Chapter 22: First Winter

As Wong Su and Chao Cheng returned to the village with the body of the maned tiger, they were met with roars of praise and awe from the villagers, especially for Wong Su, whom everyone thought was the killer. The maned tiger was rare, akin to a birth defect born from the mating of two normal tigers but distinguished by its superior strength and intelligence. Its fur was valuable due to its exceptional softness and density, and it was loved for many reasons beyond the poor villagers' understanding. While there were spirit beasts whose fur was worth more, the maned tiger's fur ranked as one of the most expensive furs obtained from normal animals.

Old Jack had used his messenger bird to send a message to Nuoding City Lord, alerting him of the rare fur. Meanwhile, Wong Su took the time to bathe his daughter while his wife worked hard due to today being the last day of harvest before fall came, washing the blood from her body, especially her hair.

"I made the tiger see another version of me," Wong Yazhu explained as Wong Su scrubbed her soapy hair with a brush. "I just thought of this other me attacking the tiger, and when the tiger went to attack the fake me, it jumped to kill it."

She chuckled. "And I used the teaching you taught me where the underbelly is the weak spot for most animals and quickly ran under the tiger while it was in the air to cut it open, causing hot blood to fall on me."

She giggled as Wong Su massaged her scalp, the giggle causing the man to flinch. "Ah, I see," Wong Su mumbled. "That's impressive."

"Thanks, daddy," Wong Yazhu clapped.

After that, Wong Su, along with Chao Cheng and his daughter, went out to hunt once more. Although they had secured the tiger, it could not be eaten by the villagers, so they needed to hunt something edible. By the end of the day, they returned with three mature deer, not having found the Moose Horned Elk they were initially aiming for.

That night, after Wong An had put Wong Yazhu to bed, her husband disclosed to her what had happened. Wong An looked at her husband in horror. "You are telling me..."

He nodded. "Yes, she killed it," Wong Su confirmed, adding, "and it was quick, not something even I could do."

Wong An stared silently at her husband. "Are you sure she—"

"I saw the end effect of the battle with my own eyes. No one was there to kill it except her," he cut off her doubt. "The tiger stood no chance against her powerful illusion," he paused, "and it seemed to have grown stronger because she's been using it every time to train."

"If she—" Wong An began, but knowing what his wife was about to ask, Wong Su interjected.

"Once I look into her eyes and fall into an illusion, it's a guaranteed loss," he admitted. "Even without the illusion, it would be difficult for me to win. You should see her speed when she was angry." he recalled the moment Wong Yazhu shrugged him off. "She was much faster than Deng Sai...even after using the Initial Skill of her martial soul." He looked into his wife's eyes. "It felt as if she became an entirely different person when she was in that state. Like someone else took over her body."

He massaged his forehead. "And you should have seen her face. The veins on her temple next to her eyes," he tapped the spot, "bulged so much it seemed like they were about to burst, like she was straining her eyes to the fullest."

He leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling. "I know she's our daughter, but at that moment, she didn't feel like that. Like..."

"Like a second personality," Wong An mumbled, then gasped. "Do you think the multiple hypnosis she had put herself under to learn things faster had created this second personality?"

They both stared at each other, not knowing the answer.

Returning to her room, Wong Yazhu stretched, having listened to their entire conversation. She wasn't planning on changing their minds about their 'second personality' belief. 'At least that's an insurance if my acting slips in front of them again,' she thought as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. 'It happened once today, and it might happen again.' With that, she began her nightly open-eye cultivation.

The next day, as promised, a representative from Nuoding City arrived in the village. He was there to purchase the fur of the maned tiger for a staggering sum of 77 gold, 33 silver, and 19 bronze soul coins. The entire village was shocked by the transaction, and a few even fainted at the mention of such an amount. Although the fur could potentially fetch a higher price in a more affluent market, for the villagers, 77 gold was a fortune, especially considering that the yearly earnings from the entire village, primarily agricultural output, ranged around 150 gold. 

This transaction made the Wong family the richest in the village, surpassing even the village chief. To maintain their reputation and mitigate envy among their neighbors, Wong Su, despite his wife's protests and evident dissatisfaction, decided to distribute 70% of the money to the villagers. Each of the 198 families in the village received 2 silver and 99 bronze coins, equivalent to 299 bronze. 

This meant they gave away a total of 56 gold, 2 silver, and 23 bronze, leaving themselves with only 24 gold and 96 bronze. Out of this remaining sum, 20 gold was earmarked for Wong Yazhu's school fund, 1 gold was given to Chao Cheng's family, and the remainder was kept for family expenses. 

That night, Wong An cried in her husband's arms, mourning the money they 'lost' that could have been used to restart their lives in the city. "You better find another expensive animal to kill, you fucker," Wong An griped, tears in her eyes, her hand gripping Wong Su's throat in frustration. "You better have not spent all your life's luck on that tiger!" 

Wong Su patted his wife's back, understanding her grief. "There, there," he soothed, not caring about her hands around his neck. She couldn't hurt him, even if she tried. 'As long as she doesn't use her sickle.'

Despite the generous distribution, the Wong family remained the wealthiest in the village, as each family typically earned about 750 bronze annually from their labor. This meant the Wong family had effectively given each family approximately five months' worth of income while still retaining what amounted to 32 years of money for themselves. 

 "THIRTY-TWO FUCKING YEARS!" a man roared during a gathering with friends at his house. "Can't they give more money!?"

"You should have seen Wong An's face when she was giving out the money to each family." His friend scoffed, "She looked like she was about to rip out my wife's throat."

"I knew furs were expensive, but not this much." An older woman sighed, "If I knew they could sell for GOLD COINS, I could have become a hunter instead of feeding pigs." 

Others nodded in agreement. "Only if my martial soul was at least a combat type, I would have gone into the forest to hunt more animals," another added, then remarked, "But you've got to admit. Wong Su is a fucking beast!"

"He is," a younger woman interjected. "I heard even a young manned tiger is as strong as a 300-year-old spirit beast, and for him to kill it in one strike..." She paused, "He's the only reason I'm not even thinking of stealing that money. We would be dead." 

The others glanced at each other, and no one said anything further. 

Two months after that event, the money from the tiger sale had every villager rushing to befriend the Wong family, something that annoyed Wong An considerably, though she tried not to show it. As for Wong Yazhu, she continued going to the forest to hunt.

two deer were grazing on the undergrowth in the forest. Hearing something, one deer looked up, its ears twitching as it chewed. After a few seconds, it looked down and continued eating, and at that moment, a shadow darted out of the forest, and before either of the deer could react, a creature latched onto one of the deer's necks. The force of the dash sent both the creature and the deer to the ground, as the second deer ran away without pausing.

The deer tried to scream and struggle, but Wong Yazhu, naked with her arm wrapped around its neck, simply snapped its neck, killing it instantly. Releasing the deer, she shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, leaping forward and grabbing onto a low branch of a tree. Using the momentum, she swung forward and landed on another branch, then leapt forward like a bullet, landing sideways on a tree trunk and pushing off it, then another branch as she continued forward, moving from tree to tree like a blur of shadow when seen from below.

Soon, she landed on another branch, the muscles in her legs coiling as she shot forward towards the ground, her arms wide open as she grabbed the running deer's neck from behind. The force from her leap brought both her and the deer to the ground as she simply snapped its neck, killing it.

She then stood up, looking around. 'This has become easy,' she thought. 

Over the past few months, apart from physical training, she also spent time in combat training with wild animals, fighting them with his bare fists. This practice allowed his combat capability and both the Sharingan and Byakugan to rapidly improve. She had also spent time watching the animals with eyes of insight, learning how they moved through the forest, how they attacked, and how they hunted and searched for food—not only the herbivores but the predators too. 

This made hunting herbivores as easy as going to the fridge for breakfast.

'Guess now I have to become the apex predator.' She stretched, the bones in her body popping. "Ah~that felt good."

Her month of training had improved her eyes, her X-Ray vision now allowing her to see through 120 meters of thickness, his telescopic vision being able to see up to 805 meters away, surpassing Neji's Part 2 Byakugan. This wasn't surprising given that this was a cultivation world, which far surpassed the Naruto world in terms of power levels.

'Seeing as a base Titled Douluo can see at minimum 10 miles, or 16 km, while Hinata could see at least 20 kilometers as an adult,' Wong Yazhu thought while observing a rabbit eating a leaf about 700 meters away from his position above a tree. 'And Kaguya could cover much of the globe, so I might be able to see the entire globe as a Titled Douluo.'

His orb sight could also now see 20+ meters, but the full range was unknown due to the information overload that occurred when he tried it. He only found out about the 20+ range when he jumped off a tree and used orb sight in midair before plummeting back to the forest and experiencing information overload from the leaves and branches.

His Soul Sight has also changed. It became easier for him to see the age of spirit beasts, not having to focus as much anymore. He could now see the Dantian, meridians, and other details much more clearly, and he could also discern more colors of Qi. For example, the blue aura flowing through the world had transformed into five colors, representing the five basic elements (red for fire, blue for water, brown for earth, silver-gray for metal, and yellow for air). This change in the Byakugan's soul sight did not happen instantaneously but over a couple of days, and he only noticed it when he remembered that he used to see only blue as the world Qi.

The Sharingan also improved, notably in time dilation, now seven seconds. He also learned more about the Eye of Hypnotism, like its effectiveness scaled with several factors: the opponent's mental strength (weaker minds are easier to influence with illusions), their intelligence (more intelligent individuals could break through illusions easier as they might notice something not right), their comprehension (simpler minds could not be influenced by complex illusions they couldn't understand), the plausibility of the illusion, the complexity (more complex illusions required more soul power), and importantly, the difference in Spiritual Sea.

Wong Yazhu noticed this when she tried to put Tang Hao under a simple illusion.

*Cough* Wong Yazhu coughed out a mouthful of thick blood, stumbling back as she became dizzy. She quickly held onto the table, her legs so weak that she could barely keep herself standing, and her vision blurred. Looking at the table, she noticed blood dripping onto it, not from her mouth. 'My eyes are bleeding?' And then she fainted. The next time she opened her eyes, Tang Hao stood above her, looking down with a stern expression. 

"If I hadn't known what you were doing and reduced my mental strength, you could have died from the backlash," he informed her as she gulped, her throat dry. "Don't try it again." He walked away.

Due to Wong Yazhu's spiritual sea far surpassing everyone in the village, including her father and even Tang San's spiritual sea before he left for the academy, it became easy for him to put anyone in the village into a plausible illusion after subtly influencing their mind with a few words.

"Look! A bee!" Wong Yazhu shouted as she pointed at a bee beside a woman who had been annoying her by nagging her about a rooster she had kicked and killed after it tried to peck her.

The woman turned her head swiftly and saw the bee buzzing beside her. "KAA!" she screamed, clenching her eyes shut and slapping at the bee with all her might. When she opened her eyes, she was horrified to see her palm on the cheek of her best friend and blood flowing from her busted lips. 

"...oh..." Her eyes widened in shock. "I-I'm sorry. I was sure I saw…I heard a bee."

Wong An, who had been observing her daughter's interaction, quickly grabbed Wong Yazhu's arm, pulling her aside out of the eye and earshot of everyone. "Don't do that again," she warned. She had noticed Wong Yazhu's eyes change and knew what had happened. "Never ever." 

Wong Yazhu nodded. "Sorry mommy."

Little did Wong An know, she was talking to an illusion, a fabrication cast when she looked into Wong Yazhu's eyes. Thankfully, no one was there to see it, or they might have thought she had gone mad, which would have really angered her.

A few days later, it was the last month of the year bringing winter with it. With little farm work due to the winter, Wong Yazhu continued her physical training regimen without Wong Su's supervision, who did nothing to stop her even as she trained outside in the cold. 

"You will catch a cold!" Wong An shouted as Wong Yazhu headed to the backyard, now covered in a blanket of snow—the first snow of this winter. "And you won't be able to go to Nuoding Academy in five months because you will be sick." 

"Mommy, I won't be cold," Wong Yazhu assured her, dressed in her summer training uniform of a tank top, pants, but no sandals. She raised her hands to her mother. "Touch it." 

Confused, both Wong An and Wong Su reached out to touch her arm. Wong An immediately released her grip in shock at how hot it felt, looking at her palm to see if it was burnt. 

"See?" Wong Yazhu smirked, as her father also touched her arm, noticing the heat. "I used my soul power to heat up my body." 

In fact, it was Tang Hao who taught her this technique. Well, actually, he had taught her how to make her body colder to better handle the heat of the forge. Although he would have preferred her to handle the heat with her natural body, he understood she was still a child, so he taught her this technique. This was usually accessible only to those with a high affinity to the ice element—a subelement created when water and air combine—but her high affinity to all five basic elements gave her affinity to sub elements like ice. With the knowledge of the technique, simply named the 'Cold Body Technique,' Wong Yazhu had simply reverse-engineered the ice ability to create one that heated his body.

One might wonder: with 5 hours of work a day for around 40 days, totaling approximately 200 hours of work, how could Wong Yazhu reverse-engineer such a complex technique? The answer lies in the use of the Sharingan's time dilation ability. However, even this extended time wasn't quite enough to reverse-engineer such a complicated technique on her own. Tang Hao played a significant role by providing numerous hints—so many, in fact, that Wong Yazhu thought, 'He might as well have taught me the technique instead of making me waste 14 days of work.'

After the revelation and Wong Su permitting his daughter to step outside, they watched as steam escaped from the soles of her feet the moment they touched the snow, evaporating a few layers, watching as she left footprints in the snow as she continued forward. They exchanged glances, said nothing and closed the door behind her.

Wong Yazhu immediately sprinted to the forest, where she continued her training. 

~~~~~~~~~Author's Note~~~~~~~

50k words. Was NOT expecting to write this much but here I am. Nice.