Dedication to Training

"Hold on as long as you can, the longer you hold on the better the effects!" Zhong's voice became distorted and muffled as it travelled through the vat of liquid towards Qing.

Qing was currently submerged in one of Zhong's vats, full of his personal concoction 'The Thousand body tempering solution', something he had stumbled upon years before. Many disciples had tried to withstand its painful effects as it tempered and strengthened their bodies but none had succeeded so far. For a normal disciple to get the full benefits from a low concentrate solution Zhong had guessed that at least 1000 times was enough, for Qing he had broken out many of his rare materials to make stronger vats trusting that his body could handle it.

The sensation of his muscles and bones being gnawed at assaulted Qing, it felt like maggots were opening all the pores on his body and drilling inwards setting his nerves on fire. This sensation he had grown used to, this was his 5th time in the vat, the worst was still to come. Sat in the bottom of the vat Qing prepared his mind as he held his breathe, imagining himself to be a rock as it withstood the sea and gales seeking to batter and loosen its grip from the land.

His nerves became cold and numb as the pain subsided, he had entered the second stage of the solution, after tempering his skin it began its work on his muscles.

Ming watched on, her heart beating loudly in her chest full of worry, she had aided Zhong in preparing the solution knowing it was for Qing's own good, but still, she was racked by guilt. Clenching her hands in front of her chest she could only listen in horror as agonised screams bubbled up out of the vat, why had he pushed for a stronger concentration every time? It would only grow more painful as he went on, even Zhong had conflicted feelings about putting Qing through this.

Trying his best to control and wrangle in his screams Qing held on under the pain of his muscles being torn open and invaded by the solution, he would get better results if he held for longer.

"Start cultivating and processing the solution before your body breaks down!" Zhong and Ming watched on in horror as Qing's blood rose to the top of the vat, beginning to mix with the solution, giving its original blue hue a rosy tint. How could anyone handle that amount of pain for so long?

Still holding on and clenching his eyes firmly shut Qing ignored his body as he prepared to cultivate. He knew that his body couldn't hold on for much longer before the solution wore away and destroyed him, but he had to wait until the pain reached further in, only by suffering and pushing himself to the very limit could he gain the best results.

His screams now caused constant bubbles to erupt from the vat, causing it to appear as if the very solution itself was boiling, trying to break Qing down and devour him. Zhong was growing more worried as he wondered if Qing had pushed himself too far whilst tears began to form on Ming's face, blaming herself for aiding in this.

His mind barely coping with the pain, Qing felt as his bones shrieked and cracked under the solutions overpowering might, just a little more… he wanted to hold on just a little more.

Barely able to stay conscious Qing finally started to cultivate as his body was being dissolved by the solution.

With his eyes shut, Qing began to circulate his essence, a small bubble popped into existence around him as it pushed the solution away, this was his essence being unleashed. When using martial skills the essence was guided and channelled through the body, whilst when cultivating it circulated around freely as it travelled until being guided in and channelled towards the dantian where it would be compressed and improve the host's cultivation slowly over time. Higher methods of cultivation would make it easier to reach higher realms, whilst with lower methods it grew harder as the cultivator progressed unless they found a stronger more suitable method.

Qing's cultivation method was vastly different too others, rather than absorb the essence and compress It straight away, he waited, he slowly circled the essence around himself. Sat in the bottom of the vat he continued to cultivate, the essence around him growing stronger as he compressed and released essence through his body and back into his surroundings. Zhong could feel the essence once again increase in the surrounding area as Qing cultivated, he had witnessed this a few times but still didn't understand how it was possible for Qing to do this, what insights had he obtained that allowed him to do this?

"Master, what cultivation method is he using?" Ming was even more confused than Zhong, she herself used a high level cultivation method 'Twining fate strings' but still couldn't match the pure essence that Qing was emitting

"I do not know, it is something that Qing has solely achieved with his own effort."

This was Qing's own cultivation method, something that he had suffered over and been damaged by many times, almost losing his life. He called it pure essence cultivation, it didn't contain the complexities of other methods but instead focused on compressing essence repeatedly through the body and then, in turn, absorbing this purer essence for cultivation. I was a method that was very slow to cultivate with, put tremendous strain on the body as it could cause injuries at any moment due to the strength of the essence and potentially stop the cultivators progress if they couldn't handle it, only growing harder as they reached higher realms of cultivation.

Qing was unaware of their conversation, his attention focused solely on himself as he cultivated. The essence passing through his body strengthened and healed him as the solution no longer broke him down but rather built him up, the essence acting as a catalyst to bring out its healing effects. This was how the Thousand body tempering solution worked, it would rebuild the body by continually breaking it down and repairing it, a solution that led to a powerful body after countless bouts of agony and pain.

The essence floating around and cocooning Qing no longer increased in purity as its current state peaked, only now did he absorb the pure essence into his dantian, this put enormous pressure on his dantian and spirit but he had become slightly accustomed to this as he grew stronger.

He could feel the cool and powerful energy fill his dantian as it pulsed and travelled around his body, his muscles and bones were tempered by the solution and essence whilst his veins were strengthened by his dantian as his cultivation progressed.

The pain had subsided and the effects of the solution grew stagnant as it lost its potency, Qing had successfully survived the 5th batch, even his cultivation had peaked, he had reached the peak of the 9th human stage mere steps away from the 10th.

Sensing the natural essence dissipating Zhong and Ming let out sighs of relief as they knew that Qing had succeeded, the tears in Ming's eyes only now ceasing to form.

Waves of solution sloshed around and stirred in the Vat as the bare chested figure of Qing could be seen walking out, his strong well built body on display as his veins wriggled and bulged, he had definitely become stronger. A scarlet blush rose on Ming's pale skin, she had seen Qing's undressed figure already but seeing him now caused her to remember the vivid images in her mind causing her to blush even more as her breathing increased.

"Good! Very good!" Clapping his hands on Qing's shoulders Zhong was happy to see his friend survive and become stronger, he had already prepared pills for Qing to take in case he was injured but seeing him now Zhong realised that they weren't needed.

"How does it feel? Has the pain subsided?" Zhong assaulted Qing with questions as he wanted to assess the state of his body, the most important thing right now was for Qing to grow used to his new increase in strength, the best way for this was combat, but he didn't want Qing to fight if he was injured.

Opening his mouth Qing, took a deep breathe as his strong and mellow voice came out, a voice that drew you in and made you want to hear more, containing a sense of gravity, "I am…. well." Even after the effects of the nine echo pill it was still taking time for Qing to fully regain his voice.

Smiling at Qing's words Zhong rejoiced as he saw the progress that Qing was making, the feral disciple was becoming more civilised but even now that raw and wild nature was still being exuded from Qing, no matter how much he restrained himself.

"Are you ready to fight?" after each previous batch Zhong would get Qing to spar with Ming, this way any solution left in his body could be assimilated and used as well as allowing Qing to understand and utilise his new strength properly. If Zhong was to fight in Ming's place then the chances were that Qing's body wouldn't remain afterwards, this was the difference between their cultivations.

"I'll prepare the next solution for you to use tomorrow, it will be more painful than today but we only have a few days left before the inner court promotion, follow Ming and you can spar." Walking out of the room Zhong left Qing and Ming together as a strange silence began to fill the room, neither of them accustomed to speaking very often.

Ming already prepared was wearing a pair of half length shorts and top, tightly hugging her lithe frame and doing little to hide her natural perfection, even Qing was mesmerised when seeing her wear this as her long hair flowed down her back.

Ming's dark eyes watched Qing as he watched her in turn.

With Qing's clear eyes staring at her with such intensity Ming's heart couldn't help but to beat faster from the attention. Walking ahead she led the way to one of the many courtyards in the estate used for training, looking back every now and then she was glad to see that Qing's eyes were on her as Qing followed.

If this was any other disciple then she would never walk in front and allow them to look at her from behind, for some reason her mind and heart were all out of sync around Qing making her act differently, but she was felt strangely glad that he was paying attention to her.

Walking out of the estate's inner corridors they came out into a spacious courtyard, no ornaments or expensive statues decorated this courtyard, it was paved with cold hard stone as racks of weapons lined the walls. This courtyard served one purpose and one purpose only.

The wide expanse of sky and clouds were their backdrop, the sun shining on them keeping them warm as they prepared to fight.

Ming's cultivation was at the 4th Earth spirit stage making her an ideal opponent for Qing, her body strength and speed would exceed his without the use of martial skills meaning that he wouldn't be heavily damaged but they could still fight to the best of their abilities, If she was to use martial skills then Qing would be blown away in a single move as her essence had already reworked and improved her body after entering the earth spirit stage, further increasing the strength of her martial skills.

It was like an artists depiction of dedication to training as the two disciples faced one another under the suns rays, stances ready and body's tingling for a fight.

Ming was light on her feet as her lithe frame danced around Qing freely and naturally, her blows like an unrelenting storm, unpredictable and powerful, all Qing could do against this storm of blows was to block as many as possible and tank the hits he couldn't. Soon his freshly forged body was covered in cuts and bruises, despite the damage slowly accruing his concentrated mind never once lost sight of Ming despite the storm he was in.

In their first session he had been repeatedly knocked down my Ming, unable to see or block any of her blows, his combat experience woefully disappointing leaving his only tactic to be one of pure force as he didn't possess the most basic of stances. Body slightly hunched and tensed to react he slowly got better at watching her moves as she danced around him, over the sparring sessions that followed Ming grew more and more astounded, despite the injuries that grew on his body and the obvious sounds of protest that came from his bones he determinedly continued on.

When facing other disciples it felt normal for Ming whilst fighting them, but against Qing, it was more like facing a beast, the concealed power and rage just waiting to be unleashed on his foe, always biding his time for the right moment as his eyes never once lost track of her.

With a strong kick Ming sent Qing hurtling backwards expecting him to fall so that she could call the spar to a close, instead he endured the hit as his feet dragged causing two long gouges to appear in the tiles from where he had been standing, his body dripping with blood and sweat but he refused to fall.

"We should stop now so you can rest and recover….. Juni…," Ming's words of worry were stopped part way as she didn't know how to refer to Qing, she didn't want to call him by name in case it offended him but also didn't want to refer to him as senior or junior and potentially increase the distance between them, her words and odd actions were ignored by Qing as he shook his head and moved forward out of the trenches on the floor, he wanted to fight more. He hadn't had his fill yet.

Lumbering forward and stopping short in front of Ming he prepared his stance, one that felt right for him. His arms hung low by his sides as his hands remained open like two claws ready to wrench his prey apart, head slightly dipped and body hunched as his legs were like two gigantic roots securing him to the ground, truly the stance of a beast only focused on clashing head on with his opponent.

As he took his stance and prepared to continue the fight Ming was shocked by the beast like aura that Qing was exuding, this was a truly impractical stance but in Qing's hands, it became something else entirely.

Dashing forward again she prepared to satisfy Qing's demands for more combat as she unleashed her first blow. Once again Qing was mired in a storm of blows the only difference this time was that Ming had to be careful as Qing was retaliating faster and faster, his blows wild and full of power as she moved carefully to avoid them.

Despite being a higher cultivation by not using her essence she left herself open to damage if she took a blow.

Qing's blows fell faster as Ming was forced to dodge more often, despite not landing a blow his aura seemed to peak as the shred of civility he had gained disappeared, his rural and free aura unleashed further strengthening his abilities. Ming paused as she witnessed Qing slip into a trance as his wild and unfettered nature was let loose, this pause was long enough for the beast like Qing to unleash a blow, his fist hurtling forward giving Ming no other action than to circle her essence and defend her abdomen.

A low boom sounded across the courtyard and echoed through the rest of the estate, followed by the crashing of stone and rubble.

"QING!"

Qing lay atop the now broken walls of the courtyard, as Ming had unleashed her essence to block the blow he had faced the full rebound and been sent flying across the courtyard, luckily she had not launched a blow otherwise he might very well be dead.

Zhong hearing the boom sped over to find a wrecked courtyard only to see Qing as he lay bleeding and torn atop the once strong wall and Ming rushing over to him, apologising and crying as she felt guilty for nearly killing him.

Just as he was about to take action and administer pills to stabilise Qing's condition, he was shocked to see him sit up and wipe the tears from Ming's face as he sent her a dazzling smile, he didn't blame her at all. He had gotten too involved in the fight and caused this himself.

Her tears glistening under the sun she held Qing's hand upon her cheek as she worryingly scanned him with her soul sense, he had countless broken bones and torn muscles, but his life wasn't in danger as his internal organs were still working and only slightly bruised.

Wolf whistles could be heard from afar as Mei and Min poked their heads from around the destroyed walls, causing Ming to blush and let go of Qing's hand as she quickly tried to hide her embarrassment, her heart feeling slightly stifled at having to let go of his hand, she liked the rough and textured feel of his hands.

"Ahh we leave Sister Ming for a few minutes and she is already forcing herself upon him…."

"It seems that our Eldest Sister isn't as innocent as she seems."

Faced with her sister's unrelenting teasing Ming made a quick exit as the blood rushed to her face, still lost in the sensation of Qing's firm and rough hands on her cheek.

Zhong stood still unseen and baffled by the entire thing, how had Mei and Min got here so fast? and how did his courtyard get destroyed from a simple spar?

A bolt of grey and black dashed before his eyes and disappeared further into the estate, only then did Zhong realise that the courtyard where they were sparring happened to be linked onto his now destroyed petal garden. Mei and Min had obviously been playing with the wolf and keeping it company but the now the bloody thing was loose in his estate! He couldn't even go and catch it as he had to treat Qing's wounds first.

Zhong swore to himself that he would roast the wolf alive if it damaged anything important.

Shade now free from the garden was oblivious to all of this, its only thoughts were of its friend that seemed to be enjoying time with his new female mate and if there was anything decent to chew as its stomach growled from hunger. Scenting the air Shade could smell a few delicious options as well as spiritual herbs and fruits that would aid in its growth, using its speed Shade dashed deeper into the estate unaware of Zhong's wishes to cook and eat the wolf if it behaved out of line.

The scent grew stronger as Shade clawed and worked it's way through a door, un aware that this was Zhong's personal room it proceeded to enjoy itself in tearing up the place, searching for anything good to eat.

Shade even found a nice soft place to relieve itself and wipe afterwards, happy with his new residence shade began to mark his territory and settle in to enjoy himself, the feel of the smooth silk like substance felt heavenly on the wolfs nether regions.