BTTH : Wandering Soul

This decision wasn't taken on a whim. It was based on his past 6 month's experience. He wasn't too much bothered by ridicules of clan mates, but rather need to increase his physical strength. He realized it after a month of losing his talent.

Although his talent was lost, and he still cultivated diligently, he knew relying solely on this wasn't going to be effective. So he turned to his physical body. He intended to increase his physical body strength using methods similar to his memory. 

He started with low difficulty. First he started simple exercises, like running, push ups and so on. Initially he would do just around 30 pushups and run 5 km per day. And this too was taking a toll on his body. Although cultivators body is strengthened by dou qi, its effect aren't apparent at initial stage like his Dou Zhi Li 3rd stage. And he would use dou qi to strengthen his body only after he was exhausted, until then he solely relied on his physical body.

Initially he'd be fully exhausted both physically and his dou qi would be depleted. After that he could barely cultivate. But still he kept up. After 15 days, when he started feeling comfortable with his new routine, he increased intensity of this exercise.

Although on surface it seemed like the benefits one could achieve relying solely on physical strength were far inferior to that of dou qi cultivation, both in efficiency and potential, there were a lot of benefits like they helped to consolidate instable realm, or in upper hand while battling someone with same realm. But along all of these as xiao yan's cultivation was stagnated, this was best possible method for him to reap benefits in the future.

This went on for around 2 months. He had gradually increased intensity of his training. Now he'd do around 200 pushups and run 30 km per day. Of course he would do half at dawn and remaining half at evening. Initially solely relying on physical body and then using dou qi to strengthen the body. And each session of training he would cultivate. Although he couldn't advance, he could still refill the depleted dou qi. And by repeating this process density of dou qi in his body increased.

People around him started to gossip about his new routine. Most were filled with ridicule, laughing at him for being crazy and whatnot. While few were with admiration to not give up. Even his father could see the painstaking efforts he was taking. But other than encourage him to not give up, he couldn't help him. 

Similar was story of xun er. Other than talk to him for what little time he was free, she too was helpless. But she didn't need to do anything as just talking with her xiao yan's mood would brighten.

At this point, instead of increasing number of pushups and running more distance, xiao yan decided to reduce the time required to do so. And he used this free time to make efforts in direction of soul. For alchemists soul power was very essential. Along with fire attribute mixed with little wood attribute, they must have strong soul power. In the refinement of pills, the three most important requirements are: The material, the flame and one's soul perception. Often Soul power is what prevents alchemists from refining high tier pills.

Simplest exercise he would do was light a candle, sit in front of it and concentrate his attention on candle. As time passed one would reach a limit, after that he wouldn't be able to concentrate. As days passed he could last longer and longer. It wasn't just about focusing on the candle, but rather filtering out all other attention grabbing things, and solely focus on one element.

This simple exercise couldn't be underestimated. Even high tier alchemists often used this or similar method. Along with this exercise xiao yan would go to mountains behind the clan, find a relative peaceful place. And closed his eyes and listen to all sounds. Then focus on one and filter all others. This was rather hard for ordinary person, as it requires high concentration as well as soul perception. 

He went on with this routine for a month. Although he got no significant benefits, he could feel subtle changes. He could focus for a lot longer and with more focused mind. Also he could filter out even subtle sound like falling leaves and accurately guess its location. And so he increased its difficulty as well. 

Now he focused on doing his physical exercises with less and less time. He would do these at dawn. After that cultivate for a while. Then have a meal. And after that soul related exercises. Now instead of doing them in peace, he did it while enduring some kind of physical strain. Like in winter, he'd do these exercises of focus, concentration while being submerged in lake up to nek. He had also started memory related exercise. So he'd often do it while submerged in lake at midnight, while trying to remember various medicinal ingredients. He had asked his father for basics alchemist related books. Although they didn't contain direct information related to alchemy, they still helped him being introduced to variety of ingredients, and their properties, which tier recipes they could be used and so on. This helped him in at least identifying some common medicinal ingredients and how to know their quality. So he used these for his memory training.

This went on for a while. It was now 5 months since xiao yan lost his cultivation talent. His routine certainly had subtle effects he could sense in his daily life. But his main concern was that he had no idea how much his physical strength has increased and what level higher opponent he could fight. Also physical pain was one of the most important means to tamper body. And with his current surroundings it wasn't possible to fight life-and-death battles, which was the most effective way to tamper the body while gaining valuable experience. So he at least wanted to suffer some pain to understand if that was feasible approach in his path.

And the opportunity came soon!