After a month of training…
Raymond was exercising in his room to exhaust himself. After he fell face first into the ground tired, he circulated his mana and expelled it outside of his body.
Blurghhh
He vomited dry air and felt nauseous from mana exhaustion. The duration of this nausea was getting longer and longer each time he emptied his mana. And he also needed more mana than before to completely rejuvenate his body and mind.
Raymond laid on the floor groaning in pain when he felt mana entering his body and strengthening it. He sighed in content from the feeling of getting stronger.
*knock**knock*
"Come in." Raymond got up from the floor and went to open the door. He casually pulled the door open and it completely broke off from its hinges and fell to the floor.
Thud~
"Ah, young master. What happened?" He saw Jasmine outside standing with her mouth wide open.
"Hehe, I don't know." Raymond scratched the back of his and brushed it off as if it was nothing.
"Ok, I will arrange for someone to fix the door." Jasmine nodded dumbly and went back to get someone to fix the door.
'Looks like it isn't safe for me to train inside my room. I need to find someplace safer.' Raymond thought inwardly.
After thinking for some time Raymond decided to go to the mountain range behind his family manor. That place was usually devoid of people and rarely anyone went there.
And thus Raymond started training in the mountains. After that he was very rarely seen in his room or his family compounds.
There were even rumours started circulating that he had become reclusive, because he found out that he had no talent for cultivation and was ashamed to show his face to anyone.
Obviously Raymond was unaware of these rumours and continued his training.
*******
After a year of training…
Raymond was running on the top of the mountain without resting. He had been running for 2 days straight and still wasn't tired.
He heard the sound of footsteps from behind. He stopped running and turned around to see Jasmine coming towards him.
"Young master, young master, there is good news. The Emperor and Master Thomas had signed a marriage contract between you and the seventh princess." Jasmine said excitedly.
"Ok." He continued with his running.
"..." Jasmine.
*******
Raymond continued running and exercising for one more day to completely exhaust his stamina. He collapsed on the floor and emptied whatever small amount of mana he had.
Blurghh
He again vomited dry air and waited for mana to replenish his body.
'Sigh~ How long has it been since I ate something? I remember eating something a week ago.' He thought inwardly.
Apart from some medicines and pills sent by his father to fix his core, he had only been eating wild fruits grown in the mountains.
*******
After another year of training…
Raymond woke up from his long sleep. He had finally managed to sleep after a long time of training and was asleep for almost a week. He was leaning against a tree when he fell asleep and had been in this state for a week.
He found Jasmine leaning her head on his shoulders and sleeping next to him. He found some dried tears on her cheeks.
Jasmine woke up from the movements made by Raymond. Her eyes had become puffy and red from crying.
Raymond sighed seeing Jasmine, thinking that she was crying because of him.
"Don't worry, Jasmine. I am completely fine, I just fell asleep due to exhaustion, there is nothing wrong with me." He tried to explain his week-long sleep with some excuses.
"Huh? T-that, I understand Master." She dumbly nodded and got up.
"I will bring something for you to eat." She started walking downhill in a catatonic state.
Raymond had a sinking feeling in his stomach when he saw her like that. Suddenly his eyes widened in realisation.
"Wait, why are you calling me master?" He asked, feeling dreadful.
Jasmine stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned around, she had tears streaming down her face and just collapsed on the ground crying.
Raymond moved like a bolt of lightning and arrived behind her. He hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear.
"It's okay. You can tell me what happened."
"I-I am sorry master, b-but master Thomas, he, he is dead." She started wailing loudly.
Raymond felt his head spinning when he heard that. It took some time to finally register what he had heard.
"W-what? How? What happened Jasmine?" He asked in disbelief.
"There was a *hic* battalion from the Heavenmist *hic* Empire. T-they were trying to cross the border and attack the nearby town. Master Thomas went with his own battalion to intercept them, but there was a *hic* news three days ago that he died while fighting them off." Jasmine managed to say between her hiccups.
"We tried to wake you up for the past three days, but you wouldn't wake up no matter what we did. I was worried I lost you too. Please master, don't leave me alone." She started crying again, clinging to him tightly.
Raymond nodded dumbly and got up from the ground, he stumbled his way down the mountain. He went to the family cemetery and found the recently built grave of his father.
He knelt in front of his father's grave and numbly stared at it. He felt lost and didn't know what to do. He knelt there for 3 days without moving and kept thinking about all the time he had spent with Thomas.
'Always remember this Ray. In this world you will meet people who will tell you that a person's ultimate goal should be to find peace, but what they don't tell you is that anyone can find peace but only the truly powerful ones could keep it for a long time.'
There was a glint of determination in Raymond's eyes when he remembered his father's words.
'Father, I promise that I will get strong enough to achieve that peace and keep it as long as I live.'
He stood up and walked back to the top of the mountain.
*******
After two more years of training…
Blurghh
He had been running for a month without resting and finally managed to tire himself out.
*crack**crack*
He heard cracking sounds coming from his body.
Arghhhhh
Every inch of his body felt like it was on fire. He buckled over and started punching the ground due to extreme pain. The mountain collapsed under his punch and sunk down into the base and he started rolling around to cope with the pain.
He didn't even realise that he had rolled behind the mountain ranges and had entered the forest behind it.
He was sweating all over his body and felt like countless ants were gnawing at his skin.
Arghhh
He started screaming again and screamed until his voice became hoarse. He was in this state for a long time, he didn't know how much time had passed and felt like he had spent years in pain. Every minute felt like eternity for him.
After an unknown amount of time the pain finally subsided and his eyelids were forced to close as he fell asleep.
*******
"Woahhh" Raymond suddenly woke up and looked around to find himself in a forest. He felt blissfully refreshed.
*swish*
*chirp**chirp*
*swish*
He could hear everything in his surroundings, he even clearly heard the leaves rustling due to wind, the sound of ants chewing on leaves and snakes slithering on the ground.
He felt the drops of water dropping on him and looked up. He would never in his life forget what he saw that day.
He saw the clear drops of water falling from the sky, he could distinguish between each droplet and even saw the small splashes it made upon touching the ground.
He touched his face and found it extremely smooth to the touch. He found a puddle of water near a tree and went to see his reflection.
Raymond was now 20 years old and looked extremely handsome with his jet black hair and black eyes. He was 6 feet tall with a lean body.
He had ripped muscles and abs with zero fat on his body due to constant training. He clenched his fist and found the space around his hand trembling.
'Holy shit, this never happened before.' He quickly unclenched his fists and started looking around.
'Huh? How did I get here?' He started moving out of the forest.
He soon found the mountain he was training on in rubble. He saw a group of people gathered near the base of the mountain and he also found Jasmine among the crowd. She was searching for someone anxiously.
'Hmm, what the hell happened to this mountain?'