Say whatever about jaded cultivators with billions of years of cultivation, but they also had experience.

Pef wasn't the first student to receive guidance from the Fay Goddess. He wasn't even then tenth or the hundredth. She knew what she was doing, and how far and how fast to push a student.

Of course, it wasn't enough for someone to be a good teacher. The student had to have his own insights and capacity for learning.

As soon as the shock of the burning flames passed, Pef began to focus onto the Dao of Fire, not simply resisting but understanding. The flesh healed and was burned again, only Pef struggled to ignore the distraction and meditate onto the meaning of fire. Temperature, flow and pressure were rather obvious, plus memories of another life, concepts like induction and convection.

Furthermore, under the magical heat of the blue sun, the latent energies of the Universe Pill he ingested for his Tier 5 ascension were also released gradually into his body and meridians, while his soul was slowly purified as if he was himself a pill getting refined in a cauldron.

And while Pef lacked the glove to observe the changes as they happened, a gradual shift did occur. Slowly but surely, the flames became somewhat easier to withstand, and even aided with more insights into the nature of fire. Coincidentally, the Godwine he drank just before was also getting cooked inside himself, releasing Heavenly Laws and proving further insights.

As if a perfect confluence of factors gathered into a single moment and place, Pef opened his eyes and waved a hand gently to guide the flames around. Then a pair of flame wings sprang from his shoulders, and he glided into the blue sun riding thermal currents.

Years passed inside the Sacred Realm as Pef gradually understood the Dao of Fire to the limit, but also inside this realm time wasn't real or even possible.

Events and objects only existed because the Fay Goddess willed them to be, and the same with the blue flames filling the universe right now.

As Pef began to flex his new power over the flames, changing their temperature or color, the woman smiled minutely into her paper fan.

Then, the sun itself changed, becoming a torrent of heat and radiation, an ultraviolet catastrophe of near-infinite potency.

The flames themselves became imbued with a soul, and formed mythological beasts to attack the unwary student.

Pef took a second to re-orient himself to the new reality, then he expanded his Voidshield and released his Voidswords, while summoning water and ice into similar beast shapes to hold the assault at bay. The strategy failed almost instantly, as the water beasts promptly evaporated under the immense heat and pressure of the ultraviolet sun.

Instead, the Voidshield and the Voidsword still worked, so Pef decided to coat both himself and his weapons with the strongest ice he could make. And then a giant melee began, one that constantly depleted Pef's energy and forced him to circulate his qi for recovery.

As time passed, the beasts became stronger and faster, while their attacks became shaper and ranged, launching spines and claws from a great distance. Pef had to dodge as many as he could before they collapsed his Voidshield with sheer numbers.

And yet, the fight continued under the direction of the Fay Goddess as she grinned widely, and kept Creating more and more varied fire beasts.

Was it an unfair fight, between a mere Tier 5 and an nigh-omnipotent Tier 8?

Sure. But in this moment neither of them cared. Pef wanted to become stronger and faster, while the Fay Goddess had fun for the first time in millennia.

As Pef began fusing clones to fight beside him, the Goddess began creating humanoid warriors in army numbers, and kept the clones distracted.

When Pef spoke Words to empower himself and his clones, the Goddess lifted an eyebrow and Created even stronger beasts.

And so, without either of them realizing in the moment, Pef reached the peak of Tier 5, by absorbing the entire residual energy of the Universe Pill, and his combat skill grew even higher. His heart grew and took over the Voidswords as his mind was focused on controlling his clone minions, with divine messengers acting a unit commanders.

That in turn forced his mindforce to expand, and the silver aura covered the stronger minions as they commanded their clones into battle.

Even more powerful flame-beasts emerged to fight them, so Pef began sending out his Avatars, and shooting Voidcutter skills at the stronger adversaries. Immediately, Tribulation clouds began forming in response, and lightning began to fall.

Only then the Fay Goddess realized she wasn't training the Blade Fairy, but a mere Universe Realm cultivator.

She slapped her hands together and the sun and the beasts vanished, and the garden appeared in their place. "Come and rest a bit, Pef Xi. Too much training is not good either."

Pef smiled and summoned some water to clean himself, while disbanding his clone armies and returning the Avatars inside his inner universe.

"We should do this again. It was fun!" he exclaimed as the last tribulations fell onto his Voidshield, while the shield had changed to a form-fitting shape, only a palm away from his body.

.

The shield barely crackled from the strikes, as if the tribulation had become much weaker again. But no, instead he had grown much stronger as did his shield skill.

The goddess created a bench for Pef on the opposing side, and a low table that filled with various pastries and fruits, and a bottle of purple liquid.

Pef sat and hungrily began to wolf down the food, only to find the pastries were made by a Master Cook, perhaps even better than himself. The fruits are rare spirit items that enhanced his mind and spirit, while the purple liquid was some kind of spirit wine, that actually increased his cultivation a bit.

"Good stuff, my lady. I'd say you didn't prepare this yourself." he commented after the table was empty.

The woman nodded regally. "Well, I do have a billion universes of my own. My subjects often send me stuff as offerings. Good stuff sometimes." she remarked with a gleam in her eyes.

Pef nodded wisely. It made sense. He himself offered quite a lot for this training.

"Well, I do feel much stronger already. My mind is tired though." he said with a grateful voice, as he fought against closing his eyes.

"I see. Rest and we'll speak tomorrow then." the woman allowed gracefully then vanished.

Pef just slumped onto the bench and fell asleep. Cultivation was hard, even for a Tier 5.

Much later, he woke up to find the garden and the pagoda still empty. So he took out a Godwine bottle and drank half, then meditated on the new insights.

"Resting your eyes?" he heard a warm voice inquire by his side.

Pef turned to find the Blade Fairy and the Fay Goddess in front of him, looking certainly alike in some ways, although only the Blade Fairy had any visible emotions on display. The Fay Goddess was still a immobile statue that he couldn't even sense she was real. His senses failed to register her presence, although his eyes insisted there was someone there.

"Meditation brings wisdom, Blade Fairy. You should try it, at least once." Pef quipped a bit annoyed.

The Fay Goddess opened her fan and hid behind it, while her eyes gleamed.

"You! Damn it. How dare you embarrass me?" the fairy exclaimed, sounding outraged.

"Why would the truth embarrass you, Blade Fairy?" Pef asked, feigning naivety and shrugging helplessly towards her boss.

The fairy clenched a fist and shook it at Pef wordlessly.

"Amusing as this may be, do try not to provoke your partner, Pef Xi. To complete your Fire Dao I've called her for you to spar. She will use water and you fire. Nothing else." the goddess spoke in her usual level voice, and pointed to the side where an arena had just appeared.

With a huff, the Blade Fairy stepped away and landed on the arena platform.

Pef in turn began to warm up his joints, then stretched his shoulders and back to bring himself in perfect condition for a spar.

The Fay Goddess snorted softly and slammed her palm onto Pef's back, sending him right in the middle of the arena. "If you lose, you have to obey the other for a whole day. Have fun kids!" she commanded as energy walls sprang around the arena and locked the contestants inside.

Both the Blade Fairy and Pef grinned widely as they charged towards each other.