Investing in My Crippled Wife: Every Return Makes Me Stronger

Soren settled deeper in the lotus position, his spine straightening, his breathing slowing to a deliberate rhythm.

He then closed his eyes and turned his awareness inward.

Deep within the vast ocean of knowledge the Ice Emperor’s Legacy had dumped into his consciousness, one section burned brighter than the rest.

’Glacial Emperor Scripture.’

The main cultivation technique of the entire legacy.

The foundation upon which everything else was built.

He focused on it, and the knowledge began to unfold.

’Glacial Emperor Scripture... Foundation Stage.’

The information unfurled in his mind like a scroll being carefully unrolled.

Complex diagrams appeared in his consciousness, pathways of light tracing through a human body, showing exactly where Mana should flow. Which meridians to open first. Which nodes to strengthen and so on.

Soren studied them intently, memorizing every detail.

The technique consisted of three stages, with the first being the Foundation Stage.

It had a single, clear purpose: establish a pure ice-aspected Core through a process called Frozen Refinement.

The concept was elegant in its brutality.

First, absorb raw Mana from the environment. Draw it into the body. Guide it through specific pathways where it would be converted into his own usable energy.

Then, instead of simply storing it, freeze it within the core.

The freezing served two main purposes. It compressed mana, allowing more to fit in a smaller space.

And it shattered the impurities, the chaotic fragments, and the foreign essence that contaminated normal cultivation, forcing them to dissolve and exit the body.

Only the purest essence would remain, crystallizing into the foundation of his cultivation.

Soren exhaled slowly.

’Alright. First step: sense the Mana.’

He focused on the air around him.

At first, there was nothing. Just darkness and the sound of his own heartbeat.

But then-

A faint shimmer at the edge of his perception. Like seeing heat waves on a distant road, but cold instead of warm. Invisible threads of energy drifting through the room, through the walls, through everything.

’So... This is Mana.’

Soren thought in awe.

It was the raw energy of the world itself after all.

’I... I can actually sense it now...’

Before awakening, this would have been impossible. But now, with his newly formed Core acting as a kind of spiritual organ, he could finally perceive what had always been there.

Soren reached out with his awareness, trying to grasp one of those threads.

It slipped away.

He tried again. And again. And again.

Still nothing.

The Mana drifted past him like smoke, untouchable, refusing to respond.

’...This is harder than I thought.’

The knowledge in his mind showed him how it should work-the mental technique, the breathing pattern, the circulation pathway. But knowing and doing were entirely different things.

It was like reading a manual on how to swim and then being thrown into the ocean.

Soren gritted his teeth and tried a different approach.

Instead of grabbing, he visualized his Core as a well. A deep, empty well that naturally pulled things toward it. He imagined the Mana drifting down, drawn by gravity, by inevitability.

Time passed.

Slowly, one thread shifted, just slightly.

But just enough to move toward him instead of past him.

’There!’

Soren focused harder, maintaining the visualization. The thread drifted closer. Closer and closer. Until it touched the surface of his awareness-

And dissolved.

”...”

Soren’s eye twitched.

He’d lost it at the last moment. His concentration had wavered for just a split second, and the Mana had scattered like mist.

’...Again!’

He didn’t give up and repeated the process.

Again and again.

Finally, the mana entered his body.

For a brief moment, Soren felt it, a cool sensation spreading through his chest, formless and wild. Then it dissipated, scattering into nothing.

’Damn it.’ Soren cursed inwardly in frustration.

But at least he was improving.

He recalled the info from the Scripture again.

’...Alright, one more time.’

He focused on his crown, visualized a gate opening there, allowing Mana to flow inward.

A thread drifted near.

He guided it gently and carefully. It entered.

This time, instead of scattering, he followed the pathway diagram in his mind. Down through his head, along his spine, branching through smaller channels.

The Mana began to change as it moved, losing its formlessness, gaining structure, and becoming denser.

By the time it reached his Core, it wasn’t raw and wild anymore.

It was pure Mana.

His Mana.

’Hehe...’

The sensation was intoxicating like drinking ice-cold water after days in the desert. His Core, which had felt empty and dormant, suddenly pulsated with life.

’It worked!’

But the moment of triumph was brief.

The tiny wisp of Mana he’d just created and absorbed was impure. So, he quickly activated the next, final step of the Frozen Refinement.

He willed the temperature within the Core to drop.

The Mana responded, crystallizing, hardening. The cold intensified, compressing the energy tighter and tighter until-

Crack.

The impurities shattered like brittle glass and dissolved into nothing.

What remained was a single, flawless thread of pure mana.

Soren’s eyes snapped open briefly, then closed again.

’That’s it. That’s how it works!’

The process was clear now.

He settled back into focus, this time with newfound confidence.

The room around him faded. Time lost meaning. There was only the rhythm: absorb, guide, convert, freeze, refine.

One thread became two. Two became five. Five became ten.

Each cycle became slightly easier. His control improved. The pathways began to widen, accommodating the flow more smoothly. His Core, which had been barely a flicker, started to glow with steady, cold light.

And after an hour or so, something shifted.

The initial clumsiness vanished. His intuition kicked in, filling the gaps where the inherited knowledge left room for interpretation. He stopped following the diagrams rigidly and started adapting, finding his own rhythm, his own flow.

He started pulling in it faster and refined more efficiently.

His Core began to fill, layer by layer, like ice forming on a winter lake.

Sore lost himself in the process completely.

Hours passed.

The night deepened.

His body remained perfectly still, but inside, a transformation was taking place.

More time passed.

Finally, just as the sun started rising, Soren ’woke up’, his eyes shining with brilliant cold light.

”I... I’ve broken through!”