Since the daily chores were done and my mother was settled in, I went back into the forest, this time not just to hunt for dinner but also to train. Body fortification was all about sweating and working your body past its limits. I found a heavy rock that was thirty times the size of me and tied a bunch of vines around it. I made it so that these vines could be looped around my body and was now pulling as hard as I could. Harder and harder until I couldn’t pull anymore before slowly relaxing and letting the vines go limp.

Sweat dripped from my head. I have been at it for an hour. My clothes and hair were also soaked in sweat, but I did not care. I could feel myself slowly growing stronger. The extreme is what one needs if one wishes to be able to grow stronger. After taking a short break, I moved to practicing the martial arts from my memories. Punch out, flip the wrist, pull back, lean back, kick, pivot, and quickly kick out with the other leg. I continued punching and kicking for three hours until I collapsed onto the ground, panting. The ground was soaked from my sweat but it was not for nothing. “To truly become powerful, one must suffer.” This was my current state of mind.

I pulled my tired body up from the ground and made my way to the river, where I walked right in up to my waist, washed the sweat off my body, and cooled myself down, and after a few gulps of water, I felt very refreshed. 

“The sun is still high. I should catch some dinner and gather some more herbs.” I found a sharp rock and embedded it into a long stick, making a spear. I don’t think I will always get lucky like before. If I can find a rank one demonic beast and sneak up on it, I might even get to eat something very nourishing for the body. Not even the kids of the village would get to each such meat!

I quickly made my way through the forest, looking for some sort of prey. Sadly, there were no demonic beasts, not this close to the edge. I could go in deeper, but then I risk it getting darker and really falling into trouble. Stronger demonic beasts came out at night, and the last thing I needed was to become the food of such beasts. I was far too weak to take on anything too strong. So I had no choice but to be careful until I have entered the qi gathering realm. Only then could I actually venture out at night. But even still, I would need to be careful. I would need to pick my prey carefully so that I did not end up getting over my head. It was not just my life that was on the line.

I spent the next few weeks repeating the same routine. Every day, I pushed my body to the limits. No matter how much I hurt when I woke up, I still pushed myself. During this time I had actually put on some weight. My sunken cheeks were now fleshy, and due to the spiritual qi, my once-tanned skin had lightened a lot.

My mother was also looking much better. While she was still unable to cultivate, she was getting there. The strength she once lost was slowly coming back. She had really tortured herself raising me. I really need to make sure her future is no longer filled with sorrow.

I was currently running through the forest, looking for a rank one demonic beast. After these past three weeks, I have been able to work my way up to rank five body fortification. I felt it was a little slow but from my memories it should take me a few years to reach this point. 

Five years old at rank five body fortification would bring a lot of envy in the village and maybe even have some of the adults wanting to dispose of me. This world is cruel. Those who have power would kill at the drop of the hat. While this was all from my memories, the fact was that I had already seen the cruelness of the world when I was three. 

“There!” My eyes lit up as I licked my lips. Finally! I had found a rank one demonic beast. This was a tri-horned rabbit. Like the horned rabbit, it was brown, but this one had three horns and was much more vicious. Right now, it was actually busy chewing on its own prey. If only it realized that it was about to become the prey.

I moved quietly through the brush, hiding my presence as much as possible. Raised my makeshift bow that I made of branches and vines and let the stone arrow fly. “Got it!”  The arrow pierced right through the neck of the rank one demonic beast. Now, if it was any other demonic beast, I would never dare to try to do this because there would be no way for me to defeat it, but tri-horned rabbits were different. While considered a rank one demonic beast, they were very easy to kill. As long as you got the drop on one even those in the body fortification realm could kill one.

I happily picked up my basket, the tri-horned rabbit, and made my way home. When I got there I was all smiles when I walked into the hut and put the basket and rabbit down. “Ruo’er! This is!?” It seemed my mother noticed right away.

“It’s a rank one demonic beast. Its good stuff!” Not only was it a rank one demonic beast, but also a fat one! This meant lots of meat!

“It is good stuff. I will be sure not to waste any of it.” My mother was actually smiling, which made me smile. She had been smiling a lot more these days which made me happy as well. Us daughter and mother were actually starting to see signs of leaving this horrid life.