Chapter 47: Body Tempering Method

After abolishing every little bit of mana or it should be called spiritual qi now from his body. 

Zhen feels like a mortal again. Weak and powerless where anyone can thrash him.

"No need to feel like a depressed animal, you'll regain your prowess soon if you follow my instruction." Cecilia, her highness or queen said to Zhen when she saw his expression.

'I'll be lying if I said I'm fine with losing the entire cultivation base that I have trained hard on. To think I even went to the library and read those fake logics and became impressed with it.'

Zhen sighed as all of his hard work and dedication went to poof in one day.

What a waste of time when he could have been somewhere else. At least Zhen got a good servant while studying in the library since Aaron brought himself to his footstep.

"I understand.... queen." Zhen was about to mistakenly say her name again if she hadn't given him a fierce look.

"Mhmm, if you understand then start stripping your clothes."

"H-Huh, s-strip my clothes to naked?" Zhen asked to see if he had misheard her word.

"Hmph, you little lustful kid, did you put your brain into a gutter? I'm guiding you to do body tempering so of course, I need to see your body structure but your clothes are on the way." Cecilia replied in a cold tone.

'Tch, I was just confirming the fact. Did you need to be so cold like that?' 

Although Zhen complained in his mind, he started stripping his entire clothes until his boxer is left.

Cecilia stares at Zhen's body which gives him a cold stinging. Zhen shut his eyes and let her leer around as he didn't want to get beat up for eying her too long.

However, Zhen doesn't know the fact that Cecilia may be cold on the outside but inwardly she was embarrassed. 

It was her first time seeing a naked male body and this is why she is harsh in her tone.

She needed to obtain dominance to prevent unnecessary thought and inspect every part of his body so no mistake can occur.

Zhen didn't know about Cecilia's thought process as he didn't wish to provoke her anymore. Only after some time did Cecilia said ok.

A moment later, Zhen heard Cecilia say it's okay so Zhen opened back his eyes but Cecilia had her back facing toward him. 

Zhen didn't speak as he believed she was probably thinking about a suitable method.

In reality, Cecilia's face is blushing, and only when the blush went away did she turn back to her usual cold look.

"I have inspected your body and I can see there are still some impurities left in your body. This is probably because you have been misguided in the cultivation process. You will need to find these herbs so we can begin a medicinal bath."

"M-Medicine bath? Then that means I have to bathe in it but.... when I formed the mana core, it didn't take much hard work and it was smooth sailing."

"Hmph, are you doubting my judgment? Also, the reason why you're able to form that ridiculous mana core was because of my influence and aura directing your incapability." Cecilia said in an enraged voice as she has used all of her brain cells just to be questioned like that from Zhen.

If it were still back then, she would have pummeled the person and banished him far away.

Zhen was scared and quickly shook his head that he had no doubt about her judgment. 

'Mental note added, never question or doubt her judgment.' Zhen said in his mind to not make this mistake again.

"Q-Queen, if I have to take a medicine bath, where do we get those magical herbs to brew one?"

"Hmm, you're right about that. Later you will regain conscience in the real world as we are in a different space similar to a dimension. Only you are allowed here and talk to me at this moment but I can still communicate with you in the real world." Cecilia slowly replied before showing multiple images of magical herbs.

Zhen saw many magical herbs and he was surprised to see that the Yozu herb is in the image. 

The Yozu herb was like a sunflower but instead of yellow, it is red and a bit smaller.

Zhen didn't plan on asking why Cecilia showed him those herb images instead of the name as they are probably named differently in this world.

"I shall do my utmost to gather all those magical herbs." Zhen will definitely gather them with my fastest speed as he has a mortal body and can easily get killed.

"I know your thinking but you don't have to worry as I will impart some spiritual qi around your body so no one can tell."

'This Cecilia truly can tell what people are thinking from one look.' Zhen nodded to her words and before he could ask another question.

Cecilia is almost like a genie as she could read his mind when she said to Zhen that he can come here every time whenever he wants.

Hearing the confirmation from Cecilia, Zhen was relieved as he still didn't know his actual body condition.

Before Zhen could even react to express his thanks, his vision became black and when he woke up, Zhen was squeezed so tight that he would suffocate if it continued for another 3 seconds.

An intoxicating fragrance came to his nose and Zhen knew who was the person hugging me again. 

Who else but Sara?

"Sara, I'm fine and there's no problem with my health."

"Lies, I sensed your aura getting weaker and weaker. Did you know how scared I was when I tried to heal you but nothing works?" Sara screamed in tears which stabbed Zhen's heart.

Hearing the worries and tearful expression from Sara, Zhen decided to keep his condition and the situation unknown to her. 

'This is not something that Sara could handle and neither can he be confident in this matter.'

Zhen embraced Sara lightly and started to coax her. It took him 2-3 hours before she finally nodded at his response that everything was fine.

Zhen didn't know how much time had passed but he was shocked when Sara said only 3 minutes had passed when she tried to heal him. 

Zhen was pretty sure that the mysterious space he spent was over 10 hours or more.

'Is this the so-called time manipulation or in another world, the time in the mysterious space flows faster than the real world?'

If that is true then Zhen just found the best place to cultivate way faster than normal people. 

But before he gets overly excited, Zhen informs Sara that he needs to go to the alchemy guild.

She tried to follow him and was concerned that he needed some rare herb to heal himself but Zhen rejected her. 

'I'm too weak now and I need to hurry up with the body tempering.' 

Zhen didn't have the time to act all flirty when he's basically a vegetable now.

(In this sentence, the word vegetable is meant to describe Zhen as a useless person and completely defenseless against anyone. It's not the vegetable you see in grocery stores.)

Zhen sent a mental note to Kuro and told him to accompany Sara for a while. 

Kuro nodded his head in response but Zhen can tell he has many questions but didn't pry into him.

Zhen appreciates that and starts walking toward the alchemist guild. 

'Please let me have enough money to buy all those magical herbs.' Zhen prayed to god that he's not broke.