"Hui, I never realised that you were such a proactive girl. It's actually a nice change of pace compared to all these reserved women, I just didn't expect-"
"Masteeeeer!" Hui interrupted him with a miserable whine. She wouldn't usually interrupt him, but he'd been teasing her all day about their sleeping situation last night and she was beyond embarrassed by now.
"Haha, don't worry, I know that Hui is actually the naive type." Khan smiled and rubbed her twitching cat ears.
"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"
"You see? Anyone other than a naive type would understand what I meant."
"So it's like that…" She hung her head defeatedly.
Khan laughed, then continued with what he was doing and once again entered the 2nd stage Body Tempering Formation.
"Around 200 spirit units again Hui…" He sighed painfully. Using so many spirit stones every day was a bit painful. Even though Yusef was one rich fatty, it's not like his funds would last forever.
After counting everything they had carefully, Hui and Khan both agreed that they had around 7,200 spirit units worth of spirit stones. Of course, most of Yusef's belongings were assortments of various treasures, all of which he seemed to be hoarding for no apparent reason. He never sold anything that he discovered on his 'adventures', even if it was useless to him and could be sold for a good price.
They would certainly have much more after selling some things off, but money didn't last forever, and cultivation was a long and drawn out process. It took Khan three years to reach the Body Transformation Realm, and seven years to ascend from the Body Transformation Realm to the Vital Life Realm. This period of time would only increase with each realm ascension. This was inevitable, for Qi Refiners and Body Temperers alike.
That said, a Body Temperer's progress would reach a peak rate when their body was in the prime age range for their race. For human males, this was around 25. Khan's physical body had aged rapidly to the point that he looked like a man in his early twenties, he wasn't sure if this was already his prime physical age, or if he would age another year or two.
Since his appearance changed so rapidly, he couldn't really say if his physical age was in fact as low as 20 or as high as 25, but he guessed that it should lay somewhere between. Or maybe this was all a coincidence and he just looked really mature for a 15 year old…probably not though.
Once a Body Temperer reached their prime, their body's ageing process would stop entirely. Body Temperers never became elderly in terms of their physical appearance. Since the basis of their cultivation was their body, then their body would never decline to such a state so long as their realm didn't drop.
Qi Refiners weren't the same. Instead, whenever their life-span increased when they ascended to a higher cultivation realm, they would live out those extra years with whatever current appearance they possessed. They would then continue to age at a normal pace once those years were over.
On the bright side, young women who ascended through the Qi Refining realms tended to become more attractive with each realm. It meant that Khan would also be able to continually bed increasingly charming women as he grew stronger and was able to subdue those stronger female cultivators.
'Eh, is my mind really wandering so much right now? How can it be that I'm feeling bored right now, even as the formation is operating in full force?' Khan suddenly realised that something was amiss and opened his eyes. Compared to yesterday, he could swear that it wasn't nearly as painful!
In the past, he always kept his eyes shut and focussed on forcing himself to endure the agony of having his body restructured by the formation. Right now, he did feel terrible pain, but it wasn't even bad enough to distract him from the fact that he was just sitting here and doing nothing for hours on end.
'Damnit, the boredom is far worse than the torture…'
"Hah…" Khan sighed.
"Master, what's wrong?" Hui quickly stopped cultivating nearby and rushed to his side.
"Hui, can you check the formation for me?"
"Right!" She was worried that this might be urgent and didn't say anything else. However, after checking every essential component, she found that it was working perfectly, the same as the day before.
"The formation is fine…master, could it be that the pain really is too intense?" She asked with concern.
"No, that's not the problem." Khan shook his head and sighed. "Hui…this is really boring. Is there a way to ramp it up a bit more? Something to distract me maybe?"
Hui stared at Khan blankly and didn't say anything for a while. Eventually she noticed something strange.
"Master, I don't think I've ever heard you talk so naturally whilst training with the formation….not even with the 1st stage formation."
Khan blinked.
"You're right, this really is weird then…that's why I was wondering if it was broken or something."
"Does it not hurt?" She asked curiously.
Khan was about to reply 'it's not even that painful', but stopped himself. He frowned, then shut his eyes and focussed inwards, towards his body and how he was feeling.
After a minute, he opened his eyes with a weird look.
"No, the energy entering my body is exactly the same as yesterday, but I'm just finding it easier to endure somehow. It's as if my pain tolerance increased by ten times overnight. That doesn't make any sense though…"
Hui didn't know what to say. She kept checking the formation, but it really was working perfectly.
Since he had some time to think as he sat there, Khan tried to work out what was going on. Although, more so than actually caring, he was trying to distract himself from this boring training session.
'What changed between yesterday and today…nothing, I just slept. I literally used the formation, slept, then used it again, yet the second time feels so much different to the first. That said, I was suspicious that it was actually 25 times more torturous even yesterday…because…'
Khan's eyes shot open and he nearly slapped himself, but refrained from doing so, since that would deactivate the formation.
"The damn pill! There's a weird pill treasure sleeping in my soul, what the hell else could it be except for that?!"
"Could it be that the pill is increasing my pain tolerance? No, the spirit is dormant, it's asleep…so what could it be doing to affect the level of pain…?"
Khan pondered on it for a few seconds, when a thought flashed through his mind.
He paused and laughed. No, it couldn't be that. Haha, that would be too damn unlucky, it couldn't possibly…
"Is that damn pill stealing all of my energy?!" Khan suddenly opened his eyes wide and shouted out loud, startling Hui.
What else could the pill spirit be doing whilst sleeping, other than recovering its energy? What else could possibly cause these elusive white energy drills, which were clearly still piercing through his body, to not cause him serious agony?
"Master, there's only two spirit units left in the formation." Hui informed him.
Khan took a deep breath, then showed a rare serious gaze that took Hui by shock. He looked…motivated?!
"Hui, add another 200 units. If it runs low again, add another 200 again, until I'm finished."
"Master, could it be that you're going to actually work for more than five hours today?!" Hui cried out in shock. This, this was ground breaking…Khan actually…wanted to do more work?!
"No Hui, this isn't work." Khan shook his head and a dark glint appeared in his eyes. He gradually started to release his killing intent, until it unknowingly encompassed the palace reception hall with Khan at the centre!
"Something absolutely unacceptable has happened…someone has stolen from me! I won't rest until I steal back a hundred times what they took!"
Just as Hui finished refuelling the formation, the Fu sisters unexpectedly arrived. Khan didn't have the mood to deal with them though, but that was obvious just by looking at him, and by feeling the dense killing aura around him.
This aura was filled with an irreconcilable grudge, a hatred that could only be erased with blood!
"Just what happened to him?" Fu Bian asked Hui in shock. The last time she saw Khan release his killing intent and reveal his apparent 'hatred', was back in the death match with Yusef. But right now, his aura was ten times more terrifying than before!
"It seems like someone, or maybe I should say something, touched master's bottom line." Hui shook her head and sighed deeply. The Fu sisters shared a bewildered glance.
Just what exactly happened between yesterday and today?
Hui looked towards Khan and showed a pitiful look. However, that look was not directed towards him, but towards the entity that had picked a fight with him. She knew that Khan's enemies always suffered terrible fates, there were no exceptions to this.
"Someone not only stole master's training efforts from him…but they also wasted five hours of his time!"