Inside the relic space—
Everything was silent.
Suddenly—
A violent fluctuation erupted from Zhao Xuan's body.
Immediately afterward—
His aura began to plummet rapidly.
His complexion gradually turned pale.
If Zhao Xuan were to open his attribute panel at this moment, he would discover—
His total physique value was dropping at an astonishing speed.
One hundred.
Two hundred.
Three hundred.
Four hundred…
In the blink of an eye, it had fallen by nearly a thousand points.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Because his physique had dropped by a thousand points in such a short time, an indescribable sensation swept through Zhao Xuan's entire body.
No—
Calling it weakness wasn't accurate.
More precisely—
It was the feeling of being frail.
Zhao Xuan hadn't felt this weak in a very, very long time.
"The five organs have completely exited their refined state. Next… it's time for the limbs."
Feeling how feeble his internal organs had become after forcibly reversing their refinement, Zhao Xuan took a deep breath.
Just as he was about to direct his mental power toward his limbs—
Suddenly—
He sensed something unusual.
"No—no—no—no—no!"
Zhao Xuan's eyes flashed sharply.
His mental power surged out from his mind, poured into his body, and swept through his internal organs as he examined them carefully.
The relic space fell silent once more.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
After a brief pause—
Zhao Xuan's expression gradually grew excited.
"Although I've completely stripped the life energy from my organs and reverted them to an unrefined state…"
"They were once refined by life energy!"
"So even though all the life energy has been removed, they're still fundamentally stronger than before!"
To put it simply—
Think of a balloon.
When air is blown into it, it expands.
If the air is released, it shrinks back down.
But—
It never fully returns to its original size.
It remains just a little bigger than before.
Zhao Xuan immediately opened his attribute panel.
And then—
He smiled.
A brilliant, radiant smile spread across his face.
Because—
His guess was correct.
Although he had stripped all life energy from his internal organs and fallen back to the Fifth-Rank Grandmaster realm—
Logically—
His physique should have dropped by a full thousand points.
After all, those thousand points came from life-energy refinement.
But—
His physique hadn't dropped by a thousand points.
It had only dropped by eight hundred.
Two hundred points remained.
"If that's the case… then if I repeatedly rebuild my cultivation, wouldn't I be able to stack physique endlessly?"
Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up instantly.
But in the very next moment—
He shook his head hard.
"Pah, pah, pah! What nonsense!"
"Refining the organs once costs a full fifty billion!"
"Who the hell could afford rebuilding for fifty billion each time?!"
He almost laughed himself at the absurdity of the thought.
Fifty billion per rebuild—
Even the world's richest man would hesitate.
"Wait… wait… wait…"
Still smiling, Zhao Xuan's gaze suddenly sharpened.
"With my current resources, refining the organs again is impossible—but refining the limbs is different!"
"Refining the limbs requires far less life energy than refining the organs!"
"I currently have life-energy resources worth 135 billion."
"Five hundred billion is reserved for the organs."
"That means I still have 85 billion worth of life energy just for my limbs!"
"If one refinement costs about ten billion, I can do it eight times!"
At that realization—
Zhao Xuan's heart surged with excitement.
He could hardly wait to repeatedly refine his limbs and push their strength higher and higher.
No hesitation.
The next instant—
Zhao Xuan began stripping the spiritual energy from his limbs.
Five minutes later—
All spiritual energy in his limbs was completely removed.
His aura weakened even further.
He checked his attributes.
His physique had dropped by another 390 points.
Now—
His total physique had fallen below 3,000.
2,946.
Taking a deep breath, Zhao Xuan decisively pulled out a large handful of Life Stones.
Like inhaling oxygen—
One by one, he brought them to his mouth and absorbed them.
To be safe—
He absorbed a full one hundred Life Stones in one go.
Only then did he begin controlling the vast life energy within his body to refine his limbs.
Five minutes later—
His left arm was fully refined.
Ten minutes later—
His right arm was complete.
Fifteen minutes later—
His left leg was finished.
And after another five minutes—
His right leg was also successfully refined.
The instant all four limbs completed refinement—
A powerful aura burst forth from Zhao Xuan's body.
"I'm back at the Fifth Rank."
Murmuring softly, Zhao Xuan quickly opened his attribute panel.
The moment he saw it, his eyes blazed.
"Refining my limbs with life energy to advance to the Fifth-Rank Grandmaster realm directly gave me eight hundred physique points?"
"That's double what refining with spiritual energy would give!"
But Zhao Xuan wasn't satisfied.
After a brief moment of joy, he quickly regained his composure.
Next—
He carefully sensed the remaining life energy in his body.
"Only about forty percent remains."
"That means refining the limbs once consumes roughly six billion."
"Eighty-five divided by six… about fourteen."
"So I can still rebuild my limbs thirteen more times in a row!"
"The only question is—how much physique will each rebuild add?"
With that thought—
Zhao Xuan didn't hesitate in the slightest.
He decisively stripped the life energy from his freshly refined limbs once again.
Then—
He reopened his attribute panel.
2,966.
Seeing the number, Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up.
"Twenty points!"
"It increased by twenty!"
"One rebuild adds twenty physique points!"
"Thirteen times—that's two hundred sixty points!"
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
Zhao Xuan suddenly burst into laughter.
His laughter echoed through the relic space—
Wild.
Unrestrained.
Utterly rampant.
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