At the entrance to the forest, the burly head servant handed them each a blunt-edged axe. With only one eye, he was an intimidating looking fellow.

He a.s.sessed each of them with his one eye before finally grunting.

"Eight."

The thin but athletic-looking girl in front of Van nodded sharply. She headed off into the forest.

Van wondered what the number meant.

The one-eyed man looked Van up and down, arms crossed. The boy was of mediocre height and although he wasn't muscular, he looked decently toned. He decided he would push the kid a bit.

"Ten"

Seeing his confused look, the one-eyed man added, "per day."

Van wandered into the forest. He saw several servants with their sleeves rolled up, hacking away at the trees. Of course, they weren't crazily cutting down all the trees, but rather a specific type of tree with extremely pointy and sharp looking leaves.

Going further in, he found himself one. He heaved the axe up and swung at it. It was a clean hit and dug several centimetres into the wood.

Van whistled – after his training in the pond, the trees on Mount Steady could be felled by him with one punch. This meant the wood in front of him right now was extremely hard.

Channelling his fleshly power, Van swung the axe again.

Sou!

The axe cut into the wood a few centimetres deeper than the last swing.

Van stepped back and inspected the tree. Hm…its trunk was very wide. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Shrugging, Van lifted his axe again and fiercely hacked into the tree. The impact shook the leaves above.

A few minutes later, the tree started to topple.

"Watch out!" Van shouted. The loggers nearby heeded his warning and scattered.

The gigantic tree swung downwards.

Dust flew up.

Grabbing one end of the tree, he dragged the tree to the supervisor. The one-eyed man was shocked. It had only been ten minutes since the kid had gone in! The boy had even brought the enormous tree out of the forest himself!

The one-eyed man marked Van's tree down in his running tally for each servant. With a finger, he pointed to the wheelbarrows in the distance.

Van got the idea.

He returned to the forest with a wheelbarrow and went back to where he was working earlier. With his hands firm on the axe's handle and his two feet panted stably on the ground, Van pulled the axe back and drove it into the wood.

The impact shook the enormous tree.

Van continued his work while using the pain from the overexertion of his muscles to consolidate his bodily cultivation.

Minutes later, he shouted "Watch out!"

The other servants were too stunned to respond. What? Hadn't this guy just finished off another tree moments ago?

The tree came cras.h.i.+ng down. They dived out of the way just in time.

Van was in a state of complete focus. He unrelentingly hacked into tree as if possessed by a demon. Each swing cut deeper into the hard wood.

The scalps of the other servants grew numb.

Van left to convey his tally to the supervisor and returned to find the area he was working in was devoid of other human beings.

He scratched his head.

Hm?

"Is it lunch break or something?" He questioned a thin young man who was fleeing the area.

The young man ran away faster. Tears were streaming out of his eyes.

Who would still had the motivation to continue with this demon beside them!?!?

_______________

A few nights later, a young man could be seen meditating deeply under the moonlight. His face was set in a look of deep concentration.

[That's it, boy. Now, slowly…]

Van focused. In his mind's eye, he saw a thin thread of light within him. Tentatively, it roamed about his meridians.

He controlled it to move towards the hairline fractures within his meridians. As the light travelled, it dissipated warm heat and power. Upon reaching a fracture, it pulsed softly and filled the gap. A few seconds later, the fracture was gone and the light grew a bit dimmer.

[Congratulations, kid. That was the thirtieth meridian you've healed.]

Van relaxed, wiping the sweat from his brow.

He circulated the Cicada's Breath technique and felt soft particles of qi from the air travel towards him, like snowflakes through the winter air. After locating his meridians, they melted into his skin and latched onto them.

Half an hour later, he had healed another one of the twelve major meridians!

With only a breath of time between each circulation, Van was able to finish healing the remaining major meridians in one night.

Jet spoke with a faint sense of pride in his voice.

[Well done, Van. At this rate, your minor meridians will be completely healed within a few more days. I have to say I am impressed by the speed at which you learn... you seem to have some natural skill with manipulating spiritual power.]

Van smiled thinly, exhausted.

"I had a good teacher. Thank you, Jet."

The ring glowed faintly.

The rest of the week pa.s.sed by in this fas.h.i.+on.

During the day, Van chopped wood like a man possessed, earning him the praise and admiration of the Woodcutting Division's one-eyed Head Servant. The other servants either sincerely admired him or disliked his ability to make their achievements pale in comparison. Van continued to use his duties to improve his bodily cultivation. Using his new knowledge of spiritual energy, Van was able to consolidate his gains from the pond as he hacked at the trees. By the end of the week, the power he had gained from the Thousand Saints Sacrifice method had well and truly been a.s.similated into his body, as if he had been born that way.

During the night, Van sat next to the Banyan tree, absorbing Jet's knowledge the way a sponge soaks water. He made good progress, healing fifteen to twenty minor meridians every night. Some meridians were harder to heal, and some easier. The meridians through his arms were very damaged due to his forceful ejection of spiritual power back on Mount Steady and took the longest to fix.

Finally, one night a few days later, Van leapt up from his sitting position. His eyes shone as he looked up at the pale round moon high above. The pale light lit his medium-length black hair until it glowed silver. His somewhat sharp features were softened by his radiant smile.

He was completely healed!

He nearly laughed out loud in delight.

"I've done it, Jet!"

[Hmph. A minor achievement.]

The ring scoffed.

[Don't get too excited just yet. Until you open your meridians, you are but a mere mortal.]

However, compared to healing his meridians, opening them was easy. Van had grown used to manipulating the Cicada's Breath qi and was very familiar with the location of all the meridians within his body. Because of this, Van directly skipped the one step that stumped countless would-be cultivators over millions of years – sensing the meridians.

Van now manipulated the qi into a spear-like shape and aimed it at the blockage between the inside of the meridian and the open air. The qi-spear rammed into the barrier. Nothing happened. Van repeated the motion. Again, there was no response. Determined, Van directed the spear again and again. Finally, with a crisp sound, the blockage was punctured through!

A cool wisp of qi entered.

Van nearly couldn't control his excitement.

He had done it!

He had opened his first meridian!

With this, Van could be considered to have become a cultivator that harnessed the power in the realms to defy the heavens, never again to be a mortal!

He had entered the 1st level of Qi Distillation!