Rydel went for a final upgrade before trying a plan that could potentially lead to his death. This time he did the ritual in the open, next to his cultivation chamber. He willed the Moon to purify his bucket of milk, ran to the safety of his cave, and watched the process with awe. The red cloud was three times as big and its form shifted to different types of fruits. Apples, coconuts, cherries, dragonfruit, watermelon, each fruit was represented, and those were just the small minority, there were also bizarre shapes of unknown fruits. The silver cloud didn’t seem to want to lose and formed the shape of a fox. She had five tails that were raised and aimed at the red cloud. Her appearance was illusory, but the regal and majestic aura was unmistakable. Rydel felt a pleasant sensation when looking at the silver cloud, both his aura and that of the fox shared a hint of similarity. The fox had a haughty expression and looked down at the fruit. This time she didn’t devour it, just dispersed it with a swing of her paw, like it was beneath her to consume it. She then looked at Rydel and nodded before dispersing. Rydel took the bucket and returned to his chamber. He was sure that he saw intelligence behind the fox’s eyes, there was no doubt of it. He instinctively knew that it was a ‘her’ too, her presence was enough to radiate truths, and as it was muted, he could glean some matters. She understood some Dao related to the Moon, and her comprehension was leagues above his own. Following the system’s terminology, if his Dao was a drop in the ocean, hers was the entire ocean. There were some other concepts mixed there too, that he couldn’t even begin to understand. And this was just from a cloud that may not even have a wisp of her consciousness. At the very least, she should be aware of his presence in the cave, and she wasn’t annoyed. Maybe she thought of him like a fly buzzing around that it wasn’t worth the time to squash. The feelings of approval that he received were from her, of that he was sure. If he wanted more answers he’d have to go to the mini-Moon. But first, he had to take advantage of all the resources that he could. The fox may kick him out of the cave, but she couldn’t take the treasures that he had already consumed. And if she could, then it was his bad luck. Rydel was prepared to drink the milk, its color was more intense and the liquid was swirling. He didn’t doubt and just drank the whole thing. He didn’t feel anything special, neither pain nor pleasure. Even its flavor was plain like water. He investigated his situation, he looked around and everything was the same. Rydel sighed, it was a failu- Rydel blinked and looked at the ceiling. When did he lay down? He tried to stand up, but he was glued to the ground. He looked and noticed that he was in a pool of goo, just that it was solidified. For the impurities to become like this, at the very least a month had to pass. Rydel groaned, this sucked. At the very least, he was used to the smell. He cleaned everything and gathered the impurities in a jar to later dispose of. He could neither bury nor burn it, even underground the smell kept coming, and the smoke that was generated by burning it was illegal in more than one elven settlement. Rydel noted that he lost 10kg more. The sensation of wrongness increased this time he didn’t feel strong and invigorated. He hit the air and his strength was the same, but his body was numb and tired. Rydel hoped that this was his body acclimatizing. This time, Rydel didn’t choose the sneaky route, he needed to kill two middle E-grade, and even if he ambushed them it’d be the same. He concentrated and formed a light green gaseous armor, its pattern was simple with some silver lines interwoven. He was already transformed and empowered his legs in preparation. Rydel was 100m away from a pack of crown melon crows. He used his Gate of Lunacy at the leader and ran away. He made sure that he was always on its line of vision. The pack was left behind in confusion, only the leader was following him. It sent him air slashes that he evaded, it wasn’t easy but with his dexterity it wasn’t dangerous. The crow beat his wings together and produced sound vibrations that made his ears bleed. He had put earplugs in anticipation of this, but it was of no use. Rydel was thankful that his body was durable, as even some rocks on his path were being crushed by the pressure. The crow was toying with him, he continued throwing sound blasts that only grazed him. His body was in a deplorable state after suffering from the leftover energy, if it hit him a couple of times, he'd die. That was the difference between him and middle E-grade beast. Rydel continued running, his ears were in a bad state, he had lost hearing from his left and he couldn’t use his right arm. His ligaments were destroyed and the bones crushed. Even then, Rydel continued running. Twenty minutes later, Rydel found his objective. Gate of Lunacy’s effect had long run off, the crow was chasing him out of spite. They encountered a medium size herd of pumpkin rhinos, with the leader being middle E-grade. Rydel was relieved but didn’t lose his focus. He made a last dash evading the rhinos on his way, until he was in front of the leader. It looked at him with anger but didn’t immediately attack. That was his mistake. Rydel made a jump and stood on its back. He then looked at the crow and used his Gate of Lunacy. It immediately attacked the rhino with an air slash. The rhino was prepared, it shot a round of pumpkin seeds and growled in anger. Rydel used this moment to jump again to the side, looked at the rhino’s eyes, and ran away. Rydel waited in the periphery of the battle. The crow had kept shooting attacks that infuriated the already maddened rhino. The battle became more ferocious with each passing second. The rhino shot a whole pumpkin that exploded and destroyed the crow’s wing. The crow didn’t take it lying down and used spiritual attacks. Its remaining feathers were enveloped in a green haze, it used his wing as a sword and cut the rhino down. The rhino couldn’t care less, it used his horn to pierce a hole in the chest of the crow. As if a light injury like this would prevent the crow from attacking. Its beak turned yellow and retaliated, piercing the rhino too. Both exchanged attacks, without thinking about the consequences nor lowering the intensity. The only thing in each other's eyes was death for their enemy. And indeed, that was how they died. Their eyes bulged in pure madness, with just a hint of despair. Rydel had watched the entire fight in the shadows, he covered himself in his Mantle of Night when nobody was looking and kept waiting. When the fight ended, he quickly stored the corpses. He had been the mantis in this story, and he didn’t want to wait for the oriole. Rydel returned to his cultivation chamber. He was surprised about the intensity of the fight. It wasn’t about the levels of the attacks used, if he was being honest, they couldn’t truly do anything to him. He could evade them with ease. The problem was their endurance, the number of blows that they could resist was above what he could send. If Rydel could use twenty full-powered attacks with his spiritual energy, they could tank about a hundred before dying. Of course, it was also a matter of experience, if he landed some lethal blows he could try it, but it was dangerous. And that was counting that both were at the bottom of middle E-grade. If they were at the end of the spectrum, then he could forget about winning. This was because beast classes usually tended to endurance builds, even the crows that were mostly spirit-orientated, had a good percentage of their attributes assigned to endurance. If he was against a mage elf, then he could try to win. If he didn’t die before coming close, of course, he also had to factorize the experience and intelligence of the sapient races. It was difficult to say the outcome then, attributes didn’t mean anything when your neck was pierced by a hidden arrow and decapitated. Finally, it was time to end his purification journey. He had already been here for about 8 months, but it was so worth it. As you became stronger, your impurities grew with you and became more entrenched with your being. It grew to a point that they were almost impossible to eliminate. It made your cultivation path more difficult, and your foundations shakier. In an ideal world, everyone would get rid of them when your body was in F-grade and you were a mere mortal. But the resources needed were so many and rare that it was just a pipe dream. Rydel thanked his lucky star that he had encountered this opportunity. If he encountered the fox, he’d kiss her on the forehead and thank her from his heart. Rydel repeated the ritual for both the rhino’s body and the T-shaped bone of the crow. He concluded that he didn’t feel anything the first time because his body was so overwhelmed that it just shut down. It happened again with the black-soup. He woke up a month later and rested for a whole week before continuing with the last step. He had lost another 10kg as predicted, Rydel kept going without thinking about the reasons. Rydel saw literal stars when the time came to the purification of his soul. He didn’t feel any pain, but his sense of time was dilated. Minutes felt like hours, and days like years. He relived all the memories of this actual life, the good and the bad, he longed for his home, his clan full of people that he cared about. He relived his past life too, the bad and the good, he saw his mistakes, his depression, and his regrets. The faces that he tried to forget. His ending was blurry, he almost reached the conclusion of what happened, but he didn’t dare to advance. Everything must meet his ending, this cycle was no exception. At last, Rydel came back to the real world. Rydel felt exhausted, dull, and weakened. He wasn’t able to properly move, he was apathetic to doing it too. He looked down, his arms were sickly pale and his body was emaciated. Rydel checked, he was already 11 years old, which meant that he had spent three months unconscious. He didn’t care, he left his cave and slowly walked out. He didn’t feel like doing anything, but a shining spark was holding him together. He went around for some days, eating was just preventing his collapse, he didn’t recuperate. He found Donut, she was a good girl. Rydel patted her with care and mounted on her back. At first, she didn’t recognize him, it was only with his pats that she made the connection and allowed him. Rydel looked at the bright silver sphere floating in the air and urged the two strawberry cows to lead the way. To where his heart was being called.