Like the power of a lion, strength surged through his body. Li Hao slightly clenched his fist, feeling as if his small hand could easily crush a large stone!
The moment before, he was still just a mortal; now, in this brief time, he had become a cultivator!
The Power Passage Realm was the first realm in martial arts, primarily focusing on strength!
Force flowing through the entire body was known as Universal Force.
After countless years, the benchmarks for each level of the Power Passage Realm had been clearly defined. The first level required lifting a cauldron, which equaled 200 pounds of arm strength.
Ordinary families could barely match the first level of the Power Passage Realm through regular food and some training.
However, to go further, unless born with great strength, one could only achieve it through cultivation.
With each level, a cauldron's weight increased.
The seventh level equaled seven cauldrons. In other words, Li Hao, at the age of five, could lift 1,400 pounds.
And that was just arm strength; the full force of his body allowed him to leap a hundred meters effortlessly, move like lightning, and easily defeat a hundred ordinary strong men.
"At last, I can cultivate, at least having the power to protect myself in the future."
Li Hao felt excited, sensing that with a slight exertion, his entire body would tense up, and his skin would become incredibly firm. Although still soft, it could no longer be easily pinched and torn; rather, it became taut like cowhide, resistant to twisting!
"However, this should be the limit of the Stone Skin Hundred Refinements. If I cultivate those two secret manuals, my cultivation should advance further!"
*Li Hao thought to himself.*
He took a deep breath, adjusted his body, waited for the reddish hue of his skin to fade, and returned to normal before leaving the room.
Then, Li Hao called for Zhao to send someone to inform Aunt.
Not long after, a response came from Aunt's side, and it was still Xuejian, the female servant, who came to accompany him.
This time, they went straight to the sixth floor, where Li Hao picked up two secret manuals and began reading them one by one.
With his understanding and insights into the first stage of the Physical Body Dao, looking at the content again, Li Hao suddenly understood many previously incomprehensible statements.
"Have mastered the basics, would you like to record it?"
Yes!
In less than half an hour, both secret manuals were recorded in his panel. Li Hao asked Xuejian to take him downstairs.
Although Xuejian felt helpless internally, she didn't show it on her face. A child, after all, was just being accompanied to play. As for reading secret manuals, well, even given more time, understanding was improbable.
Even the secret manuals on the first floor, left outside, would be considered middle-rank, requiring three to five days of study to barely grasp the basics.
Let alone the ones on the sixth floor.
Stronger techniques were naturally more challenging, with higher thresholds for cultivation.
Li Hao didn't know what the young girl was thinking, but even if he did, he wouldn't care. *Who would stoop to a child's level?*
Back at the Mountain and River Courtyard, Li Hao had the maids prepare some food and drinks before training.
After previously practicing the Stone Skin Hundred Refinements, he felt his body had used up a significant amount of energy. At this moment, he felt quite hungry.
"Is this little bit enough for anyone?"
"Another plate, please. I mean, another serving of everything. I'm still growing; don't you think I can't eat?"
In the maids' wide-eyed astonishment, Li Hao ate an entire table of meat, wiped his oily lips, feeling only sixty percent full.
Afraid of frightening them, he didn't continue and swaggered back to his room to start cultivating.
The previously difficult Thousand Jiaos Holy Body had four layers. Once recorded in the panel, the first two layers were shown to have been mastered.
The first layer, Jiao Demon Body, hardened his bones, made his skin like dragon scales, immune to blades.
The second layer, Jiao Dragon Body, contained half-dragon power, enhancing various physical aspects.
*Whoosh!*
Li Hao took a stance, his body crouched like a menacing tiger, back arched like a bow, with his bones subtly cracking.
Through understanding the first stage of the Physical Body Dao, he was unlocking the secret doors of his body.
His cells seemed to be activated, blood flowing faster. Li Hao felt a cool force seep in from the outside, merging into his body this time.
This was the Power of Taiyin from the Heaven and Earth Energy.
As the Power of Taiyin entered his body, Li Hao's reddish skin gradually returned to its usual color, while his flesh quickly transformed.
The secret door opened, allowing himself to be tempered by Heaven and Earth.
With more Power of Taiyin pouring in, Li Hao's skin tone paled, tinged with green, like a corpse, with faint scales protruding.
After three sticks of incense, the first layer of cultivation ended.
Li Hao glanced at his cultivation, which had impressively risen from the seventh layer of the Power Passage Realm to reach the tenth layer, reaching Perfection Realm!
The first nine layers of the Power Passage Realm had minimal differences, each increasing by 200 pounds, but from the ninth to the tenth, there was a threshold, doubling the power!
The tenth layer meant complete universal force, power throughout the body, as one!
The strength of his hands alone could now lift 3,600 pounds!
Amidst his joy, Li Hao carefully sensed his physical body and felt a bit disappointed that the Divine Blood had not awakened.
Inheritors of Divine Blood awakened at Perfection in the Power Passage Realm, their strength surged to 7,200 pounds!
The disparity was enough for those with Divine Blood in the Power Passage Realm to sweep through their peers effortlessly, even compensating for skill gaps, breaking techniques with sheer force.
*It was like the difference between a wealthy player and an ordinary one in a game.*
It seemed utterly unfair but normal since inheriting Divine Blood required parents to have reached the Three Immortal Realms. Across the entire Nineteen Provinces of the Great Yu Dynasty, such individuals were countable.
*Without Divine Blood's blessing, Li Hao wasn't dejected.* He made slight adjustments and continued cultivating the second cultivation technique.
Half an hour later, he finished, his eyes opening with a divine spark, the pupils seemingly darker and more profound.
*He felt his power greatly surpassed before; at that moment, he wanted to spar to test his newfound strength.*
Looking at his panel in surprise, he noticed that his realm hadn't broken through; his cultivation remained at the tenth layer of the Power Passage Realm.
*The power had increased dramatically, yet he hadn't reached Zhou Tian Realm?* Li Hao paused, realizing he still couldn't control his Qi.
Upon achieving Perfection in the Power Passage Realm, something called "Qi" appeared within him. *Strength bred Qi—strength full, Qi born.*
This Qi felt like the sense of power when flexing a bicep.
Yet, the Qi wandered throughout his body, beyond his control.
Li Hao suddenly remembered that the Thousand Jiaos Holy Body's second layer didn't describe how to control Qi.
And the third layer of comprehension was beyond his current Physical Body Dao understanding.
"Jiao Dragon Body, mastering half-dragon power, I wonder how strong I am now?" *Li Hao pondered quietly.*
*He sensed his strength had grown significantly, at least doubled, potentially more.*
Li Hao didn't rush into experimentation but turned to another Body Refinement Realm:
The incomplete text of "Primordial."
With the aid of the Physical Body Dao's insights, Li Hao quickly grasped many aspects and immediately began cultivating.
The Primordial Body Refining Skill's main text recorded five realms.
However, the fragment in Li Hao's possession only contained the first two; the other three were lost.
Just the first text, the Primordial Secret Skill, required opening the hidden doors of the body, sensing the sun's power and the Power of Taiyin from Heaven and Earth, simultaneously channeling Yin and Yang energies to temper the body.
Without the Physical Body Dao's assistance, completing this first step was nearly impossible for an ordinary person.
Yet, Li Hao felt as if guiding him through familiar territory, easily maneuvering.
With Yin and Yang energies merging into his body, it continually reformed under his control.
The second text used the Yin and Yang energies within to draw in starforce, cultivating the Starry War Body.
This physique surpassed the Jiao Dragon Body's ferocity, containing both Taiyin and sun energies, a body like a stellar core furnace, harboring immense heat and power.
When Li Hao opened his eyes again, it was already midnight.
Unconsciously, he had been training for seven or eight hours.
His gaze was restrained and serene as he opened his eyes, breathing deeply like a crouching Jiao dragon.
His senses greatly improved, hearing and vision vastly enhanced.
Li Hao even heard faint whooshing sounds in the courtyard, not wind, but a sword.
Someone was practicing swordsmanship.
Given Li Hao's Sword Dao Realm, he could even visualize someone's swordsmanship posture and style from just the sound of the sword's wind.
It was that little girl.
Was she working so hard too?
Li Hao's mouth curved into a smile, then brought up the panel to look.
[Name: Li Hao]
[Age: 5]
[Cultivation: Power Passage Realm Tenth Layer]
[Sword Dao: Second Stage]
[Skill: Endless Sea·Tide (Ultimate Perfection) [Restricted]]
[Physical Body Dao: First Stage]
[Skill: Stone Skin Hundred Refinements (Great Accomplishment), Thousand Jiaos Holy Body (Jiao Dragon Body Beginning), Primordial (Starry Body Entry)]
[Chess Tao: Third Stage (0/5000)]
[Chess Manual Collection: 0]
[Skill Points: 0]
"Still at the Power Passage Realm?"
Li Hao was somewhat surprised; he sensed his body had changed significantly, far surpassing when he first reached the tenth layer, so much that he felt wielding the Tide Sword Skill at its Ultimate Perfection posed no exertion, yet he had not achieved a breakthrough.
Nevertheless, until now, he had indeed not learned to circulate Qi around his body.
The first two texts of the Primordial Body Refining Skill appeared solely for the Power Passage Realm.
Yet, the power they granted far exceeded the Power Passage Realm.
The only problem was that cultivation was excessively arduous!
Even with his insights at the first stage of the Physical Body Dao, he barely set foot on the path; a typical person might take one to two decades to reach this level.
By then, they would likely have already stepped into the Zhou Tian Realm.
Compared to achieving the Zhou Tian Realm, this seemed even more challenging.
Li Hao adjusted his body, opened the window to look outside, and, indeed, saw a small figure practicing swordsmanship under the starlight in the courtyard.
To his surprise, compared to the clumsy swings from the morning, her moves looked quite proper now.
This little girl indeed had some talent.
Li Hao smiled, then propped himself with a hand, leaping from the window, lightly landing on the ground.
He moved toward another part of the courtyard near a rockery. He had heard Zhao say that his father, as a youth, had single-handedly moved this rockery, weighing over a hundred cauldrons!
Li Hao slightly crouched. The house servants and maids were resting, and the guards were on patrol elsewhere.
Seizing the moment when no one was near, he ran to the rockery, looked around, reached into a hollow indentation, and tried pushing.
*Rumble!*
Li Hao was shocked when, using all his might, he lifted the massive ten-ton rockery!
As the rockery moved, nearby water surged and flooded the rockery's base.
Power Passage Realm Tenth Layer, without Divine Blood, lifting 20,000 pounds!
Startled, Li Hao gingerly released it, setting the rockery back down.