Somewhere in the very depths of the Great Wildlands Forest, there lay a baby with bright lights flashing all around it—a baby who got tired of refining its body the normal way and started to go the extreme route!
'Hahahahah!' The baby started to laugh inside his head with a scrunched-up look on his face.
'Why should I settle for tempering my muscles slowly when I can temper everything all at once at 10 times the speed?!?!' He began with an insane looking appearance. 'The pain is on another level! But who cares about some pain when more power is right in front of my eyes, right?!?!?'
The insane-looking little prince started to have thoughts that no sane person would ever think, as he experienced enough pain to put a few grown men in a coma!
And yet, he lay there with a contorted smile on his face…
"...."
It was a smile that was slowly starting to look more and more demonic to the giant white wolf—a wolf that was staring over the little creature with a look of bewilderment on its large face.
The Giant White Wolf had never seen anything as crazy-looking as the baby prince in its many years of life...
....
A small creature who seemed as harmless as they came absorbed all the Qi in a 10-mile radius, and then that very same creature started to refine all that Qi like someone who was on a suicide mission!
By all means, the little prince should've been on the verge of death, but there was something special about the prince--something that went against the norm.
Something the little prince wouldn't figure out he had until much further into his journey of acquiring power above all others.
....
'It took 10 minutes or so, but I finally managed to refine all my muscles 10 times over! I should have a punching strength of 1000 kgs by now!' He started to shout out inside his mind, clear elation in his expression.
However, such excitement quickly died down when he realized something utterly devastating!
'It's too bad that I can't exactly use that strength, not until I figure out how to ignore the limitations of this small body of mine.'
He lamented over the fact that he couldn't utilize his new levels of physical strength, but that wasn't enough to discourage him from pursuing even greater power!
'Not enough... This power is still far from enough!' He began with conviction overtaking his countenance. 'I need more strength and I need to acquire it faster!' He shouted out his determination.
It may have seemed illogical that an infant who couldn't even walk yet, was so pumped up over acquiring greater power; however, the world of Asterion was an extremely dangerous place, with death lurking around every corner.
And if he wanted to survive in such a perilous and primitive place that placed strength above all else, he would need to make use of every opportunity given to him!
Although he didn't know how strong the majority of the inhabitants of his new world were, he knew for certain that the 'Stewards' as they were called, were so strong and fast that he wasn't even able to tell if what they were doing had even happened.
Which was one of the reasons that he used the speed of the Giant White Wolf as a reference for what could be considered 'strong'.
However, don't be misconstrued due to the baby prince's nativity, for there were an uncountable number of things stronger than the Giant White Wolf and subsequently stronger than himself.
Furthermore, the 'Body Refinement Realm' was nothing but the 'starter stage' when it came to the realms of Asterion.
There were even some mysterious and powerful races that were born with a cultivation base beyond the Body Refinement Realm at birth, which was something else that the baby prince had learned from the Divine Devil Arts.
...
'The Divine Devil Arts said the next minor realm after Strength Training is Flesh Training, I wonder what kind of power this will give me!?'
The young prince continued his cultivation, attempting to breakthrough straight to the Flesh Training Realm from the Strength Training Realm!
...
"....."
The Giant Wolf could swear that it saw the little creature salivating for a second there.
'Does little creature want to eat me?!?'
It started to have dangerous thoughts.
'Little creature... Scary'
....
As the Giant White Wolf's mind was swirling towards unusual thoughts given its large and intimidating presence, the little prince was already done refining his flesh for the 10th time.
He now had a punching strength of around 3000 kg!
It was an absurdly high number for a small infant who hadn't even been alive for a day…
Nonetheless, he had heard of even crazier feats after reading the Divine Devil Arts, so he was far from done with his first cultivation session.
....
Following the refinement of his flesh, the young prince started to work on refining his Viscera to Small Success 10 times over, which took him no longer than 45 minutes to accomplish.
The little prince had only been cultivating for less than an hour and a half and yet he had already reached the fourth minor realm in Body Refinement...
Large Success Viscera!
The little prince, after achieving Large Success Viscera, possessed a punching strength of 6000kg!
It was a feat that was only possible thanks to him refining everything 10 times over; otherwise, his strength would only be 1/3 of what it was.
.....
'The feeling of gaining more and more power has to be the most addictive thing in existence! I have never felt so alive before!!' He began with a wide smile on his face before he steeled his resolve.
'But this is no time to be celebrating; I must keep on cultivating if I wish to gain more and more power.'
The little prince put on a determined expression as he focused back on cultivating
"....."
However, the Giant White Wolf, upon seeing the look on the baby prince's face, became a little scared.
The Giant White Wolf started to have weird thoughts again…
'Has he finally decided to EAT me?!?' The Giant White Wolf thought to itself with a terrified countenance.
'Should Me run?!?'
'Where ME Go?!?'
'This HOME!!'
'Little Creature... Scary'
The Giant Wolf mourned its fate before it backed further away from the little creature that wanted to 'eat' it.
It was something which made the whole interaction quite comical, given the wolf's huge size
...
The Little Prince began to work on refining his Viscera to Large Success 10 times over, which he succeeded in accomplishing within an hour.
The little prince followed up such an achievement with refining his Altering Muscle 10 times over…
...
The little prince had an astounding punching strength of 12000kg after he finished refining his altering muscles…
It was a fact that the Little Prince was quite ecstatic over, but he continued to cultivate anyway, knowing full well that he couldn't test that strength right now.
One might wonder how he gauged how strong he was with an infant body and no way to test his strength, but the explanation for such a thing was actually quite simple, and yet not simple at all.
He just knew how high his strength had reached on the basis of some kind of spiritual instinct, as easy as figuring out how many fingers you had on your hands. It wasn't an easy thing to understand, but sometimes, that was just how the world of cultivation was.
....
'I have been cultivating for almost 4 hours now and have reached my 5th refinement of Bone Forging with a perfect and steady cultivation foundation.'
He glossed over his recent gains with a content smile before he thought about the cultivation to come.
'I should only need another hour or so to reach my 10th refinement...'
He sighed a little at such a revelation, as he understood that even with the insane amount of talent he didn't know how he possessed, his cultivation was beginning to slow down.
'Welp, no point in brooding over the pace of my cultivation,' he began. 'It's time to start cultivating again.'
However, just as he was about to enter another deep state of cultivation, he suddenly recalled something.
'I thought I would need nutrients of some sort to survive in this infant body of mine, but I don't feel a thing.'
He started to ponder the matter with a scrunched-up baby-thinking face.
'Not hunger, not thirst; I don't even feel tired. It must be because of cultivation, right? There isn't any other explanation I can think of…'
The little prince contemplated the matter a bit more before he shrugged his non-existent shoulders and thought, 'Hmm... Who cares?!? Cultivating is the only thing on my mind right now, so let us get back to it! Haha!'
He started to laugh like a maniac within his thoughts as a slightly insane-looking smile was plastered on his infant face.
It seemed like the pain that came with refining your body ten times over was starting to get to him...
....
"...."
'Yep... I become food to little creature.'
The Giant Wolf started thinking nonsense again after it saw the little creature go through all its unusually scary facial expressions.
The Giant White Wolf was starting to regret ever bringing that little creature back from the woods to touch the red stone; it should have just dealt with the red stone by itself!
However, the Giant Wolf knew it was too late for regret, as he had already invited the monster into its home to do whatever it pleased!
The Giant wolf started to cry in the corner it was cowering in, it wanted its mother…
'Life.... Sad...'
'Little Creature... Scary...'
'I want to go... Home!'
'No, Monster... in Home...'
Upon realizing such a thing, the Giant White Wolf only had one thought on its mind.
'I... Sad...'
....
Meanwhile, as the Giant White Wolf was having an existential crisis, the little prince had already entered the Early Pulse Condensation stage, a stage where he had to fill up all 108 meridians in his body with Qi.
...
Early Pulse Condensation.
It corresponded to filling up the first 27 meridians of the body, and every stage thereafter of Pulse Condensation corresponded to the next 27 meridians that you had to fill up.
It went something like this, Pulse Condensation Stage:
Early Pulse Condensation (27 meridians filled up with qi) -->
Middle Pulse Condensation (54 meridians filled up with qi) -->
Late Pulse Condensation (81 meridians filled up with qi) -->
Peak Pulse Condensation (108 meridians filled up with qi).
Supreme geniuses of Asterion could usually reach this realm a few weeks after beginning to cultivate.
.....
'Pulse Condensation feels different from the last few stages of Body Refinement,' he began with a concentrated look on his face. 'It's like the first 6 stages were focused on refining and expanding my muscles only to condense them back down again, while the Pulse condensation stage was meant to store the Qi in the air within my meridians so that I could release some of that stored up energy for multiplied explosive force.'
After realizing such a thing, he continued his evaluation of what he learned.
'In gaming terms, it's similar to the first 6 stages equaling my base stats, while the pulse condensation stage is my base stat multiplier. So if my strength before reaching the pulse condensation stage, when I was still in bone forging, was a punching force of 15000 kg, then my punching force after reaching Pulse Condensation is a massive three times higher than that, with a total punching force of 45000 kg!'
The little prince was practically beaming at this new realization. He couldn't believe he had already reached such a level not even half a day after being born, it would have been something incomprehensible to the old him.
....
The Little Prince followed his assessment period by spending the next day progressing through the Pulse Condensation stage, one filled meridian at a time.
He soon realized that cultivating in the Pulse Condensation stage was many times harder than the stages before it; it was also dozens of times more painful than the 'norm' as the little prince had to fill up and refine each of his 108 meridians 10 times over.
The little prince was practically writhing in pain at every waking moment, squirming in his sitting lotus position, but regardless of the pain, he sat with a determined look on his chubby little face.
'Haa! Do you think this amount of pain is enough to make me give in?!? What a joke!! I have had ball cramps more painful than this crap!!!'
And as if the very world itself were angry at the little prince's statement, the pain began to increase another few fold as the little prince entered the Peak Pulse Condensation Stage.
'Arghhh!! you motherfucka!! My Grandma hits harder than your sorry ass! Is this all you got, you Infant-beating bitch?!?'
Inside his mind, the Little Prince was screaming all sorts of profanities at who knows what...
...
"...."
The Giant White Wolf was watching all of this occur with a terrified look on its car-sized face.
All it heard from the baby was, "Wahhhh Gooo goo gah! Gah! GAH!", which the wolf thought had to be some sort of incantation that was meant to help the little monster devour him whole…
The Giant Wolf was practically shivering, with fear evident in its large, watermelon-sized eyes.
It didn't know whether to cry or run away; it just wanted its mother...
.....
After a whole day and night of the little prince screaming profanities and taunts at nothing in particular, he finally filled up all 108 of his meridians 10 fold.
Something that, for some reason, didn't excite the little prince all that much, mainly because he was still a little bit salty that whatever was increasing his pain didn't come out to face him, Man to Infant.
It was an impossibility that put an annoyed look on his otherwise satisfied face.
'Tch, Whatever!'
His expression soured before he continued his inner monologue.
'The bastard that was doing that probably built like a shrimp back anyway, not even worth my time!' He ended with a peeved look on his face.
However, it didn't take long before he was distracted by the optimistic side of things.
'On the plus side, my strength has taken a steep increase. If before I had a three-time multiplier to my strength, then I now have a whopping nine-time increase in my strength at Peak Pulse Condensation!'
His thoughts swirled around before he realized something else as well.
'This means that my total punching strength has reached a massive 135,000kg in pure unadulterated infant strength!!'
After gaining a better understanding of his strength, the little prince went back to what he did best.
'It's time for me to begin tempering my marrow,' he began with a relaxed expression.
'The Divine Devil Arts Scripture states that the Tempering Marrows stage is split up into 4 minor stages that help quantify just how far you have progressed in tempering your marrow. Those 4 stages are: ---> Tempering Marrow 20% --> Tempering Marrow 40% --> Tempering Marrow 60% --> Tempering Marrow 100%. With each of the 4 increments being many times harder to pass through than the one that came before it,'
'I am hoping to make it to 100% Tempering Marrow and attempt to breakthrough to Qi condensation within a week, which I should be able to accomplish as long as I make my training hundreds of times more painful than normal!'
The look on his face became a little crazed as he continued his ludicrous thoughts.
'You know what they say? No Pain, No fucking Gain!!'
The Little Prince's insane thoughts leaked out again as he shouted a bunch of nonsense in 'Goo goo and gaa gaas' inside the large Cavern.
I bet you could imagine the terrified look the Giant White Wolf had on its face when the insane little monster started screaming out of nowhere again.
'I want to go Home...'
The Giant White Wolf was depressed…