Two day’s later, Rinrin and Ning both sat down on the Harpy together but were quiet. A small throb could be felt in their body so neither had the strength to care about bickering.

They soon arrived at a large town which was the inner sect city. Similar to the outer sect city here the city was controlled directly by the sect and all the more important structures were found here. All the rare materials and resources were also sold here for a much higher price than before and equally the school here was grander and the two arrived and landed in front of this school.

Inner sect disciple robes were pure white with gold trims. At this moment, the two had this kind of robe and although they looked impressive as a couple there was a strange gloominess around them and although they were quite clean they had a ragged appearance.

They walked slowly and soon reached the class that was their’s and walking into it and sat down. At once Ning felt too tired and let his whole body drop down on the table.

The inner sect Rider move in their pairs. Usually the main wife and husband will study and train together but other times it didn’t matter so Rinrin and Ning were sitting together which drew many eyes.

“Lift your head up idiot. You're making me look bad.” She mumbled.

“Shut… up.” Ning mumbled half asleep.

Seeing him with his head down very quickly the small bit of strength she had slowly gave way to envy of laying down and soon she could only lift her arms and cross them on the table as a pillow for herself to keep from looking so ridiculous.

Many people were wondering what was going on with the pair that had drawn so much attention to themselves. Still, no one had the courage to go up and ask. Of course in the class were many admirers of Rinrin and seeing the boy so easily degrading her image as her pair they slowly began to lose their patience but as the door opened the person who walked in was Guo Tian and behind him was a young girl with light blue hair and sapphire eyes. She held an air of being a noble among nobles so she disregarded everyone except until she saw the first seat at the back were the familiar silky white hair was spread out over the girl.

“Sister Rinrin?” She called.

There was no reply.

“Rinrin? The dull headed girl? Then that means the guy next to her is the idiot.” Guo Tian instantly called out with insults causing rage to burst.

“YOU OF THE GUO CLAN! SAY THAT AGAIN!?” Roared one of the people who revered Rinrin as a goddess.

“Oh? You want to command I, your father. Know your place.” Guo Tian arrogantly said.

There was tension in the room but the girl with blue hair simply walked up and shook the white haired girl who slowly turned her head. “Sister Ru Lei… do you need something?” She asked in a tired voice.

“What happened to you?” Ru Lei asked.

Rinrin shivered and slowly stood up and held her head before pointing at Ning, “His mother happened. S-she is a demon…” She said with a trembling voice.

“Demon? What do you mean?!” Ru Lei asked worried.

“Do you remember the drill exercise we saw father watch over once at the royal army?” She asked. “The one where father himself walked down and trained the Drill instructors themselves?”

“I do, it was very scary as father increased his pressure as the ‘weights’ for the men to do their exercise.” She said.

“Now imagine a peerless beauty in father's place with a wooden sword, acting like father mixed with all the drill instructors times five and imagine her striking your butt if you slow down.” Rinrin said and lowered her head. “That’s what happened.” Her muffled voice shouted.

“You're complaining about army rank training. Did you not do body training already, it can’t be that bad since you’ve done it once yet you're complaining about it. So pathetic.”

Unlike before Ning twitched to this and they both sat up and looked straight at him. It was then that they noticed Ning’s eyes but that was explained by the demon beast he had. Until it becomes a Demon Core beasts he can’t hide these traits that formed.

“Stupid.” Ning said.

“You can’t even last half a day.” Rinrin said right after.

“The first thing mother would do is break your pride into a thousand pieces and then seal your Qi and make you train like an army grunt like she is doing to all the servants so they can go through hell and back to do their jobs. After mother breaks you then she will rebuild you and break you so many times you won’t remember what kind of person you were before.” Ning said.

“You two seem pretty close now?” Ru Lei said. She had heard about how they acted.

The two lowered their heads again, “We don’t have the energy to bicker. She is dull headed but I really don’t care since I just want to rest.” Ning said.

“He is vulgar and stupid while Guo Tian is retarded and annoying and like Ning I want to rest so please give us some time we haven’t slept or meditated in two days.” Rinrin said.

After a moment, the soft sound of breathing as the two completely collapsed into the realm of sleep was heard and completely amazed them all. They looked from one another and began to chat.

“You think their training is that heavy? Aren’t they genius, why would they train so hard to the point of collapse? They have twice the result for half the effort with their talent so why push it?”

“I know, I wonder if something will happen?” Another one asked.

Guo Tian had twitching brows and a frown, “Let's find a seat before class.” he said and walked away.

Ru Lei blinked curiously since she only knew of the arrogant boy yet now she saw a strange side of him when it came to these two. She has been paired with him for two days now but she only ever saw this arrogant side of him but never expected this kind of change.

Still she walked over and sat in the seat next to him and called out her two beasts. A Fire Bird and a Black Lion. Her first beast was the Black Lion, it is a Profound Beast with Low Success Xiantian potential while the Firebird was a had potential of reaching 12th level of Small Solid core. The difference between the 12 levels of the first three realms in the mana system and the Qi system is that every 3 levels is equivalent to 1 in the Qi system. But that changes when the Magi reaches the 4 Inner Mantle Oceans. The power magnifies becoming at least several times stronger but growing stronger also becomes several times harder. The necessary procedure of infusing the Mantle Oceans with comprehended Magic runes is a unique and tedious process because one needs to have high levels of comprehension towards the runes to be able to properly infuse them.

The two had yet to acquire a third beast but because Guo Tian has two Profound Beasts and she has a magic beasts, she would get another Profound Beast while he would get a Magic beasts.

At this moment the teacher walked in and looked around, “Get in your seats. As you brat’s can see, we have a new student, Miss Zhao Rinrin’s partner Bo Ning.” He said looking at the boy and girl with their head down but neither seemed to be moving. His brows furrowed since normally the disciple would stand upon being called. “Hey! Wake up!” He roared. Slowly Ning shifted his face to look forward and raised his hand, “Disciple… Bo Ning present… sir.” He said and his arm fell down and curled around his head as he tried to block the light.

The teacher’s face began to twitch as he saw the sight of this, this was bluntly disrespecting him. Although he is the little Zhao princesses partner they still haven’t cultivated once and their relationship was bad as he had heard.

“I SAID WAKE UP!” He roared and slammed his fist down.

At that moment a cold bloodlust came from the back seat making them all feel cold inside. Slowly Ning sat up and stood up and looked at the teacher, “Esteemed teacher… I have not meditated or slept in the last two days. I am unable to completely sleep and am always half alert even in my sleep due to my mothers training, I request that you go ahead with class because neither I or her are in any condition to continue moving around and every time we wake up it slow down our recovery time even more. I request you please… Shut! UP!” Ning roared the last two works with no hint of respect because he was currently in the most horrible mood possible and there was only one other time he was like that which was during the two years when his mother had kept him from sleeping two months to train his alertness.

He sat down once more and laid his head down and the cold bloodlust vanished as soon as his head hit the table and this time no one dared to wake them up including the teacher even if it was regarded as disrespect. He wasn’t dim witted to realize that some people would do unorthodox training while some suffered such treatment against their wills from a master. Which old timer hasn’t been trained to be alert in their sleep. For him, two days without sleep isn’t anything but if he were under constant threat it would keep him winded so much that it would be mentally exhausting and after a week he would be suffering from insomnia. For these weaker students it goes without saying that two days is indeed a limit.

He coughed, “I-if that is so then we shall begin class. Just make sure you at least listen.” He said and Ning casually waved his arms showing he was at least listening.

Since it was such the teacher began with class.

***

“What! Did I hear right!? My Rinrin was put through this!” Zhao Xin Tiao shouted as she listened to the servant she sent to watch over the villa.

“Yes madam, the mother of the boy is incredibly cruel during her training of them and the servants and could even teach the drill instructors of the Royal army several things.” the servant said.

The woman’s face twitched as she heard the words from the servants. She didn’t know if it was an insult or a compliment but she did know the army as a place where commoners would become strong any with enough talent to go to the army would be pushed to their limit to reveal their potential.

“Where is this witch!” Zhao Xin Tiao asked.

“She is training the servants in sword arts at this time. Recently she has recruited at least 40 Orange color talents and 10 Yellow who accepted as a means to come to the inner sect but under servant contract meaning they would lose the status of disciple and would servant towards the young miss and the boy.” the servant said.

This caused Xin Tiao to be shocked, “Why is she recruiting disciples of low talent?” She asked.

“Previously there was no protection that the young miss had created since recruiting was harder. Their villa has virtually no security trained by themselves so due to the caution of the mother she has begun to train guards as a means to improve the security and make it harder for rivals and enemy from attacking the young miss and her son.” the servant said.

This cooled down Xin Tiao’s head as she realized this point. Two people of high talent, of course there would be jealous people. The boy himself already had some enmity simply for being paired with Rinrin while she would also have some people who would want the boy for themselves.

“What does miss wish to do?” the servant asked.

The woman thought a while, “Keep watching them, also make sure to monitor the growth of the two, I want to know how much this cruel training method affects my little Rinrin both physically and mentally.” She said.

With a bow the servant walked out.

***

“Ah that feels good!” Ning laughed as he quickly ate the food that the servants had prepared for their break time. That said, it was already time to return home.

“How could you two idiots sleep through all the classes?!” Guo Tian asked.

“I was only half asleep, I heard everything.” Ning said through bites.

“I have long since been trained my alertness.” Rinrin said eating quick but maintaining an elegant manner.

“Seriously, what kind of training did you guys do?” Ru Lei asked curiously.

Ning and Rinrin looked at each other with food in their mouth and Ning finished his mouthful first before he looked at them. “First she would make us run with a 200 kilo boulder on our backs without allow us to connect to our Dao Beasts, we are also under her Xiantian level pressure while we run. Then we need to train our swords arts while trying to use and perfect our knowledge of the Natural Laws of Wind and Ice for combat. We would have to fight the butlers or mother who are all experienced sword fighters at the Xiantian realm and then we would have to undergo basic exercises while having huge weights and the pressure of mother and the butlers. All that mixed make our bones creak under the pressure and feels like our organs are going to rupture. For me though it works out for my body refining art and she started something similar with her own Earth type beast.” Ning said.

“So in other words your bodies are being dragged through the mud to reforge them?” Guo Tian asked in shock. “I still don’t see what is hard about it?” he said.

“Why don’t you come over and see then?” Ning asked with a grin.

The two look at each other and shrug, “Alright we will go as well.” They both nodded. It was free training anyway so why not?

The two finished their food and packed everything up before all four headed to Ning’s house.

Arriving they walked in to find the servants all under the grueling hell training. The actual maids and butlers are smaller training periods but they have more efficient training made to aid their jobs and cultivate bodies that would make their movements more refined. As for the others that were suffering heavier training, these were the recruited guards that Bo Rei wanted.

“Mother, this is Guo Tian and Zhao Ru Lei our classmates, they wanted to feel a day of your serious training because even when we explained it they didn’t believe it was really hard.” Ning said.

“Oh, Guo Tian I think I remember hearing about you. You’re friends with my son, I am Bo Rei. Miss Zhao Ru Lei it’s a pleasure to meet you. I want to ask, are you really sure about doing this? I don’t hold back when I start training someone, you can ask any of them behind me.” She said.

“I thank miss Bo for her concern but I came to feel this myself, if it is a challenge then it would be a good chance for me to test my limit.” She said.

Guo Tian just listened and watched the servants who were sweating until the ground was moist.

“Ning, you and Rinrin can go meditate and do regular training today. Also Ning refine your items. The effects should cause substantial growth.” She said.

“Yes mother.” He said and walked into the villa with Rinrin.

They were wondering what ‘refine’ meant but they didn’t have time to ask, “Someone take these two and dress them in training gear.” Bo Rei said.

The two were lead inside and changed.

Inside Rinrin was looking at Ning curiously, “What did your mother mean by refine your items?” Rinrin asked.

“Have you ever heard of mystical arts to slowly improve an already existing item?” Ning asked.

“Yes but those are secrets kept for elders.” She said.

At this moment the medical garden appeared, “Feel the space and tell me how big it is.” Ning asked.

Rinrin looked at him strangely and touched the tree and felt the flow. “19 acres.” She said.

“Right, I bought this with 5 acres.” Ning said and stored the medical garden.

The girl’s eyes slowly widened and she froze but when she saw him about to enter the room she ran over, “Let me see how you refine!” She said. To be able to refine items is a dream of many people, it would allow them to slowly make unique items using a small base like weak items which would slowly grow with them.

Ning didn’t stop her, for him to grow strong she would need to grow strong as well and this garden would also be used by her anyway so it didn’t matter.

They walked in and after preparing the space he called out the three Dao Beasts. Ning connected to them and with the three laying down in front of him he pulled out the medical garden once more and breathed in deeply before sending out his Spiritual Sense and shrouded the garden and he began to quietly chant and began to make hand seals. From the bodies of the three Dao Beasts energy flowed forming three streams of energy which passed through the flower pot and tree. It passed it completely refining the pot and earth with the Earth energy, the green energy passed through the tree cleaning the impure air and when the blue energy passed through it the garden trembled and the mystical runes that created the little space began to undergoing a quantitative change. Small changes and movements began to appear in the pot and slowly the slightly dry earth began damp and the tree leaves became slightly more vibrant.

After a half an hour the pot had formed several new runes and slowly a mist was starting to form around the pot like a cloud and it left both of the children in wonder.

Finally he finished refining and when he finished he pulled it near and felt the garden. “What!? It upgraded to Peak Grade Common!” He shouted. He was wondering what had happened and began to look over the entire pot.

“Lets see inside.” Rinrin said.

With a nod they entered.

When they stepped foot inside they found that the garden had expanded from 19 acres to 50. Not only that but the medical hill had grown from 50 meters high to 75 meters high and it had formed a few craggy cliffs giving unique footholds for different herbs.

Small streams began to form all along the garden and in the sky there was small clouds. He was wondering what was going on, “Wow I there was such a huge growth! It's already at 50 acres! Also the Elemental Balance in this place is really good!” Rinrin shouted.

“Elemental Balance?” Ning muttered.

“You don’t know? So stupid, and here you say you listen to class.” She sneered.

“Just explain it! Oh wait, a dull headed idiot like you wouldn’t know anything.” Ning said.

“Hmph!” She pouted. “Elemental Balance is when the five basic elements, Wind, Water, Earth, Fire and Lightning are balanced. Usually it needs a balance to make a really good item so when items like these are made, even small ones, it needs a runic formation to gather the Elemental Energy to fuel a stable the formation.” She said.

“Ah so that is why! With the addition of Zero I have three of the five elements since ice is under the water element.” Ning realized.

“Also the herbs seem to have grown a bit.” Ning muttered as he walked to some of the two year old sprouts yet they had reached the size of a 50 year herb already.

“Treasure refining, AH! Why does your mother know something like that!?” Rinrin shouted.

“Don’t know, let's leave I need to refine my swords as well. They are Low Grade Mortal rank and I want have been refining them for almost a year now.” He said.

With a thought they left the garden and appeared in the room again and he stored the medical garden and took out the twin swords that looked like fish fins. Tora reacted towards them and began to float around them while hissing every so often.

Ning began the refining and similar to before the energy came from the bodies of the three and it passed through the swords. The three energies mixed in and slowly the fin blade began to experience some changes. The previously transparent blades began to change to a light green while near the back blunt side of the sword was a darker brown and the very edge of the blade was a cold white. Soon these changes slowly faded and it returned to what it was before by the profound makeup of the sword had changed with the icy cold touch at the tip followed by the swiftness of the wind element while the earth element fit in right after making the blades stronger. Ice cold for cutting, wind for speed, earth for strength. The entire blade seem to release a stronger aura as they finished.

“Wow, this improved the blade to the Peak of Low Grade.” Ning said. He then looked at Tora and felt his fin a moment, “Seems this sword was made from the fin of a Flying Tiger Fish and it affected Tora a bit making his fins slightly more blade like. No wonder the sword art combines with his own movements.” Ning said.

“Hey can you teach me that?” Rinrin asked.

“Ask my mother to teach you, she taught me so ask her.” Ning said.

She pouted but stayed sitting and watched him take out a small pill cauldron and do the refining as well. This was previously an Low Grade Common Rank cauldron but since he had gained all those points before he had gone to the blacksmithing and equipment refining hall and purchased a few profound metals of slightly higher grade and after lighting a fire he fed Qi and melted the metals before he began to penetrate the cauldron. He used his Spiritual Force and found faults and filled and replaced the old metal in weak spots and then refined the cauldron. At this moment it was at the High Grade Common rank.

“Qi like flame, Qi like flame…” Ning muttered and slowly his Qi from the two began to gather at his finger tip which began to brighten. There was no elemental influence like normal and slowly a shining flame formed as his finger time. “This is hard.” Ning said before he pointed out and sent that small flame below the cauldron.

“You can make Qi flame!” Rinrin said in shock.

“It’s really weak and low quality by mother has helped me make my a spark for both Tora and Tyrant but they aren’t compared to making my own. A wind flame and earth flame from Dao Beasts is hard to control without a lot of training.” He said and from the space bag he retrieved an ingot of silver metal and one of black metal.

“Black Iron and Profound Silver. What are you doing?!” She asked.

“Cauldron refining needs materials.” He said simply and sent the two of them inside the cauldron. He began to send in Qi to the flame and slowly it grew stronger and he sent his Spirit Sense into the cauldron. He startled to see everything heat up and slowly the two metals melted and began to gather at the center of the cauldron and mix.

Black Iron and Profound Silver where Qi infused metals and when mixed they make a very strong alloy.

The two ingots were enough to fill several important faults caused by low quality materials that the cauldron was made from. Slowly he began to heat it up even more and melted the metals while the cauldron slowly heated up and the spirit runes began to appear.

This was the moment he was waiting for and feeling the ball of molten alloy he slowly pulled a small trace towards one side and as it touched the walls it seemed to melt into the walls and steam began to rise and popping could be heard as the metal slowly spread through that area.

Slowly small bubbles of alloy spread all over entering almost every section of the cauldron and merging with the cauldron.

At this time Ning kept heating and startled the refining process. It was only under intense heat that cauldrons would be able to be refined because it was when the Spirit Runes were revealed and active.

The Qi and Infernal Energy with the elemental powers flowed in and out of the cauldron slowly changing the black cauldron towards a greenish brown but half way through ice energy started to merge with the profound alloy and suddenly countless impure metals and other impurities began to burn up making a smelly smoke which made Rinrin open the window but as they watched the greenish brown cauldron turned Jade White while the runes shined brightly before settling down and the Qi flame extinguishing while the cauldron remained floating for a moment before it landed on Ning’s hand.

He had a smile as he looked at it “Profound Silver and Black Iron has a surprising affinity to the ice element and completely merged without impurities. The cauldron can be called a Silver Iron Jade Cauldron now.” He smiled.

“Let me see that!” Rinrin jumped over and grabbed the cauldron and looked at it examining it with her Spiritual Sense. “Isn’t it at the Peak Grade now!?” She shouted startled.

“Seems elemental balance and my recent breakthroughs had a big change but I guess the materials I used helped out. Cauldrons are probably the easiest to refine but I need to refine pills more often to increase the medical energy it gathers inside.” He said.

“Do you know how to make pills as well!?” Rinrin was shocked.

“Nope, mother makes some for me but never taught me. I really do want to learn though.” He said waving his hand and the cauldron floated up towards him before he stored it in the spatial pouch.

“Done.” Ning sighed.

The three who were laying down let out roars and released their auras and stretched and Rinrin looked at it furrowing her small brows. “Their aura seems slightly stronger than before?” She said.

“Yeah, refining uses their aura and it purifies it a bit with each use improving the quality.” Ning said and turned to the door.

Rinrin ran out quickly pushing Ning out of the way. “Hurry I want to see if I can learn that as well!” She said excited and Ning shook his head and infused a bit of Qi before taking a few steps which hopped several meters each time and quickly caught up.

They soon exit and what they find is Guo Tian and Ru Lei in a sorry state while Bo Rei was grinning while the two slowly did squats with extremely pained expressions.

They walked over and the two looked at them with eyes asking for help but the two just looked at them with eyes that said, ‘I told you so.’

“Miss! Please teach me Treasure refining!” Rinrin shouted out loud.

Bo Rei looked at her in shock by her boldness, “You watched Ning? Ah well of course you did, I guess you being his Main Wife and Dao Companion I can teach you for his sake.” She said.

“Really!?” Rinrin said with sparking eyes.

Following that Bo Rei smiled which made Rinrin freeze because she had developed an instinctive fear of her smiles not knowing if it was good or bad.

“Alright, I will teach you and even more, I will teach you a more advanced form after you learn the first one.” She said but held up a few fingers. “But under conditions, first, you properly call me Mother in law or simply mother and second, you must quickly put out of your little head of ignoring Dao Couple cultivation with my son.” She said.

“Eh?!” Rinrin muttered before very slowly a blush began to spread and even on the many girls it also spread. “Mother! What is this about!? You’re pushing her to do that!” Ning shouted.

“Why would I not? Riders slow down greatly and have a hard time advancing after reaching any stage equivalent to High Success Houtian. The second condition is also a requirement for the advanced form since it is a Dao Couple treasure refining method where you both will work together and get more results.” She said.

Ning’s jaw dropped and could looked at Rinrin who was blushing from the tip of her ears down to the base of the neck.

Bo Rei laughed, “You children really don’t know the first thing about Dao Couple cultivation for Riders. The most basic stage is simply connecting the meridians on the hands which is why the new Rider equipment don’t block the hands anymore.” Bo Rei said. “Only later on will anything like ‘that’ happen.”

At the mention of it, all the exercising men and women suddenly lost their concentration and fell apart in their training and Bo Rei giggled seeing this scene.

“I’ll let you think about it, Ning tell me how the refining went?” She asked.

Ning walked over and whispered the results while his face and ears were red. A smile spread on her face, “Good, it will take some time for this but now we need to start finding higher quality herbs, if we can find truly rare herbs then just their presence can upgrade the garden. Alright, at 50 acres pests should also begin forming so we will need some guards from now on.” She said.

“What do I need to do to make it into an Ungraded Mortal rank medical garden?” Ning asked.

“Mortal rank starts at 75 acres, you're a little far from it but if you need to know than refining alongside ‘someone’ would help resolve that quickly. Well there is no hurry. Considering the increase in size we should now go buy many seeds and herbs to replant and with your cauldron as it is all it will take is training and you should be making pills soon.” She said.

“Eh? So I will be making pills now!” Ning blinked in surprise.

“Yes, there is 3 days of school and the rest is open time so once it reached an open day then both of you should go and register with the Pill refining hall and start learning pill refining. It will be a good place for both obtaining herbs and learning to refine them properly. We just need for you, Rinrin to make a Qi flame spark and it will save you ten years of studying since someone of high ranking will most likely take you both. With your talents it wouldn’t be long until you learn the basics.” She said.

“U-um… m-mother… p-please teach me the basic refining first… the other one I will still think about it.” Rinrin said.

Bo Rei giggled, “Everyone you can rest for one hours, you two as well. Ning keep them company while I teach Rinrin.” She said.

Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief as they relaxed their bodies slumping down.

Ning smiled wryly as the little girl was taken away by the demon in human form. Ning turned towards Guo Tian and grinned victoriously, “So… still think it's easy?”

Guo Tian paled and shook his head, “I-I feel like I will have nightmares.” He muttered and shook his head while breathing in deeply and sat to meditate to calm his mind.

“This is… intense.” Ru Lei said and sighed and looked at Ning with pity. He scratched his head to that look not knowing if it was good or not. “What was the refining thing that Rinrin was talking about?” She asked.

“Oh that…” He muttered and took out a cauldron and handed it to her. “This was bought when it was Low Grade Common rank.” He said and the two looked at the pill cauldron and began to examine it.

“How did you buy a pill cauldron made of Silver Iron?” She asked. “This would cost at least 2500 contributions points because its Peak Grade Common rank. Wait… refining as in upgrading treasures! You can do that! Then the Dao Couple thing she said means…”

“My mother probably knows a way for Dao Couples to refine together. That is all.” He said and took the cauldron back.

“So there are things like that. I was expecting it to be something for elders to know.” He said.

“That is something the elders hide, don’t know why but there do exist treasure refining arts… probably.” Ning said. “Let's go inside and have some tea to rest.” Ning said and the two gladly accepted leaving the hellish training ground and get some real rest before they were dragged back to it once more.