Mira and Maria have been in non-stop training for around 6 months. Mira just turned 9 and Maria is now 16 as well. Mira is around 140 centimeters tall now. Maria is now a well-endowed-looking young woman. Mira would often look down and then look at Maria and sigh. She knew that she wouldn't become like that for many years, although that matters little to her.
These last 6 months have done wonders for their training. Maria made a breakthrough into Marrow Tempering and has started to work towards Stage 1 Qi Condensation. That will take her some time though as that is the boundary between a mortal and a cultivator. When you are actually able to collect and refine qi through your meridians then send this purified qi to the rest of the body for further use. That's the qi Condensation Stage. There are 9 stages to Qi Condensation and with each stage, the qi gets purer and denser in the body.
After almost 2 months of Hellish training, Maria was able to kill 5 Peak-Stage-Rank 1 magical beast. During those 2 months, she would train with that builder in various ways. She would carry it with it over her head and jog to improve her balance, do push-ups with it on her back, plank with it on her back, do lunges with it. Mira made sure that training was always hell, but Mira would do the exact same thing. Even though she finished her training/punishment and killed those 5 Peak-Stage beasts, Maria decided to stick with her normal schedule. She wouldn't go hunt Peak-Stage beasts as they are rarer than the other stages. This is because they aren't in the inner region yet.
After the 3rd month, Maria finally broke through to the Tempering Marrow stage after completely tempering all of her bone marrow in her body. After her breakthrough, she had a qualitative change in strength. She went to find a bigger boulder as we wanted to temper her muscles to increase her prowess as much as possible before Mira also made some progress in her Ice Dao. She can now freely use ice with her attacks. She can't do it often as she lacks the energy to rely on it too much, but it added to her battle prowess nonetheless.
In the 4th month, Maria and Mira sparred all of the time. They would still train in the morning but would spar for the entire afternoon. Sometimes they would keep sparring after it turned dark out. They both became increasingly proficient in their weapons. Maria, who used to barely be able to understand how to use a sword was finally able to be called a worthy sparring partner for Mira. Mira was also able to get more accustomed to using the scythe with her size. After enough training in these last 4 months, she was able to gain enough strength to control the momentum of the scythe. Even though she was still small, it wasn't enough for her to stop using the scythe.
In the 5th month, Mira put all of her efforts into training. She felt like she was about to break through to the Bone Forging Realm soon, which would greatly improve her survivability and battle prowess. She would only stop training go hunt Peak-Stage-Rank 1 magical beasts with Maria.
Now it's the 6th month and Mira is sitting down in a locus position, forcing qi to enter her bones.
*Crack* *Crack* *POP*
All of Mira's bones began cracking. The pain was immense, but after the cracks were made, they were immediately reforged with the qi that was entering her bones. This was happening to every single bone in her body. Soon there was a small vortex of Qi above her that was gathering to force its way into Mira's bones to reforge those bones from mortal bones to something that will start her path to becoming an Immortal.
It sounded like a raging fire was nearby as all one could hear in the forest were loud cracks and pops. This process carried on for 2 days and nights until the cracks and pops finally stopped. Her ice-blue bones now gave a beautiful golden hue to go along with it. Mira slowly opened her eyes as a wave of pain and hunger overtook her. Maria was sitting next to her protecting her these last 2 days. She also knew that she'd be extremely hungry afterward and cooked up an entire Peak-Stage-Rank 1 beast for her to feast on.
"Congratulations on breaking through! Though I must say that this breakthrough lasted a lot longer than mine and even looked more painful too." Maria said.
Mira was already eating as she said, "Thanks. I think that this breakthrough was longer due to my physique. My body was already stronger than normal mortals, so it took more time for my bones to break down and reforge." Mira said as she also ate a blood mushroom to help try to replenish the blood she lost.
"Well, what are you going to do now? Training is great and all, but I'm getting bored."
"I'm going to open my meridians!" Mira said with conviction.
"Whaaat! So soon? I mean there are lots of ways to open one's meridians. It's not a hard realm to break through to, but this is the foundation of a cultivator. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Maria asked worriedly.
"No need to worry. I'm going to create extremely thin ice needles and use acupuncture on certain spots to open my meridians. Then I will use my cultivation technique to circulate the energy through them to get rid of the impurities in them." Mira said with confidence.
"Okay. If you need any help just ask."
"Sure, but first we are going to spar and hunt non-stop for the next week. I need to break in these new bones of mine."
Like that they started sparring and hunting non-stop for the next week. Mira was actually able to kill Peak-Stage-Rank 1 magical beast alone. Well, a lot of this was because her scythe was a Peak-Mortal-grade weapon. Its sharpness and durability are better than any other Mortal Grade weapon. Also with her new bones, they didn't get fractured when she blocked the beast's hits. They just became sore.
After a week of sparring and hunting, Mira was finally ready to open her Meridians. Opening one's meridians was a big step for a cultivator. It doesn't give them much more strength, but it does increase their recovery and allows them to progress to higher realms.
Mira lay on her back and created 20 extremely thin ice needles. She inserted them into the spots to open her meridians. After the 20th ice needle reached deep enough. It felt like her whole body clicked. She knew that she had opened her meridians. Now it was time to push energy through them to force out the impurities. She started sending Qi through her meridians with the Hell Scythe cultivation technique. It felt like her meridians were about to burst, but this was necessary to be able to open them. More and more energy was sent through her meridians to get rid of the impurities clogging them up. Black sludge was coming out of the pores on her body and she was also throwing up this black sludge as well.
This went on for around a day until she was finally able to circulate energy throughout her meridians without any impurities obstructing her. This was a sign that she had broken through to the Meridian Opening realm.
Mira opened her eyes and smelled something so completely rancid that it could kill. She found black sludge everywhere. Mira used her ice to freeze impurities on the ground then threw the ice into a fire. She then went to find a nearby stream to take a bath. After she did that, she returned to the cave and a wave of fatigue hit her and she immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, Mira woke up feeling refreshed. She circulated Qi through her meridians and nodded. She was very satisfied with her progress. Maria woke up right afterward.
"Congratulations on breaking through again hehe." Maria chuckled
"Thanks."
"Now what are you going to do? We could always go to Lunar Fox City. I'm sure you should be able to join a sect or something as protection for yourself. With your strength and age, someone would surely take you in."
"Yeah, but I prefer being out here in the wilderness surrounded by beasts. I don't have to worry about sneaky plots, reputation, manners, or being captured. Out here it's peacefully simple. It's kill or be killed out here, everything relies on personal strength. I don't have to worry about offending a rabbit only for a dragon to come by and incinerate me for offending the rabbit. Beasts have no background. I think that I will probably stay in this cave for another 2 years. I want to consolidate my progress, grow a little in size, then break through to the Organ Refinement stage. I'm sure you can understand why. I really don't want to look like a 9-year-old my entire life."
Maria chuckled. She understood Mira. She couldn't progress too quickly or she might ruin her foundation, also if she broke into the Qi Condensation realm, then her looks would stay the same for the next 100 years. She can also use this time to slowly break through to the Organ Refinement stage, keeping her foundation stable.
"I understand. If that's all your doing then I might head back to the city. I will ask my father for help in breaking through to the Qi Condensation stage and maybe get a little revenge on the Rineheart family's young master. I can't kill him, but I can cause trouble or at least ask for compensation. I could also get my family to try to ruin Rineheart's reputation a bit for using me as bait. I will just have to wait and see."
"I see. Well, I will try to stay in this cave for the next two years. Then after I break through, I will head towards the inner and core regions of the forest to try and look for any lucky encounters. If you breakthrough to Qi Condensation within 2 years then you may join me if you want. If you aren't at Qi Condensation yet, I will leave you half-dead in the cave and continue my journey. Don't disappoint me." Mira said a little shyly as this was her first so-called friend in this world. She has started to grow fond of Maria these last 6 months and felt like they bonded well.
Maria was stunned for a second. She wasn't expecting this demon to actually invite her on a journey. The part about leaving her half-dead seemed about right though.
"Yes! I will surely make a breakthrough in 2 years and come find you again!" Mira exclaimed happily.
Mira nodded while Maria took out her talisman and crushed it, sending a signal to her father.