Section 025: Baptism Complete! Forging the Perfect Body! The Hill Realm!

Folks.

Can you believe it?

The crisp, melodic chime I had been anticipating for an entire day finally sounded the moment my Vitality hit its maximum value!

Xu Ran felt a wave of delight. He lay back comfortably on his bed, adjusting both his mental and physical states to perfection. Before lying down, he had even taken a bath, scrubbing himself thoroughly from head to toe. After all, the third Innate Baptism was one of the most important events in one’s life; the sense of ritual was essential!

As for having to wait until the dead of night when his mom was fast asleep to initiate the baptism... that was ancient history. At nearly five years old, he now had his own bedroom!

"Everything is ready; all that’s missing is the east wind. Did I overlook anything?"

He opened his eyes and glanced at the door and windows. They were locked tight, and the curtains were drawn shut.

"Alright, Innate Baptism, initiate."

Following his command, a surge of icy, freezing energy erupted from the depths of his heart like a burst dam!

"Hiss—"

Xu Ran’s breath hitched, and his eyes widened.

The energy released during this third Innate Baptism was far more intense in its bone-chilling cold and volatile power than the first two. In the span of a single breath, his heart was frozen into an ice sculpture, then violently shattered into dust.

In this moment, Xu Ran stood perfectly still, as if time had been paused. Everything around him slowed down, and in this slow motion, the world was broken down into tiny, dust-like particles. Fragments of space, drifting like specks of dust, flowed and swirled slowly before his eyes...

It felt as if ten thousand years had passed.

The next instant, his pulverized heart gathered together once more, forging itself into a whole a hundred times stronger than before.

His heartbeat returned.

"Thump—"

"Thump—"

"Thump—"

Strong, powerful, the sound like a beating war drum or the low growl of a tiger or leopard.

For the first time, Xu Ran realized how wonderful the sound of a heartbeat could be!

Yet, in the very next second, a torrent of "scorching lava" with extreme heat erupted from the depths of his heart. The temperature, high enough to instantly liquefy rock, turned his heart into ash in an instant.

Xu Ran’s vision went black.

It was as if he had been cast into the bottom of a volcano, burned away into nothingness. Fortunately, in that same instant, his heart coalesced once again.

His heart was even stronger now!

Xu Ran heard a resonance like a giant Kui dragon drum; it felt truly miraculous!

Following this, his heart was destroyed and reshaped by extreme ice three times over. Immediately after, the freezing icy liquid and the scorching lava turned into two ferocious, torrential floods, pumping wildly into his limbs, bones, internal organs, meridians, and cells. They were instantly frozen into powder, instantly annihilated by fire, and instantly reshaped...

Between destruction and reconstruction, the extreme cold and extreme heat energies were pressed into his limbs, his bones, and all sixty trillion of his cells!

"Is this process... like a nirvana rebirth? Breaking through one shackle after another, pushing beyond the limits of life?"

Xu Ran was astonished.

He could feel two diametrically opposed super-energies forging a perfect body in the most violent way possible. Every cell, every meridian, every bone, and every internal organ was being enhanced dozens of times over in this forge of ice and fire.

This was not a mere superficial improvement in strength.

It was the shackles being forcibly broken!

His potential, his upper limit... were being ruthlessly raised!

If the previous Xu Ran was like a single standing boulder, then the future Xu Ran would be a hill made of hundreds of such boulders.

The sensation of this leap in his life level was so clear and distinct!!

It was like a silkworm breaking its cocoon to become a butterfly! Like a phoenix rising from the ashes! Like an ant rising from the ground, swelling in the wind to become a behemoth!

A pleasure emanating from the depths of his soul washed over him, drowning Xu Ran...

It was absolutely exhilarating!

Every pore on Xu Ran’s body opened wide!

【Congratulations, the third Innate Baptism is complete! Because you have completed the third Innate Baptism, your conversion rate from Vitality to Power at age eight will reach 120%...】

Hmm?

Xu Ran raised an eyebrow, unable to hide his astonishment.

Generally speaking, human infants are born weak, and the reason for this weakness is that the conversion rate from Vitality to Power is very low.

For example, infants under one year old have a conversion rate of 5%, so 1,000 points of Vitality only manifest as 50 points of Power.

Between one and six years old, the rate is 10%; 1,000 points of Vitality only manifest as 100 points of Power. Commonly known as one part strength, only one-tenth can be utilized.

After six years old, the rate becomes 50%... Only then do the combat capabilities of genius toddlers begin to emerge. The innate bone structure within the body also fully manifests, producing unique effects.

Once over eight years old, human children can step onto the path of cultivation; by then, the starting conversion rate is 80%.

As for those top-tier geniuses, they have a chance to reach a 100% conversion rate, or even exceed it, but even for them, exceeding it usually means 105% or 108%.

And yet, Xu Ran started off with a 120% conversion rate?

That was terrifying.

If he were eight years old now, with his horrifying 10,000 Vitality points, he could manifest 12,000 points of Power!

A twenty percent increase can be described in four words—invincible at the same tier!

"As expected of an Innate Baptism!"

The smile on Xu Ran’s lips shifted from pleased satisfaction to blatant ecstasy.

On one hand, the raising of his life’s upper limit brought by the third Innate Baptism made him happy.

On the other hand, the chime for the third golden achievement in his mind had already arrived—

【Third Innate Baptism Task Completed】: Congratulations, before the age of five, your Vitality reached the current maximum limit of 10,000 points, successfully triggering the third Innate Baptism, and gaining the golden achievement 【Pure Spiritual Body】.

【Pure Spiritual Body (Golden Achievement)】: Luck +30 points; Poisonous gas, pollution, and ghostly substances will be slowly purified by your body after entering it.

...

Looking at the golden, shimmering achievement in his mind, Xu Ran couldn't help but leap up and sit cross-legged on the bed.

"Finally got it! The third golden achievement of my life!"

"The radiant, shimmering gold... it’s so beautiful... the more I look at it, the more pleasing it is, the more refreshed I feel."

"Is this the unique sense of accomplishment that only comes after shedding tens of thousands of drops of sweat?"

The reward, tempered by sweat, brought a sense of achievement that was ten, even a hundred times greater!

Xu Ran was satisfied to the extreme.

"So comfortable, so comfortable. These 30 points of Luck are simply wonderful!"

"This unique purification effect. Poison gas, pollution, ghostly substances... all can be slowly purified by my body! Combined with my super-speed recovery, I’m like an unkillable cockroach!"

"Good, good, good!"

Xu Ran took a deep breath and opened the window, letting the crisp air of late autumn fill his lungs. He was so happy he felt like crawling on the ceiling ten times over!

However, Xu Ran restrained this strange inner impulse and shifted his focus to the system interface.

【Name】: Xu Ran
【Age】: 1,735th day of toddlerhood (Four years and nine months old.)
【Vitality】: 10,000/100,000
【Spirit】: 32/100
【Appearance】: 100/100 (Already at max value; will possess a celestial appearance upon adulthood...)
【Luck】: 103 points/∞ (Your luck is top-tier, with constant fortuitous encounters.)
【Bone Structure】: None
【Divine Ability】: None
【Achievements】:
Celestial Appearance (Golden Achievement, Luck +40/120 points, one kidnapping event remaining to be triggered);
Disciplined Baby (Blue Achievement, Vitality +1 daily);
Perfect Toddler (Golden Achievement, Luck +30 points, Bone Structure yet to be drawn);
Pure Spiritual Body (Golden Achievement, Luck +30 points, self-purification);
【Skill Progress】: Click with your mind to view details.
【Achievement Tasks】: ............

...

"This is truly a visible improvement."

Xu Ran’s features were full of delight.

First, his Vitality upper limit had reached 100,000 points! Accumulating that to the max would mean reaching the peak of the Mound Realm. And the Mound Realm... was a mountain standing before countless cultivators! Xu Ran wasn't even five years old, yet he had already surpassed 80% of the cultivators on Blue Star!

Second was his Luck. After nearly five years of hard work, his Luck value had skyrocketed from the original 3 points to the current 103 points. It had increased thirty-fold, turning him from an unlucky guy who could only dream of good fortune into someone blessed with constant encounters.

Moreover, he was only 200 points away from the 300-point mark!

If he worked hard and grabbed a few more golden achievements... he would be able to draw the crimson-gold Perfect Bone Structure.

Thinking of this, Xu Ran let out a deep breath: "Let’s see the new achievement tasks! This... hmm... hmm?"