Hours passed.
The sun moved across the sky while Kevin threw himself at the waterfall over and over, and each time he managed to stay under the crushing water a little longer. Five seconds became ten. Ten became twenty. Twenty became thirty.
By the time the sun started to set, Kevin could stay under the waterfall for a full minute before the pressure forced him out.
His body was covered in bruises, his skin raw from the constant battering, but Kevin didn't stop. He sat in the river between attempts, focused on the Birth of the Stone Monkey, and directed the purple spiritual energy from the void on his chest into his muscles.
The energy surged through him, breaking down tissue and rebuilding it stronger. Kevin's muscles felt like they were on fire, burning and aching with each circulation, but he gritted his teeth and kept going.
By nightfall, Kevin dragged himself out of the river and collapsed on the frozen ground.
His entire body screamed at him. Every muscle ached, every joint throbbed, and Kevin could barely move without pain lancing through him. But underneath the agony, something else stirred.
Strength.
Kevin lay on the ground and stared at the stars above while his breath misted in the cold air.
Day one complete.
The next three days blurred together.
Kevin woke before dawn each morning and threw himself at the waterfall. The pressure was brutal, the cold relentless, but Kevin forced himself to endure it. He sat under the crushing water and breathed according to the Rhythm of the Mountain, and each breath felt like swallowing liquid lead.
His lungs burned as the purple spiritual energy from the Pillar forced his muscle fibers to snap and fuse back together, denser than before. The pain was excruciating, far worse than anything Kevin had experienced, but he didn't stop.
Between sessions under the waterfall, Kevin stared at the cliffs and smiled as he made a decision.
He climbed the icy cliffs surrounding the clearing with only his fingertips, hauling himself up sheer rock faces that should've been impossible to scale. His hands bled from the effort, skin tearing open as he gripped frozen stone, but Kevin didn't care. He had to do this and he must do it.
He leaped between boulders while carrying rocks twice his body weight, his legs screaming in protest with each jump. He ran through the snow until his lungs burned and his legs gave out, and then he forced himself to run further.
The physical toll was immense.
Kevin's hands bled constantly, the cuts refusing to heal fully before he tore them open again. His muscles knotted and bunched beneath his skin like hard coal, and his blood began to change. It darkened, shifting from bright red to a deep, shimmering crimson that looked almost black in the right light.
Day four, something finally changed.
Kevin woke before dawn and walked to the waterfall. His body still ached, still screamed at him to rest, but underneath the pain was something else. Strength. His muscles felt different than before. It felt heavier and much more denser.
He stepped into the river and positioned himself under the waterfall. The pressure slammed into him, but Kevin planted his feet and held his ground. The water pounded against his head and shoulders, but his refined muscles absorbed the impact.
Kevin closed his eyes and focused on the Birth of the Stone Monkey.
The purple spiritual energy surged from the void on his chest and flooded through his body. Arms. Legs. Torso. Back. Neck. Face. The energy circulated through every muscle, breaking down the last remnants of weakness and rebuilding them into something stronger.
The cycle completed faster this time and much more smoother. The energy didn't have to fight as hard because the tissue was already refined to near-perfection.
This was the final circulation, the last push that would complete Obsidian Flesh.
Soon something finally shifted inside him.
The spiritual energy from the void surged with sudden violence, flooding every muscle fiber at once. Kevin's entire body locked up as the energy concentrated, compressed, and then exploded outward through his flesh.
Heat erupted beneath his skin.
Kevin gasped as his muscles seized, every fiber contracting simultaneously. It felt like his body was being crushed from the inside, squeezed by invisible hands that refused to let go. Pain lanced through him, sharp and brutal, but underneath the agony Kevin felt something else.
Change.
His skin rippled. For a split second, a matte-black sheen spread across his entire body, turning his flesh dark as polished obsidian stone. The transformation crawled from his chest outward, racing down his arms and legs, up his neck and across his face. Kevin's skin gleamed like volcanic glass, hard and smooth and utterly inhuman.
Then it sank back.
The black sheen faded, retreating beneath the surface until his skin looked natural again—almost. A faint metallic gleam remained, barely visible unless the light caught it just right.
Kevin's eyes snapped open.
The waterfall pounded against his head and shoulders, but the pressure felt different now. Lighter. His body absorbed the crushing force without buckling, muscles holding firm where they would've collapsed minutes before.
He stepped out from under the waterfall and climbed out of the river.
Steam poured off his skin as he stood in the clearing. The freezing air rushed against him, but the cold didn't bite as viciously anymore. His refined flesh resisted the temperature, and Kevin realized with sudden clarity that Tier 1 had fundamentally changed him.
He looked down at his arms and flexed them slowly.
The muscles bunched and shifted beneath his skin, dense and heavy. Kevin pressed his thumb against his forearm and pushed hard. The flesh barely gave. It felt like pressing stone—solid, unyielding, completely different from the soft tissue he'd had four days ago.
Kevin walked to the nearest tree and took a deep breath. He planted his feet, pulled his fist back, and drove it forward with everything he had.
Bang!
His fist slammed into the tree trunk with a sound like a cannonball hitting wood. The impact sent shockwaves through Kevin's arm, but the tree didn't just break—it shattered. The trunk exploded into splinters, and the entire tree toppled sideways before crashing to the ground.
Kevin stared at his fist. Then at the destroyed tree.
Obsidian Flesh. First tier complete.
Kevin laughed.
The sound echoed through the clearing, loud and wild. He dropped into a horse stance in the snow and threw a punch. The air whistled. He threw another, faster this time, and felt the raw power coiled in his muscles. A third punch, a fourth, and then he was moving through a full combination—jab, cross, hook, uppercut—each strike explosive enough to shatter bone.
He felt strong. Powerful. Like he'd finally stepped out of the shadow that had followed him through both lives.
Kevin straightened and looked around the Snow Valley. The sun was rising over the mountains, painting the snow orange and gold. The freezing wind that had felt like knives against his skin four days ago now felt refreshing.
He was a cultivator. A real one.
Kevin's smile widened as he thought about walking back into the Snow Sect. Wei Shen's face when Kevin showed up at the Outer Court Examination. The shock. The fear. Manager Feng Hu's rage when he realized trash Feng had become someone he couldn't simply crush.
It would be glorious.
Kevin took a deep breath and let the satisfaction wash over him. He'd earned this. Every second of agony in that freezing river, every punch thrown until his arms gave out, every moment he'd wanted to quit but forced himself to continue—it had all been worth it.
Then reality crashed back down.
Kevin's smile faded as he remembered the timeline. Four days gone. Ten days left until the Outer Court Examination. He was at Tier two, equivalent to the second stage of the standard body tempering realm.
But the examination required at least the fifth stage.
Tier one wasn't enough. Not even close.
Kevin looked back at the waterfall and felt his stomach sink. Obsidian Flesh had taken four days of brutal refinement. Tier two was going to be worse. Much worse.
The art wasn't refining flesh anymore. It was going after his bones. His marrow. The very foundation of his skeleton.
Kevin clenched his fists and walked back to the river.
The brief moment of triumph was over. He couldn't afford to celebrate when he was still so far from where he needed to be. Ten days. Ten days to reach Tier two, and if he failed, he was dead.
Kevin stood at the edge of the frozen river and stared at the waterfall. The pressure that had nearly crushed him on day one now looked almost manageable. His Tier 1 body could handle more punishment.
But Tier two was different. The technique required him to endure even greater extremes, pushing his body to the absolute edge of what it could survive.
Kevin took a deep breath and stepped into the water.
He could only do one thing.
Persist.