very early in the morning the next day after he met with the dojo master to ask for advice he came to do as he was told the very fact that he might not be able to 'level up' his proficiency in his other pursuits maybe with hunting as an exception was gnawing at him.
"to be really honest to myself this cultivation thing felt like I did a lot of perambulating, like all this while for nearly a year after I had my first breakthrough I'm still at this secret space phase of the Qi initiation realm of my cultivation." he muttered.
'why isn't everything as straight forward as it is in the books huh' he thought frustrated
he then went to the pace which he broke through in his cultivation in the past obviously other than a casual training of familiarizing one's self with the martial forms, one needs total privacy for something like this and then settled in a basic boxing stance and "hup! ha!" was heard from him while he was performing his boxing.
my meditation skills weren't too shabby, I seemed to have entered a meditative fugue like state and by the 2000th I lost count of how many punches that I've thrown, but paid more attention to what was immediately apparent.
I noticed that each time I throw a punch some of the wisps gathering will disappear, this time I paid more attention to this occurrence to try bending it to my will, the wisps at first didn't seemed to cooperate I've once tried forcing it before but it was an exercise in futility.
a little nudge here a little nudge there I started to get a hang of it, well on my way to initial mastery of my vital Qi wisp internal manipulation exercise, already feeling the next level calling to me and the whole world suddenly went black for reasons I couldn't fathom.
"Young master wake up" I heard a voice it sounds familiar
'huh it's still in the morning? so not much time as passed huh?.' I thought 'and I was almost there, just a little more I would have gained the qualifications for level 2 able to create my second vital Qi wisp'
"what happened to me this time" I groaned while stretching on my bed
"oh nothing much young master just that you trained till you almost dropped," she answered, continuing she said "then seeing that you might re-enact the previous time of Qi over-draft I simply knocked you out, you know if that happened it is going to set us back one or two steps and vicious beast blood is expensive nowadays."
"uh how much per bottle?" I ventured to ask
"nothing much just a 100 golden imperials" she answered cheerily.
I was previously on the bed but after the breaking news that I heard, I felt the world blur by the time it snapped into place I'm already holding Xiao Xiao's hand near the kitchen table, wide eyed and on the top of my lungs.
"one hundred golden imperials!", I caught my breath "per bottle?!"
"calm down! it's only just that or don't you want to recover"
"yes! I wanna recover but you didn't..." I protested but was cut short
"did you factor into it that all these are not one of your hard earned money but just mooching off of the money left in the bag a bag that is even not yours"
with that my emotions just all quieted and went cold, I looked at her and an amusing thought crossed my mind and I couldn't help but verbalize it "hmm, not like I'm the only one 'mooching' off the bag but we're both as thick as thieves."
"yeah, you're right ." she sighed "I also want to use your advancement to get what I want thus my selfish interest," she then turned but before she left she said "from tomorrow onwards I'll personally take an active role in your cultivation, seems that leaving you to your own devices won't do" and for the first time I knew her, the almost always cheery face was gone replaced by a blank mask.
"okay now that was a new breed of scary, I've never seen her face like that before, though I am beginning to feel worried about this 'training' of mine tomorrow for she knowingly put an emphasis on it, whatever let tomorrow settle itsel..."
it was then that my body decided it's time to ache something fierce "aargghhh!" I groaned my body hurting in more ways than one, I barely got myself moving before darkness overtook me.
*****************
'I saw him use a technique instinctively, a movement technique executed well to perfection at least as perfect as his Qi could permit' she frowned deep in thought, 'it seems he is not the talent that could flip the heavens that master postulated but just some regular person yet.'
seems what he truly needs to unlock his potential is to find someone to challenge his limit and push him to the brink and then over the brink, this I theorize will unleash the instinctive memories transferred within him that is still dormant, making his cultivation journey much faster and well smoother
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
deep into the jungle, armed with a standard bow and arrow, a long knife ensconced on her waist deep in the forest looking for the suitable prey that satisfies the specific need for nourishing Hua Lei's body and increase vital Qi production.
she kept on going deeper into the jungle wondering whether the beasts hasn't consumed the corpses that resulted from the battle between Zi Chen and Yu Ren during the time Hua Lei was drawn in from the otherworld.
It took quite a while before she had her first ferocious beast encounter, okay this will barely suffice, she then simply drew her bow reinforcing the arrow with her Qi and loosing the arrow, it sailed and found itself lodged in the beast's heart.
she quickly pulled out the arrow, caught the heart blood in a vial, put the beast in a bag and cleared the 'crime scene', she quickly was on her way back with her prize in hand
good this area is already spawning something worthy no doubt the sects will put this place in a back burner knowing places like this will spawn resources, it's a pity they are not the nearest to the resource gathering point, giving us the initiative.
before this place start bringing forth something clan or sect worthy it is part of my plan to be able to harvest from whatever comes of this, it always roughly takes about some 50 years before anything substantial comes of it though
but they didn't put the scavengers or carnivores into perspective, these are nearly always the first to evolve for they eat the corpses and carcasses that results from the wars, they are then followed by the plants which absorbs the blood spilled or got a Qi dense bone buried underneath.
the slowest and mostly the last to evolve are the herbivores, this is done by the consumption of Qi charged plants that can cultivate their own vital Qi or at least suck it in and adapt it to themselves of which in the process they gradually become feral.
they could even result in a coincidental beast tide which is leaderless a form of self preservation mechanism, this could cause a ruckus in the area with normal herbivores slaughtered in droves this also does not spare any type of normal animal, adjacent villages destroyed and towns threatened as for the beasts, they either ascend n cultivation or get slaughtered in the process.
the sects disciples, clans or any power closest to the place now sees an opportunity to swoop in kill rabid animals in droves harvest their parts, with a bit of politicking the nearest organization claims the place their own and then gain exclusive rights to the area thereby taxing the other powers and independent practitioners a levy to enter the place.
but I'll not be having that, I will not allow that to happen no I plan to use this opportunity that presents itself to speed up the cultivation of this person hopefully he gets strong enough as soon as possible, she hoped
that damned Yu Ren, damn the contract and it's silly clauses, I will have just got what I want and go on my separate way not babysitting this person he failed to posses, he never even make us change the plan even in case of his eventual failure.
************************
I woke up still hurting deep in the night, it was as if I had participated in a building construction labor for days without rest. I found out that Xiao Xiao is missing so I helped myself to dinner left behind, and the food was amazing though not to mention that I felt my body flooded with Qi.
I immediately sat to start cultivating it and making the Qi my own, the 10000 punch training helped a little I was able to gain a modicum of control internally, I am looking forward to tomorrow, I wanna quickly master my internal manipulation of Qi till I am able to get to the next phase and unlock internal vision.
morning came with me fit as a fiddle, I freshened myself up, ate the food at the table, 'hmm the food being provided now have Qi in it and tastes great hopefully this is how it keeps going' I thought, prepping myself to go to my practice hideout to continue my 10000 punch daily training thinking about the first day of practice my face couldn't help but to turn green.
that training is the epitome of train till you drop I mused while jogging towards my training hideout, I was pleasantly surprised when I got there and met Xiao Xiao standing there waiting for me, I palmed my face in remembrance that she promised to take an active role in my cultivation and I had nearly forgotten.
"Okay shifu" I mock bowed "what's on the list of things to do now?"
"It's good for a student to know his place" she said with a straight face, unfazed by my attempt at banter, "while today you will still practice your usual punches you will also have to face me in a spar, for punches, no matter how good it is, is useless if you do not know how to apply it effectively in battle"
and then my hell began with my usual 10000 punches, this time she allowed me to pass the 10000 mark without interruption and when I dropped for lack of Qi or fatigue she simply feeds me some sort of meal that I seemed to recognize and a drink that is definitely not water and I find myself re-energized and refreshed, ready for more practice to go.
rinse and repeat, so was our marathon, my punches was getting firmer by the day and I figured that if I retained the sense of 'punching' while meditating, when I'm trying to manipulate my Qi it answers readily to my intent, I lost the sense of time in my training fugue not knowing that three days past from when I met Xiao Xiao in the clearing till now when I'm making a headway to my Qi manipulation success.
on the fourth day when I want to resume my training montage she stopped me, "huh" I said surprised, "today you'll be sparring with me" she declared.
"first you should check the amount of Qi wisps that you've gathered" she demanded, a demand which I readily complied to, I also would be lying if I am not curious how much I've grown. I took a look, lo and behold to say that I was shocked will be an understatement, 4 Qi wisps and not any that resists my control either.
"Don't be shocked It's as a result of your training this last few days now that you have gained initial control so as not to go back to previous stage of your body guzzling up your Qi"
"the reason why it seemed that you have to continue is that you haven't realized your progress yet"
"start rotating it and don't stop, don't try compressing it at all just keep them meshed together rolling like one single ball it does wonders this process you undergone is called attuning one's Qi to one's self."
"with you successfully undergoing this process you'll find out that you are unconsciously attuning the Qi soon after generating it to avoid the issue of your body eating back it's thing."
"now that that is done and dusted, time to spar and refine your unarmed martial arts to basic standard."
I stood up from my meditation pose and bowed to Xiao Xiao then took a fighting stance, this she reciprocated by also bowing and taking a martial stance, nothing fancy to it, we simply went at each other like we see are about to settle some months old grudge.