A couple of hours later,
Shen Wang and Feng Long could be seen standing on a slope.
Near the slope a cavity could be seen digging into the rocky crust of the mountain.
This was the back-side of the Body Tempering Peak.
Body Tempering Peak was surrounded by dense layers of forest on it's sides, however even though it was dense, it only stretched for a kilometer or so.
There was a convenient road laid out which cleared the north of the mountain, setting a clear path which the disciples could take to enter the mountain.
Thus usually, no one would waste their time coming from the back of the mountain, however many disciples had their secret hide-outs in the natural caves of the mountain, some even created one for their convenience.
This was Feng Long's hide-out which he had found while exploring the Body Tempering Peak.
It was a small cave with about 5 metric square of space.
In the corner of the cave a few wooden boxes could be seen stacked up, at the back of the cave laid a small wooden bed.
At the center of the cave was a white orb giving off white light, illuminating the room.
The entrance of the cave itself was covered with a dusty brown leather rag which concealed it's whereabouts to others.
"Welcome to my hide-out Junior Brother Shen, I usually live here when I'm not in outer sect dorms," Feng Long explained with a smile.
"This place is really cool Senior Brother! However is it really allowed to just live here?" Shen couldn't help but ask as he was a little skeptical.
"Well there are not rules that prevent us from doing so," Feng Long replied with a smirk.
"Anyways back to our original goal, I will perform the Vital Lotus Breathwork in front of you, after which I will give you the basic idea of what you have to do, you will then go and read the booklet which will give you detailed steps and an in-depth idea on what you have to do.
Finally you have a day to practice by yourself, tomorrow you can find me in this cave during noon and I will look at you perform and give you pointers."
"Anything else you want to ask me before I start the demonstration?"
"No Senior Brother," Shen replied in a firm tone.
"Alright," Feng Long replied in affirmative as he started to remove his clothes until he was only left in his trousers.
Feng Long sat down cross legged on the rocky ground in front of Shen and started taking deep breaths.
He took long deep breaths one by one, after 9 breaths Feng's breathing speed increased, another 9 breaths later his breathing fastened again.
Feng was breathing the same amount of air in every time he took a breath however his speed started to increase exponentially.
After a few minutes, his body started to turn red and his internal organs started to heat up.
In a few dozen breaths, his entire chest became as red as a tomato.
Once his chest became red, Feng started to stir up his spiritual qi.
A small ball of azure energy started floating in front of his chest and started to carve a lotus in air.
The lotus then turned pinkish red, as soon as it started taking color small roots stemmed out of it and entered Feng's chest.
The will-o'-the-wisp extended to his heart and took root inside his heart.
Through the roots, a stream of blood could be seen leaving Feng's chest.
Drops after drops of blood floated out of Feng's chest, the skin and bones between didn't seem to bother the flow at all.
In a few breaths, hundreds of milliliters of blood was extracted from Feng's being and gathered at the tips of the lotus.
The lotus's petals seemed to act as a bowl as blood started to accumulate.
After a few minutes the entire lotus was filled with blood as Feng's face looked ashen and his body became visibly thinner.
As soon as the Bloody lotus was filled with blood the pupils closed and condensed, a fire with a pink-white hue started to burn all around the flower.
Feng's eyes opened and his concentration poured into the lotus.
A dazzling spectrum of light left Shen in a daze as nomological powers kept surging around Feng Long.
Shen's mind could work extremely fast as he kept trying to discern what all was happening.
Soon the phenomenon calmed down and the lotus opened again, however this time instead of a bowl of blood only a small fragment of blood was present in the lotus.
This small drop of blood just by itself emitted a vast amount of vitality and gave off mysterious vibes.
The drop of blood was soon stimulated by Feng Long's spiritual qi and started to come back to Feng's body through the same tube from which his blood was extracted from.
Just like the previous blood droplets, this one didn't face the hindrance of flesh and bones and immediately entered Feng's heart.
As soon as the fragment of blood entered Feng, his body's complexion improved and his pale face re-gained a pinkish hue.
Feng Long repeated the cycle a few more times before his body became visibily thinner.
Shen Wang stood there, carefully observing the processes. It was a mystical phenomenon, Shen Wang could vaguly sense the profundities of Vital Lotus Breathwork being laid out for him so see.
'The 150 merit points were well spent', Shen Wang thought to himself.
"Pfffff..", With a loud breath Feng Long opened his eyes as the illusionary lotus in front of him dissipated into colorful sparks.
"Brother Feng that was spectacular !", Shen Wang's eyes sparkled with excitement and started praising Feng Long without reserve.
"Haha, it was nothing much. You'll be doing the same under my guidance in little to no time."
"Now then, let's keep the flattery aside and let me impart to you what exactly happned," As soon as Feng Long finished speaking, Shen Wang's gaze focused as he took at attentive stance.
"What I showed you was the circulation of Vital Lotus Breathwork."
"In essence, what we're doing is to condensing and refining our own blood"
"The illusionary lotus that you saw is a form of a temporary cauldron, similar to those used in alchemy."
"Now, the roots of the lotus act as a path for my blood to permeate though the pores in my body. Through this path, my blood was sent into that lotus for refinement"
"Now, since you are just starting out with this breathwork, you can only use a few milli-litres of your blood. This amount will gradually increase as you keep cultivating this breathwork."
"Finally, the blood which my body recieved from the lotus is a condensed and refined form of my blood called Vital Lotus Blood, you could consider this a more superior form of the blood which your body would naturally produce."
Vital Lotus Blood!
Feng Long's explanation was extremely easy to understand as Shen Wang's insight regarding the Breathwork increased.
"Brother then why is this not called Vital Lotus Blood Refinment or something similar?" Shen Wang asked with a curious gaze.
"You'll find a more comprehensive answer when you read the manual that was issued to you, but to answer it in simple terms, you could say that Blood is only a part of this breathwork"
"When you covert all your blood into Vital Lotus Blood, it starts to corrode your bone marrow as well. Thus, once you have enough accumulation, your body wil start to naturally start to produce Vital Lotus Blood on it's own."
"As you start to produce more Vital Lotus Blood naturally, your muscles will start getting nourished by Vital Lotus Blood and you will start developing the Vital Lotus Physique."
Vital Lotus Blood!
Vital Lotus Physique!
Shen Wang became more and more excited thinking about the prospects of this Vital Lotus Breathwork!
Feng Long noticed Shen Wang's unceasing anticipation and chuckled.
" Don't get too high spirited Junior Brother, although this may sound awesome it has it's own drawbacks. Once you cultivate it once, you need to recover your blood before cultivating it again."
"As I said, this is condensing and refining your blood, thus if you're using a hundered units of your blood, then you'll only gain a fraction of Vital Lotus Blood"
"Furthermore, the name "Vital Lotus Physique" is quite misleading. What you're actually doing is becoming slightly healthier than you previously were. It might take decades for you to actually see any qualitative change."
"But then again, even quantitative accumulation of Vital Lotus Blood will help you out in the early stages of your body's cultivation"
However contrary to Feng Long's expection, Shen Wang didn't show much dejection at all.
This was an opportunity to gain superhuman strength!
Only somone from Earth could understand the sheer amount of excitement Shen Wang was currently feeling.
He was itching to cultivate this Vital Lotus Breathwork!
After a little more time, Feng Long's lecture ended and Shen Wang sat down crossed-legged.
It was time to start cultivating!