"Again" with a huff and a grunt Markus picked himself up and took his position. Cracking his neck to try and hide the roll of his eyes. The luster of the stunning beauty in front of him had mostly worn-out from when he'd first been transfixed by her.

"To think I mistook you for an angelic fairy" Markus scoffed at his foolishness "Wind demon Lee more like it". Said demonic fairy was impatiently tapping her foot stiffly glaring at Markus. "If this is the best you can do I don't see why we're wasting our time" Jen Lee said in a tone dripping with frustration and exasperation. "I almost had it that time, you need to relax" Markus replied as he took position in the sparring circle across from her. Immediately Markus realized he'd said the wrong thing and dived out of the way as the wind rushed past him. Quickly popping to his feet and spinning Markus could have mistaken the small woman for a fire cultivating beast as she was almost burning with rage.

"The first round starts tomorrow and you have the nerve to say that" Jen Lee shouted as a small tornado started spinning in her hands. "I should be cultivating, not sparring with some bumpkin second step foundational cultivator no matter how freakish" she huffed in disgust. "And don't get me started on this ludicrous technique you're expert has me practicing, it's like my energy pathways are going to tear themselves apart" saying that her hand flash forward launching a whirlwind of spinning air and dust toward Markus ounce again.

Markus avoided her first few volleys actually making it halfway to Jen's position before getting caught up and flung back out of the ring once again. Jen Lee sighed and shook her head "that's fifteen" Markus picked himself up and saw the demon fairy giving him a complicated look. "As much as it strains my energy pathways the cyclone palm technique expert Pryor has me training is something else" she tilted her head at Markus in curiosity. "Do you know where he acquired such a novel method" before Markus could answer she had shook her head " a dullered like you wouldn't know, once more". Markus winced and promised himself he'd continue until he'd gotten his hands on her.

Pryor, Vale and Tang had all been extremely busy since Jen Lee had popped out of nowhere but that wasn't anything particularly new as of late. After quickly coming to an agreement with the Lee girl for her full support she'd gained a slot in the first round of the tournament. Pryor wasted no time shaking her down for funding quickly getting the three foundational realm coins she had on her person in exchange for the cyclone palm technique.

Pryor knew the name wasn't exactly Original but it fit with the naming scheme the cultivators seemed to prefer so he'd gone with it. While he didn't actually know anything techniques let alone know how it worked he did know a thing or two about hurricanes and tornadoes from the discovery Channel and watching videos online when he was bored. Explaining everything about how air moved together and different pressure vectors wasn't that difficult with a little ink and paper.

While Pryor was dealing with that he'd handed off the money to Hector and Tang to get as much alchemy supplies and energy infused feed as possible. It wasn't much but they were able to scrape together enough to supercharge the thunder chickens egg laying abilities as well as enough herbs for a few alchemic blood treatments. While they couldn't use the frost orb as they'd need to hand it over for the tournament like they'd agreed Tang had a few ideas he wanted to test out. Thankfully they had two strong cultivators he could experiment on lying around.

Time passed quickly and the day of the tournament was right around the corner. Hayden Pryor would occasionally pop by to observe the sparring between Markus and Jen but the majority of his time was actually spent meditating with Dimitri. The gruff man was built like a brick wall so Hayden was surprised that he seemed to have a real talent for energy control. Using the battle formation manual as a guide line the two men worked out how to slowly and smoothly project their energy outside the body. This didn't mean much for Hayden Pryor himself as he only had a few arc of lightning dancing from finger to finger. What's truly impressive was how quickly Dimitri took control of the ice-cold electric fog he released.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

A sigh of amazement and jealousy arouse out of Hayden as Dimitri focused intently forming different shapes. It really was a sight to see but at the same time it took some focus and effort to pull off. "Let's take a break" Hayden stood up "I think it's almost time for our mad alchemist's experiment".

"So originally the method was derived from two principles" Tang narrated as he and Calvin worked to set everything up. "The first is increasing the body's natural capacity to integrate foreign energy" Tang had a passion in in eyes that honestly unnerved Calvin but he wouldn't even think of interrupting his master. Calvin knew people would kill for personal lessons from an alchemist even if the man was a little crazy in his opinion. "This is done by breaking down the body's resistance to foreign energy" Tang finished polishing the glass viles in front of him and turned toward Calvin "Do you know how this is accomplished in the frost forging method expert Pryor has developed".

Eyes wide Calvin racked his brain not expecting the lecture to turn into a pop quiz "it's something to do with the water"? Letting out a disappointed sigh the alchemist went back to his preparations as he continued his explanation. "Pryor's method focuses on breaking down the body itself through physical exhaustion and trauma in order to overpower the natural defenses every living creature and plant poses" Tang was back to admiring the simple yet effective method. "Without this inborn defense mechanism the trace amounts of energy in the air would have mutated and killed all life" "but if life naturally rejects foreign energy how do we have magical plants and beasts" Calvin ask too confused not to speak up.

"I'm so glad you asked" a wide grin split Tang's face "everyone and everything has a different level of natural defenses against foreign energy". "A good example would be the noble lines, having an ancestor at a high level of cultivation mean your body is naturally more adapted to handing foreign energys and incorporating them" pulling out his magic herbs Tang pointed at them " in a way herbs are often a lot like the nobles of the plant world as they often come from seeds of a higher level plant as they thrive because of an ancestry".

"I guess that makes sense but didn't you say their were two principles" Calvin said rubbing his temples trying to follow his masters explanations.

"Why yes I did" Tang replied in a pleased tone.

Calvin continues to take deep breaths and maintain eye contact with the almost manic alchemist in front of him. He waited and waited and waited until he was about to throw his hands up and storm off when Tang slowly blinked and continued like nothing happened. "So after breaking the natural defenses and flooding the body with foreign energys the second stage is infusing the blood with healing energy, stimulants and a counterbalancing force to cocus the body into using everything in its system to repair and reinforce itself ".

"Honestly brilliant, the body is miraculous in what it can do" smiling as he finished his preparations. " we will be isolating this second principle to not only repair our two subjects but hopefully improve the body's foundation"

"Bindings tight?" Tang asked looking to his right.

"Yes alchemist" Calvin replied sharply.

"Formations ready?" Tang looked to his left.

"I I captain" Tang sighed at the strange expert and newly minted formation master.

"Let's begin then" Tang inserted a needle into the arms of Kurt Longfang and Eric Michael's drawing blood.

The crowd watched in silence as the three men worked on the comatose cultivators. Drawing blood, preforming alchemy, draw formations with said alchemic blood then injecting it directly back into the cultivator. This morbid but fascinating act continued without pause for hours.

Very little visibly changed about them throughout this process but internally that couldn't be farther from the case. If a submerged realm cultivator had been presented to witness the energy body's reaction to the blood tempering these children were preforming well they'd likely spit blood. Slowly the energy body began to intertwine with the circulatory system in subtle yet profound ways, permanently putting them on the path of body cultivation.

Unaware of the true effects of what they had done Tang, Calvin and Pryor let out a cheer as Kurt Longfang and Eric Michael's eyes shot open from their comas.