****************
A/N: When there is something that is italicized and written in '_____', that means it is the character's thoughts.
****************
(Lou Xia POV)
As soon as Vale fell unconscious, my parents let me go. Rushing up to her, I started checking her body to see where she was injured. Using my Qi I started to scan around inside her body, but what I had found was beyond my expectations. All of her bones were engraved with this strange pattern that felt like it was trying to pull me in, so I pulled away to check the rest of her body. Strangely, there was nothing else wrong except for a few ruptured capillaries in her nose, ears, and tear ducts. I was also able to notice that there was something else that stretched through out her body that seemed to be stressed, especially around her bones.
Getting up and taking a step back, I asked the maids around us to take her to her room so that she could rest. Looking back towards my parents, I could tell that there was some relief, but also the look that said that I was overreacting. I knew that I was from the start, but I was not in my right mind at the time from hearing her screams of pain.
From this whole event, I also realized that there was a lot more about cultivation that I did not know, even at the lower stages I had already passed through and thought that I knew everything about by now. So I decided to have all of the books that Vale pulled for research transferred to the house library so I could study them and attempt to fix some of their errors before Vale got a hold of them. At this point I was brought out of my thoughts when my mother placed her hand on my shoulder with a concerned look on her face.
"Sorry, Mom. I was distracted for a moment and could not think straight earlier. I also now realize how shallow my knowledge of cultivating is." I said while not daring to look her in the eye.
"It's fine, dear. It's better to learn this lesson now. It also isn't such a bad thing to be concerned about your friend being in pain; you just need to keep your wits about you when you do." Mom said, trying to treasure me, and it worked.
"Yes, Mom," I said with a bit more energy in my voice and started to walk after the maids.
______________________
(Vale POV)
When I woke up, I felt like my entire body was in pain, with not a single part of my body spared. I was confused about this for a few moments before my brain kicked into gear, and I remember what happened before I fell asleep due to exhaustion. Opening my eyes, I see what used to be a glass ceiling now shattered due to a lighting tribulation (I think that's what they call it) caused by the completion of my technique. Rolling to the side I feel my body protest at the movement as I get up into a sitting position. Preparing for the pain, I push off the bed, standing up for a brief second, then almost fall to the ground, barely catching myself on the nightstand with my feet remaining on the ground. The things on the nightstand got knocked around, with one of them falling to the ground and causing a racket.
The doors to the room then opened as a few maids walked in, presumably because they heard the sound the objects on the nightstand had made. Seeing me standing, they rushed to my side, wanting to help me stand, only stopping when I raised my hand and waved them off. Regaining my footing, I slowly let go of the nightstand. When there was no more support from the sturdy wood by my side, I found that I was standing mostly fine with only a slight wobble in my legs.
The maids would not leave me alone as I stood there constantly, trying to fuss over me and my condition. I am not sure how people tolerate this, but I decided that ignoring them for now was the better choice as I started walking toward the bathroom. Normally, this would not have been a problem, but today, my body was still suffering from immense pain, meaning that this was quite the challenge. I was constantly stumbling at first, but soon, some of the pain faded, and I was able to walk a little more smoothly until I reached the bathtub in the bathroom. At every stumble I made, I was almost dog-piled by the two maids who were here to assist me. Thankfully, water was already set and ready in the tub itself, so I just needed to take off my clothes and slip in.
The hot water seemed to take all the stress and pain out of the muscles all over my body. At this point, the maids tried to help me bathe again, but I dismissed them like always and just soaked in the tub for a while. Soon, though, I still needed to clean myself, so I started washing myself down with soap and water. Not long after, I am taking care of my hair and tail when the door to the bathroom opens again.
"I said that I do not need any help and that you can wait outside," I said without turning around to look behind me at whoever walked in.
"I am sorry, ma'am, but the bath is filled with an herbal solution that is meant to relax the body while soothing any stress that has been incurred recently." Said a voice that I recognized as not belonging to the two maids and instead belonging to their trainer Silica.
"Oh, that explains why my body is feeling much better now. Thank you for the warning. I will be finished shortly." I replied while doing the last of the scrubbing of my tail.
Soon, I was out of the room, but not without Silica knocking on the door after a few minutes to confirm that I was out of the bath. I could tell, though, from the look that she was giving me that she did not like my taking so long. But what can I say? My tail needs to be properly brushed and fluffed to be in perfect condition. So, without any complaint, I wore the clothes that they had repaired for me, which was a long dress with a fox skin collar that I tactfully chose to leave behind and ignored and followed her out of the room.
I was soon in the dining room with everyone else being served the morning meal. We ate in silence for a while until we all finished our meal, and someone decided to speak.
"So, would you mind telling us what happened to you yesterday?" Mr. Xia asked, looking at me with his hands folded and his elbows resting on the table.
"Well, from what my research shows, the best way to achieve the best results of what I want is to start by changing the order in which you go through the body tempering stages," I said, not giving much else on the topic.
"Is that all?" He asked me, clearly trying to probe for more.
"No. But I challenged Lou Xia to figure this out, and I don't know whether she did or not, and I don't want to give her the answer." I answered him straight.
"So if she guesses the first stage, will you tell us?" He asked again.
"Yes," I responded simply.
"Then would the first stage be bone tempering?" Lou Xia asked from the side.
"Did you just randomly guess that?" I asked in turn.
"Yeah, I was the one to check your body after what happened and saw what happened to your bones, so I also thought this would be a safe bet." She answered, not hiding what she did.
"Well, then, yes, the bone-tempering stage is the proper place to start body-tempering. From my research, the most important thing to do is to engrave a special set of formations on your bones to create the best effect. There is also the cleaning, aspecting, and modifying of the bone marrow to consider. So overall, the pain someone would fall in is quite a significant amount." I explained to everyone to the best of my abilities.
Mr. Xia looked satisfied with my answer, while his wife looked concerned about what I had just said. Lou Xia looked like she was about to burst from all the questions she wanted to ask. For some reason, I was actually more content with this outcome than I thought I would be. I then got up to walk outside to the shrine to pray and cultivate when I was stopped by Mr. Xia's next word.
"By the way, we will be having a guest visiting today in about an hour, so please be prepared for that."