Chapter 825 - Tenacious Spirits
At first, Darlene relied solely on her spatial energy to drive the flow of the True Grandmist Energy wisp through her energy channels.
After completing ten complete cycles, she built up her confidence and used the breathing technique to continue her practice.
She immediately noticed the difference; her control had noticeably weakened without the support of her spatial ability.
Nevertheless, after completing another fifty cycles, she adapted to the breathing technique.
"I think I'm ready now," Darlene said.
The highest degree of control she can achieve is when she can use the breathing technique and spatial ability in unison.
After Leon acknowledged with a nod, he summoned a dozen wisp of True Grandmist Energy for her to cultivate the first step.
"Don't think about anything beyond the second level of the Body Tempering Realm; right now, you are not even at the first level of the Body Tempering Realm," Leon instructed.
"We'll take things one step at a time, so free your mind of any distracting thoughts, alright?"
"Mm, I'll listen to you," Darlene earnestly listened to Leon's instruction.
After accepting the dozen wisps of True Grandmist Energy from Leon, she began running the Godfiend Body Forging Method to temper her flesh with the thirteen wisps of True Grandmist Energy in her possession.
"Ughk—!"
A sharp pain quickly drilled into her skin and rushed straight to her head, causing Darlene to grunt in pain before the needle-like wisps of True Grandmist Energy quickly repaired her damaged cells and strengthened them.
She was expecting the process to be painful, but it still caught her off guard; it was more painful than what she prepared for.
'Nothing great comes easy!' Darlene gritted her teeth and endured the painful process.
For years, she had suffered the label of no-talent and was treated like she was less than human by the other warriors in the tribes…
Their gazes of cold indifference and disdain repeatedly crushed her innocent hopes and dreams while she had no other choice than to endure it all, helplessly and powerlessly, in silence…
Now that power to change all of that was in hand, how can she not grasp it tightly?!
'Compared to those days, this little bit of physical pain is nothing to me!' Darlene roared firmly in her heart.
While watching over Darlene, Leon quickly noticed the speed of the needle-like wisps of True Grandmist Energy stabbing into Darlene's flesh increased without signs of slowing down from the infliction of pain.
Her fleshly strength improved at an alarming as the wisps of True Grandmist Energy became one with her flesh.
Before long, Darlene had already completed the first shedding and achieved the fleshly strength of Rank 1 Body Tempering.
As he witnessed that, Leon was astonished by Darlene's willpower.
He told her to take things one step at a time because he thought the pain would be too great for her to bear if she attempted to go all out in tempering her flesh without mental preparation.
However, now, he knows that he had indeed underestimated her.
'Does everyone who suffers the label of trash and no-talent have this kind of willpower? It seems protagonists usually have such settings in stories…' Leon silently mused.
Nevertheless, seeing Darlene working so hard on cultivation, it would not do if he let her True Grandmist Energy run out and forcefully end her cultivation.
She is doing so well.
How can he let that happen?
"What a tenacious girl… Her willpower might even be greater than mine…" Leon thought wryly, but he was happy to see her rate of improvement without a hint of envy.
The only real criteria for body cultivation talent are willpower and diligence. And from what he could see, Darlene was not lacking in either of them.
Nevertheless, there was no reason for him to be envious; a man who is envious of his own woman's capability is no man.
He summoned several more dozen wisps of True Grandmist Energy and slowly fed it to her, allowing Darlene to continue tempering her fleshly body without worry.
A short while later, Darlene advanced again and achieved Rank 2 Body Tempering.
Even so, she showed no sign of stopping despite the beads of sweat formed on her skin and soaking her clothes in it.
At the same time, black blood and impurities were also expelled from her skin.
'I should also cultivate,' Leon decided.
He was strangely motivated after watching Darlene cultivate.
Shortly after feeding Darlene another hundred wisps of True Grandmist Energy, he used the remaining 300 wisps of True Grandmist Energy to cultivate his Black Turtle Heavenly Guard and spare none for the Radiant Heaven Realmship repair.
He could always transform more land into True Grandmist Energy when more is needed.
'I didn't have this many wisps of True Grandmist Energy when I tempered my flesh the previous times; I wonder much improvement it'll be this time around,' he mused.
Not long after, he joined Darlene in tempering their fleshly body.
Wisps after wisps of True Grandmist Energy twisted and spun, turning into needle-shaped drills before digging into his skin and tempering his flesh.
The waves of pain immediately assaulted him, but it was not something he hadn't experienced before.
As such, he endured it with a tenacious spirit like Darlene.
At the same time, he used his divided consciousness to spread out his divine sense and keep watch over the situation in the area.
Pip! Pip! Pip!
As time quickly passed, Darlene broke through the ranks of Body Tempering consecutively reached Rank 6 Body Tempering in no time, easily surpassing the dark faes' rate of progress without surprise
Even as a substitute energy, dark energy could barely replicate a fraction of True Grandmist Energy's effect.
Pip! Pip!
Time further passed, and Darlene advanced Rank 8 Body Tempering Realm.
It is just a matter of time before she reaches Rank 10 Body Tempering.
Nevertheless, she was not the only one with big improvements; Leon's improvement was even greater than hers.
His talent was never lacking; time was his greatest limitation.
After his body completely absorbed the 300 wisps of True Grandmist Energy through tempering his flesh, his flesh defense improved by 3-mil jin, reaching a staggering total of 4-mil jin strength.
He had entered the Mid-stage of Rank 1 Body Transformation.