[A week later.]

***

The dark interior in the cave abode was nearly lightless. Had it not been for the bright yellow sun shafts penetrating through cracks in the bamboo door, the massive turtle shell boulder would have gone unperceived. The weight of the boulder left its mark on the malleable dirt crushed under it. The flat of the boulder was exposed to have crude ropes of which could be used to fasten the heavy stone to Wu Niu's back.

Sitting in the dark corner, the rat cage remained stationary. All the rats, minus one, were yet to wake. The rat yawned as it got up and clambered out from the pile of its sleeping brothers and sisters.

The rat's petulant squeaking quickly awoke the others, and they soon began to cry out as well. Just like every other day, Wu Niu was roused by their hungry howls, and just like every day, Wu Niu became almost immediately grumpy on awaking.

It was the first night that Wu Niu had gone without any waking nightmares.

"I'm coming. I'm coming."

As Wu Niu sat forth, he slid out from his bed. The rat cage rattled in response, anticipating the delectable fishy flesh they would be soon to devour.

Wu Niu bent down, pulling the bag of fish out from under his bed. Doing so made his cramped leg muscles stretch uncomfortably. His muscles had regained a lot of their lost bulk. Still, they weren't anywhere close to being as sizable as they were before his body tempering breakthrough. Though at the rate he was gaining muscle mass, he might be able to break through into the "Practitioner" body tempering realm in a month or two.

Opening the sack, Wu Niu pulled a fish from out of it. Then he turned to the rat cage and dropped the fish in.

The rats immediately began tearing away at the fish meat. They were ruthless in their pursuit to eat as much of it as possible.

Wu Niu backed away and murmured, "Too bad, I still can't cultivate."

Suddenly a vivid memory of Wu Niu seeing his soul in death pushed to the forefront of his mind.

-It probably has to do with my bizarre soul, huh...

-I think it was somewhere around the 2nd tiered soul strength, which is pretty bad. My soul is different, though. Souls are always depicted as being gray. That's why they specifically cultivate Yin and Yang energy in a combined state.

-So, if my soul is white and black—?

Just then did the sudden realization hit Wu Niu. This whole time he couldn't cultivate, because he had been trying to cultivate Yin-Yang energy. It was clear now that it was fundamentally impossible for him to cultivate yin and yang in a combined state because his soul was composed of two polarized halves.

-Wouldn't that mean I'd have to cultivate Yin and Yang energy separately?

Wu Niu was puzzled by the mere thought of doing such a thing. It went against all his studies. He knew more than 8000 unique cultivation methods, and not one of them could cultivate Yin and Yang energy separately. Of course, there wasn't. There wouldn't have ever been the need to create such a method as it was a pointless endeavor. Theoretically, were a normal person to try such a thing, they'd end up destabilizing the energy in their soul, thereby destroying it.

-So then… I need to create a method myself and hope that I don't destroy my soul.

Wu Niu sat back down on his bed and looked at the palm of his hand.

-How do I create a method for something I don't even fully understand?

Wu Niu's fist clenched tightly as a look of despondency appeared on his face. He was overflowing with doubt.

Devising cultivation methods isn't an easy thing to do, and generally, only the experts ever dared try because failure meant soul destruction. Wu Niu had to pretty much bank on the idea that he could do it because of his special soul and great wealth knowledge on the fundamentals of cultivation.

-First, I'll need to do some research. The last thing I want is to become a soulless vegetable. If my method fails, I won't be able to reincarnate either.

Wu Niu pushed it out of his mind. With the knowledge he had at the moment, it wasn't worth the risk.

Were Wu Niu going to formulate a cultivation method of his own device, it would first require the proper research; that was, at this point, unobtainable without appropriate reading materials.

-Oh well. I guess I can worry about this later.

Lightly sighing, Wu Niu lifted the boulder onto his back. Then strapping the coarse ropes around his arms, legs, and torso, he walked to the table, grabbing his knife and waterskin from off it.

Wu Niu's eyes took a moment to adjust to the sun's blinding light as he stepped out the door. It was another hot summer morning, one that assured Wu Niu made the right call in bringing his waterskin with him. He would surely be needing it today.

-Alright, workout, food, and then more workout.

Wu Niu had spent the majority of his time over the last week exercising with very little time spent doing much of anything else. It was necessary time-sink if he were going to become a successful practitioner without the aid of pills. He knew he already held a major headstart in body tempering for someone of his age, but he also knew that without pills, that headstart was sure to diminish quickly with the simple passing of time.

-only a year and a half left.

Once Wu Niu turned 15, he would then be eligible to take the trials to join the Silver Mountain sect. It was the local martial sect and the only sect on whole Silver-Island. The island on which Wu Niu was born and raised.

There were once multiple other sects on Silver island, but they all merged with the Silver Mountain sect to fight off the sects from the mainland. The war against the mainland sects happened many millennia ago, and few practitioners are still alive who lived through it. Despite this, there is still animosity between the Silver Mountain sect and the other mainland sects.

Wu Niu clenched his palm and questioned his abilities. He knew that if he were to fail this upcoming trial, then he would be barred from ever joining. If that were to happen, he would be incapable of achieving his goal of becoming strong.

"Well, then if I can't use qi, I'll just have to train my body twice as hard!" Wu Niu exclaimed with an insincerely optimistic smirk.

-Let's stop wasting time then. First, two hundred pushups.

Dropping to his hands, Wu Niu began doing pushups with the heavy turtle shell boulder on his back, weighing down on him.

Lifting with the loud sounds of the ligaments in his elbows cracking, Wu Niu yelled aloud.

"One!"

Releasing himself back down to the grassy floor, Wu Niu's fingers pushed deep into the soil, wiggling in like fat earthworms.

Lifting once more, Wu Niu screamed, "Two!"

…

"Three!"

…

"Four!"

…

"Five!"

…