Yu Rou and Meixiu’s eyes widened when Yuan suddenly stripped without any warnings.
Although they have seen his naked body plenty of times by now since they had to clean his body, seeing the naked body of a cripple who cannot move and seeing the naked body of a fully functional person gave two different feelings.
"B-Brother! You should’ve at least warned us that you were going to strip! There are ladies in here!" Yu Rou quickly said to him.
"Huh?" Yuan raised his eyebrows in a puzzled manner, clearly ignorant about these kinds of situations.
In his mind, some boundaries between men and women didn’t exist.
Although he has only seen one naked woman in his life— Lan Yingying, she didn’t have such a reaction when they were both naked before, so he didn’t think too much about it.
Furthermore, Yu Rou and Meixiu have seen his naked body countless times, and they have even touched it before when they had to clean his body, not to mention the number of times he bathed with Yu Rou.
Seeing Yuan’s puzzled reaction and calm demeanor, Yu Rou realized that she never really taught him common sense when it comes to things between women and men. After all, she never thought he would need this kind of knowledge, and it would also be embarrassing for her to teach someone older than her these kinds of things.
"Forget it..." Yu Rou sighed.
Sometime later, Yuan entered the bathtub and sat in the center in the lotus position.
Despite the water still at boiling point, Yuan couldn’t feel any pain, only comfort.
"I just need to cultivate and absorb the treasures in the water, right?" Yuan asked while looking at Feng Yuxiang.
"Yes." Feng Yuxiang nodded.
Yuan proceeded to take a deep breath before clearing his mind.
He then started cultivating.
However, the instant he started absorbing the treasure, he felt sharp pain all over his body, almost like there were swords and daggers poking his pores.
Yuan cried out loud and immediately stopped absorbing the treasures, startling the people in there.
"Are you okay?" Yu Rou asked him.
"This is painful! It’s like I am being pricked by needles all over my body!" He exclaimed.
Feng Yuxiang then said in a calm voice, "I warned you that it was going to be painful, Young Master. Body tempering isn’t easy. There’s a reason why there are so few body refiners in the cultivation world compared to ordinary cultivators since many people cannot endure the pain."
"Are there any ways to lessen the pain at the very least?" Yuan asked.
Feng Yuxiang shook her head, "Unfortunately, there are no easy ways out of this. You either endure it or give up. In fact, the pain will only intensify as you continue to temper your body."
Yuan frowned when he heard this.
However, as much as he wanted to give up, he needed to get rid of the curses.
After taking a moment to calm down, Yuan tried to absorb the treasures again.
The sharp pain quickly returned, and Yuan gritted his teeth to endure the pain.
And just like Feng Yuxiang said, the pain only became worse the more he tried to absorb the treasures.
What felt like needles poking at his body at first now felt like there were needles entering his body through every pore that was absorbing the treasures.
The pain penetrated deeper and deeper in this body as time went on.
Yuan had to give up a few times due to the intense pain, but he would eventually try again.
Yu Rou and the others watched with nervous looks on their faces. Seeing Yuan in so much pain also made them experience imaginary pain all over their body.
"Feng Feng, how long does it normally take to temper one’s body?" Yu Rou asked her.
"How long does he need to endure this?"
Feng Yuxiang looked at Yuan and said, "Since this is the Young Master’s first time doing body tempering, I didn’t use too many treasures— just enough to let him experience it. If he continues to absorb the treasures at his current rate, he should be done in a few hours."
"A few hours?!" Yu Rou was shocked.
She expected this to last only a couple of minutes at most. It was unimaginable that one needed to endure such pain for hours!
Feng Yuxiang smiled and said, "If you think a few hours are bad, imagine tempering your body for weeks, even years."
An hour into tempering his body, Yuan was beginning to adapt to the pain, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t painful any longer. In fact, the pain continued to worsen the longer he tempered his body.
"I-Is that blood?" Yu Rou suddenly noticed the water turning slightly red.
Feng Yuxiang nodded, "Yes, but you don’t have to worry. It won’t cause any permanent damage to his body."
"The Young Master has actually increased the rate he’s absorbing the treasures. If he continues at this rate, he should be done after another hour."
And just like Feng Yuxiang predicted, after soaking in the bathtub of treasures, Yuan opened his eyes when he finished absorbing all of the treasure in the water.
Near the end, since he’d already absorbed most of the treasure by then, the pain was no longer as strong, allowing him to relax until the end.
"How are you feeling, Young Master?" Feng Yuxiang asked him.
"Exhausted... yet refreshed at the same time, almost like I’d been reborn," he said with a smile on his face.
"Congratulations on your first body tempering, Young Master," she said.
Yuan then stood up from the bathtub.
However, the very next second, Xia Jingyi released a startled cry.
"Huh?" Yuan turned to look at Xia Jingyi, whose face was fully flushed with redness, and she even had her hands covering her eyes.
Yu Rou and Meixiu’s jaw dropped when they realized why Xia Jingyi reacted in such a manner.
"B-Brother! Quickly, turn around!" Yu Rou shouted at him in a panicked voice.
"What?" Yuan became even more puzzled, and he turned to look at Feng Yuxiang.
"Young Master..." Feng Yuxiang cleared her throat and pointed at the area between his legs, her face slightly rosy as well.
Seeing this, Yuan looked down at his body, and to his surprise, between his legs, there was something long and majestic pointing at the heavens.