After copying the book from the library, Kanoru returned to his new home—or rather, his palace—as the sun dipped below the horizon.
The fading light painted the sky in hues of orange and violet as he made his way inside.
Without lingering, he headed straight for his room, moving with a clear purpose.
In the new palace, he had his own quarters, which conveniently led to a training ground.
Upon entering, he lit the lamps, filling the dimly lit room with a warm, golden glow.
Without delay, he sat down and began reading the book he had copied.
He read it at least three times, carefully absorbing its contents, striving to comprehend every detail.
Inside his spiritual space, he could sense the emptiness.
It was vast and dark, with only his white soul at the center—its ethereal glow illuminating the otherwise pitchblack void.
At the core of his soul, he saw the faint pulse of the dream seed, beating rhythmically with a soft, silver light.
To advance to the LowerRank Warlock realm, he needed to draw a low-ranked spell rune within his spiritual space.
He hadn't attempted it before—mainly because low-ranked spells offered little benefit to him.
Now, however, he intended to test something different.
He focused on circulating his chakra before engraving the runes inside his spiritual space.
Gradually, it emerged outside his body, coating his skin with a faint, shimmering aura.
He held out his palm, watching as his chakra shimmered in a soft, light green hue, almost like a second skin.
With a slight concentration of will, he shaped the chakra into a rune, and it flashed into existence in his palm—clear and stable.
Seeing the rune take form, he smirked slightly and murmured,
"I can learn Avatar Spells after all."
However, his excitement quickly faded.
He realized that Avatar Spells wouldn't be useful to him anytime soon.
These spells only showed their true combat effectiveness once a warlock reached MiddleRank—a milestone that would take at least five to ten years of cultivation.
And even if he prioritized it, pursuing Avatar Spells would slow down his other training.
If he had found a Windelement Avatar Spell, he might have made an exception.
But learning a Fire element spell—which had no connection to his primary path—felt like a waste of time.
He wasn't going to stray from the path he had forged unless it was absolutely necessary.
Sighing softly, Kanoru closed the book.
He rose from his seat and walked over to a drawer in the corner of the room.
Sliding it open, he revealed a jade box adorned with intricate runes.
Placing his fingertip on the lid, he channeled a thread of chakra into the runes.
A faint click echoed from the box as the seals unlocked.
Opening the lid, he gazed at the green fruit inside.
It resembled a mango, but its skin was textured with snakelike scales, giving it a serpentine appearance.
He thought to himself,
"Snake fruit."
He had received it the day before from Fu Qinzhu, who was now his uncle by relation.
After their discussion about his fief, Fu Qinzhu handed him two jade boxes, each containing a snake fruit.
Shortly afterward, Kanoru had given one to Asuna, who had taken the jade box into her room and hadn't emerged since.
Without hesitation, Kanoru picked up the fruit, its cool surface smooth beneath his fingers.
He closed the jade box, sealing it with a soft click, and carried the fruit over to a mat in the corner of the room.
Settling into a crosslegged position, he held the snake fruit firmly in his hand.
Without wasting another moment—knowing that snake fruits deteriorated quickly once exposed to the outside world—Kanoru bit into the fruit, eager to absorb its mysterious power.
With three swift bites, he consumed the entire fruit, its slightly bitter, earthy taste lingering on his tongue.
For the first five seconds, he felt nothing.
Then, a sudden wave of heat ignited in his stomach, spreading rapidly through his entire body.
With every passing second, the temperature surged, growing hotter and hotter, until a searing pain tore through his cells.
The heat clawed at his insides, and the agony intensified with each pulse.
Clenching his jaw tightly, Kanoru endured the pain and focused on what was happening inside his body.
Through his chakra, he could sense the internal changes:
The intense heat was damaging his cells, scorching them from within.
But along with the heat, the snake fruit also released a surge of healing energy—which immediately merged with his chakra.
The fusion of energies triggered a remarkable process:
His chakra, already enhancing his natural healing, was now supercharged by the snake fruit's restorative essence.
As the heat ravaged his cells, his chakra rapidly repaired them, making them more resilient each time they were restored.
The snake fruit also carried the nature-adapt property of the Wood element.
With every cycle of damage and healing, his cells began to adapt to the relentless heat.
The repeated cycles tempered his body, making his cells tougher and more tenacious after each wave of destruction and regeneration.
Some of his cells withstood the constant strain, growing increasingly robust with every round of healing.
Others were destroyed before the chakra could repair them.
But new cells swiftly replaced the destroyed ones, and they, too, became stronger through the process.
Watching this phenomenon unfold, Kanoru realized that if the nature-adapt property wasn't present in the fruit, the entire process would have been meaningless.
Without it, the heat and healing cycle would have simply been repeated without actually refining his body.
It was the natureadapt effect that enabled his cells to gradually adjust, making them increasingly resistant to the rising temperature.
However, as the heat intensified, it soon became unbearable.
His vision blurred, and his limbs trembled as the pain threatened to consume him entirely.
His consciousness began to slip, but he made no effort to stay awake.
He knew the fruit's effectiveness didn't require him to remain conscious—the process would continue on its own.
Letting the darkness take him, he succumbed to the overwhelming heat, allowing his body to refine itself through the brutal cycle of destruction and rebirth.
Kanoru slowly regained consciousness, though his mind remained hazy.
He might have slept longer, but a godforsaken smell refused to let him drift back into slumber.
Grimacing, he opened his eyes, muttering into the empty room,
"What the hell is that stench?"
He sniffed the air, trying to locate the source.
The lamps had burned out, leaving the room in darkness, illuminated only by the faint light of the moon and stars spilling through the window.
Still drowsy, he rose to his feet and stumbled toward the door leading to the training field.
The moment he opened it, a cool night breeze swept in, carrying with it the crisp scent of the outdoors.
But the awful smell still clung to him, stubbornly lingering despite the fresh air.
It was then that he remembered Fu Qinzhu's words.
When the snake fruit refines the body, it forces the accumulated impurities out through the skin.
Realizing what had happened, he hurried into the bathroom, stripping off his clothes.
He scrubbed himself carefully, ensuring no trace of the impurities remained.
Afterward, he inhaled deeply, smelling only the flowery fragrance of the soap.
With a sigh of relief, he stepped out of the bathroom.
He had no idea how much time had passed—there was no instrument to measure it.
For a moment, he considered,
"I could make one… a clock or a timepiece."
But then he dismissed the thought, deciding it wasn't worth the effort.
However, a new idea sparked in his mind:
"This could be a perfect business opportunity."
If he drew up a plan now, he could work on it later when he had free time.
He knew that, for now, he could rely on Asuna's family for resources.
But once he advanced to the higher-rank samurai realm, they wouldn't be able to supply everything he needed.
"When I return to Nisi Village, I'll start tinkering with it," he thought, considering other ways to make money.
He could feel it in his bones—his advancement to higher-rank samurai was approaching quickly.
As he reentered his room, the foul smell hit him again.
His eyes narrowed, immediately tracing the source.
The pure white mat he had been lying on was now stained with dark spots—the residue of the expelled impurities.
Without hesitation, he picked up the mat, carried it outside to the training field, and tossed it to the ground.
With a flick of his fingers, he ignited it with his chakra.
The mat burst into flames, the putrid stench rising into the air.
Kanoru sat a short distance away, watching the fire burn, its orange glow flickering against the night.
He crossed his legs on the cool ground and, without hesitation, began to open his gates.
Even when he opened the Fifth Gate, releasing a torrent of energy through his body, he felt no internal damage.
His newly refined physique easily withstood the violent chakra flow.
When he opened his eyes, they sparkled in the moonlight, gleaming with a sharp brilliance.
A slow, confident smile spread across his lips.
"Three years."
That was the time the snake fruit had saved him, according to his calculations.
Three entire years of painstaking body refinement condensed into a single night.
For a fleeting moment, he was tempted to consume another snake fruit, but he quickly dismissed the thought.
He knew it was pointless.
The snake fruit's effects could no longer enhance his body any further.
Even if he consumed another or any other spiritual fruit of similar potency, it wouldn't refine his body anymore.
Now, he needed spiritual fruits or rare resources that could strengthen his physique beyond this level.
But such resources were scarce—either closely guarded by powerful forces or found in dangerous, uncharted territories.
Closing the gates, he stood up and walked back into his room.
He let himself fall onto the bed, his body heavy with exhaustion.
Though his mind felt fresh, his body was drained from the intense refinement.
He could feel the lingering fatigue in his muscles.
There was no point in training or transforming the energy released from the Fifth Gate right now.
His eyelids grew heavy, and he let sleep take him and a dreamless sleep.
Since coming to this world, he had never once experienced a dream or nightmare.
He knew this was the effect of the dream seed.
As he drifted into a dreamless sleep, his breathing slowed, and a calm serenity settled over him, his body still thrumming with newfound strength.