Sam woke up after a few minutes only to see a resolute look on his father's face. Arnold turned towards Jason and asked him "How long can he live if he doesn't cultivate?" Jason answered painfully "I can't say for sure but with the current state of his body, not more than 10 more years." Jason wanted to say something more but Arnold's face suddenly changed as he started muttering "With the current state..." and a crazed light grew in his eyes. Jason and Arnold had known each other for more than 50 years but what happened the last time he had seen this look still scared him.
Arnold looked at him and said "With the current state of his body, Damien will die in 10 years. But what if he could improve his body? What if, his body becomes so strong that even that darned disease can't do anything to him?" Jason was shocked at the craziness of his friend. He said "You know that's impossible. Nothing on this planet can make a person's body....." he was about to finish his sentence when he remembered a hellish memory he wished he could erase. "You aren't thinking of giving Damien 'that' are you? You know that it's forbidden and for good reason. It nearly killed us, you madman, and now, you want to give it to my grandson? Absolutely not!" "He is my grandson too! Do you think I want to do this, huh? I don't but I don't have any other choice. I won't let my grandson die without giving him a chance to live." said Arnold with enough pain and anger in his voice that Jason saw some reason in his words.
Sam looked confused and couldn't hold it in anymore so he asked them "What are you guys talking about? What is 'that' and what about it is so dangerous that it was forbidden?" Arnold looked at his son and sighed "Do you remember the history lesson I gave you when you were little? Even that wasn't the complete truth. You see, when the meteor released the radiation, it disintegrated. Inside the meteor was a book with the name, 'Fatal Painforged Rebirth'. It was a body tempering manual. On the first page, a simple introduction to the technique was written. 'This body tempering technique requires the destruction of the body to initiate the technique. The more thorough the destruction, the better the effects. The forging highlights the removal of impurities from the body and the rebirth refers to the rebuilding of a new purer body. It requires an impossible amount of pain tolerance. The risk of death is 100% if the practitioner gives in to the pain. It has no limits.' Father thought that it exaggerated the difficulty of the technique and tried it out. It didn't work for him as he was already too old to practice the technique. Only people under 16 years can start practicing this technique. Once they returned home they showed the technique to us; me, Jason, Bree, and Leo. We were fearless and tried to activate the technique. I can still remember the soul-crushing pain even after all these years. That's why, when we became the Heads of our respective clans we made the technique a forbidden tome. But it's a perfect fit for Damien. You heard what Jason said. That disease's goal is to destroy Damien's body and it's doing a very good job. Instead of letting it do what it wants, we should make use of it. The pain will train and hone his willpower. Once he wakes up I will personally teach him the technique.
Damien stayed in a coma for about 6 months. Once he woke up, it took him another 2 months to recover his health. Arnold decided to be the one to break the bad news to his grandson. One day he called Damien to his room and asked him to sit on the bed. He had thought about how he would shatter his grandson's dreams and decided to be straightforward. "Damien, you cannot cultivate. Ever. You are sick with an untreatable disease and cultivation will only make it worse." He waited a little bit so that Damien could process the news he had just received. He then continued speaking " There is a way for you to become stronger, even stronger than me. But it requires for you to experience intense pain and if you aren't careful even death. So what about it, do you want to become strong?
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Author's Note:
Hey guys, The first cultivation technique has finally made an appearance. Hope you are liking this novel. Please leave some reviews.
P.S., all the chapters are still unedited so if there are some grammatical errors, they will be fixed in a day or two.