The news that a menial laborer, an eleven-year-old orphan no less, had been granted a spot in the Beast Taming Hall's annual Aptitude Test spread through the lower echelons of the Green Mountain Sect like a foul wind. In the dilapidated huts of the other laborers, it was a topic of hushed, envious whispers. Most were simply baffled, attributing it to the boy's dumb luck in stumbling upon the sturgeon's secret. A bitter few saw it as a gross injustice, a slap in the face to their years of thankless servitude.
Among the outer disciples, the reaction was one of scorn and ridicule. The story became a running joke. The tale of the "lucky fish-feeder" who would surely make a fool of himself was a source of great amusement. For a disciple's spot to be given to someone who was effectively a slave was an insult to their status. Li Jie, in particular, was said to have flown into a rage upon hearing the news, smashing several pieces of furniture in his quarters. The object of his humiliation was now being elevated, and it was a thorn he could not abide.
Li Yu was blissfully unaware of most of this. His world had shrunk to a singular, intense focus. The day after his summons, he was moved from his crude shack into a small, clean, private hut located in a secluded area between the common pens and the specialized ponds reserved for the Hall's more valuable beasts. It was still humble, but it had a real bed, a small desk, and a window. To Li Yu, it was a palace.
Elder Ning did not speak to him again directly. Instead, one of her personal disciples, a quiet, serious young woman named Sister Feng, delivered a set of new instructions. He was relieved of his normal duties. His new title was "Apprentice Observer." His only task was to study. She left him with a stack of three books. The first was a basic primer titled «An Introduction to Demonic Beasts», the second was «Common Aquatic Ailments and Cures», and the third was a thin but dense volume called «The Principles of Affinity».
That night, Li Yu did not immediately begin his cultivation. He lit the small oil lamp on his desk and opened the first book. As he read, a new world opened up to him. The knowledge he possessed was innate, a chaotic flood of feelings and instincts. These books provided the structure, the language, to understand what he already knew.
He learned the official ranking system. The Green-Scaled Carp were Rank 1 Demonic Beasts, creatures of pure instinct, their strength roughly equivalent to a cultivator in the first three stages of the Body Tempering Realm. The Iron-Skinned Piranhas and the Azure-Finned Eels were Rank 2 Vicious Beasts, possessing rudimentary cunning and power on par with the middle stages of Body Tempering. This was why Brother Chen, at the Sixth Stage, had been so terrified of falling into Lake Obsidian; he was on their level, and they had the advantage of numbers and environment.
The books gave names to the feelings he sensed, context to the instincts he perceived. He devoured the texts, his mind a dry sponge soaking up every drop of information. The theoretical knowledge, combined with his unparalleled practical experience, created a foundation of understanding that would be the envy of any disciple.
After he finished reading, he began his nightly cultivation. His new, secluded location was a blessing. He could push his absorption to its limits without fear of being discovered. The potent Qi from Lake Obsidian flooded his body, strengthening his foundation at the Sixth Stage and slowly, inexorably, pushing him towards the Seventh.
A week into his new routine, Sister Feng appeared again. She led him to a small, isolated enclosure containing a single, mossy pond. In the center of the pond, sitting on a large, flat rock, was a toad. It was the size of a large melon, its skin a warty, deep green color. What was most striking, however, was the third eye in the center of its forehead. The eye was closed, but it seemed to pulse with a faint, dormant energy.
"This is a Three-Eyed Spirit Toad," Sister Feng said, her voice devoid of emotion. "It is a Rank 3 Spirit Beast."
Li Yu's breath caught in his throat. A Rank 3 beast. According to the primer, its power was equivalent to a cultivator in the highest stages of the Body Tempering Realm, from the Seventh to the Ninth Stage. It was a creature that could likely kill every outer disciple in the Aquatic Pens with ease.
"It was recently captured and brought to the sect, but it refuses to eat," Sister Feng continued. "It rejects all food, even live spirit insects. It is slowly wasting away. Elder Ning's orders are simple: you are to observe it. You are not to enter the enclosure. You are not to attempt to tame it. You are simply to watch it and record your observations. This will be your task until the Aptitude Test."
She left him with a writing brush and a stack of bamboo slips before departing, leaving Li Yu alone with the sullen creature.
For three days, Li Yu did exactly as he was told. He sat outside the enclosure from sunrise to sunset, simply watching. The toad did not move. It sat on its rock like a lumpy green statue, its third eye remaining shut. It ignored the live, wriggling spirit crickets that were placed on the rock for it.
But Li Yu was not just watching with his eyes. He was watching with his spirit. He extended his senses, gently probing the toad's consciousness. He felt no aggression, no malice. What he felt was a profound, soul-deep melancholy. It was a feeling of loss, of grief so heavy it had extinguished all will to live.
He delved deeper, his aquatic aura soothing the beast's natural defenses. He sifted through its simple, powerful emotions and found the source of its pain: a memory. A memory of a clutch of smaller toads, its own children, left behind when it was captured. It wasn't sick. It was grieving itself to death.
Li Yu knew that no medicine or fancy food could cure this ailment. The disciples of the Beast Taming Hall, for all their knowledge, were treating the symptoms, not the cause. They were trying to fix the body when the spirit was broken.
He couldn't bring its family back. But perhaps, he could offer it a reason to live.
That night, he did not return to his hut. He sat by the enclosure in the moonlight, a silent vigil. He didn't try to absorb any Qi. Instead, he activated the «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art» and began to slowly and gently project his own spiritual energy, cloaked in its unique aquatic aura, towards the toad. He didn't project intent or commands. He projected a simple, steady feeling of calm companionship, of shared existence. It was the feeling of one water creature acknowledging another.
For hours, there was no response. Then, slowly, the toad's two visible eyes, which had been dull and lifeless, swiveled to look at him.
Li Yu's heart leaped. He had made a connection. He continued the process, a silent conversation between two spirits. The next day, he did the same. He didn't offer food. He offered his presence.
On the third night of his vigil, he decided to try something new. He sat down, closed his eyes, and focused his will. The air in front of him shimmered, and the blood-red Koi materialized. It was no longer a purely ethereal image. Thanks to his advancement, it now had a semi-corporeal form, shimmering like a creature made of ruby-colored water. It swam lazily in the air, its scales glowing with a soft, crimson light that pulsed with pure life force.
The effect on the toad was immediate. Its entire body shuddered. The third eye on its forehead twitched. It stared at the red Koi, its gaze locked onto the vibrant, living spirit. Li Yu's Koi was not a combat spirit, but it was a being of immense, concentrated vitality. To the grieving toad, it was like a miniature sun appearing in its dark, lonely world.
Li Yu guided the Koi to swim closer to the enclosure's barrier. The toad watched its every move, a flicker of interest finally piercing its deep depression.
The next morning, Li Yu did not ask for spirit crickets. He went to the edge of a clean, fast-flowing stream and gathered a specific type of soft, green moss that grew on the underside of rocks. He had sensed a faint, longing memory for this particular food in the toad's mind. He placed the moss on the feeding rock.
For a long time, the toad just stared at it. Then, with a movement so slow it was almost imperceptible, it extended its long, sticky tongue and licked at the moss. It was a tiny amount, but it was a start. It was a choice to live.
Li Yu continued this routine for the next two weeks. Every day, he would gather the fresh moss. Every night, he would sit with the toad, manifesting his Koi spirit as a silent, crimson companion. The toad began to eat more regularly. Its skin regained its healthy sheen, and sometimes, its third eye would flutter, almost opening.
Unbeknownst to him, this entire process was being observed. From her high pagoda overlooking the valley, Elder Ning watched through a scrying pool, a magical artifact that showed her the scene at the toad's enclosure. She had seen his patient vigil. She had seen him manifest his strange, blood-red fish spirit. She had seen the toad, a creature that had resisted all her disciples' efforts, respond to the quiet companionship of a boy and his spirit.
She had expected the boy to try and fail. She had intended the task as a way to temper his arrogance, to show him that "luck" was no substitute for true skill. Instead, she had witnessed a display of pure, unadulterated affinity that bordered on the miraculous. He hadn't used force or medicine. He had used empathy.
On the final day before the Aptitude Test, Li Yu arrived at the enclosure to find the toad was not on its rock. It was sitting by the edge of the pond, facing him. As he approached, the third eye on its forehead slowly, deliberately, opened. For a single, breathtaking moment, a beam of soft, golden light shot from the third eye and washed over Li Yu. It wasn't an attack. It was a gift. A wave of pure, gentle spiritual energy, a token of gratitude, flowed into his body.
The energy was so pure that it instantly pushed his cultivation over the edge. The bottleneck to the Seventh Stage, which he had been battering at for weeks, shattered.
He was now a cultivator at the Seventh Stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
The toad closed its third eye, gave a low, rumbling croak, and slipped back into the water, its melancholy finally gone.
Li Yu stood, stunned by the sudden breakthrough. He looked at the empty rock, then towards the distant pagoda of the Beast Taming Hall. He knew, with absolute certainty, that he had already passed his first test.
Tomorrow, he would face the rest of the sect. He was no longer just a fish-feeder. He was a beast tamer. And he was ready.