"Keep firing!" The Beast King ordered his apprentices. The two apprentices were draining whatever madra they had left onto an ancient tree. The tree absorbs light madra, using it as sustenance to grow. So it was a win-win situation.

  The Beast King's two apprentices were bloody and beaten, and their bones fractured everywhere. He needed their bodies near broken, but not their minds. They will need it soon. So, instead, he had put them to work hunting some minor sacred beasts. Well, minor for a herald. He had a True Gold crow watch over them quietly while he went to hunt some dragons.

  After a week, he returned to see his two projec-, apprentices. His apprentices. He returned to see his two apprentices finally looking like a sacred artist of the wasteland. Bloody, bruised, and with clothes no better than rags. He could not be happier.

  Should've got me some actual apprentices sooner, he thought. No wonder other sages and heralds love to do this so much.

  "I know you still have some madra in there!" The Beast King yelled. "Do you two want to stay a cripple!?" He yelled again.

  "No, Master, No!" They yelled in unison.

  "Then keep firing!"

  "Yes, Master!" They yelled again in unison.

  He did not know when they started speaking to him like this during training, but he was okay with it. He enjoyed it a bit, to be told.

  "My mother can do better than that! AND SHE'S DEAD!" He hated that woman.

  "Yes, Master!"

  Their cores were emptying rapidly, and The Beast King was amazed by the rate at which they kept firing. Most sacred artists would have dropped at this point. He should give his apprentices more credit and thank the golden bird for sending him to them.

  Once he sensed that the two had barely a drop left in their cores, he exerted his will to stop them. Their arms remained extended in a shooting motion, but their firing stopped. "Sit," he ordered them. They dropped like a sack of rice.

  He lifted the round construct using wind aura and placed it before his apprentices. "Use it now."

  Too tired and drained to argue or even feel afraid, they activated it, and the orb showed a white light. As soon as they touched the construct, they twisted in pain and screamed.

  "Focus," The Beast King ordered. "You have to be empty any madra remaining, or you'll be crippled forever and die within the next few months." It was not precisely accurate, but he felt they needed the motivation.

  As he expected, neither of them removed their hand, no matter how loudly they screamed. He had improved the construct they made, making it more stable and to stop once their cores were empty automatically. Whitehall's condition meant that he needed to advance fast; his decline in advancement would eat his lifeline even quicker.

  That brought his thoughts towards Sadi. She was afraid, always afraid of being incompetent. She thought it was her weakness. He will make her realise it was her strength.

  The construct shut off, the white light dying. The two were sprawled on the ground, but the Beast King's will forced them to remain conscious. He took two starlotuses that he had taken from their pack, which he had confiscated when he sent them after the dreadbeasts.

  "Swallow," he ordered, placing the fruit against their lips using wind aura. "Cycle like how I taught you two. Your cores are as empty as they could be. Absolutely no madra resides in them. So the starlotus will fill it with pure madra."

  "Good," he said, feeling his apprentices fill with pure madra and cycling it properly. He waited until their cores were full. "Now squeeze your core. Do not stop pressing until I tell you to stop."

  "Keep squeezing!"

  "Do not stop!"

  "Keep going!"

  "Press harder!"

  On and on he went, and his apprentices' bodies shuddered and snapped. He pressed them harder.

  "Squeeze, damn you! Do you want to reach beyond gold or not?"

  He felt them squeeze even harder until their cores were the size of the tip of a sharp grass. Then, they both immediately passed out.

  The Beast King stood over his unconscious apprentices, a proud master.

  Sadi woke up to a loud trumpet screaming into her ears. She yelled in surprise and scrambled back, reaching for her knives.

  "Oh, hi there. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that," a Sacred Beast said.

  She was an elephant, a baby elephant.

  "Hi," Sadi greeted, smiling.

  "Sorry for trumpeting in your ear. You weren't waking up. And I've been waiting here for a long time," The Elephant chided.

  "No worries," Sadi replied. "My name is Sadi."

  "I'm Ellie," the elephant replied, holding her head high.

  Sadi just stared at Ellie, who kept her head high—not saying anything. There was an awkward silence.

  "Nice to meet you, Ellie," Sida finally said.

  "Nice to meet you too," Ellie said smugly. "So, what'd you think?"

  "Think?" Sadi asked.

  "About me," Ellie answered. "Aren't I majestic?"

  "Oh," Sadi remarked. "Yes, you are very pretty."

  Ellie ran in circles, her tail waggling. "I like you."

  "Thanks," Sadi said awkwardly. "How long was I out?"

  "Five minutes," Ellie replied.

  "Really?"

  "Exactly," Ellie replied. "You're lucky I was here to wake you up."

  Sadi had not slept in days ever since she was thrown to face the dreadbeasts. "Thank you," She said.

  "My pleasure," Ellie replied pridefully. "Oh, I almost forgot," Ellie jumped, which in turn caused Sadi to jump. "The Beast King wanted me to help you prepare your Iron body."

  "Iron body?" She asked.

  "Yes. You humans are soft; you'll need your iron body to help you survive."

  "I see." She had questions but was still determining if Ellie might be the right source to answer her answers. "Out of curiosity, what's your advancement, Ellie?"

  "I'm low gold," Ellie replied. "But we sacred beast don't tend to advance as fast. Advancing in a hurry is usually for you humans. I'm only twenty."

  Sadi cringed, thanking the heavens for having shown respect to the elephant. And did Ellie say she was twenty? They were almost the same age. And the elephant had called her advancement slow.

  "Speaking of," Ellie continued. "Are you sure you're not a sacred beast? You seem to advance at the pace of one."

  "I'm sure," Sadi said.

  "Half a sacred beast?"

  "Nope," Sadi crossed her arms in an X.

  Ellie eyed her suspiciously.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "About this iron body?" Sadi asked.

  "Ah, yes. I almost forgot. The Beast King wanted you to sunbathe on the highest tree."

  "Sunbathe?"

  "Yep."

  Whitehall had no idea how he ended up here, his leg tied to a tree branch on top of a hole full of an unknown boiling liquid with multiple colours and a tiny yellow lizard sitting on his nose.

  "You're awake," the lizard hissed, sticking a tongue out.

  "Hello?"

  "Mocha," the lizard replied. "My name is Mocha."

  "Hello, Mocha," he pressed his fists together, bowing awkwardly. "This one is called Whitehall."

  The lizard stuck out its tongue.

  "Where am I?" Whitehall asked after realising Mocha was not going to talk.

  "You're interesting," Mocha said. "Why is your lifeline so short?"

  "I did some experiments on myself that backfired," Whitehall admitted.

  "Unsurprising," Mocha stuck his tongue out. "Humans always rush their advancement."

  "Um, yeah?"

  "No wonder the Beast King told me to get your iron body as quickly as possible. You'll die in a few weeks if you don't advance," Mocha snorted.

  "Wait. What?" Whitehall said in surprise.

  "Down there is the venom of every Sacred Beasts of the wasteland. Don't forget to cycle them, or you'll die."

  "Wait, hold on."

  "Oh, yeah, almost forgot. You'll need the poison in your blood, too." Mocha bared her fangs, sending sword aura to create cuts all over Whitehall's tiny body.

  Whitehall grimaced at the pain from the cuts.

  "And he said something like medicine is just another type of poison and that the dose of poison makes the medicine."

  "Wait, say that again."

  "Good luck," Mocha said before jumping off Whitehall's nose and baring his fangs mid-air. Sword aura cut through the rope on Whitehall's leg. "Don't forget to cycle the venom aura." Mocha extended its limbs, revealing connected skins which he used to glide away.

  Sadi lay on the leaves of an emergent, as naked as the day she was born. When she first saw the tree from below, she dreaded the climb. Ellie simply wrapped Sadi with her trunk and jumped. Ellie had told Sadi that she must show as much skin as possible, considering the torn robes turned rags she was previously wearing. It was not much of a difference.

  "Ellie?" Sadi asked.

  "Yeah?" Ellie replied from a bundle of leaves below Sadi.

  "How long must I stay like this?"

  "As long as possible," Ellie replied. "The longer you stay, the better your body will be."

  "What do I need to do while I'm up here?"

  "Cycle, I guess. Oh, and you must turn your body every day."

  "What about at night?"

  "Continue, of course."

  "And food?"

  Ellie trumpeted proudly. "I scouted the trees previously. There should be plenty of fruits there."

  Sadi looked around, finding many purple fruits she had not seen before growing around her. She took a bite of one. It was horrible—bitter with the texture of a thick liquid. "Thanks," she said to Ellie.

  "You're Welcome!"

  Whitehall's body burned. He started screaming the moment he fell into the pool of venom. He stopped yelling once his stomach started burning, too, due to the venom he had swallowed.

  But pain was a familiar feeling to him. It was something he could handle. Medicine was just another type of poison, and medicine was just another dose of poison. 'I get it now,' he thought.

  Sadi's skin was peeling and covered in blisters, and the sun's rays continued to beat down on her. She looked at her fingers. They were red, covered with dead skin and large blisters. She thought the cold of night would soothe her, but she was very wrong. The nights up here were freezing, and she could not move, her muscles frozen.

  She did not know how long she had been up here, but she burned during the day and froze at night. She would remain still, cycling the light aura that shone above her. Weirdly, the light aura soothed her. Cooling the heat and burning the cold.

  As she ate, she got used to the taste of the fruit. It was bland now, no longer bitter. And even a hint of sweetness.

  Whitehall did not know how long he had lost consciousness in that pool, for the next thing he knew, it was the voice of his master.

  "Cycle, Whitehall. Focus!" The Beast King's voice growled.

  A surge of Madra rushed through him, and he cycled it through his thousands of madra channels. He tried screaming in pain, but his screams came out as a gargle. He continued to push the madra around his body, but his core kept filling with more and more. His core threatened to burst.

  "Once your core bursts, you must fill it to every madra channel you have." His master said, and Whitehall felt a hand on his belly. "Nod, if you understand."

  Whitehall nodded once, focusing on keeping his madra cycling.

  "Here we go," The Beast King said.

  Whitehall felt the fingers on his belly twisted, and his core broke. He felt the madra bursting out like a broken dam. He focused his cycling, pushing all the madra he had to fill every single madra channel he had. But there was too much madra, and the venom madra began carving new channels in his body.

  "Focus the excess towards every single part of your body," His master said. "Direct it. It's your madra, you need to force it."

  Whitehall focused on the excess madra, starting from his insides, his organs, his bones, and then his muscles, and then his skin. More and more channels were being burned into his body until there was no more space, and then it started leaking out of him. Then Whitehall noticed the madra he had inside his veins began to harden, fusing into a more solid form. His cycling became easier and easier, and when he checked his core, he found it to be slightly larger than previously and much more condensed with poison.

  "Congrats," The Beast King said. "You're an iron again."

  Whitehall opened his eyes and saw his master standing over him, smiling. The Beast King was covered in dried blood and wet black goo.

  "Can you stand?" The Beast King asked.

  Whitehall tried to stand and instead jumped a few metres off the ground.

  The Beast King laughed. "Must be good to finally have a perfect iron body, heh?"

  Whitehall looked at his hands and clenched and unclenched them.

  "Iron?" He asked.

  "Yeap," The Beast King replied. "Now you see what you were missing?"

  "Yes," Whitehall muttered. His cycling was much smoother, and he felt like a jade instead of an iron.

  "Iron body E6254," The Beast King said.

  "What?" Whitehall asked.

  "Iron body E6254, that's what the Monarch who created it called your iron body. But since you made it to such an extreme version, I guess it's not exactly it."

  Whitehall was still so stunned by his current advancement that he found himself speechless.

  "Godkiller," The Beast King said. "Since you're going after dreadgods with it. Might as well call it Godkiller." The Beast King smiled, seemingly satisfied with the name.

  Whitehall pressed his fists together and bowed. "Disciple thanks his master."

  "None of that," The Beast King said. "I can't spend too much time here, but I'll give you the gist of your Godkiller iron body. You have more madra channels than almost everyone alive, which will work against you currently but will do you good in the future. For now, it'll help you release your madra externally. But if you get cut, you'll start leaking madra rapidly until the wound is shut." The Beast King placed his hand on Whitehall's head. "So don't get cut," he said firmly.

  Whitehall nodded. "Yes, Master."

  "Good," The Beast King nodded and turned, positioning himself to jump.

  "Master," Whitehall called out, and the Beast King paused. "Are you going to help Sadi now?"

  "No," The Beast King said. "There are rumblings nearby that I have to deal with. Her iron body is not ready, but a friend will care for her." The Beast King left with a giant leap.

  "Cycle, child." Sadi heard someone say to her sweetly.

  Sadi felt sharp claws pierce deep into her stomach; the pain was both physical and spiritual. She twisted in pain, but the grip on her stomach was strong. She tried to open her eyes, but the burned skin on her eyelids had fused. She felt the claws pierce deep into her core, and light madra rushed into her.

  "For this to work, child. You must cycle." The voice said again more urgently.

  Sadi complied; the voice sounded as if they wanted to help. She focused on cycling, moving the madra through her channels, but her core was bursting with madra and would not stop anytime soon.

  "Push it to your skin," the voice ordered. "But do not let it out."

  Pushing her already overflowing madra to her skin was easy; the difficult one was preventing it from leaking. She held her madra, blocking as much as possible from escaping her pores.

  "It's settling," the voice said. "Now you must suck them back into your core. Do it now." The claws twisted the other way, and she felt her cores shrink rapidly.

  The pain redoubled, and Sadi screamed. She focused her cycling, pulling back the madra underneath her skin and in her channels into her core. Her now tiny core, unable to hold the madra, cracked and burst. Light Madra flooded her body. Her cycling came easier, her breathing lighter.

  She opened her eyes, her eyelids no longer shut. She realised she was still on the emergent. The sun was beating down on her, but her body did not burn. She checked for wounds on her stomach and found none. Above her, she saw a giant golden sacred beast bird hovering. Golden rays shot out of its back in an arc, and golden wings wrapped around the bird's front.

  "How do you feel?" The bird asked her.

  Sadi checked her body and spirit quickly, finding nothing wrong. "I'm fine," she said.

  "Good," the bird exhaled. "It worked."

  "My iron body?" Sadi asked.

  "Yes. Your Solarshroud iron body."

  "I'm iron?" Sadi had to make sure.

  "Yes." The bird answered.

  Sadi clenched and unclenched her hands, and a familiar black liquid covered her.

  "It feels different," Sadi muttered. "I'm stronger than before." Almost like when I was a Jade, she did not say.

  "Your master had to reset your advancement if you and your companion are to advance far. You have advanced from foundation to iron in just over two weeks." The bird said.

  'So fast,' Sadi thought. We're their teachings in Sacred Valley that flawed? "Foundation?" Sadi asked. "Forgiveness," she immediately pressed her fist and bowed. "This one is called Nasiri Sadi."

  The bird nodded knowingly. "My name is Sunda. And we must go." The bird started flying away. "Follow."

  Sadi was not sure how to follow. Screw it, she decided. She jumped, aiming for the nearest emergent patch. She overshot and reached the one after. Sadi looked back at where she came from, noticing the distance she had just covered. She could get used to this.

  Sunda kept flying, and Sadi followed. Sadi was sure the bird was purposely flying slowly so that she could catch up.

  After flying for some time, the bird dove down. Sadi followed, jumping from one branch to a lower one. As she reached the ground, she stood by the side of a hill. Thousands of Sacred Beasts were nearby, some small but most huge. Sadi saw Sunda entering a nearby cave and followed her. Inside, she found a vast underground cave system full of sacred beasts.

  Ellie came up, running out of one of the tunnels, "Sadi, you made it!" The baby elephant yelled, her tale waggling side to side.

  Sadi waved at Ellie. "Where are we?"

  "A sanctuary," Sunda answered. "Come, follow me."

  Sadi followed Sunda, who led her through several passageways until they reached an empty, dark room.

  "You shall cycle here," Sunda said as Sadi entered the room.

  "But there's no light," Sadi replied. "There's only darkness."

  "It's not about light or darkness," Sunda answered. "It's about finding the light in the darkness."

  Sadi stood in the middle of the room, looking around and seeing only recently carved rocks.

  "This is the Path of the Solar Dusk."

  Sadi turned to face Sunda, only to find the bird closing the cave entrance with a large round stone.

  "Find the light in the darkness and advance to Jade, dear child, for this dark world will not wait for you."

  The room went completely black.