Leaving the curious and worried people at the gazebo, Tian Long, Basil and Xueyi headed to the library, which was the place they had just been before. Had Xueyi known Basil didn't have much to say, she would have called Tian Long to come over instead; she was quite annoyed by the fact that they had just wasted their time.
Upon arriving at the library, the three were greeted by two beautiful women wearing white dresses and veils to cover half of their faces. They were Xueyi's top two disciples, who were going to help Xueyi and Tian Long treat Basil.
"It's very rare for you to acquire anyone's help other than mine to treat someone," Tian Long remarked. "It makes me wonder just how high the success rate is."
"It is going to success, I guarantee you that," Xueyi replied. "I just don't want the side effect to last forever. The Yin is already at a dangerous level; if it's not properly cycled, it will always remain, causing a permanent change to his physique. That is a nightmare."
"For you or him?" Tian Long joked.
Xueyi glanced at Basil who was talking with her two disciples before answering. "He is very nonchalant about it, so I guess it will only be a nightmare to those whose heart he has owned."
"So, it will be a nightmare to--let's proceed with the procedure, Senior Sister."
A glare from Xueyi stopped Tian Long from joking ever again. He became serious ever since--in an attempt to keep alive.
Basil was called and asked to take his shirt off. It was already the second time Xueyi saw his body; however, she still couldn't help getting flustered when she saw it. The same also applied to her disciples. Both of them were shyly covering their eyes while constantly taking a peek.
Tian Long wanted to joke about it badly but he knew he would die should he do it, so he could only look at them with unamused eyes. Thankfully, Basil knew how to stop the antics. He pointed at his damaged body, sobering the people up. They told him to stand in the middle and then immediately got to work.
"Drink this." Xueyi handed Basil a saucer with a clear liquid on it.
Basil took the saucer with both of his hands and then smelled it with grace. It wasn't necessary to do that; however, his mannerism amazed Xueyi so much that she didn't care he treated a medicinal drink like high-quality tea.
"It doesn't smell the way it looks," Basil commented.
"Pungent, isn't it? That's what tells you it is good medicine."
"You may not believe me but I can make--"
"I know," Xueyi stopped Basil. "Please, just follow the procedure. We will do it my way, so we don't have to worry about variables that we are not aware of."
Basil smirked lightly, drank the medicinal drink in one go and then handed the saucer back to Xueyi. As Xueyi stepped back, her two disciples stepped forward. They asked him to kneel, so they could write the F?ol?1 necessary to proceed with the ritual on his body. He was too tall for them to do it comfortably.
As soon as Basil knelt, they immediately took out a brush and an inkwell. They dipped their brushes in their inkwells and then meticulously wrote each of the mysterious characters creating a F?ol?1 on his body.
The black ink turned blue after five seconds as it detected the intense Yin Energy in Basil's body. The process took roughly ten minutes and, by the end of it, Basil looked like someone who had an extreme obsession with tattoos.
Looking down at his body, he couldn't help recalling the days when he had to Carve Runes on his body to help him control the overflowing Mana in his body. It was his first three years of taking control of Iliana's Heart and the Magic Circles carved on it.
"Do you feel any discomfort?" Xueyi asked, awakening Basil from his thought.
"No. Let's proceed with the procedure."
Nodding her head lightly, Xueyi told Basil to stand up. She extended her hand, prompting Basil to do the same, and then cut open his wrist with her nail; his blood gushed out of his wrist, gradually pooling on the floor.
She covered his wrist when she deemed it enough, stopping the bleeding instantly. As she retracted her hand, the cut disappeared, leaving Basil's wrist as unblemished as it was.
It was, however, not something she had done, so she looked at Basil in bafflement. "You have a very high regeneration rate."
"I can heal myself."
"Ah...that's right. You are a Pacifer."
The people of Huaxia possessed the true history of humanity; naturally, Xueyi knew about the Pacifer. She had read about how fearsome they were in the past but she wasn't that interested in them, which was why she had remained calm when Basil introduced himself.
Assuming the sword hand-seal with her right hand, she chanted something in Ancient Hua Dialect. Basil listened to her keenly and was surprised by the fact that the Guide didn't let him learn the language, saying its Grade was not high enough.
Basil's blood that was pooling on the ice floor seeped through it and then coloured the intricate pattern carved inside it red. In the next moment, Xueyi put her hand on Basil's solar plexus and then injected her Qi into his body.
"Don't reject it," she said, feeling the force pushing her Qi back.
"Do you think I am rejecting your Qi?" Basil asked with an amused smile.
Xueyi slightly widened her eyes before increasing the input of her Qi. Basil wasn't rejecting her Qi; his body defence system was strong enough to push her Qi back. Doing it the soft way would never do, which was why she had to increase the input.
The blue-coloured F?ol?1 lit up not long after. This was the cue for Xueyi to stop injecting her Qi. She stepped back and then watched as the red-coloured pattern inside the ice floor spun. Walking to the north, she stood 9 metres from Basil. Tian Long and her two disciples were standing on the south, southeast and southwest respectively.
After another spin, the red-coloured pattern stopped spinning. Xueyi and the others immediately clasped their hands and then chanted an unknown Spell in Ancient Hua Dialect.
"Pain is something you should endure but not something you should hide," Xueyi softly said. "When it becomes too much, scream. You may die by suppressing your agony."
Basil said nothing but he quirked his eyebrow. His gesture was telling Xueyi that she could try him. Xueyi shook her head helplessly, expecting his appalled face at the end of this. She resumed the procedure and the ritual was finally carried out.
The blue-coloured F?ol?1 shone even more intensely as it moved. Basil began to feel the pain that Xueyi told him to be careful of, prompting him to assume a pondering look; he calculated how much higher it would get and couldn't help scoffing at the result.
The reaction caused Xueyi and the others to quirk their eyebrows. They, however, focused on the ritual again after finding Basil looking as serene as he always.
An hour passed and he still had no choice. At that point, all of the Daoists in the library wondered just how much pain Basil could endure. It was absurd. He still looked as serene as ever...while he was reading the book that he had pulled out of his Spatial Ring.
....
1 hour and 45 minutes had passed since Basil's departure. Danzel and the others had been avoiding the topic but they could no longer hold their curiosity. The life inside the Realm of Sky Fairy no longer attracted them; the three disciples accompanying them had told them enough. It was time to bring up another topic and they went for the topic they had been avoiding.
"What is going to happen to Basil?" Danzel was the one who started it. "Do you know something, Mrs Mei Qi?"
"Why do you think I know?" Mei Qi retorted.
"You are a Daoist, aren't you?"
"I am...a Pinnacle Stage Daoist of the Physique Forger Realm, that is. I don't know anything about it."
Blinking his eyes, Danzel said, "I thought Tian Long's daughter was talented."
Physique Forger was the third Cultivation Realm out of the six Cultivation Realms. It was the stage that separated the talented and the inept. The inept would remain in the pinnacle stage, meanwhile, the talented would advance. Managing to reach the Realm was still something commendable...only if one was not the daughter of the Yang Tian Long.
"I am," Mei Qi scoffed. "I haven't been cultivating for two decades. This is my Cultivation Realm when I was 23. It is still not something that anyone can achieve. What about you, Mr Danzel? You seem to be a Knight from the presence you are giving off. On what stage are you now?"
"Early-Stage Blue Core."
"...."
In Knight Principle, the divider between the talented and the inept was the Green Core Stage. Danzel having passed the stage, no matter how old he was, meant that he was amongst the talented; one would even say he was a genius if one knew how fast he had grown.
In truth, Danzel was neither talented nor inept. He just had a good Body Forging Technique that suited him well and Basil's splendid guidance, hence his explosive growth.
,m "Anyway, does anyone of you know about Reverse Cycle?"
Mei Qi turned to the three disciples who had been curiously watching her and Danzel speaking in Exonet. She spoke in Hua Dialect this time, earning an immediate response from them.
"Ah, so that is what the Sect Mistress is going to do to the Future Sect Master. Hm...no wonder they were talking about the everlasting side effect."
Upon knowing that the disciples, at least one of them, knew something about it, the people's attention was focused solely on them. The disciples blinked their eyes in slight bafflement and couldn't help chuckling uncomfortably.
"Tell us," Mei Qi demanded.
"Ah, please translate what she says for me too," Diana requested, earning a nod from Mei Qi.
"Well..." began the disciple in the centre. "Reverse Cycle is one of the Forbidden Techniques that many Daoists avoid performing. It is not dangerous for the performer but it may cause eternal regret to the person who is treated with Technique."
"What do you mean by that?" Danzel asked.
"Humans have two kinds of Energies in their bodies: Yin and Yang. Men have more Yang and vice versa. The Reverse Cycle is performed when one desires to tilt the balance of the Energy or kick one of it back to an acceptable level."
The disciple stopped speaking, allowing the people to absorb the information. Chang Yu was the first one to realize what it meant and she couldn't help blurting it out.
"Essentially, Future Sect Master is going to turn into a woman?"
Everyone's eyes turned to her, asking her to tell them she was joking with their eyes.