Li Huang woke up at the crack of dawn and rushed to take a bath and put on her clothes.
She rushed to the kitchen and ate her fill before running to the back of the establishment and directly laying down on a massage table.
A few minutes later, Xie Ning opened the door and entered the room, on her hand a small bag.
"Up early, huh? Couldn't you even wait a single minute?" Xie Ning laughed seeing Li Huang already taking off her clothes.
Li Huang smiled. "Yeah, I spent all night basically up."
"Okay, okay, lie with your face down; I will pass the oil on your body and begin the acupuncture."
Li Huang nodded. "Can you explain the process while you do it so I can picture it in my mind?"
"Sure thing, sweetie."
Xie Ning opened her bag and took out a vial with oil inside and began smearing it over Li Huang's back.
"This oil is a special anesthetic, so if you don't scream or move, it will still hurt, but you should be able to withstand it."
After Li Huang's entire back was coated in a thin layer of the oil, Xie Ning went to her bag and picked a pack of acupuncture needles.
There were many thin and long needles; some were a bit thicker and shorter.
"As we are going to be stimulating your bone marrow, we will use thin and long needles to really get in there."
Xie Ning took the needles in hand and softly pressed them inside Li Huang's skin, piercing the muscle and touching the bone.
She went up and down all over her back, legs, and arms.
even her head had a few needles
"This doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would."
"Of course it doesn't hurt; I haven't begun yet."
"Wha-?" Before Li Huang could question Xie Ning, she took a small silver hammer from her bag and softly hit one of the needles.
Li Huang's brain almost short-circuited itself as she wasn't ready for the pain, so she bit down on her teeth.
Xie Ning began softly tapping each needle with the small silver hammer, making the needle transmit something inside Li Huang's body.
"I am using the hammer as a catalyst and passing qi along the needle; the needle itself is too frail, and it would break when under direct qi, so I use this hammer to hold the qi and release a small quantity of it inside the needle that transmits the signal to the meridians that directly affect what I need it to affect."
"In your case, the bone marrow"
Cold sweat began pouring out of Li Huang's body as she felt a pain she had never felt before; the medicinal baths weren't this bad.
Li Huang tried not to move even as the pain entered deep inside her bones.
"Alright, done with this side, let's flip you over," Xie Ning said as she pulled all the needles out of Li Huang's body before flipping her over like a fish in a pan.
She took the oil once more and smeared it across her front.
"Just don't move and everything should be fine."
Xie Ning directly said after looking at Li Huang's pale and sickly face
again the needles were inserted into her body
Once more, Li Huang had needles all over her body, and Xie Ning once more took the hammer in her hand and began hammering away.
the more Xie Ning hammered the more Li Huang's face paled.
"Oh you are such a baby, relax, this can't hurt this much"
finally to Li Huang's delight, Xie Ning took the needles off of her.
as Xie Ning was putting her things away in her bag Li Huang looked over as Xie Ning was reading the label of the oil.
"What is it? Was there something wrong with the oil?" Li Huang asked, already expecting that maybe the oil was diluted or something.
"No, I just noticed I was using the wrong oil. I use normal massage oil on you so you feel everything as you should. Oh well, can't go back in the past." Xie Ning shrugged as she put her things away.
Li Huang felt like puking blood.
"Anyway, you should probably go to the bath and stay there for a few hours; the stimulation with the qi should begin activating a heavenly blessing to purify your marrow."
Li Huang put her clothes on and did just that; she did not feel like even looking at Xie Ning's face.
Once in the bath, she sat down at the tub and soaked her body in the water.
Just as she was calming down, a pungent and powerful smell surrounded her.
a black sludge began being secreted from her body into the water
Li Huang gagged as her eyes watered.
She began taking a very thorough bath using as much soap as she could and cleaned each and every nook and cranny from her body.
After two hours she was finally without impurities in her body and was smelling like soap.
She just took a deep breath and sighed.
After getting her clothes back in her bag, she went outside to train a bit.
While running, Xie Ning watched her and then slapped her back hard.
Li Huang immediately fell over and puked blood.
"What the hell is your problem?!" Li Huang screamed while trying to get up.
"Will you calm down? Just getting the old blood from your body, so relax a bit; it doesn't even hurt."
Xie Ning slapped Li Huang's back once more, and she puked more blood.
"I thought you said to cut my body and bloodlet?!"
"Yeah, but that would take time and would also scar your skin, so I thought I could help and make up for earlier." Xie Ning slapped Li Huang's back a third time, causing her to puke another mouthful of blood.
As Li Huang began getting anemic, Xie Ning quickly placed a root inside Li Huang's mouth.
"Chew on it and eat it; it's a century-old ginseng. It will stimulate your marrow to produce more blood, and we can get this over with more quickly."
Li Huang chewed on the ginseng; it tasted like iron and copper.
As Li Huang chewed, she did have to stop for a bit to appreciate its effects; she already felt like her body was in peak condition.
That was until another slap on her back caused her to puke blood.
"It was either this or make you wait a whole month, so thank me; we are getting it done in one day."
Li Huang couldn't even complain as she was slapped on her back again and again, causing her to puke blood again and again.
the ground was drenched as five liters of blood were staining the ground
Li Huang slowly got up and turned to look at Xie Ning while frowning.
"You are welcome; come back tomorrow so we can continue."
Li Huang sighed.
She could not refute the benefits.
She felt every single part of her body was working at peak performance; even the oxygen in her body felt more
Li Huang got up and did the training she missed thanks to Xie Ning's abrupt interference.
After she finished, there was little time left for other things she directly did before going to sleep.
early in the morning Li Huang was back on the massage table facing up; she only took her shirt off, and Xie Ning smeared the right oil on her chest this time around as Li Huang made her make sure
"Alright, this is going to hurt just a bit," Xie Ning said as she placed a few needles on Li Huang's chest before taking the silver hammer and hammering at the needles.
It did hurt a bit, but Li Huang handled that; after all, she felt worse yesterday.
After only thirty minutes, Xie Ning was done, and Li Huang had to take a bath to take care of the impurities her body was releasing.
with her new improved heart she could feel her blood traveling as quickly as it could down her veins
After training without an interruption from Xie Ning, Li Huang managed to maintain her schedule.
Then the next day, Xie Ning stimulated Li Huang's spleen as her body released the impurities.
Normally one would need to train a bit to improve their body or even to get used to the new body, but Li Huang was already at the peak of mortal performance, so the training in the morning was enough to get her body in order and ready for the next stage.
The only reason Xie Ning waited a day to make Li Huang continue on her path was to give the body time to get used to the new environment.
Lung, kidney, and liver followed suit.
Li Huang was lying down, facing up, while Xie Ning placed needles all across her chest.
"It's pericardium time; I will use the momentum of the pericardium to directly begin with the small intestine so we can get that out of the way."
Li Huang nodded, and Xie Ning began her work.
As the pericardium was stimulated by the acupuncture, Li Huang felt a cycle forming inside her body.
heart, spleen, lung, kidney, liver, pericardium, and she could feel the small intestine connecting to the pericardium
After a whole hour, Li Huang got up, and she took a deep breath; the world felt more vivid.
She could feel it better now somehow.
"Did it begin forming a connection, or do I have to brute force it?" Xie Ning asked while looking Li Huang up and down.
"Well, I did feel like some sort of connection forming inside my body; is it normal?"
Xie Ning nodded, "It's expected."
"Heart, spleen, lung, kidney, liver, pericardium, small intestine, stomach, large intestine, urinary bladder, gallbladder, san jiao, and all the way back to the zang organs."
"If your body can form that connection, then that means you got everything to its peak potential; it's a kind of bonus heaven gives to its most promising children."
Li Huang nodded, "Good to know. Wait, what do you mean, brute force it?"
"Don't worry about it." Xie Ning began leaving the room.
"What the fuck do you mean by brute forcing it? Aunt? Xie Ning?"
"Don't worry about it." She said as she closed the door behind her, leaving Li Huang to her thoughts, she shook her head and went to take a bath.
This time she had to spend almost an hour to get rid of all the impurities her body was releasing.
By the end, she felt her skin was raw, but she just shook her head and continued on.
stomach, large intestine, urinary bladder, gall bladder, one after the other, day by day
Finally it was time for the san jiao.
Li Huang focused on her body and felt like there was one final piece for the puzzle that was her inner organs.
"Alright, this one will take a bit longer, and you should rush to the bath because you will be stinking up the whole place after we are done here."
Li Huang nodded as she lay down on the bed and waited.
Xie Ning began preparing the needles and putting them all in the right places.
and then she began hammering
After a whole hour, Xie Ning nodded and took the needles out of Li Huang's body.
Li Huang was momentarily stunned as she felt the connection of the organs inside her body.
She felt as if all her internal organs were working at two hundred percent efficiency, but they were using one another to relieve the pressure from themselves.
At least that was what she thought was happening.
Just as Li Huang wanted to continue exploring her body and understand what was going on, she began smelling something truly putrid as she rushed into the bath as impurities were ready to burst out of her body.
She would have to understand what was going on after a bath.