The Second Part of the Trial

There was a boy named Shui. His mother was the only daughter of the Patriarch of a small martial clan, but since he was made when she mated with an outsider, she was shunned by the entire clan. He was born a perfectly healthy boy, but he had the lowest talent in the clan. The Patriarch was on the fence when it came to deciding what to do with her and the child, but most of the clan already made their choice. With all of the elders and her second brother pushing for it, the Patriarch had no choice but to expel the two of them from the clan.

The boy's mother owned a shop in the nearby town so she didn't have any trouble getting by. However, her beautiful figure along with her lack of background drew greedy, lustful eyes. When she worked in the shop, it usually stopped at inappropriate comments and at worst, someone might grope her secretly, but she could endure it once she thought of her newborn son.

But things got serious when Shui reached two years old. His mother caught the eye of a very powerful merchant in Cyrus. He told her in no uncertain terms that if she didn't submit, he would destroy her business. This went against her core principles, but once again Shui's cute sleeping face stopped her from being headstrong. Unfortunately, she could no longer see him as a blessing, but a shackle. When she came back from that man's house, his was the face she didn't want to see the most. Instead, she tried to use alcohol to comfort herself.

As his mother sunk herself into daily drunken depression, some of the few employees she had quit. Not only did she become more irritable, the rumours that she sold her body to that merchant were being spread. By the time Shui was four, only three employees worked in her shop. Rather than his mother, these three women were the ones Shui saw more often, but he would still look at his mother from a corner as she drank herself to sleep. Shui thought his mother was like this because she was under a lot of stress to take care of him, so he deeply wished he could help her.

On his fifth birthday, Shui presented to her a cheap necklace he bought by saving up the money he got for helping around the shop. That adorable smiling face that showed her a gift in hope that she would smile back at him, was like a knife to the heart. He seemed to represent everything she had lost and in a rash state of drunken confusion, she swung the bottle in her hand at his head. Luckily, the bottle wasn't fragile enough to break, but it left a harsh bruise on his forehead.

Once she realised what she had done, she almost hugged him, but stopped right before her arms wrapped around him. She wondered how long had it been since she hugged her child. Though he felt like crying, Shui held it in since he saw his mother finally about to hug him. However, instead of hugging him, she patted him and showed him a face that made it look like she was the one who wanted to cry more.

The same night, his mother committed suicide.

"Ahhh!!!"

Shui experienced all of this in a dream. From the words he heard before this trial began, 'Hardships are plenty for the most brilliant of fates', he knew it would be rough. But, having to experience so much in the span of a single dream left him mentally drained. This time, he had control over his body, but not even his soul cultivation was left so he had trouble calming down. The dream ended two years after his mother committed suicide, the shop had less customers but it was just enough to support the three employees that were left and Shui. After she died, the powerful merchant didn't make any moves, it was as if they had never interacted. It was something to be grateful for, but it made Shui even more furious.

This was the closest Shui had ever been to experiencing the expression, 'to spit blood from anger'. The night cold seemed ineffective before his troubled heart. Even after adopting a meditative position, it took quite some time before he was able to calm down.

"It looks like this problem will test my perseverance."

In a sense, it was more straightforward than the first part of the trial, but the difficulty was still ridiculously high. He calmed down, but the intense desire to brutalise the man who made his mother like that was still inside him. He knew he couldn't do anything for the time being, and that this wasn't reality, but the hatred wasn't something that he could give up. Therefore he had to increase his strength within a short amount of time, and with his poor talent that would require money and resources.

Shui considered becoming an apprentice to a blacksmith, but that idea was quickly put away since he wouldn't be able to make the harmony series without enough strength and he didn't know if he would be able to trust the blacksmith he apprenticed under. He also thought about making a spirit gathering array, but he needed more money just for the materials, and without his soul cultivation it would be hard for him to succeed on his first try. For the same reasons, talismans were out as well.

"Urgh, I didn't think I would miss having money this much."

Even without his soul cultivation, Shui was smart enough to come up with several ways to make money but had to reject all of them since he didn't have enough capital or strength or both.

"Damn it. Isn't there any way I can make money with my knowledge without bringing too much attention to myself?"

Right as he said this, an decent idea popped up in his head. He would still need to get stronger but he could at least try it the quickest. Shui was enrolled in a martial academy so he had to go there in the morning, but there was something else he could take care of this night.

"Hehehe, I can't wait to taste those girls. It's too bad we'll only get two though."

"Yeah, we'll have to find a time when her husband's not around to take care of the other one."

Two men wearing black cloth over their faces were sneaking towards the clothing shop his mother owned. The first floor was for the business while the second floor was the living space for Shui and two of the three people who still worked in the store. After Suiri passed away, there were still vulgar men who wished to take advantage of these abandoned women but this was the boldest attempt so far.

Even without his soul cultivation, Shui was still able to sense these two since they didn't even restrain their auras. Given that they were planning on taking advantage of the two women who had very low cultivations, they likely thought that they didn't need to. Of course no one would be able to predict that the child living with them could provide any trouble.

The two swiftly made their way towards the shop, but when they were one street away, scraps of wood were suddenly thrown at them.

"Huh? What the hell."

They hastily looked around but couldn't find the culprit, however, an empty bottle of wine struck one of their heads. Still, he was in fifth level in the Mortal Realm so he didn't sustain any injuries.

"Ahh!! The heck!?"

He tried to find who did it but still, no one else was there. Instead of being angry, they began to be afraid. Since they were cultivators, they were well aware that ghosts and such beings truly existed so they couldn't brush this event off. They started backing up while carefully watching their surroundings.

Suddenly, a 'whoosh' sound came from behind them. While trembling, the two men slowly turned to look.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

It was dark so they could only see the outline, but once they saw the silhouette of a child being hanged by the neck with a rope despite the rope being attached to nothing, they hurriedly ran away while stumbling.