"Thus, I feel giving you this secret is the least I could do, and it would have been much more complete if I had a cultivation technique for you to cultivate this energy but I don't…"

"The one I use was made with the mindset of cultivating within the Land of the Light…"

Uncle Min sighed in self-ridicule and shook his head in defeat;

"You gave us a complete life, but I can't even give you a complete method to cultivate; I guess even after all that's happened, I am still incredibly useless..." Uncle Min muttered absentmindedly…

Dara simply looked at him with a smile, but he was crazily bursting with joy on the inside…

This was because the technique he had gotten from the Dark Soul's memories had the perfect solution to the problem Uncle Min thought he had…

The Numen of Ancient Scholars technique had two volumes, and they were termed;

[The Testaments of Ancient Devas] and [The Testaments of Ancient Asuras];

and from what he could understand, the Asura part of this cultivation technique involved using unholy and unorthodox Qi gotten from either Demonic Qi, Death Qi or Dual Cultivation and many other unorthodox means…

Then the Deva part of this cultivation involved using Holy and Orthodox Qi gotten from nature or treasures…

Furthermore, the Asura part of this technique was a body cultivation method whilst the Deva part was Qi cultivation method which made this technique a perfect Body and Qi cultivation technique…

But the only drawback for now was the fact that Dara could only still access only the first paragraphs of both paths of this cultivation technique, and from what he could tell, this first paragraph must refer to the Qi Creation realm…

But Dara still wasn't overly bothered because he could sense that the rest of the techniques were present, and perhaps he would simply need to get strong enough to a level where he can withstand the strain of getting the second chapter from the Dark Soul's memories…

'I would simply start cultivating in the body path first then…'

Dara thought to himself in delight, but he managed to display a composed expression so as not to give away his secrets…

"I can feel it within me; that my meridians would reveal themselves soon enough, and by then I will use your method and try cultivating as you have spoken…"

"If I can luckily find a way to cultivate the technique, then that means the luck of my parents and sister is with me, and if not, the worst that could happen is that I might ruin my meridians, but I would still be alive though, since the Death Qi cannot kill me…"

Dara spoke as Uncle Min brought out a patch of beast skin where some scribblings were written atop;

"That is the technique; I want you to memorize it because I am going to burn it in the next one hour…"

Uncle Min handed the patch of skin to Dara and stood up as he prepared to return into the apartment;

"Then as for the smoke in the distance, it looks like a battle between humans, or perhaps humans and the beats and monsters that roam this lands, and since only your village can produce such vast amounts of manpower whilst also being close to the Grey Lands, then I strongly predict that they might be the one there…"

He said as he walked away, leaving Dara to memorize the contents within the beast skin…

Dara began to read the technique with which he could cultivate the Qi of these lands, and he had to say, Uncle Min's father was a really wise man…

Though, he didn't describe much about how someone born within the Grey or Dark Lands should cultivate this Qi, he only had the insinuation that since they were born here, they should not face the danger of having a part of their body die just to obtain the purest Qi on the planet…

But as for Dara who already had a cultivation technique which used the exact type of Qi, he only needed to separate the Death aura when opening his meridians, but after that, he would simply directly absorb the Death Qi directly…

"The natural laws of the universe that maintains balance…"

"In a land filled with death, hopelessness and terror, it still managed to supplement it with the purest form of energy that keeps supplying life to it anyways…"

Dara shook his head in wonder as he gained a deeper understanding about balance…

"I better keep a very solid balance between my cultivation paths in the future…" Dara soliloquized and took a mental note of it…

"I am already in the final training phase; the Flesh Strengthening stage, which  not only strengthens my flesh but also expands the pores in every part of my body to allow a much freer and better exchange of natural energy between me and nature…"

In less than half an hour, Dara was done reading and then went to find Uncle Min who had already found Aunt Lin and they all gathered together in front of the ring of fire;

"This is the last thing that ties me with my father and everyone and everything I have known within the Land of Light…"

"I severe my connections with all of them by burning this secret here today…"

Uncle Min spoke with a tone drenched in melancholy as he dropped the patch of beast skin into the ring of fire and watched it burn…

"The Land of Light…"

"Filled with so many cultivators and very few amount of energy, and as a result, those with power kill and banish their own kin just to reduce the amount of mouth being fed by the natural energy…"

"They believe that, by eliminating the competition, they would have much more energy to cultivate with…"

"They believe they are searching for power, not knowing that the power they so much crave for had begun to control them already…"

"Otherwise, why would one's own father banish his little girl into the Grey Land?"

"Why would the leaders scheme against innocent people just to add the little resources they own to their own pockets?"

When Uncle Min that first statement, Aunt Lin had water well up in her eyes, threatening to spill out at the slightest shake of her head, causing Dara to understand that she was the daughter whose own father had banished into the Grey Lands all in the name of gaining strength…

'What a useless world!'

Dara almost retched in disgust when he began to understand how things worked on Planet Jok…

Then after having about another half an hour of silence and reflection on their pasts, the trio returned to their shelter whilst explosions continued to echo from every direction within the Grey and Dark Lands, accompanied by roars and growls of different beasts albeit very far away from the plateau…

The entire day then passed silently with no one saying anything, as they simply had their dinner and slept off…

The next day however, Aunt Lin saw Dara once again and apologized for her previous behavior as they eventually began to talk once again, and it was then that Aunt Lin explained what happened after the Lion/Dog looking beast gave him a solid kick, and how they had feared he had died because he was neither breathing, and not was his heart beating…

They had dug a grave for him already and placed him into it after about 12 hours of finding not even the slightest pulse…

She told Dara that they laid him within the grave and wept at his loss, and it was in the same moment that they started pouring sand on his supposed corpse that they saw him twitch slightly, and after wards, they removed him from the pit and ripped of his blood soaked clothes and applied some of the herbs she had gathered from within the jungle to help him faster…

She also explained that they had no choice but to resort to chasing the beast away with fire whilst they killed the massive pig looking beast for food…

'So I was practically dead for some minutes back then?'

Dara thought to himself as his desire to possess enough strength and fighting prowess surged within his heart…

After a bit of more talk, Dara went to the base of the plateau and complimented himself for being wise enough to put a ten meter space between the ring of water and the base of the plateau, because now, he had a place to stand whilst he began his work…

He went to the opposite end of the plateau and dug about three meters into the base of the plateau itself, before he then began to dig downwards, deep into the earth…

Just like that, Dara began another digging process; one that would serve as his cultivation spot, whilst the process of digging would serve as a training process to further increase his flesh strengthening process…

This also served as a means to further improve the rest of his physical features because; the deeper he dug into the ground, the colder, darker and wetter the pit felt whilst the air also grew thinner because the rate at which he released CO2 was much more than the available oxygen that was present deep within the pit…

Dara's life went on this way for the next few weeks until the first month of the three month long season of war had passed…

Within that time, not only did Dara dig a 50 meter deep and five meter wide hole beneath the plateau, he also managed to reach the peak of the flesh strengthening stage…

The one morning, something strange happened, several plumes of grey energy began to hover around Dara's body, sticking to his skin but not entering, making them look like illusory images of numerous leeches on him…

He rushed over to Uncle Min who was basking in the light with Aunt Lin on the makeshift reclining chair Dara had made the previous week…

When Aunt Lin saw him, she was a little stunned, but Uncle Min on the other hand erupted in a roaring laughter as he tapped Dara on the shoulder;

"Soon little kid… Very soon… Your meridians are only a tad bit shying away from appearing now; but if you do some more training, they should reveal themselves in three days max!" Uncle Min blurted…