After Madlenkosi passed the tests to be a preliminary disciple, there were around 100 other examinees with him.
He was handed a tan and brown beizi sect uniform, his sect identification tablet as well as the basic sect qi and body cultivation manuals.
The sect identification tablet looked like a small dark gray marbled gate with the name Yang on the front and Jīn on the back while the manuals were given to preliminary disciples for the sole reason of further judging their talents.
The disciples were given 3 months to get as far as possible on the martial path without sect resources.
This helped with strengthening their foundation, reducing any reliance on pills as showing their natural talent.
...
As he was directed to his training room, he marveled at the sight of the sect. The vast valleys and powerful mountains which aimed towards the sky like pillars left him awestruck.
He was led to a small courtyard that housed 5 different preliminary disciples. As he got there he noticed that 3 of the rooms were already occupied. He nodded to the outer sect disciple who led him here and glanced to the other preliminary disciples as he nodded.
As he reached an unoccupied room he noticed that it was quite clean as he laid the things he received from the sect on the bed.
The room had a small cultivation chamber with a Qi Gathering formation as well as a small pond which was used to wash oneself. After cleaning himself he changed into the Titan's Gate Sect preliminary disciple uniform and placed the sect jade token in his inner shirt pocket.
Once he finished looking around at all the novel things around him, he got on the bed as sat with his legs beneath him. He took up the 2 manuals to peruse them.
The first was a qi cultivation manual named the Great Titans Way which the body cultivation manual was named the Iron Temple Treasury technique.
The two were high-grade mortal ranked techniques that were above what he was previously using. At the end of the 3 months, the sect would be able to tell which path a disciple was most gifted in and foster them towards that path.
As he read the qi cultivation manual first which had 6 layers, remodeled the qi channels while fortifying the layers of qi cultivation.
The body cultivation manual which was made of 7 layers repeatedly tempered the body to make it strong, agile, and durable, as well as converting qi stored in the flesh to vital essence or 'Prana'.
Madlenkosi slowly breathed out as he placed the books down. He slowly activated the Qi Gathering formation as he started to practice the Great Titan's Way manual. As he urged his qi through the energy circuit the book directed, he could feel the qi that was previously in discord start to smoothen.
Within the first 15 minutes, he was able to break through to the first layer which was called Titan's Arrival. This Qi cultivation manual emphasized Qi purity as well as the usage of Qi. While most fundamental manuals allowed at most 90% of qi usage, The Great Titan's Way allowed one to use their qi with maximum efficiency, and with each layer, the purity of qi increased by 20%.
Soon he fortified his previous layers of the qi cultivation, body refinement layer.
The fortification increased his strength by half an elephant's placing him at 4 elephants strength even without The Moon Gazing Mountain Technique.
As time trickled by he was able to make a breakthrough to the 5th layer of body refinement, The Muscle Tempering layer.
Due to the lack of internal toxins, he was able to speedily and stably increase his realm but due to the rapid increase he still chooses to stop his qi cultivation and cultivate the Iron Temple Treasury Technique.
As he opened the manual he read the mantra as well as viewed the diagrams.
'The body is a Temple with unlimited potential '
As he sat and thought of it he slowly got up and started doing the 9 stances from the manual.
Soon he started to feel hot as waves of heat rose from his body, the residual qi stored deep within his flesh from the strange golden peach was released.
Soon he was able to pass the threshold for the first layer named the Ivory Bones Layer of the Temple Forging Realm. The heat continually burning off the excess waste that was hidden deep inside his bones.
As he reached the Ivory Bones layer his strength saw a massive increase, reaching 6 Elephants' strength. His body grew more toned and his frame more robust and solid.
Not only was he shocked by this discovery, but it also made him more fervent in increasing his strength.
For the next few days, he continued his body cultivation under the sun during the day and fortified his qi cultivation at night.
He noticed his body cultivation was more rewarding when done under the first-morning sun or in the afternoon when the sun was at its highest.
He continued this pattern for a week as he saw breakthroughs in both his Body and Qi cultivation, he entered the Crystal Marrow stage as he continued to filter and burn off impurities as well as reaching the last layer of the Qi cultivation body refinement realm, The Tendon Exchange Layer.
......
The threshold within these 3 months was either the Qi Gathering Realm of the Qi Cultivation Path or the Prana Gathering realm of the Body Cultivation Path. Soon Madlenkosi would be able to apply for the Outer Sect but he stopped his Qi cultivation to build a better foundation as he focused solely on Body Cultivation.
A month and a half had passed and he had reached the Pinnacle of the Body Refinement layer of Qi Cultivation.
He could break through at any time but he was suppressing it due to new knowledge he received from a preliminary disciple in his courtyard.
The knowledge was that if one breaks through in body cultivation before Qi cultivation it allows the dantian to be even stronger than the norm which was beneficial to their foundation as well as their future growth.
As such he placed even more emphasis on his Body Cultivation as he got more food added to his daily meals.
He had noticed that the further he got in Body Cultivation the more quickly he became hungry, especially while cultivating.
He was currently at the 7th Layer of 9 layers of Temple Forging, namely the Hydra Lungs which was trained by holding one's breath underwater while facing pressure from all sides as he circulated the Iron Temple Treasury Technique.