When Noah woke up, he found himself in an unknown room lying on a bed.
His mind was foggy, and he tried to turn his head to have a better look at the surroundings.
Immediately, as a result, a wave of pain coming from both his back and head made him grunt.
"You'd better not move, only two days have passed, and your body still needs to recover. Your mind was exhausted too, so I recommend you stay where you are and rest some more time before even thinking of resuming your training."
William's voice sounded from the side of the bed, he was holding a book while casually browsing through its pages.
"Did the treatment succeed?"
Noah asked with a low voice.
"You really don't have anything else in your mind, do you? Yes, everything went well, and as the nourishment of the first cycle goes on, you will break through the barriers of the rank 1 body and stabilize in its early stage."
William closed the book and took a basin full of a green liquid from a nearby table.
"Drink this, it will work as a meal and speed up your recovery process."
He held the basin on Noah's mouth and slowly poured the liquid inside, paying attention not to make him choke.
A cold sensation invaded Noah as he forced himself to drink the soup, ignoring the pain he felt from gulping.
When he was done, he felt sleepy again.
"I think I will get some more rest, Master."
Then he closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep.
William shook his head, but a smile was ever-present on his face.
'The treatment was actually worse than I thought, but he handled it well. Such determination and mental energy, I feel blessed having a disciple like this.'
William sat down on the chair by the bed and picked again the book he was reading. He wasn't going to leave his disciple's side until he had fully recovered.
It was only three days later that Noah was finally able to stand up on his own, though with a bit of effort.
William was still by his side and could not help but be truly amazed.
"In only five days of rest, you can already stand up… The advantages of the Seven Hells method sure are amazing! Even your mental energy completely recovered yesterday, I believe that in another day you might be almost at full strength."
Noah was trying to sense the changes in his body while he was standing, he could clearly perceive the absorption force on his back that was constantly providing "Breath" to his body, speeding its recovery process.
"It is indeed wonderful, Master. I think that after my body has fully recovered, and the "Breath" focuses on nourishing it, my strength will rise exponentially!"
William shook his head and realized that it had become a habit of his since when he had started his lessons with Noah.
"For now just focus on your recovery and on getting used to your new strength, from next week onwards we are going to spar using the "Breath" every session since its replenishment won't affect your free time anymore."
When he said that, Noah became excited and wholeheartedly focused on resting.
The following day, Noah went back to his lodging and was overwhelmed by his worried mother's questions.
After he managed to hide the dangerous parts and ate more than he'd ever had in his life, Lily let him free to go back to his room, satisfied with the time she had spent with her son.
Noah's life went back to his previous routine. The only difference was that his weekly training sessions with his Master had become more intense.
They would spar all morning, and Noah's usage of the "Breath" synchronized with the twin saber style grew in ability with every session, with his Master addressing his fast improvement to the Forging of Seven Hells method.
Yet, his biggest progress was still his mental energy.
By that time, he could train with the Kesier rune for five hours straight.
Apparently, his mind got stronger after holding on against the pain of the treatment.
'It seems that the experiences one goes through in life can strengthen the stability of the sphere in the sea of consciousness. The more stable ones mind is, the more it can endure its exposure to the rune.'
Noah realized that, after another night of training in mental energy.
Two months had passed since that day in the torture room, and he felt that his body had reached some kind of limit, yet his seven acupoints were still absorbing "Breath", so he tossed the idea of undergoing the second treatment away.
His head hurt, like every night after he stared at the rune for many hours, but that pain could not make him flinch anymore.
'After surviving that day, I'm afraid my concept of pain got a little twisted.'
He smiled lightly and then went to sleep.
Early in the morning, when the sun was yet to rise, he abruptly woke up feeling some uneasiness in his body.
He stared at himself and noticed that his skin pores were secreting some black substance that had a nauseating smell.
Not knowing what to do and thinking that it was an aftereffect of the Seven Hells method, he hastily jumped outside the window in his room and ran toward the guards building with such a hurry that falling from the first floor only caused him a little discomfort as he activated the "Breath" in his body to reinforce his lower limbs.
He ran way faster than he had ever done in his life, but he was too worried to notice it.
When he was on the first floor of the building, he promptly called for his Master.
"Master, help! There seems to be a problem with my body."
William was a forty-one-year-old cultivator.
He had cultivated for more than twenty years.
A person like him would notice when someone ran near his room but would usually ignore them since he loved to sleep.
That day though, he was forced to wake up to his disciple's call for help.
He hastily left his room and looked in the direction of the voice.
Noah was covered from head to toe in some black liquid that had a terrible smell.
From his expression, you could see how worried he was.
William, seeing him in that state, smiled at first but then got a bit angry at himself.
'Shit, I totally forgot to explain it to him. If I told him earlier, I could have kept on sleeping. Well, how could I know that it would have been so soon.'
He yawned and then rubbed his still sleepy eyes.
Seeing the relaxed attitude of his Master, Noah calmed down a little and patiently waited for an explanation.
"So, what's the problem?"
William said, a bit irritated.
Noah was surprised.
'Isn't it obvious?'
He thought.
"Ehm, I woke up in the middle of the night with this dirt coming out of my body. Could you please explain what is happening to me, dear Master?"
William wore a surprised expression and acted like he didn't notice anything until Noah mentioned it.
"Oh, that. Well, your body has advanced to rank 1."
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Edited by: Alessandro Sica