It was still early winter, shortly before the snow began to fall, Shui had completed his preparations. He would begin the training routine required for him to reach one-star saint body and finally step onto the path of triple cultivating soul, energy and body. The training would be straightforwardly brutal but he was resolved. The herbs he had bought would be mixed together in a barrel of hot water for him to immerse himself in after completing the training.
The training itself could be anything as long as it accomplished the objective of completely exhausting his body. Since he knew his body would be completely exhausted at the end of the training, he planned to finish the last segment near his house so that he could wring out the last bit of energy to prepare the bathe.
Since the objective was to completely exhaust him, besides going to the Library first thing after breakfast, he still did his jog and went to the forge. During winter, everyone worked less hours so after he left the forge it was time for the real torture. He filled four bags with rocks and tied one of them to each limb before getting a small boulder to attach to his back. In this condition, he slowly walked up and down the plateau. His arms were already getting hot and started trembling before he reached the base of the plateau the second time, while his legs were getting heavy. He should have been in better condition due to his cultivation, but he was purposely not strengthening his body with nature energy so he wasn't much stronger than the average adult man.
As he tried to take one step up the plateau, he wobbled and couldn't even walk straight due to the added trouble of his shaking vision. Unlike when he first started jogging, there was no clear goal. As long as he was completely exhausted, he could jump into a warm bath; that temptation made it harder for him to persevere. With every step, he wondered if he should end today's session and simply walk back to his house. Though he was tired and almost numbed by the fatigue of his muscles, without the extra weight on his body he could probably make the remaining distance. However, that thought also helped to keep him going. The fact that he still had so much energy proved that he wasn't done yet.
There were times when the boulder slipped from his back and he had to rush after it before it fell all the way to the base of the plateau. There also times when he fell with the boulder right on top of his back, forcing out whatever liquid was in his mouth. There were also times when he saw a bright figure that seemed to be his mother, but after blinking twice it became a tree. For a human, even for one that had reached the third level in the Mortal Realm, this appeared to be the limit.
But thankfully and yet not, his limit was a bit further. With his nebula one-star soul, he could still stay awake and so he could still move. Though his body was as stiff as a wooden doll, he could still force himself to move with his will. Even so, he only managed did four laps and he was done. He even had to crawl his way back so he was certain that he couldn't go any further. The barrel was already on top of the firewood and there was already water inside it so he merely had to light it, something that he could still accomplish despite it taking much longer than usual.
As the water got hot, Shui felt the growing urge to cut off his vision and relax. This urge was getting stronger and stronger, almost capable of triumphing over his soul. However, he still had to put in the herbs, the fact that there was only one thing left to do was keeping him on his feet. He wondered if he should have asked Lilia to do this portion for him. That would surely have been easier, but he couldn't do that.
'I have to do this myself.'
After putting the right portions of the herbs in the correct order, he could finally dip in. The water had an odd, light blue colour, but how could he care about that? Once he was inside the blue water, he was stung by all of the cuts and scraps on his body. The pain was on a higher degree than it should be, probably because of what he was bathing in. Luckily, the pain was eventually replaced by a warm, comforting sensation. In this relaxing solution, Shui's lights finally went out.
When he woke up, the sun was already sinking. The herbs had made it much harder for the water to change temperature so there was no fear of him getting scalded, but from the look of his fingers he had obviously soaked for too long. Once he got out of the barrel, he was stunned to find that all of the cuts on his body were already covered by scabs. He looked back at the water that was now black and nodded.
"Really worth it."
After getting rid of the water he went to Kate's place for dinner. Though she never slacked off during the day, she would always cling to him when dinner came and frequently asked him to stay over. Naturally, Shui wouldn't trust her when she had a mischievous smile on her face. Besides, he needed his privacy at night.
The shack he stayed in usually filled him with loneliness at night, but that feeling wasn't as bad recently. By the time he reached the bed, he felt the bronze bracelet cuff on his wrist vibrate.
"You there?"
"Yeah."
"Good, how was your day?"
"Well, a bit hard I guess."
The one on the other side of the communication terminal wasn't someone he wanted to reveal his weak side to, but he didn't mind being a little honest.
"Oh, sounds like something happened. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Ah, it's just something new I'm trying out. It makes me really tired."
"Is that so, you really like working hard don't you?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I like it. It's more about the goal than the means."
"Yeah, that sounds like you."
It was barely on the side of being a compliment and yet it was enough to reveal a smile that would easily charm passers-by. One could only hope Shui didn't become a naïve lovestruck little girl, err, boy in the future.
"What about you?"
"Just the usual. Helping my uncle with his work, a little shopping and having fun."
"Sounds like you're gonna get scolded again."
"Ugh, don't bring it up! I'm just getting into the right mental state, why can't anyone understand that?"
"Maybe they would get it if you at least looked like you were putting effort into your cultivation."
"But it's so boring! Besides, I have you to protect me don't I?"
"Ah, ye, yeah. Of course."
Shui was confident that if Alice put even a tiny amount of effort into cultivating, she would have already been in the Soul Realm, and he didn't want to see her waste her talents. However, she already knew how to stop him from pressing on with that subject. When she heard his response, Alice lightly giggled before a slight frown surfaced.
'It's too bad we can't see each other. I should have brought a better one'
For about an hour more, the two continued their fun conversation.
As days, and then weeks went by, Shui made more progress with his training. He hadn't reached one-star saint body, but he was getting stronger. That was the good news. The bad news was that every time he got stronger, he would have to try harder to reach his limit. But his efforts were finally being repaid.
On the sixty-eighth day of his new training, he felt it. He submerged into his bath and turned off his vision. He focused on his body, its shape, its status, its uniqueness. He looked inside and watched the red vapour that covered his muscles. Just like energy cultivation used foundational energy, body and soul cultivation had their own base energies.
The astral states were powered by celestial will, but he wouldn't be able to detect it unless he reached galaxy astral state or found a large concentration of it. However, he could 'see' the energy that powered his muscles, transcendent force. Unlike nature energy, transcendent force could not be absorbed by an empty vessel. The force was a power that originated from a strong body, it did not give the body its original strength. After his exhausted body entered the medicinal bath, it was stimulated for fast recovery and improvement so that transcendent force could be born from it sooner. Now, he just had to look forward to the results. When a cultivator increased their energy cultivation, the amount of transcendent force they could hold increased and vice-versa. Therefore, once he reached one-star saint body, the energy he could control would increase.
Within the water, Shui watched as the force emerged inside his body. He watched as it seemed to break down a dam inside him and rush from all parts of his vessel and then engulf them. He watched as the speed of the rushing force increased to the peak then, right as it was at its pinnacle, he stood up inside the barrel, splashing the bathwater to the ground and released a soundless roar towards the sky.