Aegon walked out of the Resource Hall looking at a palm sized root in his hand.

[ So the so-called cultivation resources are these ginseng roots.]

Ginseng was a famous medicinal herb that was rumored to benefit a person's cultivation, it was the only herb that normal people had heard of to have such an effect, that shows how well known it had to be to cultivators.

[ It seems that the herb I thought was the rarest in the world is actually the most common and accessible for cultivators.]

“Sigh.”

[ I was really living like the proverbial frog...]

When he lived with his parents he always believed ginseng to be the rarest and most valuable herb in the world, but now what he once thought to be the top of the mountain was in reality just the lowest of peaks. It was a rather novel feeling.

While relishing in this feeling time passed quickly and without knowing he was already at his doorstep. Inside, Aegon sat on the bed and continued looking at the ginseng roots for a few more minutes, organizing his knowledge of that herb.

While staying in Grandfort City he learned a bit about the cultivation world by overhearing other people's conversations, although most things amounted to just common gossip there was one “law” that everyone agreed on and even Aegon himself could see the logic in it.

Cultivation resources were best used to attempt breakthroughs in cultivation.

Aegon was right now in that exact situation, he had reached the peak of the first stage of Body Refinement three months ago, he simply couldn't improve anymore by just beating trees like he had done until now.

The first level of Body Refinement was known as Hardening Skin. It was a rather easy stage to reach, one just had to have good meals and meditate for a bit after a “day of training”.

But that so-called day of training was basically just getting himself injured while fighting/hitting an opponent or a dummy. After one gets injured they have to patiently wait until they are fully healed and then start fighting again, gradually their recovery speed would increase and so would the overall resistance of their skin. Once they could no longer improve using this method it meant they had reached the peak of the Hardening Skin stage.

Aegon was trying a similar approach for the following stage, if the skin had to be injured to improve it, maybe to improve his muscles and reach the Strengthening Muscle stage he could injure his muscles. So he started blasting his fists until his skin was fully destroyed and continuing until his muscles were ruptured, the pain was unbearable yet he preserved, mainly because he thought his brother had done the same and since his older brother could do it then Aegon had to be able to do it too or else he would have to admit his inferiority.

“NEVER!” Just thinking about that possibility made him mad. He could already imagine his brother's typical smugness getting deeper or even worse… switching it for a fake show of pity. A true calamity no doubt.

Giving the ginseng in his hand one last look. “I don't even know how to use this thing properly, might as well just put tomorrow's class time to good use and ask some teacher about it.”

Giving himself a mental nod as if agreeing with his own idea he placed his ginseng on top of his desk, after eating some snacks he had bought from the Resource Hall elder he laid on his bed only occupying half of it while the other half was for Kuro who judged the floor ,where most pets slept, unworthy of the honor of being his resting place. It was also because he liked to cuddle with his human partner.

The following morning inside an amphitheater with more than 100 youths attending, Mentor 1 was giving a lesson about the basics of cultivation.

“So most of those that just entered our Martial House should be wondering how to break through to the second stage of Body Refinement right?” Twenty-some heads seemed to instantly lock onto Richard's figure.

“The answer is actually quite simple, you haven't gathered any inner energy. When you trained in the Hardening Skin stage the thing that “magically“ made your skin improve over time was the ambient energy in your surroundings to which the skin was exposed to. But this method is only effective in that stage exactly because the skin is exposed to that ambient energy however your muscles, bones and viscera aren't so the only way to improve them is to absorb that energy from your surroundings and take it directly to them. If one doesn't go to the mountain then the mountain must come to one.”

Aegon, who was listening attentively ever since his problem was mentioned, was in a state of both enlightenment and disappointment.

[Well, at least I tried.]

Aegon closed his eyes, tilted his head slightly to the heavens above and gave a light sigh.

[It really is true, those who don't know are like those who don't see...]