“Uugh… haaaah… urk…”

Hou Jingshu wasn’t sure what she should have expected after arriving at Loong Chen’s home. Se knew that grueling training awaited her, but that had been the extent of her knowledge, and as she lay there lamenting her misfortune, she thought about just how badly she had underestimated how tortuous the training would really be. Loong Chen spent every waking moment beating the snot out of her. She knew he was holding back. She knew that logically. However, it didn’t feel like it to her. No matter how much she struggled, he would beat her down like he was stepping on an insect.

Her body had been broken numerous times since they started training. Arms, legs, her ribs, her fingers, her toes. Every single bone in her body had been broken more times than she could count during their spars. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, there was a spring nearby that could heal all of her wounds. It was called the Spring of Healing, and spending a day in it would restore her body to perfect condition.

“Come on. Get up. I know this isn’t all you have.”

The cold voice came from above her. Hou Jingshu gnashed her bloody teeth together as she rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself to her feet. Her arms were shaking, her chest was heaving, and blood ran down her face. Loong Chen had punched her so hard several teeth had fallen out. They would be restored after a night in the spring, but right now, they hurt. Everything hurt.

Hou Jingshu got to her feet, her legs shaking as she struggled to remain upright. Loong Chen gave her enough time to regain her sense of balance. Then he attacked.

Loong Chen did not rely on tricks when fighting. He straightfowardly assaulted her with his fists and feet. Of course, he didn’t need to rely on tricks, such was his power. Every punch contained the power to destroy boulders. Every kick could shatter the mountain upon which they resided. A single hit was enough to down her, and it always took several minutes to recover and stagger back to her feet.

She avoided the first punch, but it contained so much strength that a wind current pushed her back, making her stagger. Loong Chen capitalized on this and tried to strike her while she was offbalance. He threw a punch that she barely managed to block by crossing her arms, but the force from his strike was so powerful that she was blasted off her feet. Hou Jingshu felt like she had swallowed her tongue as she struck the hard ground and rolled across it. She somehow managed to flip onto her feet, but her knees were already shaking.

Not that Loong Chen cared.

He appeared before her like a phantom. Hou Jingshu gritted her teeth as she evaded more of his attacks. This time, she didn’t rely on simply dodging. His blows were too powerful for that. She used the currents his punches and kicks created to move herself further away from him recalling the old lessons she had learned with the Wu Clan about how to properly fall. This was just an extension of those lessons.

Loong Chen threw a punch powerful enough to make the air howl, and Hou Jingshu used the palm of her left hand to redirect the punch while throwing herself away from it. The air blasted her back. She was prepared, however, and landed on her feet without stumbling, knees bent to absorb the impact and lower her center of gravity. Before Loong Chen could attack her again, she leapt forward, bent her knees, then launched a high kick that would have caught him in the face.

Would have was the keyword.

Loong Chen had grabbed her leg.

“That wasn’t a bad kick,” he said with a grin, his grip on her leg tightening. “But now I have your leg. You should have known better than to attack me like that. What were you thinking? You don’t attack an opponent like this when you know they are stronger than you.”

Hou Jingshu grinned even as blood spilled down her chin and onto her chest. “I was thinking now you have my leg, so you can’t do anything if I do this!”

Hou Jingshu leapt into the air, roaring as she threw a kick with her other leg. Loong Chen caught this one too, but then she fell backward, letting herself hang from his grip as she reached out and dug her hands into the dirt. She squeezed her legs together. The satisfying sound of her feet crunching Loong Chen’s face echoed around them. Veins along her arms and legs bulged as she tightened every muscle in her body, then summoned whatever strength she had left to lift her opponent off the ground and slam him headfirst into the dirt.

Well, that was her plan, but Loong Chen twisted his body out of her grip. He bent down, one hand on the ground, and kicked her in the chest. The loud wooshing of air expelling from her lungs echoed around them before she tumbled across the ground for the hundredth time.

Loong Chen’s training was brutal but also the most efficient way to cultivate for her cultivation method. She got stronger by fighting strong opponents. Since they had arrived here, Hou Jingshu had risen all the way to the peak of the Human Limit Realm. She was just half a step away from the Deva Realm now. That was the reason Loong Chen was pushing so much harder. Only by brutalling enduring his attacks could she achieve the means to break through.

Loong Chen looked up as storm clouds gathered in the skies above. Then he glanced back down as Hou Jingshu struggled to her feet. All the surrounding chi was converging on the young woman, who looked like she had been through hell. This peak was known as Dragon’s Peak because it was where he lived, and the chi here was exceptionally pure. It was the perfect place to train his master’s progeny.

“It is time. Sit down and begin meditating,” Loong Chen said.

Hou Jingshu needed a moment to comprehend his words, but then she nodded and sat down, crossing her legs, closing her eyes, and forming a cultivation seal with her hands. The gathering storm clouds had increased. Thunder rang out all around them. She understood what this meant. The Heavenly Tribulation was upon her. She was intimidated by that sound. There was a good chance she could die, but she was also excited, because she knew this was her chance to grow even stronger.

Within the darkened sky, lightning congealed together, forming a shape. An elongated body with gleaming yellow scales, two horns jutting from a reptilian muzzle. The lightning had formed the shape of a dragon. This was her tribulation. As the inheritor of Seiryuu’s power, her tribulation would not be normal. The dragon glared at Hou Jingshu, who glared right back. It opened its mouth to unleash and ear-splitting roar that sounded like clashing thunder, then bolted down toward Hou Jingshu, who expelled her chi to form a dragon of her own, which she used to meet it head on.

The clashing of two opposing forces echoed out for all to hear.

***

The next few days proceeded apace. Wu Jian won all of their matches with ease. There wasn’t a single team who could stand up to him. It didn’t matter if one or more of them was in the Deva Realm. He didn’t even need to use Byakko’s blood to defeat them. On the other hand, Mei Xilan seemed to have taken a backseat to their battles and only played the occasional support role. Wu Jian had considered asking her if she was feeling all right. However, he didn’t want her to mistake his concern for interest, so he decided not to in the end.

While he fought in team matches during the day, he met with Wu Meiying at night. Every night without fail she would show up in his bedroom. They would talk about all the things they had been doing up to this point, and Wu Jian learned the truth behind the necklace Wu Meiying made him wear, how it prevented anyone with the ability to manipulate the Dao of Time from seeing his timeline. It essentially blinded both her and her enemies. He likened it to placing a veil over their eyes.

Of course, they could still see him but as a negative space. That wasn’t an indicator that he was the person they were looking for, but it would cause anyone with some understanding of time to view him with suspicion. Wu Meiying had warned him to be cautious.

They didn’t just discuss what they had been doing or Wu Meiying’s past. Wu Jian had many questions regarding the Dao of Space, and while she couldn’t answer all of them since she had no understanding of it, she could answer any question his previous reincarnations knew the answer to. She had listened to and memorized everything his reincarnations had ever said to her. They were, in her words, precious memories that she would never trade for anything.

Thanks to her help, Wu Jian’s understanding into the Dao of Space had increased, and so had his cultivation. He’d gone from the eighth subrealm to the ninth subrealm in just three short days. It was shocking. He didn’t even know it was possible to cultivate so fast, but according to Wu Meiying, the reason for his fast cultivation was caused by a combination of his cultivation method, accupoints, and Byakko’s blood.

Since the Nine Heavens Spatial Severing Cultivation Method relied heavily on understanding the Dao of Space to cultivate, increasing his understanding increased his cultivation. She said that whenever he gained insight into the Dao of Space, he would absorb the world’s chi and something called Celestial Chi. This would be important later on, she informed him, but it wasn’t important right now. However, she did say that because his body was not that of a god’s, he could only contain so much Celestial Chi. He’d eventually cap and this method would no longer be viable until he achieved godhood.

Wu Jian also learned about the realms that came after the Perfection Realm. The so-called God Realm was the tenth realm in what Wu Meiying called the Samsara Cycle Cultivation Realm--or the Mortal Cultivation Realm for short. The God Realm was the first step to achieving godhood. After the God Realm were the Seven Divine Realms: Divine Origin Realm, Divine Soul Realm, Divine Tribulations Realm, Divine Nascent Realm, Divine Spirit King Realm, Divine Sovereign Realm, and True Sovereign Realm. The final stage of a person’s cultivation was the True God Realm, which consisted of True God and Creation God. According to Wu Meiying, there used to be several True Gods, but now there were only two--The Jade Emperor and the Asura King.

True Gods were considered the pinnacle of power in the Nine Heavens right now, and since there were only two, the factions they belonged to were the strongest. The Jade Emperor was the supreme ruler of the Nine Heavens. All that existed fell under his purview--everything except the Asura King’s faction. The Asura King belonged to the Asura Clan. They resided within a place called the Fractal Space. It was a part of the Nine Heavens that had been subjected to numerous battles, which had resulted in the space surrounding in being fractured like shards of broken glass. It was a dangerous place. Nobody went there unless they had a death wish. However, the Asura Clan had made this place their home.

Listening to Wu Meiying talk about people and places that existed far beyond the tiny world they lived on right now was wondrous, evenmoreso than the stories they used to read as children. There was so much out there that he didn’t know about, that he had never seen, and he wanted to see it all.

But he also couldn’t forget his goals. Seeing Wu Meiying was great. He was glad they had managed to close the gap that had formed between them. However, they both had a goal. Wu Jian wanted to find the people who destroyed his clan and kill them, and Wu Meiying wanted to destroy her former apprentice. They both had people they needed to kill.

His goal was the most immediate one. His family’s killers were somewhere in this world. Wu Meiying had told him of her suspicions, but she didn’t have any concrete evidence yet. The people he sought were using a method similar to his amulet to hide from people who could understand the Dao of Time. Of course, this also meant they were easier to spot since they would appear as a blank space, but Wu Meiying was currently cut off from the Dao of Time. She needed to hide herself when in public to avoid their enemies from finding her, which also meant blinding herself. There was, unfortunately, nothing they could do about this.

Wu Jian continued winning in the competition, drawing attention to himself and letting everyone see the power he possessed, but his partner for the competition had grown steadily less involved. He wouldn’t find out the reason for her silence until a few days later.