Chapter 33: Martial Faction

Upon returning to his cave, Teo was slightly worried. On his way back, he tried countless of times to mentally contact with his old man Cien but all his efforts were in vain, he didn't get a single reply.

Normally, old man Cien would reply right away but ever since this morning, he could no longer communicate with the old man. Teo found it very troublesome.

He remembered that the old man said before that once he could control of his Qi, he could easily enter the inner world by himself but the problem was his Qi was too little and he did not know how to control his Qi.

The inner world's dense world Qi accelerated his progress with his Sensing stage. Now that he needed to increase his Qi, but could not take advantage of the inner world. It was obviously the best place for him to practice his breathing exercises.

Teo could only wait for the old man to come out of the pagoda.

'How long does a “while” take?' he thought

…

After a few days, the old man still hadn't come out of the pagoda. He waited patiently but also tried to increase his Qi.

During his class, he practiced his breathing technique hoping to increase his Qi. From his body, he could feel his Qi slowly increasing, but for some reason his eyes could not see any increase at all. It was as if he was a new born baby who had yet to absorb any world Qi before.

After class, accompanied by Lia, Teo decided to visit the Martial faction. Gina and Lia had always tried to invite Teo to the faction but Teo never seemed interested. Then out of the blue, Teo suddenly wanted to visit the faction, Lia became surprise and was curious as to why Teo suddenly changed his mind

“Its so strange, why did you suddenly decide to come visit? Are you going to join?”

“No, I just want to watch”

Teo wanted to learn more about controlling his Qi as he doesn't even know how it feels to control it. He knew about the stances that was suppose to help you control your Qi, but as a complete beginner he was clueless.

'Do you flex your muscles to control them?' he initially thought but gave up. Besides, those set of stances for him was extremely difficult to maintain.

He decided that the best place to learn more about Qi was the Martial factions

They arrived in a place north east side of the academy. The Martial faction had an extremely large courtyard that encompassed 2 large dueling platforms and a large building.

The wooden building looked old but was properly maintained. A sign board written in black ink right above the entrance spelling out “Martial Faction”.

Upon arriving, new students were usually impressed by the sight of the Martial faction's headquarters, but Teo didn't react to it that much. Compared to the inner world or even the Emerald Pavilion, it could really not compare.

Teo also noticed several trees and large stones within the courtyard. He saw several students carrying the stones, punching the tree trunks, running around the courtyard.

His eyes swept to one of the dueling platforms. There were students who were meditating or maintaining a certain stance as an instructor guided them. On the other platform, there were several people who were lightly sparring with each other.

Teo instantly noticed two familiar figures within the second platform. It was his sister Rowen and senior Gina. Their spar did not look anything like a light spar, it was a high level spar.

Rowen's right foot gave a high kick towards Gina's head. Gina blocked with her left arm but suddenly Rowen jumped with her left foot, using her right foot that had contact with Gina's hand as a pivot point, unleashed another head. Gina ducked down and dodged second kick and quickly moved to Rowen's blind spot.

An intense exchange of punches and kicks flew towards each other. During the spar, at the corner of Rowen's eyes she saw Teo. Seeing that Rowen was distracted, Gina immediately stopped her assault and looked at a similar direction. It was Teo with excited eyes as he watched both of them. He saw their movements as if they were gracefully dancing as they anticipate each others' moves.

“Wow senior sisters, your spar is too intense! It was all a blur to me” Lia said excitedly

She often see these fights before but would always praise her seniors. Lia was well liked by everyone in the faction because of this, and her seniors would often treat her to a meal. One could say she would suck up to them, but she was truly impressed as well.

“Thanks Lia, you finally got Teo to come, that is more impressive” Gina said

“Little Teo, you came” Rowen quickly switched off her fighting spirit and produced a presence of a kind and gentle sister

“I just wanted to watch a bit” Teo said

The gates to the Martial faction was open to everyone. Visitors can freely observe and maybe even participate as long as they do not distract others or cause trouble.

As for the inner facilities, those were strictly for members only. Within the buildings contained isolated meditation rooms, a library which contains combat arts, exercise manuals and many more.

“He came all on his own, I didn't do anything” Lia said to Gina

Teo's briefly gazed towards the other platform where people were meditating

Rowen and Gina caught his gaze and smiled

“You want to learn about Qi?” Gina inquired

“Just how to control Qi” Teo honestly said

Rowen glanced at Teo's Qi and sensed that the amount of Qi that Teo had was too small. Gina also noticed this.

To control Qi, you must have enough Qi to control.

Usually people would naturally increase their Qi as they grow older and would have sufficient enough Qi by the time they enroll to the academy to have enough Qi to control but Teo's Qi showed very little. It was not normal but was not too out of the ordinary either. People grew differently, some had more Qi than others.

“We'll help” Rowen said

"Leave it to us!"

Teo began to follow their instructions and followed different breathing techniques that was taught within the Martial faction

During the first week, they noticed that no matter how much Teo practiced his breathing techniques there was no increase in his Qi at all

Rowen decided to approach it differently.

She decided to give Teo an exercise menu which includes running laps and lifting weights. The two most basic exercises. When a cultivator could not absorb Qi, it usually meant that their bodies did not allow them to absorb them.

To counter act this, they must have a body that is physically fit and healthy. This does not only allow one person to absorb Qi easier but also helps them maintain the difficult stances required for Qi control.

….

A few months passed

Although Teo did not official join the Martial faction, he would spend some of his time training within their grounds.

His master Cien, still hasn't return from the pagoda and he quickly trained his body from being childish which had several flabby flesh into a lean body of a young man. He trained his breathing techniques and stances as well.

Although Rowen and Gina still did not see any progress on his Qi, the training now allowed Teo to control his Qi.

Within his cave, Teo sat down in lotus position, rotating his Qi.

His Qi rotated throughout his channels and he poured it into the tattoo on his chest.

His consciousness vanished like mist.

He opened his eyes and found himself within the inner world. But when he looked at the surrounding it was slightly different from what it looked like before.