(Two Months Earlier)

(Bu Cai POV)

Laying on the fluffy back of Nero as he was gliding above the clouds, boredom washed over me and I began talking to Hou.

"Uncle Hou, father notified me that you will also be teaching me something, but hasn't specified."

"Could you please tell me what it is?"

Hou grinned after hearing me say that and said,

"That is indeed true young master. However my training is a lot different from what you are used to, and could even come along as a lot harder than any sort of training you have done before. Including the training with your father."

Did he really just say that?

Doesn't he know what kind of hell I went through because of that old man?

That damned 'training' was just scheduled child abuse!

So that sparked an immense desire in me to prove that NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is worse than that training.

So due with this in mind I said, "If it is as special as you say, then you have piqued this young master's curiosity!"

"Therefore we should get started NOW!"

His grin grew wider as he asked for my confirmation again,

"Are you sure about this young master?"

"As once it begins, it will not be paused until it's over."

I replied confidently,

"Of course I am sure!"

"Enough of this nonsense, Uncle Hou, you should know me better than this. I always strive for new experiences and bettering myself, so I am all for this 'super' hard training."

"However if, by any chance, I come to find out you are wrong. Then I'll be telling him father that you are a quack!"

He doesn't ask anything else and tells Nero to fly down.

As we descend to the ground, I get to have a view of the area around us from above. Strangely a bad premonition washes over me.

All my eyes can see for every direction is just... trees.

Once we land on the ground, both Hou and I climb off Nero.

Uncle Hou pats twice gently, and Nero goes flying away- He can be called back through a spiritual signal.

Hou then starts to give me a brief of what this training will consist of.

"The first phase of this training require a whole month and a half to complete."

"This section of the training will involve me teaching you the ropes on how to survive in the wilderness. This is for half a month straight."

"After I've taught you the basics, it will be up to you to survive alone in this forest for a month, and head towards the capital's direction."

After comprehending what Hou had just told me, I knew I was in trouble and had bitten off more than I could chew.

A-Alone In that forest full of u-unknown dangers?

Nervousness swells up in me, however I soon calm down after realising one key point... Hou will surely save me if push comes to shove.

It's not like he can actually just allow me to die because of training...right?"

As if he could read my mind, he quickly derailed that train of thought by saying...

"After the whole half month of wilderness survival training, I will not be permitted to assist you regardless of the circumstances."

"Even if that means death or serious injury."

"This was specifically instructed by the master, so I am in no position to refute."

"To satisfy your curiosity of why this rule has been implemented. It comes from master's belief that if you are incapable of surviving outside alone, then it would be pointless to expect greatness in any capacity in the real world."

T-That crazy old man wants to kill me!

...However after having a think about it for a bit. I had come to agree with his words, as they made sense- Although I wasn't very happy with it.

So like that, my 2nd training arc began... In a forest.

Throughout the half a month wilderness survival training with Bear Gry-Hou, I had been taught a multitude of tricks and skills.

Such as, but not limited to,...

-Making a fire.

This was a relatively simple skill to learn, as once you got the hang of identifying suitable materials for making one you were set, and I may or may not happen to have a handy system to my disposable.

Another way in which you could make a fire was more... barbaric, per se.

Simply put... just furiously rub two pieces of dry wood together and, by the wonders of friction, you would receive a nice flame that would be ready to be used for whatever purpose you so desire.

-The ability to differentiate between good veggies and bad ones.

This one was also a breeze for a multi talented prodigy like me.

All there was to it was memorising some key characteristics of poisonous plants and edible ones, as well as study a handmade encyclopedia on plants, made by Hou himself... funnily enough though, it just so happened that I had photographic memory amongst my repertoire of talents.

Anyways, from then after, I could refer to myself as an amateur herbologist-or whatever those plant specialist are called.

Anyways, through this skill I was adept at ensuring I wouldn't get vicious diarrhea after eating, or die for that matter.

-Hunting.

After learning the basics with lessons from Huo, I was successfully able to catch a couple rabbits during a test!

Now, you may not think this is much of an achievement- rather you'd think it is pretty pathetic.

But you'd be sorely mistaken.

See... Just because they don't have a cool adjective before their names and are therefore 'normal' animals, they are by no means weaklings.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

These 'normal' animals could even murder ordinary people if the conditions are right. This is because every animal, insect, or beast begins to take in Qi naturally through the cycle of life- Of course exceptions exist such as very young animals, however the vast majority have had taken in some Qi.

These animals can also evolve/breakthrough into the leagues of 'Spirit' beasts/insects after accumulation, however factors surrounding this are largely tied to the beast/insects bloodline and genetics.

So, as you can imagine, it was quite the feat that I had caught the rabbits after such a short period of training...

I also had to gut them though... but I won't be getting into the messy details.

...

Overall, I had learned a variety of things on survival that I hadn't before. Consequently, I had then felt a little bit better about the one month of wilderness survival, albeit I still wasn't jumping up and down from glee.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

(One Month Later)

(Third Person POV)

In a thick green bush, a young boy could be seen. His once white robes were now ragged and stained alongside having a foul stench emit from him- Courtesy of the faeces smeared on him.

But the horrid odour was completely disregarded by him, and rather he had his concentration focused all on one singular entity...

The gigantic deer right front of him.

This deer was so massive that it could easily tower above the tallest of men.

It had a clean light blue coat, with an eye-catching pair of antlers which were shiny and also a gentle blue colour- identical to blue diamonds.

All these factors combined, made the deer look like it should belong in a fashion show, rather than this brutal forest riddled with danger at every corner.

But looks are deceiving.

This beautiful four legged creature is called an Azure Shrew Deer.

The name partly came from the fact that it had remarkable senses and could move incredibly quickly relative to it's size, like a shrew.

However that isn't the main reason why it was named this.

As just like a shrew is known for it's trickiness, so too is this devious deer.

This deviousness comes from the fact that Azure Shrew deers are very nifty at utilising their natural advantages, namely their deceiving looks.

They do this by putting both predator and prey in a false sense of security due to their delicate looks, and unfortunately for the pitiful animal this action of dropping their guard gives the deer enough of a chance to crush them...

Resulting in the immediate death of said animal.

Fortunately though, this bedazzlement is only really effective on less intelligent organisms that mainly move according to their instincts rather than brains. So mostly all humans after a certain age are unaffected- Though some less intelligent specimens may still fall victim to their own stupidity.

The young boy here, Bu Cai, had stalked this deer for hours on end in wait for the deer to drop it's guard.

Then once the deer had done so, Bu Cai would then be able to strike.

And as goes the saying, 'Wait and you shall get'-At least that's how I think it goes- and the opportunity had finally arose for our patient protagonist.

The deer had eventually paused near an area shaded by trees to rest, and embraced this time to withdraw his steel sword from it's sheath and spontaneously dash out.

After getting near enough to the unsuspecting animal, he enacted the strongest slash he could muster precisely onto the meaty neck of the deer.

...!

The sword had connected like intended but it seemed to be too shallow, for the deer was still alive!

It instantly began to struggle and shake violently as it was trying it's damnedest to get the thing that was stuck in it's neck, and causing it horrendous agony, out.

The sword was firmly lodged into the neck of the large creature, and Bu Cai was holding onto it for his dear life. He knew he was done for if this deer didn't die now.

So whilst hanging onto the panicked deer, he continued to exert pressure onto the handle and make it slowly go deeper and deeper...

And after around six minutes of this chaotic struggle from both sides, it ended. The deer seemed to have lost too much blood and oxygen due to it going mental, therefore it's huge body quickly fell to the ground lifelessly.

After this intense moment which felt like centuries, Bu Cai was covered in blood from head to toe, and was panting heavily. He was quite exhausted and quite shaken.

It was the first time such an major deviation from his expectation had happened when hunting, although he may have messed up a couple times during his time hunting it was never so serious that he could have received huge backlash.

However he quickly snapped out of this and knew he had to get going. The smell of blood would definitely draw in some uninvited guests with malicious intentions and he had no intention of going through that. So Bu Cai finished decapitating the deer and left it behind whilst he ran away with the body.

This would make sure that some beasts would be distracted by the head and therefore lessen the number chasing after him, if there is any. This also helped reduce the weight of the corpse as although Bu Cai was incredibly strong, even he didn't have it easy carrying such huge remains.

After frantically navigating through the forest, he arrived at a spacious cave which was well hidden. He placed the deer down and made sure to cover it with other aromatic herbs, so that it's scent wouldn't be so potent.

He then cautiously made his way back out of the cave to be on a lookout for any chasers or threats, then move accordingly.

However to his relief, he found nothing.

Feeling that it was finally safe, he lessened his wariness and was intending to return to his cave and prepare the fresh deer he had hunted.

But suddenly a cold chill ran down his spine, and his instinct screamed "dodge".

His body acted on it's instincts, and Bu Cai evacuated from his previous spot to another as fast as he possibly could.

After relocating, he turned back around, only to see... nothing.

He was shocked to the core and knew there was no plausible way his instincts could be wrong.

As if confirming this, an even more intense feeling of peril was elicited from his instincts.

This time though, he couldn't dodge.

He could feel the oh so miserable tingle that he had felt once before.

The feeling of death.

However back then he had nothing to strive for, so he accepted death willingly.

But now it was different.

He couldn't just die anymore.

He had so much to lose now, that dying was simply unacceptable!

So he was absolutely unresigned, but what could he even do?

He has been completely out classed...

So all he could do now was await a strike that would definitely...

...

...Kill him?

...

What?

...

Realising that there was no follow up attack, Bu Cai turned his head around and saw the thing he least expected...

...Hou looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers, and mouth so wide that one could fit a ball in there.

...

Now knowing that he wasn't going to die today, and was safe, he passed out with an easy mind.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Bu Cai Pov)

*Sniff* *Sniff*

A smokey smell fills my nostrils as I regain consciousness.

*Sniff*

I try to identify what it is and it strangely reminds me of... Steak.

After fully coming to my senses, my eyes snap open and I sit up straight.

Looking around I realise I am in the cave which I had recently been using, as my previous one had been hijacked by a family of scary beasts leading to me having to move out.

Another thing I had saw was...

...Hou consuming the deer I hunted with all my efforts!

I instantly shouted at him, "HEY!"

"Not only do you make your own young master have the fright of his life, you are now eating the very food he hunted with all his heart!"

"Where is the decency you were showing me back home gone to?!"

Hearing my complaints, Hou turns his head away from the fire to look at me, whilst also continuing to cook the slab of meat that is stuck on a long and sharp stick.

He lets out a laugh and says to me casually,

"HAHAHA, don't be so stingy young master!"

"This old man also needs nutrition for his old bones, and this huge deer couldn't possibly be preserved long enough for you to finish it on your own. So this old servant took the initiative to make himself a meal, please forgive me!"

My eyebrows twitch at his shamelessness. I already knew that once cultivators reach a certain stage, then food doesn't become a necessity any longer.

Just as I was about to refute his clear lies, his light hearted demeanor and relaxed expression became tense and serious.

He then said in a surprised and curios tone,

"You have really shocked this old man with your performance. you know?"

"Originally your father and I had both anticipated that you would get yourself into a perilous situation."

"Then me, who was on the sidelines, would save you and tell you on areas of improvement whilst this also would act as a slight warning on how unpredictable and dangerous part of the real world is."

"However you have not only done better than was expected, you completely exceeded all expectations!"

"Leaving aside how rapidly you soaked up all the information and teachings I gave you. You were also fully able to adapt and implement all that was taught to an almost perfect degree!"

"Such a performance made me doubt whether you were truly human at all!"

"Eventually after watching this unstoppable performance, I could't help but get curious as to what your limits are. So to test the waters, I released some of my battle intent onto you to see how you would cope."

After taking a small pause to regain his composure a bit, he continued.

"Hoooo, But you completely dodged it!"

...

"Due to my first attack missing, I was stunned."

"I wanted to see how much you could take. Therefore I went further and let out some killing intent!"

"And finally you fell, but was still able to stay conscious for a while. To do so against someone who has a higher cultivation and intent, requires you to have an astonishing will to live."

"But how could a child like you possibly have such an immense will to live, to the point where you could stand against the terror of my killing intent that, although wasn't concentrated, was still relatively potent?"

As soon as he finished talking to me about my revolutionary achievements, he let out a weary sigh that seemed to express unwillingness.

Then before I knew it, a huge pressure out of nowhere descended on me, and made me drop face flat on the cold rocky ground.

He then said in a grave tone, "So this all leads to a question that has been nagging me."

"...Just what is it that makes you so willful?"