The flight back to the cave was uneventful, Gart was asleep and Zach was just ready to continue his training. Cora flew directly into the cave and set Zach down in front of the house. “My Mother is going to be gone for a little while so just train at your own pace for now. I have to hunt and make sure we have enough food for two growing children! Hahahaha!”
Zach felt a little restless so he decided to set Gart in the house and go for a run to get his mentality right. Gart was asleep on a couch in the house as Zach’s feet pounded on the ground in the cave. His breath was steady as he ran around the training arena and he had little to no depletion in his stamina as he was running. If anything he felt like he was recovering instead of working out.
He knew that this would not benefit him in the least so he grabbed the 200 pound rock and held it in front of him as he ran. Again he felt nothing as he ran. Putting the rock back he grabbed the 500 pound one. After a couple laps he felt slightly tired but still not as if it was an actual exercise.
Thinking for a moment he decided to grab the 1000 pound rock and heaved it up above his head and started running. Almost immediately his legs and arms started to burn. He had already run close to 10 miles. Now as the strain from the weight coursed through his body he felt as if his muscles started to expand at a rate visible to the naked eye.
As Zach was running his body had finally started to use the pure yang energy to temper his muscles and push him even farther past the boundary of the human body. The pure yang energy coursed through his veins like molten lava and caused his muscles to swell greatly. This was what the healer back at the small village would have been afraid of but, thanks to his cultivation method, he would not explode from the natural energy being released into his body.
Pure yang energy was most commonly acknowledged as pure heat, on the opposite side was yin energy and that was pure cold that could freeze the soul. Normally a cultivator couldn’t use this energy until the broke past boy tempering. For Zach this experience was both painful and soothing at the same time.
The more he trained the more he grew. After an hour he looked like he was a humanoid muscle mountain. The more he continued the more he grew until he felt a popping sensation in his body. His muscles started to break down as the energy coursed through his body and caused the structure of the muscle strands to compress down and reform. He stopped training once he felt that his muscles had stopped the transformation.
Now Zach looked like an extremely well toned and handsome man. He no longer looked like a boy that was in his early teens but more like an indifferent emperor. His dark black hair cascaded down his sweat ridden back like an onyx waterfall. Deep blue eyes stared back that seemed to contain all the mysteries of the oceans.
A putrid stench arose from his sweat. The information in his mind told him that it was his bodies impurities that had been stored in his muscles. This was the sign that he was at the peak of the perfect stage of Muscle strengthening. His body after the transformation was now able to put out at least 10000 pounds of force.
This was a monumental step on his path to defying the heavens. The next step was to start changing the blood and bones of the body. The first thing that needed to be done was brutal but necessary. One must break the bones repeatedly so that the body could reform the bones which would open the marrow up to be changed. Once the marrow had started changing the cultivator must bleed the body so the body could replenish the blood. While replenishing the blood one had to sit in a blood pool that would change the marrow of the cultivator.
This was the most dangerous part of the body strengthening stage as this could cripple the cultivator completely. Zach was actually fairly excited to start this process and further travel down his path. Since he had no idea where he could find a blood pool he decided to test his strength out with the rocks.
He walked up to the 100 pound rock and squeezed it with his hands. His muscles bulged slightly as the rock exploded from the force he was exerting. The rock had turned into dust from the strength he had applied! This was amazing!
Next he decided to really test his strength and went to the 10000 pound boulder. Going into a horse stance he grabbed the boulder and heaved with all his might. Slowly the boulder started to shift as it started to rise. With his muscles strained to the max he ever so slowly lifted the rock above his head.
Holding the massive boulder above him he slowly stood up straight and his feet sunk a half an inch into the ground. With a strained expression on his face he started to walk around the outside of the arena. Each step was like a thunderclap as his feet pounded into the earth. His body started to visibly shake as he finished the lap around the arena.
Carefully he placed the boulder back into its spot. Today was a great day. Not many beings could say that they advanced to the final stage of muscle strengthening and lifted 10000 pounds on the same day. Pleased with himself he went to the bath house that was located behind the main house. Steam rose off of a big pool in the center of the house.
Due to it normally being only Cora and her mother the bath house wasn’t separated at all. Normally Zach would wait until he was sure everyone was asleep to go take a bath but he figured Cora was still out hunting. Well that was his thought until he heard a light splash.
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Reality came crashing down on him as he watched Cora stand up from the middle of the water. With her back to him he could see every curve and dip of her pure and smooth back side. Her shoulders were narrow that flowed into graceful arms with delicate hands. Her back sloped slightly inwards with her sine faintly showing as it trailed down to her perky and firm butt.
Drops of water followed the trail that her body naturally had and slipped down across her majestic backside and into the water. As Zach stared in a trance at this heavenly sight Cora stiffened up as she sensed that she was not alone. She slowly turned around and gave Zach a wonderful view of the mountains on her chest. Each breast seemed to defy gravity as they hung on her amazing frame. The twin mountains had soft pink peaks that rose above the clouds to pierce the heavens.
Sadly our hormonally driven hero was so entranced that he didn’t notice the look of shame and anger that crossed Cora’s face. “What. Are. You. Fucking. Doing. Here!!!!” She screamed.
This snapped Zach out of his trance. He stumbled backwards and tried to cover his eyes, as if that would help with the situation at all. He truly had no idea how to interact with women… “I. I had no idea!”
“Really? You couldn’t give out a warning? You couldn’t see if the bath was empty?” She fumed.
“Well I figured…”
“You figured! Figured what? That you could a glimpse of something good before you die?” She interrupted. “Well you were right! Now you die!”
She jumped out of the bath and proceeded to chase after Zach still dripping wet, all semblance of decency gone now. As she ran her breasts and butt jiggled around as if they had a mind of their own and they were doing a happy little dance. Again he turned into a stupid male as he fixated on the scene behind him as he ran. Not looking forward to pay attention to where he was going he ran straight into the side of the cave crating a man shaped hole into it.
Dazed and confused Zach could only turn around and watch helplessly as Cora drew back a fist, which caused her to jiggle even more and made him stare, again. The last thought that went through his head as she hit him was ‘I can die a happy man now’. The force of the blow smashed him into the ground and left a huge crater that was 10 feet wide and 7 feet down with Zach in a depression that fit his body perfectly.
‘Huh. Was wondering where to put the blood pool at.’ She thought. “Ha ya big bastard. Now instead of a bath I’ll bathe you in blood. If you live you better fucking thank me. I’ve killed soooo many demonic beasts for you.” She snapped at his unconscious body, or corpse as she was unsure at this point.
Really this was the best time to put him into a blood pool since her hit had literally broken every bone in his body. By all rights he should be dead at the moment but he was tenacious so he barely hung on to life. Cora left to grab the giant bucket of blood she had harvested.
When she returned and popped the top off of the barrel the blood began to boil and steam. The vitality the beasts had when they were alive still continued to exist in the blood after they had died! This was the best ingredient to use to temper Zach’s marrow.
In fact if he survived this process he could very well pass directly to the peak perfection stage since all his bones had been reduced to dust. In another way he was extremely lucky since the punch he had received had knocked him out cold so he didn’t feel all that much pain. Cora quickly dumped the blood into the crater.
A sizzling sound could be heard as the blood touched his skin. The blood tunneled into his body and replaced the marrow immediately, cuts appeared all over his body as the violent vitality of the blood lacerated his skin. A vortex formed as all the blood rushed into his body and turned his marrow into a pure and clear crystal like substance.
By the time the marrow had formed the bits and pieces of bone started to combine back together. The particles hardened to the point that heaven steel would be a comparable substance to the bone. Ever so slowly his skeletal structure began to reform.
Due to the energy needed to continue the blood and bone forging about half of the blood had been used up. He was now floating in the middle of the blood pool as if he was surrounded by a blood cocoon. Now the blood in his body needed to replenish itself and in order to do so his body started to utilize the rest of the blood.
What Zach didn’t know was how precious the blood he was in was. About 75% of the blood was donated from the four clans of the original beasts. The turtle for defense, the dragon for energy gathering, tiger for strength and phoenix for vitality. The rest was from ancient beasts that were killed by Cora. Flood dragons, demon apes and even chaotic hounds had all been slaughtered for him and him alone. Even if he had been in the best sect in the cosmos he would have never had the opportunity to have such good materials used on him.
As the last of the blood was absorbed a drum beat sounded out. However this was no drum. I was Zach’s heart! His vitality was now beyond compare to anything out there. He was truly a blessed boy, gifted by the heavens with extreme luck! For as long as he would exist he could never repay the gifts he had been given.
Cora left after he had absorbed everything. All she had to do now was wait for him to wake up. How long that would take was anyone’s guess. Now she needed to take the bodies of the creatures that she had killed and feed them to Gart uncooked. He needed the essence of the beasts to continue his growth.
When she walked into the house, still naked, Gart looked to her expectantly. It was as if he knew what was coming. He hopped down and ran to where Zach was so he could advance himself alongside the boy that had taken him in.
After Gart finished the beasts, bones and all, he passed into a coma like state as well. Now it was just Cora. Since she was all alone she decided to go finish her bath and then take a nice long nap.