Element

There's one place Beta had in mind. A place where he had been for hundreds of years. The world of darkness. But there was one problem... he had to die.

"So, how am I going to die without dying completely? This might not be easy...", Beta muttered.

Beta thought about it for a long time before he finally came up with a plan.

"The only way it might work is by training my body cultivation technique to the extreme. I'll just have to turn the near-death states I go through while training this technique into one where I don't stop until I'm completely dead. With some luck, the technique will then pull me back after some time like it usually does. It's very risky but I don't have another choice.", he said to himself with a sigh.

He couldn't think of any other method that would enable him to achieve his goals. If his teacher was right and he had to choose the place he felt most comfortable at, then he definitely had to go there.

He didn't want to lose any time anymore, so he quickly started training and moved according to Death's Physique, stretching his limbs to the extreme and straining his muscles. Several times, it even sounded like his bones were breaking. Beta had sweat pouring down his body like rivers. His clothes were completely drenched. He felt all of his energy slipping out of his body, getting weaker and weaker, but he still persevered on. Beta forced himself to continue following the movements and only stopped once his body fell down on its own.

"It still isn't enough? Even after all this effort, I'm not able to kill myself?"

If someone had heard Beta say that, they would've thought that he has gone crazy. Who else would complain about not being able to kill themselves? Yet here he is, a big oddball, with a deathwish. Feeling frustrated but still didn't want to give up, Beta had no other choice than to do it again. Once the energizing effect of Death's Body started affecting his body, he chose to continue his training. With the fresh energy he got, he had it easier at the beginning which made him question his actions. He didn't want it to be easier. He expected it to be harder since he wanted to die after all. Soon, he noticed that his earlier assumptions were for naught. After the energy vanished, his body suddenly felt very heavy. Even with all the energy he had, Beta only managed to barely scratch on the fifth movement out of the 62 movements he needed to master. When he fell down this time, he noticed that he was a bit more tired than earlier.

"Yes! This might really work!", Beta said with a smile, feeling more enthusiastic.

He then started his endless body cultivation. Every time after he fell down, he would get new energy and start exercising again in an endless cycle. He didn't have a chance to rest at all. If he rested for a little bit, all of the effort he put into it would be gone. That wasn't the only reason why Beta didn't dare to delay any longer. He didn't know how long it would take for him to die and neither did he know how long he would need to be in the dark world. The goal was to succeed within one week, so there was no time to spare for something like rest.

After the 37th rotation, he finally did it. Beta managed to kill himself. When he got there, he didn't feel any of the exhaustion that had accumulated over time. Practicing in Death's Physique wasn't just strenuous for his body. Doing these movements over and over again took a toll on him. But now that he finally got what he wanted, he felt relieved. At last, he's back to this place. It really was the place that he felt comfortable with the most.

He was floating within the darkness, not too far away from the soul river. Seeing the familiar space around him, he felt great, as if coming home after a long workday. He flew closer to the river, inspecting it closely. There was still a boundless amount of souls flying a certain path. Every now and then, there was a strong soul that didn't yet seem to be completely under the rivers curse. These souls looked at Beta curiously, but in the end looked away, following their path dutifully.

Some may be creeped out by such things, Beta, on the other hand, felt like he saw people he was very close to. He waved at them happily and then sat down with crossed legs. He took a deep breath and then followed his teachers' instructions. He listened to his environment. He heard the wailing of souls and the unending silence surrounding it. Beta became serene. Next, he tried to blend into his surroundings. He slowly started to feel the aura around him. It was an aura of death, so thick that it almost had substance. It felt like he would be able to take a mug and fill it with the aura, if he just tried to. When he felt that aura linger on his body, Beta didn't try to block it. He let the aura enter his body through his pores and even opened his mouth, hoping to take in even more. He wasn't afraid of this aura. This aura was going to be his, so if he was afraid of it, wouldn't he be afraid of his own power? That would be ridiculous.

Not long after, he felt something change inside him. But it wasn't the warm feeling his teacher had described to him, it was a coldness that exceeded anything he has felt before. Much more chilling than any of the freezers the dead bodies in his childhood had been in.

"Did I do something wrong? Did I possibly fail?"

He thought about it but quickly threw that thought away.

"It must be that different elements have different effects to them! I'll just continue and see what happens. It's not like it's a coldness that could kill me anyway. Actually, it feels like a cold bath in summer, quite refreshing."

So, again with a smile on his face, he continued absorbing the aura. However, what he didn't know was that normally, even the ice element would feel warm when you got it. Due to his limited knowledge about soulpower, his innocence led him to walk a new path, different than the others. Suddenly, Beta felt something in his body. It was the orb the old man had gifted him back then. It released a warm stream that filled up his whole body while absorbing the aura of death, refining it at the same time.

"What is it doing? But… it seems to be strengthening my body so I'll just observe for now. I doubt the old man would try to hurt me. If he truly wanted to, he could just swat me like a fly. Also, even if I wanted to obstruct the process, I still wouldn't know how.", thought Beta while still continuing to absorb the aura.

After several hours of meditating, he suddenly felt a cold stream inside his veins. It followed along the path until it reached the heart, where it finally settled down. Noticing that, Beta was excited. Finally, he successfully obtained soulpower. It was only a little thread for now, but it still brought Beta endless joy.

"Looks like I won't be expelled. I wonder how my soulpower compares to others'.", he thought with a big smile.

Just when he was about to stand up, another stream was released. But that was not all. Shortly after, a second stream got released too. At first, Beta was confused but he quickly figured out that it was coming from the two energy sources he had in his body. As he thought about that, information started flooding inside his mind. He felt a huge headache coming. It felt as if someone cut open his head, put nails in, closed it up again, and then shook it heavily. It was horrible. However, it was tolerable enough since the practice he had to underwent to get into the world of darkness was even worse. Hence, he was able to stay calm and collected. As he got the information, he sorted and inspected it.

"This is incredible... I got Death's Soul, which is the perfect fit for Death's Physique. It cultivates the soul and gives instructions on how to use it in the most efficient way. Then there's also a technique from my parents..."

Beta stopped for a while before looking through the information. Only after taking in a deep breath did he check it.

"Surgeon's Rule... It has a wide range of uses. It mainly involves using scalpels to get new body parts and similar things like that. It appears that my father hid quite a lot from me, this technique is much better than the crude things I used to do.", he lamented with a sigh.

When he came to that point, he suddenly felt something pulling him. it pulled so hard that the river was out of sight in seconds.

As Beta opened his eyes, he felt his body aching all over. Energy slowly started filling up his body again. This time, it was very slow though. It took hours until he was able to even move as much as his hand. However, that wasn't what Beta focused on. The first thing he did when he got back was trying to feel his soulpower.

"Phew, it's there... I was a bit worried that I can't take it back with me, but it seems like there's no problem at all...Hmm… I wonder how much time passed..."