Never had Hong Tian been so frustrated in his life. He knew deep down that this was the only way to progress in the best way possible. But it was just far too lacking when it came to stimulation! It couldn't be stressed enough how chaotic and full of action Hong Tian's life was before he reincarnated. To say that every waking moment was filled to the brim with stimulation wouldn't come close to doing it justice. Hong Tian simply did whatever he wanted in his past life.
From killing and stealing, plundering and raiding, every single moment of his life was exciting. With his vast array of demonic and devilish techniques, even his cultivation involved little to no down-time on doing "meaningless" things like calmly meditating or entering seclusion. If he wasn't stealing someone's cultivation base to improve his own, using women as living furnaces or even occasionally sharing his essence for "proper" dual cultivation, then he was absorbing some ungodly resource or pill. It wouldn't be an over exaggeration to say that this thirty-minute-long session of orthodox cultivation was among one of the longest periods of times he had spent ingesting Qi from Heaven and Earth.
Currently, Hong Tian was pacing around his cultivation spot as a storm of curses brewed in his heart. He thought he had it in himself to weather through these "hard times," but on actual experimentation, it seemed that he would need a period of time to get used to this new style of cultivation.
'It'll probably be good for this new goody two-shoes Dao Heart I'll be cultivating to learn some patience and restrain, but… Just how long will it fucking take for me to return to my previous peak?!' In his first life as the Immortal Villain it had taken him hundreds of years to reach the extremes of divinity. That was through the millions and billions of shortcuts his demonic and devilish methods granted him. If he had to properly cultivate as he was currently going about it, then even after millions of years, he still might not be close to his previous peak.
Suddenly, Hong Tian felt a hand on his shoulder. He slowly turned his head over, obviously disgruntled as he wasn't used to be bothered, before his expression changed. Hong Yue had at some point brought over towel that was soaked in cool water and asked, "Young master, w-why don't you take a break and loosen up with this." She presented the towel and nervously looked down on the ground.
"Mhmm..." Hong Tian took the towel, but before he used it to wipe his sweat-covered face, he smiled and mumbled, "This… This might actually work."
"W-what was that?" Hong Yue inched a bit closer as she had trouble understanding her young master just then.
"Oh nothing, I was just thinking… I should train you a bit so that you can keep up with me." He honestly replied. Well, "honestly" was a bit of a stretch, but the sentiment was mostly true. In that moment Hong Tian had recalled the one thing all of his more annoying — powerful, or at least powerful enough to cause him trouble — orthodox adversaries during his time as the Immortal Villain had in common was that they valued their friends and family; similar to how much he valued his freedom and independence. The most annoying of all had one thing in common; their undying loyalty and desire to protect their Dao Companion.
Of course, in his past life Hong Tian never had a Dao Companion. Love wasn't even an emotion he thought he could feel. To him, both men and women were facets only useful in bolstering his cultivation; his power. Though he had relationships with women, they were strictly for lust or practice. Romance was never something he even thought about during his previous several-hundred-year-old lifetime. Even now, as he was thinking of turning this maid into his Dao Companion it wasn't out of love; his thinking hadn't changed in the slightest. Instead, he still thought of her as a tool for him to cultivate his new Dao Heart.
"T-train m-me? B-but I don't have the talent..." Hong Yue thought she might be hearing incorrectly. She was but a talentless nobody with only slightly good looks. Why would Hong Tian even suggest such a thing.
"Nonsense," Hong Tian shook his head as he gave her an encouraging smile, "You might not have the talent to cultivate the flowery methods of our clan or sect, but surely you have a talent for something. After all, everyone is good at, at least one thing. We just have to find out what your one thing is."
Growing a bit flushed as she obviously had feeling for the previous Hong Tian and felt like it was a dream come true for him to shower her with such words now, Hong Yue excused herself and quickly ran back inside the house. Once there, as she was fawning over the look and words Hong Tian gave her, she came upon the sight of Hong Wu's hand which could just barely be made out through the door to the kitchen.
Immediately sobering up, Hong Yue couldn't help the conflicting impressions she had of Hong Tian bubbled in her mind, 'Just what is wrong with the young master...' After brewing for several minutes, she sighed, quite unsure of herself, before walking back outside only to find that Hong Tian was already cultivating again.
Her young master, he looked so peaceful, quietly meditating by their house's front porch. His ink black hair fluttering lightly as it followed the wind's guide, his slender figure melding with its surrounding. Hong Yue thought it to be a shame that she couldn't see his crystalline emerald eyes as they were closed, presumably for him to better sink into his meditation.
Sadly, such a sight didn't last long as Hong Tian wouldn't develop patience in the span of a single day. Before an hour had passed since he began the restoration process of his cultivation organs, Hong Tian found himself unable to contain himself any longer. It became routine for him to get up and pace around the spot where he sat in meditation every fifteen to twenty minutes as he continued to restore himself.
Eventually, night descended and Hong Yue found herself pestering her young master. When she reminded him of Hong Wu's corpse, Hong Tian found the annoyance building from being interrupted disperse as he now had something more engaging to do during his breaks. That night, as he continued to meditate and restore himself, he would stimulate his muscles by dragging Hong Wu's corpse out into the woods behind his house, dig a ditch, and bury the body.
Such actions would have been deemed beyond thought to the Immortal Villain — actually, giving someone who had fallen to his hands a proper grave. However, Hong Tian was in a sense inextricably open to anything that would help him reacquired power. Burying an enemy in his current situation was more for his own sake than anyone else's. After all, when he truly began cultivation, he would have to start as everyone did in the Body Sanctification Realm.
His body would have to be trained anyway, so to him, it was only beneficially to get some physical conditioning before he began cultivating, anyway. Hong Tian also subconsciously understood that without his cheat-like demonic and devilish techniques it truly would be suicide to go about antagonizing everyone and their mothers while he was still a weakling. He knew firsthand how lengthy the process of cultivation was; even as a supreme talent. With his current estimates as to how long it would take him to reach his previous peak, it was around millions of his initial lifetime.
Thus, the night passed and Hong Yue found her young master still at it, meditating by the porch. She understood that he had substituted sleep for meditation and was genuinely impressed as it was thought that only veteran cultivators could achieve such a feat. Sadly, that wasn't the case as Hong Tian would probably take much longer than average cultivators to achieve such a feat. Instead, his sleep had been supplemented purely by the Divine Transformation cultivation method; the technique was possessed such a benefit simply because of its unfathomably high grade.
Hong Yue brought her young master a simple breakfast which he didn't reject. He was currently a mortal and as annoying as it was to once more require sustenance simply to survive, Hong Tian couldn't help his case. He took the plate of porridge, eggs, cured pork meat, and thinly sliced vegetables along with the glass of water Hong Yue offered and approved of her cooking. Naturally, his current meal couldn't compare to the dishes prepared by Heavenly Cooks he could call upon to make the greatest cuisine within the God's Domain. But for a mortal to make use of such terribly low grade ingredients, Hong Yue's food far surpassed Hong Tian's expectations.
He had restored about half his meridians by this point and his Dantian was still in shambles. But as he figured now would be a good a time as any to ask Hong Yue, "Say, how much money do we still have?"
"Money? Oh, um… The month is almost coming to a close, so we don't have much leftover. But in four days, I can pick up our monthly allowance. Right now we only have around seven silver coins and a couple hundred bronze coins." Though she emphasized how little they had, Hong Tian understood that with a single silver coin an average family of four could sustain themselves for a week. The amount they had left was only low because they lived marginally better lives than common non-cultivators. They also needed a bit more money every month just to maintain their home.
"Four days? Perfect..." Hong Tian felt confident that by then his Dantian would have revitalized. He gave Hong Yue a sharp looked as he said, "I plan to leave, then. Staying here will only be a waste of time. So, will you follow me?" As much as he wished to just steal her away, it would be bad for his Virtuous Dao Heart to force her into joining his ranks. It truly made him understand to what degree he had taken his demonic and devilish powers for granted...