The legendary warrior

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.