It was late in the evening when Ming Yue finally came home to the Sky Pavilion.
After two hours of martial arts training, she had spent another six hours in class learning about various subjects such as martial arts theory, medicinal plants, and sect history. Followed by six hours of cultivation, where she had practiced the moves for activating her acupoints. There was a total of 81 acupoints and moves she needed to memorize and while she had practiced several today, she had only learned to do 8 of them.
By her estimation it would take her about two weeks to learn all the moves and their correct order before she could finally start refining demonic qi. After that she didn't know how long it would take for her demonic core to be formed.
She was truly exhausted as she stepped through the gate. She couldn't remember the last time she had done so much in one day.
However upon seeing Jun Xi sitting on a stone stool under the small stone pavilion drinking warm wine and reading a book just like the day before, her mood lightened.
She stumbled over but just as she reached the small stone pavilion she collapsed and fell face-flat onto the lawn.
"I-I'm never going back there again." She mumbled into the grass in complete exhaustion.
Jun Xi closed his book and walked over to her.
Then suddenly her whole body flew up in the air and spun around before she landed in Jun Xi's arms.
"Eh? Uh? Eh!?"
Caught by surprise of finding herself being held in Jun Xi's arms, she looked up into Jun Xi's deep dark eyes that seemed to contain galaxies. Her face became hot. W-what is he planning to do? She nervously bit her lower lip.
"It's been hard on you." As he spoke his hot breath that carried a slight tinge of a herbal scent from the wine landed on her face, making it grow even hotter.
He carried her inside into her room and laid her down on her bed. She pursed her lips and looked up at him with a dreamy look. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest.
"Open your mouth." He spoke softly, but still carried the weight of manliness.
She looked at him puzzledly but then followed his command and spread her cherry lips, and before she knew it, a medicinal pill had been forced into her mouth and swallowed.
A gentle coolness began spreading throughout her body. It was a wonderful feeling, however the coolness didn't match the hotness going on inside her mind, so she couldn't help but feel slightly cheated.
"This pill will help restore you to your original condition, so that you can continue your training tomorrow morning." Jun Xi said as he stroked the top of her head gently before he stood up and walked out of the room.
Ming Yue laid dead still on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, eyes seemingly sparkling of stars. Then she moved a hand up to her head were Jun Xi's touch seemed to be lingering. A warm smile spread on her lips.
And like that a little over two weeks passed.
Every day she trained martial arts, had classes, and practiced her cultivation method. And every two days she turned into a fruit and was dropped into the bathtub by Jun Xi.
Because of the annoying transformation she couldn't wait to start cultivating. And today she was finally ready. She had memorized all the 81 moves and their order to start refining demonic qi.
Jun Xi had already told Teacher Hao Bao that she would enter closed door cultivation starting today.
Ming Yue followed Jun Xi into the backyard were there was a circle of fake mountains.
"You can practice here. The circle is a spiritual energy gathering formation which will help speed up your cultivation by 10 times." Jun Xi explained.
"En." Ming Yue nodded and stepped into the circle. She took a deep breath to focus her mind. Then she began to make the moves which resembled tai chi, activating one acupoint after another.
As the acupoints activated, a trail of hot energy followed the activation sequence and when she performed the last move the hot energy flowed into her dantian which caused her lower belly to heat up.
"Remember your breathing." Jun Xi remarked as he saw droplets of perspiration forming on her forehead.
"Right." Ming Yue responded and adjusted her breathing.
The breathing was important in order to not overheat and keep the meridians and acupoints cooled. If you became overheated then at best you'd get too exhausted to continue cultivating and at worst you would become delirious and mess up the activation sequence which could lead to spiritual energy deviation which could cause irreparable damage to your acupoints and meridians.
After one hour of cultivation, Ming Yu discovered she found it very meditative, fulfilling, and addictive. Every time she completed a cycle and felt the hot energy flow into her dantian she felt she had advanced a little. When she read about cultivation in novels or comic books in her previous life she thought it would be boring and that not in a million years she would have the patience to do it herself. But now that she had been cultivating for an hour it felt like almost no time had passed at all, she was always too focused on completing the next cycle.
Another three hours passed when Jun Xi interrupted her. "Let's take a break."
"En." Ming Yue made a finishing movement by pulling her hands up to her chest and then pushing down. This would clear the meridians from any left over energy.
Jun Xi walked up to her holding a small towel and began to gently dry her persperated face. "How was it?" He asked.
"I feel like I could do this all day!" Ming Yue said, she felt really excited.
"You can't overdo it in the beginning. You need to drink water regularly and eat some food. It's easy to forget your exhaustion as you're beginning which can easily lead to delirium and spiritual energy deviation. Remember!" He emphasised the last word by gently tapping on her nose with a knuckle.
"Understood!" A shy smile appeared on her face. Jun Xi had become much more gentle toward her the past two weeks. Almost to the point where she could barely fall asleep anymore as his actions kept replaying over and over in her mind.