I awoke back in my bed wrapped in a fluffy robe. The maidservants must've moved me after I lost consciousness. My muscles were still sore, but it was more similar to the pain after a normal workout instead of the torture I did the previous day.
Training carried on like that for the next 3 months. I'd wake up at the crack of dawn and shovel down a quick breakfast. Li Kai forbade any more bacon. He said it was poison. He's poison! His whole family is poison! I quickly learned to dress up before breakfast or I'd get dragged out to training in my nightgown or pajamas again. Then it was out to the training field for a double dose of exercises, followed by martial arts training. Fortunately, we would end at dusk instead of midnight, like the first day. Then I would eat a high-protein dinner, by now I could clean up 4 whole roasted chickens by myself. Li Kai was shocked while Vivian was disgusted. Then I would bathe with the use of a restoration pill. More than once I fell asleep while bathing. Fortunately, I had maidservants to prevent me from drowning and they would take me to my bed.
At first, Li Kai only increased the reps of the exercises but then he also increased their difficulty. Squats gradually transformed into weighted pistol squats. Pushups into weighted one-armed push-ups on a decline. Inverted rows eventually became weighted pull-ups. I was no longer allowed to go anywhere unweighted, he had sewn weights into my robes, and I could only take them off to sleep and bathe. My reps increased to 200 for each exercise. Running was still 20 km, however, that was with a backpack loaded up with weights.
Martial arts training continued from basic to intermediate. After Li Kai was sufficiently satisfied with my attainments in martial arts he taught me some basic and intermediate swordplay. None of the sect's secret techniques of course. These were the standard movements you could learn nearly anywhere.
My stats had climbed monstrously. I was now stronger than any of the guards excluding my personal guards and the captain of the guard, who were all cultivators. About 2 months in a new batch of guards was hired to replace those that had retired. Among them was an ox of a man who thought it was cute that I was training amongst the guards. He was under the impression the weights I used were fake. So he challenged me to an arm wrestling match and wanted to almost lose before making a comeback.
My just over three-foot frame contrasted greatly with his nearly seven-foot stature as our hands interlocked. I couldn't even properly interlock my hand with his, my fist was entirely contained within his instead. As the match began I fiercely stared into his eyes. Initially, nothing happened. I wanted to give him a taste of trying to move the immovable. He also wanted to initially go easy on me. I made a provocative gesture with my eyes, as if to say, "after you." His face hardened as he was looked down on, and then nothing continued to happen, our hands remained in the center as they began. Except now veins were bulging on his arm, his face was turning red, and his breathing was growing ragged. I made a bored expression, he struggled harder, still not able to budge an inch. I then made a mischievous grin. At that moment his face changed to that of a beggar, pleading with me to have mercy. Silly man, there's not a single mercy bone in my body.
The surrounding guards, especially the veterans, were greatly invested in this silent exchange of expressions. It was the greatest drama they had watched in ages. One man even looked like he was munching on popcorn. I was disappointed to find it was dried cauliflower later.
With my other hand, I began a silent countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The ox-like man made his best effort to resist the turnover he knew was coming. It didn't matter, as the countdown reached 0, the man was instantly flipped upside-down without resistance. I managed to balance the man on his bald head, his hand still outstretched. It took a moment for the man to register his new orientation and then he collapsed in a heap. The crowd of guards howled with laughter. I think I even saw Li Kai snicker.
Checking my stats, they were now as follows:
HP: 400/400
QI: 1/1
STR: 20 (40)
AGI: 20 (40)
CON: 20 (40)
CHA: 28 (56)
LUK: 38 (76)
I also gained 5 new skills:
BASIC MARTIAL ARTS LVL 2, INTERMEDIATE MARTIAL ARTS LVL 2, BASIC SWORDSMANSHIP LVL 2, INTERMEDIATE SWORDSMANSHIP LVL 2,
ACROBATICS LVL 2
I had previously been worried that I would look like a pint-sized, boy body-builder with unnaturally large pecs, lats, and biceps. Fortunately, my development was for movement and striking power, my muscles were lean and powerful instead of bulky showpieces. I still had a thin layer of baby fat covering the muscles, so I didn't look as absolutely shredded as I actually was. My absolutely adorable face kept me looking like the cute girl I was.
One day I became curious as to why the guards were so weak if they could use something like the restoration pill to enhance their training. Li Kai responded that nobody would waste valuable cultivation resources on useless mortals. I was reminded again of how the weak aren't even put in the eyes of the strong in this world.
On the days I wasn't training with Li Kai, I would do a basic exercise routine. During the last several training days with Li Kai, my stats had not improved at all. I seemed to have reached a plateau. Li Kai seemed to sense it as well and backed off the exercises to a normal 100 reps. I sensed that training was about to change drastically. Li Kai wouldn't have been so eager to start my training if it could be done in only 90 days. Sure enough, when he arrived for today's training, he came with an announcement.
"Today is your test. It's time to find out if all the effort and resources I put into you were worth it. And more importantly, whether you are worth any more." Li Kai said menacingly, "You will be going into the forest on these mountains and slaying 1 mortal beast. If you succeed we'll begin the next phase of training. If you die, then it won't be worth investing in you anymore."
I wanted to tell him, duh I'd be dead, you can't invest in dead. But I held my tongue.
He continued, "You succeed if you bring me back proof of your kill. You fail if you die. You also fail if you return without proof of a kill. There's no time limit, but I will judge you if you take too long."
Are you a cat now, Li Kai? And why such an impossible task? In normal circumstances a demonic beast was significantly stronger than humans of the same level. Mortal beasts would normally take a small army of mortals to take down, and more often they were handled by qi-gathering cultivators instead. I had learned this from my tutor. The first few levels of demonic beast were mortal beast, qi beast, and beast lord. They mirrored the human cultivation levels of mortal, qi-gathering, and body tempering, but they were not equal.
However, now that I thought of it, I wasn't equal to the average mortal either, maybe this mission wasn't as hopeless as it sounded at first glance. I began to prepare in my mind.
"One more thing, you're not allowed to take the weights off."
Seriously Li Kai? My first plan was to exchange my weighted robes for some normal ones.
"You may begin preparing now, your test will begin when you enter the forest." Li Kai then took his leave. Either I'd be successful or I wouldn't, he didn't need to observe me.
I began by grabbing a travel pack and packed several changes of clothes and miscellaneous tools such as flint and steel into the pack. I strapped a bedroll to the pack, then I grabbed the sword Vivian had purchased for me and slid its sheath onto my belt. It was pretty, but it was just a normal shortsword, equivalent to what the guards used. I also grabbed a combat dagger and several throwing daggers and strapped those onto my belt as well. Fully loaded with equipment, I headed to the kitchen and the cook prepared several travel dishes for me including some hard bread, nuts, and jerky.
Finally ready to head into the wilderness for several nights, I embarked on the seldom-used path deeper into the mountains.
The first day was fairly uneventful. I wasn't deep enough to encounter a mortal beast, only normal forest critters. Before the sun set I killed a handful of rabbits with my throwing daggers. I was a fairly good aim, and with my strength, I could target them from far away, like a sniper. I had been taught some basic survival skills by my tutor, so I could properly prepare the rabbits. I wasn't very good at it, so I wasted some meat, but I was still able to get plenty of meat to roast for dinner. I packed away the rabbit skins to give to the servants later. Then I slept out under the stars. I, a pampered little girl, was roughing it for the first time. I missed my bed as a rock dug into my shoulder. I adjusted and got a rock on my tailbone instead. 30 adjustments later, I finally found a spot without a rock about 20 feet from my original spot.
The next day was more successful. A few hours into the day, I heard some odd yipping, followed by what sounded like a mixture of a bark and a child's scream. I followed the sound to a clearing and saw a massive red fox with multiple tails. Finally, the mortal beast I was hunting for.