Ba her quarters, Tang Xi paced slowly across the luxurious room her father insisted on maintaining as a refuge fit for a dy. The space was adorned with fine fabrics, jade ors, and furniture crafted from spiritual wood, exuding a faint fragrance of lotus flowers. The room was meant t fort, but at that moment, it felt heavy, as if the walls themselves were her hesitation.
She sat cross-legged on the bed. Recalling the gift she had received from her uncle , she decided to uhe mystery surrounding it. Carefully, she retrieved an object ed in silk from her pouch, revealing an old and well-preserved book. Her fiips brushed the delicate fabric before fully uning it. The book's cover bore a title engraved in goldeers: Winged Phoenix Step.
For a moment, she hesitated. But curiosity soon won, and she opehe book. The initial description captivated her immediately: it was a sed-level auxiliary movement teique desigo bance speed, agility, and offensive power, especially with a fiery touch of energy. The words seemed to dance across the pages, evoking vivid images of the legendary Phoenix, whose graceful aating movements inspired the teique.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As she read, she absorbed the core details:
Agile Movement: The practitioner could perform incredibly swift movements, ging dire with remarkable fluidity. It was ideal for bat situations where speed and positioning were crucial.
Offensive Impact: While moving, the cultivator could leave behind trails of energy that varied depending on their attribute—bzing fmes for those aligned with fire or slig wind streaks for others—dealing additional damage to enemies.
Sedary Ability: Phoenix Wings: In critical moments, the practitioner could summon spiritual projes of fming wings. These wings increased their speed by up to 50% for a short period while creating a shockwave that repelled nearby enemies.
The text also highlighted a vital point: the teique could be cultivated up to the peak of the Primary in Level. Moreover, it could be practiced by both spiritual and physical cultivators, though it was signifitly more challenging for physical practitioners. This distinade the teique far more valuable than others of its level.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Surprised aed, she thought of thanking her uncle for such a meaningful gift—a new possibility for advang on her immortal path.
She pondered over the methods of cultivation. There were three approaches: the ventional one she already knew, as well as physical and soul cultivation. ventional cultivation relied on spiritual roots to gather and refine energy. Soul cultivation, oher hand, erilous choice, with the stant risk of the body colpsing. Only spiritual beings hosts could safely tread that path. For someone like Tang Xi, the only viable route hysical cultivation, which depended solely on the body's strength and resilience.
ing to her senses after thinking about this, Tang Xi had the urge to practice the teique right then and there, but she held back whehought she had something more important to do. She first put the teique bat and took out aem: a bottle taining Amber Christmas Milk. The liquid glowed softly, like an encapsuted su, enveloped in an aura of serenity. Despite its mesmerizing appearaang Xi hesitated, holding the bottle in both hands as her gaze wavered between admiration and doubt.
—"Will it work this time?"— she wondered, as old memories flooded her mind. Each rare resource she had ed over the years seemed to echo in her memory, transf into a blend of frustrated expectations and painful disappois. It was as if, with every failed attempt, her hope diminished a little more, leaving behind a restless skepticism.
But this time, somethi different. The Amber Natal Milk was no ordinary resource. Formed from spiritual milk that petrified over ten thousand years within amber, its creation process was as rare as it was fasating. Tang Xi recalled the information she and her father had gathered about this precious liquid.
It was found only in the depths of hidden grottoes within dense forests, protected by natural formations or spiritual beasts. Only high-level cultivators, typically at the Sea of Spirit stage, had the ability to explore such locations—but they rarely bothered. For them, Amber Natal Milk was almost useless. After all, its effects were limited to the Body Tempering stage, no bes to more advanced cultivators. Despite its extreme rarity, it was not used in pharmaceutical recipes. Its effects were too geo bih redients, uo amplify medial ical properties. For many, it restige item, valued more for its rarity than its funality.
Still, for someone like Tang Xi, this substance could mean the differeween stagnation and progress. Acc to records, Amber Natal Milk possessed unique properties: it helped those without spiritual roots break through the barrier of the first level of physical cultivation. It was akin to a gateway for an ordinary mortal to begin their journey on the martial path.
Tang Xi knew what this meant. She had already reached the 3th level of Bone Fortification, equivalent to the 3th level of Body Tempering, through sheer effort aermination. But advang beyond that in physical cultivation was extraordinarily difficult. The parison was clear in her mind: while spiritual cultivators could rely oural flow of their roots to gather energy, those who walked the physical path depended on brute strength and resilience, fag increasingly overwhelming challenges.
There was another crucial detail: Amber Natal Milk acted directly on spiritual roots. If those were absent, its effects would be redirected to breaking a physical level. This was her only hope. If it failed again, it would add another yer of frustration for her and perhaps another proof that the path she walked was a dead end.
She looked at the vial once more, feeling the weight of the decision in her hands. Should she try?
With a heavy heart but resolute mind, she finally tilted the vial, allowing the golden liquid to flow dowhroat, carryi hopes with it.
Aug_N7052
