Following Grace, Ricky came to a small courtyard.
"This is where I usually live." Grace said to Ricky, "No matter you are a nominal disciple or a formal
disciple, you are my disciple. And as long as I accepted you as my disciple, I will try my best to teach
you everything I know."
Pausing for a moment, Grace continued, "So from now on, you can live in this small courtyard. Use this
as your own."
"Thank you, Master Grace!" Ricky happily answered. Because of his master's generosity, Ricky, without
a doubt, would gladly accept whatever Grace would ask of him.
"Here are two bottles of Body Refining Pills. You could take them first. As for the cultivation methods, I'll
pick out the one that best suits you in the next two days," said Grace. After that, Grace gave Ricky the
bottles of Body Refining Pills and reminded him, "Systematical training needs blood vitality. You can
just go to Snow Kitchen Hall to buy it."
After giving him instructions on everything, Grace prepared to go out. Ricky realized that Grace still had
some things to do
"Master..." Ricky embarrassingly called out Grace in an attempt to stop her from leaving.
"Do you have any other questions?" Grace faced him and asked. Although her tone was light and her
intention was good, the way Grace asked came out coldly and serious. Maybe it was because of the
birthmark that marred her beautiful face so that she never smiled while talking, not even once.
"I...I just want to ask how much blood meat I could buy with three copper coins." Taking out the
remaining three copper coins from his pocket, Ricky asked in an embarrassed voice.
Upon hearing Ricky's innocent question, Grace immediately understood what her student actually
meant.
Her eyes could not help but show a bit of helplessness and pity towards her apprentice. Then she took
out a small bag from her Storage Ring and said, "Here, there are fifty silver coins in this. Take it!"
"Thank you very much, Master." Ricky gratefully received the coins from his master.
"You do not need to thank me, Ricky. I lent the fifty silver coins to you. You have to return them for me.
And you need also return me the two bottles of Body Refining Pills. They are valued at fifty silver coins.
You should pay me back one hundred silver coins in total after a month!"
Grace said with obvious amusement in her eyes and then she left. Ricky was left there standing
stunned in disbelief.
...
Inside the small courtyard, Ricky sat cross-legged in the wooden bed. He muttered to himself,
"Systematical training is hard. And then if there is no money, there are no resources. No resources, no
chance of breaking through the next grade. So, I need to find a way to earn money. Hunting and killing
fierce animals is the only thing I'm good at. Maybe that's the only way I can earn money now!
But first, I need to break through the third grade of Skin Refinement to reach the fourth. After all, the
Snow Mountain is not like the Stone City. It could only be more dangerous.
With these two bottles of Body Refining Pills that Master Grace gave, I have thirty Body Refining pills in
total now. This should be enough for me to break through to the sixth grade of Skin Refinement."
Then Ricky tried to concentrate his energies and prepared for a breakthrough.
Now, there was plenty of blood vitality on his body. It was enough for him to break through the third
grade. So he intended to go out to buy blood meat in the Snow Kitchen Hall after reaching the fourth
grade of Skin Refinement.
Taking out one Body Refining Pill from the bottle, Ricky swallowed it.
Although he had taken Body Refining Pills for his past breakthrough, Ricky knew that it would surely
make his foundation more solid if he would take the pills now. It was necessary for his systematic
training in the future if he had a more solid foundation.
After swallowing the Body Refining Pill, Ricky then immediately activated the spiritual energy in his
body. He tried to digest the Body Refining Pill quickly and made the pill integrate into the mystic
meridians residing in his body. Through the spiritual meridian, the pill would incorporate into his whole
body, purifying his flesh and bone, until he was pure and there was no impurities discharged.
After the absorption of the Body Refining Pill, Ricky's body gradually emitted black, gooey substances.
One, two, three... Soon, Ricky swallowed ten Body Refining Pills. But the impurities on his body still
continued to ooze out.
"This... What's going on? Why is this happening? Are ten Body Refining pills still not enough?"
Ricky could not believe what had happened. He clearly knew that most people just needed five Body
Refining Pills or so to break through the third grade of Skin Refinement. Some genius might need
seven or eight pills.
But now even after taking ten pills, it was not enough for him. Moreover, he had already gone through
the breakthrough once before his original spiritual meridian was destroyed and had eliminated the
impurities. Surely, the pills he needed should be less than what he took.
"Is it because my new spiritual meridian? Is there something wrong with it?" Ricky guessed.
However, Ricky decided that he would not be stingy. The more impurities his body discharged, the
better his systematic foundation would be.
After swallowing twenty-five Body Refining Pills, Ricky stopped emitting impurities from his body.
At the moment, Ricky's whole body had been enveloped by a mass of black cocoon. The stench of foul
odor pervaded the whole yard. Instantly, the smell hit Ricky's nose. He almost wanted to find a seam to
drill down immediately.
However, right after the elimination of impurities, Ricky knew that it was the best time to break through.
So he decided to just endure the upsetting smell, activating the spiritual meridian to absorb the spiritual
energy of heaven and earth.
...
It took almost half a day when Grace came back.
As soon as she came back, she immediately smelled the reeking smell emitting from the small yard.
She immediately knew that the odor source was coming from Ricky's room. Grace entered his room
within a few quick strides.
Of course, by the time she entered the room, she was almost dizzy by the pungent smell. Good thing,
Grace was strong enough to endure it. Her ability to concentrate was pretty good.
Immediately, Grace looked toward the black cocoon that had now enclosed Ricky. She could not
believe what she was seeing now.
She definitely could figure out that the black things were the elimination of impurities. But she just did
not understand that how could someone at the third grade of Skin Refinement discharge so many
impurities.
Crack!
The black cocoon suddenly cracked. When the cocoon opened, Ricky's body was revealed. At this
time, Ricky's aura was completely different from earlier. There could be no denying that he had finally
broken through the third grade of Skin Refinement.
"Master, you are back!" Ricky exclaimed as he opened his eyes and saw Grace. He called her happily.
"You have reached the fourth grade!" Grace murmured. She felt really strange because she knew that
Ricky did not have any spiritual meridian in his body.
"Master, I just felt that the need to break through. So I wanted to give it a try. But I didn't expect that I
would succeed at my first try." Ricky bashfully scratched his head and felt a little embarrassed to admit
that. He also knew that it was an amazing feat to break through the third grade and reach the
intermediate stage of Skin Refinement when he had no spiritual meridian at all.
However, even though that Grace was now his master, he could not admit to her that he had regained
his spiritual meridian, a relatively strange but magical one.
"Give it a try?" Upon hearing her disciple's words, Grace was quite surprised.
It was the first time she had heard someone 'had a try' on breakthrough as breakthrough needed to
prepare for a long time. It was not an easy thing.
"How many Body Refining Pills did you take?" Worried, Grace asked seriously.
"Master, I took twenty-five pills. But I think it's not too much, is it?" Ricky felt more embarrassed to
admit the truth. But he did not want to lie to Grace about this matter.
"What?" Hearing that Ricky took twenty-five pills, Grace could not keep calm anymore. She broke from
her usual indifferent expression.
"You didn't lie to me, did you?" Grace asked Ricky again as she could not believe what he said.
"Master, although I don't want to admit that, it is really the truth. I took twenty-five pills to break
through!" Ricky nodded with sincerity.
Still in disbelief, Grace put her hand into Ricky's pocket. Sure enough, there were only five Body
Refining Pills left on the bottles that she gave him earlier.
With the evidence right in front of her, Grace had to believe what Ricky said. She knew that Ricky could
not deceive her.
But somehow, Grace really could not keep still. She had heard that someone consumed eleven Body
Refining Pills to break through the inferior stage of Skin Refinement. But she had never heard someone
needing twenty-five Body Refining Pills for the breaking of the third grade. It was just too ridiculous.
"Master..." Looking at Grace's expression of disbelief, Ricky hesitantly called her.
"Go ahead and clean yourself up. Clean your room, too. After that come to my room. We need to talk,"
Grace said slowly with a deep sigh.
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