Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood

Several people brought Luo Zheng to the training hall after restraining him and putting the leather armour on him.

The descendants of Luo Clan were undergoing strict training in the training hall as per usual. They beat the rows of stone dummies by the corner of the wall with all their might using their bare hands. Every punch they hit the stone dummies with caused soft exploding sounds, causing the air to tremor.

The punching bags standing on the other side of the hall all wore long faces and felt bitter, as though their parents died.

It was, indeed, rough living a life where you\'d get beaten, regardless of time of the day. They\'d, sometimes, lie in bed, covered in wounds, tossing and turning on their bed, unable to sleep. Unfortunately, they didn\'t have freedom, so they had no other choice but to put up with the beatings.

In a loud and sonorous tone, the head instructor of the Luo Clan shouted, "Attention, punching bags!"

All of the "punching bags" stood in an orderly line with their torsos upright. The "punching bags" knew very well what the head instructor\'s temperament was like. Committing a careless minor mistake meant being whipped. Furthermore, the Luo Clan\'s head instructor\'s whip was no ordinary whip. It only took a nip to cause a cut.

The descendants of Luo Clan chose their "punching bags". Luo Zheng was selected by a burly collateral descendant. This collateral descendant\'s name was Luo Dalong. The other descendants who saw Luo Dalong choose Luo Zheng, revealed looks of pity.

Luo Dalong has average talent and had only reached the Skin Refinement Realm. However, he was born with tremendous physical might. His strength was on par with the Flesh Refinement Realm. He was a very aggressive character. As a matter of fact, he was slightly violent. A fair number of "punching bags" were crippled by him, if not killed. Those chosen by him were doomed to suffer awful consequences.

Luo Dalong raised his fist up and warmed his body up. He looked at Luo Zheng with a tinge of excitement. There were only a few prisoners sentenced to death recently and lots of them were bought by other clans, while Luo Clan struggled to replenish their "punching bags", so they were a scarce resource for the clan.

Beating up these punching bags made of flesh, not only helped them train their bodies, but also allowed them to vent their anger. Hence, that was why Luo Dalong was excited. What made it even better was that his punching bag for today was Luo Clan\'s former young lord.

Just imagining the former superior young lord pleading for mercy was enough to make him feel ecstatic.

Luo Zheng frowned when faced with Luo Dalong. Luo Dalong was particularly strong. The last time he was hit by him, he suffered an internal injury that took half a month to heal from. However, after two years of living on the edge of death being a punching bag, Luo Zheng learnt to be calm as still water. He managed to quickly calm himself down and even check his leather armour, before standing in a proper posture to face him.

Luo Dalong then rushed at him. The style that Luo Dalong trains in is a hard style, and hence, very powerful and vicious punching style called Bull Rush Fist.

Luo Zheng took in a deep breath and toughened his chest to face the overwhelming punch. Relying on the leather armour could only reduce the force behind the punch, at best.

*Poof!*

Despite the leather armour reducing the force of the blow quite a bit, the force managed to get past the armour, in the end. It was akin to having a heavy hammer smashed into his chest.

Luo Zhengswiftly exhaled the qi in his chest, deflating his chest instantly.

\'Reduce the damage!\'

Exhaling qi from one\'s chest can allow them to form a buffer zone, which can reduce the force of the strike once again. This technique was one of the secrets Luo Zheng used to survive as a punching bag for the last two years!

Unfortunately, Luo Dalong\'s punch was far too powerful, so the force of the punch still went through, even after reducing the force of it a second time. Luo Zheng revealed a helpless smile and then fell backwards, similarly to a kite string that snapped.

Luo Zheng felt dizzy as he lay there on the ground. He thought to himself that he was done for this time. He thought that the punch would most likely cause him to suffer a severe internal injury, but then he discovered something odd. He didn\'t feel an ounce of pain.

Besides not feeling pain, he also felt a unique warm current surface in his chest. His body immediately reacted, once the warm current surfaced. He felt as if his body was a starving wolf, swiftly devouring the warm current.

The warm current then spread into his organs and limbs, warming up his entire body. He didn\'t feel any pain. To the contrary, he felt an extremely soothing feeling.

\'What\'s going on?\' Luo Zheng was dumbfounded, \'These warm currents, are cleansing my body!\'

Although Luo Zheng had been demoted to a slave, he was once the young lord of Luo Clan, so he possessed enough knowledge to comprehend what was happening.

It\'s rare to come across a medicine that can cleanse one\'s body. One like Luo Clan\'s Heaven and Earth Fate Blessings Pill could cleanse one\'s body, but no words could do justice to the rarity of a holy tier medicine like Heaven and Earth Blessings Pill. The large Luo Clan managed to collect only two of them after centuries. That was proof of how precious it was.

The warm current that cleansed his body appeared without rhyme or reason. Luo Zheng pondered it for a while, as he lay there. He soon connected it with the phenomenon from yesterday.

"Let one\'s flesh be the medium. Let one\'s self be the soul. Thoroughly temper and rinse thy body to turn it into natural energy…"

\'Could the so-called "thoroughly temper thy body" mean to take a beating?\'

It was just as recorded in the golden foil. His body was the same as a Mystique Tier magical weapon. Weapons must be thoroughly tempered to forge a top grade magical weapon, isn\'t that right?

\'Taking a beating will enable me to produce the body-cleansing warm current! Taking a beating is the equivalent of continuously consuming the Heaven and Earth Blessings Pill!\'

Luo Zheng got fired up, when he realised that possibility, causing his heart to tremor with excitement.

Luo Zheng got back up, in order to test his theory.

He didn\'t suffer an injury, and he even profited from Long Dalong\'s punch, but he pretended to be in pain, struggling as he stood up, in spite of that. He even went as far as to quiver non-stop.

Luo Dalong revealed a strange look on his face, when he saw Luo Zheng get up. He thought that Luo Zheng would be crippled, if not dead from that punch. However, the fact the Luo Zheng was able to stand up after that, made him somewhat embarrassed.

"Heh, you\'re so good at taking a beating! I must say that you didn\'t reach the Flesh Refinement Realm for nothing! Take this!"

Luo Dalong threw another punch directly at Luo Zheng, as soon as he was done speaking.

*Boom!*

Luo Zheng went flying again, as a result of the punch. He rolled on the ground, as if he was a sandbag. In the moment he landed on the ground, he thought to himself that it felt good. The warm current that appeared the last time he got hit, appeared again. The current transformed into a small snake that then drilled into his organs, and then into his eight extraordinary meridians, to continuously temper his flesh and cleanse his organs.

\'This feels amazing.\'

Luo Zheng felt as though he was in a bath with a nice spring breeze. His entire body felt soothing. His energy and spirit burned in his eyes. The more he opened his eyes, the more vigorous he felt.

"Die!"

*Boom!*

"Let\'s see if you don\'t die!*

*Boom!*

Every current that appeared, further increased the purity of Luo Zheng\'s body. Luo Dalong was, basically, a blacksmith hard at work for Luo Zheng, using his fists to temper this "Mystique Weapon", Luo Zheng.

Luo Dalong only stopped after beating him for a while. He panted as he looked at Luo Zheng. He was utterly shocked, because while he heard Luo Zheng was, particularly, good at taking a beating, he never imagined that the guy would be so tenacious, being able to get back up after taking so many punches, albeit shaking and looking as though he was struggling to get up with all his might…

Luo Dalong had no idea that Luo Zheng\'s weak look that seemed as though a mere push could put him on his back was faked. Luo Zheng was, actually, full of life and enjoying the amazing feeling of having the warm current cleanse his flesh.

The "punching bags" who saw the scene, thought to themselves that Luo Zheng was a moron. They thought it\'d be much smarter for him to not get up if he couldn\'t. At least that way, he could get sent back and rest for a day. Getting up to take a beating like that was, basically, whoring for a beating.

They thought, "Could he have gotten an addiction to taking beatings, after being a punching bag for so long?"

Luo Zheng didn\'t get up after the last time. He was, actually, hesitant to stop, for the sensation of the warm current cleansing his body was addicting! However, he would appear far too strong if he was able to get up over and over like that. If he continued getting up, they might suspect him. As such, he decided… to wait till tomorrow to take another beating.

Luo Dalong let out a sigh of relief to himself, when he saw that Luo Zheng wasn\'t able to rise again. If he couldn\'t even knock out a man standing still, he\'d be an embarrassment.

Luo Zheng limped back into the cellar at night. Once the servants of Luo Clan locked the door to the cellar, he immediately sprung to life.

Steward Fang didn\'t appear today, either, but the servants delivered three pills of medicine to him. Nobody embezzled his medication this time.

\'Steward Fang is behaving now after yesterday\'s scolding?\'

Luo Zheng shook his head. He didn\'t buy it. He knew very well what scoundrels like Steward Fang are like. He would never just let it go. Luo Zheng presumed he was cooking up another idea to harm him.

\'Screw him! I have to be vigilant of scoundrels like him, but I can\'t put him on a pedestal, either. Different circumstances, require different actions.\'

He tossed the three pills aside. He didn\'t need those cheap things, with the status of his body as it is now.

He took a beating all day, today, so he was filthy all over. He undressed and then scooped out a ladle of water. He then took it and poured it down from overhead.

*Splash…*

The clear water ran down his head and then turned into muddy water when it reached the ground. There were some white impurities in the muddy water.

He discovered that the warm current continuously excreted the impurities inside his body.

What is the Flesh Refinement Realm? It\'s the excretion of impurities within one\'s flesh.

What is the Bone Refinement Realm? It\'s the excretion of impurities within one\'s bones.

What is the Viscera Refinement Realm? It\'s…

The five physical body realms are a body refinement process. You first refine your skin, then flesh then bones and organs, working from outside and gradually inwards. Once you\'ve purified all the impurities within your body, you\'ll be able to break through the flesh body realm, and thereby sublimate life and ascend to a higher level of life.

The main difference between Luo Zheng and others is that others need to train their body, in order to expel the impurities in their body. That process is very slow, as it needs to accumulate over an extensive period of time. It can be as short as a few years, as long as several decades or even a lifetime.

Luo Zheng, on the other hand, just needs to take a beating, to use that warm current very similar to the Heaven and Earth Blessings Pill, to expel the impurities within his body!

While others require a year to expel a minute amount of impurities, he could expel the impurities from his body over a hundred or even a thousand times faster!

Luo Zheng had, already, reached the peak of the Flesh Refinement Realm. He was stuck there, only because he was stuck being a punching bag for the last two years, and therefore had no time to train.

But nevertheless, after today\'s beating, he felt as though his body had undergone changes, due to clearing the impurities in his body. His flesh was now incomparably pure and he noticed the light white impurities in the black impurities when he washed up, just now.

The impurities expelled from his flesh were the black impurities while the white impurities were the impurities expelled from his bones. This was evidence that he had reached the Bone Refinement Realm!

He shifted his iron bed to create space in the cellar and then executed Rosewood Fist. His body was enveloped in a purple light. The purple light that enveloped him was on par with the purple light Luo Peiran had that day.

When he punched he air, an explosive sound tore through the air.

*Poof!*

The powerful soundwaves generated scattered air currents, causing the candles and papers in the cellar to scatter, as well.

Unfortunately, the cellar was too small. He didn\'t have a stone dumbbell or stone dummy to test out his strength and he was also afraid of causing too much of a ruckus, thus letting others find out.

Nonetheless, he was now, without a doubt, a formidable fighter who\'d reached the Bone Refinement Realm.