“Congratulations,” Elder Lieshen breaks the silence.

  I shift from where I’m kneeling, once more within the elder’s dojo but this time there’s only three of us, An sitting beside me.

  “As promised, the Impurity Cleansing pills,” he says with a wave of his hand towards his desk and two bottles, jade, appear atop it like they were always there.

  The Lotus Melting pill did its job after An was able to force it down my mouth, how she got me to swallow it went unsaid, but it suppressed the poison long enough for her to carry me back to the sect to get proper treatment.

  She had to leave everything behind to carry me back, my armour and weapons, and the bodies of our teammate and enemies.

  The disciples ‘coincidentally’ sent to harvest the meadow found only a copious amount of dried blood and scraps of armour and weapons spread around. It was reported to the sect and was deemed as rogue cultivators who misjudged their strength and became prey for spiritual beasts in the area.

  I woke up in the Medicinal Hall this morning to find every piece I left behind repaired, cleaned and accounted for on my bedside.

  Both An and I give a small bow before taking a bottle each.

  “As said, make sure to keep the trust the sect has in you,” he reiterates as he gives us a look.

  ““Yes Elder.””

  “Good, you may be called for a rewarding task such as this in the future. You may leave.”

  Standing up, we both give another bow before heading to the door.

  “Ah, I recommend you use the pill somewhere you can dispose the waste it produces. Especially you boy, the poison left behind many impurities so it will not be pleasant,” the elder advises.

  We thank him once more before leaving the dojo, coming out into the moonlight revealing the empty training ground.

  “Thank you again, An, I am in your debt.”

  “It was nothing, something expected as you are a fellow disciple, but I accept your thanks,” she says with a nod.

  I know what I’m doing by saying I owe her a debt, something she no doubt will call on at some point in the future, but she did save my life, it’s the least I can do.

  And I can always say no if she asks something I don’t agree with, something she likely won’t do.

  Saying our final goodbyes, I eagerly jog back home, with a slight limp as I couldn’t afford the ones that can regrow the torn flesh from my thigh, and head straight to the bathhouse built behind my building.

  It’s late at night so thankfully there’s no one here, just empty tubs with a central pool of water steaming with heat.

  Some older disciples said that the sect diverted some of the water from the waterfall that cuts through the sect to filter out to various locations around, a formation built around one of the passages that allows some of the water to always be heated as it passes through.

  I’ll be needing that, and a lot of soap given what Elder Lieshen said.

  Filling two of the tubs with hot water, I strip and slip into one. Leaning back against the wall, I have to shift my legs uncomfortably so I can fit within, my knees still poking up above the water line.

  Good enough.

  Breathing out, I pop the cork to the jade bottle and tilt it to drop a creamy white pill to my palm. It smells really good, sweet like custard.

  Setting the bottle to the side, to sell as someone will want a bottle made of jade, I toss the pill into my mouth. The pill veritably explodes in my mouth in a burst of flavour that no other pill I’ve taken has done, and even more surprisingly, there’s no impurities to swallow.

  Makes sense, it would be hilarious if an Impurity Cleansing pill has impurities in it itself.

  Settling down, I wait for the long haul as I feel my body slowly start to heat up. The pill can take anywhere from an hour to half a day, depending on how many impurities one’s body took on.

  But the result is a distinct qualitative change, arguably greater than advancing a stage.

  I try relaxing, but my body soon gets even hotter, nothing uncomfortable, my body too sturdy that a mere fevering temperature doesn’t feel like much, but the main problem is the water starting to feel cooler against my skin.

  I hate cold baths!

  Grumbling under my breath, I close my eyes and take a nap.

  A very calming nap.

  In cold water.

  ....

  “Eugh!” I sit up and clamp my hands over my nose as I smell a whiff of something.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  It smells horrible! Like feces, trash and rotting flesh combined!

  Pinching my nose shut, I look down and my eyes widen as I see the water in my tub starting to darken, streams of black escaping across my body and mixing in the water.

  My scalp itches.

  Raising my free hand up, I pat my head and feel something wet, bringing it down to see black liquid staining my hand.

  Dipping it down so I don’t need to smell it any longer, I lose the need to sleep and just wait in the pool as the black liquid keeps pouring out of me from everywhere, then turning into viscous sludge that gathers on me.

  I try cleaning myself off as it comes out, but there’s a lot, enough that the water soon turns pitch black.

  Waiting a few hours, I feel myself start to cool down from the heat and decide to wait another hour before switching baths, relishing the fresh water and vigorously cleaning myself.

  Standing up, I marvel at what I can see of me. My skin looks cleaner, missing some of the freckles that dotted my form, and from what I can feel from my hair, it feels smoother, less wild than the mop I had.

  Jumping in place, I barely feel a strain, even the lightest of efforts letting my head touch the ceiling.

  My grin leads to chuckles, until I look at my hands.

  “MY CALLUSSES!”

  ---

  The books undersold how bad impurities can impede one’s cultivation, even at Body Tempering.

  I lower myself down from my handstand, with only two fingers on the ground and all the weight in the training grounds balanced on my feet.

  If the pill improved my body by this magnitude, then what about those that never end up using this pill? Inner disciples would be hard-pressed to save enough, only those with rich backgrounds being able to afford it whenever they need it.

  I kick the boulders off my feet, letting them slam a few meters from me, and flip to my feet.

  Over the past few weeks, I’ve grown faster than I have since I first started working in labour and advancing stages. I’ve adapted and pushed through harder, heavier exercises and gotten used to my newfound strength and agility.

  What I don’t like is even with all of that, my muscles keep compacting.

  It helps no doubt about that, as with the compaction, it gives me room to grow whilst keeping the same muscle density as I push towards the final stage of Body Tempering. Doesn’t mean I have to like how loose my robes became since then.

  I head towards where my weapons lay, both spear and sword, and get to work.

  I’m never going to be a good swordsman, just like how I’ll never be a master spearman, but I can at least be average in both.

  My fists can handle a lot, but there are times when it’s better to have a weapon than not.

  For now at least.

  Going through basic forms with both my weapons, my hand-to-hand training having been completed earlier in the day, I shove the twinge of annoyance of not having anyone to help down and focus on my movements.

  I spend the next hour or so cooling down before I’m heading out the grounds and back to my room.

  Sidenote, none of the thugs that were part of Biu’s little gang came to bother me ever since the last time they fought me. I think they’ve learnt their lesson, but you never know with their types. There’s more than just those three I beat in their group I think, and they know where I live and train so I’m always watching out for them.

  Making it back to my room, with a quick bath and change of clothes, I’m out and heading to one of my favourite restaurants nearby.

  Favourite because they offer all you can eat meat.

  I rarely go out to eat anymore, typically hunting whatever spiritual beasts I can find, but it’s getting closer to fall now so a lot more monstrous beasts are starting to pop up, and those that remain get hunted by other disciples.

  I’ve dealt with plenty of monstrous beasts when I go out, nearly every time nowadays as they just bull rush the nearest living thing, but their only worth is for parts, not consumption. It’s disappointing that I can’t get easy food, but I would never in a million years eat mutated beasts filled with chaotic qi.

  Don’t need any warnings to know it’s a bad idea.

  I walk through the open door into the slightly rambunctious room, a place for disciples on the lower end of the social ladder and packed to the gills.

  My grumbling stomach distracts me from the eyes that land on me and the conversations that dim as I look around the packed room for a seat and notice a disciple get up.

  I make a beeline for the seat and slump down and ignore the other three quietly eating at the table as I wave over one of the non-sect waitresses.

  “A platter of meat for four, highest grade you have,” I order which the waitress accepts with a nod and quickly walks away through the tables.

  I turn and see that the three sitting with me quickly finished their plates and abruptly stood up to head out, but I ignore them to steal a slice of meat that one left as a quick snack while I wait.

  Once my platter comes, I don’t notice anything else as I set myself to devour everything on it.

  It takes but twenty minutes for what was meant for four disciples to be reduced by half and I’m still going before I notice someone standing beside my table.

  I pause the ribs raised to my mouth as I register my surroundings again having filled some of my hunger and finally notice that the conversations filling the atmosphere came to a stop. Bringing my gaze up to the figure, I immediately clock that it’s a young master given the fine quality custom outer sect robes he wears.

  The look of disgust he sends me over the fan covering his lower face seals my guess.

  “So, you are the… barbarian, who the peasants think is better than I?”

  I stare up at the man, boy really, and slowly chew.

  Each second that slowly passes irritates the boy, eye twitching in lockstep and he looks ready to kill me before I finally swallow and speak.

  “I am unaware of any barbarians within our great sect, surely any that the sect deems right to enter its halls are of the height of civility?”

  That makes the boy scowl, can’t exactly say that the sect indeed lets barbarians in the sect now can you?

  “Who are you peasant to think that you can be on par, much less a greater cultivator than this Young Master of the Hiu clan?”

  Conveniently just skipping over that comment then? Alright.

  I wipe my hands off on a napkin as I rise, “I have never said those words fellow disciple,” his eye twitches, “nor do I follow the rumours that pervade through the sect.” The boy’s head tilts up as I raise myself to my feet, head and shoulders above his form, a hint of hesitance entering his eyes, “I claim to be nothing, I merely follow my Dao and have no qualms against you.”

  I watch his body for any sort of tensing as I ready for a fight, can never tell with these types beforehand.

  My words seem to do something as he clicks his tongue and turns with a swish of his robes.

  “You may not, but I will not allow my reputation to be soiled by some up jumped peasant. I shall prove to all that this young master holds dominance throughout the outer sect during the promotion tournament,” he declares as he struts away, disciples standing in his path scrambling away less he turns his ire onto those weaker.

  I watch him until he walks out the doors to a group of other disciples in similar attire waiting for him, a girl among them sending me a freezing glare before she latches onto the boy’s arm and they walk away.

  I sigh before slumping down back to my seat, the other disciples around me slowly dispersing back to their own tables before conversations pick back up again.

  I just dealt with Biu’s group, and another decides to try and come pick on me? What in the hells is in the sect’s water that makes them hate me.

  Glumly picking up a leg piece from some beast I can’t recognize, I tear into it.

  I’ll deal with… whoever that was from the Hiu clan, when the tournament comes back around.

  Guess I’ll have to work extra hard.