"I have heard it before, but what does it mean to 'temper' my physique?" Yuan asked Zhai Ye a moment later.
"There are a couple of methods you can use to temper your body, but the most common ones are bathing in liquefied treasure and cultivating in a special area that affects your body." Zhai Ye said.
"Bathing in liquefied treasure, huh?" Yuan repeated to himself.
"I understand the first one, but what about the second method? What kind of special area do I have to cultivate in? Do you have any examples?"
"There are multiple phenomenal places in the cultivation world, such as a mountain that has extreme Yang Qi, and if you have a physique that benefits from Yang Qi, you can cultivate there to temper your body. Another example is a place called the Frozen Sea where it releases extremely pure Yin Qi, so females with a special Yin Physique would go there to temper their body."
"Some methods are stress-free while others are incredibly painful. This should be obvious, but the stronger your physique, the more resources you'll need to temper it, and in your case… you'll probably have to go to hell and back… multiple times in order to temper your body."
Yuan nodded and said, "Returning to the first method… Are there treasures out there specifically for tempering one's body? Or can I just use any treasure for the bath?"
"There are specific treasures out there for body tempering, Young Master. In fact, I have some with me. We can try it later." Feng Yuxiang suddenly said.
"Really?!" Yuan immediately became elevated upon hearing her words.
"Yes. Just let me know when you want to do it." Feng Yuxiang nodded.
"Let's do it tomorrow, then!"
"Okay."
Sometime later, Zhai Ye said, "If you got nothing else for me, can you leave? I am barely keeping my sanity just by being around you."
"S-Sorry… We'll leave right now. And thank you very much for your help, senior." Yuan bowed to him.
"Do you still need me around?" Li Shizhen then asked.
"If not, I will stay around for a little more, and I still have to give a lecture to the doctors back at the medicine store," he said.
"No, you can leave. Thank you for everything as well. I will definitely repay this debt in the future." Yuan bowed to him too.
"You don't have to repay me. I am a Divine Doctor. I don't accept payments for my assistance. And I didn't really do anything— only giving you some advice." Li Shizhen said.
"Still, I want to thank you for helping me greatly."
Li Shizhen nodded and then said, "Very well. How about this? If your friend's condition gets better because of this, I will accept your gratitude."
"Okay!" Yuan said.
"Let's go, Feng Feng," Yuan said to her before flying back to the nearest city with a teleport device.
Once they were gone, Zhai Ye opened the door and walked outside again.
"What more do you want from me?" He asked Li Shizhen.
Li Shizhen smiled and said, "Wanna have a drink? It's been a decade since we last sat down together, after all."
"I hope you brought something strong— strong enough for me to forget about that little monster," said Zhai Ye.
"Of course."
The two of them entered the building and began drinking alcohol.
Meanwhile, after they arrived at the city, Yuan said, "Feng Feng, I am going to retire today. I will see you tomorrow early in the morning."
"Okay. Rest well, Young Master."
Once Feng Yuxiang entered his body, Yuan logged off the game.
When Yuan logged off, dinner was already prepared by Meixiu.
"Meixiu, I am finished," he said to her.
"I'm coming." Meixiu entered his room a minute later with dinner.
Yuan wanted to tell her about everything that happened today, but Meixiu insisted that he finished dinner first.
After dinner, Meixiu cleaned the dishes before going back to his room and taking a seat beside his bed.
"Alright. What happened?" she asked him.
"You won't believe what happened today, Meixiu!" Yuan proceeded to tell her everything Li Shizhen and Zhai Ye had told him.
"You're cursed?" Meixiu wasn't sure how to react after listening to his story.
"Do curses even exist in our world?" she couldn't help but wonder this question out loud.
"I can only think of one instance where curses are mentioned in this world… When I asked Yu Rou about playing the zither in this world before, she told me that people used to use them many years ago, but people eventually stopped playing zither because of some curse."
"Hmm… Give me a moment to look it up." Meixiu said before taking out her laptop and searching about the curse on the internet.
A minute later, she said, "According to the internet, people stopped playing the zither because bad luck would fall upon those who touch the zither. Almost all zither players experienced misfortune, and many of them even died in accidents— incredibly unfortunate ones. Once the news spread, people eventually stopped playing the zither out of fear."
"Heavens… I didn't think the zither would have such a history in our world. If curses really exist, then maybe I am really cursed." Yuan sighed.
"Even if curses are real… How are we supposed to deal with it? You may be able to bathe in treasures in Cultivation Online, but there are no such treasures in this world—" Meixiu suddenly stopped speaking midway through her sentence.
Then she started typing on her laptop.
A few minutes later, she said, "Looks like treasures actually exist in this world as well…"
"What?! Really?!" Yuan exclaimed in a shocked voice.
"Yes, and according to some people, they have treasures that contain spiritual energy with some even granting special effects such as increased strength and hearing. However, compared to the treasures one can find in Cultivation Online, the treasures in this world are much weaker."
"What do these treasures look like?" Yuan then asked.
"Well, they're mostly antiques and ancient medicine from the past," she said.
After pondering for a moment, Yuan said, "Do you think we will be able to buy some of these treasures to see for ourselves?"
"Well… They're incredibly expensive with most of them going for millions of dollars. However, we should be able to afford them." Meixiu nodded.
"Then let's buy some. If we don't have enough money, we can simply sell some things in the auction house again. Where can we buy them?"
"Give me a minute…"
After looking on the internet for a few minutes, Meixiu spoke, "Looks like we can either buy them online or in real auction houses. People recommend buying them in person since there are many scammers out there."
"Real auction houses, huh. Let's wait a few more weeks before we go outside. Hopefully, the Cultivators' Association will give up on you soon." Yuan said.
"Okay. I will do more research on this topic in the meantime."
Sometime later, before Meixiu went back to her own room to cultivate, Yuan said to her, "Meixiu, can you grab a knife from the kitchen and leave it on a chair beside my bed?"
"Huh? Why?" She couldn't help but ask after hearing such a weird request.
"Well… I have been thinking… If cultivation techniques from Cultivation Online work in our world, what about the other techniques? I want to try it out."
"Other techniques…? Now that you mention it…" Meixiu was dumbfounded after realizing that too.
"But does it have to be a knife? That's very dangerous… What if you hurt yourself?" she said in a worried voice afterward.
"Don't worry, I am just experimenting to see if it actually works or not. I won't do anything crazy," he promised her.
"Okay…" Meixiu then went outside to grab a clean kitchen knife and a chair before placing the knife on the chair beside the bed in Yuan's room.
Meixiu then proceeded to stare at the knife for a good minute before deciding that it would be better for her to stay in the room just in case anything happens.
"Yuan, I am going to stay here tonight just in case," she said to him.
"Okay. I don't mind," he quickly agreed.
She then took a seat on the other side of the bed and started her cultivation.
Meanwhile, Yuan prepared himself.
After taking deep breaths, he began trying to recall the Flying Dagger technique that he was very used to by now.
However, whether the Flying Dagger technique will work on a kitchen knife or not is an entirely different story.
A few minutes later, Yuan successfully recited the full technique inside his head.
Now it was time for the moment of truth— whether it works or not.
After taking a deep breath, Yuan used his Divine Sense to locate the knife sitting a few meters besides him.
Once he located it, he tried to use Flying Daggers on it like he normally would in Cultivation Online.
A moment later, the kitchen knife resting on the chair suddenly began to tremble, and he could feel an invisible connection to the knife.
Yuan immediately became excited when he saw this, but the moment he lost focus, the connection disappeared and the knife stopped moving.
'It actually works! Let's try that again just in case I was only imagining it!'
With that in mind, he started using Flying Daggers on the kitchen knife again.
This time, even though he was certain that the kitchen knife was moving, he didn't lose focus.
A few moments later, the kitchen knife that had been sitting on the chair suddenly began levitating off the chair!
It was flying! Yuan had successfully used Flying Daggers in the real world!