The sun was just peeking over the horizon by the time the dust had settled down. In the center of the glade surrounded by the boulder's broken fragments, a sword stood tall impaling the ground. Barely discernible in the morning sunlight, a bright red aura shone from the sword which seemed to emanate a feeling of ecstacy.

Kenja approached the sword and looked down at the point of impact. A snail-sized hole in the ground hid the tip of the sword. Kenja pulled the sword out of the hole, and on the tip of the sword, he found the snail's shell. He looked closely at the shell and saw that the hole had widened with a crack.

"Looks like you're not as indestructible as you thought," laughed Kenja.

The snail's eyes poked out of the hole and swerved around the shell to look at his injury.

"YOU CRACKED MY SHELL!"

His tentacles swayed to point a pair of red eyes at Kenja. The snail was furious. He somehow separated himself from the sword and fell to the ground facing Kenja. A powerful aura overwhelmed Kenja as he felt like he was suffocating. On the verge of fainting, Kenja was saved by the sword's red aura which shielded him from the snail's fury. Kenja quickly regained his composure when the snail threatened him.

"YOU'RE COURTING DEATH! BRING YOUR FACE DOWN HERE, SO I CAN LET OUT ALL THAT HOT AIR!"

Kenja responded calmly, "Is this how you serve someone to the best of your abilities?"

"..."

The snail froze. He had suddenly realized the situation he landed himself in.

"..."

Several dozen breaths had passed, and the sun was standing above the horizon before the snail finally moved again.

"Of course, my disciple! Too much hot air is unhealthy for anyone," the snail gave an insincere smile to Kenja.

The snail had no desire to serve Kenja in the least, but a Soul Oath was not something he could renege. Breaking a Soul Oath would inflict great harm on the liar's soul. While the harm might not be as hurtful or lethal to someone in the Body Tempering stage, the danger rose exponentially for those at later stages. For the snail, it was entirely possible for his soul to disintegrate without the possibility of reincarnation.

"Do servants usually call their master 'my disciple?'" Kenja questioned the snail.

"Did I say I was your servant? I said I would serve you to the best of my abilities similar to how a parent serves their children or a teacher serves their students!" The snail put on a face of indignation at being misunderstood.

Kenja could feel a headache coming on. "Forget it. I don't wish to have a snail that can be so shameless as my teacher." Kenja gripped his newfound sword and turned to leave the glade. The snail began to panic. It didn't matter how Kenja felt about this arrangement; as long as the snail did not serve Kenja to the best of his abilities, the Soul Oath would take his life. Out of desperation, the snail quickly leapt onto Kenja's face placing his eyes in front of Kenja's right eye.

"Now, now. Don't be so rash, my disciple. I, your sensei, am a patient and forgiving man. How about, as a gift for this joyous union between teacher and student, I help you reach the Qi Flourishing stage right now?"

At this time, the sword vibrated in Kenja's hand which caused the snail's tentacles to twist and look at it.

"Shut up, eyebrow plucker!"

Kenja was intrigued with the sudden offer. Breaking through the Body Tempering stage to the Qi Flourishing stage was not a simple feat. Entering the Qi Flourishing stage would mean he had officially broken his mortal shackles and taken his first actual step towards Immortality. Normally, it would take at least half a decade of dedicated cultivation and some medicinal supplements to accomplish this feat. Without the medicinal supplements, a decade would be considered incredibly fast. But this snail was telling him that he could take this step right now. It was as if he told him that he could make a bird egg immediately fly before cracking out of its shell.

"If you can do that, then I will permit you to follow me." A person who could accomplish such a feat was indeed worthy of being called sensei, but Kenja did not like how the snail tried to weasel out of his oath in such a manner. While he was willing to keep such a capable fellow around, his pride was not something he would throw away.

Met with a semi-satisfactory response, the snail relented and began instructing him.

"First, do you have any water? If not, we can use the ocean water, but we would need to purify it."

Kenja was taken aback by the snail's question. There weren't any oceans nearby, but he remembered that there was some spirit water in the storage ring he obtained from Kaito's corpse. He put his hand out and placed several buckets of spirit water on the ground. Spirit water often came from natural formations that yielded water near strong spiritual entities such as the Xerxes Reservoir which was surrounded by Kodama Trees.

"Spirit water! Good, this will do. Now leave these here near the edge and walk back to the center." Kenja walked back to the center avoiding the giant rock fragments.

"Now see that giant rock? Prop it up between you and the spirit water." The snail's eyes pointed at a lengthy rock fragment sitting near Kenja's feet. He stabbed the sword into the ground and pulled the rock up. It was placed between him and the spirit water, so he could no longer see the spirit water.

"Good job. You're almost done."

'Almost done? You made me take out water and move a rock. When did becoming an Immortal require such simple manual labor?'

Kenja was about to ask the snail what he was doing when the snail continued as before.

"Ok, now for the easy part! Grab the sushi knife and hold the hilt with both hands. Slut, I'm counting on you to handle the body. When I say go, I want you to start drawing in Qi and cycling it through your meridians as slowly as possible."

While the sword vibrated quietly in Kenja's hand, the snail began trailing around Kenja's face before deciding to venture under his shirt again. He circled around his torso several times before stopping on Kenja's left pec.

"Now that I am looking at you again. I am impressed with my disciple's aesthetic appeal."

Kenja grimaced at the snail's remark. 'Is he helping me or harassing me?'

Kenja had a well-toned body. He was a little shorter than six chi but that was enough to call himself tall in Ryuga. While he had strong muscles, they were not bulging out like a herculean mercenary but more so taut like a veteran swordsman. With a thick head of medium-length black hair that reached below his earlobes and a well-defined chin that reflected the Golden Ratio, many would call him handsome. His youthful face emitted a graceful effeminacy that would attract both men and women.

"Ok, I'm ready. Go!"

Kenja pushed down his strange thoughts and immediately tried drawing in Qi from the surroundings. He could feel a hot, burning sensation coming from the snail and sword that seemed to invade his body as he continued to draw in Qi. The air in the glade began to slowly move towards Kenja as he began to breathe in.

"SLOW DOWN!" yelled the snail.

'I haven't even taken half a breath in, and you want me to slow down?'

Kenja immediately slowed down his breathing from a crawl to a slither. The Qi in the air continued to move towards Kenja as he inhaled. Kenja could feel incredible energy swirling within his body. He continued to circulate the energy through his meridians as he exhaled. Originally after exhaling, Kenja had never felt the Qi remain in his body, but now, he could feel the Qi continuing to cycle through his meridians and settle in his lower and middle dantian.

He began inhaling once more causing the Qi in the glade to rush to him. Even the leaves and branches of the forest began leaning towards Kenja. He filled his body once more with three times as much energy as the first breath. He could feel that he was touching a limiter on his body, but he wasn't sure how to push through it. As he was about to finish inhaling and begin exhaling, a monstrous aura pressured his body and chest, and he could hear the snail laughing.

"HAHAHA, YOU FELL FOR MY TRAP! NOW YOU WILL DIE!"

Kenja's mind began to work like clockwork as he assessed the death threat from inside his shirt and thought about what to do. His meridians' flow speed rose dramatically, and the amount of Qi building up in his lower and middle dantian skyrocketed. Before he had a chance to react, he felt a huge release of energy leaving him followed by a loud noise that sounded similar to a big balloon being popped and a burst of gas being released.

The burning sensation from the hilt and the snail disappeared.

All he could see was black.