The past few months had been both exhilarating and exhausting in equal amounts for Fang Xiong.

His daily workout routine was 1000 push-ups, 1000 sit-ups, 1000 pull-ups, 1000 squats, and a 30km run before finally having to do an hour on combat training with his spartan-esque Master.

The reason he was doing such basic exercise was because he needed to be in the Houtian Realm before he could even start to practice any of the Heavenly Beast Method. And even then, the weights made these basic exercises near-lethal.

No matter how his strength improved, the magic weights would adjust themselves and get heavier, so the basic regiment, for him at least, became incredibly exhausted after every day.

But nevermind the problem because the gains were much higher. Because of his unique biology, Fang Xiong gained more strength every day, at faster and faster rates, like his body refused to lose to the weight of some magical, slightly sentient, metal.

His strength before all the training was 500kg, about 10x his own weight which was around 50kg. But after all this training, he'd improved up to 1500kg of body strength and this was only with 2 and a half months.

Even his Master was completely shocked by this. He knew his disciple's body adapted well, but he didn't think it was to such an absurd degree.

Currently, Fang Xiong was eating some special dishes prepared by his Master. Each dish was full of Vital Energy and was the other reason to why he didn't collapse under the intensity of his training in the past months.

"I'm proud of you, Xiong'er. You've gone above and beyond my expectations during this training," Master Long let out a carefree laugh as he ruffled Fang Xiong's hair. Fang Xiong didn't mind this kind of treatment from his Master anymore, the past 2 months had deepened the bond between them and Fang Xiong was forever grateful of the power his Master had made possible for him to achieve.

"But more importantly, I have some news to tell you," Master Long paused to build up the suspense and get ahold of Fang Xiong's attention.

It worked as Fang Xiong gulped down the rest of the food in his mouth and looked up at his standing Master, "What do you need to tell me, Old man?" while two months earlier, Fang Xiong would've said this in a rude way, the way he said it now was nothing but respectful and even when he said 'Old man' it was an affectionate term.

"The news is that you're ready," he beamed a mysterious smile at Fang Xiong, obviously waiting for him to impatiently reply. He didn't have to wait long.

"Stop playing around, just tell me, Old man!" Fang Xiong huffed as he threw an impatient glance at his Master. Master Long put his hands up in surrender and pulled out a bowl, a ceremonial knife, a bottle of medical cream and a pill from his Spatial Ring.

"Okay, okay, just pass me your hand, Xiong'er, I need some of your blood for the Ceremony," Fang Xiong, trusting his Master, gave him his hand. Master Long quickly sliced it with the ceremonial knife and bloody swiftly spurted out and dripped from the boy's hand and into the bowl.

Fang Xiong barely flinched as the knife cut his hand, knowing the pain would only be temporary. After enough of the bowl was filled up, Master Long picked up the bottle of cream and spread a gallop of it over his students hand with care, an uneasy look in his eyes signifying that he truly disliked hurting his disciple.

"Now, Xiong'er, eat this," he passed him the pill and Fang Xiong took a deep look at it. It was black with golden lines seemingly etched into it and it gave off a weird aura but Fang Xiong did as he was told and ate it.

The pill melted in his mouth and turned into a viscous liquid which crawled down his throat and into his stomach where it reacted quite violently. It spewed out energy into Fang Xiong's body, ripping at everything in it.

But amidst the pain which had blackened his vision, Fang Xiong felt a calm energy enter his chest from the outside.

Despite his vision being practically gone, his hearing was fine, "Xiong'er, I know you're hurting but you have to withstand this otherwise you will never amount to anything in the world of Cultivation! Fight the pain, push through it and rise above it! Pain will never control you, my disciple, never!" hearing the voice, Fang Xiong obviously knew the cool feeling in his chest was his Master injecting Ki into him to help.

But what he said seemed to resonate with both Fang Xiong and the raging energy from the pill.

Fang Xiong steeled himself, his uncle was right. He had to push through the pain and rise above it, he could not allow the pain to hold him down from achieving the power he so desperately needed and it would never control him. So he fought against the pain and completely steeled himself.

The raging energy, however, seemed to have different plans as it got more and more ferocious but the calming energy directed it's ferocious attacks away from anything deemed lethal and made it focus on the cells in Fang Xiong's body.

Each cell was packed full of Vital Energy, so much so that each cell looked like it was ready to burst.

The violent energy seemed oddly tentative to these cells and instead of attacking them, it seemed to cover each and every cell and started to change them.

If every cell could receive Vital Energy, like it had an entrance, and it could slowly exude this Vital Energy into the body through an exit in the cell, then the middle of the cell was pretty much a storage container.

The raging energy from the pill was focusing on this 'storage' part of the cell.

Slowly, the Vital Energy that was in the cell started to be changed by the cell itself. It was compressed and the impurities were expelled as best they could be and the colorless Vital Energy came out the exit of the cell as a golden yellow energy; Ki.

This new energy was a qualitative step-up from Vital Energy but because of that, it couldn't be stored in the cells anymore as it would rip them apart if it forced it's way inside and stayed there.

But his Master's Ki came to the rescue once again. Now that he had Ki, Fang Xiong could clearly look into himself and could see a vast Lion shaped Ki structure guiding his meager amounts of Ki along some invisible veins in his body.

Fang Xiong remembered his Master telling him about these veins, they were called Ki Veins. He could remember what his Master said about them.

"Xiong'er, inside your body, you have invisible veins that allow for the travel of Ki, they're called Ki Veins, as you'd expect. These veins are what connect your body, or in this case the converter of Ki Energy, to the place that stores your Ki, the Middle Dantian," his master paused before pulling out a diagram of the human body and pointing at where the diaphragm was, "The Middle Dantian is there."

He then went on to explain the different Dantians used depending on your Cultivation System. Ki Cultivators like them used the Middle Dantian but Qi Cultivators used the Lower Dantian which was around the naval area of the stomach and Spiritual Users used the Upper Dantian found in a person's head.

Master Long didn't go into any detail about Spiritual Users, calling them cowards in a low voice before telling Fang Xiong to get back to training.

Back in present time, all of the Vital Energy stored in all of Fang Xiong's cells had been converted to a small-ish ball of Ki in his Dantian.

As the Ki Lion was strutting around the ball, seeming to protect it, Fang Xiong heard his uncle speak, "Xiong'er, I'm going to let the ball of Ki go now, you're going to have to let it flow throughout your body and allow it to bring you into the Houtian Realm. Just relax, Xiong'er..." his Master's voice was calm and that told Xiong'er everything was going to plan, so he heeded his Master's advice and relaxed his body.

The Ki Lion dissipated and the collected ball of Ki in Fang Xiong's Dantian started to burst outward and back into his Ki Veins.

Every bit of Fang Xiong's body the energy touched seemed to be enhanced incredibly. The muscles were strengthed and made slightly more compact, the bones were made harder and more durable, his organs and most of his body was washed clean of whatever impurities were on the surface.

Everything was nourished as the Ki washed through the body. Suddenly, Fang Xiong felt a crack ripple throughout his body and then suddenly his Ki returned to his Dantian but slightly bigger and a little bit more pure.

Slowly, Fang Xiong opened his eyes and excitedly stood up.

He'd taken the weights off before they started so he could fully feel his strength at the moment; he felt unstoppable. He stood there and simply flexed his muscles and stretched his body causing satisfying cracks and pops to echo out from him.

Out of nowhere, he felt a massive slapping sound of a hand on his shoulder, "Well done, my son!" Fang Xiong turned to see his father looking down at him with a brilliant smile on his face. Fang Shen looked at his son, who'd finally set on the road of Cultivation as he'd always wanted, with tears welling up in his eyes.

Seeing the pride in his father's smile and the emotional tears in his eyes, Fang Xiong finally felt it settle in; He'd started on the road to becoming powerful like he wanted. He couldn't help but feel tears well up in his eyes and pour down his face, making his delighted smile look odd.

Part of him despised the show of emotion but another part welcomed it as normal for the situation and placated the side that hated such things.

His father saw the joyous tears on his son's face and quickly pulled him into a tight bear hug, "I'm so proud of you, Xiong'er, you stuck with the training through it all. Carry on and one day you'll stand next to me as an equal!" Fang Xiong widened his eyes in shock as his head was buried in his father's chest, he couldn't understand how his father knew his goal.

As if feeling the shock of his son, Fang Shen let out a boisterous laugh, "Haha! My son, how could I not know your goals?!" he continued to laugh before putting Fang Xiong at an arms length and kneeling down to speak to him, "You and Xiao Mei are the most precious things in my life, of course, I'd make it my goal to know your own goals," after he said this he ruffled Fang Xiong's hair again before stepping away from him, only for someone else to take his place.

"You did it, brother!" a lithe figure threw herself at Fang Xiong, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly, "I'm so proud of you, now we can both work to protect one another!" Fang Xiong could tell it was Xiao Mei and put his arms around her to give his assent to her remark, "Mhm," was all he said but it seemed to be enough for Xiao Mei as she backed away skipping, practically on cloud nine.

"Just like them, I'm proud of you as well, my disciple," Master Long got Fang Xiong into a headlock before he ruffled up the boy's hair in a quick manner, "But you can't let this get to your head, okay? There are always people stronger than you in the world, so always work as hard as you can to get stronger, got it?" Fang Xiong, already knowing this simply nodded his head with fervor.

Master Long gave a look to Fang Shen and Xiao Mei which said he wanted to talk to Fang Xiong in private. Both of them saw the look and backed away after saying goodbye to Fang Xiong.

Fang Xiong also saw the look, so he stood opposite his Master and looked at him.

Master Long looked at Fang Xiong with smiling eyes, full of expectations and pride, "My disciple, Xiong'er, like I said before don't get too prideful. It's good to be confident in your own abilities but to be overly-so, is a big no-no," he walked up to Fang Xiong and put his hand on the boy's shoulder, "I wanted to talk to you because after a few more days of training I have to leave and I'm taking your sister with me to drop her off at an Academy."

This revelation caused shock to ripple throughout Fang Xiong's body, a feeling of loss pervading his entire body, like a hole he didn't know he needed full had now been emptied completely.

"W-what? Why are you leaving and why is sister going to an academy?!" his voice cracked as he tried to sound angry but the saddened downward drag on his lips betrayed his facade.

Master Long squeezed the boy's shoulder before replying in a soft voice, "Because I have to get back to the Army, your Master's a pretty big deal there so I can't be away for too long. Two and a half months is already pushing it a little bit," he paused for a nervous laugh, "And your sister is a genius in Qi Cultivation, just like how you are in Ki Cultivation, and she can't be limited by staying here, she has to get out and see the world, Xiong'er."

Fang Xiong understood the reasoning with the usual part that hated emotions telling him she had the right to gain more strength if she wanted and the usually calm side of himself that allowed emotion, felt like being selfish and denying her, her right to gain strength. Fang Xiong felt incredibly conflicted.

Seeing this conflict in his disciple, Master Long consoled him, "Do not worry, Xiong'er, in three years you'll be able to go there and meet her again, and she can come back to visit once every year, so don't worry but more importantly," Master Long's voice got incredibly serious, "Take these three years to thoroughly transform, to become strong enough to stand equal to her and prove yourself."

What he said shook Fang Xiong out of his conflicted state, with both sides of him agreeing that this is what he should do, no, what he needed to do.

"Also, remember, Xiong'er, when you go to this Academy in 3 years time, you're sister will most likely have a reputation, it's your job to make sure you don't sully that reputation," Fang Xiong was shook again. He knew his Master was right, he genuinely couldn't possibly bear to think of damaging his sister's pride. He needed strength to avoid this and he would gain it in the 3 years to come.

"Also remember you can't do anything to bring down my pride or even your father's do you understand?" Master Long didn't care about these things and he doubted that Xiao Mei or Fang Shen would either but from the months he'd spent with his nephew/disciple, he knew for a fact that Fang Xiong held these types of things in high regard. So he only said these things to appeal to that side of Fang Xiong to push him to get stronger.

Fang Xiong looked up at his Master and felt like the weights he trained with were on his body again, he never realized he cared this much for his family until right at this moment. He would never be the weak point people could exploit to get to them, "I understand, Master," Master Long was shocked by his seriousness as shown by him not calling him 'Old man' but hid the shock and nodded his head in satisfaction.

"Good, now let's go get some food, Xiong'er."

With that, both of them walked to the kitchen to go pillage it of all its supplies.