
Dormant mutations from past few years, spiritual scars from ancient battles in his mind scorned away , even karmic residues clinging to his soul - all were weakened further in this meticulous self-annihilation. Neural pathways reconfigured into optimal quantum states beyond his control; epigenetic markers reset to primordial perfection. When reconstruction completed, his form held no memory of weakness, no echo of limitation.
He felt that the unity realm is within his reach and took the step driving his foundation realm spiritual energy through the refined channels connecting every gates.
Unity Realized
"The mortal form, divided by gates, seeks unison. The pillar of unity is forged when the essence of each gate flows unbroken, a river of eternal power."
A month of deep meditation followed. Han Chen's eight opened gates resonated in harmonic convergence, their energies interweaving through newly formed reforged secondary martial meridians. The Gate of Lower Sea pulsed at the center of this network, its rhythm synchronizing with his heartbeat.
His awareness expanded downward - past organs, past cells, and molecular protein structures, the previous limit to the mesoscopic space seeing clusters of atoms and smaller molecules. quantum effects seem to ripple in his observation of his own existence.
His spiritual span had grown as well, expanding from thirteen miles to nineteen. Telekinesis, after all, was not just a function of the mind but of biology and spirit intertwined. Growth was inevitable.
Control remained at the molecular level—he could reshape proteins, rewrite genetic sequences with a thought, force his body to evolve in ways nature had never intended. For the first time, his form was truly his to command.
Took the control from nature to him.
For half a year, he worked on the same. Now, with his enhanced cognition accelerating alongside his evolving lifeform, he perceived and directed every microscopic change with perfect clarity.
His mind had become something extraordinary - capable of parallel processing thousands of genetic modifications simultaneously. This wasn't mere multitasking, but true simultaneous execution made possible by two key factors: first, his spiritual will had grown powerful enough to split into countless independent threads; second, he'd developed an ingenious spell that automated routine adjustments according to his overarching blueprint.
Memories of past lives surfaced—genetic blueprints of beings beyond human limits, superior in efficiency, resilience, adaptability. He had spent years contemplating the perfect balance: something that would enhance him without sacrificing his humanity, something that would serve cultivation rather than hinder it.
And now, he enacted it. Never before seen DNA strands and arrangements became part of his genetics, but he could only work with known life elements.
The cocoon of energy surrounding him fractured, then dissolved. He stood nearly 2.05 meters now, his frame refined—muscles denser, bones restructured and split not just for shape, support but for combat, force absorption woven into his very skeleton. His skin, once pale, carried a warmer hue, as if life itself had seeped deeper into his flesh.
When Han Chen reached the 10th layer of Foundation Building, he found himself at a crossroads. He could either continue advancing within Foundation Building or attempt to leap directly to the Golden Core realm, since the structure within his dantian already seemed flawless. However, he realized that without a special physique or higher refinement, facing the Golden Core tribulation with a perfect foundation might be too dangerous. So, he decided to focus on further refining his body at that stage.
Now, having reached the 11th layer due to passive cultivation during this refining process, Han Chen could sense the energy structure inside him evolving in real time, now supported by eleven foundational bases. With the trinity refinement, the law energy began forming rules that stabilized this structure. He could clearly perceive that his true limit was the 13th layer—going beyond that would only bring diminishing returns and potential instability.
He stepped out of the time chamber, moving through the resting quarters to stabilize his new form. A few days of stillness, of recalibration of his strength, he emerged. His realm climbed to 11th layer due to passive cultivation over years and his physical strength is now nearly 7.8 units and spiritual will is 2.3 units. Which means he can now exert nearly 70 tonnes of force by his physical body and cultivation. Add to that spiritual will, he can possibly throw away trucks like javelin if he wishes to.
Before returning to the outside world, he adjusted the Gate of Qinglin (Vital Blood) and the Gate of Death—shifting their functions from constant purification to passive sustainability. In a world without spiritual energy, his body would no longer want to waste power merely existing. Toxins from ordinary food would no longer require rigorous refinement; his body would purge them effortlessly with a single cycle through his unified gates when needed.
When he met Hye Won, it was only a night in the outside world, yet for him it was nearly four years. So when dawn's light crept through the blinds, he ignored her drowsy protests and pulled her into morning exercises far more vigorous than any martial form. And though she'd grumbled at first, it was Hye-won's breathless pleas that filled the room by the end.