Minutes went by, Blake soon stopped reminiscing about the past.
He looked at Ryuda for a moment then said, "After you're done sweeping the courtyard, come and join me in the community hall."
Blake then turned around and walked into the community hall without waiting for Ryuda's answer.
Ryuda stood dumbfounded for a moment before he regained his senses. A loud "Yes, Master!" soon followed after.
Once inside, the young boy sat on a sofa cushion with his legs crossed. He then took out a leather bound book from his storage space.
Several golden letters were etched onto the cover.
Blake read the title and tilted his head. "Nine Bridges to Heaven Cultivation Technique? This seems a bit advanced for me, no?"
Despite having a shabby appearance with a grandiose name, Blake could feel the extraordinariness of the cultivation manual.
Wherever Blake moved the manual, the space around the book would distort significantly.
It was as if the world itself was rejecting the cultivation manual's existence.
He then remembered the old man called Elder Lv who handed him a bag of treasures along with the Seven Deadly Sins.
This Nine Bridges To Heaven cultivation manual was one of the many treasures found within that bag.
After continuing to stare at the cultivation manual for several more minutes, Blake let out a long sigh.
"It seems that my Teacher has assigned me a very hard task, haiz.'
Blake shook his head at the thought of suffering again.
He then flipped open the manual and read the first sentence of the first page.
"To reach the Heavens, man must first overcome their inner desires. Greed, lust, fear, wrath, sloth, envy and pride...I guess even heavenly beings aren't free from the seven deadly sins…"
***
When night fell, darkness devoured the entirety of the Mysterious Forest like a tsunami.
Ryuda had just finished sweeping the courtyard and was about to enter the community hall.
He was beginning to second doubt himself taking a young boy as his master just as the chronic back pain flared up again.
But those thoughts disappeared as fast as it originally appeared.
He remembered the ugly and greedy faces of those nobles and clenched his fists tightly.
'I swore that I will get revenge on those disgusting pigs, and I have found a master to guide me towards that path' Ryuda gritted his teeth and consoled himself.
He then placed the broom by the wall and entered the community hall.
There, he saw that his master was hovering a fair distance away from the stone floor.
Mysterious golden runes could be seen orbiting the young boy like stars in the sky .
Ryuda adjusted his glasses to get a clearer look, but when his eyes fell onto one of the golden runes, his face quickly scrunched up like paper.
"Ahhh!" Ryuda clutched his head and shouted in pain. It was only a brief moment yet he was already suffering from a splitting headache.
'Only Magic Saints and Martial Angels can withstand the backlash done by the Heavenly Secrets. Why else would I close my eyes? To concentrate on cultivation? Haha, no.'
Blake heard Ryuda's cries of mental pain and tried his best to stifle a laugh.
Watching his disciple suffer was surprisingly fun.
A stick of incense time later, Ryuda finally quieted down.
His face was pale like a ghost, while his body ached everywhere since it took him a lot of effort to resist the head splitting pain.
Nonetheless, Blake was thoroughly impressed by his disciple's endurance and willpower.
He did not expect that the scrawny looking young man had enough willpower to tough through the punishment of the Heavens.
'Not bad, I only accepted him as a disciple to clean my shit and courtyard. But looking at him now, I think I can fix him. Well, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, haha~'
***
The next day, Blake and Ryuda walked out of the community hall looking refreshed.
One was refreshed because he succeeded in creating his first 'brick' that was needed to lay the foundation of his future cultivation journey.
The other was refreshed because all of his worries and stress were wiped clean from his memory last night.
All he could think about was the splitting headache he was inflicted with when he looked at a mysterious golden rune.
And everytime he tried to recall what that golden rune looked like, the headache would come back to bite him.
They both had a pleasant sleep afterwards, both without worries for the future.
"So Ryuda, what do you want to learn today?"
"Huh? Wait, are you saying you want to teach me something today?"
"Do you not want to?"
"Of course I want to! I just thought it'd take a little while longer before I could learn something from you. That's usually the standard procedure of a master-disciple relationship, no?"
"Uhm, that usually only happens in novels…Uhm, you said you were 25 this year, right?"
"Yes, master!"
"Whoo, I like your enthusiasm. But tone it down please. I'm still going through puberty and I don't want to fuck up my hearing with your shouting."
"Yes! I mean, yes master."
"Good good, now turn around and have your back to face me."
Ryuda heard this and nodded without questioning it. Ryuda then turned around to have his back face his master.
"Good, now don't panic. I'm going to release some of my mana into your body to check your physique. I will give you a suitable cultivation method afterwards, okay?"
Ryuda nodded his head enthusiastically.
Without wasting a beat, Blake placed his hands on Ryuda's back and started to pour mana into his disciple's body.
As for Ryuda, he initially felt a cold sensation seeping through his back like the wind during winter.
But as more mana continued to seep into his body, Ryuda could feel the changes his body was going through.
Not only was Blake pouring mana into his disciple's body to check the current state of it, the Magic Ancestor expert was also guiding his mana through Ryuda's dormant mana veins to open them up.
"Don't just stand there like a doofus! Feel my mana circulating within you! Memorize the circulation path so that we can move on to the next step after this!" [Blake]
"Yes…Yes master!" [Ryuda]