"Fool!"
Wuyue snapped back to her senses. With an angry shout, she sent a cool force surging in, steadying the rampaging spiritual energy inside Wang Xian in the blink of an eye.
She barked, "The greatest taboo in cultivation is impatience! Are you trying to burn yourself to death?"
Wang Xian curled up on the ground in pain, his whole body wracked with spasms.
Wuyue had no choice but to guide that energy herself, dispersing it through his limbs and bones.
But under her guidance, the pain was ten times worse than yesterday. Even when he bit through his lip and dug his fingernails deep into the cracks in the stone, it did no good.
"Feel it. Learn to control it."
Wuyue's voice rang in his mind. "Pain is a road you must travel, and it's your teacher, too. It will show you where you went wrong."
Wang Xian gasped for breath as he tried to relax. Gradually, he calmed down and began learning to feel the flow of spiritual energy inside him.
He suddenly realized that when he relaxed instead of fighting it, the pain actually eased.
The fire spiritual energy seemed almost alive. Under his guidance, it gradually fell into line.
At sunset, Wang Xian finally absorbed all three streams of fire spiritual energy.
His body was drenched in sweat, which instantly steamed away. His skin took on a metallic, bronze hue. Though he was covered in mud, new vitality coursed through him.
"That's all right, too. At least you learned a thing or two today."
Wuyue murmured to herself, "Cultivation is like rowing upstream: if you don't advance, you fall behind. But if you charge ahead blindly, you're bound to die."
Wang Xian nodded silently. The day's brush with death had given him an entirely new understanding