The moment Xuan dipped one foot into the tub, he felt a jolt of pain go through his body. He had never actually been burned severely, but he had a rough idea of how it would feel if he had been.

And this here... It was torture. Pure torture. To the point he couldn’t even fully dip the rest of his foot in, let alone his entire body. For a moment, he thought of reinforcing himself with Qi, but if he did that, then he wouldn’t be able to feel the water, let alone the heat.

So in short, he had to let his father in law practically boil him alive. And as if that wasn’t enough of a realization, while Xuan was in the midst of overthinking, Dian suddenly came up behind him and pushed him, causing Xuan to tumble into the tub and not even be able to muster a scream.

The pain was excruciating, and his body reacted too. Bubbling, tearing, and even reddening. It really felt like he was being boiled alive, and no matter how many seconds passed, it didn’t feel like it was getting any better. In fact, he was sure it was getting worse.

More importantly, this might be the most pain he had ever experienced. It was mind numbing and scarring. Yet despite the pain that he was going through, Dian’s words still managed to make their way into his ears. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"You need to dip your whole head. Otherwise, it won’t work."

"..."

Evil... Xuan trembled, then dunked his head under the boiling water, and then closed his eyes, trying his best to forget what was happening to him.

But no matter what he did, it didn’t change the fact that he was being boiled alive. But on the flip side... time passed fairly quickly.

.

.

.

(3 hours later...)

By now, Xuan had surprisingly adjusted to the boiling water. Sure, it still hurt like crazy, but at least now, he could effortlessly resurface just so he could take a single breath. Also, Dian didn’t need to rescue him anymore, which made Xuan feel like he might actually have a knack for being someone’s side dish.

Though the problem was that even after so long had passed, he didn’t get Water Qi. He stood up in the tub, his head barely above the water, as he glanced over to Dian. He was patiently waiting by the side, slightly annoyed as always.

"Am I doing something wrong?"

"Doing what wrong?" Dian questioned.

"I mean, it’s been three hours or so. Where’s my Qi Type?" Xuan said the obvious.

Dian rolled his eyes. "Do you think progress happens in an instant? It took me two weeks of non stop work to get my Water Qi Type. Keep going. And I told you, try to drown. It’s better when the water gets into your body."

Xuan sighed. "What if I try to surround the water in Spiritual Qi and then guide it toward my Dantian?"

"Then you’ll get a tummy ache, and perhaps you’ll get bloated. If it was that easy, just about anyone could unlock any Qi Type they wanted," Dian replied.

Fair enough. Honestly, Xuan felt like sometimes, he should just shut up and do whatever he needed to do. So of course, while he did listen to what Dian said, he also didn’t hesitate to try his own ideas.

After all, he was far from ordinary. In fact, maybe this would give him an insight into how to get Sun Qi. What if all he needed was to just control the Qi in a certain way? This was the cultivation world, so pretty much everything had Qi.

Water, air, earth, fire, and whatever else. All he needed to do was find those Qi particles in the natural sources and he could unlock it. At least theoretically, that made a lot of sense. So Xuan went ahead and did it.

Except for the next couple of hours, aside from getting bloated and becoming hungry, Xuan didn’t succeed much.

But unbeknownst to him, he had actually made some progress. In one of the infinite slots, there was now a small bubble, and if he continued to work at it, that bubble would expand and become big enough to count as a Qi Type.

.

.

.

(3 days later...)

The days went by in a flash, and by now, Xuan had realized the changes in his Dantian. Water Qi still didn’t count as a fully fledged Qi Type, but if he were to use Elemental Qi, he could draw the Water Qi from outside of his body, rather than from within.

According to Dian, it was partial progress. He was half way there, in a way. And all he had been doing these past few days was drowning himself, sending water to his Dantian, and looking like a balloon most of the time.

Naturally, Yuelan started calling him a pinata. As for Hanbi, she couldn’t look at him without laughing. Maybe her happiness stemmed from the fact that her father and Xuan were getting along.

Though, Xuan wasn’t sure if this was what getting along really meant. After all, whose future father in law goes ahead and throws them into boiling water? Even more so was the fact that boiling water wasn’t necessary.

The same amount of training, he could’ve done in just plain old cold water. It made Xuan a little pissed, but he promised himself that one day, he would get back at Dian for this. On a real note though, with such progress, Dian finally felt like giving Xuan the benefit of the doubt.

"Considering that you’re able to have more than five Qi Types... I take it you must have some sort of special physique, or perhaps a bloodline? I don’t know what it is, nor what you want, but I believe I might want to teach you how to attain the Qi Type that I had been wanting for ages," Dian said, then narrowed his eyes.

"That’s only if you’re up for it, of course."