Chapter 7:

Two guards are standing in front of an arch, it's the entrance to the Strength of God sect. Suddenly, one of them took a combat stance pointing his spear forward at the thing walking forward carrying an even bigger thing.

- "Who's there?!" – said the first guard

The second one that was dozing off woke up and by reflex took the same stance but quickly stop that to pinch his nose because of the awful smell that was coming from the person in front. At the same time the shape in front came out of the shadows of the trees, it was a small person carrying a bunch of monkeys, his hair was disgustingly messy and greasy looking, his face was covered in dirt and blood and his clothes were covered of yellow pit stains. Useless to say the smell coming out of this little cultivator was worse than awful and as he came closer to the guard they were backing off pinching their nose, holding back their gag reflex and yelling:

- "STAY WHERE YOU ARE! YOU DIRTY CHILD."

- "…What? HOW DARE YOU, YOU LOWLY GUARDS I'M XIAN YUUSHA THE HEIR OF THIS SECT!"

- "HOW DARE YOU INSULT OUR LITTLE MASTER, HE IS NOT SOMEONE SO UNREFINED AS TO SMELL WORSE THAN A LIVING-DEAD BEGGAR."

Surprised by what had just said the guard Xian drop the monkeys to the side to take a good sniff of himself diving his nose directly in his arm pit. The very next moment, Xian was on his knee, puking.

How is this possible? How can such a small body produce such an horrifying stench? It's a mix of sea water and well… hot shit! I guess there is also some demerit to cultivation.

A little bit humiliated, he stood back up, cleared his throat and said:

- "Hum-hum, well I know I might not look very well hum… Polished but it really is me: Xian."

As he said that he took out his medallion that proves he was the heir and threw it at the guards who were still holding their nose even thought they were standing about 3 meters away from our protagonist. The first guard caught the medallion and with a suspicious look showed it to his colleague and both of them slowly turn their head toward Xian then turn back to the medallion than to one another to finally finish by looking at Xian with an incredulous face… That little disgusting brat really was their little master.

- "You get it now, I will forgive how you treated me today if you swear you won't talk about how bad I smelled to others and if you take those monkeys and put them in cages."

As Xian was getting closer to them to give them the monkeys and pick up his medallion, the guards were giving him a military salute and very clearly holding their breath.

- "Oh, and by the way, there is a reason as to why I smell so bad I'm not some undistinguished cultivator and make sure the monkeys lack nothing while I sleep."

The guards simply nod as their eyes were starting to cry because the smell was so strong it felt like someone was sprinkling pepper on them; realizing it, Xian decided to not poison the guards of his sect any longer and took his leave. On his way to his room, Xian was jumping building and hiding in corners just to make sure nobody would see him in such an ugly state, he was as stealthy as a fart in a crowd. Yes, people were holding their noses, some almost vomited, others courageously smelled it, but nobody saw him before he reached his own house. As soon as he arrived at his apartment he called for his personal servant to clean his clothes and jumped in his bath. It didn't take long before the clear water covered in rose petal turned brown as all the crass and blood were washing away, Xian could of swore he lost at least 5 pounds out of just sweat.

However, this is kind of odd since I never heard of cultivators being so smelly even after harder exercises. That and my sudden recovery after exiting the cave, maybe there is something I don't know about my body that make me even more awesome than I thought before, like a divine pulse or something.

Realizing that this was a perfect moment to solve the mystery Xian got out of the bath and put on some clean clothes. Now feeling all fresh he sat down on his cushion for meditation and started remembering the events of the cave: how he felt like in the cave, how he felt as soon as he got out and while the transformation happened. Soon it became obvious that the entire time he was in the cave his body had sort of stretch out and it was only when he got to breathe outside that his body reformed. So, what cause his body transformation was definitely in the air outside but why was his body even stretched out in the first place? To answer this question Xian tried to recall how he felt in cave itself, the problem was the following: in the cave all his senses were connected with the man. Therefore, separating his physical sensation and the one in his mind wasn't something easy to do. However, that wasn't necessarily impossible to do. After about 6 hours of relaxation technique Xian slowly hypnotize himself in order to recreate the environment his body had been stuck in for the past 15 years. At first, some relatively pointless memories pop into his head: some of the games he played but never beaten and some movies title that ended being terrible. Than his senses progressively lost grasp of his surrounding as if up, down, left or right were all blurred into any direction, like gravity wasn't a thing anymore. Well that's it! The cave of spatial-self created an environment where gravity isn't there or at least not the same and just like an astronaut this lack of pressure on his bones stretch them out. That was one mystery solved and kind of an exciting moment for Xian feeling like he had found a new facet to cultivation that was unique to himself. Now why did his body suddenly recover like that was another mystery. His best guess was that the air reacted with something in him and that contracted his stretched muscles and bones back up which is probably why he look ten instead of twelve. Now, the only thing he could think of, that could be able to do such a thing would probably be Qi. But, that only bring in even more questions: like what even is Qi? Or, why did it not simply strengthened is body keeping the size he had? Was there no Qi in the cave itself? Etc. Xian kept reflecting on the subject without really finding any answer until his servants knock on the door telling him one of the monkeys he had asked to be put in cage seem ill. Well no time to figure it out so now that he felt refreshed by the breathing exercise and the bath. Xian stood up to go see those monkeys.