“Since you just passed your first ever tribulation and broke into the second layer of cultivation, I think it is time for me to impart upon you the actual cultivation methods, martial arts and meditation and visualization methods.” on the training ground, Jianmen was standing there still with his bamboo stick, his injury on his right arm had become more serious, as some burn marks seemed to have reached the right side of his neck: “Today, what I am going to teach you is the basics of ‘Meditative Scripture of Three Oceans and Nine Heavens’, ‘Skill and Form of Flow and True Self’ and ‘Scripture of Jade and Amber’.

“Don’t be intimidated by the names, they are fancy because they work very well, and they are among the best in their respective categories. ‘Meditative Scripture of Three Oceans and Nine Heavens’ is the meditative scripture with instructions on how to continuously hone your power of mind and will, through both meditation and visualization; ‘Skill and Form of Flow and True Self’ is for the next steps for your physical combat skills; and ‘Scripture of Jade and Amber’ is the cultivation method that teaches you how to control, hone and cultivate your Xuanli. It is also a spell codex of sorts, you can learn how to channel spells and utilize your Xuanli to achieve various goals you would want.

“So the first magical trick of the day. Sit down on the grass, put your mirrors in front of you, place your weapons beside you. Caroline you can put each piece on each side. And then slowly go into meditative states.”

Caroline and Jason did as Jianmen ordered. Before he closed his eyes, Jason took a look at the metal swords hanging on the four wooden pillars around them. This time there were no sprinklers nearby, just the four pillars.

The next moment, both Caroline and Jason started hearing whispers all around them. They could not understand individual words of the whisper, but somehow the meanings behind them are perfectly revealed to them and ingrained in their minds - they could even “see”, “smell” and “feel” when ideas and notions concerning these senses were being described.

The Xuanli that was flowing inside of their meridians started slowly growing stronger and denser. While this was going on, a certain amount of Xuanli also seeped out from their meridians and into their blood, muscles and bones, tempering every part of their bodies, strengthening them and making them more resilient.

After a while, both Caroline and Jason stood up, and subconsciously started practicing different battle moves. As their moves progressed, their Xuanli started manifesting on the exterior of their bodies: faint flame seemed to be igniting around Caroline’s body, while Jason’s body started shining in metallic silver color.

Then at this moment, Jianmen snapped his finger, the metal swords hanging on the four wooden pillars started shining. The air around Caroline and Jason started getting denser, and the gravity in the area started getting stronger, which made Caroline and Jason’s moves more and more difficult - the Xuanli seeping out of the insides of their bodies was being condensed and pushed back onto their skin. The same effect also took place on their meridians, muscles, organs and bones, almost no Xuanli was wasted due to seeping out from the body, instead it was recycled in their bodies like another Xuanli circulation system besides their meridians.

It was not long before both Caroline and Jason came into consciousness and stopped their moves, and great weariness and hunger struck them at the same time. Their Xuanli grew stronger and denser, but the higher density and the significant amount of it that was absorbed by their bodies led to their meridians not as filled as before, just like a elastic bottle that was squeezed half empty and could use a refill.

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When both of them ran into the diner, Jianmen already had food and drinks prepared. So they took almost no time to sit down at the table and started eating. And today was the first day they clearly felt how the food at the inn was different: there were traces of pure and “clean” Xuanli in the food. As they chewed and swallowed, the Xuanli flew into their bodies and in turn meridians. The amount was not large enough to completely fill their meridians, but just enough to make the hunger stop and the weariness mostly bearable.

“Who’s that in the reception?” Caroline pointed at a new guy at the reception’s desk.

“That’s Bill, he’s taking over your shifts for today. And possibly some future days.” Jianmen took three bottles of wine from the fridge and gave two of them to Caroline and Jason: “How are you guys feeling?”

“Tired, and hungry.” Jason answered and took a huge chug of the wine: “But I feel like when I recovered I’d be able to lift a ton.”

“Not yet, but you’ll be able to.” Jianmen smiled, “When you’re done eating, take a one hour break and start practicing your first spells. I trust that you already know your first spells?”

“Yeah. Fireball, how lame and cliche.” Caroline rolled her eyes.

“Mine’s wall of ink.” Jason said, “Not sure what that is, sounded kinda lame as well.”

“On the contrary, they’re really good.” Jianmen nodded: “The most basics of the first spells, means that you can start with the bare fundamentals. Starting with fundamentals is good, because there won’t be too many complications to bias you.”

“Bias us? What for?” both Caroline and Jason asked.

“That spells are supposed to be a certain way. That they should be complicated. In fact. a lot of times the best spells are not the most complicated. And ninety percent of the most powerful spells? They are just smart combinations of simpler spells. For example, fireballs are simple, but what if you make it bigger? What if you make it smaller but release more of them at once? What if you make the fireball not explosive but more about just burning? What if you let your fireballs shine brighter instead of longer? And for the ink wall, what if you make it smaller like a shield? What if you shape it into a knife instead of a simple wall? What if you make it into a giant glider wing? You guys know what I mean?”

“I get it I get it, simpler means more flexible.” Jason chuckled and brought up a Cantonese accent: “Be water, my friend.”

Just when Caroline and Jason were done with their food, Robert and Stephanie walked into the inn and straight into the diner.

“I’ll leave you to it then! Have fun!” Jianmen grabbed another bottle of fruit wine and left the diner for the basement.

“Hey, thanks for all your help last night. Are you feeling alright?” Stephanie looked at both Caroline and Jason with genuine concern.

“We’re good, we’re good.” Jason and Caroline looked at each other and for a moment did not know what to say since Jianmen told them Robert and Stephanie would not remember all the details from last night, “How are you feeling?”

“We’re good! I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep but I still had a surprisingly good night’s sleep.” Stephanie chuckled nervously.

“And the same for me! I pretty much passed out on my bedroom floor.” Robert joked, “We want to say thank you very much for helping us with the movie set. We really, really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, no problem. Happy that we could help.” Jason said nervously.

“Look, I know that you guys help us out of the goodness of your heart. And this is technically off the books so we can’t really repay you the way it seemed appropriate.” Robert and Stephanie sat down on the opposite side of the table: “But we would really like to thank you. So, we talked to the reaper… the set supervisor, and we’re thinking about having two paranormal consultants that help us watch the set, in case of other supernatural occurrences. ”

“He gave us a budget of eight hundred dollars per week per person. And you just need to be onsite 3 days per week. ” Stephanie explained: “What do you think? ”

“That is very generous… but...” Jason still remembered Jianmen’s advice that they do not go anywhere unsafe until Jianmen can leave the inn, yet he was cut off by Caroline.

“No but, we’ll definitely take it. When should we start?”

“Right away! If you want you can start right away!” both Robert and Stephanie seemed really excited.