Duck Lake.
"So, what happened?" Wan Lin asked. Lin Yingjie was fined fifty silver and one week of mining at the sect's moonstone mine for the two classes missed and returning three days late.
Lin Yingjie smiled calmly, took a fist sized stone lying by his foot and gripped it tight. Then he released his grip and lift it up for his friends to see. The stone had a distinct hand print covering it's surface.
"You broke through?!!" Pan Mu's face now looked like a bowling ball, one big circle with three small ones on it.
"Yes!!" Lin Yingjie was no longer able to keep his calm posture and burst out laughing.
Wan Lin's face looked unnatural.
"Haha brother Wan Lin, you are not gonna go back on your word now, are you?" Lin Yingjie put his arm over Wan Lin's shoulder and pulled down while laughing loudly.
"Ofcourse I'm not." Wan Lin humphed and threw his hand away.
"Now, now don't be grumpy. It's just one month's expenditure. We'll try our best to keep it a minimum. Right brothers." Lin Yingjie didn't mind and threw his arms over Pan Mu and Zhang Wuji's shoulders, still grinning from ear to ear.
"No way! He was not present when the bet was made. No way I'm gonna pay for him." Wan Lin irritatedly said while pointing at Zhang Wuji.
"Okay, I'll pay for him and you too. You just need to pay for me and brother Pan as the bet said."
"Hmph."
"That's awesome! But Yingjie, that still doesn't explain why you came late. You could've just broken through here in the sect. It's not like timing is of any importance in our realm." Pan Mu asked puzzled.
"My grandfather came home from his travels, bringing a bunch of different oils and personally helped me and another member of the direct line break through seventh level."
"Wouldn't that have some adverse effects?" Pan Mu asked worried.
"No, we were almost at the verge of breaking through and the oils and the qi from foundation building realm cultivator gave us the last push."
"Oh." Pan Mu nodded in understanding.
"Hold on what's with the stone?" Zhang Wuji finally got a chance to speak.
"Brother Zhang you need to pay more attention to things related to cultivation. Always try to learn as much as possible. When one breaks through to seventh level, the qi in one's body is abundant enough to amplify one's strength by a little without which leaving one's handprint on a hard stone is not possible." Lin Yingjie advised seriously.
"Amplifying with one's qi, shouldn't that be something that only qi condensation realm and above cultivators could do?" From what he knew, body refinement realm cultivators cannot control their qi.
"Yes that's true. But in this case, the qi isn't manipulated to amplify strength, the qi present in and around the part exerting strength automatically amplify it. Has nothing to do with the person. Using this method, one could use some of the grade one items that require qi only for activation and run on some other source."
"Oh. Now, what did you guys bet about?"
"Oh that..."
....
After the sun set, Zhang Wuji parted ways with the other three and went to the target grounds.
'This time I'll take it slow. The right will take a couple of days more to heal, I'll try with my left hand.'
'It's good that Yingjie broke through. I wonder when I'll reach seventh level. *shakes head* It's been only three months since I reached fifth. Obviously it'll take some time. I'm unnecessarily thinking too much. If only I had this body since the beginning...
Stupid! Since you're wishing, why not wish for some genius' body? Sigh.'
He resisted the urge to go back to his room and wait for sleep, and successfully reached the dummy.
'Step 1 complete.'
He took his stance, and punched.
.....
'Still can't blow the dummy away.' He looked at the dummy, disappointed. He had hit it till his whole body hurt, but never pushed it back even a foot.
'I'm tired.'
Plop!
He let his body fall to the ground and stared at the stars. This world's sky was beautiful. He had only seen such beautiful star filled sky in pictures. The real thing was awesome indeed.
He didn't know any constellations other than Big dipper. Everytime he looked at the sky, he searched for it.
Today he did the same. He kept staring at the sky. He knew he wasn't gonna find it, but for some reason, he forgets that everytime.
This time, he forgot again. He kept staring. The Big dipper long slipped out of his mind, but his eyes kept scanning the sky, who knew what he searched for this time.
After an unknown period of time, he sat up straight intending to leave. He lifted his head up and looked straight.
Ba-dump!
He looked at the most breath-taking scene he had ever laid his eyes on. The beautiful starry sky, the round moon and a girl in white basking in the gentle moonlight.
Time seemed to stop. He stayed in the same pose, with his left leg and right arm bent a little as if to help him up, his lips parted and his eyes wide open. All thoughts, fatigue, pain, fear, vanished.
When he came to, the girl was no longer there, the moon had set. He looked up at the sky, tears rolled down his temple, and he smiled.
He felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulder. His mind, clear like never before. For the first time since coming to this world, no, since long back from his days on earth, he was at peace.
He stayed like that for a while longer before getting up and leaving for his room. He fell asleep soon after his head hit the pillow.