"Me personally..."

-7 days after meeting the elder, 2 days since the last chapter-

Axilya had been taking slow deep breaths for about an hour now with her eyes closed, the snow piled up high around her. The forest was calm and peaceful. The birds quietly chirped, the wind rustled, and the snow continued a slow, but steady downfall.

Then all of a sudden, her mouth opened, and she harshly inhaled. In the second she inhaled, the snow a few inches around her rapidly melted. Once, twice, thrice. As the third time happened, all of the coldness that had been leeched from the snow sunk into her Dantian. There was a moment of stillness before BOOM! All of that gathered Ki rushed throughout her body, strengthening it as it passed by each of the cells, before sinking into her skin. Her entire body shook, and her eyes snapped open, a smile appearing on her face before it faded away as she stood up. 

Looking down, she clenched her fists, awe filling her. 'So much more Ki. The second stage - Flesh Training. Is truly impressive. This strength gain...' Rearing back she punched a relatively large and sturdy tree, only to let out a gasp of awe as with a crack it began to fall over on its side. "Woah there!" As she rushed forward, a gust of wind whipped around the area from her movements, and just before the falling tree would fall on another, with gritted teeth she caught it.

Her muscles flexed as her feet dug into the ground, her hands like claws dug into the tree, and with a "RAGH!" she heaved the tree up. Lumbering a few steps forward, with another grunt of exertion she let it fall where it wouldn't land on another tree. BANG!

GASP panting heavily Axilya slowly walked around in circles trying to recover her breath. 'That... that was really heavy. That tree had to be almost 4 to 5,000 Jin, didn't it?' Having taken in deep breaths of air, she slowly calmed down. 'How much has my strength improved? 1,000 Jin? 2,000?' A thought struck her, and Axilya's lips quirked up. 'I wonder, can I use it yet?' Her eyes closed, and she focused inside, trying to reach her blood. 'Burn!' With that thought... nothing happened.

Her face twitched. Letting out a sigh, her eyes opened up. "Still nothing... do Ice Phoenixes really not get it?"

[DING!

Congratulations to the host for reaching the 2nd Stage of Body Transformation! The host should wait till Houtian for them to use their bloodline's active abilities. The system would like to warn the host that the time for the mission named 'Practice!' is still approaching!

]

Staring off into the distance, Axilya would eventually just nod. 'I can wait. I'm patient. I just wanted to see...' Shaking her head she started to walk back home. 'That's enough training for today.' 

-The next day- 

While her lecture to her adopted family continued, and she talked without any active thought, internally she was focused on a different topic. 'I've noticed that while my cultivation speed and efficiency has slowed it doesn't seem to have slowed that much. Strange, I thought it would be more noticeable' 

[DING! 

The host should be aware that their bloodline is offsetting the effects, and it's affecting you far more than you're aware! If it wasn't for the effects on you, you would have broken through to Pulse Condensation in one day.

]

An eyebrow instinctively rose as she froze momentarily, before continuing with her shoveling and lecture. 'I stand corrected... 1 day for Strength Training, 7 days for Flesh Training, will it be 13 days for Viscera Training? Or 49? That is indeed quite different from just one day!' 

Perhaps the equivalents of an 'Emperor' or 'Saint' Grade talent would wail at the thought of taking 49 days to do Viscera Training, but for her, it didn't matter. She was an Elf! She naturally had 5x the lifespan of humans. Besides, that was with her Ice Phoenix half sealed away! Who knows how long her lifespan would shoot up then? 49 days? Baah! Who didn't see Ji Ning going into seclusion for hundreds of chaos cycles before his Daomerge or when he fought to create his resurrection technique? 

Haste makes waste, but grasping the time you have has always been one of the key parts of cultivation! 'Eh. At least in novels. And no offense - but those people are kind of stupid. How many times in novels do you get an entire arc dedicated to them realizing that they aren't human anymore? That they don't know shit about the common people, and get their powers sealed to live like that? Nearly every cultivation novel!' 

Eyes flashing with unwillingly suppressed emotions Axilya shoveled the snow a bit more harshly. 'Foolish. Leaving your family behind? The people you've known your entire life? Removing yourself from all bonds, simply so you can become an 'ascended one', and then spitting in the face of all that suffering you caused, by just joining back in with them? How many novels just ignore the friendships broken? Bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood? At least Desolate Era is a bit better in that regard.' Heart beating hard, a wave of frost would emanate from her chest, and all of those bubbling-up emotions slowly faded away. As those thoughts and emotions disappeared...

[DING! ERROR! DING! ERROR! DING!

Dao of ka3f4 unable to be learned! The system urges the host to reach One with the World, and Houtian!

You have found your truth! But have not met the other four requirements! The host is encouraged to explore this path.

Congratulations! Your soul has slightly healed. ]

Axlyia's eyes blanked. 'That has to be a record, right? A flesh training cultivator reaching the Dao, and 'Truth' what is that? A martial intent? Besides, how did this help heal my soul?!?' 

 -????-

They stared in horrified awe. A whole body twitch racked them as their mouth hung open. "That- that's. That's bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Damn Void Lord! What are you planning trapping me with this monster? What are you doing sealing a Half-Phoenixes race like this? Forcing them into this hellhole that shouldn't exist? Fuck! What kind of monster are you trying to create?" Their heart shuddered at that. "Don't tell me... No! Impossible! The court wouldn't allow it!"

-Axilya that night-

Resting on her knees with a cup of wine in her hand she slowly started her 2nd lecture of the day. "Others would take your disability to mean you're hampered in cultivation. But I disagree! It's my opinion that up until Pulse Condensation, you will naturally cultivate quicker than others around your same talent level. Can you tell me why?"

Taking a sip of his wine Haryk would dryly look at her a hint of anger in his tone, "Please do tell me why missing a leg would let me cultivate faster."

The response was blunt, cold, and cruel, but also the truth. "You have less skin to temper, less muscles to temper, and again - less bones to temper. Your one leg is forced to put in much more effort, same with your two arms. The cold winds can impact closer to your vital organs from a different area than usual, and bones that are usually harder to temper will be easier for you, same with muscles. Of course - your combat power will be poor, but that doesn't matter."

Haryk's eyes flashed with rage at the start, before he calmed himself and listened to Axilya's words. Taking a heavy swig, he let out a sigh and nodded. "I see how that could help. You've been mentioning how people with your method should usually cultivate, but how should I train? It's not like I can do the things they can and exercise how they can."

There was an unnerving intensity to Axilya's eyes as she stared directly into Haryk. "Who says you have to physically train outside of the basics? The body is connected to the mind, which is connected to the spirit. Train your mind, train your soul. You can endure the harsh winds and cold temperatures, swallow snow, and even smear the snow against your leg.

But what you need to focus on is your mind and spirit. Deep meditations to comb through your emotions, your history, and the path you've taken in life. Understand, comprehend, and then, in the end, accept what has happened. Accept the past, understand the present, and strive for the future. Your body is weaker than a typical Elf's because you can not work the fields, and run through the forests like we can. But because of that, you can hone your mind. Use your gifts. Practice your woodwork and whittling. Pour your heart and soul into that. The heavens leave a path for everyone - no matter how different, strange, slow, dangerous, or cruel. There is always a chance."

The fires of determination blazed within Haryk's eyes as he chugged the entire bowl of wine. "You're right! Damnit you're right! Hah!" Slamming the bowl onto the mat he'd heave himself up, hand resting on the wall, and with a few hops would go to a shelf and begin rooting around. "You're not leaving here until you're piss drunk with me Axilya! Damn that was a good speech, no wonder you're our future Elder!"

Pale red lips twitched upward for a moment before her face turned back to ice, and Axilya nodded. "Alright, just this once we can get drunk together."