"No waiting." Mu Ye grinned, flashing a set of white teeth, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
Arthur's pupils contracted sharply. Trusting instinct alone, he barely sensed a blurred afterimage bearing down on him.
He channeled his soul power in an instant. The faint golden phantom of Excalibur solidified in a heartbeat, angling across his body to block the blow.
A deafening crash rang out. Arthur felt a terrifying force surge through Excalibur and into his body. Every organ felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer, and the sweetness that flooded his throat gave way to a spray of blood.
His whole body went airborne like a kite with a snapped string, flying backward to slam hard against the stone wall of the training ground and send shards of rock scattering in every direction.
Arthur lost consciousness.
He blacked out completely.
"Impressive. You actually managed to react." Mu Ye gave the unconscious Arthur a word of praise, then walked over and dragged him up.
He tossed him into a medicinal pool that had been prepared in advance.
The pool was one Mu Ye had blended specifically for Arthur, combining dozens of rare heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and soul beast essence blood, formulated to ensure Arthur could not die no matter what happened to him.
The moment Arthur was dropped in, the warm medicinal liquid enveloped him. Countless tiny currents of warmth bored through his pores, traveling along his meridians and repairing the damaged organs and bones within.
Mu Ye stood at the pool's edge and watched the pallor slowly drain from Arthur's face, color returning to his cheeks. The corner of his mouth curved into a satisfied smile. "More or less what I expected. Recovers pretty fast."
Before long, Arthur's eyes drifted open. He flexed his fingers and found that the searing pain had vanished entirely, replaced by a warm and comfortable ease.
"I'm still alive?"
Arthur murmured to himself, struggling upright in the pool and looking down at his own body.
Where it had been riddled with injuries on the verge of collapse, it was now whole and unmarked, and even sturdier than before.
"Oh, you're up. Let's keep going."
The voice arrived like a devil's whisper.
Arthur had barely climbed out of the pool, medicinal liquid still dripping from him, when he saw that Mu Ye had already settled into his stance, cracking his knuckles one by one.
A shiver ran through him. He had only just begun to speak when Mu Ye's figure disappeared again.
A dull impact, and Mu Ye's fist connected squarely with his chest, harder than the last time. Arthur flew backward and crashed into the pool in a tremendous splash, and slipped into unconsciousness once more.
Arthur regained consciousness. Arthur lost consciousness.
When he came to again, Arthur moved straight into a defensive stance, only to find that Mu Ye had already set a full table of dishes out in front of him.
"Eat first."
"It's mealtime. We fight after."
Arthur went rigid. He stared at the steaming spread, the rich aromas drifting into his nose.
A thick broth simmered from thousand-year soul beast meat, alongside several medicated dishes saturated with refined vitality. Every single plate made his mouth water.
Only then did he notice the hollow emptiness in his stomach. Between being beaten senseless and submerged for recovery, he had not eaten at all.
Now that the tension in his body eased for a moment, hunger hit him all at once.
"What are you standing there for? Sit down and eat."
Mu Ye picked up his chopsticks and helped himself to a piece of soul beast meat. "All of this was made specifically for you.
Replenishes blood, more directly than the pool. You need to eat your fill before you have the strength to take a beating. Or rather, to train."
Arthur's mouth twitched. He didn't bother with a comeback.
Food first.
He dropped into a seat, picked up his chopsticks, and started eating in great, ravenous mouthfuls.
The soul beast meat dissolved on his tongue, its concentrated energy sliding down his throat and spreading through his limbs as a warm current, dissolving most of the fatigue that had been lingering in his bones.
But Arthur's pace began to slow.
Not because he was full. It was because he had just realized that once the meal was finished, he would be beaten to death again.
This was a condemned man's last supper.
Mu Ye raised an eyebrow. "If you don't finish soon, we skip the meal and start early."
Arthur jolted, instantly shoveling food into his mouth faster, cheeks stuffed, voice muffled. "No, no, no. I'm almost done!"
Ah. The familiar ceiling.
By the time Arthur woke again, he had lost count of how many times this had happened.
The memories of the earlier rounds flickered past like a spinning lantern.
Sent flying by Mu Ye's fist.
Bones ground to fragments under the weight of his soul pressure, unable to rise.
There was even one time he had been hurled into an icy pool bristling with frost spikes, forced to endure both the bone-deep cold and a beating at the same time.
Every round ended with him blacking out, every round began with him waking in the medicinal pool, over and over, without end.
Mu Ye's blows grew heavier with each cycle, calibrated to ensure Arthur felt death approaching every single time.
"Stop staring." Mu Ye's voice came from the poolside. "Come eat."
Arthur shuffled over, his eyes vacant.
Halfway through the meal, he asked: "How much longer does this go on?"
"Not long." Mu Ye said offhandedly. "Forty-nine days in total."
"F, forty-nine days?!"
The chopsticks slipped from Arthur's fingers and clattered onto the table. The blankness in his eyes finally showed a tremor, as though he had been struck by lightning, leaving him frozen in place.
He counted on his fingers. He had endured only a single day so far, with forty-eight more to come.
Forty-eight more days of the same cycle: beaten senseless, healed in the pool, fed a condemned man's meal, beaten senseless again?
He retrieved his chopsticks and continued feeding himself mechanically, the rich energy of the soul beast meat circulating through his body, unable to warm the cold dread settling over his heart.
Ha. I have to stay alive.
Day forty-nine.
When the morning light pierced the thin mist hanging over the training ground, Arthur was jolted awake by the scorching heat of the medicinal liquid.
He struggled upright. The ache in his muscles was no longer the familiar soreness of old injuries.
In its place was the taut, refined density that comes only from being pushed past the absolute limit, and the soul power flowing through his meridians moved like a rushing river, carrying with it a force that would not be turned aside.
On the verge of breaking through?
No, that wasn't it.
Something was coming out.
A power of a higher order was slowly welling up from within.
A clarity rose in Arthur's mind, unbidden and certain.
That was the power of the Red Dragon.
It was coming.
Mu Ye, who had been watching in silence, felt a flicker of surprise. It was different from what he had anticipated. The force inside Arthur had not appeared at the fortieth rank as expected.
Instead, it had emerged first, and was now pulling Arthur's breakthrough to the fortieth rank along in its wake.
The reason, in truth, was simple enough.
Arthur had nearly died more times than anyone could count during this period. The Red Dragon's power had finally decided that if it waited any longer, he would actually be gone.
The Red Dragon, inwardly: You are an absolute menace. Go on, keep pushing your luck. Who in the world could out-push you?
The power of a higher order within him erupted like a volcano dormant for ten thousand years. Not a violent, shattering shock, but an ancient and dignified warmth, a surging tide that spread along the meridians and reached every corner of his body.
Three loud, rhythmic beats rang out.
The sound of a powerful heartbeat, growing louder.
Louder still, like war drums rolling.
With each beat, a more sweeping surge of red-gold energy poured from his heart.
Beside him, Mu Ye watched in astonishment.
A moment later he frowned.
Something felt wrong.
Mu Ye had sensed a second power of a higher order.
The frown deepened. The second force he was detecting did not originate from within Arthur. It came from outside, from above, from the sky.
He snapped his head upward.
In that instant, a boundless, sovereign might descended.
The consciousness of the Douluo plane itself.