In the shaded yard of her home in the Outer Sect, Jun Li stood above a basin of sand, wearing a thin training uniform. Clearing her mind, she moved subtly into a stance and focused on maneuvering her Internal Qi.

  Alongside a subtle whistle of air, Jun Li’s hand was buried deeply in the basin of sand, faster than any normal person would be able to perceive.

  In an instant, Jun Li’s right hand left the basin, her left hand replacing it, roughly pushing sand out of the way without effort, like a knife sliding through thin air. After a few repetitions, Jun Li nodded to herself, apparently satisfied with this result.

  Jun Li turned away from the basin of sand and toward a second prepared basin, this one filled with woodchips.

  Seemingly entirely unafraid of splinters, Jun Li repeated her routine with this basin, sharply thrusting her hands into the deep reservoir of woodchips without any restraint.

  Under Jun Li’s efforts, not only did the woodchips fail to provide any resistance to her repetitions, but they also quickly began to disintegrate, breaking apart into smaller pieces as she worked away at them.

  Within only a few moments, Jun Li had affirmed her own proficiency as being beyond this stage of training and moved on to the final basin she had prepared.

  Inside the weighty iron vessel was a volume of gravel that weighed far more than Jun Li herself. Looking into the pool of stones, Jun Li performed a single Qi Circulation and swiftly lashed out in accordance with her Martial Technique.

  Jun Li’s arm turned into a blur as it crashed repeatedly through the pool of gravel, never resting inside as it did in the previous basins. After three full seconds of continuous thrusts, Jun Li lifted her right arm from the basin and substituted her left.

  It had taken her almost three months to reach this stage, but it was mandatory for the use of the majority of the unarmed Techniques contained within the Sparking Thorn.

  At first, the finger-conditioning was painful even in sand, but now, Jun Li had nothing to fear from striking mere muscle and cartilage. She had full confidence in her ability to shatter even bones when she breaks through to the Crimson Palace stage, but until then, this was her limit.

  In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Jun Li ceaselessly subjected her fingers to the severe force between her Technique and the rough gravel. It was a painful affair, and normally, Jun Li would not be eager to partake in such a rough manner of training, but she had the means to afford such reckless conditioning.

  With sweat forming on her brow, Jun Li stepped away from the basin and entered her house, holding up her aching fingers. Although they sported many scratches, no blood was shed from her now reinforced fingers. Jun Li picked a thin strip of fabric off a table and began to wrap it around a finger.

  Atop this table, seven other strips of fabric sat prepared in advance, each coated in a ruddy-looking paste. Seeing these bandages, a stingier alchemist would feel their heart hurt from how wasteful it was.

  Jun Li had powdered one of the Stoneshell Ginger Pills she had refined months ago and had been mixing the powder in a medical solution to coat her fingers after conditioning training.

  In truth, few Cultivators would use such a pill in this way. Bodily conditioning could be achieved over time at no risk, but how often would one come across a Medicinal Pill of such value?

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Jun Li, however, had no qualms with using such an expensive thing in this way, not after her duel with Yang Chen.

  She had seen how valuable Martial Techniques were and wouldn’t let the majority of the Sparking Thorn remain useless, even if her haste was wasteful. Jun Li wanted to have a reliable Martial Art at her disposal, especially one that didn’t require a weapon to be of use.

  Wiping the sweat from her brow with bandaged hands, Jun Li began to ready herself for the day ahead. After returning from her brief vacation, Jun Li had made it a habit to practice a more thorough morning routine than before.

  Drawing water from the Outer Sect’s well, Jun Li would fill a bath and heat it using her Cauldron, and the Formation inside it that converted Qi to heat.

  She had become much more adept at alchemy over the past few months and practiced frequently with mundane materials, eventually succeeding in replicating the amenities and cosmetics she first saw during her vacation at the hotel.

  Though her Master dismissed her creations as trivial, he approved of any excuse Jun Li could give herself to hold a Cauldron or Furnace every day. Besides, the materials to practice ‘real’ alchemy weren’t so easy to come by.

  In this way, Jun Li would begin every day with a hot bath and a thorough routine of hair and skin care, later venturing into the forest to the west of the Sect to gather herbs and meat for her meals.

  Jun Li couldn’t help but feel her new way of life was decadent, even if she heated the baths herself, made her own amenities, and hunted her own meat.

  At times, she was concerned that she had introduced too many distractions into her daily life, and that her Cultivation would suffer, but over time, her Cultivation continued to progress at the same rate as before her changed routine, if not more smoothly.

  Whatever hours of Cultivation she lost from her new way of life were made up by the improved mental state her active routine gave her, allowing her to reap twice the results for half the effort when it came to Cultivation.

  And her Cultivation had indeed benefited. Now approaching the limit of the Peak Qi Condensation stage, Jun Li felt that if she had fought Yang Chen at her current level, the battle would have ended within just a few moves.

  Despite her confidence, no challenges for another duel have been sent to her over the past few months, as if all the Outer Sect had decided it was better to forget Jun Li ever existed.

  Donning the robe of the Outer Sect, Jun Li had no mirror to see herself in, but still tidied herself accurately with her refined physical senses.

  Taking a deep breath, she reflected on her state and looked inward. Deep inside her body, the inner world of her Dantian, though still transient and nebulous, had taken clearer form. Looking out over the rocky shore and rainy seas of that turbulent world, Jun Li estimated her Cultivation.

  ‘…I’m close to the limit…’ Jun Li could almost instinctively feel that her Cultivation was approaching something.

  From what she had read, it was obvious that she was nearing the end of the Qi Condensation stage, and the beginning of the Crimson Palace stage, but she had no clear idea of what the breakthrough between the two stages would look like.

  ‘How close must the Princess have been to just… break through in the middle of a den in the forest…?’ Thinking of the Princess, Jun Li was baffled as to how long she must have stayed at the very peak of the Qi Condensation stage to be able to break through on command in the way she did.

  Sighing, Jun Li lifted her perception from her Dantian and focused on the world around her.

  Nearby, Little Yun had climbed onto the bed and looked pensively at Jun Li, drawing her attention. “Big day ahead, Little Yun!” Jun Li eagerly scooped up the now much larger Little Yun.

  Over the past few months, Little Yun had grown significantly, shedding multiple times. Jun Li could only attribute this rapid growth to their status as a Magical Beast.

  Unlike in the past, Little Yun was now too large to fully hide in Jun Li’s collar, not that it stopped them from wrapping around Jun Li at the first sight of an unfamiliar person.

  Gently coddling the pure white snake, Jun Li stepped outside, knowing that the day ahead could provide her with the means to enter the Inner Sect.

  When drawing water from the well earlier in the day, Jun Li had seen the message she had been waiting eagerly for: the announcement of the Outer Sect Trial.