Looking in the mirror, Lien Hua noticed that her skin was smoother than usual, healthier and softer, giving her a small smile.
That morning, waking up from the state of trance that had lasted all night, she could see how her whole body was invigorated. The pains that brought her down yesterday had passed, and indeed she felt even stronger.
Looking inside herself, she could see how that residual spiritual energy in her muscles and organs had been absorbed almost entirely, even after new residual spiritual energy had settled within them.
Lien Hua could notice that the percentage of absorption of the muscles' overall spiritual energy had risen with this new cultivation session, and the residual spiritual energy had decreased.
With a smile on her face, she was happy with this discovery until she noticed something. Opening her eyes and looking around, her senses returned to her, and so a rancid smell that almost made her vomit assailed her sense of smell.
Closing her nose and looking around, she finally noticed that the absurd smell she smelled was coming from her! Looking at herself, she could see how her entire nightgown was drenched with a very smelly black mixture.
Getting up and running into the bathroom, she threw herself directly into the tub with the water still unheated, which gave a shiver to her whole body; however, she did not care. She didn't quite understand what had happened yet, but she had to wash off that black stuff.
After some time, Lien Hua finally managed to clean herself up with difficulty. 'But what is it? It's sticky; it took almost 30 minutes to clean it up! What a mess!'
However, after she began to look at the skin under all that mush, she could notice how it was a pink colour, like that of a child, soft and smooth with very little hair.
Shocked by this situation, she came out of the tub, throwing the dirty and smelly water into one of the various canals they had created connected to the sewers, and approached her mirror given to her by Old Li.
Looking in the mirror, she could see that her complexion was a much more healthy pink colour, her hair was much smoother, softer, and brighter, and her skin was much softer.
Understanding what had happened, she was delighted. She had managed to remove impurities from her body, giving it a more feminine and healthy look.
Looking for an object to pick up, she took a solid wooden cup off of the coffee table at the right of her house. Taking it in her hand and feeling its rough veins in contact with her skin, she could see how sensitive she had become.
Thinking about what happened to those people who overcome these impurities in the light novels she had read, Lien Hua, with resolution, squeezed the wooden cup with all the strength she could muster in her body, not thinking about the consequences.
Not even a second after she squeezed that wooden cup, Lien Hua was shocked to hear first a powerful *Crack* and then a *Boom* that resonated everywhere in her house. Noticing the explosion that had just happened from inside her hand, Lien Hua was shocked. Looking at the scattering splinters and wood dust around the room she realized just how strong she had become.
Looking at the account of what had happened, Lien Hua laughed a little, still shocked that her body was so strong. However, she came out of her state of shock when she thought that now she had to clean up all this mess, and above all, she had just lost a handy wooden cup.
While dressing in her Outer Sect Disciple uniform, which lay on her bed, heard someone knock on the door from the outside. Walking close by, laying the little broom in her hand near the kitchen she opened the door, and after she saw who was on the other side, she smiled, looking at the faces of her two friends and came up with an idea.
With delighted faces, Lin Yue and Chen Huang greeted Lien Hua, entered her house, and sat down next to the table, now clean. Chen Huang was the first to announce their reason for coming over with a shout.
"Lien Hua, I finally made it! I managed to cultivate!."
"Good job, Chen Huang!"
After complimenting her male friend, Lien Hua turned to Lin Yue, who had cleared her throat.
"Well, I did it too. After all, I could not lose to a kitten."
Noticing after a few seconds that the kitten she had referred to was his martial spirit, Chen Huang turned to her with an angry face.
"Me a kitty!? Then if my martial spirit is a kitten, what is yours? A cockroach?"
Seeing how Chen Huang had twisted things up by giving her mighty ice scorpion the nickname cockroach, Lin Yue was about to turn on him and lay into him with some very choice words when Lien Hua spoke first.
"Okay, guys, stop it now. I was curious about something: Do you guys perhaps feel something weird, like a kind of connection when you look inside yourself?"
After learning to cultivate, Lien Hua, taking advantage of their euphoria and their quarrel, wanted to ask this question that had afflicted her for a few days.
"Strange? Not so much; I just feel the connection with my martial spirit. Was that the strange thing you meant?"
Chen Huang was the first to respond, not thinking there was anything suspicious about what Lien Hua had told her.
"Ah... So that strange connection i felt was from my martial spirit!"
"Yeah, I felt that too, but Lien Hua, why did you ask that?"
Lin Yue also responded as Chen Huang did not notice anything strange, but at the same time looked at Lien Hua with suspicion, which disappeared soon after.
"Then it was that! I felt a kind of connection with my martial spirit, but i didn't know if it was for you too. Now that i know, I'm much calmer. Thank you very much."
Lien Hua made up an excuse after seeing Lin Yue's face be a bit suspicious, and with a smile, Lien Hua combed her own hair and put her little ornament on her head.
Looking at her a bit with suspicious eyes, they did not overthink it too much because Lien Hua had been strange from a young age: from odd questions to unusual activities. So they were used to it now.
These things were something that Lien Hua overlooked because as much as she wanted to get used to a new world, she had lived many years in another and habits were difficult to change. Luckily they were only harmless habits.
Lien Hua and her two friends came out of the house; two children were euphoric, while the other was very thoughtful.
'Then what is it? If even Chen Huang and Lin Yue don't have this connection, why me? And above all, what does it all entail?'
Lien Hua was so lost in her thoughts that she did not notice when they had arrived at their class doors.
"Lien Hua? Are you there? Hello? Look, we've arrived."
Shaking Lien Hua's shoulders a bit to get her out of her state of mind, Chen Huang was anxious.
Feeling that they were calling her and realizing that she had been so overwhelmed, she had turned a bit weird, it was not very like her to spend so much time thinking about something.
"Don't worry, I was thinking a little bit."
Looking at her two friends and calming them down when noticing that they were worried, the trio entered the room. As soon as all three of them entered, Lien Hua noticed two eyes on them. Turning to those peeking eyes, she could notice that even if the culprit had turned around that it was Ling Tianni.
Lien Hua didn't know what she had done to him, but she took it as merely juvenile rivalry. Of course it was the wrong thing to do in this situation, but Lien Hua did not think it would backfire on her in the future.
Chen Huang and Lin Yue also noticed his staring, but seeing that Lien Hua was not disturbed, with slightly worried faces, they followed her and sat at their respective places, waiting for the Sect Elder.
As soon as Shi Yueh arrived, he immediately noticed how the air around Lien Hua was different, looking at her more carefully without anyone noticing he was shocked.
'How did she get past the first Shedding Impurities in only 2 days? I'm going to tell the top brass about it; we can't lose such a good seed.'
Shi Yueh clapped his fingers on the desk in front of himself rhythmically and looked at his disciples.
"Well, today we're going to talk about the stages of cultivation. Noting that more among you have been able to understand the method, it's only fair that i explain more myself how you can distinguish them."
"First of all, all ranks are divided into 10 levels, with the first being the lowest and the tenth being the highest."
"From level 1 to 10 we have the Spirit Scholar rank, the one all of you are at the moment. From level 11 to 20, is the Spirit Master rank; most of the Outer Sect Disciples are in that rank. From 21 to 30 you are a Spirit GrandMaster; you can become an Inner Sect Disciple at this level. Instead, from 31 to 40, you are a Spirit Elder; you can become an Outer Sect Elder at this rank. From levels 41 to 50, you are a Spirit GrandElder and you can become an Inner Sect Elder with that rank. While from 51 to 60 you are a Spirit King, the rank of our Sect Master Xi. from 61 to 70 you are an Exalted Spirit Emperor, a level that only our Grand Elder Zhou has managed to acquire."
Watching as everyone was fascinated by how many levels there were, he broke their expectations.
"Furthermore, these are not the only levels in this world. However, knowing all of them will not be of much use for you. In the end they are levels unattainable to us humans. The important thing is that you start to memorize these; when you are stronger, you will discover the other levels by yourselves."
Noticing the somewhat resigned face of the Sect Elder that only she had noticed, Lien Hua wondered how many levels beyond those listed truly existed, and how strong those people were if even her Sect Elder had a resigned face.
However, a young girl behind Lien Hua had something to say and raised her hand.
"Sect Elder, I'd like to ask you, but how do we find out about our rank?"
Lien Hua, thinking about it after this question, wondered why she didn't think of this question herself, but still looked towards the Inner Sect Elder Shi Yueh who was about to speak.
"Excellent question, Feng Huifen. You can measure it with this."
With a snap of his fingers, a tool landed on his desk from seemingly out of nowhere.
