Chapter 344 - Calamity Records and a Strange Request

Chapter 344: Chapter 344 - Calamity Records and a Strange Request

Back on Clear Cloud Peak, Su Bai sat on his favorite stone.

The noise surrounding Shen Youran’s breakthrough had faded behind him.

He closed his eyes and examined his body.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body had changed again.

The difference was difficult to measure through ordinary cultivation standards.

His spiritual cultivation had clear realms, bottlenecks, and transformations.

His previous body cultivation had also progressed through recognizable stages before eventually reaching the transformation that brought him into the Vajra Realm.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body seemed determined to ignore that convenience.

Su Bai examined the changes carefully.

The spatial tearing force recorded during the Void Lightning had already settled into his body.

The later compression, stretching, and unstable spatial pressure from the Void Domain had deepened that record further.

His body now reacted more naturally when he recalled those sensations.

The improvement was obvious, but the progression was not.

Su Bai frowned.

From the memories he had obtained from the ancient soldiers of Fallen-Star Sanctuary, Vajra cultivators commonly formed constitutions after entering the Vajra Realm.

Those constitutions normally had recognizable paths of development.

His Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body was behaving differently.

It simply recorded whatever damaged him.

The Heavenly Burial Palm had left one of the deepest records so far.

Void Lightning had added another.

The Void Domain had expanded that spatial record further.

Each sufficiently different form of damage seemed to fill another weakness in his current body, strengthening the constitution as a whole.

Su Bai opened his eyes.

"So how am I supposed to know when I’m done?"

He looked inward again.

Perhaps his constitution did not need the same minor stages other Vajra Bodies used.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body might have its own condition for completion.

If every new calamity strengthened it by recording a weakness and adapting to it, then there should eventually come a point where additional damage stopped producing meaningful improvement.

That might be the true limit of his Vajra Realm.

Once the constitution could no longer gain anything significant from new records, perhaps the next body cultivation realm would finally become visible.

Su Bai considered the idea.

It made sense.

Unfortunately, there was only one reliable way to test it.

He needed to get hurt.

Repeatedly.

Preferably in as many different ways as possible.

Su Bai rubbed his chin.

Walking around Radiant Sky Sect and asking people to attack him sounded somewhat inappropriate.

There was also the problem that most disciples would probably refuse.

The elders might agree, but explaining himself to every single one of them would become troublesome.

His thoughts eventually settled on the easiest person.

Lu Canghai.

His master had already tolerated enough strange requests that one more should barely matter.

More importantly, Lu Canghai possessed enough control to attack him seriously without accidentally killing him.

Su Bai nodded to himself.

His master was perfect.

...

A short while later, Lu Canghai returned to Clear Cloud Peak.

He had come intending to ask about Shen Youran, the Heartless Sutra, and the strange reaction of the heavens during the tribulation.

He found Su Bai sitting on the stone and staring directly at him.

Lu Canghai slowed.

Something about that gaze immediately felt dangerous.

"Disciple."

Su Bai smiled.

Lu Canghai’s suspicion deepened.

"You may ask your master for help, but stop looking at me like that first."

Su Bai’s smile widened.

"As expected of Master. You understand me best."

Lu Canghai felt no comfort from that statement.

"What do you need?"

Su Bai thought about how to phrase the request.

He considered several versions, but none sounded normal.

Eventually, he abandoned the effort.

"Master, can you beat me up?"

Lu Canghai went silent.

Su Bai added, "Seriously."

The silence became heavier.

Lu Canghai raised one hand and pressed his fingers against his forehead.

"I came here to ask you about the Heartless Sutra."

"We can talk about that afterward."

"That somehow makes this worse."

Su Bai could not disagree.

Lu Canghai stared at his disciple for several breaths.

"Explain first."

Su Bai’s expression became more serious.

He told Lu Canghai what he had noticed about his constitution.

He explained how it recorded damage, how the Heavenly Burial Palm had changed it, and how the Void Lightning and Void Domain had produced another clear improvement.

He also explained his suspicion that the constitution might continue strengthening until new forms of damage stopped producing meaningful adaptations.

By the time he finished, Lu Canghai’s irritation had faded.

He rubbed his chin.

"So you want to expose your body to different forces and see how it responds."

Su Bai nodded.

"That should tell me whether the records are actually pushing it toward completion."

Lu Canghai considered the idea.

It was strange.

Unfortunately, the reasoning was sound.

His gaze swept across Su Bai’s body.

"Fine. We test it carefully. I increase the force gradually, and you tell me immediately if anything feels wrong."

Su Bai’s eyes brightened.

"Master really does understand me."

"I am already regretting it."

They moved to an open area on Clear Cloud Peak.

Lu Canghai stood several dozen steps away.

Su Bai planted his feet.

"Master, I’m ready."

Lu Canghai raised one hand.

A controlled palm strike crossed the distance.

It hit Su Bai squarely in the chest.

The impact sent him backward several steps, and pain spread through his ribs.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body reacted.

Su Bai’s eyes brightened.

"Again."

Lu Canghai struck a second time.

The force increased.

Su Bai slid across the stone.

The Vajra Body recorded the change in impact and pressure.

A third attack followed from another angle.

Su Bai blocked nothing.

Lu Canghai frowned.

"Disciple, you are allowed to protect your face."

"If I protect it, I won’t know whether the record is different."

Lu Canghai stared at him.

He was beginning to understand why this experiment felt wrong.

Still, he continued.

The next attacks changed.

Lu Canghai varied the force, direction, and nature of the physical pressure without using enough power to threaten Su Bai’s life.

Some strikes carried crushing force.

Others concentrated their impact into smaller areas.

A few produced sharp external pressure that tested the Vajra Body differently from blunt impact.

Every time something sufficiently different reached him, Su Bai felt the constitution respond.

Existing records deepened.

Several closely related attacks produced almost no meaningful change.

That was useful too.

It meant the Vajra Body was not simply becoming stronger every time someone hit him.

Once it understood a particular damage pattern well enough, repeating the same thing gave rapidly diminishing returns.

Su Bai became increasingly excited.

His theory was beginning to make sense.

"Master, try something different."

Lu Canghai’s eyes narrowed.

"I have been trying different things."

"Something I haven’t experienced before."

Lu Canghai looked at him for a moment.

A strange expression appeared on his face.

Normally, masters worried about disciples refusing harsh training.

His problem appeared to be the opposite.

Lu Canghai changed his technique.

The next strike carried a twisting force rather than a direct impact.

Su Bai’s body turned sharply as the attack landed against his shoulder.

Pain shot through the joint.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body reacted immediately.

Su Bai grinned.

Lu Canghai stopped.

"Brat... Do not smile when I hit you."

Su Bai blinked.

"Why?"

"It makes this experience considerably worse for me."

Su Bai thought about it.

That was fair.

He tried to control his expression.

Lu Canghai resumed.

Several more controlled attacks landed.

The records continued developing.

After some time, Su Bai finally raised a hand.

"Master, that should be enough."

Lu Canghai immediately stopped.

Su Bai examined his body.

The change was smaller than what Void Lightning had produced, but the experiment had confirmed something important.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body cared about variety.

New damage patterns produced the clearest growth.

Repeated exposure deepened an existing record, but once adaptation reached a certain point, additional attacks gave far less.

Su Bai smiled.

"We should have done this earlier."

Lu Canghai’s expression froze.

He slowly lowered his hand.

For several breaths, he simply stared at his disciple.

Su Bai realized how that sentence sounded.

"I meant the experiment."

Lu Canghai sighed.

"That explanation did not help as much as you think."

Su Bai looked away.

At least he had learned what he needed.

The Vajra Realm did have a progression for him.

It simply was not divided into the same stages as the ordinary constitutions he had seen.

The Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body was building itself through calamity records.

Every new kind of damage expanded the constitution.

Every deeper record filled another weakness.

Somewhere ahead was a point where the current body could no longer gain meaningful improvement from those records.

Su Bai did not know what would happen when he reached that point.

For now, that uncertainty no longer bothered him.

He had found the direction.

The only unfortunate part was that the direction involved getting beaten in increasingly creative ways.

Lu Canghai looked at the thoughtful expression on his disciple’s face and suddenly felt another headache coming.

He had forgotten entirely that he originally came to ask about the Heartless Sutra.