Chapter 14: Chapter 14 60/90 days

“And you’re sure this isn’t permanent?” Raul asked again while anxiously looking into the mirror. Tribal looking lines were drawn across his body. Even his face was not spared and had several upward markings, makeshift glasses around his eyes, and what looked to be a circlet on his forehead. He looked positively ridiculous.

“It’s necessary.” She didn’t answer the question. “Besides, you trust me not to steer you wrong, right?” She titled her head. Her tone was even, but the evil intent was obvious.

‘Petty.’ Raul rolled his eyes. He didn’t know enough about formations or runes to know if all of this was really necessary or what it’d do, but he knew she wouldn’t harm his good looks, they were married after all. Even if she wasn’t interested in him, he was certain she’d rather have something pleasant to look at if they were going to be spending a lot of time together. So she definitely, absolutely, positively wouldn’t harm his face… right? He worriedly started touching the lines on his face again.

“You’re wasting time, the food is getting cold.” She dragged him out of the bathroom.

‘Damn it, I already signed up for it, so I can’t complain now.’ He resolved himself as he ate. He’d sort of expected the day to go a little different, but asides from having some drawings on him when he woke up, it was the same as usual.

The meal was delicious, as usual, and, while it was hard to tell giving the copious amount he was still eating, it felt like there was less food, which was the opposite of what he expected. ‘Maybe I’ll be using a different technique for training.’ He thought as he finished up.

“Train using the ripple punch this session.” Marina shattered his expectations with that simple order.

‘Do these lines really make that much difference?’ He wondered as he pushed himself up using the table.

“Huh?” he muttered as his hands felt slick while touching the table. His hands were covered in sweat. It wasn’t just his hands either, his entire body was suddenly sweating like crazy.

“You should hurry, it’ll get worse soon. Use the thirty-year post.” Marina advised while picking up the plates.

Even though immortal cooking turned to nourishing qi, there were obvious limits, especially with Raul’s non-existent cultivation and weak body. The only reason he could eat so much immortal cooking is that the dishes Marina picked were deliberately weak and made for children.

It was by pairing such dishes with low nourishing qi amounts together in a synergistic way that the enhancement effect became much greater than the sum of its parts, with the only downside being the uncomfortable fullness of the consumer. It was very delicate and precise work, but it wasn’t the only thing that could be done with such precision.

This time she made dishes with stronger and violent nourishing qi that had conflicting, yet complimentary, natures. This caused the qi to take effect at a delayed rate while also improving the effects when it did activate. This required even more meticulous planning and precision to pull off, as a small difference in portions could result in an explosive imbalance, literally.

Sweat poured off Raul like a torrential rain, his clothes were already soaked by time he made it to the backyard. He felt like a furnace was installed into his stomach.

His breath was haggard despite feeling fuller of energy than he ever had before. He hurried past the ten-year soil tree poles and moved towards the thirty-year one.

Soil Trees had a qualitive change at thirty years of age and required the power of a spirit ascension cultivator to break, he wouldn’t have to worry about it shattering during training.  

Desperate for release, he reeled his arm back and punched the post with his full strength. “Argh!” He shouted in pain as the ripple started moving through him.

It felt like the fire from his stomach had mixed with the ripple and burning him inside out as it traveled.

To make matters worse, the lines on him started glowing and slowing down the traveling speed of the ripple, causing him to wreathe in pain for a minute before it finally finished.

He wasn’t happy in the least when the ripple finished and the pain subsided. That painful feeling of fullness that always decreased as he trained was even greater and hotter than when he’d punched now.

This was natural. The qi currently in Raul’s body was far more than it could handle. It was only due to the conflicting nurturing qi of the different dishes battling with each other that they hadn’t torn him apart already.

Raul didn’t know any of this, but his instincts were screaming at him that he was in a life or death situation.

Raul had grown up his whole life in the lap of luxury. Up to two months ago, any danger he faced was self-afflicted, and certainly never life threatening. Even counting that time at the party, Tai was there, and he never really felt in danger. But now, he could suddenly smell death upon him.

His mind blanked, but his body knew what to do. He roared savagely and punched the post with all his might.

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Pain took him again as the ripple started searing him the moment his fist touched the post. But without waiting for it to finish, he grit his teeth savagely and brought his other fist down onto the post.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The pain of multiple searing ripples tore through him, causing him to let lose a scream that he turned into a battle cry, bringing his previous fist up to punch again.

All other thoughts vanished from his head as he kept punching the post with his alternating fists. Even time faded away as he hit the post faster and faster.

But the qi inside him kept building faster than he could vent it. His skin started turning red, steam mixed with black impurities took the place of sweat, and the blood from his torn skin sizzled and seared the skin shut.

His eyes turned bloodshot as he let loose a primal roar and broke past his limits. He would not die here! Never venturing, never gaining, a pathetic death in his own backyard, he absolutely refused!

All his cells kicked into overdrive as his body entered do or die. Wind began to blow around him as the primordial qi in the air became more active. He instinctively absorbed the qi and trapped it in his body, allowing it to rampage as it pleased.

The ripple punch only enhanced the violent rejection of the primal qi in his body, causing him greater pain and injury. The nourishing qi that was scorching him from the inside rushed to these damaged spots and expended itself to heal him.

Marina watched with surprised eyes as Raul reached an equilibrium with the nourishing qi by using the ripple punch and primordial qi.

The primordial qi and ripple punch would simultaneously destroy and refine the body, while the nourishing qi would give it the energy it needed to rebuild and remove the deepest-rooted impurities.

One of the formations drawn on him had the function to absorb primordial qi into the body and would activate when his body reached a certain extent of damage, but she never expected that he would figure it out on his own first.

Raul roared all day as he punched the post continuously for seven hours. The violent sounds finally stopped when he collapsed, completely unconscious.

His body looked like charcoal, and steam was still coming out of him. Much of his clothes had burned off from the extreme heat.

Marina rushed over with a broth in hand. She took off her shirt and hugged him tightly. His skin was hot to the touch, but she paid that no heed as she focused on their connection to feel his state quickly.

She sighed in relief after seeing his life wasn’t in any danger. He was bruised, burned and torn all throughout his body, but there was a powerful vitality underneath.

Though there was still a bit of nourishing qi inside him, it was at a level his body could naturally handle.

“You’ve exceeded my expectations yet again.” She muttered while putting down the unneeded broth.   

She popped some pills into his mouth and used some acupuncture needles doused in medical fluid on the more egregious areas. The nourishing qi inside Raul sensed the intrusion and spread out to deal with it, resulting in a more balanced distribution of the qi.

Once she’d done everything she could on site, she picked him up and took him to the bathroom.

She started mixing the bath while leaving him leaned up against the wall. Usually she mixed it when he was close to finishing his training, as the medical properties would deteriorate if left for too long, but she didn’t feel safe leaving the vicinity until after his training ended today.

The bath took on a deep blue color and a frosty mist started coming out as she stirred it. She unceremoniously stripped the bits of clothes that had survived off Raul and dumped him into the tub.

The water started bubbling and swirling around Raul the moment he became submerged in it. Steam and cold mist burst out of the bath and filled the entire room as another violent reaction took place inside Raul’s body.

Luckily for him, his mind was completely checked out and he didn’t feel a thing as the two conflicting elements worked in reluctant tandem to fix his body.

“Sleep well.” Marina whispered before going to prepare for the next session.

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