Body Tempering Tonic.

Oz began filling the bath and made sure to use as little hot water as possible as to not use too much power. His brother always told him not to worry about the cost of using things in the apartment, but he knew just how quickly the energy bills could rack up.

He sat on the edge of the tub and stared at the palm sized glass bottle. At first glance, the bottle didn't appear to be special in the slightest. But once you held it, the power that radiated from it was unmistakable.

'I can't believe I'm actually holding one in my hands.' Oz thought to himself. This was the kind of thing that Oz could even dream of having because of him and his brothers income.

He popped the cork out from the top and an intense minty smell filled the air causing his lungs to burn with each intake of breath.

He cautiously poured the green liquid into the water and watched as the colour clouded around the bath.

The smell was even stronger now that it even made his eyes water.

He stripped and took a moment to assess his body in the bathroom mirror. His dark shoulder-length hair fell over his face causing his blue eyes to stand out even more. He probed his steadily forming muscles with a half grin. Because money was tight, he couldn't eat as much as he wanted. He tried his best to eat as much nutritionally dense food he could, but sometimes it just wasn't possible.

Having muscles was always something that Oz dreamed of, but now that he was actually changing and growing stronger… it somehow still felt so surreal.

Taking a deep breath, he turned and placed his foot into the lukewarm water.

Nothing happened.

He climbed fully in and submerged his body under the water.

Still, nothing happened.

He relaxed into the warmth and closed his eyes. Perhaps he needed to cultivate to activate the tonic?

He began to use his demonic breathing technique and grunted against the familiar pain it caused. A slight prickle against his skin began to occur and Oz took that as a sign that the tonic was activating.

He carried on cultivating until the prickle against his skin began to turn into a burning sensation. His hands clenched around the side of the tub as the pain from cultivating paired itself with burning pain from the tonic.

And it only grew.

His skin felt as if being seared from his bones. He clenched his teeth to stop him from screaming as he continued to push the Ki through his blood.

It was too much.

Just when he almost reached the point of giving up, his skin suddenly began to feel oily and slimy and he cracked open an eye to see the bath water turning black and putrid.

Was this what he read about online? When one reached a certain point of tempering their body that they begin to excrete impurities? He could have sworn that he read that it took months of tempering the body to reach this point.

Could it be the demonic breathing technique? Was it somehow excels rating the process?

With a new surge of motivation, Oz quickly got back into his cultivating state and began a new round of torture.

Only this time, he would make sure he didn't give up.

No matter how painful or torturous it was, he would endure it.