Adjust the cuffs of his jacket Stephen Crain waited more bord than anything as his underlings sweated. They were sitting in a warehouse waiting to see some so called "miraculous method" Vale of the verdant path corporation had boasted about. "How miraculous could it truly be" Stephen internally sneared, while the verdant corporation was a reasonably large corporation it mainly traded in mortal crops and low grade foundational healing remedies. To his knowledge it was barley qualified to call its self a farming sect only occasionally sending a cultivator to oversee the moral workers or buy farming slaves.
Shaking his head in disgust he consoled himself with the windfall he was going to get when they inevitably failed to produce any results. They were having so disheveled dirt farmer run, life barrels and spar with what even Stephen had to admit was a relatively impressive mercenary. He himself was a second step foundational realm cultivator having consumed half a dozen middle grade tempering pills along with a single high grade foundational bath. With the quality and quantity of the resources and energy in his body he was strong for his level and at the peak ready to achieve the third step. Stephen couldn't tell the mercenaries stage of advancement exactly and he felt it likely wasn't much higher than his but he just seemed more solid than he appeared.
"Let's begin" one of the verdant path men shouted snapping Stephen out of his thoughts on the out of place man. The mercenary picked up the sweaty and bruised mud farmer with one hand and packed him towards the strange cultivation bath. "What's the point in slapping around the pesent, I thought you were demonstrating a cultivation methods not healing remedies" Stephen said annoyance evident in his tone hoping that Vale would stop wasting his time and simply pay him.
"Just watch" Hector Vale said from a set off to his right. It had been a lot of work managing the arrogant and self-important cultivator but his experience as a talent manager for the verdant path corporation had been more than helpful. Now Hector had a front row seat as he saw disinterest and annoyance turned into surprise, horror and inevitably disbelief as their second warrior Dimitri went through the Frost forging as the warriors had begun to refer to the process. Stephen Crain and his Blackrock auction house staff watched the progress with wrapped attention occasionally asking questions that he answered to the best of the ability loving the begrudging respect in the cultivators voice.
Reaching into the frost bath Markus reached in and pulled out his second in command Dimitri a new man. He knew exactly what type of hell it was feeling like you could freeze to death at any moment despite the burning blood being pumped into you. "Rest now" Markus said setting the stocky man down on the cot watching him carefully to make sure he wouldn't hurt himself misjudging his strength. Markus noticed Dimitri start to stur just as the posh man from the auction house and his two bosses walked up. Slowly he helped the man sit and eventually stand up to meet them.
Stolen novel; please report.
Walked up he was about to introduce himself when the auction house cultivator spoke "It's impressive to recover from such an Intensive cultivation so quickly". Before anyone could respond the cultivator threw a punch aimed at Dimitri's chest. Barely reacting in time yet not having control over his strength Dimitri flew backwards instead of the step he intended. Grabbing his wrist and squeezing it tight Markus was gonna break his elbow like he'd learned from some of the older street tuffs when he was younger. "Relax mercenary " the cultivator said with a little panic and pain in his voice from having Markus squeezing his wrist "I was simply testing him, now let go of me".
Yanking his arm out of Markus's grip with a curse "a man like you should very well know it's a standard test for first level recruitment". Shaking out his hand the cultivator straightened out his jacket "I assumed you were leaving me the honor as our auction house gave the verdant corporation to materials for this demonstration". "Apologies, I'm new to this whole thing" looking back Markus saw Dimitri getting up and slowly making his way over after hearing the exchange. "But sir why do you refer to me as a mercenary?" Markus said confusion wrote all over his face.
Stephen Crain was still incredulous, after the altercation with the man he learned was called Markus he'd gotten additional shocks back to back. Not only was the man strong enough to manhandle him or that he was a first step foundational realm cultivator but he'd been a cultivator less than a day. The crazy Fondation on the first step was alarming but potentially possible if for some reason you had a technique to suppress a break through and half a decade to slowly expand on it.
It was almost nonsense that has was so powerful but it wasn't just that no, he watched as Markus and the man Stephen thought of as some worthless dirt farmer faced off. The two men while clumsy in compassion to the experts and mercenaries he's seen spar none the less struck out with power and speed far above his peak second step cultivation would let him manifest. Most shocking of all was a rather impressive trait they displayed. It wasn't obvious at first but Stephen's trained eye picked up on it quickly, they didn't react to pain. They were more durable than they were strong which likely helped but they twich when getting hit. Not like they were ignoring or suppressing their pain but as if they were completely numb to it. "A marvelous method indeed" Stephen Crain said glancing between the fight and the mysterious man that made this all possible "I wonder why other secrets you hold".