The next few days passed in a blur.

  Sun Yuan awoke the next morning feeling better, and it wasn’t too much longer before he was back to his old self. Serbo on the other hand would disappear during the day, nowhere to be found, but he’d return every night to cook for them, making small talk about his time on the island.

  Yu Chen had to admit the barbarian’s way of cooking had grown on him.

  Yan Ziqi spent his time in meditation, focusing his spirit and stabilizing his mind in preparation to take his pill. Physically he was fine, but the fight with the wolf had affected him mentally, so he took the time to work through his thoughts, lest a heart demon rise up to interfere with his cultivation.

  He entered the cave once he was ready, while Yu Chen and the others stood guard outside, ensuring nothing interfered with his tempering process. Yan Ziqi’s pained grunts could faintly be heard from within, an undercurrent to the ringing sound of smashing hammers that poured out from within the cave.

  Yu Chen could see why Lu Tao had called it the Spirit Forging pill. The other boy had only swallowed a bit of medicine, but it sounded as though an entire smithy was hard at work within the cave. Heat gradually built up in the rocks around them, until the entire area grew uncomfortably hot, despite the cool weather of fall.

  With a final bang, a wave of heat billowed forth from the cave, and a long moment passed as they waited there in silence. Yan Ziqi’s battered form eventually appeared, his torn robes and bare flesh covered in a layer of black sludge. He gave them a crooked smile, but Yu Chen could see a new strength behind his eyes, and he emitted a dense aura that wasn’t too far off from the strange barbarian’s.

  The artificer disappeared to wash his body. Yu Chen gave a small sigh, entering the cave himself.

  He cast a quick glance around, but it was nothing more than what he’d expected, a simple stone cavern barely large enough for him to meditate in peace. Lowering himself onto the stone floor he exhaled, relaxing as he centered himself.

  He gave his spatial pouch a light tap, and a brown pill flew out and landed in his hand. Looking down, he rolled the shiny pill between his fingers as he contemplated it. It was heavy in his hand, and although it had only been a second a strange scent had emerged, tickling his nose. The smell was somewhere between that of freshly turned clay and dusty rock, although there were hints of things stranger still lurking somewhere within.

  Lu Tao hadn’t lied when he had said it was a potent source of earth qi. There seemed to be little else to it, the pill appearing as though the alchemist had managed to condense the very essence of the earth itself into a small lozenge.

  Staring at the pill, he contemplated the journey that had brought him to this point.

  In some ways he’d already lived two lives and was well into his third. The first had been that of a hapless shepherd’s son, dreaming of nothing more than a flock of his own and an eventual marriage. The second had been his time in the sect, where he’d practiced basic martial arts while grasping his first thin thread of qi.

  He’d come a long way since then.

  Months had passed since he’d fled the secret realm, traveling halfway across an empire and many times that distance up the Yellow River. In that time, he’d seen things that beggared belief, such as Golden Core cultivators strong enough to affect reality itself.

  He’d fought formidable beasts along the way, and found allies he could trust to watch his back. However, one thing had become clear. He desperately needed to become stronger.

  He tossed the pill into his mouth and resolutely swallowed it.

  It exploded into energy as soon as it reached his stomach, sending dense, roiling earth qi spilling out to infuse his body, causing startling changes to occur, beginning with his extremities. Yu Chen felt panic rise up as he realized that his fingers and toes had begun to go numb, followed by his ears and his nose. The feeling gradually spread to his hands and feet before sinking in towards the core of his body.

  He couldn’t help the startled gasp that escaped him as he looked down and saw the state of his hands in his lap. His fingers were reminiscent of the stone of the cavern he was sitting in, and the strange malaise continued to spread even as he watched, moving at a rate that was visible to the eye.

  What he found most surprising, however, was the lack of pain, even as his body changed form. It was as if he’d simply lost sensation in those parts of his body, unable to feel anything. Frowning, he tried to twitch his fingers, but they ignored him, stubbornly refusing his command.

  The dense sensation of earth qi began to overwhelm him as it reached his throat, and he felt as if he were suffocating in its thick, acrid presence that threatened to completely engulf him in its rocky embrace. His thoughts raced as his body literally turned to stone before him. He couldn’t help but wonder what would possess someone to commission such a pill, but he knew that the world of cultivation was stranger than he could imagine.

  Maybe it was useful to someone in some way, or maybe it was just another poison pill.

  It was said that medicine and poison were simply two sides of the same coin. But this saying also meant that if you knew the way, even something that was meant to poison another could be used to your advantage. Fortunately, Yu Chen knew such a way.

  He didn’t wait for the petrification to progress any further. He already felt a strange sort of desperation as the pill continued to work its magic, turning more and more of his body into unfeeling stone. Taking in a deep breath, he banished his fears and worries and activated the Yellow River Tempering Technique, harnessing the rampaging earth qi that permeated his body.

  The energy resisted him of course. The energy had been infused into the pill with a purpose, having been created to perform a specific task that it stubbornly sought to accomplish. Xiao Huang’s technique was truly tyrannical however, not caring not one bit about the wishes of an unthinking pill.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It seized the energy with all the ease of a mother cat dealing with a wayward kitten, it grabbed it firmly by the scruff of the neck and gently guided it towards a new direction.

  Under the watchful eye of the technique, the earth qi found a new purpose and began to reshape his body instead of simply turning him to stone.

  Yu Chen became nothing more than iron in the forge, the earth aspected energy only the latest in a series of hammers designed to drive the impurities from him, the energy pressing down on him with all the weight of a mountain, dense, heavy, and unyielding.

  The pressure grew as it surrounded his body, crushing it in an iron grip. He felt like he was being squeezed, his form compressing as the muscles across his chest and arms lost some of their thickness and his waist slimmed half an inch. The breadth of his shoulders remained unchanged however, as did his height - the power of the technique doing nothing to affect his actual bone structure.

  For now, at least.

  That was when the second phase began, and Yu Chen let out a low groan, although he surprisingly felt little pain. Despite that he somehow knew that he should. Oh yes, he should. However, the petrification pill had served to dull his nerves and deaden his senses, leaving him almost incapable of perceiving the torment his body was enduring.

  During this stage the earth energy suffusing him with all the weight of the world fractured, splintering into dozens and then hundreds of different forces that rubbed against each other, sending intense vibrations reverberating throughout his body where they came in contact.

  They shifted against each other like great tectonic forces, in some places pressing against each other like ethereal subduction zones, and in others the forces diverged, leaving behind wide gaps. In some places where they touched, they merely slid horizontally against each other, creating a series of conflicting pressures that remodeled his body.

  This was the point where the true power of the yellow river tempering technique was revealed, as the lingering fire qi in his body became aroused, flaring up before being forcibly drawn into the technique, where it mixed with the earthen energy within him to form something new. Yu Chen was entranced, watching in fascination as the new energy bubbled beneath the surface, the volatile fury of the fiery qi turning the solid earthen qi into something liquidic.

  It rose up, rushing into the gaps where the forces diverged with a furious force where it filled them with earthen qi that began to rapidly cool.

  Elsewhere, the cool earthen energy would liquify as it was subducted beneath itself, pushed deeper into his body where more of the fiery qi still lurked. The newly liquid earth qi would shoot back up towards the surface, spreading across his skin where the process would end and begin again.

  This would happen over and over again. The earthen qi provided by the pill seemed to be nearly endless, continuing long past the point where the fiery qi remaining in his body had burned away. However, the fiery tempering he’d undergone before had left him with an internal flame all his own, and it constantly emitted a small amount of fiery qi that was just enough to keep the process going.

  Yu Chen was hardly able to sense anything while this all was happening, and with no idea of when the process would come to an end he retreated further into himself, focusing on the rampaging earth energy that continued to flow through his body, reforming him.

  He frowned, concentrating on the energy alone and tuning everything else out. For the first time during a tempering, no insights arose, the Concept of Earth continuing to elude his grasp. He didn’t let that stop him however, taking in a deep breath as he meditated on the sensation of the earthly energy that had slowly encased his body, preventing him from moving.

  He could feel something there, just beyond his reach, but he couldn’t quite grasp it, despite his focus.

  Yu Chen let out a soft cry as a wild surge of earthen energy arose, before disappearing as his senses, his understanding, and his very being, became one with the earth. For an endless moment he felt as though he’d become rooted in place, and everything became so very obvious.

  The essence of the earth was stability, remaining grounded no matter the circumstances. If one could embody that they’d become immovable and clear minded, able to maintain their composure in the face of any adversity.

  It was resilient, and despite all that came and went it endured. Even in the face of complete destruction it would return, unable to be entirely destroyed. Fiery energies might liquify it, and watery ones may erode it, but once they’d run their course the earth would return, as unbothered and impassive as ever. Merely touching on this aspect would allow one to survive that which would destroy anyone else.

  There was a weight to the earth, a density that spoke to its reliable nature. More than any other, it was substantial, its presence something real and concrete. A quiet, unyielding power radiated from it, representing a strength and confidence few could match.

  Earth was Solid.

  It was all things that never took center stage, cavorting about for the attention of others. It didn’t have to, for when you pulled back you realized that it was the very stage itself, something so large and grand that it dwarfed whatever else was placed upon it, and in doing so escaped notice, despite its ubiquitous nature.

  It was like paper to an artist, or space to a musician. It was the blank canvas upon which all things lived and died, breathed and dreamed, laughed and loved.

  Yu Chen felt that it was deep beyond all others, although that might simply reflect how deeply engrossed he’d truly become. To him the earth was something that overshadowed all else, and even the mighty yellow river was nothing more than a feature upon it.

  He slowly awoke from his thoughts, almost before he realized it, letting out a slow breath as his lungs took in a deep gasp of air. Blinking, he looked around, feeling the changes that had come over his body.

  The earthly forces had come to a halt, having finally run their course, and the last remaining bits of energy seeped deep beneath his skin to rest until the day came where they’d be called upon once more.

  Standing up, he wrinkled his nose, smelling the scent of the thick impurities that had sloughed off his skin. Thankfully he’d had the presence of mind to remove his robes before beginning, although he doubted the fine weave would be affected by such a thing.

  He was once again left wondering where all the detritus had come from, but the question disappeared as he examined his body. He was definitely thinner than he’d been before, although not dramatically so, and though his body was leaner and less bulky it weighed nearly the same. All of that weight had been packed into a smaller form, making him much denser, although he still felt lithe and limber despite it.

  Flexing one arm, he watched as the muscles expanded to an impressive size, at least the equal of what he’d possessed before, but now they were as dense and fibrous as hard-packed clay. The earthen energy had seeped into his bones as well, hardening them past the strongest stones, and it had also flooded his meridians, ensuring their stability no matter how much energy he poured into them.

  This fourth tempering had done the impossible, pushing his body further than any cultivator had the right to expect. He knew the dense force radiating from him was stronger even than Yan Ziqi’s, who was an entire stage above, and no less than Serbo au Serbo’s, a powerful body cultivator in his own right.

  A grim smile crossed Yu Chen’s face.

  This wasn’t the end. After all, he still had two more to go.