After another long day of juggling college lectures, assignments, and nighttime cultivation, Orin collapsed onto his bed, eyes heavy and shoulders sore.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, thoughts stirring.
"There has to be a way to not get tired…" he muttered to himself, frustrated.
His mind sifted through what he knew of human biology.
"Fatigue… happens when cells don't get enough oxygen. Rarely hypoglycemia—but I eat well, especially with all that protein lately. So the problem must be oxygen delivery."
Then the thought struck like lightning.
"My innate talent… Paradox. I can choose what interacts with me. What if I allowed air to flow freely through my body. And i make my cells interact with the air that is flowing through my body. It will allow my cells to directly absorb the oxygen and i will not get tired?"
He sat upright, heart pounding.
"If my cells could directly interact with the air, absorb oxygen without the lungs... I could erase fatigue altogether."
Sitting cross-legged, he focused, engaging his innate talent with pinpoint precision.
He willed the air to pass through his skin, muscles, blood vessels—even bones. For a moment, he felt nothing.
Then, air pressure on his body vanished..
A hollow vacuum sensation overwhelmed him, like he is going to burst like a ballon.
"It's too much—my body feels like it'll rupture!"
He quickly let the natural air pressure interact with him again, stabilizing the internal environment while still maintaining airflow.
Then another problem hit.
He was suffocating.
His lungs no longer drew in air. His brain screamed for oxygen, and the suffocation was sharp and immediate.
"Now! Cells, absorb oxygen!"
He forced his cells to interact with the flowing air and siphon oxygen directly from it.
Silence.
Then—bliss.
Warmth spread through his body. Energy pulsed in his limbs. His vision cleared.
The fatigue… vanished.
Orin stood slowly and realized something startling.
He was no longer breathing.
His chest didn't rise or fall. His lungs were still.
"I… I don't need to breathe anymore."
His lungs had become obsolete.
With his cells independently pulling oxygen from ambient air moving through him, the act of breathing—of even using respiratory organs—was unnecessary.
He touched his chest and smiled.
"I've cut away another human limitation."
"This means… no more fatigue from overtraining, no suffocation under water, no toxic gas… No one will even notice I'm alive if I don't want them to."
The implications were vast.
Orin had just stepped one foot out of humanity's natural limitations. And it was only the beginning.
"If I can bypass breathing... what else can I override?"
He clenched his fist, a grin tugging at his lips.
"I succeeded."
Orin sat cross-legged on his dorm bed, the air still faintly vibrating around him—his cells now naturally breathing without lungs. It was liberating.
But his mind didn't stop there.
"If I can do this with air… can I do it with Qi too?"
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"But Qi is more volatile than oxygen. If I mess this up, I might cripple myself before I even step into the higher realms."
He needed clarity—complete, meticulous understanding.
He reached into the drawer and pulled out the weathered scroll he'd retrieved from the corpse weeks ago, unfolding it with reverence.
He began to reread, this time with a scholar's patience. With his experience with skin strengthening and his knowledge he understood the technique in greater detail then when he first acquired it.
The script detailed the core of each realm not just as brute advancement, but as precise bodily transformation—a science of internal refinement.
First Realm: Skin Strengthening
"It's not just about making skin tough. It's about conducting Qi."
According to the scroll, the first realm's primary goal was to introduce Qi into the body safely, and then transform the skin cells to adapt and channel Qi through the body.
Early stage: Adaptation begins at the epidermis—the outermost layer.
Middle stage: Qi refines the dermis, integrating blood vessels and nerves into the circuit.
High stage: The hypodermis—the fatty, deeper layer—is refined to store trace amounts of Qi and act as a buffer.
Peak: The three layers are fused in function, acting as a single, efficient Qi-conducting sheath.
"No wonder my skin became so durable. That wasn't the point—it was just a benefit of structural refinement."
Second Realm: Muscle Strengthening
Orin's breath caught as he scanned the next section. He had already reached early stage of this realm, and now it made sense.
"Muscle strengthening isn't just bulking up—it's about channeling and amplifying Qi movement."
Early stage: Focus on the fascia above the muscle, the thin connective tissue layer. It learns to feel and stretch Qi.
Middle stage: The muscle fibers themselves undergo restructuring—becoming vessels through which Qi could be pumped forcefully.
High stage: The deep fascia below the muscle is refined to anchor Qi flow, ensuring it doesn't leak or disperse.
Peak: The entire muscular system acts as a Qi turbine, compressing, storing, and releasing energy with each contraction.
"The larger and denser the muscles, the more Qi flow capacity. That's why strength rises sharply at this stage."
He rubbed his shoulder, feeling the barely visible muscle fibers twitch slightly as Qi flowed through.
Third Realm: Bone Strengthening
He hadn't reached it yet, but he read on.
"Bones… the internal scaffolding. I'll need this someday."
Early stage: Refines the periosteum, the thin membrane covering bones. It begins to sense and channel Qi like a resonating drumhead.
Middle stage: The cortical bone—the dense outer layer—adapts to circulate Qi like a hardened riverbed.
High stage: The bone marrow (medulla) undergoes the most radical shift, forming Qi-nurturing centers capable of generating force and essence.
Peak: Bone layers are harmonized to act as a powerful foundation, letting martial artists become walking fortresses of energy.
"This martial art is more scientific than i expected one to be. Is it so for only this technique i got or all are like these?"
"Most likely all, i don't think i will be so lucky to get something legendary from just one encounter, even the one who killed the man i got this scroll did not search for it instead left after killing him further degrading the value of this scroll for a real martial artist. "
"Still its a blessing for me that I got it."