Tears leaked from Raul’s eyes as he was on the verge of exploding. “No more.” He begged, but the devil before him kept stuffing his face regardless.

He’d been surprised to wake up to an unfamiliar roof, though it wasn’t an unusual occurrence for him. His annoyance at being knocked out and dragged to a training cottage on the Left Mountain was, predictably, ignored by the she-devil who immediately pushed him towards training.

These annoyances didn’t take away from his excitement to start training. His body was full of energy and his mind felt sharp, he thought he was ready for anything. He never expected the sick torture he was currently enduring.  

Food, endless food. Meats, veggies, fish, a verifiable buffet was forced upon Raul. He ate as much as he could from the intimidating ensemble, and when he could eat no more, the devil herself descended to force it down his throat.

The worst thing of all, it was absolutely delicious. It was better than anything Raul had eaten in his entire pampered life. The moment it touched his tongue he automatically started chewing despite the tears streaming down his face. Raul swore he ate almost half his body weight by time it finally ended.

It was only possible because it was immortal cooking. Immortal cooking dissolved into nourishing qi to enhance the body soon after entering the stomach, giving a feeling of fullness, but not actually taking up space.

“I’ve set up some practice poles for you in the back yard, you’re to hit one according to this method until you collapse.” She started narrating a technique called the ripple punch to him while touching points on his body for emphasis.

Meanwhile he just stared at her as if she were crazy. He was a stuffed dumpling now! The good feeling upon waking up was all gone, he wasn’t sure he could walk without throwing up, much less train.

She was hearing none of it though and rolled his ass out to the back where she ran him through the drills again. Essence qi had already refined his body and resided inside his various parts, the exercise would stimulate it and further refine his body through extensive use.

He understood the concept, but her explanation on how to do it went way over his head. The devil was a surprisingly patient teacher though, and went over it calmly each time. She even demonstrating it a few times, cracking the wooden pole.

This shocked Raul as it was the same Soil Tree Wood that the basic buildings of the compound were made of and required the strength of at least a qi refining realm cultivator to crack.

He still never really got how it worked mentally, but after she demonstrated it the fifth time and he copied it, it just sort of clicked in his head.

The post didn’t crack when he hit it, but he knew it worked because he could feel the qi ripple through his entire body, followed by a wave of exhaustion, then a feeling of bursting energy returned as he suddenly felt a tiny bit less bloated. Marina noted down something in her notes before leaving him to his own devices.

The sound of him hitting the post became a constant beat for the next three hours. He would’ve continued to hit it if he hadn’t collapsed in a puddle of sweat once his stomach was empty.

He’d trained for much longer periods on his own, but he’d never been as tired as he was now. His entire body was trembling in pain and his fists were a bloody mess, but he still glared hatefully at the wooden post.

The damn thing just refused to crack. ‘Marina and I have the same cultivation level, if she can crack it, then I should be able to as well.’ He reasoned while hating feeling inferior. Of course, he’d neglected that Marina was re-cultivating and that the two of them had vastly different starting conditions.

Marina soon came and helped him inside. He looked away in embarrassment over his sorry state while she supported him to walk. He felt a bit touched by how willingly she helped him, as he was covered in sweat, blood and dirt.

He felt a stab of fear when he realized she was leading him back to the dining room. But at the same time, he also wanted more food to continue training. So he didn’t know whether to cheer or to cry when he saw that it was only a single bowl of soup.

All distracted thoughts disappeared the moment the smell hit him. His mind felt refreshed and clear. He happily picked up the spoon and got to work.

He released a hearty sigh when he finished. He didn’t feel recharged, but he felt fresh, like he was being cleansed from the inside out. It truly hit the spot after all that work.

Gurgle. His stomach made an unpleasant sound just as he was about to thank her. Gurgle. Pain started spreading through Raul’s body before centralizing at his stomach. Raul’s stomach visibly moved as he fought the urge to throw up over the table.

“Bathroom is that way.” Marina pointed him down the hall and he was gone before the words fully left her mouth. He barely made it to toilet when he started vomiting a vile black sludge.

The impurities he’d knocked loose during training were forcefully expunged by the soup. His entire body trembled with the effort of getting the toxic substance out of his body.

It smelled horrible, and tasted even worse. It was only through the sheer horribleness of the taste on his tongue that he was able to find the strength to wash out his mouth before collapsing on the floor in the end.

“There are cleansing capsules in the cabinet, and the bath is ready for you.” Marina’s voice called through the door. He groaned in response. He just wanted to sit for a moment, but the stench was truly becoming unbearable, even though he’d flushed. He crushed one of the cleansing capsules and a fresh scent covered the noxious odor, He then looked at the light green bathwater with a fear laden gaze.  

“Get strong, beat Tai, raise Vault houses status.” He muttered to himself repeatedly as he undressed. He cautiously submerged himself up to his neck in the pleasantly hot water.

It was heavenly. Even his frayed nerves began to unravel as the bath soaked in. A sigh escaped his lips as he closed his eyes and let himself go. There was some pain, he felt something akin to tiny needles sticking into him, but it was only skin deep compared to the bone deep comfort.

Just as he was falling asleep he heard Marina calling for him. ‘First day married and I’m already at my wife’s beck and call.’  He opened his eyes with a groan and got up.

He noticed the bath water had lost its green tint and medicinal scent at some point. He also noted that the injuries on his fists were healed. Despite only being awake for a short four hours, he could barely keep his eyes open as he walked back to the room.

“Lie down here.” Marina patted the bed when he entered the room. He gladly laid on the bed despite only having a towel around his waist.

“So what’s next?” He asked in a sleepy voice. He was too tired to even think of any lewd possibilities.

“I’m going to give you a massage and some light acupuncture to alleviate exhaustion and stimulate your muscles more, after that you can sleep for a little while.” She took out a weird looking lotion and squeezed some into her hand.

“And I suppose you’ll be putting me to sleep the same way.” Raul grimaced at the memory of being knocked out.

“It’ll put your body into a deep sleep quickly. You only have an hour so it’s necessary.” She started the massage.

“mmn, an hour? That’s, ohh, pretty short.” Her massages felt as wonderful. The lotion she was using made his skin feel like it was burning lightly, but it was again overwhelmed by the pleasant magic of her hands.

‘Sigh. If only she weren’t crazy, how wonderful would it be to have such a multi-talented spouse?’ He could totally understand why most houses go crazy trying to get a spouse from the Norn house.

“We’re packing a lot into these three months. We’ll be doing training sessions in five-hour packages like this all the way to the end of the smelting period. I will be rigorously managing your schedule so don’t even think about catching a break.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He stifled a yawn. “I want to finish this as fast as possible too. Ah, could you go a little to the right there? Thanks. And honestly, five hours sessions sound short, especially since two of them is just me eating and sleeping. If the ripple fist wasn’t so exhausting, I’d be asking for more. I’m pretty proud of my stamina, never thought I could get wiped out so quickly.”

His days before were mostly training all day before hitting up the town at night and he’d still never felt this worn down.  The ripple fist really was perfect for short sessions like this. He didn’t know the technique was actually considered a bit of a dud, as the amount of exhaustion after use was far greater than the refinement it gave the body.

Ordinarily a person would only be able to use it for a few minutes before collapsing. Sure, those few minutes would be equivalent to a couple hours of practice with a tamer technique, but then they’d be bed ridden for six to ten hours and completely fall behind.

It was only due to being literally stuffed with immortal cooking that Raul was able to use it for almost three hours straight.

“That’s just the beginning, I’ll be teaching you various other techniques to train different areas better.” She informed him while taking out some needles. He instinctively tensed when she started sticking them in, but soon his body relaxed against his bidding, and she started massaging between the stuck points.

He let out a moan of delight. “You’re really amazing, you know that? I can barely remember what you were telling me about making the ripple punch work, yet you’ve memorized a bunch of techniques just like it.” He earnestly complimented.

Her hands paused for a moment before continuing their work. “… It’s just a basic technique, hearing that doesn’t make me happy at all. Rather, hearing that you’re still having trouble with it fills me with dread for the future. Please try harder.” She requested.

“Guh, I’ll do my best…” He said half-heartedly. “By the way!” He felt her hands tense up on his back and tried to change the topic. “What are you going to do about your own smelting period? Isn’t it going to be hard to build a good base when you’re doing all this stuff for me?”

He was genuinely worried about this. With all the cooking, preparations, and guiding him, it didn’t look like she had a lot of time to make her own progress.

“You don’t need to worry about that. The smelting period only happens because the mortal body has no idea what an immortal body should be like, and so becomes moldable. But I’m recultivating. Even though my body is currently mortal, it has a very concrete idea of what an immortal body should be like and isn’t that adaptable. I only need to do some small exercises to maintain my current level.”

“Ehhh, that’s awesome. Since you come from such an amazing family your base must already be top tier.” He complimented her in the hopes she’d forget what they were previously discussing.

Marina’s eye twitched and she pressed down hard.

“Gah!” Raul grunted as a sharp pain lanced across his back.

“You talk too much.” Marina said coldly as she reached for that familiar spot on his neck.

‘What did I say!?’ Raul questioned as unjust tears spilled from his eyes before the world went dark.