22 Rapid Increase of Strength

King Ren decided to explain the pertinent information to Hokuto the next day, since it was already getting very late and the kid needed some rest to stabilize her body. Even though the Dust of Gaea was heaven-defying, a young child still needed time to let it settle in. Otherwise, she might run into some unforeseen circumstances. Hokuto yawned and relented to her father's insistence as Astraea quietly left the area.

Court Vizier Seraphina soon made her embellished exit as usual, opting to tear into the space once again. Only the King and Queen remained in the courtyard as they looked at each other silently without any fanfare. They also retired for the night soon thereafter.

The next day, the [Rose Sword Saint] was no longer present. As an outsider to the royal family, she was not allowed entrance to the Lily Garden, which was the formal name for the kingdom's secret training grounds. This was actually also the same place where the command room was where King Ren would conduct his meetings with the Dark Moon Guild operatives.

King Ren himself called for Hokuto early in the morning to take her to the training grounds, which amazed the child when she saw it for the first time. Astraea had explained the important information regarding the training regime to him so King Ren had no issues regurgitating what he had been told. Inside the Lily Garden was a massive flower bed on an equally large island. Protruding from various points of the island were land reformations driving into cavernous halls.

King Ren explained where each of the paths led to. He told her the order in which she must take the paths in order to conduct her training. The first one led to a small, enclosed space which was actually surrounded by magma. There would be steam going in continuously forcing Hokuto to deal with the intense heat somehow.

The second one was on the opposite end, and it led to an incredibly cold place which was filled with ice stalagmites and stalactites. The freezing air was on the opposite end of the heat spectrum. Finally, King Ren pointed out that one of the other paths would lead to an underground waterfall which was artificially made by a predecessor.

Keeping the timings in mind, Hokuto nodded and resolved to follow the training diligently. This would need to go on every day for the remainder of the year, something which King Ren hoped she would not give up on. Fortunately, he would not be disappointed. Hokuto immediately began her training to achieve full completion of the <Primordial Orchid Body Art>. The presence of the flowers every time she passed by the training grounds also expedited the process, but nobody actually predicted this.

This was due to the Dust of Gaea's sensitivity to nature. When Hokuto was in the flaming room, she could not help but have to pant to maintain her composure. However, the power of the Dust of Gaea slowly revealed itself. Since the heat was naturally produced by magma, her body could absorb the energy released from it to mitigate the potential damage from the heat.

The same principle applied for the icicle room too, which meant that Hokuto's body could be tempered by the extreme temperature more efficiently as Hokuto's condition was not adversely affected by the high heat or fierce coldness. In fact, the only time Hokuto felt any pain was when she sat herself beneath the artificial waterfall. Due to the waterfall being man-made, the pressure and force of the water seemed to be much higher than usual.

As Hokuto repeated this process, she soon discovered her body would automatically recharge itself every time she passed by the flower bed in the center of the Lily Garden. She would feel incredibly refreshed if she stayed there for prolonged periods of time.

She soon realized that the fact her body was highly in tune with nature was the main contributing factor to her rapid increase in strength. As the months passed by in the blink of an eye, Hokuto could feel her bones hardening and her muscles becoming more flexible yet firmer. Her physique began to look more toned and athletic despite her age. By this point of time Hokuto had only been doing the training for a little bit more than half the required time.

However, Hokuto's bodily strength was already insane for a ten year old. She wanted to test herself and in order to do so, she went to the dojo during her free time and decided to punch one of the training dummies. Giving it a right hook, Hokuto caused the dummy to break in half and fly across the room.

Surprised at her own strength, this only increased her resolve to practice the <Primordial Orchid Body Art> to completion. King Ren and Queen Tyris were incredibly surprised at the rapid progress she was making, and highly admired her toned physique.

Eventually, Hokuto would reach full completion of the <Primordial Orchid Body Art>. Unfortunately, all good things needed to come to an end.