Chapter 4

Going to his room Yuki dropped exhausted. His body was achying in all places and he could feel every part of his body screaming in protest at the idea of moving even an inch more.

However, despite his weariness, he moved to a medicinal bath he had set aside to be prepared and entering the bathtub filled with herbs and special minerals he sat cross-legged and started to cultivate his spirit energy. Starting from his head he circulated his energy across his entire body, once, twice, three times. After this he could sense his muscles relaxing and the energy in those herbs starting to circulate across his body. It was very relaxing and he could sense that his body was absorbing the energy in those herbs to regenerate and make it more compatible with the energy of the world.

Living in this place and finally being able to cultivate Yuki found out some matters that he considered extremely strange. First that he didn't sense as much of the problems he thought he should have felt by having not one but two Ultimate Elements.

Normally those with an Ultimate Element would be almost fully unable to train and their speed dropping after rank 30 by a great deal, the body unable to properly take in the energy due to how the human body was not made to sustain such powers.

However, despite already being rank 26 he could not sense any such problems. If anything his training speed was still going very much well right now. After talking with Azazel about this matter the theory from the information gathered was that, if he continued to train like this, he would only suffer the drop of speed later on, probably at rank 50 or 60, due to how his body here was not under the same stress he supposed would be presented to him.

However, at that time the effect will be extremely pronounced, hard to put into words just how tough it would be for him to cultivate at this point. That is why he already started looking into ways of improving his chances when he arrives at that rank. In all honesty Yuki knew that, should he wish it to, he could have already been at rank 30 by now and searching for his third ring or even around 33 or 34, his talent and his current conditions allowed him such, but he did not try it.

Instead, he focused in improving his foundations. Every day since he arrived in this place he used his time to train his body, put himself into pressure during combat, and then practice the sutra he had received in his previous life for the Ice God trials. It was the Ice Stainless Bones, a technique that centers in the flesh to make it be without any impurity.

It may not sound like much, but whenever he circulates this technique Yuki can sense how it changes his body a little bit at a time, it worked by breaking his body and restoring it by using the energy of ice to make his body immaculate like ice. It was not an easy technique to practice but it was playing its part by making his foundations as solid as possible. Many would even say he was being wasteful with how he used so many things for this practice but to that, he would only say that he was using what he had in hand.

Once again he felt grateful for the Grigory, if not for them this training would take much longer and he would be fumbling in the dark when it comes to figuring out certain things on his body and in how to obtain resources for cultivation.

Which leads to the second point, one that actually troubled him. The energy in this world was quite different from the one he could remember.

In this world the energy in the air is quite different, the power so that it was tainted in this place with some dark energy. It was quite uncomfortable for Yuki, truth be told, to train in such a place but the location of his training was quite pleasant as Azazel changed the environment to be covered in snow and ice. The ice energy in the air was enough to counter the energy he could sense outside.

However, he could tell that he would only be able to stay and cultivate until a certain degree. Afterwards he will need to go, he would need to train somewhere else that not here.

As he was cultivating he lost track of time, he continued circulating his energy according to the Ice Stainless Bones and he could sense himself change. His bones were becoming, little by little, more translucent and could emit a jade like shine. When it was morning Yuki opened his eyes as he sensed he finally finished the first step of this technique.

Bone like jade.

In this stage his bones were like precious jade, translucent and beautiful. They also were extremely flexible and carried some ice energy into them. The process going forward was no longer about the bones but engraving in them every understanding he has regarding ice. The more he developed after this state the more his bones would develop these runes and the more complex and profound they would become. In time, even if he died his bones would be able to be transformed in powerful weapons and used as sources to study for others.

Much of the knowledge he carried of his previous life began to surge at this juncture, blood began to sap from every one of his pores as new blood was being generated by these bones and the first baptism of ice runes started.

It was like he was being reborn, his bones had fully changed and the blood inside him was being replaced entirely as well. The more in-depth his knowledge regarding ice the deeper this process would go and, with the understandings he had from his previous life, the process was quite thorough.

This process took five days and six nights, every single one of the Cadres were worried about this, even Kokabiel showed up to see what was going on and felt slightly apprehensive about what the kid was going through. From what little Azazel could tell from his exams the kid was suffering a lot and there was nothing they could do about it.

When Yuki finally woke up from this cultivation he felt like if he was reborn, his body now was a tad thinner and he could sense that he grew a few centimeters in size, his profound energy actually dropped to rank 21 but that was not a loss in his eyes. The drop of energy being because his foundation now was much stronger than ever before. However, he noticed that his body was now unbalanced. It carried a lot of ice energy but lacked in Lightning energy.

Thinking for a moment Yuki sighed, knowing that the best possible solution is doing something that was tantamount to suicide, but for the sake of the future he would face it regardless.

He just had to prepare, and prepare well, because it is not easy to pass a Heavenly Tribulation.