Chapter four

With a start, Ming Yue came out of her cultivation and quickly looked around herself for anything threatening but saw nothing and immediately became confused as to what brought her out practice.

She continued looking around noticing that it was daylight which meant that it was the next day and there is no full moon because the full moon only last for a day.

When this conclusion entered her groggy mind, she finally stood up but froze again when she smelled herself, "barf! Why do I smell so dirty?" She said in a horror tone because her body is oozing black liquid substance that was moulded to her skin?

She cannot even bear to look at herself because she is wishing this wasn't her! She quickly jumped down and ran quickly to the common bath house? Well for the abandoned people since the royal family doesn't wish for the abandoned people to be smelling which would contaminate their royal nose so they build a bath house.

She sneaked in and started scrubbing her skin as if her life depended on It which it kind of does because she loves cleanliness with a passion.

After two whole hours of continuous bath fighting, she finally came out with her skin red and her body squeaky clean like never before, then, she remembered that she didn't bring clothes as she was in a hurry to cleanse herself.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Just steal one" even though the size won't fit her, she can make do.

When she returned to her place, she was finally ready to check her body for the amount of internal Qi strength she has gained.

She sat on the bed and then suddenly noticed that her hair seems to have grown and changed colour because before it was pink! Yes people, she, the former mercenary king has pink hair! This is one of the things that pained her greatly and one of the things she didn't want to talk about as it makes her look extremely girly and weak like a weak chicken!

But now, the colour seems to have been diluted! She took her hair into her hand to investigate. "Hmm…the colour is now silver and pink" 'well, I guess I can work with this' she thought

Her hair has changed from pure pink to being dominated by silver but mostly silver while the pink seems to have diluted its colour to being light pink and pushed to the tip of the hair which is good for her.

She checked her internal body with the art and noticed that her Qi seems abundant and she crossed the two stages and entered the third stage of Houtian realm directly which is also known as mortal realm or as martial art foundation.

The mortal realm or as people calls it, the Houtian realm is consisted of six stages and they are the first stage – the flesh, where the martial artist's body is like a small water puddle, the second stage – the viscera where the body is like a pond, the third stage – the altering muscle, the fourth stage – the bone forging where the body is like a lake, the fifth stage – the pulse condensation period where the meridians would condense and the true essence would circulate and accelerate and the body will be like a rolling river and raging storm and the final stage which is the sixth stage – the Houtian stage which is the full completion of the mortal realm, the true essence in the body will gather together and flow at the same time and then turn into a vast like ocean.

The Houtian realm is the foundational level of martial art and it has two phases which further has three stages. The first phase is; flesh, this is where the flesh is refined and some of the 'dirt' of the world is extricated and comes out as that liquid substance that smells, the one she hurriedly washed away. The second stage is the viscera and the third is the altering of muscle which is where she is now and the second phase also has three stages which is the bone forging, this is where the bones are refined and become pristine and strong so it becomes hard to break, the pulse condensation period and the full completion of the mortal Houtian realm and the body has finished its preparation period and the next thing to do is to comprehend Dao and thus become Xiantian which also means becoming one with nature and enter the earth realm of cultivation which is also another journey and as they say, cultivation is long and arduous is really no joke...

This is just the first realm but, most people struggle for years just to break through to the third stage of it and here she is already at the third stage in just one sitting of cultivation without even knowing how lucky she is!

"Ah…according to the book, I need to comprehend Dao!" And from the book's explanation, she just needs to gain inspiration into Yin which is an element and it comprises of a lot of things and she just has to see which one fits her body and if she was cultivating both, she would need to gain inspiration into both Yin and Yang which is ice (the only element she can think of right now that is most connected to Yin) and fire element but since she is cultivating only one, she can forget the hassle.

"Okay, what is the next order of thing?" She said to herself while sitting and thinking of what to do next. The book said when she becomes Xiantian, she will awaken a special ability that is most suited for me apart from an element and it also said that as soon as she become Xiantian, it would be felt by all masters of martial art who are nearby and that is not what she wants so, "let's run away!" She smiled broadly with sparkles in her already sparkling blue eyes when she thought of this idea.

"So, second order of things, what have we got?" She looked around and found nothing useful for running away from home so, "let's go steal!" She finally laughed because she is good at this and she is sure she will be getting better at it since she entered the third stage of Houtian realm and the energy in her doesn't even seems to need time to consolidate which is a very good thing for her.

She walked around the place while rubbing her chin, "what do I need? Money!" She needs lots and lots of money because she is going to open a sect after all she promised and thinking about it, it is good to open a sect, just a small sect.

As for where she can gain money, she can just get it from those favoured concubines. "After this, steal some children clothes. After this, leave and find information about this country and how to leave. Where to find energy to build a sect and get a dead body similar to me to take my place of death" she is sure they won't notice anything.

So, from that day, the palace started having its money disappearing little by little without anyone noticing and Ming Yue's adventure of stealing continued.