Plip. Plip.

The sound of Sun Jiao's blood and sweat echoed through the chamber as it dropped to the floor. Sun Jiao was breathing heavily and stood behind one of the few pillars that were scattered about the room to assist with combat training.

The rest would only last so long before Doll Po's next attack.

Plip.

As if summoned by the third drop a fist exploded through the pillar sending Sun Jiao tumbling.

He quickly controlled the roll and then dove to the right as Doll Po followed up with a kick that smashed the wall where Sun Jiao had briefly stopped before dodging.

The stone broke apart and temporarily blinded Sun Jiao so when the next attack came he was unable to see it.

Sun Jiao swayed to the right as Doll Po's right fist scratched his face and then threw his own right punch at the doll. Doll Po effortlessly avoided the attack by spinning along Sun Jiaos right arm and used the spinning force to throw a fast left that caught Sun Jiao in the side beneath his outstretched arm.

The force sent Sun Jiao into the far wall creating a small crater. The room shook and the lights flickered. Sun Jiao fell from the wall and landed on all fours.

Without rest he immediately raised his head and straightened his body as the doll's left knee flew through the air where his head had just been. The knee smashed into the wall with a force equal to the first kick and caused stone to fly everywhere.

Sun Jiao had expected this though and closed his eyes. He reached underneath the doll and grabbed the non-attacking foot that the doll was using for support; hoping to catch the doll off guard, he pulled the foot.

As Doll Po fell it kicked off the wall, rolled a short distance, and then exploded up again attacking Sun Jiao with a flurry of punches.

Sun Jiao was able to avoid a few before one caught his shoulder which was followed quickly by another to his head which was further followed by darkness.

When Sun Jiao awoke he felt pain all over his body. He was laying on the cultivation pillow that was set into the wall for cultivating. He closed his eyes and started the healing path that Xiaobo had showed him the first time he woke up in this condition.

Once the healing path went through two cycles it would continue to heal on it's own until the ki was interrupted; either by using another path such as strengthening path or from an outside attack. Once a cultivator reached the second layer then they'd be able to maintain two paths at one time, third layer could use three paths, and so on.

It had been four days since Xiaobo had ordered Doll Po to attack. Sun Jiao had been brutally beaten so many times he had lost count. Every time he was beaten the doll would move his body to the pillow and then return to the center of the room.

Sun Jiao struggled to sit in a cross legged seating position. After every beating Sun Jiao would take this position and begin to absorb the spiritual energy.

He would take a deep breath through his mouth and bring the spiritual energy inside him. From there the energy could be absorbed into his body and then ki. Instead he chose to exhale through his nose which brought the energy close enough for his soul to absorb the spiritual energy.

Most cultivators would then choose between combining the spiritual energy with their Will or use their Will to purify the spiritual energy before combining with it. The soul unfortunately can only absorb a limited amount of spiritual energy each layer. This meant that both options would have their drawbacks.

A cultivator that absorbed vast amounts of spiritual energy is able to use vast amounts of energy during a fight without getting tired. The drawback is that the energy they use won’t be very powerful.

A cultivator that purified their energy would have very powerful attacks, but would be unable to fight for a long time.

Few cultivators would exclusively absorb or purify and instead would split their Will so that they had a fair amount of weak Will which would surround a purified core that they could use for emergencies.

Sun Jiao would use this method as well. The difference between Sun Jiao and other cultivators was Xiaobo.

As the spiritual energy entered his soul, Sun Jiao quickly went about purifying as much possible. He was given the time it takes to blink before Xiaobo's will slammed into Sun Jiaos soul and viciously ripped out the useless energy that hadn't been purified.

When a cultivator purifies spiritual energy the 100% pure energy is absorbed in the Will becoming pure Will power, but the impure and useless energy remains in the soul and cannot be used with Will. This useless energy is what fills the soul up and prevents a cultivator from having a large amount of pure energy.

Sun Jiao was able to processes and purify about half the spiritual energy he absorbed. This meant that one half of the spiritual energy would be 65 to 75 percent pure while the other half would be 35 to 45 percent pure.

The impure half of the spiritual energy was ripped away by Xiaobo and discarded. Because useless energy cannot interact with Will directly Xiaobo would let the useless energy flow into one half then drag the useless energy out of the soul by interacting with the 35-45 percent good energy that mixed with useless energy.

This meant with every breath Sun Jiao would absorb half the amount of spiritual energy a normal cultivator would, but that energy was purified by 65-75 percent. Sun Jiao would then be able to choose if he wanted to absorb or purify it further.

The reason Sun Jiao didn't purify it more before Xiaobo removed it was because spiritual energy will combine with the soul almost immediately and then it cannot be removed. Xiaobo only had a brief moment to pull out the useless energy.

Sun Jiao continued absorbing spiritual energy and chose to combine it with his Will rather than purify it further. For now Sun Jiao's soul needed to play catch-up with his body which meant absorbing the energy quickly.

Before his body was finished healing fully Sun Jiao could no longer absorb the spiritual energy as his soul was to damaged. Each time Xiaobo ripped out the useless half of energy it would cause massive amounts of spiritual pain and damage his soul slightly. Once the damage built up to just before the point it couldn't recover Xiaobo would stop and give Sun Jiao a rest.

Sun Jiao would then focus his Will on recovering his soul. The small cultivation room that contained the pillow was a special room that increased both physical and mental recovery as well as spiritual absorption. Sun Jiao was a bit surprised at that, but Xiaobo said that a prince would definitely have access to better cultivation tools including such a beneficial room. And beneficial it was; even with only keeping half of absorbed spiritual energy with the room's assistance he was still able to absorb three times the amount a normal cultivator could.

Not only was the small cultivation room special but the training room was also unique in that any damage would slowly repair. By the time Sun Jiao woke up the room was already in perfect condition. Even the blood stains were cleaned which had amusingly infuriated the previous Sun Jiao who liked torture and the sight of blood.

For the past four days Sun Jiao would spend the length of time it takes for a stick of incense to burn trying to survive Doll Po's attacks, then spend the length of time it takes for a two hour movie to finish absorbing spiritual energy, and the time it took to drink a cup of tea recovering his soul and body.

The first few times fighting had been a nightmare, but Sun Jiao soon found that his body already knew how to fight due to muscle memory. That first experience of his body flowing to avoid an attack and the fights from the arena continued to drive him forward and gave him the strength to endure Xiaobo's brutal training methods.

As Sun Jiao's body finished recovering he began to stand, but was stopped when Xiaobo spoke up.

Sun Jiao moved his Will to his dantian and after combining his ki tried to bring it to his fist, but after leaving the dantian lost control of the ki. He tried several times and after a couple more tries finally maintained control of the ki as it left the dantian.

When he moved it to his fist his fist was covered with black ki.

Sun Jiao stood up and clenched his black ki covered fist in front of him. With a smile on his face he thought to himself; 'Time to get my revenge. Damn doll I hope you're ready.'

Side Story.

Desolation. All that was left of Jia Cho's family was himself. The beetle king lineage ended with him. The self proclaimed beetle god Ji Chu had pulled out the root to kill the weed, but BK was no weed and would not die. He swore upon the graves of his family that he would get his revenge and show the world that even a god can bleed. And if a god can bleed then it can kneel and it will kneel before THIS king!

As BK turned he saw before him the 9 ninja assassin ladybugs that serve as bodyguards to the garden's ruler. These ladies were as deadly as they were sexy. BK's eyes wandered over their smooth red elytra with perfectly shaped dots and long gorgeous black legs and shuddered. It would be a shame to kill them, but he must have his revenge on the beetle god. With a roar that shook the heavens he rushed forward only to find the beautiful temptresses kneeling before him with their wings spread wide as if to say MY KING WE WILL SERVER ONLY YOU! BK shook his head and a single manly tear fell from his eye. How could he have doubted the loyalty of these women who had guarded him for so long?