It had been a tough week, but Li Huang survived; all of her six senses elevated to their maximum, and Xie Ning gave her a day to prepare mentally for the last stage.
In the early morning, Li Huang made her way to the massage table and waited for Xie Ning.
This time her face was serrious as she looked at Li Huang.
"I will explain the process once for you to get your mind in order, okay?"
Li Huang nodded
Xie Ning took a deep breath before beginning
"Normally one begins by cultivating their vessels, muscles, skin, bones, and tendons; however, doing so that way leaves the body just shy of its peak potential, as you can't make your muscles too strong or else your bones, skin, and tendons might rip or even break."
"For the inverse path, we can do the vessels today and wait a day before continuing, as we will have to do the remaining four one after the other."
"Once we are done with the vessels, I will give you another day to prepare mentally, and there will be no issues as the body and heaven still think you will be going the orthodox way."
"The issues begin once we begin doing the inverse path, as the tendons will begin suffering under the pressure from the vessels. After that, we begin with the bones, and the pressure from the tendons will be passed to them so the pressure will accumulate. Then the pressure increases and passes along to the skin, and finally that pressure goes to the muscles, and only then does it start going away as the body and the five elements balance themselves inside your body using the heavenly blessing for completing the inverse path and reaching peak potential."
"But there might be issues, you see. If you wait too much after the vessel tempering part, the fire energy inside your body might build up too much, and the pressure in your tendons will increase much more than normal."
"So either we do everything right here right now, which will hurt as I won't have time to reapply anesthetic oil each time, or we wait a day and bet that your body won't produce too much fire energy; its your choice."
Xie Ning had a serious look on her face as she spoke.
She knew the answer in her heart, but still she hoped that Li Huang would ask for the orthodox path, tempering
Li Huang already knew in her mind why Xie Ning forgot to apply the right anesthetic oil to her when she tempered her bone marrow.
It was for her to have an idea of what she was going to suffer today.
"Let's do everything all at once."
Xie Ning sighed hearing that, but she just nodded.
Xie Ning carefully undressed Li Huang and began preparing her by giving her a massage to relax her body and using the special anesthetic oil on her body.
Li Huang had her face down as she began feeling the needles entering her body.
Li Huang relaxed her breathing, and Xie Ning gave her a piece of cloth to bite down on in case she felt pain.
Xie Ning prepared the five sets of needles in Li Huang's body; the only thing she had to do was use the silver hammer on each set and get this over with
Then, Xie Ning began, and Li Huang did not feel any pain as the process began.
but she did feel a heat surge in her body.
Her marrow, blood, and heart were all tempered.
With the vessels following along, she felt like her body could truly transport all of her blood along her body no matter what.
After an hour, Xie Ning quickly took a set of needles out of Li Huang's body and began with the tendon needle set.
As the process began, Li Huang began feeling a pressure building up inside her body, nothing unconfortable but unusual.
Time slowly passed, and by the end of the second hour, Xie Ning finished with the tendon set of needles and began with the bones.
By now the pressure got a bit unconfortable, and she felt a bit of a sting inside her, causing her to frown a bit.
As the pressure and the pain grew, Li Huang began getting more serious, and with her serriousness, Xie Ning got just as serrious and began working as fast as she could to guarantee she did nothing wrong and got everything there was to get from Li Huang's body.
At the end of the third hour, Li Huang began sweating a bit.
The pain felt a bit bad, but the medicinal baths were worse.
and the pressure was growing. From an unconfortable feeling, she began feeling a bloated feeling in her own bones.
Xie Ning quickly began hammering at the fourth set of needles.
Time slowly passed for Li Huang as the pain and pressure increased.
After the fourth hour, Li Huang was breathing heavily and biting down at the cloth in her mouth.
The next set of needles was the last, the muscles.
The pressure in her body was now all over her skin, almost making it tear in some parts.
If not for her strong body, her skin would probably be shreds apart by now.
At least she wasn't feeling any pain at the moment, as Xie Ning was still about to begin with her muscle anatomy.
"Last part now, honey, one hour, one more hour, and it will be all over. Hold on tight; I will begin now."
Li Huang nodded weakily as Xie Ning began
Her face instantly went pale as cold sweat dripped down her face.
her knuckles going white as she held down to the table.
It was just as bad as she remembered, but worse.
Along with the pain in every single muscle fiber in her body, the pressure was almost making the same burst like a balloon.
Each minute that passed, the pressure increased, but the pain remained the same.
At half an hour Li Huang was almost quitting, but Xie Ning began speaking.
"You are doing amazing, honey. Just another half hour, you can do it."
"You are strong, and you have amazing potential. You can do anything, so just handle another half hour."
"It will be over before you know it; just breathe, in and out."
Li Huang began relaxing as Xie Ning spoke to her.
At forty-five minutes, tears began streaming down her face and hitting the floor.
"Fifteen, just fifteen minutes, it will be over in a flash."
Xie Ning continued with her work, trying to make Li Huang relax.
It was no longer about the pain but the feeling of her muscles holding on to a thread.
If even a bit more pressure were to build up inside her body, her entire muscle structure would rip apart.
She would be lucky to be alive after that.
Li Huang bit down at the cloth in her mouth.
She wanted this
She wanted to be strong.
She wanted to have the say in her own life.
Suffering some pain was nothing compared to having freedom.
In her previous life, she died a disease-ridden junkie whore.
In this life she would only die if she so wished.
and would come back from the dead if she so desired it
The pressure began going away, and Li Huang began relaxing, but her breathing and her face did not improve.
She was still pale, and her breathing was still heavy.
"Shhhh, its okay, relax, go sleep; its all over; don't worry, just close your eyes and sleep," Xie Ning whispered in Li Huang's ears as she just did so.
After Li Huang felt asleep, Xie Ning sighed and smiled; at least she was fine now. Xie Ning shook her head and began cleaving her body of all the impurities it released.
Even as the strong smell surrounded Li Huang, she was not able to smell anything due to the pain, and Xie Ning would not let it distract her and cause harm to Li Huang.
Xie Ning carefully cleaned Li Huang and took her shaking body to her bed for her to sleep.
Li Huang was in a deep sleep and only woke up after five hours.
As Li Huang woke up, it was getting dark already.
She got up and stretched a bit.
Each pop of her bones and joints sounded like small explosions.
After getting up, Li Huang walked out of her room a bit grogy.
She only looked around the house a bit before going to the backyard and exercising using her weighted vest, bracelet, and anklet.
Even using her weights, she felt they were too light for her now.
She directly took them off and went to find Xie Ning.
She was inside her office looking over a few papers.
"Aunt, the weights are too light; I need new ones!" Li Huang expressed that by directly taking the weights off and easily tossing them up and catching them.
Xie Ning nodded; that was obvious.
"Okay, Go eat and sleep; tomorrow you will have your new weights to train."
Li Huang didn't leave and just looked at Xie Ning for a while.
"What is it, girl? Want to know the next stage? Sorry, train until perfection first."
Li Huang shook her head. "That's not it; I was just thinking something silly; don't worry."
Li Huang was about to walk out. Xie Ning stopped looking at the papers on her table.
"Come on, tell me what's on your mind."
Li Huang sighed and got back inside the office before closing the door, and she sat across from Xie Ning.
"Hypotetically... how strong would I have to be to be able to leave the city and explore the world? And if I hypothetically was already strong enough to, I don't know, enlist in a sect and become a disciple from a sect in search of extremely talented female disciples... would you hypoteticaly allow me to go out and venture the world?"
Xie Ning smiled as she saw Li Huang's eyes reddening and tears pricking at the corner of her eyes, and she took her hand in hers.
"Hypotetically speaking, you are an extremely sought-after disciple for any sect, especially a female-only sect, so I hypotetically would not hold you back from becoming a disciple, that is, only if you hypotetically truly wish to go out into the world and explore it."
Li Huang had to get up from her chair and walk around the table to sit on Xie Ning's lap while she hugged her.
Xie Ning gently petted Li Huang's back.
"Honey, we both knew this day was approaching; I even made a small list for you about the best sects according to your personality and tastes."
"You can look them over, and once you select one, I will leave you at their evaluation grounds. Just so you know, some sects have yearly evaluations, while some have one every half a month. By the time you select one, you should already be at the peak of the first body refining realm."
"Most sects like having a blank canvas to work with, someone to mold into their image, but considering your potential, even more sects will go head over heels for you so you don't have to worry about the future, only the present, and right now you need to go eat and sleep; we can talk more during the morning, okay?"
Li Huang nodded as she cleaned her tears on Xie Ning's shoulder before getting up and leaving to eat and go to sleep.
Xie Ning smiled as she looked at Li Huang leave. She picked up a few papers she had on a drawer of her desk and began looking over the list of sects and groups she made for Li Huang.
after finishing eating Li Huang went to bed.
"No matter what, only the present matters for now, and right now I am happy, so that is all that matters," Li Huang told herself as she difted off to sleep, a smile on her face as she thought about her aunts.
She would never forget her family.
And with that, Li Huang slept, ignoring the future and dreaming of the present.