Chương 4: The Iron-Skinned Menace

A year passed in the blink of an eye, each day a near-perfect replica of the one before it. The seasons turned, painting the Green Mountains in the vibrant hues of autumn, the stark white of winter, the tender green of spring, and the deep jade of summer. For the other menial laborers, it was a year of back-breaking and soul-crushing monotony. There were of course moments of joy and happiness but they were fleeting for those at the bottom of the ladder in this cultivation world.

For Li Yu, it was a year of silent and explosive growth. He was eleven now. On the surface, he was still a small quiet boy. The malnourishment of his early years had been replaced by a lean strength. His skin was tanned from long hours under the sun and his hands were a mass of calluses. While the work over this time was tough, his living conditions were actually better than they were in his village. He was fed decently well and the pay, while small, was more than he could earn there.

Since the conditions were better than back home, he had nothing to complain about and worked hard. He performed his duties with a quiet efficiency that had earned him Uncle Wei's approval. While he was just another face in the crowd, he did his duties as expected. While just another small cog in the great machine of the sect, he kept a positive outlook where he could and continued on. But beneath that mundane exterior, a sea of change had occurred.

Every night without fail, he would sit on his secluded knoll and draw upon the boundless ocean of Qi in the lakes below. His absorption range had expanded from ten feet to nearly thirty, allowing him to draw energy more efficiently and from a wider variety of beasts without causing any single group to weaken. The «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art» had proven to be a divine-level treasure for him. It not only purified the chaotic energy and cloaked his presence but also laid a strong foundation.

His dantian, which should have been a small pond for a cultivator his age, felt like a vast tranquil sea. His progress was indeed impressive. Four months after arriving here, he had smoothly broken through to the Third Stage of the Body Tempering Realm. Six months after that, he reached the Fourth Stage. Now, a full year after his arrival, he was standing firmly at the peak of the Fourth Stage, a single step away from the Fifth.

A menial laborer who had been at the sect for a year had achieved a cultivation level that many outer disciples with access to better resources and guidance struggled to reach in the same period. The «Abyssal Leviathan Physique» had transformed his body from the inside out. While he didn't look muscular, his bone density was astonishing. His flesh was as tough as boiled leather. A fall that would have broken another boy's arm would leave him with little more than a bruise.

His stamina was endless and his senses were incredibly sharp. He could hear the frantic heartbeat of a frog hiding in the reeds fifty feet away and smell the subtle changes in the water that signaled the health of the fish. His greatest asset, however, remained his unique connection to aquatic life. He didn't just sense their hunger or fear anymore. He could now perceive their moods, their sicknesses, their territorial disputes, and even their simple desires.

He knew which fish preferred the shade of a lily pad and which ones liked to burrow in the mud. He knew how to mix the bait with a specific type of river weed to make it more palatable for the Azure-Finned Eels. This intimate knowledge made his work far easier and allowed him to maintain the health of the fish stocks with an almost supernatural skill, a feat that Uncle Wei attributed to the boy simply being a "natural-born fish handler."

He could start to see a future where he would eventually leave this place after growing stronger and raising aquatic beasts of his own. Starting a small shop or business. One sweltering summer morning, the routine of the Aquatic Pens was broken. A special transport had arrived. Not with the usual vats of blood bait or sacks of minerals, but with a series of large and heavily reinforced wooden crates sealed with iron bands.

They were handled by stern-looking inner sect disciples, whose powerful auras made the air feel heavier. Brother Chen was practically tripping over himself to be of service. His usual arrogance was replaced by a fawning obsequiousness.

"Elders, please be careful! Everything is prepared as you instructed!" One of the inner disciples, a man with a scar across his brow, ignored him and addressed Uncle Wei directly.

"The westernmost lake, Lake Obsidian, has been cleared out and the barriers reinforced, correct?" Uncle Wei bowed low, his voice trembling slightly.

"Yes, Honored Disciple. It is ready."

"Good. We are delivering a shipment of Iron-Skinned Piranha hatchlings. They are a special order for one of the elders of the sect. Your only job is to feed them and keep them alive. They are to be fed three times a day with high-grade blood bait. Do not let them starve, and do not let them escape. A single one of these getting into the other lakes would be a catastrophe. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Honored Disciple! We understand!" Uncle Wei stammered. The crates were carefully unloaded and their contents emptied into Lake Obsidian. Li Yu watched from a distance, his heart pounding with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. Iron-Skinned Piranhas. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. He had heard the other disciples talk about them.

They were vicious Level Two demonic beasts, known for their razor-sharp teeth, territorial aggression, and skin as tough as metal plates. Even as hatchlings, they were far more dangerous than anything else in the pens. But to Li Yu, they were also a source of incredibly potent and pure spiritual energy. Something he wanted to get his hands on as soon as possible. The moment the piranhas entered the water, Li Yu felt a wave of sharp, vicious consciousnesses flood his senses.

It was completely different from the dull, placid minds of the carp. This was a collective of pure ravenous instinct. Hunger! Rip! Tear! Blood! Mine! The work at Lake Obsidian was assigned only to the most senior and reliable laborers, but due to the increased feeding schedule, everyone was roped in to help prepare the special high-grade bait. Li Yu found himself tasked with hauling buckets to the edge of the newly secured lake.

The first time he approached, standing twenty feet from the shore, he felt the sheer density of the spiritual energy contained within the school of young piranhas. It was like comparing a gentle stream to a raging waterfall. That night, he didn't go to his usual spot. He found a hiding place in a thicket of reeds much closer to Lake Obsidian. He was nervous. Absorbing Qi from such aggressive beasts might be different, even dangerous. He took a deep breath to calm his mind and activated his cultivation art.

He extended his will towards the lake. The moment his spiritual sense touched the violent aura of the piranhas, he felt a backlash. A wave of pure predatory intent slammed into his consciousness, trying to repel him. It was the collective will of the school, instinctively protecting itself. But the «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art» was not so easily deterred. The red Koi in his dantian spun faster, and the aquatic aura that cloaked his spirit intensified.

To the piranhas, his probing sense didn't feel like a human cultivator; it felt like a vast, ancient, and unfathomably powerful aquatic predator, a leviathan from the depths of the ocean. Their collective aggression was slowly going away, replaced by an instinctual fear. The path was clear. Li Yu began to draw on their energy. A stream of Qi, thicker and purer than anything he had ever absorbed, flowed into him. It was ferocious and wild but his cultivation art ground it down, refining it into pristine energy.

He could feel his meridians swelling. His dantian was expanding. The sheer quality of the Qi was on a completely different level. One night of absorption from the piranhas was equivalent to a week of absorbing qi from the carp. A week later, an incident occurred. One of the older laborers, a man named Old Zhang, was being careless. Annoyed by the extra work, he grumbled as he tossed the blood bait into the lake. He got too close to the edge of the reinforced wooden dock and slipped on a patch of slime.

With a terrified scream he plunged into the water. Panic erupted.

"Man in the water!" someone screamed. Brother Chen, who was overseeing the feeding, panicked. He was a cultivator but only at the Sixth Stage of Body Tempering. He was no match for a swarm of frenzied piranhas. While he didn't truly care for the man himself, he knew that deaths in the area would get him in trouble. The water around Old Zhang began to churn violently. The piranhas, driven into a blood frenzy by the scent of the bait and the splash, swarmed towards him. Li Yu was fifty feet away but he acted swiftly.

He didn't think it through before reacting. He reacted based on the unfiltered information flooding his senses from the piranhas. He knew what they wanted. They were just trying to eat the bait that was thrown in, Old Zhang just happened to now be in the middle of it all. Without a second's hesitation, he grabbed the largest bucket of bait he could find, one that had yet to be thrown.

With a surge of strength from his «Abyssal Leviathan Physique», he lifted the heavy bucket and hurled its entire contents into a section of the lake far away from the flailing Old Zhang. The effect was instantaneous. The churning water around the old laborer stilled as the entire school of piranhas, their primal minds completely fixated on the larger concentration of food, turned as one and shot towards the massive splash. It bought enough time.

Two other laborers grabbed a long pole and extended it to Old Zhang, hauling the terrified and now bleeding man out of the water. He was covered in dozens of small, deep bites, but he was alive. Brother Chen, seeing the crisis averted, quickly regained his composure.

"Foolish old man!" he bellowed, trying to cover his own fear with anger.

"Your carelessness almost cost you your life! You are fired! Get out of my sight!" He then glanced at Li Yu, who was standing quietly by the empty bucket, looking like a scared little boy.

"Good job boy, you saved a life today. What's your name?"

"Li Yu, Young Master," he replied softly.

"Hmph. You saved the sect a lot of trouble. Take this." Brother Chen tossed a small, low-grade spirit stone at him—a common currency within the sect.

"Don't get a big head about it. Now get back to work!" Li Yu caught the stone, his heart hammering in his chest. He had exposed a fraction of his strength since everything happened so quickly. Li Yu didn't think anything of it though, it was just one small minor incident. No one would suspect an eleven-year-old menial worker of having the strength to hurl a hundred-pound bucket of bait. They would just assume it was adrenaline. Only Uncle Wei looked at him a bit differently however.

The old man's gaze lingered on Li Yu for a long moment, a flicker of deep thought in his wrinkled eyes before he turned to help the injured laborer. That night, Li Yu cultivated with a new sense of urgency. The incident had been a stark reminder of the dangers of this world. A simple slip was all it took to end one's life. He held the spirit stone in his hand, feeling the pure energy within it. He didn't absorb it for now. He would save it for later use. His true resource was the lake of piranhas.

He drew upon their potent Qi, the refined energy flooding his system. He could feel the final barrier of the Fourth Stage beginning to crack. He pushed harder, his mind focused, his spirit devouring the energy. With a final, silent snap in his soul, the barrier shattered. Power surged through his body, washing over his bones, muscles, and meridians. He had broken through. He was now in the Fifth Stage of the Body Tempering Realm. As the new power settled, he felt a change in his dantian.

He focused his awareness inward and saw that the blood-red Koi spirit, which had always been the size of his forearm, had grown. It was now a fraction of an inch longer, its crimson scales shining with a deeper, more metallic luster. It was evolving, growing stronger alongside him. Li Yu opened his eyes, his gaze falling upon the dark, shimmering surface of Lake Obsidian. It was a place of danger and death for others. For him, it was a treasure trove. And he had only just begun to tap its riches.