The two months passed by in an iffy. Almost half of the people from the initial group stepped in the bone reforging stage, but unfortunately neither Jack nor Leo managed to successfully cleanse their bodies. Apparently Jack didn’t have the best talent for cultivation, but the clueless Leo simply didn’t know he had long stepped into the Qi gathering realm.
It was a blessing in disguise for the young boy to not rush with the cultivation, because during the last two months the several cleansing baths he took in addition to the regular ‘schooling’ from Barbra and daily consumption of fire-bamboo seeds, his Qi pathways were mostly cured. Of course, if an expert alchemist would’ve gotten their hands on those seeds, they could’ve concocted enough pills for the younger generation of the Sacred Order to last for almost a year, but Leo didn’t know that and even if he knew – it’s highly likely he wouldn’t care. With the daily abuse he suffered from Barbra he slowly began to hate the Sacred Order, but since there was nowhere to go, he had no choice but to stay.
There was a small incident before the two months came to an end. Jack’s sweetheart informed him that they were people of different worlds now and he was holding her back. Because of that she was forced to break up their relationship, whatever that meant, so he wouldn't steel her youth, whatever that meant as well. That evening the two boys discussed it, but no matter how hard they tried nothing what Luna said made sense.
In the end they agreed that ‘b*tches be crazy’ and Jack decided to create his own list of rules. The number one would be – bros before hoes.
Leo didn’t really understand what that meant, but it sounded fancy and he liked rules so it was fine. In addition, they agreed that from now on they’ll stick together to swiftly earn contribution points and raise their cultivation.
Seeing his friend’s honesty, Leo told Jack how he stumbled upon the grove of fire-bamboos and shared the half of the seeds he had left. Not only Jack wasn’t upset for his little friend holding out all this time, he said he was proud and they both laughed remembering the wet looks on the group after their empty handed return.
During the next half a year they went on two more expeditions and afterwards cultivated for two months. All this time Barbra continued to pick on them, although it became increasingly difficult to deal with the little one. Still, she had long reached the Foundation establishment stage and if she got serious, Leo at his Qi gathering stage had really hard time to escape. Strangely enough at the end of those six months he even managed to do that successfully on couple occasions, but only to get beaten up the next time she caught him.
While Leo couldn't successfully cleanse his body to pass the Body refinement stage, obviously because he had done it a long time ago unknowingly, Jack was ‘luckier’ and actually stepped into the bone reforging stage after the third expedition.
There was a downside to this joyous occasion though. The two boys got forcefully separated with Jack joining another group with everyone at bone reforging stage and Leo had to stay with the beginners. Most of the ‘failures’ like him were already sent back to the outer sect, but he was still relatively young and had good results in the Hidden Dragon rankings thus elder Clark decided he could hang around for another year.
There was also a confusion regarding his age. Since Jack was fourteen and clearly few years older, Leo decided he was ten. Barbra strongly disagreed with that because during the frequent ‘pointer exchanges’ she forced the boys to go through, she clearly felt that the younger friend was the fastest and the strongest of the whole group. Fortunately she couldn’t prove Leo was lying and since in her eyes he was only a lowly outer disciple she decided to not bother with that in the end.
Objectively speaking during the time he stayed in the Sacred Order Leo had grown quite a bit and not only physically. The presence of an older buddy and them actually learning during the lectures allowed the silly boy to mature as well.
Leo didn’t suddenly become super smart, of course, but at least when he was sent on the fourth expedition, he knew that sun was on the east only in the morning and had no difficulties of finding his way back to the camp.
The only problem was that after his return to the sect he still couldn’t get the cleansing done properly.
From what Leo gathered from senior brothers and sisters, his cultivation process was going fine, even great if one ignored the part with the damned lightning. But the inability to go through the Body refinement slowly began to drive him crazy.
Jack tried to console him that he was a ‘late bloomer’ or something, but Leo knew that with every expedition his chances of being sent to the outer sect were inevitably increasing despite his thirty second place in the Hidden Dragon rankings and he just couldn’t see a way out.
There was half a month left till the next, fifth expedition that just like every one of those could become Leo’s last and it was time for the New Year celebrations. Today sect master surprised everyone in the sect and afterwards in the holy city Avila and held short and passionate speeches encouraging everyone to strive hard for their personal and collective growth.
Leo didn’t understand most of what she spoke of since he was preoccupied with his own problems and while most of the people celebrated on the streets, he aimlessly wondered deep in thoughts. He completely ignored the beautiful city covered in snow as well as the decorated houses and people celebrating. He walked for so long he even arrived somewhere at the outskirts of Avila and the wast white fields around him indicated this was already rural area.
Leo being an actual cultivator at the Qi gathering stage with the affinity to the fire element allowed him to feel comfortable even at low temperatures and he didn’t notice a bit of cold nor snow. But at some point realizing he had strolled through a city with several million inhabitants without noticing it made him even more upset and in the end he sat down in the snow on the roadside, not bothered by the strange glances from passersby.
“F*ck!” Leo cursed and punched the snow.
Once again he missed the careless times he had on the ape island. Even the first month in the Voodoo sect was not half bad considering the many half naked girls he had the chance to peek at.
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“Are you trying to break my property?” Suddenly an elderly voice disturbed his train of thought.
“Uh?” Leo turned his head in confusion only to see an old and wrinkled face full of smiles.
“You’re kidding, right?” He asked.
“Obviously!” The old man said and squatted down next to him.
Leo sat there for a while and the old man didn’t move as well, and the boy stealthily began to observe his new companion. The old man looked short and thin, with a small hump and was dressed in dirty linen shirt and trousers, but had a sheepskin cloak protecting him from cold. He wore old sandals on his feet that were wrapped in linen dregs, but the old man clearly didn’t care for his looks and continued to sip something from the flagon he held with both hands.
It took only a moment for Leo to recognize the smell coming from the guy. This was the same long forgotten Firewater his father used to drink! But there was no way a beggar could allow himself a high quality cultivation resources. That could only mean two things – either the old man was a thief or a hidden expert pretending to be poor.
In the outer sect Leo had heard meany stories of amazing masters hiding in broad daylight and from what it looked like he had stumbled upon one of those. Obviously the first thing he had to do was … nothing. He should respectively wait until the expert would share their knowledge. And no matter what – he always had to behave appropriately.
“What’s your name, little one?” ‘The expert’ asked after they sat there for some time.
“Leo, Sir!” The boy politely answered startling the old man.
He took a deeper look at Leo and then laughed, “Hahaha! Good, good! Turns out young people these days know how to behave!”
Hearing this Leo inwardly sighed in relief – he didn’t misjudge the situation.
“Tell me, boy!” The old man continued, “What’s on your mind, why are you so upset?”
“Uh? You can tell?” Leo was caught by surprise.
Wasn’t the old man supposed to reward him or accept him as the personal disciple? Or at least say something incredibly deep and smart so he could meditate on it for a year or two?
“Hahaha!” The man laughed again. Apparently drinking Firewater put him in a good mood, just like it did with Leo back on the ship.
“When you get to grandpa Noel’s age, you’ll notice these things easily.” The old man continued.
“Who’s grandpa Noel?” Leo cluelessly asked only to hear another burst of laughter in return.
After the old man calmed down and dried the tears that rolled down his wrinkled cheeks from excessive laughing, he said, “I. I’m grandpa Noel.”
Hearing this Leo wanted to kick himself. If that stupid remark made him miss this once in a lifetime opportunity, he would never be able to forgive himself. Fortunately the old man didn’t mind.
“So, Leo, what’s going on?” He asked.
“I’m a bit in a pickle, Sir.” Leo slowly began, trying to figure out how to properly formulate his problem, “I’m falling behind the others because I can’t properly pass the Body refinement stage. I’m afraid that the more time goes by, the less chances I’ll have to even complete the Bone reforging, to not speak about getting to the Qi gathering stage and becoming a real cultivator.”
The old man attentively listened and in the end nodded with a sigh, “Ye, that sucks.”
They sat there for a moment and Leo almost began to loose his mind.
‘That’s it?’ He inwardly screamed, ‘All you can say is ‘that sucks’? I know it sucks!’
He forced himself to take few deep breaths to calm down and then politely asked, “Sir Noel, do you think there is something that can be done about my situation?”
“Definitely!” Just as Leo expected, a real expert knew the way out, “Just like every lock has its key, every problem has a solution.”
‘I knew it!’ Leo thought, ‘He definitely sounds like a true master!’
They continued to sit there fore a while and the drunkard slowly got bored. It seemed impossible to have a real conversation with this boy.
“Alright, Leo.” He decided to try to strike a conversation one last time, “Tell me in detail everything you are going through!”
Afterwards the old man looked at the boy in expectation. With a question formulated this properly he’ll be entertained till the sunset at least.
Leo, of course, thought that the old man was testing his competence and did his best to answer ‘correctly’.
“It’s like this. I’m practicing the required physical exercises extensively and even do my best to cultivate every night instead of sleeping, but for some reason I’m unable to cleanse my body by taking the medicinal baths prescribed by the master alchemist.”
After he said it, Leo clearly could see the disappointed look on the wrinkled face beside him, but there was nothing he could do. Honesty was the best policy in the current situation.
On the other hand the old man wanted to smack the kid for being so taciturn. Obviously he couldn't do it since the boy was from the Sacred Order and despite his age clearly much stronger than him, but after this thought Noel suddenly got an idea.
Although it could be considered a prank, it was harmless and even if the boy at some point realized he was played, there were no real losses for either side.
“Alchemists, shmalchemists!” The old man snorted and just as Leo expected had his own solution, “I can cleanse your body properly and even your bones, but you’ll have to work your ass off for that. Can you even do that?”
“Sir, if there is really a solution …” Leo began, but then noticed the stern look on Noel’s face and said, “I can! The problem is I don’t have much time. I have to go on another expedition in half a month.”
“Hmm … fifteen days …” The old man obviously was calculating something in his mind, “Alright! Let’s do it in fifteen days! I’ll take it as a personal challenge!”
Leo almost jumped up in joy, but then realized there was no free food in this world. Well, there was, but only in the wild.
“What is that I’ll have to ‘work my ass off’ for, Sir?” He said, “You’re not asking for anything weird, are you?”
Just as expected, a true expert could take the slightest doubt in their abilities as a personal offense.
“You’re kidding, right?” The old man seemed to be slightly upset, “You’re talking to grandpa Noel! What do you think can happen now that you’ve met me?!”
Leo mumbled few apologies while the old man inwardly snickered. This was going to be fun.
“Alright, Leo. I need to make some preparations. Come back here tomorrow early in the morning.” Noel said pointing at a small shack on the roadside, apparently his home, “And get ready for some hard work!”