For all the traveling Sen had done, he was once again struck by just how much of it had happened near roads. At least, that was the case in this part of the kingdom. There had always been something driving him on from place to place. He’d either been running from someone or toward some goal. It was a rather sharp contrast to the north, where he’d explored the wilds extensively during his desperate search for Fu Ruolan. That made everything he was seeing new. He just wished he was seeing it in any other season than winter. While occasional splashes of color from evergreens dotted the wilds, most of what lay before him was devoid of obvious signs of life.

Not that he let his distaste for the season discourage him as he flew over the land. His spiritual sense was spread for miles in every direction, as was his killing intent. That combination allowed him to search for natural treasures much more efficiently while also discouraging the remaining spirit beasts from bothering him. He doubted his search would have been nearly so peaceful if he’d still been a core cultivator. True, his killing intent would have scared off many of the spirit beasts that still roamed these trees, but it wouldn’t have frightened all of them. Some of them still would have seen him as prey.

In a strange way, this was the first time he really felt the difference between being a core cultivator and a nascent soul cultivator. He’d been aware that he’d grown more powerful, on some level, but the change hadn’t led to people behaving all that much differently. As with so many things, it was contrast that gave meaning. It was only now, as he flew over the wilds, that he’d finally seen that contrast in full. Spirit beasts that absolutely would have attacked him before now fled in fear or hunkered down in place.

Part of him felt like he ought to be happy about that, and he was glad to avoid the distractions, but part of him railed at the change. It was just one more sign that his time in this world, his time with Ai and everyone else he loved, was running through his fingers like dry sand. No matter how hard he tried to hold that sand in place, it found a way to escape his grasp all the same. And he couldn’t even live those precious, ever-diminishing years being Ai’s father the way he so desperately wanted to. He had to waste those irreplaceable moments fighting a war.

Sen pushed those thoughts aside as he was forced to do almost every day. It would just lead him into a downward spiral of anger. Yet, as hard as he tried to reconcile himself to his choices and the fact that alternatives were worse, he couldn’t help but feel like the world was stealing

something from him. I guess spending time alone isn’t as wonderful as I imagined it would be, thought Sen. As loathsome as the constant demands on his time were, they still provided a distraction from these thoughts that made him want to abandon this madness and go home. He thought that putting up with spirit beast attacks might be preferable.

Rather than let himself fall into the spiral of anger, he forced himself to look inward and consider something he’d been putting off. Master Feng had said that body cultivation often grew strange at the nascent soul stage. Sen finally understood why he had said that. While he’d often cursed Elder Bo for pushing him into the Five-Fold Body Transformation, he could see now how wise the divine had been. Sen’s spirit cultivation, which favored no particular kind of qi, would have been ill-suited to most body cultivation methods. In fact, the more he considered the matter, the more convinced he became that any other method would have failed. He would have had either too much of the wrong kind of qi or not enough of the right kind. That he had survived unintentionally altering that method was luck to such an extreme that he couldn’t help but suspect divine interference.

Now that he was a nascent soul cultivator, though, he could better see how that body cultivation method had changed him. The alterations to his muscles, organs, and bones hadn’t just made them better or more efficient. The truth of the matter was that he probably didn’t even qualify as a human being anymore. Not in the same way mortals were human. For example, he wasn’t entirely sure what his bones were made of. He was certain that mortal bones didn’t include the kinds of metal and crystalline structures that made his bones harder than steel or diamonds.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He still possessed a heart, but it felt almost superfluous. It only beat a handful of times in any given minute, yet he suspected the force it exerted on his blood exceeded that of most rivers. That his veins and arteries could withstand so much pressure without any trouble was just another change that he couldn’t fully explain. It was no wonder that nascent soul cultivator deaths were often a matter of speculation rather than fact. If he knew he was about to die and had the option, he’d go somewhere that no one would be likely to find his body.

It wouldn’t be a matter of intentional secrecy but a choice of practicality. Nascent soul cultivator bodies were essentially a collection of natural treasures of such quality that sects would go to war to possess them. Sen’s bones alone could likely be made into extraordinarily powerful weapons. It would likely require a smith of surpassing skill to actually do the work, he reasoned, but it could be done. His organs and blood would be almost priceless alchemical ingredients. Even he wasn’t sure what could be made from them. Considering the countless natural treasures that he’d burned through to perform his body cultivation, though, the pills, potions, and elixirs would be exceedingly potent.

The challenge ahead of him was devising a way to continue his body cultivation. It wasn’t something he could put off, either. Not if he wanted to keep his spirit cultivation and body cultivation moving along more or less in step with each other. How he wished there were a manual he could use for the process. There were simple body cultivation methods, or, rather, there were simpler body cultivation methods that had manuals for the nascent soul stage. He’d even managed to find a little time to look at them. Those had convinced him that the only path forward for him was going to be self-made. And that was always dangerous.

He would have to theorize and, in all grim likelihood, make guesses about what his body needed. They might be informed guesses, but they would be guesses all the same. Guessing was not something that filled him with joy when his very life was on the line. Of course, he could just stop. He wasn’t required to continue on the path of body cultivation. He’d already taken it farther than most cultivators ever got. Yet, the advantages of body cultivation were too immense. Those advantages had let him survive things that should have killed him. They had helped him bridge the gap when facing off against those with stronger spirit cultivation than him.

Abandoning it as he marched into war without even trying to take the next step felt like a foolhardy decision. If he did discard body cultivation, he would inevitably discover that he needed that strength long after the option was no longer available. With that thought came another thought that had crossed his mind over and over again. Cultivation is risk. The inescapable truth was that one did not defy the heavens in perfect safety, and anyone who tried was doomed to fail. The best he could do was take steps to reduce the risk.

It was while he was considering how best to limit those risks that he finally found the first thing he was looking for in the wilds. He changed directions and flew over to a small lake that had been frozen over. He found something there that all of his training with Auntie Caihong told him had no business existing. Yet, there it sat. A hibiscus flower that appeared to be made entirely of ice. The ice qi radiated off it with such strength that he wondered if it might be too powerful for his needs. Even so, he carefully harvested it as he ignored the presence of several nearby spirit beasts. He could almost feel their rage at his apparent theft. However, it seemed that even their greed for the flower wasn’t sufficient to overcome their fear.

Sen considered killing the spirit beasts. He’d done everything but make a vow to the heavens to kill them all or drive them into the sea. It probably wouldn’t take that long, yet he hesitated. That wasn’t his purpose in visiting the lake. Instead, he spoke. His spiritual sense couldn’t identify whether spirit beasts were sapient, but he took the chance that they might be.

“I have spared you today because I am acting as a healer. But know this. Everything on this side of the Mountains of Sorrow is now mine. You are unwelcome here. Should I find you in my lands again, I will snuff out your lives like candles.”