On the stone altar a white pill with black lines, a silver ring and a white leather bound book lay. Disregarding the pill and ring for now, Wang Jie took a closer look at the book. It was quite thick and there was some golden text in the middle that read White Tiger Cultivation Manual.

His heart skipped a beat, but he was quickly disappointed. He’d almost forgotten that he didn’t have any spiritual roots. Even with a cultivation manual he wouldn’t get anywhere.

Still, if he was going to die in this cave all alone, he would at least satisfy his curiosity. Gently turning the first page he was met with a title page.

‘A cultivation manual to compliment the west continent’s mythological white tiger body, created in year 205.’

The west continent? What was that? Wang Jie had never heard the continent described by a name before. If there was a west, did that mean there was more than one continent? Which one was he on? What was a white tiger body? And most importantly of all, year 205? That was insane, according to the calendar they were in year 9613.

That single line had spurred a lot of questions in his head. Only left with more questions and having answered none, he turned the page.

‘To achieve a white tiger body, one needs to ingest the white tiger pill. The pill exerts an extreme pressure on the users will, surviving the transformations is incredibly rare. Even so, it is an incredible pill capable of transforming any type of spiritual or mortal roots into supreme quality roots with metal affinity.‘

His breath quickened and he quickly read the rest of the page. It just went on to talk about the recipe, listing various things Wang Jie had never heard of and something about needing a tier 9 Heavenly Pill Refiner to create the pill. Whatever that was. Finally it described the appearance of the pill, matching exactly what was on the altar.

Wang Jie eyed the pill, most die? It didn’t sound promising, but right now he was already dying. He suspected that even if he wasn’t, he’d take his chances and try to absorb the pill anyway. Sure it could all be a lie, but it was hard to imagine someone going through all this trouble just as a cruel joke.

With his mind made up he closed the book and picked up the pill. Taking a deep breath and calming himself, he brought it up to his mouth and swallowed it.

Less than a second after swallowing, his eyes widened and he dropped on the floor. He felt all of his bones break and was unable to move any part of his body.

A strange foreign energy coursed through him, destroying various parts of his body in it’s path. It felt like getting burned by a scorching hot flame from the inside. He would scream if he had any muscles to move his tongue or mouth with. Meridians he didn’t even realize he had were breaking into thousands of pieces and disappearing. The internal destructive energy broke through his body and ripped apart his clothes.

But then, another kind of energy started to spread, repairing parts of his body. He felt his muscles and bones reforming, stronger and thicker. His meridians came back, wider and thicker this time.

That joyful feeling only lasted a brief moment before the whole thing restarted itself, the pain a hundred times worse. Before he could even appreciate his new changes, the bones, muscles and meridians had shattered themselves again. It was absolute agony as he lay there helpless on the cold cave floor, trying to writhe and twist but unable to move at all. Even his skin was starting to flake off in pieces, before reappearing like every other part of him.

Nothing that Siyu had done to him could compare. This was a torture from the inside, a torture residing in every nook and cranny of his mind and body.

As his willpower to live through it started to wane, a strange sensation washed over him and he felt his soul trying to tear out of his body. Was this death? No, he couldn’t let that happen. Being so close and giving up make him deserving of dying here.

The only thing he could do was focus his mind and will himself to power through it. He may have felt like he was getting hammered, burned and sliced to pieces, but every time something was broken, new life sprouted in its place. Stronger and harder, his body was breaking limits he didn’t know restrained him.

As long as he kept thinking like that, the pain couldn’t hurt him. If he didn’t let it, it would never be able to kill him. He was the one in control of the process.

It continued on for hours, but Wang Jie had already conquered the pain. When his body had finally repaired and broken itself for the last time, a black tattoo started taking shape on his body. On his back, the image of a tiger came into view, while black stripes spread around his body covering his upper arms, chest and thighs.

Lying there on the floor, he could feel that he had completely healed. Whether it was the injuries from before or what had happened during the transformation, it was all gone. Even so, it took him an hour before he had enough energy in him to get up.

Slowly, he made his way over to the shallow water and checked his reflection. The tattoo’s came as a shock more so than his body. He was thankful that the stripes hadn’t covered his face. Thinking about his face, he leaned in closer and realized that it had changed. It was hard to see clearly through the water, but there was no mistaking that it was different. Slightly more handsome sure, but what surprised him was that it had changed to become fiercer. Like an unrestrained predators.

After finishing with his face, he started studying the changes to his body. He both felt and looked a lot stronger. His muscles had become thicker and fuller, his skin paler and more smooth. On the inside he knew his bones and organs were tougher too.

Done with looking himself over, he walked back to the book and continued where he had left off. He was excited, but unhurried as he turned the pages and continued reading.

On the page was a basic explanation on how to cultivate. One had to follow the book’s breathing exercises to feel the spiritual essence in the air and draw it inside, forming it into Qi. Wang Jie studied the breathing exercises for a few minutes before giving it a try.

Sitting down in a lotus position he started performing the breathing exercises. There was a vague stirring in his body, but aside from that he felt nothing, let alone spiritual essence in the air. Wang Jie frowned slightly but continued following the breathing exercises.

This continued for a few hours before he finally felt a strange energy outside of his body. It permeated the entire world around him and gave him a weirdly comfortable feeling. Now aware of the energy, he began drawing it inside of his body at a slow pace. It only took him another few hours before he was able to produce a tiny speck of Qi in his dantian. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now, so he went back to the book.

Turning to the next page he saw a litter of diagrams take up the page. The book described how he had to circulate his Qi following a specific circuit. Completing a full circulation would mark him as stepping into the 1st of the 9 Qi Condensation stages. Again he studied the diagrams for a while before putting it into practice.

Sitting back down he started trying to move the tiny speck of Qi inside of his dantian. At first it wouldn’t even budge at all, just firmly remaining in place. It took him a while before he was able to get it to move a little bit, and finally he was able to guide it into one of his meridians. But just as it had entered, he lost control and it floated back out into the dantian.

Just that alone had exhausted him and he was unable to continue. Taking a break, he realized that he was hungry and thirsty. Problem was, there was no food around. Only able to satisfy his thirst, he went over to the shallow water and drank from it. With nothing else to do, he went back to studying the diagrams for a few hours before reattempting.

Once he came back, he was able to make it a little further before the same problem cropped up again. Frustrated, he could only take a break again and relax for a while. Now when he thought about it, he was actually quite tired. He had no idea what time it was, but he’d been up for at least 24 hours by now. It was the perfect time to sleep, he could come back to the cultivation when he woke up.

There wasn’t really any decent spot to sleep anywhere. He managed to find a somewhat flat place and go to sleep there. The stone floor was uncomfortable and piercing on his naked body, but he still managed to get some rest.

He woke up a number of hours later and went right back to practicing. For days he continued like this, getting further and further along. When he couldn’t get any further, he would take a break and study for a while. When he was tired he would sleep. When he was thirsty he would drink and when he was hungry he would… Well, he would ignore it and continue on. There was nothing else to do, so besides taking care of his needs, studying and practicing was all he would do.

After 5 days spent in the cave like that, he was infinitely close to completing a full circuit. As he sat there practicing, the tiny speck of Qi floated through his meridians slowly. Finally it came back around and passed through to re enter his dantian.

He had done it, after 5 days of continuous practice, he had finally managed to complete a circulation. It was an almost dream like feeling, he was a cultivator now. And from the looks of things, not just any ordinary cultivator. He had the white tiger body with supreme quality metal affinity spiritual roots. As far as he knew, supreme quality was the absolute best, followed by high, medium, low and of course the dreaded mortal roots he once had. And that wasn’t the only thing, he also had the white tiger cultivation manual, which from the looks of things had to be strong, right? He was sure it had to be.

His thoughts started wandering back to Siyu. He wondered if he would be able to beat him now, but he had no idea what exact level he was at. There was no doubt he was in the early stages, but which one? 2nd stage? 3rd stage? Or perhaps even 1st stage like himself? He also had no idea if the woman Siyu called Madam was a cultivator as well. Yes there was no reason to risk it, he would come back and take his revenge when he was stronger. Like that, he had already decided their fate in his mind, sentencing them both to death.