Zhi’s Qi is already cycling slowly through his body in an endless loop from his dantian. Concentrating on some Qi just moving from his dantian, he gathers a little more together and moves it to his right side around his ribs. Slowly he pushes it out of his Qi pathways and lets it linger around his ribs. But it just sits there, not really doing anything. Bruce says, “You must infuse it. Think of your ribs and muscles as shaved ice and your Qi as shaved ice flavoring. Now think of how that flavoring will infuse into the ice as it is poured over it. Imagine your Qi doing the same thing.”

Zhi just nods his head in reply and begins to spread his held Qi out over a bigger area. As it slowly spreads out and becomes more fine, he notices that it starts to disappear. The finer the Qi the faster it will disappear, so he stops making it spread out and just makes the Qi he is holding more fine and thinner. He can feel his right side and ribs begin to feel better. It’s a slow process, but after a while his whole right side feels fine.

“It looks like you are a fast learner. Now heal yourself completely and we will move onto the next step.”

Zhi doesn’t respond, just taking more Qi and beginning to heal other parts of his body. Starting from his right side and working in a circle following the flow of his Qi. As he heals he slowly becomes faster at it, the diffusion process is easier to control with each area of his body healed. Once completed he takes a slow breath in and then releases it as he stands. Going into a bow he says, “Thank you for your guidance.”

Zhi feels something coming towards him, but it is a lot faster than he can even react. A foot slams into the side of his face and he somehow controls the force of the blow to swing around and take a fighting stance as the whole side of his face is stinging.

“Good it looks like my first lesson was learned well. Now you don’t have to thank me until we are completely done. This time we are taking the first lesson and the second and will combine them together.”

Bruce smirks at Zhi and says, “Now I noticed that your Qi is already in a cycling motion without you having to focus. What we want to accomplish for your next lesson is to have you subconsciously have your Qi go around and heal your body as you do other things. So that means I need to speed up so you get hit again.”

With that, he moves forward in almost a blur to Zhi’s eyes and then Zhi is flying backwards from a punch to the stomach, which knocks the wind out of him. Zhi hits the ground and struggles to take a breath as he forces himself to stand back up. Bruce says from behind him, “Make sure you try to defuse some Qi into areas that are hurt while also paying attention to the fight.” Afterwards a foot kicks him in the ass hard and he sprawls forward onto the floor again.

Zhi tries to slowly take some Qi and defuse it into his face as he gets back up. He also turns to look at Bruce who is smiling at him. His stance is ready, and he is focusing more on healing than watching his opponent. So the fist coming for his face surprises him as it hits his nose straight on and sends his head flinging backwards. Instead of stopping his healing, Zhi keeps healing as he tries to pay more attention to Bruce. As he intercepts a right kick he loses his hold on his Qi and stops healing his face.

“It was a good first attempt, but you must be able to split your mind till it becomes second nature. Once that happens we can move onto lesson four.” Saying that he becomes a slight blur as he roundhouse kicks Zhi with his right leg, Zhi is able to react and dodges the kick. But the right jab to the face catches him in the eye by surprise. Followed by another quick jab to the throat which he also can’t stop. The speed Bruce is showing now is at another level and it takes everything Zhi has just to prevent the first attack.

“Just keep trying to heal and defend while I attack you, you will get it sooner or later.” With that he low kicks Zhi in the calf, then follows up with a palm strike to the chest. Zhi keeps trying to defuse his Qi, but each time he collects some to send it to a spot to infuse he is hit. Making him lose the Qi he had and causing it to disperse back into his pathways. As time goes on, Zhi’s only progress is that he can slightly block more attacks but his healing is getting nowhere.

“You are too focused on what worked when you were just concentrating on healing. You need to empty your mind of that notion, and let your Qi be formless. Then try to heal from there.”

Zhi begins to think on those words as he parries a punch, followed by a jab. Thinking about his already cycling Qi, he tries to imagine his pathways without looking at them. As he is imagining them moving about his body he is actively defending himself, but not able to control his Qi at all. This goes on for a while until he hears Bruce say, “It looks like you emptied your mind, but you still need to make your Qi disperse and heal your body.”

Zhi tries to do as asked but as soon as he attempts to take a little bit of focus to complete the task, he is rewarded with a heavy blow landing and he releases his Qi again. He attempts it a few more times, but everytime he begins to gather Qi, he is hit hard for his efforts and releases the gathered Qi. Deciding to change up his strategy, he instead tries to just thin out his Qi from his pathways to disperse into an injured area. It actually seems to work, as soon as he loses his focus to double check. He is greeted with a vicious attack that sends him to the floor.

“Looks like you kinda figured it out, now you just have to train it to become second nature.”

Zhi gets up from the ground and smiles at Bruce already in his stance and trying to disperse his Qi from his pathways. What follows is another baptism of brutality, every time Zhi loses focus on the fight. Bruce will speed up and knock Zhi onto the floor. Zhi isn’t sure how much time passes, but he is sure of one thing. This training method, as harsh as it is, is really effective. He almost has his Qi cycling and dispersing through his body to injured areas. Some more time passes and Bruce has begun to speed up more. Zhi is having a harder time stopping strikes, but his healing is getting better as time passes.

It doesn’t take too much time before Zhi can no longer avoid most hits and is pretty much a punching bag for Bruce. But his healing is almost automatic at this point even with him using his full concentration to try and defend himself. This continues for a while before the attacks suddenly stop and Bruce says, “Congratulations, you completed the third lesson. Take a moment to look at Qi, then we will begin your next lesson.” Zhi closes his eyes and focuses on his Dantain and Qi pathways. He is amazed to find that while his Qi is still cycling his body, there is now a thin layer of mist emanating from his pathways.

“Watch your right leg.” He feels a sharp kick to his leg and watches as the mist around the area automatically begins to heal the damage. As it disperses into the injured area, more Qi comes from with pathways and becomes mist. Opening his eyes, he smiles as he looks at Bruce who is now slowly swinging a nunchaku in his right hand.

“Now it’s time for your next lesson. You are a spirit cultivator with a powerful soul, so you should have spirit sense at this stage of cultivation. We are going to train for it. Spirit sense is like Qi, but different. Normally you wouldn’t have it till you break through to the Nascent Soul Stage or are born with an extremely powerful soul.”

He swings his nunchaku around and catches it under his right arm, holding it to his side as he says. “Alright, I want you to sit for this and close your eyes.”

Doing as instructed, Zhi schools his breathing as he waits for his next instruction. It’s silent for a while, the only sound is the slight sound of Bruce’s nunchaku as he spins it sometimes. After a few minutes Bruce says, “I want you to concentrate and imagine what I am doing and where I am standing. Do not focus on anything but your mental image. When you feel you have it perfect, I want you to open your eyes and compare what you see with what you imagined.”

Zhi settles in and concentrates on Bruce standing in front of him, swinging a nunchaku. It takes a bit, but he makes a perfect metal image before opening his eyes. The first thing he notices is Bruce is a lot closer than before. The next second, Bruce changes the motion of his swing and the nunchaku slams into the top of Zhi’s head as he says, “You didn’t completely focus on the image. You were still listening to the outside world. Again.”

Zhi closes his eyes again, his Qi already healing his head as he begins to close off his mind like when he tried to cultivate for the first time. Once he only hears his own heart beat, he begins to imagine where Bruce is standing and what he is doing. After a while of holding that image and even adjusting it where he thinks the nunchaku will be when he opens his eyes. He is greeted with Bruce in almost the same spot as he pictured, but the nunchaku is in his other hand now.

Bruce smiles and says, “That was better, but you have to go deeper and concentrate on the image more. Don’t open your eyes so soon, just concentrate on the image and follow it where it goes. On every little detail, leave nothing out.”

Zhi nods his head and begins to meditate, first outside sound leaves him, then his breathing and finally his heart beat. From there he begins to imagine Bruce, how he is moving his body. The swing and arc of the nunchaku. Once he has the image he just follows it. At first it is Bruce just swinging the nunchaku around, then he follows Bruce as the man begins to walk around his body. His mental image even has the nunchaku come close to his head a few times, but he doesn’t break focus on the image. After a while he opens his eyes and is greeted with a nunchaku flying past his vision. He does flinch because it was the same mental image he was having.

Bruce smiles at him and says, “Good, that was a lot faster than I expected. Next I want you to stand up, and do the same thing. But we are going to add another factor.” He is still swinging the nunchaku around, while in his left hand a ping pong ball appears. “You will need to dodge this ball, but do not look down on it. It will be infused with my Qi and will hurt worse than one of my kicks. Now let us begin.”

Zhi stands and begins to fade out everything and imagines Bruce, as he stands in front of him. He concentrates on the image and he watches as Bruce throws the ping pong ball in the air. As it comes down, he watches almost in slow motion as the nunchaku spins around and hits the ball. The ball flies at him and Zhi goes to dodge the attack aimed at his right leg, but a second later he is on the floor holding his crotch as tears fall down his face.

Bruce is above him, casually smacking the ping pong ball into the air with it as he looks down at Zhi. “It was a good first attempt, but we still have work to do before your next lesson. Get up and let's try again.”

What followed was a ruthless lesson in how to dodge ping pong balls.