Exalted Toxin Lord - Chapter 40

Hua Yan was very curious as to how Frenzy wanted to help him. Was cultivation really as simple as a thing as Frenzy had made it to be? Even if the peasant stages were nothing in Frenzy’s eyes, the truth was that there was no one that Hua Yan knew that could surpass theses stages. To Hua Yan, these stages represented the pinnacle of power.

“It’s all a matter of perspective,” Frenzy explained, “In a place like this without many resources, peasant cultivation is the only way. But, if you moved to a more abundant realm, things would be very different. You will understand in due time. Until then, I will teach you what you need to do for now.”

Frenzy’s words gave some kind of confidence to Hua Yan. He had given up his dreams to be a cultivator to feed his sister. Now, as Frenzy said that cultivation was the only way forward, Hua Yan ambitions rekindled.

He suddenly had a strong desire to embark on this path. Additionally, with Frenzy’s guidance, Hua Yan felt that his dreams to leave Gin Town would finally be fulfilled.

He could finally see the light at the other end of the tunnel.

“The essence of peasant cultivation,” Frenzy started, “Or the Body Building Stages as your folk like to call them, is to take the weak mortal body and to mould it into something that can survive the harshness of the elements. It is no joke that, compared to the other races, humanity is very weak. The bodies of humans could be snapped in two by any random Ferocious Beast. This was why some of the pioneers of your race invented this technique to build up the body in this manner.”

As Hua Yan listened to Frenzy’s explanation, he felt that it was sound and made a lot of sense. Up until now, he had never really considered the origins of cultivation. To him, cultivation only represented a means to get stronger. It’s roots were unimportant.

But, judging by how Frenzy was explaining these things with such focus, Hua Yan felt that there was something important in the roots of cultivation itself.

“Understanding why cultivation exists will help you understand cultivation itself later down the line,” Frenzy responded to Hua Yan’s thoughts, “For now, what you need to know is that the Peasant Cultivation Stages exist to help humans bridge the gap between the difference in power with the other races.”

By other races, Hua Yan of course knew what Frenzy was talking about. There were things known as Ferocious Beasts that roamed the lands, bringing all sorts of havoc to people that lived in civilizations.

Ferocious Beasts were essentially a strengthened class of regular animals that had monstrous power. They were incomparable to normal animals and, if a few of them got together, they could probably wreck whole towns.

They were beasts that only cultivators could deal with!

“Peasant Cultivation was invented to combat these beasts and to allow the weak humans to stand their ground against all forces that threatened their existence. And… the manner through which humans cultivate these stages is to transform into Ferocious Beasts themselves!”

Hua Yan was rather surprised this explanation. Humans got stronger by transforming themselves into Ferocious Beasts?!

Did that mean that the Ballooning Stage cultivators he had fought until now had somehow absorbed an aspect of Ferocious Beasts into themselves?

“You truly have been ignorant all this time, not paying attention to such an obvious thing,” Frenzy remarked, “Though, you cannot be blamed for this. Most in your area don’t know the truth behind Peasant Cultivation. They consume Ferocious Beast meat to make themselves stronger, but they had no idea of what ends up happening to their bodies as a result. Their strength comes from the Ferocious Beasts. They don’t understand the profundities behind the cultivation technique, so this simple fact eludes them, just like how it eludes you.”

Hua Yan already knew that cultivators ate Ferocious Beast meat, but he had no idea that doing this changed their bodies. He had never heard of such an absurd idea before.

But, thinking about the monstrous power that cultivators were able to achieve, it now made sense that cultivators were not ordinary humans. They had bizarre bodies and weird habits. They had traded away their humanity for power, and most of them had done so without knowing any better.

So, did this mean that, if he ate Ferocious Beast meat, he would reach the pinnacle of the Peasant Cultivation Stages?

“Of course not,” Frenzy refuted, “Peasant Cultivation isn’t that simple. While it is true that Ferocious Beast meat is needed for a cultivator to advance in their cultivation, it is not the only aspect. A person that only relies on beast meat cannot get far. In fact, they may even die. There is a proper method to everything.”

Things were starting to make sense now. So, it wasn’t something as simple as eating meat to improve cultivation. There were other steps involved as well!
“The reason you find so many cultivators in the Ballooning Stage is because it has relatively low requirements for cultivation. There are almost no necessary steps that need to be taken to advance in this stage. For the most part, all you need is to eat meat until you feel like blowing up like an inflated balloon. It is only in the later stages that cultivation becomes harder. Those are the stages that will truly test willpower and determination to become stronger.”

This was clear enough to Hua Yan. If the Continuous Ballooning Stage only required meat to be eaten, then it made sense that there were so many of these cultivators. Thugs like Hua Lei that Hua Yan had fought earlier, who had no real fighting techniques to speak of, were those that had only relied on meat to get to where they were. This was the result of the low entry-point that the Ballooning Stage had.

Even nobodies could make progress in it!

If the later stages were harder, it was understandable that there were so few of those cultivators out there. Each and every one of them was no simple person. Hua Yan needed to be cautious against these people, because it was these people that had the real skills.

“For now, you don’t need to worry about those future stages,” Frenzy stated, redirecting Hua Yan’s attention back to the topic at hand, “Your goal for now is the Ballooning Stage, so go find some Ferocious Beast meat now.”