Ming Yue suddenly snapped out of her cultivation and quickly scanned her surroundings for any threats. Finding none, she was puzzled about what had disturbed her practice.
Looking around, she noticed it was daylight—the next day—and that the full moon had passed, as it only lasts a day.
As this realization settled in, she stood up but froze again when she caught a whiff of herself. "Ugh! Why do I smell so bad?" she exclaimed in horror. Her body was covered in a black, sticky substance that seemed to cling to her skin.
She couldn't bear to look at herself and wished this wasn't her. Without hesitation, she rushed down to the common bathhouse—well, the one for the abandoned, since the royal family didn't want their noses contaminated by the smell of the abandoned. So, they built a bathhouse for them.
Sneaking inside, she scrubbed her skin vigorously, as if her life depended on it—which, in a way, it did, because she cherished her body cleanliness the most.
After two long hours of intense scrubbing, she emerged with red skin but sparkling clean, like never before. Then she realized she had no clothes, having hurried out in her rush to cleanse herself.
"Well, it doesn't matter. I'll just steal some," she thought, deciding to make do even if the clothes didn't fit.
Back at her place, she was ready to check her internal Qi strength.
Sitting on her bed, she suddenly noticed her hair seemed to have grown and changed color. Before, it was pink—something that pained her greatly, as it made her look girly and weak, like a weak chicken!
Now, the color had diluted. She took a handful of hair to examine. "Hmm… the color is now silver and pink," she mused. "Well, I guess I can work with this."
Her hair had shifted from pure pink to mostly silver, with the pink lightened and pushed to the tips—much better in her eyes.
She checked her internal energy and saw that her Qi was abundant. She had leaped two stages and entered the third stage of the Houtian realm, also known as the mortal realm or martial art foundation.
The Houtian realm consists of six stages:
First stage – Flesh: the martial artist's body is like a small water puddle, Second stage – Viscera: the body is like a pond, Third stage – Altering Muscle, Fourth stage – Bone Forging: the body is like a lake, Fifth stage – Pulse Condensation: meridians condense, true essence circulates, and the body is like a rolling river and raging storm, Sixth stage – Full Completion of the Mortal Realm: true essence gathers and flows like a vast ocean.The first phase includes the first three stages, refining the flesh and cleansing worldly impurities, which had manifested as that black liquid she washed off. The second phase includes the last three stages, refining bones and condensing meridians, preparing the body for the next level of cultivation: comprehending the Dao to become Xiantian, or one with nature.
Most people struggle for years to reach the third stage, yet she had done it in just one cultivation session without even realizing her luck.
"Ah… according to the book, I need to comprehend Dao!" she said to herself. The book explained she must gain inspiration in Yin, an element that encompasses many things. If cultivating both Yin and Yang, she would need inspiration in both ice (her current thought as the Yin element) and fire, but since she focused on one, she could forget the hassle.
"Okay, what's next?" she pondered. The book also warned that upon becoming Xiantian, all nearby martial arts masters would sense it—not something she wanted. "Let's run away!" she smiled, sparkling eyes gleaming.
Looking around for a way to escape, she found nothing useful. "Let's steal!" she laughed, confident in her skills and sure she'd improve with her newfound power.
She walked around, rubbing her chin. "What do I need? Money!" She dreamed of opening a small sect, as she had promised.
Her plan was to steal from the favored concubines. "After this, steal some children's clothes. Then leave and find out about this country and how to leave. Find energy to build a sect, and find a dead body similar to mine to take my place of death," she mused, sure no one would notice.
From that day on, the palace began losing money little by little without anyone noticing, marking the beginning of Ming Yue's adventure in thievery.