Cai Huan, Captain of the 9th squad of the Ether Cloud City Guards, was enjoying a pleasant morning. He was one of the soldiers who had shown excellent performance during the beast tide and thus, had been promoted.
No longer did he have to patrol around the city or do many of the tasks he was required to do in the past. This left him little to do after the morning drills were over. He had chosen to spend his newfound free time at the training grounds, helping the rookies.
That morning too, he went to where all the rookies were training, only to find the atmosphere there to be a bit weird. The newbies seemed rather uncomfortable and kept fidgeting while looking towards a certain direction. The direction a handsome and decently dressed Young Man was standing.
"This is the training grounds of the Ether Cloud City Guards. Even if you are the heir of some noble family, you can't just barge in here." Cai Huan spoke with a haughty tone. The city guards, who were directly under the control of the Yun Family, had no reason to fear any other noble family. And he, a squad captain, had even less to fear.
"I suggest you get going before you are forcefully kicked out." The captain puffed up his chest and exhaled loudly. He was sure even that would be enough to intimidate the young noble who clearly was a mortal.
Of course, if Cai Huan was in the Body Tempering Realm, he would have been able to easily tell that Yun Lei was a cripple but, at the 7th stage of the Energy Sensing Realm, his ability to sense profound energy hadn't developed to that degree.
"How about a bet?" The young man said picking up a bow and a single arrow from the weapon rack. "That target over there, if I hit a bullseye, you will personally train me. If I am even a single inch off, you get 30 silvers."
The captain let out a loud laugh after hearing the young man speak.
"Normally, I'd tell you to stop wasting my time and piss off but if you want to lose money that badly, I'll help you!"
The soldiers watching the scene winced at how rudely the captain was talking to the young noble.
Yun Lei didn't even react. He had heard far worse. He simply raised the bow and let an arrow loose. With a distinctive whistle, the arrow flew through the air and landed exactly in the middle of the target.
The bow in his hand was cheaply made and rather crude compared to the bow he had used in the Forest of Endless Trees but after firing it, he was even more assured that it hadn't all been just a dream. The weight of the wood, the resistance of the string, the friction of the arrow being nocked back, it all felt familiar to him.
But Yun Lei wasn't done yet. He told his maid to fetch him another arrow which he promptly fired. The second arrow landed exactly in the middle of the target once more, cleanly splitting the first arrow into two halves.
Cai Huan's jaw was about to hit the floor. The first arrow had shocked him but it could have just been a fluke. But that second arrow was simply too impressive. He didn't think even the best archer in Ether Cloud was capable of such a feat.
"Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter," Yun Lei said as he put down the bow in the same rack he had picked it up from. "What matters is whether you are a man of your word or not."
Only after the young man looked straight into his eyes did the captain realise that he had lost the bet. The young man's archery skills had been stunning to the point that he had forgotten about it for a moment.
"I, Cai Huan, am a man of my words. Tell me what kind of weapon you want to learn."
Yun Lei let out a small laugh as he raised his arms, causing his sleeves to slide down.
"Look at these skinny arms. What kind of weapon could I possibly use with these? That is what you will help me with. You will help me determine my diet and help me train my body. As you might have realised, I'm just a mortal so you'll have to teach me accordingly."
Cai Huan looked at the young noble's arms and thought that a perfectly valid point had been made.
"You need not worry about the money, just come up with the best way to make me strong."
"You seem like a sheltered young noble; the training might be too hard for you." The captain warned.
"If I said I'll do it, I'll do it. Here." Yun Lei chucked a pouch of money at Cai Huan. "50 silver, your daily wage."
A series of gulps could be heard in the training ground. Most of the soldiers came from a very humble background. To them, 50 silver was a lot of money. And that was just a daily wage? It would be stranger if they weren't shocked.
"When do you want to start?" Cai Huan said seriously. At first, he had thought that the young man was just some noble heir throwing his weight around. But it hadn't taken him long to notice his eyes.
Those eyes full of confidence and conviction, they were not the eyes of someone who was just playing around. On top of that, the captain had a lot of free time and he was even getting paid a very handsome salary. There was no reason for him to refuse even if he hadn't lost the bet.
"Right now, it is a time as good as any."
Cai Huan squinted his eyes before turning around and pointing to the field behind him.
"Twenty laps before sunset. Go."
It was a pleasant morning, it wasn't too hot, neither was it too cold. A breeze would occasionally travel atop the training grounds, cooling the tired soldiers. But of course, none of the soldiers were as tired as Yun Lei, who wasn't even halfway through the first lap.
Twenty laps hadn't seemed like much at first but after running for a bit, Yun Lei realised how momentous of a task it truly was. He judged a lap to be roughly a kilometre long and running 20 kilometres without rest was truly a tremendous task for someone as weak as him.
He had no intentions of stopping, however. He was already out of breath and his running form was completely terrible but he didn't stop. By the time he was done with the first lap, his mouth felt like a desert and his legs were shaking.
You've got to be kidding me! He thought bitterly as he ran. He had expected training to be difficult but not to that point. The captain had not been kidding.
"Oi, who's that?" One of the soldiers was asking his buddy.
"Dunno. He looks like a noble though."
Only the rookies had heard the conversation between Yun Lei and Cai Huan so for the other soldiers, a noble running around the training field was a curious sight.
"He probably pissed off his family's head or something. Got dumped here as a punishment."
"Look over there, that must be his maid."
"Wow, she's smoking!"
Yun Lei, who could hear the soldiers talking to themselves because of his heightened senses, couldn't help but frown.
How crass. He thought to himself as he ran. The maid was a cultivator so he wasn't worried about the soldiers trying anything funny. That didn't mean that he particularly liked hearing the soldiers talk about her like she was a piece of meat.
My wife will have to discipline these men a little in the future. Yun Lei made a mental note as he captured the soldiers in his memory.
He had thought that running around in circles would be a boring activity but he was in too much pain to be bored. But because of his weird pain tolerance, the pain was an annoyance more than anything. I guess having a massive chunk of your soul torn apart does that to you. He concluded.
After the 6th lap, he couldn't even feel his legs anymore. It was at that point that he realised something.
He was a unique existence, in the sense that he had to expend a large amount of soul energy to even move normally. So, if he did something that was even more physically taxing than normal, he would need to spend more soul energy. And if he were to find a way to rest his soul after expending even more energy than he usually did...
Can I actually cultivate my soul strength by simply training my physical body? That couldn't possibly work, could it? Yun Lei could hardly believe his own conclusion but it made perfect logical sense. Was that accursed poison truly a blessing in disguise? He had that thought for a second time.
Recalling the agony he had been put through because of that small paper packet made him want to kneel down on the ground and throw up. However, he couldn't deny the fact that it had done him some good as well.
Despite almost being torn to shreds, his soul was far stronger than it should have been. Directly, this made his aura a very potent force but it had also improved his senses and memory to the point that he could remember almost everything he saw.
And if physical training can make my soul even stronger... Yun Lei didn't even need to finish his thought before he regained all of his motivation and began running with renewed enthusiasm.
It was natural for him to be excited. After all, soul strength was something that could let him stand toe to toe with a cultivator. It was something that allowed him to highjack a cultivator's profound energy. It was something that allowed him, a cripple, to kill a cultivator, a feat that should have been completely impossible.
Even with his current strength, he could have killed Ren Feng, a cultivator in the 9th stage of the Energy Sensing Realm. Of course, that was partly because the sheer shock Ren Feng was experiencing had made him sloppy. Yun Lei himself hadn't gotten off scot-free, suffering a severe backlash from overusing his soul strength. But the fact remained: Yun Lei could have killed Ren Feng.
But what if his soul became even stronger? Stronger to the point that he would have no trouble fighting against cultivators without worrying about any backlash? The thought was immensely exciting to him.
As much as Yun Lei liked to pretend otherwise, the fact that he was a cripple, someone even below a regular mortal in the hierarchy of society, bothered him. His entire life, the fact that he was inferior to the rest had been hammered into him, over and over. Despite having a drastic personality change, he was still the same person. The suicide attempt and everything he had experienced after that wouldn't wipe away all of his past.
Right there, while running laps around the training ground, Yun Lei saw a path to overcoming that label of inferiority in a manner that no one would be able to deny.
Sure, he could live his life without ever bowing his head just by relying on the strength of his wife and her family. But what if he lost them? What if he lost the favour of his wife one day? What if he lost the favour of the Yun Family? Would he not end up in the same miserable place he had started from?
He had only accepted the fact that he was weak because he had no other choice. However, that was no longer the case. He had a path he could follow. A path that would allow him to stand with his head held high even without the favour or assistance of anyone else.
Yun Lei could feel his legs wanting to give out under his own body weight but he knew they would not let him fall. He would die completing those twenty laps but he would not kneel. Never again.