Chapter 4: Immortal Body Awakening! Reward: Ten Pulls!

Skysoar Sect Main Peak. "Holy crap! What reeks this bad? Who the hell messed themselves?" Nathaniel Urwin jolted awake, a wave of rot-stench slamming straight into his skull. The moment he saw it, his heart sank. He was wrapped head to toe in a thick layer of black sludge. Nathaniel actually teared up. "I… messed myself?" "I'm a grown man, for crying out loud. How could I…" A heartbeat later, he shot off like a bolt of black lightning toward the Spirit Spring in the back mountain. Byron Cutmore, lounging on a stone chair, only caught a blur flashing past his eyes. "What was that?" Adelynn Cougle poured tea for Byron, then flicked her pale hand to fan away the stench hanging in the air. "No idea. Looked like… a giant black rat?" Beside them, Goldie kept scrubbing at his own dog nose with his front paws, frantic and miserable. In the end, Goldie rolled onto his back. "Blegh-!" He couldn't take it anymore. He threw up. A dog's sense of smell was already sharp. Goldie was a spirit beast in the Veinflow Realm, which made it absurdly sensitive. The stink on Nathaniel had been magnified who knew how many times in Goldie's world. For Goldie, it was pure torture. At the Spirit Spring, Nathaniel dove in with a splash and started scrubbing the filth off his body. Wherever the black mud washed away, his skin faintly revealed an unusual sheen beneath. "This is weird… I felt like my whole body was tearing itself apart earlier, and then I wake up and all this gunk is coming out of me…" He was still muttering to himself when a dull thud sounded from inside him. "Thump!" "Huh? What was that?" Before he could even process it, two more followed. "Thump! Thump!" "What the hell? Is there something nasty in this spring?" "Thump!" Another heavy beat echoed through him, and Nathaniel finally realized what it was. "A… breakthrough?" "Energy Condensation Realm… peak!" "Four levels in a row? Since when was I this insane?" Right then, Byron's voice rang by his ear. "Clear your mind. Sit." Nathaniel snapped himself back to focus. He hurriedly steadied his breathing, crossed his legs, and began sorting through the surge of spiritual energy that had flooded his body. The energy kept rising, swelling harder and harder, forcing his meridians to expand under the pressure. Panic seized him. Eyes squeezed shut, he grit his teeth. "Master… I'm not going to blow up, am I?" Byron's voice came again, carried through Adelynn. "Don't panic. Control the energy. This is the critical moment for Veinflow." Nathaniel had heard Byron lecture before. The Veinflow Realm required a cultivator to clear and widen the meridians throughout the body. With that reassurance, Nathaniel's confidence surged. Not long after, an even louder sound erupted from within him. "Boom!" That single blast marked it. Nathaniel had officially stepped into the second mortal realm: Veinflow. "Keep stabilizing your cultivation," Byron said. Nathaniel did as told. Then something went wrong. "Thump!" "Thump!" The more he tried to stabilize, the faster the spiritual energy grew. "Thump! Thump! Thump!" In the blink of an eye, Nathaniel had reached the fifth level of Veinflow. "Master!!" He didn't get drunk on the sudden power. Byron had warned him before. Explosive growth meant an unstable foundation. Adelynn lifted her jade-like hand, and a ribbon of rosy light wrapped around Nathaniel, carrying him back to Byron's side. His cultivation finally halted at Veinflow, fifth level. "Master… I… what is this…?" Only then did Nathaniel notice something that made his scalp prickle. Spiritual energy was flowing into him through his pores on its own. He hadn't even drawn energy into his body. So why was it forcing its way in by itself? Byron rose from the stone chair, squeezed Nathaniel's shoulder, and let out a pleased laugh. "A fine Great Celestial Body. Breaking ten realms is as easy as drinking water." Nathaniel blinked. "Huh?" "Wait, master. Immortal Body? Who are you talking about?" Byron smiled and lifted a finger, pointing. Nathaniel froze. "Me? Immortal Body?" "Urk!" Too stunned and too excited, Nathaniel promptly demonstrated the ancient art of collapsing on the spot. Byron shook his head, still smiling. "This kid sleeps like a rock." He had Adelynn wake Nathaniel up, then pulled out the Supreme Celestial Art from the system inventory and tossed it over. "You were born with the Great Celestial Body. It has awakened. Cultivate with this immortal art, and your progress will be unstoppable." Nathaniel's hands trembled as he caught the Supreme Celestial Art. For a long while, he couldn't even breathe right. The leap from worthless trash to heaven-sent genius was too brutal. Three years ago, Nathaniel had taken Byron as his master. In three whole years, he had only barely crawled to the fourth level of Energy Condensation. Today, after arriving at the new sect, he had first broken through a level from the dense spiritual energy. Then he had awakened his Immortal Body and vaulted an entire major realm, charging straight into Veinflow, fifth level. A height that should have taken him twenty years, maybe fifty, had been reached in less than an hour. Dozens of years of detours, erased in a single stroke. Who wouldn't pass out from that? After sending Nathaniel away, Byron turned his gaze to Adelynn at his side. "Elder Adelynn, I have a few questions for you." Her sweet smile, paired with that peerless face, only made Byron feel more unsettled. "Ask away, Sovereign Lord." Byron took a slow breath. "Were you made by the system? Some kind of robot?" Adelynn visibly froze. "System? Robot?" "What do I have to do with either of those?" Her reaction didn't look fake. Byron's curiosity only deepened. "Then are you human?" "Of course I'm human. Sovereign Lord, are you sure your soul isn't injured? Do you want me to take a look?" As she spoke, she reached toward him. "No. I'm fine," Byron said, stopping her. *If she says she's human, then she should be able to cultivate,* he thought. He asked again, "Do you know what happens if you leave the sect's boundaries?" He had seen it on the system screen: NPCs couldn't leave the sect. That was why he asked. Adelynn answered without hesitation. "I'll die." Byron's pupils shrank. Adelynn was in the Emperor Realm, yet she would die if she left the sect. Who could possibly kill an emperor? After a long silence, Byron spoke again. "Why?" Adelynn took a small sip of tea, thinking. "It should be something like a contract. It's buried deep in my soul, and I can sense it." "But where it came from, I don't know." Byron nodded. That contract had to be the system's restriction on NPCs. He asked a whole bunch more questions after that and got nothing useful out of any of them. "Forget it. No point obsessing." Byron finally turned his attention to the lottery function on the system interface. [Sect Grand Lottery] [Number of draws: 10] [Note: The first ten-pull guarantees an immortal-tier item!] "Immortal-tier?" In Byron's original understanding, the world had four grades: mortal, spirit, saint, and emperor. After gaining the system, he had learned of another. Immortal. Something even higher than emperor. "This system knows how to treat a man. When it gives, it really gives." "Draw. Let me draw hard."