Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 61 - The Peak, Tenth Layer

After returning to his courtyard, He Yiming rested for a while, then went to the underground training room.
He opened the copy of the wood type technique and started to contemplate.
The next moment, he felt amazed. The content inside the scripture seemed extremely familiar to him. He’d barely opened the book, and he felt as if he’d already understood everything that was written inside.
This kind of feeling was the same as when he cultivated Primordial Energy- the technique which had already been thoroughly engraved inside his bones and spirit.
Astonished, he thought about the inconceivable and incomprehensible realm he’d encountered in the Book Pavilion a little while ago.
He’d a feeling that the reason he could understand everything written in the scripture as clearly as if he’d spent a lifetime of research on it was related to this indescribable realm.
Bone Transformation technique. This technique sounded like a frightening bone-chilling technique. However, in reality, this was not an offensive technique at all, but a basic one.
After cultivating this technique, one would be able to lengthen or shorten one’s bones within a certain range. According to the description, even an adult would be able to instantly reduce his/her height.
Of course, attaining this feat couldn’t be done overnight. Furthermore, one required talent in this field as well.
If one’s bones didn’t fit the requirements, attaining the peak realm of this technique would be eternally impossible.
Moreover, the best would be to train in this technique from a young age. After reaching the adulthood, the bones would have completely matured. If one started to cultivate this technique at such a time, one would have to exert twice the effort to obtain half the result, and of course, even then one might not necessarily succeed.
However, regarding these issues, He Yiming was not worried at all. After repeatedly experiencing bizarre cultivation experiences, he had full confidence in his body.
Ever since his encounter in the lake, he’d never seen a technique which he couldn’t cultivate or couldn’t attain its peak realm.
Setting down the copied scripture, He Yiming sucked in a deep breath before the Internal Energy in his dantian began to surge like a tide.
With each wave stronger than the next, his Internal Energy incessantly flowed, and his bones under the influence of this Internal Energy began to exhibit a bizarre transformation.
He felt a burning sensation from every bone in his body. It was as if an iron ore was being baptized at a high temperature- excluding the impurities within little by little and being slowly purified.
He felt as if his bones were becoming softer. His originally rock solid bones, which had suffered countless tests of Rolling Boulder Fist, were undergoing a bizarre transformation. They seemed to be becoming sponge-like as they started to huddle together.
This is Bone Transformation technique’s ultimate ability, Bone Refining.
Using his own body as a furnace, every bone in his body had been refined. Not only this process was lengthy, but extremely painful as well. However, if someone could endure it till the end, not only his bones would be tempered and would be ten times as tenacious, he would also be able to use the ‘Silk Transformation’ technique and would be able to adjust his bones as he pleased.
Of course, the bones of humans could never be compared to silk. However, after cultivating this technique to the peak, reducing one’s height- which was the state mentioned in the book - didn’t seem difficult to achieve at all.
He Yiming was wholeheartedly perceiving every single change in his body.
For him, the pain of Bone Refining didn’t seem unbearable. This was not to be blamed on the technique, but to the fact that his bones were different than the usual. It seemed as if his bones had already received a refinement, and this Bone Refining was merely an icing on the top.
However, He Yiming didn’t know that his body had already begun to shrink. Not some specific part of it, but as a whole.
After a while, his closed eyes slightly trembled before eventually opening.
He let out a long breath. This technique’s cultivation was far more difficult than his earlier expectations. If not for the fact that he understood this technique’s content too clearly, he might not have been successful in his first attempt.
He looked ahead and involuntarily gasped. He suddenly discovered that everything around him had undergone a bizarre transformation.
However, the very next instant, he realized that the surroundings had not changed at all, but his own stature.
His body had truly shrunk by a full head. Moreover, even his built seemed to have transformed.
He lifted his hand and discovered that it had already shrunk back inside the sleeve of his dress. He then extended his leg, and sure enough, it had also shrunk somewhat.
A strange expression appeared on He Yiming’s face. He was still a fourteen year old child. Such a matter was indeed somewhat amusing to him.
After fumbling with his arms and legs for a while, He Yiming finally had enough fun. He then stretched his arms out and faintly pulled on them backwards.
Subsequently, his body began to miraculously grow.
After a few moments, He Yiming had again returned to his original body.
He’d already obtained the greater success in the Bone Transformation technique in a single day.
However, He Yiming didn’t stop here. He sucked in a deep breath, and along with the breath, his body started to enlarge.
This was another use of Bone Transformation technique. One could increase the size of cracks inside bones, thus enlarging one’s body.
Of course, the difficulty of enlarging was far more compared to that of shrinking. Even though He Yiming had cultivated this technique to the peak, he could only enlarge his body by half a head.
After enlarging by half a head, his growth stopped. This state was already the limit of human body.
If one wished to enlarge the body further, perhaps it could only be done after attaining the Xiantian realm.
After trying out all the uses of the Bone Transformation technique, He Yiming was finally determined.
For him, Bone Transfomation technique was nothing but a means of amusement, like a toy to a child.
However, his objective to cultivate Bone Transformation technique was not for amusement, but to increase his cultivation and attain the tenth layer.
He sat down cross-legged once again, and the immense Internal energy inside his body began to slowly circulate.
This time the speed of circulation was not fast, but it seemed as steady as a mountain. It carried a sort of stubborn aura as if it would never give up before reaching its objective.
Inside his channels, the technique operating was not the Blaze technique, but the technique he’d been training in since the age of five years- the metal-type Primordial Energy.
This was the first technique he ever cultivated. This moment, the technique attacking the tenth layer was also the same.
Slowly, the Internal Energy began to accumulate at the bottleneck of the tenth layer.
Neither attacking the bottleneck nor dispersing, just slowly building up.
The bottleneck seemed like a dam and all the Internal Energy like water. Regardless of how the water surged, unless it reached the height of the dam, it would never be able to leave the dam.
While cultivating Internal Energy, a person’s body resembled a reservoir, inside which water constantly accumulated.
When Internal Energy attained a layer’s peak, in other words, the amount of water exceeded the holding capabilities of the dam, it was the time to attack the bottleneck.
From this point onward, regardless of how the cultivator tried to cultivate, the Internal Energy in the body would not increase.
In order to gain more Internal Energy, the cultivator must find a way to let the water out of the dam, and thus, allow it to enter a much broad world.
This was precisely the process of breaking through a bottleneck.
However, although everybody knew and understood this reasoning, to break through the limit of the dam without breaking the entire dam was no easy feat.
After encountering a bottleneck, cultivators would enter a period of bitter closed-door cultivation, or perhaps roam around, or try some other means- all in order to find an opportunity to break through.
However, those who could actually find this opportunity and breakthrough were quite rare.
The ninth layer was still somewhat simple, but breaking through into the tenth layer was as difficult as ascending the heavens.
Throughout the entire Tai Cang county, there were only two tenth layer cultivators. And even in the Tai Chong county, where bandits rampaged, the number of cultivators who had attained the tenth layer were no more than ten.
From this, it was evident how difficult it was to cross this threshold.
However, on the body of He Yiming, all of this lost its significance.
His body was rather unique. After encountering a bottleneck, as long as he cultivated a technique, even if this technique happened to be the most garbage one in the world, he would be able to increase his Internal Energy by a little bit.
And this tiny bit of Internal Energy was the same as the last straw that broke camel’s back.
This tiny bit of Internal Energy was enough to provide sufficient power for the water to break through the dam.
The difference as minute as a hair, the results thousand li apart.
Relying on precisely this tiny bit more Internal Energy than what others could work with, He Yiming earned his reputation of a genius.
This moment, as all the Internal Energy assembled at the opening of the tenth layer’s channels, the juncture finally succumbed to the immense pressure and opened with an explosion.
The Internal Energy poured into the new channels. As if a dragon returning to the ocean, a beautiful feeling that couldn’t be put into words bloomed in every part of his body.
Tenth layer.
He’d finally attained the realm which, for an ordinary cultivator, was too high to ascend.