The sun shone down onto the dry earth, blazing without care.

  Crunch, crunch.

  Orien stepped on a few dried leaves as he moved, taking a break every now and then. He could see on the beaten path up ahead that there was another spot with some shade. He moved along, stopping and sitting down on the ground at that spot like an oasis in the desert.

  Gulp, gulp. He took two big swigs from his flask and said, "Wisp, I had not considered that even just getting to the top of this peak was quite a hike. Fortunately, it isn't a mountain. I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it if it were."

  "I wouldn't send you to your death if there were mountains in the area. Do I look like a cruel person?" Wisp replied.

  Orien couldn't help but laugh because Wisp didn't look like a person at all. He was just a ghastly green orb, but he didn't dare say that out loud.

  Orien chuckled to himself and said, "I'm also glad that there aren't actually any dangerous beasts on this island. The same can't be said for the waters surrounding it, but the land is quite safe."

  "Very good thinking,” Wisp replied, “You would be picked apart if you went wandering into the wilderness in most other places. If nothing else, this is truly a peaceful island."

  "Agreed, it's just that, based on what you say, a rougher environment would surely temper me far better than this. I'm too soft, I suppose..." Orien trailed off, clearly thinking about his results from the evaluation a few days ago.

  Orien got up, picked up his things, and continued up the trail.

  On his way up, he hadn't seen a soul but figured that the mountain path must be used relatively often since it wasn't too overgrown.

  The sun was going down quickly, but fortunately, he had started early and thus reached his destination before the sun set.

  ‘Good lord... that was harder than I thought it would have been,’ Orien thought.

  His legs were throbbing, and he felt like they would be in pain for days. He wasn't out of breath, but that's only because he took his sweet time climbing up. His clothing was soaked in sweat.

  He set his belongings down and then surveyed the area.

  ‘This peak is actually fairly broad at the top, but it is very bare,’ he thought as he took a look around.

  Save for a few trees and grass, there really wasn't much else atop here.

  “The plan was simple,” Wisp said, “You will have to collect water every other day at the base of this peak when you run out. Your legs and stamina will be pushed to the limit, but that ain't all.”

  Wisp had a strict regime of push-ups, pull-ups, punches, kicks, stretches, and all sorts of other things throughout the day. He wouldn't get much time to dilly-dally.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "Based on the time now, I should eat, shave a portion of that medicinal pill off, and consume it, right?" Orien asked.

  "Indeed, that's the plan. It's a damn shame there's no women to ogle while we're up here. Just me and a stinky brat. I'm afraid I'll get annoyed just looking at you,” Wisp grumbled.

  Despite the unpleasant words, Orien couldn't help but laugh out loud. He felt as though Wisp enjoyed his company but wouldn't say it. "Let's dig in and get started."

  Orien didn't need to cook today since he had his mother's cooking. He unraveled the small basket she gave him and started to eat.

  Red apples, baked bread, greens, some miscellaneous fruit, and lots of meat as well. He wasn't particularly happy to eat the greens, but he did so anyway.

  Once that was over, he carefully removed the delicate box from within his clothes and took out one of the medicinal pills. They smelled very fragrant and sweet, almost like perfume.

  Using the edge of a small knife he brought with him, he very carefully split one of the pills in half and looked over at Wisp because he was unsure what to do next.

  Wisp spoke, "Go on, I'll explain as you go. You will consume half and then follow my instructions very closely. You were unaware of the breathing exercise for Qi gathering and cultivating, so allow me to teach you now."

  Orien nodded and looked down at the half pill with absolute focus. He tossed it in his mouth and swallowed it, bracing himself like he was going to explode.

  "The energy will be gently released from the pill. Your dantian will hungrily suck in all of the Qi. There will be minimal losses since this is refined and isn't just wild spiritual grass. You need to focus on your dantian, while you do these following breathing exercises. This is where the spiritual energy will flow to. Once you begin to feel like it has energy inside of it, rotate the energy inside of your dantian and carefully guide the Qi through your Qi pathways. It will feel very sluggish and slow at first but follow my guidance and you'll be fine,” Wisp continued.

  Orien focused on his dantian, and sure enough, the Qi flow felt natural. He began to move it along as Wisp guided him. This continued for a few minutes, then tens of minutes, until about an hour went by.

  "That's it, that was the first circulation. How do you feel?"

  Orien felt indescribable... like he was submerged in water, but he could breathe.

  He felt like the sun was shining down on his body, warmth...

  “It was a truly wondrous feeling,” Orien said aloud while he thought, 'I’ve got goosebumps all over my body.’

  "Now here is what we'll do. We just needed to clear your Qi pathways, but we don't want you to break into stage one of the Mortal Path just yet. That would put you under heavy scrutiny, and the sect may also raise an eyebrow at you. We will use all of the remaining Qi that you build up to slowly refine your body. Normally, other materials would be involved but given how early you are in your body refinement, this will suffice. Your muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, skin, all of them. It is a painfully slow process, but the results will be decent,” Wisp said.

  "I got it. Thank you for your patience, Wisp. I'll try to refine my physical body now,” Orien replied as he focused once more.

  "Wait one second, have you forgotten?” Wisp quickly interjected, “Dump some cold water over your bare body before you continue. Then you can begin to refine your body."

  "Wouldn't it be best to do one at a time?" Orien groaned.

  "Why cultivate for 30 years when you can cultivate for 10 years at three times the pace?" Wisp replied enthusiastically.

  Orien looked skeptical as he thought, ‘I feel like Wisp is rushing things.’

  "Don't look at me like that. You'd be hard pressed to find a teacher as good as me in a ten-million-mile radius. I know what I'm talking about. Do you trust me or not?"

  "Okay, okay! Sheesh. The same way you've thrown in your lot with me, I too am heavily relying on you."

  Orien grinned with Wisp and walked over to a bucket of water before scooping some out and dousing himself.

  His eyes slowly opened... he was ready for his training to commence.