Cultivating was still an issue. At first, he tried a few of the more powerful techniques he was given, but they didn’t work. He then decided to try his clan’s most famous technique, the Martial Asura’s Requiem. Its contents were secret, but it allowed a martial artist to incorporate Qi into their attacks, even if they had no affinity for Qi control. It did this by not having Qi absorbed into your dantian, but by circling Qi through it, then launching it. Each of the elemental essences require tuning your dantian to accept them, but since he didn’t have one, he theorized he could use any element without having to tune his dantian.

Audun took off his shirt, letting the warm sun radiate over his body. He opened his eyes, taken in the hilly surrounding, adorned by nothing but short grass. He had traveled for two weeks before he had found a place sufficiently devoid of other sentient life. As soon as he found this place, he went to cultivating. He would waste no time in his promise.

He circulated the world Qi around him, slowly bringing it into his pathways. It was a pleasant feeling, one his knotted dantian had prevented before. He noticed that his pathways were larger than before, which he theorized would help the power of his martial techniques. The first level was attuning yourself to an element, learning to sense it and control its elemental ki. Audun knew he could skip this step, his control over world Qi was at the level of an Earth level elemental master. Step two was learning how to circulate the Qi. Most people could work off of their souls shape, but Audun wasn’t most people. He was possibly the first being to ever live without a dantian.

He attempted to just imagine a circle and have the Qi flow like that, but he found it very hard to keep the image, and very hard to get the Qi to listen. After several tries, he was drenched in sweat, and knew that his mind was at its limit for the day. Now it was time to train his body. He had thought of using normal training methods, but he knew that training like that was slow and systematic. He would need to move into the next level through training, then train his body to properly use its strength.

He needed to circumvent this process, and he picked this area not just because of its seclusion, but because of the excess of true level spirit beasts near him. Hunting them would push his body to its limits, and allow him to train technique. It was dangerous, but he was impatient. He would receive vengeance, and the first step was the bandit leader at the True level. He was at the sixth level of the True realm, nearing the seventh, but he knew the bandit was at the peak of the True realm. He needed to practice and become more powerful.

He began walking up a hill, over which he knew that a spirit beast of the seventh level frequented. While spirit beasts were usually stronger than people of the same rank anyway, he knew that fighting something of this level would force his body to evolve and adapt. Standing atop the hill, he saw the Harpy he was after. Harpies were humanoid spirit beasts, with intelligence that was around the level of a ten year old child. It was akin to a chicken that could stand on two legs, and was colored a hollow gray.

It was an excellent target for Audun, who was nearing eleven. His comprehension shot up with his cultivation level, so his intelligence was on the level of a seventeen year old. He took a moment to make sure he knew his escape paths. The harpy couldn’t swim very fast, so he made sure that the lake was close, so that he could get there in just a few long steps.

Preparing his mind and body, he strode forward. The Harpy noticed him as soon as he stepped within fifteen meters of it. It squawked out a battle cry, then dashed toward him. Audun was barely able to dodge before the Harpy brought around its talons down across his face. A light scratch still found its way onto his head. His eye was blinded, and he panicked. He could still see out of his right eye, but he had a huge blindspot.

Fear and anger rushed through him. How could he be so stupid, he should have trained, practiced for this. No, no that thought is stupid now. All he could do was live through this. Just keep the Harpy to the right. These thoughts flashed by faster than a normal ten year old could think, so the Harpy had only just turned to begin its next attack. Leaning right, Audun got into Crane Stance, a nimble stance, having him place all of his weight onto his left foot directly under him. His right foot was slightly raised, enabling him to either dodge or counterattack as necessary.

The Harpy charged straight forward, but at the last moment, seemingly teleported to his blind spot. Audun cursed himself for thinking the Harpy would just charge again. He threw himself down, feeling the hostile air from the savage kick brush by. He began to reposition himself, but he felt the harpy’s other leg move towards him. Instinctively, he was able to move move slightly out of the way, throwing himself forward. As the Harpy passed by, he grabbed at its neck like lightning, snapping it.

He got up, feeling numb staring at the Harpy before him. The world slowed, and everything was turned upside down. He couldn’t keep it in anymore, he burst into tears. He was truly all alone, in this kill or be killed world. He could train and become strong, but he will still be alone. The turmoil he felt caused him to sob in anguish for hours, until he cried himself to sleep.

Day faded to night when Audun woke up. He was emotionally exhausted, doing nothing but blankly staring at the triple moon system above. With his exhaustion came a resolute feeling however, and now more than ever, he felt confident he could take on the world. Those feelings came crashing down when he tried to sit up.

“Ah hell, everything hurts.” Looking himself up and down, he was a pretty sorry sight. Limping over to the shining water, he rinsed himself off, and soaked. It would be daylight soon, and his strict training regime would begin. It seems he has to ability to sense where his opponent is, and what they are doing. He decided to make a few workouts dedicated to training that, mainly running ones, while doing so blindfolded.

“I’m an idiot.” Shooting up out of the water he ran to the harpy. Many intelligent demon beasts had rings, and although their full properties couldn’t be explored due to the lack of demon beasts, they have been found to help in cultivation. The green Harpy lie there with its neck broken, being a sorry sight. Audun ignored the body and immediately used the Qi of the world to search the harpy. There! Sure enough, there was a ring the size of a palm right where a humanoid’s dantian is located.

The method to extract a ring is simple, and was in the courses that Audun was taught as a child. He had to revise them slightly, but the principle was the same. Rotating the world Qi around his finger, as to make a saw, he cut down the harpy’s stomach. Doing so also untethered the spirit bonds that helped keep a soul in when the body is cut. The spirit ring started floating out, so he quickly snatched it. As soon as his finger touched it however, the circle was absorbed into him.

And he was writhing in pain. Every poor in his body ached, and his cultivation surged. He may not have a dantian, but his soul is still can grow, likely him to control more Qi. The pain he experienced was his soul attempting to escape, without its dantian shell. After several moments of hell, it finally dulled. The dull brought with it a new feeling, a feeling of… The breeze. Yet this feeling only stemmed from his palm.

He shook his head, this was certainly interesting, but splitting his focus into too much at once would be counter productive. He needed to get strong enough to be accepted by a clan, and receive their techniques. While he couldn’t use them exactly as described, techniques have proved to be very useful starting grounds. The only problem was, he didn’t know what to do once he became strong enough to take out the bandit.

But these were thoughts for later, for now it was training time. Taking a breath, he began jogging towards the forest. He allowed himself to pick up speed as he was running, and by the time he was in the forest, he was in full sprint. He allowed himself to close his eyes and feel the world around him, to feel the objects around him. Directly ahead, he could sense a tree, so he pivoted around it. He knew he was feeling correctly when his arm cut against it. The wound stung, but he pressed forward.

By the time he left the forest, it was dark and he had many cuts all up and down his body. But he also radiated a new sense of stillness. All around him, nothing moved, and Audun seemed at peace with the world. The training had not only vastly improved his sixth sense, but his control too. If he kept up like this, well, it would only take two years to hit the peak of the true level. With a newfound fire in his eyes, Audun set up camp and prepared for the coming trials.