The night was deep and still. River's snoring drifted through the bedroom door in a steady, drumlike rhythm. I sat cross-legged in the old rattan chair on the balcony, my fingertips unconsciously tracing the tidal sword-mark etched into my palm. Ever since reaching the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, that faint blue vein had taken to running warm at odd hours — especially whenever the tides surged out east toward the Eastern Sea, as though someone had grafted a living tidal gauge into my hand.

"Rookie. What are you spacing out for? That merit balance of yours is practically growing mold from sitting idle. You planning to put the Tide Saint Body Art on the agenda anytime soon?" The System Elder's voice detonated inside my head without warning, nearly startling me out of my skin.

I shot his projection a withering look and sank my focus into the system panel. The merit value — eight hundred thousand last I checked — had somehow crept up to nine hundred thousand and was just sitting there, glaring at me.

"What's the rush," I said, fishing out the jade slip of the Tide Saint Body Art that the system had awarded me. The cool smoothness of the jade spread from my fingertips up through my hand. "This cultivation technique is obviously no gentle thing. The description alone says 'tempers the physical body as though crushed repeatedly by surging tides.' Shouldn't I at least do a little mental preparation first?"

The jade slip dissolved into a stream of light and merged into my brow. Information about the technique flooded in like a wave. The Tide Saint Body Art was every bit as ruthless as advertised — it operated on the principle of using tidal force to scour the marrow and reforge the bones. Each cycle of circulation was the equivalent of hurling your body into genuine, heaving, storm-wracked seas to be hammered into shape. The most elegant part was that it could resonate with my Tide Saint Body Art, effectively installing a tide-powered enhancement system for the physical body as well.

"Mental preparation my backside," the System Elder's projection crowded in, his cup of instant noodles nearly tipping onto my head. "You're mid-stage Foundation Establishment right now, and your physical body is only at peak mid-stage. Keep putting this off and when you run into a Core Formation cultivator down the road, they'll slap you flat as a meat patty with one hand."

He had a point. I couldn't stop a shudder just thinking back to Victor Jin's suffocating Core Formation pressure. I drew a slow, deep breath and, following the jade slip's instructions, channeled spiritual energy into my dantian while simultaneously circulating the Tide Saint Body Art, guiding the water-attribute spiritual energy inside me to mimic the ebb and flow of the tides.

An indescribable force swept through my entire body in an instant. It was like being hurled into a whirlpool in the Eastern Sea — every organ, every viscera churning and rolling. My muscles and bones let out faint crack-crack sounds, as though countless tiny hammers were striking all at once.

"Ow—" I muffled a grunt, beads of sweat the size of soybeans breaking out across my forehead in seconds. This was worse than the pain of breaking through to Foundation Establishment. Every inch of skin felt as if it were being scoured over and over by tidal water — numb, itching, and aching all at once.

"Hold it!" The System Elder's voice carried a distinct edge of excitement. "This is only the beginning! Look at the panel — your physical body strength is climbing!"

I gritted my teeth and pulled up the system panel. Sure enough, the number in the Physical Body Strength row was ticking upward in slow, steady pulses: Foundation Establishment mid-stage peak... Foundation Establishment mid-stage peak +... with a faint suggestion of breaking through into the late stage!

"Holy crap, it actually works!" The pain vanished from my mind entirely. That raw, immediate sense of improvement from watching a number rise — it was ten times more satisfying than swallowing ten Body-Tempering Pills.

For the next half a month, I became completely hooked on cultivating the Tide Saint Body Art. Every day before dawn I would flash to the coast using a Ground-Shrink Talisman and train through the high tide. The results were more than twice as good as working on the balcony. The system message explained that this technique emphasised "resonance with the tide" — the Eastern Sea's natural tidal forces could dramatically improve cultivation efficiency and also reduce the risk of qi deviation.

On one particular morning, I stood on the reef rocks at Luoxia Bay, the rising sun ahead of me, running the technique as a new day began. Wave after wave of surf broke against my legs, and the ice-cold seawater produced a strange, wonderful resonance with the tidal spiritual energy circulating inside me. Then, all at once, every muscle in my body seized tight, and a power unlike anything I had felt before surged through every limb and bone.

"Ha—!" I couldn't hold it in. I spun and drove my fist into a nearby reef that stood roughly at head height.

Boom!

A dull crack rang out. My fist, wrapped in a faint haze of tidal force, slammed into the rock with full force. I had expected to gouge out a dent at most — but the reef gave a sharp crack, and a web of fractures spiderwebbed across its surface.

"What the—!" I stared at my own fist, stunned. "This is what peak mid-stage Foundation Establishment physical strength feels like?"

The System Elder's voice was thick with contempt. "Making a fuss over nothing! This is barely a start. Wait until you've trained the Tide Saint Body Art to minor completion — shattering one of those with a single punch will be child's play."

End of Chapter 71: The Tide Saint Body Art