Strip

The Affairs Hall stood beside Qisi Hall, built against the mountain in a secluded, tranquil spot. It was where the lecturers handled matters related to teaching. Inside were over a dozen separate little courtyards, each furnished in a different style. These courtyards were for the lecturers to prepare lessons and deal with all manner of student affairs.

Wei Yuan followed Ji Liuli to the lecturers' Affairs Hall and watched her walk up to a small courtyard, reach out, remove the plaque bearing the name "Xu Henshui" from the door, and push it open.

This made Wei Yuan even more certain that Xu Henshui was supposed to be teaching him. He simply did not know what background this Senior Sister Liuli had to dare make such a farce even over something as important as centralized instruction. Still, farce or not, this Senior Sister clearly had real ability. The fact that she could toss Xu Henshui beyond the mountain gate with one hand spoke volumes.

The courtyard was arranged with great elegance, and there was even a clump of orchids planted in one corner. Wei Yuan did not know what variety they were, only that they looked lovely and smelled wonderful. An exquisite tea set rested on the stone table in the courtyard, while the rooms had all been furnished as well. Many of the objects bore orchid markings; at a glance, they were clearly Xu Henshui's personal belongings.

Ji Liuli acted as though she had entered her own home, rummaging around for quite some time without the slightest bit of courtesy.

She opened a tin of tea marked with orchids, brewed it in a teapot marked with orchids, then poured three cups into orchid-marked cups and drained all three in three gulps. Only then did she let out a breath, and the whole room was instantly filled with fragrance.

"Fine tea!" Ji Liuli praised. Then she said to Wei Yuan, "Unfortunately, there isn't much of it, and you wouldn't know how to appreciate it anyway, so I won't give you any."

She somehow brought out a large wooden barrel and set it in the middle of the room. With a point of her finger at the barrel, it immediately filled more than halfway with clear water. Ji Liuli took out a small bottle and poured a single drop of emerald-green liquid into it. The whole barrel of water instantly turned blue-green, and rolling steam began to rise from it.

"Take off your clothes and get in," Ji Liuli said.

Wei Yuan was greatly startled. His little face instantly flushed crimson as he twisted about awkwardly. "This..."

Though he was only six, he had been precocious since birth and had grown quickly. At the moment, he looked like a child of ten or so. Being asked to undress before an unfamiliar woman truly made him rather embarrassed.

Ji Liuli did not waste words with him. She grabbed him, stripped him clean in a few swift motions, then landed a crisp slap on his backside and tossed him into the wooden barrel. "You haven't even grown any hair yet. What are you embarrassed about?"

After throwing Wei Yuan into the barrel, she casually taught him several lines of a cultivation formula and told him to circulate his power himself to absorb the medicinal liquid. Then she moved over a chair, sat down beside the barrel, propped her legs on its rim, and began reading on her own.

Wei Yuan only felt the water in the barrel alternating between cold and hot. When hot, it was like boiling water; when cold, it was like the bitter chill of the deepest winter. He curled himself into a ball in the barrel, not because of the heat or cold, but because Senior Sister Liuli was sitting right beside him. Looking down from above, she could see everything at a glance.

She did not seem particularly focused on her book. Her gaze swept over Wei Yuan from time to time.

The world of ice and fire in the barrel was truly unbearable. Wei Yuan had no choice but to set everything else aside for the moment and focus on circulating his cultivation art. As the formula moved, he felt threads of coolness seep into his body. The cold and heat became less difficult to endure, and he gradually entered a state where self and object were both forgotten.

In the blink of an eye, an hour passed. Wei Yuan suddenly awoke from meditation and saw that the water in the barrel had turned purplish-black.

Ji Liuli put down her book. "Come out."

Wei Yuan immediately hesitated. Was he supposed to come out naked like this? But when Ji Liuli saw that he was not moving, she simply hauled him out of the water and set him down before her.

Wei Yuan stood there naked. He wanted to close his eyes or tilt his head up to stare at the sky, but that would have seemed too deliberate. He could only force himself to remain calm, stiffly staring ahead without moving an inch.

A pale golden radiance lit up in Senior Sister's eyes. In that instant, Wei Yuan felt as though everything inside and outside his body had been seen through, leaving him without the slightest secret.

She circled Wei Yuan several times, inspecting him carefully from head to toe. From time to time, she reached out to pinch and feel his muscles and bones, then returned to the desk and wrote out a prescription.

After finishing the prescription, she pondered for a moment, crossed out three ingredients, added another, and then gathered the herbs according to the revised prescription from the medicine cabinet standing against the wall.

The medicine cabinet also bore the image of an orchid.

Once the herbs were assembled, a tiny pill furnace appeared in Ji Liuli's hand. She tossed all the herbs inside, and blue flame burst from her palm. After refining them for a moment, she produced a batch of medicinal powder. She replaced the water in the barrel with fresh water and added the powder. The barrel of water immediately turned orange-yellow and gave off a bone-piercing chill.

This time, Wei Yuan had learned his lesson. The moment Senior Sister pointed, he obediently jumped in. He once again circulated the formula and absorbed the medicine in the water. An hour later, the water in the barrel had turned clear again.

After the two rounds of medicinal baths, Wei Yuan distinctly felt his body becoming lighter and clearer, as though he had once carried a burden weighing dozens of pounds without ever realizing it. Only after the burden had been removed did he experience such ease.

"That will do. Come out." Ji Liuli tossed Wei Yuan his clothes and said, "According to the records, your innate bones measured seven chi nine during the Dao Assessment. But from what I just examined, they are actually close to nine chi, only their quality is somewhat insubstantial. Have you recently taken any treasures that improve one's foundation?"

Wei Yuan said, "Martial Grandmaster True Person Fen Hai bestowed three Chonglou Dinghai Pills upon me. I have just taken one, and there are two left."

Ji Liuli nodded. "The Chonglou Dinghai Pill is considered high-grade even among pills that expand one's foundation. It seems True Person Fen Hai truly favors you greatly, to be so generous."

Wei Yuan added, "Master also gave me three Heart Cleansing Pills. I have already taken them all."

"Heart Cleansing Pills?!" Ji Liuli's expression changed at once.

She reached out and lifted Wei Yuan's chin, studying him carefully for a long while before finally saying, "You are quite fortunate to have a good master, but your master's luck is not so good."

Wei Yuan was completely baffled, unable to understand what she meant.

Ji Liuli seemed lost in thought. Only after a moment did she say, "What is called Body Forging is, in truth, the preparation of a piece of raw material for the Dao Foundation. The larger the raw material and the better its quality, the better the Dao Foundation that can be formed. If one wishes to achieve an Immortal Foundation above the Heaven Tier, then one can imagine how demanding the requirements for that raw material must be. During the Body Forging stage, there are only two kinds of effort to be made: accumulation and refinement. What I am doing now is repairing and polishing your foundation—removing what is superfluous and making up what is lacking. This is the work of refinement. For the next three months, after every one of my classes, come to the Affairs Hall to polish your foundation."

Fortunately, it was only three months...

Wei Yuan was about to leave when Ji Liuli called him back again. Senior Sister's expression was rather complicated as she said to him, "That teacher of yours is someone who would rather die than lose face, and he is clumsy with words. He never knows how to speak properly. When your cultivation bears fruit in the future... remember to treat your teacher well."

Wei Yuan understood even less. He wanted to ask further, but Ji Liuli drove him out.