I woke up the next morning sore, but happy from yesterday’s activities. It had been a long time since I had done anything interesting outside of reading a book and exploring the city with his mother. I would go as far as say that yesterday was one of the most exciting days I ever had. Of course, that is mostly due to the fact that I am now one step closer to performing Spirit Arts and apparently, awakening my own Spirit.

After a warm bath and a bit of morning yoga (I had restarted doing my old yoga routines last year when my parents deemed me old/mature enough that I no longer needed a maid to watch over me whenever they were away) to get rid of the rest of my fatigue, drowsiness and soreness of my body, a maid knocked on my door to inform me that breakfast was served and my parents were waiting for me.

“Maria.”

“Yes, young master?”

“Inform them that I’ll be joining shortly.”

“As you wish.”

After living in this world for 5 years, I was already used to having maids and butlers at my beck and call 24/7. It was unnerving at first, but I gradually got used to it after 3 years, a much longer time than I wished to admit, but for I who had originally grew up in an ordinary household, this was a very big change that would take a lot to get used to.

When I asked mother why she didn’t just ask the servants to clean up after me and do most of the hard work when it came to raising me when I was younger, she simply told me, “You might not have noticed Markus, but you’re actually much more intelligent and mature than most kids your age and beyond. Besides, me and your father both came from rags to riches, so we preferred a more hands-on approach when it came to raising you, but even that was a breeze compared to what we’ve been told raising a child would be like. You were so well behaved that we didn’t have to do much of anything outside of feeding and cleaning you up.”

“E-EH! R-Really? I-I didn’t think was that behaved.”, I said, the last part barely even a whisper, I was so flustered and embarrassed from my mother’s praises that I was blushing like a tomato and stuttering like no there was tomorrow. I wasn’t that shocked when she said that I acted older than my age, but I think I should tone it down. A 5 year old boy that acted twice, if not thrice his own age is definitely weird, and I wasn’t keen on being singled out for that. It’s probably too late though, given what mother said about how I behaved since being born into this world.

“Is that why you make me clean up after myself rather than let the maids do it?”

“Yes, but the real reason why we make you do that is that you don’t grow up spoiled because of our money. It’s also a great way to teach you to be independent.”

Looking back at that conversation I had with mother, I couldn’t help but praise her and father’s parenting skills. I knew myself quite well, while I wouldn’t grow up to be as spoiled as most people would be growing up in such an environment thanks to my previous life, I would definitely be less…me as I grew older.

After finishing my morning routine and putting on a fresh pair of clothes, I head downstairs to the dining room. As I entered, I quietly greeted my parents, both of whom greeted me back and started eating their breakfast. I took my seat right next to father and in front of mother, and began eating my breakfast as well.

Breakfast, like all other meal times was a quiet affair, used for quiet contemplation and resting of the mind and body. I found the silence awkward at first, but quickly found the appeal to it. Being a former working-class man, I understood the need/desire for a ‘me-time’, a moment to just relax and unwind.

After breakfast, I went up to father who was just about to go and tried to ask about my training, but he beat me to it. Turning around just before he reached the door, he looked at me and said, “Meet me in the gardens in 5 minutes, go change to your training attire.”

I nodded at him excitedly (a rather childish thing to do, but I didn’t really care about how I acted at this point), and rushed to my room, discarded my clothes and quickly dressed myself appropriately for training. Running towards the gardens, I promptly arrived 2 minutes early to see my father already seated in the middle of the field meditating.

“So, what are we doing today?”, I walked up to him and asked.

“...”

“Uh...dad?”, seeing him not responding, I asked again.

“...”

“... I’m ready when you are?”, I was getting a bit frustrated, but I knew that would lead me to nowhere.

“...”

“...ok.”, seeing as how he won’t respond to me and with nothing else to do, I decided to sit down right in front of him and try mediating as well.

2 minutes later, after trying and failing to properly meditate like I did last night, father finally responded.

“So, do you know why I didn’t respond to you?”

“Because we were supposed to do meditation first?”

“No.”

“...oh, then...um...to teach me patience?”, I was running out of reasons why he would make me wait, and this was the last I could think of.

“Yes.”, thankfully, father cracked a smile at my answer.

“Why?”, disregarding my frustration with him at the moment, I was genuinely curious as to why he decided to teach me this lesson, now of all times.

“Because you’re 5 years old Markus, far too young and much too excited. Me and your mother only agreed to teach because you act mature for your age, but just because we did agree on that, doesn’t mean I can’t make extra sure that you’re ready for training. I don’t want to come home and find out that killed yourself because you were impatient and tried awakening your spirit early.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Yes it is Markus, but don’t get any ideas. Even if you are a genius, you’re years away from reaching even the most basic requirements for Awakening. Is that understood?”

“Yes dad.”, I said dejectedly, I knew it was for my safety, but couldn’t help it. Father said years of training before even thinking of Awakening, I wasn’t pissed about the idea of training that long, I actually liked the idea of having something interesting to do for what seemed to be years to come if not a lifetime. The idea however, of waiting for years to get actual results was what was grating on me.

“I SAID, AM I UNDERSTOOD!”, probably hearing the dejection in my voice, father repeated his words, much louder this time.

“YES DAD!”, I shouted back, much livelier this time, so that I didn’t get yelled at again.

“Good, now let's start our exercise. Let’s see if you can do better this time.”, he then took the first step and started running without even bothering to turn back. He was taunting me, he knew it, I knew it, everyone else knew it, but I didn’t care about that. I ran after him, eager to show my father that I could do better.

(4 Months Later)

The speed of my improvement was shocking, frightening and greatly gratifying. 4 months into my training and I looked like an Adonis, my body had lost all it’s useless fat and turned the rest into pure muscle, a feat that I was certain was normally not possible back at earth. That, or the younger the body, the easier it is to mold into shape.

All things considered, it was likely that it was the effect of Spirit Energy that I channeled every time I meditated (a feat that I was now easily capable of doing after the first 3 days of training by applying pranayama and dhyana techniques I’ve learned from my years of yoga and adjusting it for static meditation) in combination with harsh physical training with father. It gave off an indescribable feeling as I let it wash through my body like how father showed me. It was a wonder how people didn’t get addicted to it.

Overall, I grew in height, speed, endurance, strength and flexibility far beyond what was possible for a 5 year old, my skin now had a light tan to it (it would have been darker if not for mother’s fussing) and I had a feeling that even my senses improved. If not for asking father, I would have thought that I was simply overthinking things, though I was disappointed to hear that improvement in that area would not happen again unless I did special training that I couldn’t do (I wanted to prove him wrong but decided against it when he said that even he wasn’t able to properly without help).

For the better part of the past 4 months there has been nothing but training for me, I didn’t exactly hate it, in fact, I was actually enjoying it myself very much. I enjoyed the soreness of my muscles after my morning workouts with father and the feeling of Spirit Energy flowing through my body then entering into my Spirit Heart could only be described as blissful.

There was enough rest time in between training sessions so that I didn’t over exert myself and do my own stuff every now and then, but I was getting bored of training everyday. I didn’t get bored of yoga, even till now because it was my relaxation time, what I did after doing something strenuous like work.

Back in my old life, I would go to my yoga classes after work every other day to just relax and calm the mind. In the same vain, I was now treating my daily training sessions as work, albeit much more enjoyable than my previous one as an IT manager, but it was work nonetheless, and I was falling into a routine.

That was bad, routine meant monotony and monotony for me meant boredom. It didn’t mean that I was starting to hate what I was doing, far from it, I even lost track of time in my meditations (something that getting more and more frequent as time went on). No, mediation was not the issue for me. The issue for me was the physical aspect of my training.

I enjoyed the fruits of my labour, I liked what I saw in the mirror, but physical improvement was getting harder and harder as time went on, and with less results to show for, it made it difficult to gather any motivation to exercise. Maintenance was a different beast, it was a pain in the ass, was grating on my nerves and made me question why I had to put in so much effort despite knowing the reason why. I could now finally understand why so little people bothered to go beyond just being fit/healthy.

Father could tell I was losing my drive, it was quite obvious in our training sessions, so he decided a little demonstration would do the trick. So one day, he decided to bring me out of the house instead of the gardens, brought me to barracks and with a great show of authority and power, cleared an entire training field for us to use, and us only.

At first, he did a simple show of strength by lifting up weights like they were nothing, to more hardcore stuff like, breaking a boulder as tall as he was with his bare hands (at this point, my embarrassingly half-man, half-boy mind was already amazed and ready to go back at training so I could do what father did), but he wasn’t done with just that.

After 30 minutes of showing his strength, father went a step further to amaze me more. He summoned his spirit and made it smash and bash rocks like they were made of cardboard, then he proceeded to merge with it, making grow even bigger, then looked at me in the eye and released his Aura.

It gave off an oppressive feeling, like you were being stepped on by a mountain, had it been anyone else, I would have been scared, instead I was impressed, shocked at my father’s display of power and thought that it was so many definitions of cool that I couldn’t think of the right words to describe him. It was not everyday that you see your father do stunts like these, especially in my previous life.

After turning back into a human, father came up to me and asked, “Well? Did you enjoy the show?”

“Yeah, I enjoyed very much. Thanks dad.”, I gave him my biggest smile to go along with it. I truly was appreciative for all the effort he and mother put into raising me and all the other things they do for me, an appreciation that should show more often to them.

“Are you alright Markus?”, father asked.

“Yeah dad, I’m just fine.”, I replied, still smiling at him.

“Well, if that’s the case, why don’t we take a break for today?”

“I think it’s alright if we train today, besides, other than reading and meditating, there’s not much to do at home.”, I said, a bit lacklustre compared to my previous mood.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I just a bit frustrated with exercising that much right now, seeing as how I’m not improving much anymore.”

“Don’t get disheartened, your rate of improvement can be said to be outstanding Markus, I hope you see that. Besides, at this point you won’t be getting any stronger until you get older and much bigger, so if you want to we can do basic physical maintenance instead and focus more on meditation.”

“...alright, I just wished there was another way to train the body. Exercising everyday is not exactly fun, it's more rewarding than it is enjoyable.”

“Well...there is another way, the one I mentioned last time, but it really won’t be much help to you right now.”

“WHAT! WHY?!”, I asked/shouted at my father.

“For one thing, I just learned it recently, about a year now and I’m still having some trouble doing it. It requires the user to be in motion while meditating, sending the Spirit Energy absorbed into the muscles, bones and organs rather than the Spirit Heart like usual.”

“How come I’ve never heard of it? What’s it called?”, I asked excitedly, having read a lot of books regarding the Spirit Arts and anything related to it, I was surprised to not have come by the training method yet.

“Well, you are just 5 years old Markus, there’s a lot of things that you haven’t heard of yet, remember that. Besides, this training method is called Motion Meditation, and it's generally reserved for those at my level and above, so most people wouldn’t have known about it, much less write about it.”

“Wow. Can you show me dad?” I asked him excitedly.

“Sure, just stay there and watch me.”

Going back to the middle of the training field, father began doing the basic exercises, from push-ups to sit-ups, though much slower than normal. After awhile, I began to notice the Spirit Energy moving towards father and saw it heading towards his abdomen, causing it to glow faintly in the sunlight. He then repeated it 2 more times for his arms and legs as well.

By the end of it, father stood up, barely sweating and had a look of ecstasy on his face. Perplexed by the look of rapture on father’s face, I asked how he felt.

“How do you feel dad?”

“Just fine Markus, perfect even.”, he said, I could hear a hint of bliss in his voice

“...really.”

“Yes, Motion Meditation combines the benefits of both meditation and physical training. It’s why most people that are able to do this are said to have an monstrous growth rate in power.”

“Did you?”

“I did. Just last year I was only at the Partial Transformation level, now I can do a full transformation and even feel like I could make another breakthrough in another decade.”

“Wow.”

“Wow, indeed, now let's start your training for today.”

“E-Eh?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to continue training today?”, father asked, and I could see a faint smirk on his face.

“Can we just do that tomorrow? Please dad? All this talk about training methods made me want to just laze around all day. I promise that I’ll be at my 110% tomorrow. Promise. Please?, I asked sheepishly.

“Fine, but I’ll be holding you to that promise.”

“Hehehe.”, I was laughing, but on the inside, I was cursing myself for digging my own grave.

Heading home, I started thinking about Motion Meditation that father showed me. I could see why father said it was so difficult and reserved for people of his level, it required one to meditate while in motion. In normal meditation, even the slightest movement/sound can bring you out of it.

After thinking about for awhile, I thought that yoga was perfect for Motion Meditation. Afterall, Hatha yoga which I was a practitioner of composed of three aspects: asanas (bodily postures), pranayama (breathing techniques) and dhyana (meditation). Thinking about it further, since I already use the latter 2 aspects for my meditations, using all 3 shouldn’t be an issue. After convincing myself that it was a perfectly reasonable plan/idea, I mentally smacked myself in the back of the head for not thinking of it sooner.

Arriving home, I went to my room after greeting my mother and locked the door. Afterwards, I headed for the bathroom to clean myself up before I did anything and changed to a fresh pair of clothes. Standing in the centre of my massive room, I took a deep breath to steady my breathing and began going through the basic asanas.

After awhile, my mind finally reached a state of equanimity and awareness, I began to try to draw in Spirit Energy. To my surprise, the Spirit Energy didn’t fight back, instead it complied and eagerly surrounded and drew into my body. Had I looked at myself from a distance, I would have saw 5 year old boy surrounded by a glowing white mist. As I changed postures my connection with the Spirit Energy would break, but as quickly as it did, it reconnected.

I continued, unaware of the passing of time until one of the maids knocked at my door to inform me that dinner was about to be served. I would have been pissed at her for disturbing me now of all times if not for the cultivation-induced orgasm that my body was currently experiencing.

The results of my experiment was much greater than I hoped it’d be. By the end of it, I felt like I could run 3 miles and back without breaking a sweat. My joints felt nice and limber, my skin somehow returned to its original colour and now had a nice supple feel to it, even the calluses felt softer, my muscles seemed to be singing in joy and felt them radiating in power.

I wanted nothing more but to rush to my parents, show them what I could do (and get praised by them), but I wasn’t exactly keen on showing them that their beloved child somehow broke common sense and did the supposedly impossible.

In light of that, I decided to calmly (tried to at least) go down for dinner while quietly contemplating the possible implications of what I just did and the effects it will have to my future.