Training...

Body Tempering Realm...

Foundation Building Realm...

Core Formation Realm...

These were the three main cultivation realms with each realm having nine stages. The Body Tempering realm was where cultivators cleanse, refine and strengthen their body. The Foundation Building realm is the realm where Cultivators lay down the foundation for their future cultivation by opening their meridians. With the body having a maximum of 33 meridians though very few talented people could open even 27 meridians and above.

The two earlier realms were quite common but the Core Formation realm was significantly different. Using the Qi inside the body to coagulate and form the core but the quality of a core would depend by how strong the foundation is.

...

Lucifer opened his eyes after breaking into the 4th Stage of the Body Tempering realm. His body felt light and rejuvenated, the impurities inside his body was expelled but there were very scant amount of impurities inside of him in the first place. Thus, it didn't make much difference when the remaining impurities were expelled.

He didn't continue to cultivate as this was good enough. The only reason he quickly advanced all the way to the 4th stage was because of the pure energy that was absorbed and refined by the [Judgement of the Morning Star] technique stimulated his potential.

Lucifer needed time to solidify his cultivation, thus he stood and proceeded to return to the Silver Stallion Manor.

...

Back at the Silver Stallion Manor...

"Hu! Hu!"

Swoosh...

Thud...

A boy stood in front of a wooden post punching the same place repeatedly. Sweat poured all over his body and blood seeped through the wrappings over his knuckles but he gritted his teeth and bore through the pain to continue.

98...99...100!

"Ahh...whew, finally I'm done." Once he finished punching the wooden post a hundred times, he fell to his butt and panted.

This boy was naturally Zen, he was being trained by his parents for a week now. They have trained him to strengthen his muscles, raise his stamina and other manner of training. He has been tasked to run around the manor every morning before breakfast, do exercises to loosen and activate the joints and the muscles. After doing after the exercises, only then was he trained in combat.

Ren and Sherry, Zen's parents took turns in training him.

Ren was obviously strict especially during combat training but Sherry was even stricter that him in regards to the exercises. Her reasoning was simple...

"Familiarizing yourself with your body is important to building the foundation of your fighting skills."

Thus, she would always carry a ruler and would hit Zen in the area where she noticed a mistake. She would always appear strict during training but once they were done, Sherry would change from a strict trainer to a overly-concerned mom.

Zen's training with his parents would only last till the middle of the day as both of them had things to do. His father, Ren was the second elder and had to monitor the jobs assigned to him by the grand elder. While his mother, Sherry manages as small shop that sells medicinal pills.

During Zen's free time he would always train by himself using the things he read about training in the books.

That's why he was punching the wooden post over and over, to further strengthen his bones even after advancing to the 2nd stage of the Body Tempering realm.

He was unwrapping his hands when a melodious voice entered his ears.

"Zen~"

Zen quickly stood up and turned to where the voice was coming from and he saw a girl his age waving at him. The girl was shorter than him by a few inch. She had brown wavy hair that reached her shoulders and clear, innocent amber eyes and rosy cheeks that reflected her youth.

"Aya!" Zen excitedly greeted.

"Hehe, surprised aren't you?" The girl smiled at him in a smug and teasing way at the same time.

Zen was speechless for a moment after seeing her smile but he managed to snap out of it and answered.

"Yeah! What you doing here in the Silver Stallion Clan?"

The Girl, Aya then said. "My father said he had some things to discuss with your elders so I came with him."

"Hmm...I see." Zen nodded.

"What happened to your hands!?"

Zen wondered what Aya's father wanted to discuss when suddenly Aya grabbed his hands and felt a sharp sting made him flinch.

"Ah!"

"Look at them! They're bleeding, why did you practice till they looked like this!?" Aya started to overreact.

She then pulled him to the side where she took off the wrappings and was about to wash his wounds.

"Stop, I can do that myself." Zen blushed, he was embarrassed to have Aya take care of him this much.

He took a basin and filled it with water and began to wash the wounds on his knuckles. He then heard Aya's voice behind him.

"Here, use this. It's a healing ointment." She handed at bottle.

Zen turned to see her hand stretched out to hand the bottle but she wasn't looking at him and yet he could see a faint pinkish color on her cheeks. He couldn't help laughing.

"Hey! What are you laughing at?!" Aya was embarrassed.

Zen raised both hands and shook his head "Nothing, nothing."

The atmosphere was cheerful and things were going great for the two kids when they heard a voice.

"At such a young age and you already know how to flirt." The voice sounded disappointed but it contained a teasing feel.

Zen and Aya turned towards the roof of the house and saw a young boy with long golden hair flowing together with the wind. He had a smirk on his face.

"Ho~Just a week has passed and you've already reached the 2nd Stage of the body tempering realm? A decent achievement."

Of course, this boy was Lucifer. One look and he quickly discerned Zen's cultivation realm.

But his words shocked one person, Aya. Child geniuses were not that rare but very few could reach the 1st stage of the Body Tempering realm at the age of ten, much less the 2nd stage.

"You've already reached the 2nd stage of the Body tempering realm!?" Aya couldn't be anymore shocked and quickly turned to Zen who scratched his head with an embarrassed look.

"Hehe..."

Woosh...

Lucifer jumped down from the roof and landed on the ground just a few steps from them.

Zen immediately bowed and greeted him. "Young Lord."

"Mnm." Lucifer approvingly nodded.

But again, one person was stunned.

'Zen, is the son of the second elder of the Silver Stallion Clan. A top clan within the city and yet he's bowing and calling this kid "Young Lord" just who is he?' She thought.

Zen quickly explained. "Aya, this is Lucifer. He's helping me train, you could say he's my master but I hope you won't tell anyone. Please~?"

Aya heard and saw Zen bow after introducing Lucifer to her and he even wants her to keep it a secret. She had no reason to decline and even felt a foreboding feeling that exposing their relationship could lead to something catastrophic so she nodded though she was still suspicious of Lucifer.

"A-alright."

"Great!" Zen quickly beamed a smile and grabbed her shoulder and stood by her before saying.

"Young Lord, this is Aya. She's a close friend of mine."

Lucifer turned to the girl and saw her face that was a bit scared and doubtful look.

"Hmm." He nodded to her before turning back to Zen.

"I'm guessing your parents have already bathed you in the medicine I prescribed?" Lucifer asked.

'Medicine?' Aya wondered from the side.

Zen flexed his tiny, bulging muscles as he answered. "Yeah! Look, my body has become much healthier and stronger after days of bathing in that water. It even help me achieve the 2nd stage!"

Hearing this, Aya was obviously stunned. 'A medicinal water that lets you easily break through the 2nd stage of the Body tempering realm?'

"Young Lord, can we pass the medicinal Formula to Aya as well?" Zen asked.

Aya was touched but hesitant. Medicinal formulas as formidable as this must be a heavily guarded secret and must be kept within the family. Zen knew of this as well but he trusts that Aya won't reveal any information about it.

Lucifer naturally knew why Zen was asking this but didn't know whether Zen himself knew the actual reason for his actions.

He looked at Aya which made her flinch for a bit then back to Zen.

'Looks like, I'll be seeing something interesting in the future.' he clearly sees something going on between them but they were too young to understand.

"Sure, go ahead. But no one must know that it came from us. For safety, ask your parents to speak with her father about this."

"Alright! Now you can break through the Body tempering realm as well." Zen earnestly said to Aya.

Aya saw Zen's eyes that contained nothing but kindness and she blushed. "Thank you."

"Alright, quit flirting in front of me." Lucifer's seemingly irritating voice sounded.

"Zen, come here." Lucifer ordered and they walked back to the courtyard where Zen was training earlier.

"Try to hit me." He said.

Zen naturally saw the seriousness within Lucifer's eyes so he nodded and charged forward. There was a ten meter space that separated the two of them. He ran towards Lucifer and when he got close he punched out his right fist. Zen was already fast as he crossed ten meters of space in a second with just one step.

But Lucifer effortlessly dodged his attack by shifting away from the path of his punch. Zen stumbles to regain his balance after missing when he heard Lucifer say.

"Child's play...Again."

Fire seem to start burning inside Zen's eyes as he lunges again towards Lucifer. He lifted his right foot slightly to kick Lucifer before abruptly bring it down then twisting his body to deliver and reverse hook kick.

Zen's movements were fast and accurate but Lucifer narrowly avoided his attack again but merely shifting backward with only an inch between his foot and Lucifer's face.

"Decent faint but still naive. Again!" Once more, Zen charged towards Lucifer.

"Too weak. Again!"

"You clearly didn't thought that one through...Again!"

"Is this the best you can do? Again!"

Over and over again, Lucifer and Zen sparred but not once was Zen able to touch Lucifer. He had tried almost everything he could think off, a sudden attack, feint, throwing sand to blind him even a blind rush of attacks but none of them worked. Zen has expended his energy trying to hit Lucifer to no avail, he thought back and was in awe with how effortless Lucifer's movement was when dodging.

Even Aya who was watching stared in amazement, all three of them were seemingly of the same age yet there was this vast difference in their abilities. Both Zen and Aya kept repeating the images of Lucifer inside their head when Aya suddenly stood up.

Zen looked over to her curious why she stood up and he saw her with a extremely shocked face, her mouth was opened and she was slightly trembling.

"Why? What's wrong?" He asked.

"O-over there, on his feet." Aya stuttered but that showed how stunned she was.

Zen was puzzled and looked down at Lucifer's feet but as his gaze slowly pans over. The realization hits him hard!

"W-w-what the..." Zen stuttered at well and couldn't believe it.

A ring! There was a circle beneath Lucifer's feet made from his footsteps. It had a diameter of nearly a meter which meant that over the course of their spar, Lucifer never took a step out of this area and continuously dodged multiple attacks while still inside.

"I-incredible..." Both Zen and Aya was lost for words.

Even their elders, those stronger than them couldn't do what Lucifer did when battling an opponent whose cultivation was not far from theirs.

But what they didn't know was that Lucifer's battle experience and comprehension towards the Martial Path was miles apart from what their elders know.

Allowing the Zen to realize even a portion of the full extent of his abilities will make it easier for Zen to be loyal to Lucifer.

"Alright, quit staring. Zen."

Zen perked up immediately after Lucifer mentioned his name. Lucifer then began to lecture him.

"...You have excellent martial arts foundation and your combat intuition is outstanding. You're are able to decisively switch tactics when one doesn't work and you are able to properly execute the. But...you are too stiff and your battle tactics lacks creativity, you tend to attack in a pattern which makes it easy to predict your next move."

Lucifer cited a couple more of Zen's mistake which made him feel down with the light in his eyes dimming.

"Well, you have a lot of flaws, technical and tactical wise but I will help you fix them. I did promise you right?"

Light seem to return in Zen's eyes as he clenched his fist and with a determined smile, he bowed to Lucifer and said.

"Thank you for your guidance, Young Lord."

Lucifer nodded and said. "Alright, we'll resume tomorrow. Eat well and rest up."

With that Lucifer walked back inside the house but was then stopped by a cute voice.

"Wait!"

Lucifer had a smile on his face but it vanished right before he turned around. The voice was obviously from the cute girl, Aya. She looked shy and hesitant when Lucifer turned around, she herself didn't understand why she called out to him.

Aya fidgeted around trying to find the right reason but all her worries seem to vanish when she saw Zen's honest and encouraging smile. She then took a deep breath and bowed.

"Please, train me as well!"

Lucifer had a nonchalant look on his face and said. "I've got no problem with that but are you telling me you'd travel from your clan to here everyday? Isn't that tiring?"

Aya then resolutely replied. "I'll convince my father to let me stay here at Zen's. I'm sure uncle Ren and Aunt Sherry wouldn't mind it."

[More like, they would welcome you with open arms, if you ask me.]

Lucifer thought but he kept that to himself and turned to Zen.

"I've got no problem with that and I'm sure my parents would agree as well."

[kid, they would probably throw a banquet once they hear of this]

Lucifer nodded and said. "Fine, fine. I suppose having another person to teach wouldn't make much difference and having someone else to spar with would be beneficial for you too Zen."

"Alright, do what you have to do to convince your parents and if they agree, we'll resume training tomorrow."

Zen and Aya nodded and bowed. "Yes, Young Lord."