With my hand low on her back, I could clearly observe the changes that were taking place in her body. When a normal person starts cultivating, they need to open the pores in their skin as to absorb the energy into their body, reinforcing it in the process. This process was considered the first major hurdle one has to overcome on his path to greatness since it included not only bringing a qualitative change to one's flesh but also required the ability to sense the spiritual energy in the air.

Thankfully, recultivating this was far easier than doing it for the first time. While the energy had to be absorbed again, the body was already used to its presence, forcing one to simply repeat the steps. While experience could be a great help at this very first stage of cultivation, because Lucia had to change her entire approach, it wasn't going to be just a simple session of immersing oneself into the universal energy!

"Don't try to forcefully push the energy into your body. Simply breathe it in and allow it to seep into your body from inside!"

Before she managed to even make her first step, I had to guide her already. I already had a bit of experience in doing the same actions, I could speak from the experience, allowing her to avoid the same misconceptions I had before my wisdom stat brought me the visions that corrected the very basis of my perception of cultivation.

When someone did it for the first time and tried to force the energy into one's body, he would experience excruciating pain steeming from the energy simply invading every last bit of his flesh. Compared to them, I could feel Lucia's muscles actually relaxing as soon as the same energy nourished her as she breathed her in!

"Good, now feel the energy that you are shrouded with."

While most of the mana that I covered her with was focused in front of her mouth to allow her to quicken this process, as soon as she managed to fill her body to the brim, I diffused it evenly through the entire layer of the spiritual force.

The second step of the cultivation in the mortal realm was actually the simplest out of them all. Even those who believed that going against heaven was the right way didn't meet with any major obstacles while doing so. If I were to be honest, embracing energy lovingly instead of forcefully was actually harder!

For those who believed in opposition, embracing energy simplified itself to the point of covering one's body in a thin layer of mana, allowing one to incorporate it into one's body as kind of a second skin. Making the energy to do one's bidding was far easier than actually embracing it as one should!

"It won't work this way. You have too many impurities amassed from your previous cultivating. Let's stop for now. Eve, is the water ready?"

While I hoped that I would manage to make her burst through first two or three steps at once, without proper guidance in her past cultivation endeavours, the state of her body was already degraded to the point that a proper growth was blocked by all the clogs in her meridians and dantian. Without an external measure, it would be impossible to let her grow even to the point that she was at before!

"Yes, it's ready. What do you want me to do with it?"

Leaning over the corner from the bathroom, Eve looked at our new toy with curiosity on her face. Because of my stupid hastiness back when I got my visions, I never got to recultivate her own stages, making it a first time when she actually got to see the process of doing so. It was completely normal that she would be wondering what was going on!

"It's okay, just heating it up was enough for now. Lucia, I need you to completely undress and sit inside the bathtub."

Taking my hand off her back, I could see her tremble a bit, but she nevertheless stood up and started to untwine the threads that held her undergarments in place. As soon as the layer of cloth that hid the private parts of her body fallen to the ground, I couldn't help but stare at her beautiful, tanned back, before averting my gaze and pointing her to the barrel.

Keeping my sight on the happenings outside the window under Eve's annoyed glare, I waited before the girl fully submerged into the water, before coming there as well and sitting with my back against the wall of the tub.

"Place my hand where it was before."

Reaching backwards with my arm, I swallowed my annoyance. If I wanted Lucia to cultivate properly, I had to pay some mind to her mind as well. If she were too embarrassed to focus on my orders properly, even I would be unable to help her smash right through all the bottlenecks that were awaiting her arrival!

Feeling Lucia's fingers wrapping around my wrist, I didn't have to wait long before my palm rested against her soft and warm back. Not daring to waste any time for useless thoughts, I started guiding my energy to enshroud her again. As soon as it happened, I actually used the knowledge acquired from my smithing ability to make my mana heat up a thin layer of water around Lucia's body, while keeping the rest of the liquid at a warm, comfortable temperature.

"I will now start increasing the heat. You need to start repelling the energy that you just absorbed, while continuously nourishing your body just like you did before."

"Yes, master."

Hearing her approval, I instantly got to the action. As my mana started swirling around her bare body, I could feel that the energy that she just absorbed was swiftly repelled through the pores of her skin, carrying all the impurities with itself only to diffuse it into water, while the excluded energy simply merged back into the mist and continued to spread in the same manner as it did before.

As this process continued, I kept looking at the inner state of Lucia's body, watching as her innards were cleansed from all the obstacles that would hinder her future cultivation. Since my previous recultivation took place while I was in the midst of my visions, I couldn't gauge whether the speed at which the tanned girl was progressing was any good, but only after half an hour, she finally managed to complete this round of cultivation.

I could finally say that she was a proper body reinforcement cultivator!

"You have fully completed the first stage, let's busy ourselves with the second one. Imagine the heat that surrounds you as energy. It is natural for humans to be wary of it, but you need to think of it like a coat that your mother would cover you with on chilling nights. Instead of tensing up and trying to toughen it up, try to relax and allow it to soothe your body!"

As the water served as the medium, it was actually far easier to make Lucia understand the meaning behind my words. Doing it in the open was the standard procedure, but just like the air, humans are unable to feel the presence of the energy properly. By making her connect the feeling of heat with the feeling of my mana, it would be far easier for her to assimilate it!

Just like I thought, with this simple help, she was able to perceive and absorb the energy almost instantly! In one fell swoop, all the mist that I evenly spread over her body attached to her skin, before merging with it and creating an insanely thin and almost unnoticeable layer over her entire body!

"Now stand up, and tell me how you feel!"

Considering that she was at soul hazard level previously, I could say almost for certain that her body constitution would be already at the same stage! While cultivating further levels focused more on the internal energy instead of reinforcing the body, even more, greater amounts of mana within one's dantian obviously influenced one's flesh as well!

"H-how is that possible! I feel even lighter than I did before!"

The moment that she stood up, I could feel a soft sensation on my hand as her bottom rubbed on it. Taking my hand back, I involuntarily turned my head around, only to see a euphoric look on Lucia's face, while unable to ignore her naked body in its full glory!

"Do you trust me now? If you want, we can stop here for today, because the next step will be quite unorthodox and quite… repulsive."

Thinking how I could elevate her cultivation in the shortest time possible, I came up with a way to infuse her with enough of the energy to push for another breakthrough, but that would require her to not only be calm but also to fully trust me and lay her ground down. If there was any shred of uncertainty in her, we would have to call it a day.

Not caring about showing me her entire beauty, she bowed to me while almost pushing her bust against my head.

"I want to continue!"