A week passed since Xie Ra joined the Jade sword pavilion as a sect's outer disciple. It was the first week he faced so many new things in his second life. Each day passed roughly according to the following schedule.
He and Wei Jingsheng woke up every day to the first bell sound. Then they get ready fast, grab something to eat, and run to the spiritual garden to water their plants. They took care of other plant-related matters at their breaks as they had one hour between first and second bell sounds. After this morning ritual, they joined their teammates at the pre-defined meeting place by their trainer Ai Qing.
Ai Qing taught them so many different things each day. Like spiritual gardening, breathing techniques, history of cultivation, important people of the sect, and how to treat minor and moderate external injuries, etc.
However, many students weren't happy about forcing them to meditate every day using those breathing techniques. Unsurprisingly, lazy Wei Jingsheng was unhappy about this as well. He proudly told Xie Ra how he slept during those sessions. Xie Ra felt helpless.
"Fool, do you know why they taught us that? Cultivators should have strong lungs and a heart. Or your body won't be a good enough vessel to cultivate. It will deteriorate if you directly jump into qi manipulation on your body. These techniques are essential to complete the first realm. Did you think Senior Qing wants to teach us how to manage your anger or something?"
"Eh, I didn't know."
"He told us about it. How didn't you know?" Wei Jingsheng was silent.
Xie Ra hated to be that one person who sounds like I-know-it-all. However, he couldn't help but explain when he saw someone following a harmful direction as well. Xie Ra remembered that many of his past colleagues failed the first realm evaluation as they ignored small things like this.
Wei Jingsheng was staring at the ground as they walked. He seemed to be hurt by Xie Ra's previous words. What is he? A flower?
Yet, Xie Ra felt pity for the boy. So, he patted his shoulder.
"Hey. Wanna walk around a bit?" Wei Jingsheng's face brightened up as soon as he heard these words. He excitedly replied.
"Sure."
Both youths started to walk around the outer disciple vicinity until their lunch break was over.
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Their physical training session started sooner than Xie Ra imagined. When he was learning this in his past life, they did take a long time to teach them about theory and small works like spiritual gardening.
However, he was a small kid back then. Therefore, it was understandable why their shizun took more time to start physical training. Just imagine telling a small eight-year-old to do 200 pushups and run 10km per day.
Even though their training session started with small demands like 25 pushups and 2 km per day, it escalated faster than they thought. Apart from these, they had to do So much heavy work such as carrying heavy stuff that was needed for the sect's day-to-day activities(Rations), filling water tanks of the sect, repairing broken things, woodwork, gathering firewood, etc.
Carrying two large water buckets on their shoulders a few miles per day wasn't an easy task. Even though Xie Ra had a much easier time due to his previous laborer job experience, his shoulders were aching like hell by the evening.
This training wasn't nearly as easy as what he did back then as a kid. Xie Ra felt more respect towards the adult outer disciples after working as a one for three weeks.
However, the most satisfying thing for him was witnessing how easily he adapted to every change that happened within this period of time. Even his plants grew healthier this time. He couldn't wait for their first alchemy lesson as he knew how to forge those pills already.
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One year and six months passed fast. They spent their first realm of cultivation- body training period with hard work and extreme dedication.
They still didn't get their outer disciple uniforms yet. However, they learned so many things within this time period. They knew how to refine many medicinal pills that useful for external injuries, using the plants they grew. Their knowledge about many varieties of plants expanded so fast.
They learned about how to deal with minor and moderate injuries like broken bones, snake bites. Yes, I mean it when I say they are minor and moderate injuries. For cultivators, these aren't anything serious. After the second realm, these things would be the same as a simple scratch wound.
Although they had a hard time these past months, everyone felt that they got much stronger than before. They wondered why they couldn't handle half of these works before. Xie Ra knew it was because their breathing techniques stabilized their breathing, blood flow, and heart. That was the reason behind them getting stronger within a short amount of time.
Not only their bodies got stronger, but also their looks got so much better. Many of them looked rather handsome than they were 18 months ago. Firm muscular body, perfectly tanned skin tone, brightened eyes. Everything made them look ten times better than before.
Xie Ra felt his clothes were tightened so much to the point it made him uncomfortable. He even removed the stitches that were added to them by Yan Yi and Bàba. It's not that he got plump. He was still thin but grew more muscle mass on his lean body like his colleagues. He finally understood the reason they still didn't get their outer disciple uniforms.
Meanwhile, Ai Qing dropped a piece of news that made their lives turn upside down. Their realm evaluation would be in the next week.
This news made poor disciples nervous as they knew if they fail it they have to repeat this training for another six months. Therefore, all of them started to train hard and revise everything they learned to pass the upcoming evaluation.
Meanwhile, the six trainers of the outer disciples gathered around elder Zhang Huan, the outer disciple coordinator to discuss something important.
What was it?