Two weeks had passed since Mikael had reached Sword Intent, and in those two weeks he had done nothing but relax and spend time with the girls—especially with Amelia, who received a great deal of love and pampering from him.
Enough to leave the other girls jealous, though knowing she needed it they didn't complain. And now, once again, it was one of those 'Amelia pampering moments'… but not only.
Hissss.
The sound of hot steam colliding with the cold air of the morning resounded in the beautiful natural hot springs that were situated in the back of the Azure Peak.
These hot springs weren't man made, not much, but were primarily given by Mother Nature and only slightly modified afterward by human hand to make them comfortable for use, and because of that they carried a certain primal and natural feel that was extremely… soothing.
Currently these natural hot springs weren't empty, more precisely it was the male section of them that wasn't empty.
There, with thick steam covering everything, the faint naked form of Mikael could be seen, only hints of his toned body visible through the veil of white mist.
At that moment Mikael was inside one of these hot springs, his head leisurely resting on the stone edge of the pool, the very picture of quiet relaxation.
But he wasn't alone.
In the same spring as him was another presence, a figure whose perfect curves were only partially hidden by the drifting steam, a figure whose form was unmistakably that of a woman—and one of extreme beauty.
This woman was also entirely naked, her wet, silky black hair falling in waves that covered her flawless back and neck while her bare body pressed tightly against Mikael's.
Her legs and arms wrapped around him in a firm embrace, her head resting on his shoulder, her voluptuous, perky breasts flattened against his chest, while the curve of her bubble butt surfaced above the water—yet Amelia didn't seem to care, her eyes closed in a peaceful expression.
Mikael's eyes were half-open as his hand gently caressed her smooth back, his expression lost and lazy, which only made Amelia snuggle even closer into him, pressing her curves more firmly against his chest.
Hiss.
The steam surrounded them, but they ignored it, remaining in their position and simply… relaxing, enjoying the warmth of the hot water and the comfort of each other's body.
It could have been a minute or it could have been five hours, but after an unknown span of time the comfortable silence was broken by Mikael's lazy voice.
"We should begin, we relaxed long enough."
"Nnh."
Amelia gave a slight shake of her head in disapproval before nestling herself even closer against him, if such a thing was even possible.
Flick.
"Ow!"
Instinctively Amelia brought her hands to her forehead, where a red spot now marked the place he had flicked, and as she rubbed it with a faint wince she pouted at him, her half-awake voice murmuring, "You bully…"
Mikael gave her an unapologetic smirk, "Sorry, not sorry, my proud archer, but we really need to get going, and while I'm not complaining about relaxing with you, we were initially supposed to be training beside each other…"
His gaze swept across the natural hot springs around them before returning to Amelia, "And, strangely enough, I don't have the impression that the hours we've spent here have been… productive…"
"You're right!" Amelia's fully awake voice resounded, the moment she heard the word training it was as though a switch had been flipped and she instantly cast away her drowsiness.
Splash.
Without hesitation she rose from the water, steam curling upward as it revealed the full splendor of her naked body.
Mikael's gaze devoured her greedily, her breasts rising proudly, round and perky as if defying gravity itself, the soft flesh crowned by stiff, pink tips that seemed to beg for his touch.
Droplets clung to her skin, sliding along the elegant line of her collarbone before tracing her flat stomach, faintly marked by abs, and vanishing between her thick thighs.
As she stepped out of the hot spring, her long, flawless legs emerged into view, each shift of muscle a display of feminine grace, and the movement of her wide hips sent her plump buttocks into a hypnotic jiggle, every bounce an unspoken invitation that made his breath catch.
Her every step radiated sensuality as she crossed toward the next spring, her body glistening beneath the haze of steam like a vision crafted to entice him.
Only once Amelia slipped into the nearby spring did Mikael finally wrench his eyes away, crushing down the fire blazing inside him; however irresistible the sight was, he knew he had training to do.
"Huuuuh."
Mikael took a long and deep inhalation to calm the fire burning in him, and after a last glance toward Amelia, his emerald eyes meeting her similarly colored ones, they both nodded before closing their eyes and focusing on their own training.
Crack.
It didn't take long before bone-cracking sounds resounded in the previously peaceful and quiet hot springs, as both Amelia and Mikael, after ingesting some pills and placing spiritual herbs in their respective springs, began to train in their respective Body Tempering Method.
The shift was jarring, one moment both were in a peaceful atmosphere mixed with sensuality and quiet love, and the next, both were suffering from agonizing pain as they tempered their bodies.
But while the change seemed abrupt, in truth it wasn't as much as it appeared, for although the mood had indeed drastically shifted, one thing remained the same, and that was that both were still quietly accompanying the other.
Maybe not physically, as they were separated by several meters, but mentally they each knew the other was with them, and for both it made this usually agonizing process of tempering their bodies far more… tolerable.
As the saying went, misery loved company.
It was in this fashion, amidst this unique… 'bonding' moment, that time quietly passed, with both of them suffering as they continued to grow stronger.
Three days passed without anything unexpected occurring; it didn't mean those three days were pleasant—far from it—but at least nothing out of the ordinary happened.
After three days Mikael had finally reached his objective for this session of Body Tempering, 'Third Transformation of the Ninefold Physique Method incoming, which means…' a glint of fear and anxiety passed in his eyes,
'It's time for the true cleansing of impurities to begin, and—'
His expression darkened slightly, 'Considering that while during my Qi Control and Precognition training I was able to take steps to reduce the impurities accumulation rate, during my Sword Intent training I wasn't able to take a single pause, and consequently the impurities accumulated far, far faster, which only means a single thing…'
Sigh.
"More pain for me, yeah!" he exclaimed in the most sarcastic tone possible.
"Ahhh, suffering to grow stronger, the story of my life!"
The moment these last words escaped his mouth he wasted no time before activating the third transformation of the Ninefold Physique Method, the accumulation of the past three days bursting forth at this instant.
Hairline fractures spiderwebbed across his skin, bones, muscles, organs, and more as blood seeped out, staining the water a deep, ominous red, yet Mikael didn't react—for being the third time, he was beginning to grow used to it…
'It's now that it's happening.'
And he was proven right in the next moment as his body began to act like a vacuum, greedily absorbing the medicinal properties contained in the water and herbs.
It then tried to use them to complete the third transformation and evolve into something better, but—
Mikael didn't let it!
He forcefully contained their medicinal power within himself without allowing it to act, which had devastating consequences as his body began to break down, truly break down.
CRACK!
A chilling sound resounded as Mikael's body rapidly shut down, his skin shredding, muscles tearing, bones breaking into thousands of pieces, organs rupturing and more, all pointing to a single thing—
He had pushed the Ninefold Physique Method beyond what it was meant to do, and he was dying, truly dying, yet Mikael didn't care, a mad glint flashing in his eyes,
'Not enough, not even close to be enough!'
On that thought, healing pills of various types appeared from his storage ring and manifested in his hand, which he then began to gobble like candies.
These pills allowed him to slow the breaking-down process of his body; it was still collapsing, but at a slower pace, one that Mikael could control—and this… made all the difference!
'The harder part is behind me,' he thought, but knowing better than to let down his guard now, he stayed fully focused through the pain as he began to control his body in the most minute way.
The next moment, the water that had once been blue and then painted red changed color again, this time gaining a dark tint as a foul scent began to rise from its surface.
Impurities!
Anybody with even the slightest cultivation knowledge would recognize them for what they were—impurities!
And the darkened hue of the water only deepened more and more with every passing second as Mikael's body expelled them in greater quantities.
50%
Mikael continued to dig into his body, extracting more and more impurities while gobbling healing pills to keep himself alive.
60%
70%
80%
After 85% of the impurities had been cleansed, the pace of extraction slowed, and Mikael's condition worsened with every moment.
Typically, this would have been the point where a more normal or sane person depending on the point of view would have stopped, as it was clear that continuing further was suicide, but—
Mikael wasn't exactly normal…
With sheer force of will and the clever use of his Divine Sense, Mikael held his broken-down body together, buying himself precious seconds to continue his endeavor.
Seconds that he put to good use, extracting even more impurities.
90%
His senses blurred.
95%
His surroundings dimmed, and his mind grew heavy.
And finally, just as his eyelids became impossibly heavy to keep open and he was a heartbeat away from falling asleep and never waking again, he reached it—
100%
'NOW!'
A silent cry erupted in Mikael's mind as let go of his tight hold on the medicinal power in his body that instantly erupted with violence.
Boom!
A small explosion of power burst from him, pushing the water back and creating a clear circle around Mikael, free of any water.
But this outburst was nothing more than an aftereffect of what was truly happening—the monumental changes unfolding within Mikael's body.
If, moments ago, his body had seemed as though it should have been dead long ago, with every passing second worsening his condition, now… it was clear the trend had inverted!
With every second his body healed and regenerated—torn skin reappeared, muscles reforged, broken bones knit back together, ruptured organs restored into one piece once more. His entire body was repairing itself at a speed visible to the naked eye, but more than healing—
He was evolving!
With every heartbeat his physique grew stronger, more durable, faster; every parameter of his frame surged upward as the accumulated medicinal power spread through him.
It was clear that the third transformation of the Ninefold Physique Method was underway, and just as clear that the total cleansing of impurities—something Mikael had stubbornly forced through even as his body collapsed—had produced an unexpected… or perhaps expected effect on his physique?
Which it was remained a mystery, but one thing was certain: his transformation was visibly different from the two that came before.
In this way, time passed; it could have been ten seconds or thirty minutes, but what mattered was that at this moment Mikael's physique transformation had reached its end!
Pop.
Mikael ignored the foul, impurity-filled water that surrounded him and clenched his fist, the loud popping sound instantly drawing a faint smile to his visage as he felt the enormous strength now coursing through his body.
His eyes shined with joy, 'It seems…that my theory was right! My strength is distinctively greater than it has any right to be if I had completed only a "normal third transformation."'
His smirk deepened at the same moment as a fierce glint passed through his eyes, 'In this case, to maximize the benefits I need to redo my foundation for the first and second transformations!'
The moment these thoughts crossed his mind he didn't waste a breath before once more executing the Ninefold Physique Method but…something was different.
If the creator of the Ninefold Physique Method had been here watching his Body Tempering, they would have been shocked to see that the Cultivation Method itself had undergone strange, unexpected changes…
The 'expected' bone-breaking sounds resounded in the hot springs as Mikael once again began his Body Tempering, and in this way time quietly passed.
It didn't take much longer before—after a quick visit to the Alchemy Hall to buy more pills and cultivation resources—Mikael succeeded in reforging his foundation in Body Tempering for both the first and second transformations.
Once the process was complete Mikael felt the strength coursing through his physique rise even further, and after some internal analysis he was able to confirm a shocking fact.
His body was 50% stronger in every parameter compared to how strong it should have been when reaching the third transformation!
Author Note:
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———
"Ahhh, suffering to grow stronger, the story of my life!"
When I wrote Mikael saying that I made me smile because this is true when you take the time to think about it, each time Mikael grows stronger he suffers, it's never painless power ups.
No, no no.
You can be sure that if he is about to grow stronger that he is about to suffer that's for sure and this scene wasn't an exception.
He suffered even touching death—kinda madman of Mikael but the difference between a madman and a genius is that the genius success and considering that he is alive….
———
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— End of Chapter —