Han Xuhan sat back inside his hut, on his bed, and stared at both of his hands which he had just used to clean his boss's toilet.

He had felt rather traumatised by the end of his work.

Regardless, it was a small price to pay when he had gotten such precious secrets and knowledge from his boss.

Zeroth layer of physique transformation realm? I'm coming for you, oh baby...

Internally singing suggestive lyrics, Xuhan got to work. The incantations he had gotten from Mu Ran were in front of him, written down on a scroll.

Taking a deep breath, Xuhan started to mutter the chants in a low voice.

The words that came out of his mouth were seemingly meaningless, most of them incoherent and not even close to any language Xuhan knew of. While muttering, he felt a strange sense of excitement in his heart. By the end of the chanting, he should be able to sense the spirit qi converging around him.

As each second passed, Xuhan felt a strange pressure descend on his hut. The air thickened and breathing became harder. He felt like he would be suffocating himself if he continued. But he trudged on anyway and the pressure mounted.

Xuhan's skin was crawling, as if tiny insects were all over his body, walking, biting, scratching...

Only the last paragraph left...

Gritting his teeth, Xuhan bore with the pressure and discomfort, finally managing to finish the chant.

Just as he was expecting the discomfort to go away, it became even stronger instead. The imaginary insects were now bigger and bit harder, scratched him bloody...

As soon as he finished the incantation, he scrambled to take his clothes off and fell from his bed, nearly tearing his robes off in the process. But there were no insects crawling on him, only the sensation that was growing even more intense.

His nostrils were flaring from trying to breath properly, yet his windpipes seemed to have been blocked by liquified air.

In his panic, Xuhan banged his head on the bed frame and groaned one last time before falling unconscious.

...... .....

"Wake up, Xuhan."

Xuhan blinked dazedly and jumped up from his bed. The memories of last night came back in a flood of terror and confusion. Whipping his head around, he saw Xiao Wu staring at him with a rather strange expression.

"Martial brother, I didn't know you were such a smooth player. One day in the sect and you already...sigh, never mind."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Hah, look at yourself first. You sure had a...rough night, hehehe."

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Xuhan looked down and saw that he was half naked, with his robe torn and thrown to another corner of the room. His bed was messy, and his head sported a considerably bump upon touching, as he discovered in the hard way after slapping himself there.

"Tell me the truth, brother. Who was it, eh? She sure roughed you up..."

As pissed as he felt about the situation, Xuhan swallowed all the rage and described his experience of trying to absorb spirit qi to Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu didn't look particularly surprised.

"Isn't that normal? Spirit qi isn't something you can absorb that easily on your first attempt. You probably tried to absorb too much and received a backlash. Although it seems a bit exaggerated in your case, it's actually a good thing that you managed to find an incantation that draws so much qi from the air.

Now that I think of it, where did you buy it from anyway? Are you trying to spend all your spirit stones on these things? Normal techniques are more than enough in your level. Don't waste your money."

"Oh well, I never had to spend much for that actually. I got it from Mu Ran!"

Xiao Wu widened his eyes and gasped.

"What? Why would he give such precious resources to you? Unless..."

Xiao Wu looked him up and down with a suggestive expression. Xuhan's face darkened. What was going on inside this guy's head? Why did that leer feel so insulting?

"It's not what you think. He offered me a job. This incantation was an advance payment."

"He offered you a job?"

Xiao Wu did not look convinced, not at all.

"Yes. From yesterday on, I, Han Xuhan, have become boss Ran's first underling!"

"...Are you sure your head injury is harmless? Because it sure doesn't look that way to me."

"Whether I'm retarded in the head right now isn't even the point, the point is that he gave me a precious secret incantation for free! I don't know about you but if he keeps this up, I haven't got any problem in becoming his lackey."

Xuhan smiled like a maniac, completely ignoring Xiao Wu's flummoxed expression and put his robe on. He felt quite refreshed, as if his body was full of energy, filled to the brim and then some. Was this the effect of having spirit qi inside your body?

So awesome!

"Feels quite satisfying, eh?"

Xiao Wu chuckled seeing Xuhan's invigorated expression. He was convinced that Xuhan was hiding some secrets now. Qi gathering incantations were precious treasures. Why would a petty guy like Mu Ran give it away to a "lackey" ?

"Yep, I feel so full though." Xuhan rubbed his stomach with a satisfied expression.

"Probably because it must've been a very good qi absorption technique. Mu Ran sure is generous!"

"Now, my next step should be cycling of the spirit qi, right?"

Xuhan laughed it off. Of course Mu Ran was generous. This techniques that were deemed to be more than decent were probably not even worth a whit in a protagonist's eyes.

"No, now you'll have to learn how to control qi first. Do you think the spirit qi is a sentient creature that's going to listen to you or something? It's really difficult to move and control their flow with mental commands. I am at the second layer of physique transformation but even I have trouble completing a whole cycle, let alone you who hasn't got any experience in this field."

Xuhan was stumped. He was already about to envision grand fantasies of commanding an army of skeletons screaming "BANZAI!". But it was dashed before he could even decide on the details of the scene, like how many damsels in distress would be present in the scene, and which type of waifus would be the first one to be saved...

"And that's where our lessons come in. The elders will teach you everything you want to know since you're a...top-tier student, from an economical viewpoint of course.

Check your schedule, we have lectures just an hour later. Let's go together. I have a feeling that the disciples from other mountain peaks might not hold us in a very high regard. We black sheeps must stick together. "

Xuhan was delighted. At least something good came out of that shitty loan scam! Together with Xiao Wu, he came out of his hut and took in the gloomy, wintry scenery from the mountain peak. White snowflakes had covered the ground, more were drifting along the wind.

The two boys carefully walked down from the snow covered mountain peak to attend their first ever official lesson on cultivation.