In tow with several reluctant friends, Kairos made it to the mountain that Tommy had been training.

When Tommy first found out that his wounds had not healed properly and cultivation had dismissed, he was devastated. However, before he could give in to despair, his friends would not give up on him, and it is only because of them that he could keep trying. But, to acquire a powerful body like the Dharma Constitution isn’t easy.

When Tommy saw the mountain, he couldn’t help shuddered as his face turned pale.

Because of his cultivation resetting each time he reaches a new stage, he has already attained F rank twice, E rank thrice, and is now starting anew towards D rank.

Each time he lost his cultivation, the pain is as excruciating as the first time, and he has to face this again and again till he returns to B rank. He tolerated the pain of his Dantian breaking repeatedly and gritted his teeth, even risking his life, through the gruelling physical training. It was agonising, but he could feel with tremendous elation that incredible changes were indeed happening within him. His suffering was grinding away weaker parts in him to forge new and stronger flesh that could push him towards greater heights; better than before he was injured.

Considering the time he spent, his speed of cultivation is unbelievably fast, but because of his frequent restarts, no one noticed it yet. Of course, if someone did, it would become a huge issue, because no one in the empire had the talent for such an accomplishment. No matter if it is spirit pills or training equipment, it is nigh impossible to skip through cultivation ranks this fast. It is only made possible because Tommy had gone through the ranks before, and more importantly, thanks to the aid of Kairos’ Crystal Valve training grounds and the draconic blood he consumed.

At the foot of the mountain, Kairos took out several metal jackets that no one had seen before and handed them to his friends.

Each of those items was exceptionally compact despite how lithe they looked.

Among the five, Kairos’ metal jacket weighs the heaviest, followed by Tommy’s, Alan’s, Edward’s, and finally Jim’s – in accordance to their physical rank.

On the back is a strange sigil, but when the boys saw it, many shuddered.

“That looks familiar,” Jim said innocently.

“Isn’t that…,” Alan asked with apprehension.

“Yep. The Starfire rune,” Kairos answered with a deathly smile.

“No way I’m wearing that,” Edward took a step back. They had practised the Starfire formation countless times to know what it does: to set one’s flesh and blood on fire from within.

Tommy took it without a word and put it on as the others looked at him with wide-eyes, but he only returned them with an encouraging nod. If he couldn’t trust Kairos in his training methods, then he wouldn’t have been willing to go through all the pain so far.

Kairos explains, “Don’t worry, I’ve altered the sigil so that you won’t die…,” then he added with a whisper, “at most you’ll only be half dead.”

The others smiled at first, then paled when they heard the second part. Even Tommy blanched, but by now it is already too late. He could already feel the Starfire rune latching onto his Ki, and flames flowing into his veins. The Starfire array never needed help to burn their opponents into cinders, since the victims themselves will feed the fire with their internal energy.

Next, Kairos, the evil boss of Snowdrifts, mercilessly took out another set of tools. Five mining picks.

With a glance, they knew it is the same one he took from the inscription class, the super heavy pick with a splitting-enhancement rune.

“Do you know, there is an exceptionally rare ore deep within this mountain?”

“Boss… what torture are you planning?” Edward protested.

“Heh heh heh heh…”

“Oh dear,” Alan sighed.

“Can I still back out now?” even Tommy asked aghast.

“Someone grab Jim back. If we gonna die, let's die together.”

A while later the five of them were climbing up the mountain like geckos while searching for the ore.

To ensure they have the motivation, Kairos secretly invited Luciette, Snow, Sasha and Leaf over and handed them a small bundle each for them to open they think one of the boys were slacking. Then, to be fair, he left another package on the ground for himself.

When the first two girls arrived, Edward and Tommy paled respectively. But when the next two girls came, Alan and Jim pretended to be indifferent, only to be met with a snort by Kairos, saying, “Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

The two girls in question, Sasha and Leaf, instantly blushed, while Alan and Jim started explaining themselves.

Of course, the moment the boys left, the girls opened up all the bundles.

Within it they found commemorative portraits of each boy; the traditional painting to commemorate those who passed away.

At first, it raised their eyebrows because they couldn’t tell what Kairos’ intention is, but when they saw the paintings, all of them burst out laughing.

Tommy’s portrait shows him lying face flat on the ground and his swelling butt in the air. Leaf and Snow recognised it immediately and explained how it came about to the rest.

It was during the mock battlefield examination when Tommy defended the East Hill from the Orcs by himself as the rear guard. He retreated last after everyone had safely pulled back behind the barricades in the Hill Base, but unfortunately, his friends left too small a gap for him, and he was stuck waist-down. Eventually, he managed to enter, but with the help of an enemy. An Orc War Chief sent him hurling in with a kick on his behind.

It saved his life, but the rearguard failed to guard his own rear and fainted.

Likewise, Jim and Alan’s commemorative portraits were from the same incident. After Tommy woke up, he ensured the two culprits changed species. Their paintings were their faces swollen to the point that they perfectly mimic the Pig-head Man-Beast.

And then, there is Edward’s portrait, a sight that no one except his brothers had seen before. A drooling face with eyes half opened and his hair a mess, but the most astonishing part is the adorable teddy he is holding on to while he sleeps.

An item he saved from his old home, the Alfonso mansion.

When the girls saw this, they all breathed out sighing, “aww…”

Somehow, Luciette started blushing at this point, and she naively asked, “D…does… does it mean that I was called here because… Edward likes me?”

The other girls became even more embarrassed by her question and replied her with stuttering words. Leaf and Sasha had not known anything about this beforehand, in fact, those two boys, no, pig-heads, did not even show any interest.

Kairos is the only one who secretly grinned, thinking, “That’s all I can do for you, brothers.”

The girls opened the last bundle, extremely curious now about Kairos’ portrait. The infallible leader, the prodigy.

How would he appear in his portrait?

What they found were not one, but many paintings of him. Commemorative Portraits can be a face painting, a full-body painting, or a series of pictures. There are no actual set of rules on how one remembers those who passed.

The portraits were all drawn by his brothers.

The first painting of Kairos was him facing off Orcs, unsmiling.

The second is a picture of him being hugged by other members of Snowdrifts, unsmiling.

The third is a picture of him getting first in class, unsmiling.

The fourth is a picture of him defeating Calculus, still unsmiling.

It all but seemed to be a piece of important memories to him and nothing unusual until they reached the fifth picture and all of them burst out laughing. In a painting of Kairos raiding the Phrixus Treasury, the stoic and infallible leader has an unsightly grin – so wide that they couldn’t believe his face could stretch that much. His eyes are drawn so brightly that they seemed like shimmering coins and both of his hands are full with Time-space rings, but he continued to reach for another.

“This is proof! Our boys are following the wrong guy.”

“Well, they are really frightened of poverty.”

“In that case, maybe they are following after the perfect guy?”

They burst out into peals of laughter.

The boys tried using their inner strength but despaired to find out that the stupid metal jacket prevented them from drawing power from their Dantian.

Just wearing a weighted vest and carrying a giant mining pick made of Heavy Mountain Iron is hard enough, but climbing up the mountain without Ki made things almost impossible.

They could still use Origin Infusion, but unless things were desperate, they dared not squander such slow-recovering energy. Of course, this is precisely as Kairos planned.

It was a hell’s training session, but everyone was exceptionally serious. At least, they had plenty of motivation if they don’t want to die of shame, or … just die.

As the five heaved themselves up the near vertical mountain, they struggled with trembling bodies like leaves shaking in the wind. Fortunately, this isn’t their first time, and they are familiar with the terrain. Although the boys had not discussed it beforehand, they often show up to accompany Tommy on his training.

Each heading their separate ways, they scoured the mountain, determined to find the ores that Kairos had mentioned while the girls exclaimed each time someone nearly slipped.

Once a while, one of the boys would stop and repeatedly strike the mountain to look for ores then move on in disappointment. Every hit from their giant mining pick was enough to send waves through their body and rattle their bones, but the tool easily broke through the hard rocks with satisfying demolishing power.

It was an inhuman sort of training, but they gritted their teeth and carried on. The vest weighed them down while the fire burned them from within, and as if in an extra attempt to be cruel, Kairos had added the entropy runes he gleaned in the past to ensure the heat loss from their bodies are minimal.

The Starfire sigil has been weakened, but it still felt as though their entire body was a pill furnace that refined their blood and tempered their flesh.

The heat slowly spread across their entire body as they trained. Sweat poured down their backs but quickly turned into steam by the Starfire sigil. The heat from the vapours was trapped by the runes of entropy, turning into clouds of fine mist that followed them.

Little by little the fire Ki generated was absorbed back into their bodies, without regarding if they have any affinity with the element.

What Kairos prepared for them is a physique training method he read in the Inscriptionist’s Library. When he found the book, it was already covered in a thick layer of dust; apparent that these type of cultivation manuals are unpopular.

External Martial Arts practitioners had never been a favourite in Saint Empire, since the alternative, Internal Martial Arts, provided a more painless training option. When practitioners of the two schools compete, oftentimes, those that cultivate Ki are younger than those that cultivate their body despite being at the same level.

However, the attraction of the External Arts never ceased because having a stronger physique allows one to endure longer before succumbing to injuries.

Many would consider training in both areas, but with limited time and resources, most gave up after a while and focused on the field they prefer.

But, as long as there are those aim to become Immortals through physical training, there will be impressive training methods passed down, and Kairos combed through the libraries to find this: The five element body cultivation technique.

The process is arduous and first requires breaking down the body as most physical martial art demands. Afterwards, the elements will be used to rebuild strengthened muscles. It is a torturous process where while they try to absorb the attributes, they have to endure the pain of their blood, flesh, and bones, ravaged by scorching flames, gritty stones, or the other elements of creation.

It is a painful External conditioning method that could easily kill them during the training if they let their guard down.

‘The elements of creation, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, are the building blocks of all materials, including flesh. Unlike the Dantian that has preference, has affinity, the muscles would not show signs of rejection. By using five special sigils, you will become the engineer of yourself.’

The result from this training method is not as if they will gain new elemental properties in their flesh, but lets them stack on elemental resistance and quickens their toughening process. It perfectly complements the Origin Body Cultivation Method that alters one’s foundation and slowly improves one’s talents.

Despite the powerful rock-splitting inscription on the pickaxe, it took them a long while to comb the mountain. Many of them climbed all the way to the peak in their search, but when they returned the following morning, all of them were fruitless.

Because the weight of each metal jacket is tailored to their strength, when they reach the bottom, all of them were equally exhausted. At this point they were immediately called over by Kairos, who distributed the Body Reforming Pills.

They ate the supplementary drug and Kairos took out the Crystal Valve from his robe’s pocket, pulling everyone into it.

The final part of physical training requires one to rest and recover, allowing the flesh to rebuild and strengthen properly. It is the body’s natural reaction to the harsh conditions it had been through, attempting to reduce the strain and improve one’s survivability in the future.

However, without aid, that improvement is slow. After all, a house cannot be remodelled into a fortress without the time and proper resources.

Their muscles that were loosened from the training is in the midst of a toughening process, and the strong Heavenly Energies in their training ground flowed into them. The Starfire sigil brightened again and converted everything into flames. It provided them with rare and useful building blocks needed to change their flesh. Whereas the supplementary pill was like hardworking stonemasons that speed up the process.

After a while, they slowly opened their eyes with amazement. No one knew if the rare ore that Kairos had told them to find really exists, but they felt that they had taken a few steps forward towards the next physical rank and it was enough reward in itself.

In the past it would take months before they feel any improvements, now the same thing happened within a day, and they couldn’t believe it. While they were excited, the group soon noticed that there are others in the place quietly waiting for them.

They were secretly happy that the girls had waited. They took hours to go up and down the mountain. Fortunately, despite looking lithe and delicate, Luciette and the rest are still powerful practitioners for their age, and it wasn’t too uncomfortable for them to stand in the elements overnight. While waiting, they could even train in meditation to replace sleep, but none of them could tear their eyes away from the mountain.

Except for the culprit, the other boys started complaining to the girls what they had gone through. It was not that they truly minded the training since they had greatly benefited, but in the department of scoring sympathy points from the girls, they received full marks.

While they are showing puppy eyes, Kairos declared, “Just a day’s of training and you guys are about to be reduced to tears? Don’t you know that we will be training like this for the whole week?”

“What?!”

“Any discount..?”

“No.”

“What about five days?”

“Two weeks.”

“Boss, we’ll dieeee.”

“How are we going to survive six more days?”

“Who said it is six more? Don’t worry, only thirteen more days to go.”

“What, really two weeks?”

“Cheer up. You’ll only be half-dead at the end of it.”

Kairos did not say that afterwards, they will be moving on to the next item on the menu.