Reaching the old man's house was absolutely no problem. I naturally hid the eyes from prying eyes as far away as possible. I returned to the old man around one in the morning. The gate was open, and the old man himself was sitting in the kitchen, as if I hadn't left.
"Great master, I have fulfilled your decree. Here is the proof," I said calmly, placing the bag of eyes on the table.
"Well done," the old man said briefly, taking the bag in his hands. "Two? Hmm, a small catch." I was a little stunned by his words but decided not to think about it. "Good, you have passed my three tests: strength, endurance, and resolve. From now on, you are my disciple. From now on, call me simply Master or, better yet, Teacher."
"Yes, Teacher," I said, bowing.
"Since you are a mage, very young, and have already reached such heights, I can assume you are planning to enter some university?" the old man asked, putting the eyes away somewhere and gesturing for me to sit opposite him.
"Yes, Teacher. In June next year, my companion and I decided to try to pass the entrance exam for Mingzhu University," I said with respect in my voice, sitting opposite the old man.
"I see. I won't interfere with you entering it; it will even be good for your training," the old man nodded. "Starting tomorrow, we begin training. Don't worry; I will take into account that you go hunting twice a week. It won't affect your training."
"Thank you, Teacher," I said, bowing slightly.
"You don't have to be so polite," he said, holding up his hand. "Do you know what method I use to gain strength comparable to weak pack leaders?" he asked, sipping tea.
"No, Teacher, but I can assume it's some special method of body tempering?" I replied.
"You could say that, although I would call it the art of body tempering," the old man said, lost in thought for a moment. "The essence of this method is to strengthen the body through the use of a person's internal energy, proper breathing, and strenuous training. Internal energy is similar to magic, but fundamentally different. An ordinary mage cannot feel it in a person. Likewise, an ordinary person or mage cannot feel it within themselves. Long, long ago, even before the magical era, people survived thanks to strong monsters that protected them; few know this," the old man recounted. I was amazed that he knew about totems, but it was probably not surprising, given his method of fighting monsters. "However, these monsters could not protect ordinary people on their journeys or simply from weak monsters if people strayed far from settlements. But people somehow survived, moved, communicated with each other; what do you think they did it because of?"
"Most likely due to body tempering?" I guessed. It was simply obvious.
"Yes, you are right. Ordinary people, without using intensive training methods, were able to resist servants. Those who lacked talent but tortured themselves with training and used some potions could resist pack leaders on equal footing," the old man said calmly. I was stunned by his words: ordinary people capable of killing servants! Warriors capable of killing pack leaders one-on-one with just physical strength! It's simply incredible! "Those who had innate talent and tortured themselves with training, pushing their bodies to exhaustion and themselves to the brink of death, could fight against supreme commanders!" the old man said enthusiastically.
"Please forgive me, Teacher, but why is humanity now, with magic, not at the top of the world, but living a miserable existence under constant threat of destruction?" I asked when the old man paused for a couple of minutes.
"It's alright, that's a good question," the old man replied calmly. "I don't know how or when exactly magic appeared, but after it did, only a few could master it, and they were stronger than talents that only tempered bodies. Even the monster guardians — totems — were inferior to them in strength! But unfortunately, because of this, people stopped tempering their bodies and switched to using magic. However, back then there were still plenty of those who tempered their bodies and used magic, and they were at the pinnacle of human society. But ordinary people continued to weaken and become cannon fodder. There were attempts to create magical weapons that ordinary people could use, and the first prototypes were created. However, then all of that was destroyed, and the body-tempering techniques, along with the weapons, were banned!" the old man said angrily, slamming his fist on the table. "So here's another confirmation of the existence of firearms. Who banned all these ways of gaining strength that could have led humanity to the top of the world?"
"Teacher, please forgive me again, but who banned it?" I asked, the question that was bothering me.
"Nothing. I don't know for sure. It's been over five hundred years since then, however, I know it was people from the west, but who exactly is unknown. Perhaps the Holy City, it was just expanding its influence to the east and gradually conquering the world. Perhaps some other organization or power dominating the world at that moment. One thing is clear: most of the knowledge about magical weapons is lost, and body-tempering techniques began to be passed down in families from generation to generation. However, families practicing tempering were ruthlessly exterminated until only a handful remained," the old man said sadly, lowering his head. "I come from one of those families. I have relatives in southern China, they also practice body tempering, but because I delved into studying this issue, I didn't get a successor. This is one of the reasons why I decided to teach you."
"Thank you, teacher," I said, bowing slightly.
"No need to thank me," he waved his hand. "You are a mage, and a capable one with a strong talent. If you temper your body, I'm afraid to imagine what you'll be capable of. The training is divided into three directions. The first, actually training in the direct sense, various physical exercises, practicing strikes on a dummy, hunting and fighting monsters, and other sparring. The second, using various medicines and elixirs to increase the training effect, heal wounds received during sparring, and so on. You've already taken some, it was the tea I gave you, as well as the ointment that helped you recover from our battle. These concoctions are made from various medicinal herbs and monster parts. The skills of creating such concoctions, as well as obtaining everything necessary for them, are also part of the training, but for now, I'll share my supplies with you until you learn to prepare them yourself. And finally, the third is strengthening your internal energy, similar to the development of mages' stardust, but it doesn't involve entering the spiritual world; on the contrary, you need to concentrate on your body. But that's a matter for tomorrow, not today."
"I understand, teacher, when will we start training?" I asked the old man.
"Tomorrow, after noon. After breakfast, you'll have the opportunity to rest or go hunting with your friend," the old man said calmly, nodding his head. "Body tempering has many ways and methods, I will tell you about all of them, and I will try to ensure that you use as many of them as possible. Then your development will be faster, higher quality, and you yourself will become even stronger. However, all these methods are divided into several stages, and everyone is destined to go through them, but no one knows what strength a person can achieve in the end. The first stage is called laying the foundation. It involves harsh training from three to four months to several years. During the first stage, the student does not use internal energy but prepares the body and mind for its use. The fact that you are a mid-level mage won't help you much, and it might even be more difficult. To successfully complete the first stage, a person must be brought to the peak point of exhaustion, so that they can barely stand, essentially to a state of near-death. After that, in such a state, the student will be able to feel the internal energy flowing within them."
"I understand, teacher, may I ask how exactly such a state will be achieved?" I asked, seeing only two ways: lifting dumbbells and losing consciousness, or fighting a superior opponent.
"Previously, this was achieved only through exhausting training, but with the advent of magic, another way appeared — a deadly battle with a monster stronger than you, one on one," the old man said, fully confirming my thoughts.
"I see, teacher, and what about the strength of a person who completes the foundation-laying stage?" I asked, also an important question.
"A person completing the foundation-laying stage is capable of fighting on equal footing with a low-level servant, possibly a mid-level one," the old man said, thinking slightly. "But as soon as they experience the near-death state and begin to feel internal energy, their strength immediately increases by one and a half times. And after a month of consolidating training and recovery, their strength is twice as high compared to the end of the foundation-laying stage," the old man said confidently. These words shocked me beyond description! If just feeling this internal energy can increase one's strength twofold!
"Teacher, allow me one more question," I said, recovering. "What stage of training follows foundation-laying, just for general development?"
"After foundation-laying comes the stage of subjugating internal energy, where a person learns to control their internal energy," the old man said calmly. "When control reaches a certain level, a person moves to the next stage — accumulation of internal energy. At this stage, they accumulate internal energy in their body, increasing its quantity by processing external energy. The next stages are the concentration of internal energy in various meridians, meaning the quality of internal energy is being improved. Each stage involves an increase in strength by at least double, or even more, it all depends on the person himself," the old man finished. I gradually processed all the information received; it was very exciting.
"Thank you, teacher, for the clarification," I said, getting up from the table. "Please allow me to go home and tidy myself up so that I am ready for training tomorrow."
"There's no need," the old man stopped me with a gesture. "You will stay with me. There's a mattress in the training hall, lay out your things, and I'll prepare a special bath to prepare your body for training," he finished, heading somewhere.
I followed his recommendation and headed to the training hall. There was already a mattress in the corner. Was he so sure I would cope, or did he just put it there just in case? It doesn't matter. I spread out the mattress and put my things next to it, checking if everything was in place, just in case; nothing had been touched. After about ten minutes, the old man told me to go to the bathroom, which I did, taking my things with me.
A hot bath was already filled there; one could say it was boiling water, and the steam from the water formed a light haze. It's also worth noting that the entire bathroom was filled with the aroma of flowers and wild herbs, which simultaneously relaxed and pleased. Taking off all my clothes, I began to immerse myself in the water, which indeed turned out to be boiling!
However, I still got into the bath, despite everything. Immediately after immersing myself in the water, I felt a great burden fall from my shoulders. Every muscle in my body felt relaxed. After a couple of minutes of bathing, having washed off all the dirt, I decided to try cultivating in the bath. For this, I specifically brought the lightning book. After half an hour, I managed to subdue the twenty-ninth star! It was simply incredible; the energy infused me and accelerated my cultivation many times over, but even after sitting for another hour, I couldn't subdue the thirtieth star. Getting out of the bath, I got dressed and went to sleep.