Ten years passed like a sigh at the Celestial Peak. To the common disciples of the Eternal Lotus Sect, Yun Caos was just a silent orphan living under the direct protection of the Grand Elder. What no one knew was that while other youths practiced basic forms of martial arts and absorbed atmospheric Qi, Yun Caos was undergoing training that would destroy any ordinary human being.
Lin Shara kept him in an isolated cave, where gravity was manipulated by runic formations to be five times higher than that of the surface.
"The Qi of the world is too weak for your bones, Yun," Shara would say, watching the youth sitting in the lotus position on a block of obsidian. "If you try to cultivate like the others, your crystal bones will never truly awaken. You need pressure."
Yun's initial training did not involve elegant technique scrolls. It consisted of Absolute Body Tempering. Every day, he was forced to dive into a cauldron of boiling medicinal essences, extracted from rare herbs that grew in areas of elemental chaos.
Inside the cauldron, the pain he had felt at birth returned in smaller waves. The purple thread in his heart pulsed furiously. The energy of the herbs tried to invade his flesh, but it was immediately intercepted by his crystal bones. The bones acted as sovereign filters: they absorbed the raw essence, refined it through the purple light, and returned it to his muscles and meridians.
"Once more!" Shara commanded, launching a palm of energy against the boy's chest.
The blow, which would break the ribs of an adult warrior, only produced a metallic sound upon hitting Yun's chest. The impact did not wound him; instead, the force of the blow was absorbed by his bones, which glowed intensely under his skin before neutralizing the energy.
"My flesh is still my weak point," Yun murmured, his voice calm and deep for a ten-year-old. "My bones are indestructible, but my skin still bleeds."
"Exactly," Shara replied. "Your body is like a leather sheath protecting a divine sword. If the sheath is weak, the sword will tear it from the inside. You must force the purple energy out of your bones so that it permeates every fiber of your flesh."
Yun closed his eyes and focused on the tiny purple whirlpool in his heart. He didn't try to pull the Qi in; he tried to push the energy from his bones out.
Suddenly, a snap echoed through the cave. An aura of purple dust began to leak from his pores, forming a thin mist around him. The stone floor beneath him began to disintegrate, not from weight, but because the Chaos energy was "devouring" the surrounding matter, turning solid mineral into nothingness to sustain Yun.
At that moment, Shara realized with dread that Yun's training had surpassed the physical stage. He wasn't just getting stronger; he was beginning to convert the environment around him into pure Chaos.
"Enough for today," Shara said with a tone of urgency. "If you continue, you will destroy this mountain before you turn twelve."
Yun stood up with haunting ease. As he walked, he left no footprints, but where his feet touched, the stone became smooth and glassy. He looked at his own hands, where tiny purple sparks still danced.
"Elder, I feel there is something inside my bones... a kind of memory," Yun said, looking at the horizon. "The dust wants me to find the rest of it."
Shara turned pale. She knew that the initial training was coming to an end. Soon, she would have nothing left to teach him, and the world, with all its dangers and greed, would begin to feel the hunger of the God of Chaos.