Chatter, chatter. This was the sound of Orien's teeth hitting together. He lay down on a straw mat, shivering all over.

  To make matters worse, he had to focus internally, trying to saturate his muscles, bones, and skin with this unfamiliar energy within his body. He could feel his body gradually absorbing the energy, but the half medicinal pill had barely dissolved. He was feeling grateful now that Wisp hadn't allowed him to eat a whole pill.

  "Hey, brat, how does the cold feel to you? What does it mean to be cold?" Wisp asked casually.

  "I-It definitely means having a low body temperature,” Orien replied while he shivered.

  "Is that all you think it means?" Wisp asked, not satisfied with the answer.

  "F-For now y-yes,” Orien replied, aware that the answer wasn’t so simple.

  Orien knew there was only so much he could do at once.

  He allowed the cold to run rampant. It took a lot of willpower from him to resist covering up or drying off.

  Luckily, Wisp was with him the whole way considering he didn't need to sleep.

  One boy shivering cold and maintaining his focus, one Wisp lazily floating around and checking in on the boy whenever his focus seemed to be waning.

  Just like that, time slowly began to pass.

  After a lot of groaning, huffing, and puffing, Orien finally quieted down a bit. Wisp let out a chuckle because he could see that Orien had fallen unconscious.

  "That works too. He did a lot better than I thought he would for the first night,” Wisp said heartily.

  Looking over the horizon, he could barely see the sun rising.

  "I'll let him sleep in,” Wisp added.

  Orien dreamt that he was frozen in a block of ice. At the same time, he felt that the Qi in his body would make him explode, shattering him and the ice.

  He jolted awake and noticed Wisp, floating there in the air. He felt like Wisp would have been looking at him like he was a clown right now if Wisp had a face.

  "Done sleeping? It's already afternoon. Eat and then we'll get straight into training. One hundred punches for each arm. One hundred kicks for each leg. Upside-down crunches. Three hundred push-ups. One hundred and fif—"

  Orien quickly hollered, "Wait wait!! I feel like I'm going to explode. The pill must have finished dissolving. I need to quickly dispel all of this Qi!"

  "No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. You need to let that Qi continue to saturate and refine your body. If it's that uncomfortable, you can go ahead and do what I'm about to tell you, just know it'll be painful. However, I won’t let you waste any of that pent up Qi!” Wisp barked like a full blown teacher.

  Orien nodded, "I'm not afraid, that's what we're here for!"

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Wisp described how to circulate the Qi while avoiding making a cultivation breakthrough.

  Instead, Orien rammed the Qi into his muscles, skin, bones, etc. This was a very primitive method according to Wisp and would only be possible for the first few stages of Mortal Body refinement.

  “Aiiiiieeeeeeeee ouch!” Orien cried out after the first blow, it felt like he had gotten punched but on the inside.

  "How am I supposed to survive this? I'll be beaten to a paste by my own hand at this rate!” Orien complained.

  "If there's one thing about you, brat, you sure do ask a lot of questions, I like that. It's annoying me now, but it's a good quality to have. So, listen carefully because I'll only say it once. When the Qi fully permeates that part of your body, it won't hurt nearly as much. Give it some time and then try it,” Wisp advised.

  Orien hesitantly rammed the Qi into his right bicep again after a while. He didn't flinch.

  "Wow, that was actually not too bad,” Orien said with a smile.

  "Don't fool yourself though, you haven't soared through the skies in one leap. That's only happened because the Qi is doing its work on that part of your body. You'll be strengthened, yes, but body refinement is a slow and grueling process. By the end of this Qi refinement session, I estimate you'll be as strong as a seventeen year old athletic mortal boy,” Wisp said plainly.

  ‘Amazing...’ Orien thought. He was dazed upon learning that. Such a concrete goal in front of him was beyond his expectations, but it was actually within reach now.

  "That's incredible!" Orien shouted.

  "Oh? I thought you'd have been greedier. Good then, keep your expectations realistic," Wisp said before adding, “Since I'm guiding you so well, you must consider taking me to go peep on the young women around your village. Have you ever seen a breast, lad?”

  Orien felt like he was struck by a bolt out of the blue before reacting, “Are you serious? Go do that by yourself!”

  Wisp roared, “What if I get caught? I’d like to see you woo Mila without my help.”

  “Y-You!” Orien wanted to curse but he was speechless. Wisp did have a lot more experience than he did, after all.

  Orien did not eat right after his conversation with Wisp.

  He instead opted to literally beat the rest of his inner body with the Qi welled up within him. It was a very rhythmic process, save for the occasional howling Orien let out. This quickly annoyed Wisp, and the two of them would argue about it every now and then.

  Two hours was all it took to finish that process, but Orien was breathing like he ran a marathon.

  Given how short the time frame was, it was a shame that he couldn’t cultivate like this indefinitely. The effects of such a simple manner of training would dramatically reduce by the time he reached the third stage of Mortal Body Refinement. There was also the factor that he would not always readily have so much Qi available.

  He was only able to cultivate freely by using stolen goods or by absorbing the spiritual energy from his surroundings, but he wouldn’t be doing either until he entered the sect.

  "Impressive! Brat, you really didn't pull any punches on the process. Even I have to hand it to you. That is the way to do things, head on!!" Wisp offered rare praise.

  Orien could only look up at Wisp with a weak smile.

  A few moments passed before he stretched his arm for the nearby basket and began to wolf down any food items he could get his hands on.

  ‘The food tastes especially good at a time like this... thank you, Mom,’ Orien thought about her cooking just for him and felt a bit emotional.

  Meanwhile, at the base of the peak.

  “Are you sure your information was correct? He told you that Haruki could find him up there? If this is a trick or a joke, you can forget about walking for the next few months,” A voice spoke with hostility.

  A plain, timid looking classmate from Orien's school was with a taller classmate. This taller classmate was Lars, who had also failed the evaluation this time.

  “Yes, senior Lars, I'm certain,” the timid classmate spoke, “The exact words he said to me were to inform Haruki that he could find him on the highest peak. This is the highest peak accessible to us village folk. I swear!”

  Lars pat the youth on his head in a condescending way before saying, “I’ll confirm it for myself. If it’s true, you’ve done well. I’ll leave you alone so don’t go out of your way to piss me off. If your information is false, however...” He made a swiping motion towards his neck before setting off on his trek up the path to the peak.