First steps

„I will absorb Qi from my surroundings to cleanse my clogged meridians and strengthen the body. There are 12 cleanses I have to undergo to prepare my body to hold the power of Qi. Three times the Flesh including Skin, muscle and tendons. After that the bones thrice, including joints, bones and cartilage. Then the Organs three times." 

„After completing the nine stages my body would be ready to advance to Qi refining but what about the other three times?" she wondered. She picked up the manuscript to see if she missed anything. But to her surprise, the last three stages weren't mentioned. Except that they exist.

'I will have to ask someone about the three stages later. Maybe the Elder at the Library will help me again. For now, they don't stop me from starting my first cleansing.' She thought.

Kira searched for a nice spot and found a comfortable-looking stone in the shallow waters of the river. She sat down cross-legged like the book instructed and focused on her body trying to feel herself. She ignored the sound of the splashing river, the cries of birds, the whipping wind and the warming rays of sunlight.

Slowly she could feel her conscious slipping into a tranquil state where at its peak she could feel every single corner of her body, before in an explosion of stimuli she became hyper-aware of her surroundings and could see her surroundings in front of her inner eye. 

Around her thousands or millions of little whisps in all colours surrounded her. There it was this familiar intoxicating feeling of that foreign power radiating off of these whisps. The book made it clear enough that these whisps are Qi strands. 

The excitement started to boil in her chest. „So this mysterious power that I kept encountering was Qi all along."

She tried to calm herself as well as she could. Before reaching with her conscious to the whisp that was closest to her. A brightly green-coloured strand. Guiding it with utmost care into the skin of her palms. 

The moment the strand entered her skin it was absorbed and washed through every cell of her skin like a strong gush of wind. And the next and next little green strands were attracted to her skin and from every angle they kept bombarding her skin. 

It was a chain reaction. She didn't even have to guide the Qi strands, which where Wind attributed she instinctively knew. 

The pace kept getting faster and faster. It went from a strong breeze to a painful typhoon that shredded her skin mercilessly. She grits her teeth enduring the pain because, in her tranquil state, she could see that it wasn't her skin getting shredded but impurities getting pushed out of her pores. 

The pain became unbearable after a few minutes when suddenly the sensation changed. It went from a windy sensation to a burning, ripping tingling sensation. 

Kira saw that now together with the green whisps, purple ones were mixed in which gave her the sensation of getting struck by lightning. Or how she would imagine it to feel like. 

Now both sensations were coming from everywhere around her pushing more and more impurities out of her skin. 

She gradually felt her consciousness slipping from the immense pain. 

Moments before she hit her breaking point that intoxicating feeling appeared like a flicker of hope. She clung her entire being, her soul to this sensation like an anchor. She drowned in it, the pain fading from her mind. 

With a sudden, fierce intensity, Kira's eyes snapped open, the sharp movement carrying the weight of barely contained fury as if the sheer force of it might scorch the very air around them. In her eyes, Lightning could be seen dancing around the emerald of her Iris. Ready to strike out and smite anyone her gaze fixed. 

She didn't know how much time passed, but it must have already been late afternoon. 

The first thing she noticed was the foul stench that attacked her nose. She immediately sprang into the river. Trying to clean herself. 

'Shit, the book mentioned the impurities why did I wear my new clothes?' Kira whined.

She stripped her new robes trying to clean them as well. But to no avail. The stench wouldn't come out. Heavy Hearted she took a new set of the same robes and put them on.

"Well, at least I now have a designated cultivation robe for the future cleansing." She sighed.

Kira inspected her skin which was feeling brand new. It had a healthy glow. She felt the intoxicating Qi flowing through her skin. 

To her astonishment, she could control the Qi in her skin and let it flow freely to any part of her skin. 

She wanted to test her newfound power. Walking to a big boulder she cocked her fist back and threw a pathetic excuse of a punch at the rock. Nonetheless, she was surprised by the result a very tiny chunk split of the rock. And there wasn't even a scratch on her knuckles. 

'I need to learn the martial technique soon. Thank the Heavens no one saw that girly punch.'Kira cringed internally. 

Kira looked at her hand, then to the Mountains with the drowning sun behind them, shrouded in mist. 

Newfound dedication sparkled in her emerald eyes. Sparked by the power of Body Tempering Stage One. She yearned to experience how the higher levels of cultivation must feel.