Chapter 5 - Training

Due to the Fire Affinity benefit given by the talent bead, Leyvi discovered that it was much easier to convert the spiritual energy in his dantian into fire elemental qi compared to before.

As an attributeless individual, Leyvi had tried to convert his spiritual energy from his dantian into another elemental type. However, the conversion process was very slow, making it impractical for battle. He could use it to light up a bonfire at most.

Leyvi felt good. The elemental conversion of the spiritual energy was now very smooth, and he could use it in battle. After confirming there were no issues, Leyvi began practicing the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill.

In the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer, Leyvi had to apply enough qi around his legs for protection. Then, he also had to channel and supply fire Qi to his legs while containing as much of it as possible for bigger firepower. After maintaining this state for a while, Leyvi needed to ignite his legs on fire through the correct meridians described in the martial skill.

When the user managed to maintain fiery legs without destroying the protective qi around them for about an hour, the user would achieve the initial success of the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill. 

A day later.

"Haha, I finally managed to reach the initial success of the first level!" After training for a day, Leyvi succeeded in maintaining fiery legs for an hour.

Every time his protective qi broke, the fiery legs caused a small explosion, and he experienced pain each time. Leyvi didn't want to go through that again. His black pants had now turned into black shorts due to the explosions.

For the next step, the user needed to run and jump consistently for an hour without destroying the protective qi around the legs.

Leyvi had a headache over this step. He knew he would endure much more pain. This step sounded easy, but he understood how hard it was to maintain it while stationary, let alone running and jumping around.

Leyvi calmed down, gritted his teeth, and without complaining, resumed his training.

Three days later.

Over these three days, the sounds of someone screaming in pain were frequent at first but became less so over time.

After enduring agony for three days, Leyvi finally reached the intermediate success of the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill.

Leyvi could now run and jump with his fiery legs freely without any issues. Not only that, but even the small explosions didn't cause him much pain anymore. It seemed his legs had become increasingly resistant to fire and impact.

Leyvi figured this was likely the true purpose of the training: to strengthen the legs as much as possible. Otherwise, the user could just wear high-grade pants made by array experts and not feel any pain at all.

After returning to the house to recover and eat, Leyvi went back to his backyard to resume training.

Although there was a lot of noise during the training, other cultivators in the sect didn't hear much of it due to the sect's vast size. The houses for each cultivator were far apart.

The Mountain Dew sect was a small sect at the southern tip of the Cloud Continent. Despite its size, the sect had limited cultivation resources, owning only a single spirit stone mine.

However, none of that mattered to Leyvi. He liked it here very much, as did Anda. Leyvi and Anda disliked crowded places because they reminded them of their orphanage days before cultivation. It was crowded, poor, and dirty.

Realizing his mind had wandered, Leyvi shook his head and refocused.

The last part of the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill required the user to jump high into the air, gain momentum while descending, and deliver a powerful kick to a targeted part of the opponent.

Another three days passed quickly.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

During these three days, booming sounds echoed frequently from Leyvi's residence. In his backyard, numerous dark craters were formed, many rocks were shattered, and there were also fallen, burnt trees with lines of smoke rising from them.

Leyvi panted heavily as he surveyed his messed-up backyard. Despite the unpleasant scenery before him, Leyvi felt overjoyed because he had finally achieved complete mastery of the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill!

"I'm finally done! I can go visit my panda wife now. I'm so tired!" Leyvi exclaimed. Completing the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill in a week, he wasn't sure if this speed was fast or slow. With no references for comparison, he assumed it was average, as usual.

After resting, Leyvi cleaned himself and changed into a new outfit. Now that he had completed the first level of the Fiery Trailblazer martial skill, he no longer worried about destroying his pants—it wouldn't happen anymore.

Leyvi decided to visit Anda to check on her progress in alchemy.

"I want my toy!" Leyvi uttered the cursed words aloud in his usual tone. He didn't care—no one was around anyway. The menu popped up right away.

[Talent Bead |Level 2| EXP 6/500]

[Talent list: Sturdy, Chess, Fragrant]

[Recipient: Anda | Alchemy | 90/100]

[Recipient: Stripey | Steal and Stealth | 40/100]

[Host benefit: Fire Affinity, Tree Climbing Expert]

"Oh? It reached level 2!" Leyvi was surprised to see that the talent bead had already leveled up. He had thought it would take more time.

"Forty points? That little monkey suddenly likes me more. Why?" Leyvi pondered carefully and assumed that Stripey had realized it had gained new talents thanks to him.

"Stripey is quite smart. As expected of the monkey I chose!" Leyvi felt a surge of pride for no particular reason.

He then wondered how many people Stripey had already stolen from. Leyvi started sweating. "I hope Stripey didn't steal from any elders or inner disciples, or I'm doomed if they find out."

Looking at the menu, Leyvi realized he could never know exactly how the points were distributed, as it only displayed the total. How many points came from Anda? How many from Stripey? He would never know.

Leyvi glanced at the new talents but wasn't impressed. Neither seemed useful for cultivation.

"Looks like I'll have to wait for better talents to come along," Leyvi thought. He decided to give the "Fragrant" talent to Anda. While it wouldn't aid her cultivation, it would make her happy—and that was good enough. After all, which girl wouldn't want to smell nice all the time?

"Log in!" Leyvi suddenly felt like entering the illuminated space again.

Inside the illuminated space, Leyvi looked around and noticed it was unchanged. "What exactly is this place?" he wondered.

"Log out!" he commanded, returning to reality. The menu disappeared as well. It seemed he could bypass the awkward command words by logging in and out. However, this workaround didn't save much effort; it just added extra steps.

Leyvi walked out of his house and headed straight for Anda's residence.

As Leyvi walked toward Anda's house, he overheard a conversation between two outer sect disciples.

"Recently, there's been an unidentified thief in the sect. A lot of spirit stones and alchemy products have gone missing in the outer sect area."

"Right! I lost all my spirit stones too! Argh! I'm so angry. If I find out who the thief is, I'm going to castrate him!"

"What if it's a woman?" the other disciple asked.

"If she's a beauty, I can forgive her."

"What? That's not fair! You're going to die under the feet of a succubus sooner or later."

Leyvi acted as if he didn't hear anything, walking past them nonchalantly. In his mind, he gave a thumbs-up to Stripey. "Steal more, so I can get more points faster. Just don't get caught!" he thought.

Soon, Leyvi arrived at Anda's house and knocked on the door.

"Leyvi!" Anda exclaimed as she opened the door and immediately hugged him tightly.

"Where have you been? It's been a week!" she demanded, pulling him inside.

"I was practicing my new martial skill," Leyvi explained casually. Anda had more questions but chose not to ask them for now.

"Leyvi, my alchemy skills have improved so much! I can refine high-grade qi refining pills now!" Anda said excitedly, bouncing on her toes while holding onto his arm.

"What!?" Leyvi was shocked. He had expected her to manage middle-grade qi refining pills at most, not this incredible leap in ability.

Anda beamed and pulled out three bottles of qi refining pills. One bottle contained low-grade pills, the second held middle-grade pills, and the third, to Leyvi's astonishment, was filled with high-grade pills.

Leyvi picked up the bottle of high-grade pills, examining them carefully. "These are really high-grade pills," he confirmed, his voice full of admiration.

He set the bottle aside, then lifted Anda into the air, spinning her around with joy.

"Congratulations, Alchemist Student Anda! We have a genius in our family!" Leyvi declared, and the two laughed together, celebrating in the warmth of the moment.

"To mark this special occasion, let's go to bed and become a real husband and wife!" Leyvi said playfully, carrying Anda toward the bed. Anda blushed deeply but didn't resist, as though she had been waiting for this moment.

The night was filled with their laughter and affection, accompanied by muffled, "weird noises" until the early hours.