A bright moon hung high in the sky, its silver light shining upon all heaven and earth.

On a mountain peak that towered into the clouds, a cold and aloof young woman dressed in men’s martial robes sat cross-legged on the icy snow. The spiritual energy around her surged into her body like a tide. Suddenly, the aura about her sharply intensified; she had clearly achieved a breakthrough in her cultivation.

‘I’ve finally entered the Qi Refining Stage.’

The cold and aloof young woman opened her eyes, and feeling the changes within her body, an excited smile emerged on her face. Perhaps because her emotions were too stirred, the cultivation level she had just broken through showed signs of regressing. Without time to think further, she immediately adjusted her state of mind, closed her eyes, and resumed cultivating. It was not until dawn that she managed to stabilize her cultivation.

‘It’ll be daylight soon.’

The cold and aloof young woman looked at the bright moon that had already sunk to the west, halted the cultivation method still in operation, stood up, and practiced a set of body-strengthening fist techniques on the spot. After she finished the set, the glow of dawn appeared at the horizon. Under the morning glow, a thick white smoke rose from the cold and aloof young woman’s body. Once the smoke dispersed, she had transformed into a handsome fifteen-year-old youth.

Although (s)he had experienced the change of gender many times, every time Yun Hanshuang switched, he still found it miraculous. What Yun Hanshuang found even more miraculous was that after turning into a male body, not a single ripple of spiritual power emanated from him, just like a mortal, yet he could still use magic. Yun Hanshuang formed hand seals with both hands, and in no time, a head-sized ice ball was condensed. Looking at the ice ball, an expression of pure excitement filled his face.

‘Half a year ago, I was a waste deemed incapable of cultivation. Now, I’ve broken the shackles of my physique and stepped onto the path of immortality.’

* * *

Yun Hanshuang was born into the Yun family, one of the three great cultivation clans of Moonview City. Half a year ago, at the age of fourteen, he had tested for a single-attribute ice spiritual root, and the purity of that spiritual root reached one hundred percent. Yet before Yun Hanshuang could rejoice, another gleam on the Spiritual Measurement Tablet struck him like a hammer.

For that gleam indicated that he had awakened a special physique. It’s not that awakening a special physique is bad; for the vast majority, the physique they awaken offers some assistance to their cultivation or combat, and some can even allow the awakener to ascend to the heavens in a single step.

However, some people are very unfortunate; the physique they awaken not only fails to help them but instead serves as a shackle. And such was the special physique Yun Hanshuang awakened. Being male by birth, he awakened the Profound Yin Physique of extreme yin attribute.

In the cultivation world, there is a rule: anyone who awakens a physique that clashes with their attribute can never draw qi into their body in this lifetime. This rule has never been broken. If Yun Hanshuang had been a daughter, the ice attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root combined with the blessing of the Profound Yin Physique would have ensured his future achievements were limitless.

But as it happened, Yun Hanshuang was male, and the Profound Yin Physique clashed with the yang nature of his male existence, preventing him from drawing qi into his body. Initially, Yun Hanshuang did not accept this fate. He could sense the existence of spiritual energy and refused to believe he could not draw it into his body. But after trying many methods, he was still unable to draw qi into his body. In the end, utterly disheartened, Yun Hanshuang chose to travel abroad, and after bidding farewell to his parents, he embarked on his journey.

Four months ago, Yun Hanshuang arrived at a mortal village. This village was named Heavenly Wolf Village because of a mountain that resembled a howling celestial wolf. Upon seeing the beautiful environment of Heavenly Wolf Village, Yun Hanshuang settled down there. Because he was amiable and also enthusiastically taught the village children martial arts, he quickly became familiar with the local villagers.

* * *

One day, as usual, Yun Hanshuang was teaching the village children fist techniques when the village chief suddenly rushed into his courtyard, shouting for him to go and help rescue people. Yun Hanshuang helped the panting village chief sit down on a chair before asking about the matter.

“Chief, don’t panic. What happened?”

“Young Master Yun, you must help. Now, in this village, you’re the only one who can help with this.”

The moment he sat down, the village chief implored Yun Hanshuang for help. Perhaps because he was too anxious, he only kept asking for help without saying what it was about. In the end, under Yun Hanshuang’s calming, the chief finally relaxed and recounted the whole story. It turned out that every year at this season, the village would organize the villagers to go into the mountains to hunt, in order to prevent the mountain animals from multiplying too much and coming down to destroy the crops.

In previous years, the villagers never encountered any fierce beasts when hunting in the mountains. This year, however, no one knew why, but as soon as they entered the mountains they ran into many wild boars. This phenomenon had never occurred before, so they all grew cautious and wanted to retreat to the village, planning to report to the authorities and let them handle it.

But before they could begin to withdraw, they were surrounded and attacked by the wild boars, and finally cornered inside a cave. The villagers thought that this group of wild boars would at most surround them for a day or two before leaving. But what they hadn’t expected was that the group of wild boars acted as if someone was commanding them; they even took turns guarding the front of the cave, as if intent on trapping them to death inside.

When they saw their rations and drinking water dwindling, the villagers started to panic. If the stalemate with the wild boars continued, they would surely starve to death in the cave. Finally, the village chief’s son, Yang Hao, stepped forward and decided to return to the village himself to seek help.

“In a moment, help me draw the attention of those wild boars. I will definitely return with reinforcements.”

“We’ll wait for you. And be extremely careful.”

The villagers all trusted Yang Hao’s character and were not worried he would break his word. They gathered all the firecrackers they carried, tied them together, lit them, and hurled them at the boars.

Boom~

One unlucky boar was killed outright, throwing the herd into temporary panic as they scurried wildly in place. Yang Hao took this opportunity to quietly leave the cave and cautiously sneak away into the distance.

Roar~

Suddenly, a tremendous beast roar rang out. The panicked herd of boars instantly calmed down and continued to guard the cave just as before. Yang Hao had barely left the cave when he heard that beast roar. Then the earth began to tremble, and a wild boar as tall as a two-story building appeared before his eyes.

Fortunately, the moment Yang Hao felt the earth shake, he had climbed up a large tree to hide. His distance from the giant boar was not too close, so the beast did not detect his presence. The moment Yang Hao saw the giant boar, he began to worry about the villagers in the cave, and his determination to get the message out grew even firmer.

Though Yang Hao was extremely careful, just as he was about to leave the mountain range, he was discovered by the boar herd. In the end, he relied on his profound true qi to fight his way out and flee back to Heavenly Wolf Village, sustaining very severe injuries in the process. Holding on solely through his strong conviction and concern for the villagers, Yang Hao only collapsed unconscious after telling the village chief everything from start to finish.

After hearing Yang Hao’s account, the village chief immediately had someone fetch a physician to treat his son. He also sent men to report the matter to the town authorities, while he himself ran to plead for Yun Hanshuang’s help. For he knew that this recently settled Young Master Yun was very powerful, stronger than anyone he had ever seen in his life.

Indeed, in martial arts, Yun Hanshuang was exactly as the village chief thought. Although the Yun family was a cultivation clan, before the young members began cultivating immortal methods, besides studying various scholarly skills, they also had to learn mortal martial arts. With the aid of the family’s medicinal pills, Yun Hanshuang had already become an Innate Master by the age of ten.

In the mortal world, this was practically the peak of existence, which was why his parents felt at ease letting him travel the mortal world alone. After listening to the village chief’s words, Yun Hanshuang left the children with him, retrieved a blade from his room, and headed straight up the mountain.

In truth, the moment he heard the village chief say the boars seemed to be under someone’s command, Yun Hanshuang already had a guess in his heart. But he would need to see it with his own eyes to confirm. So even if it were not to save the villagers, Yun Hanshuang would still have gone into the mountains. And it was precisely because of this trip that he was able to change his fate of being unable to cultivate.