The Eternal Undying Body technique originates from the Hong Kong King of Fighters comics, created by the protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi. The original intent behind this method was specifically to counter Iori Yagami's Divine Race Undead Body.

In recent years, Ye Wen has summoned this ability several times. Aside from summoning the Divine Race Undead Body—which requires the Mad Blood of the Heavenly Kingdom God Race to cultivate—he also obtained the Eternal Undying Body and an even more frustrating technique, the Jedi Knight Force cultivation method, which Ye Wen promptly tossed into his storage ring.

After three consecutive failures summoning with his innate Violet Qi, resulting in completely random draws, Ye Wen decided to use the True Qi from the Hunyuan Baogian for his most recent summoning attempt. He was successful, obtaining the cultivation crystal for the second layer, "Plum Blossom Sway."

Bai Yunyan's martial art is nearly complete; Ye Wen can no longer see the white cultivation crystal within himself, replaced instead by a swirling mass of white vapor. However, the cultivation crystal for the Purple Star River has been advancing slowly. Ye Wen speculates that attempting to cultivate the Purple Star River in isolation, without mastering the preceding layers, significantly increases the difficulty. Therefore, he shelved the Purple Star River cultivation to focus entirely on the newly acquired Plum Blossom Sway.

As for the Eternal Undying Body, Ye Wen doesn't even need to dedicate specific practice time to it. This technique is purely a specialized method of power manipulation, similar to the Shifting Stars or the Great Celestial Shift. The crucial difference is that the primary function of the Eternal Undying Body is self-protection.

According to the manual, the Eternal Undying Body ensures the cultivator can withstand attacks carrying more than double their own strength without catastrophic failure. Higher forces pose a risk, but fortunately, the technique that counters the nearly invincible Divine Race Undead Body has its own knack: if the incoming force is overwhelmingly strong, the user can disperse that energy outside the body.

In the original comic, when Kyo Kusanagi endured a devastating punch from Rugal, he dispersed the unbearable energy from his body, minimizing the damage he sustained to the weakest possible level.

Of course, if the force endured is within the user's controllable range, the energy can be redirected back, much like the Shifting Stars. More exquisitely, in addition to blasting the opponent's power back, the user can also infuse it with their own inherent strength.

"A marvelous thing! Even against opponents whose strength surpasses mine, as long as they aren't overwhelmingly stronger, I possess the power to contend!"

While the Perfect Undead Body technique is more domineering—allowing not only absorption of the opponent's energy for personal use but also the formation of an avatar composed of the enemy's power on one's own body, akin to the Three Heads, Six Arms transformation—it remains unusable due to the lack of the Mad Blood, the single most critical factor. Ye Wen had to abandon that superior option.

While practicing this technique, Ye Wen suddenly recalled that in the manga, when Kyo and Iori reached this level, they seemed to completely disregard the passage of time. They fought in that alternate dimension for an unknown duration without showing any signs of aging.

In fact, this wasn't the first instance of defying time in the King of Fighters comics. Apart from the Heavenly Kingdom Gods who ignored time due to their immortality, Kyo’s own ancestor lived for over six hundred years while remaining impossibly dashing.

Zhang Hengguang once stated that martial cultivation is indeed a form of cultivation. While various methods possess unique characteristics, they all ultimately lead toward the Great Path of Immortality. However, martial cultivators require significantly more effort in the early stages to attain longevity. Furthermore, the initial training provides almost no life-extending benefits; in fact, the hardships of early cultivation can even detract from lifespan. Only by crossing successive thresholds does the potent effect of extended life gradually manifest.

Ye Wen touched his arm. His limbs were strong and powerful, yet he couldn't tell if his current level of cultivation had surpassed that crucial threshold or not.

Aside from the risk of exposing too much knowledge by asking more questions, the young Zhang Hengguang likely didn't know many more details either. Moreover, since the martial cultivation lineage has been severed for centuries, only the old masters in the cultivation world might retain relevant knowledge.

However, judging from his own body, he noticed that since achieving the Shattered Void state, his appetite had been diminishing. Eating was now merely a mechanical habit; he rarely ate because he actually felt hungry.

To test whether his perception was correct, Ye Wen abstained from solid food for an entire month, consuming only beverages daily. Yet, he remained perfectly healthy and full of strength, feeling no hunger whatsoever.

Upon closer investigation, he did find that his True Qi circulation rate had accelerated significantly during this period, and a portion of the essence from the crimson fruit seemed to have been absorbed.

"Could it be that I’ve already achieved Bigu (abstinence from grains)?"

One month without food and no ill effects—this was the only explanation that made sense to Ye Wen. After inquiring with Ning Ruxue and Hua Yi, he learned that the two women had also conducted similar, albeit shorter, experiments. They found that going without food for several months had no effect on them either. However, the longer the period, the greater the depletion of internal True Qi, which was extremely difficult to replenish in their current environment.

"I see now!"

Ye Wen largely grasped the situation. While eating had become non-essential for them, judicious intake of supplementary food to replenish energy was still beneficial. The catch was that consuming worldly food meant absorbing external contaminants—minor nuisances for them, but potentially fatal for cultivators. Consequently, once cultivators enter Bigu, they almost entirely shun mundane food.

"Martial cultivators can use food to supplement the energy required internally. But because of the current environment, people capable of crossing the threshold into martial cultivation have become almost extinct, leading to the demise of the martial lineage!" After all, any school of thought requires a constant influx of fresh blood for sustained legacy. Without newcomers, the older generation will eventually perish; this is the true reason for the extinction of the martial lineage.

"Conversely, while cultivators can quickly enter the threshold of the cultivation world, the path ahead becomes increasingly unsustainable due to the harsh environment! In other words, the adaptability of martial cultivation to this world surpasses that of other inherited traditions, but the entry barrier is incredibly steep, much harder than ordinary cultivation methods!"

Setting aside other factors, the sheer number of obstacles martial cultivators must overcome before achieving longevity is enough to deter anyone. Nobody wants to dedicate a lifetime of effort only to gain nothing. This is why the martial path remains unpopular when vying for disciples.

"If this is truly the case, the days ahead might not be easy!"

He had lived in this world and understood that the mindset of people here was vastly different from that of the world he lived in for a decade. The concept of 'once entering a sect, one remains forever' was practically nonsense in this era. If he brought someone in, and later a representative from another cultivation faction enticed them with promises of faster longevity through cultivation, the disciple would likely pack up and leave immediately.

During this period, Ye Wen wrestled with how to solve this problem, but found no solution other than tightening the moral and behavioral vetting process for disciples.

Hearts are hidden, and no one can truly know another's intentions. Moreover, humans are inherently fickle creatures. Someone might be utterly devoted one moment, only to betray you entirely the next.

"Sigh."

A soft sigh caused Ning Ruxue, who was dozing beside him, to open her eyes. Her senior brother had seemed quite happy recently because everything was progressing exactly as he had envisioned. She assumed that soon the very foundation of the Shu Shan Sect in this world—the Shu Shan Martial and Civil School—could finally open. Yet, only Ning Ruxue, who was closest to Ye Wen, noticed that her senior brother often furrowed his brow in solitary thought late at night.

"Senior Brother, tell me what troubles you. Even if I cannot find a solution, voicing it is better than bottling it up!"

Ning Ruxue snuggled closer to Ye Wen, drawing the blanket up to cover her perfectly rounded shoulders.

Ye Wen instinctively pulled his wife close, burying his face in her loose hair. "It’s nothing, just that in this current age, finding good disciples is difficult!"

Ning Ruxue shifted, allowing her uncovered breasts to gently brush against Ye Wen, though she didn't consciously realize it. She continued to console her husband: "Who can truly predict the human heart? Once the school opens, perhaps we can find several disciples with excellent character and aptitude!"

Ye Wen's original intention was to prioritize character over aptitude. However, in the present environment, poor aptitude likely means one could study a lifetime and never even enter the door. Aptitude had become a prerequisite, not merely a condition for becoming a master.

This forced Ye Wen to overturn many of his initial plans, introducing more uncertainties into various matters. But for now, Ye Wen pushed those thoughts aside, contentedly enjoying the feel of his wife’s exquisite figure and the smoothness of her delicate skin.

"Senior Brother, you are misbehaving again!"

Ning Ruxue noticed Ye Wen’s hand wandering again and shot him a slight glare. Although they had been married for a long time and had been in this world for several years, Ning Ruxue remained rather conservative in these matters. She passively accepted his advances without ever voicing a request.

And every time, she would grit her teeth and close her eyes, remaining silent. This drove Ye Wen crazy. Despite all his efforts, Ning Ruxue refused to utter a sound, even if her face turned purple from holding back; at most, she would manage a few soft groans when the pleasure became unbearable—and that was the absolute limit.

Any other man might have long since grown weary of a passionless wife, but Ning Ruxue had