“The next easy step is cultivating the muscle, and that’s the last step I can guide you through; again using pictures in the same book. After that, it would be better for you to wait for the perfect body dismantling manual.” Zhi was floating in the air, no feet under him, speaking to Seph, who was on the ground in a lotus position, trying to enter his meditative state.

Zhi continued by saying, “But you will already have gotten great gains from the first 3 levels. That will give you a bigger chance of beating this legacy trial and reaching the finish line.”

Seph inhaled deeply, and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled, concentrated on his energy, circulating it around his body. He could feel the flow, he could feel himself becoming the flow.

This was his new life, becoming familiar with this energy, becoming one with it.

He knew how profound it was. He knew its power of creation, as he knew its power of destruction.

His next target was his muscles. He never thought of them. They were a means to an end. He didn’t build them to carry water. They grew because he carried water.

He never flexed them, never thought they were anything special.

His relationship with his peers wasn’t one based on strength, it was based on deceit. They were deceitful; he was gullible.

Did they know the difference between them in strength?

Did it affect how they choose to deal with him, avoiding physical prowess and focusing on deceit?

I don’t think it’s good to think about them now.

He always wanted to be one of them, wanted to fit in.

But, you can’t make a relationship with people who are always free, while you are always working, it wouldn’t work.

Different interests and all that.

It obviously affected him, his lack of friends. Will he become friends with some of the yin cultivators he saw in the tournament?

He wished, he always wished for friendships, but you don’t always get what you wish for.

A friendship not based on honesty is like a leaf in the wind, very fragile, and easily carried away on the wind, never to be seen again. It will crumble sooner rather than later.

Seph never explored what he could do with his muscles and what he couldn’t do. He never pondered what they allowed him to do, that he couldn’t do before he had them.

The only useful thing other than making work easier to help put food on the table with his dear mother was how his muscles enabled him to help her with any task she gave him, and help her carry anything around the house.

Not that they had that many things. Regardless, having the ability to do anything she required was great.

But now… Now he had to dismantle those same muscles that were of help to him throughout his life.

And then create a facsimile of them, new muscles made of yin energy, made of magic.

Yin energy wasn’t magic, but that’s the only way he could think of this process. This wasn’t his real body, this was a body he created with the energy; a body that won’t decompose because he had died. Its expiration date was running out, each time he reached a new level of cultivation he gained more years in his life span.

But these years weren’t guaranteed. It was a time where his body would expire, but he could very well die long before that.

It wasn’t like the eye of the veteran was privy to the plans of the heavens and knew that he would now die at 40 years of age.

Seph focused on circling his energy throughout his wiry muscles and started dismantling them. He went through this process not feeling time, dismantling them one by one, and recreating each before he got to the next.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

*****

There was a humble single-storey house made of mud brick. It had plain brown walls, with a plain wooden door, and a single window which you can jump through into the house easily from the street.

In front of the house stood a young man; that young man was Seph and that house was his house.

He saw it clear as day, but somehow everything felt hazy like he was in a dream. He didn’t know how he got here, and he couldn’t remember the last thing he was doing either. All he knew was that his mother was sick inside the house, and she needed the vitality grass.

He took the grass out of his spatial sack and opened the door excitedly, glad that he would finally save his sick mother.

He went into the house, called for the doctor, and the doctor came out. With his white robe, he had a small beard, and shaved head except for a ponytail from the top going down the back of his head.

“Doctor, I got the vitality grass that mother needs. Please take it and make whatever that will heal her.”

Seph spoke fast and with lots of hope, because he was excited. He didn’t notice that the doctor looked downcast, but now he noticed.

“I am sorry Seph, your mother has passed away. Her body couldn’t handle how late you were, and I couldn’t save her…” The doctor said with sorrow filling his voice, but also with a hint of accusation that Seph couldn’t help but feel.

The earth spun with Seph, and he dropped on the ground on his backside, and his eyes started watering. He tucked his legs toward his chest, and buried his head between them, and let the tears flow.

He couldn’t believe that after everything he did, he couldn’t save his mother.

He was thinking, what went wrong? Did they cheat him? Was Scorn lying? Did the trial take more than one hour in the real world?

At that moment, he gained some clarity. “The trial.” He thought, “I was inside of a trial, to become powerful, to save my mother. How did I come to be here?" Everything was hazy, his mind most of all, he didn’t know how the trial ended, but he soon let go of the thought, he was about to get up to check on his mother, he couldn’t believe that he had lost her, and he wanted to see her with his own eyes.

He raised his head, only to see his line of sight blocked by a tall man, he looked up towards the man’s face, but as his eyes traveled the man’s body, he saw everything as a darker shade, and he couldn’t even tell what the man was wearing.

And when his eyes finally reached the face of the man, he couldn’t make up what he looked like.

“What a disappointment you turned out to be, Seph. I can’t believe a son of mine would fail so much that he lets his mother die like that…” The man paused, letting the words sink in Seph’s mind, before continuing, “I thought I left a man behind me in the house. I thought you would grow up and take responsibility. I thought I would return and find everything better than I left it, and your mother waiting for me, her husband to be back. AND I COME BACK TO THIS? YOU ARE A FUCKING FAILURE SEPH, YOU LET YOUR MOTHER DOWN, YOU LET ME DOWN.” The man finished his speech by shouting at Seph. The young cultivator didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t believe his father was in front of him. He couldn’t believe that his father was back.

Why is he back? Why now, of all times, is it not enough that I lost my mother? Now I have my father hatefully shouting at me. Why can’t I make up what he looks like? Why is everything so hazy?

Seph couldn’t take it, though. This was too much for him, and he exploded, “Where were you? Where have you been all these years? Leaving us poor, leaving us wanting, leaving a woman to raise her son by herself, making me work as young as I was? How could you live your life knowing you left your wife and son behind? What could have taken you away from us? ANSWER ME.”

Seph was fuming, but his father didn’t speak, and since he couldn’t see his features, he didn’t know what the man’s expression was after what he said.

Seph couldn’t take this much longer, though, and he got up and ran towards his mother’s bed.

Her room was dark. He couldn’t make out if her body was on the bed or not, but he saw a shade standing there next to the bed.

He squinted, trying to see, and he could make out the shade of a woman, as tall as his mother, with her back turned towards him.

“Mom? Is that you?” Seph said while reaching out to touch her shoulder and turn her towards him, but before he could touch her, she turned towards him. Even though everything was dark, he saw her.

He saw she was pale; she was dead, and she was standing there in front of him. She was a yin returnee now.

“You let me down Seph, you let me die, and all for what? To chase childish dreams of power and fame and wealth? Look what I have become. Did you really think yin cultivators were good? Now your mother is a yin returnee, and soon I’ll be a yin cultivator too. Do you accept me Seph? Do you accept your mother to be a yin cultivator, too?”

She spoke in her voice that he remembered, but she wasn't as kind as he was used to. Her voice was accusing him; she was blaming him; she was challenging him, egging him on.

Seph couldn’t believe anything that was happening anymore, and he said, “NO, you are not real. None of you are real, none of this is real. My mother didn’t die. I will not accept this, I will not accept this fate for her, and I will not allow you to make a mockery of her, while I stand here.” Seph took his fighting stance, and launched a palm strike towards his mother’s chest, and that’s when his entire world collapsed, that hazy world that felt like a dream, broke down around him, his mother faded, the walls of his house faded into nothingness…