‘So these threads make up one stream? And combining multiple streams creates a wave?’ Ryan thought, as he sat there.

More and more threads began to appear, until it looked like the golden roc was gliding on waves created by a combination of multiple threads. Ryan suddenly understood what was happening from the scene.

‘The roc pushes the threads backwards by using its massive wings, which propels it forwards at lightning speed! That’s the first stage of the technique, isn’t it? Use the threads of wind to accelerate at hyper fast speed! The key to flight, or rather, gliding, is to tread on the threads and use them to sustain your weight?’

He was now ecstatic at the prospect of learning to fly. However, Rogarth had said minor success meant that he could travel 5,000 meters in the blink of an eye. The question he had to ask himself now, was how he could pull something like that off.

‘Wait a minute, why is this technique called Roc Chasing the wind if the roc is using the wind to accelerate? Could it be that the person who created this technique thought the bird was chasing the wind? I guess there are crazy people in the world... On a serious note though, what’s up with the name? Am I missing something?’ he thought.

He stood up, looked at the scene playing in front of him. He sighed as he realized that gaining enlightenment was not so easy. Just as he was about to give up, the scene changed! This time, there were streams of the threads everywhere!

The roc appeared just above him. It was majestic, with a blinding radiance and its wings that blotted out the sun. The roc looked like it was directing the streams of wind, as it moved forwards. By using its massive wings, it seemed to vanish in between places, appearing in other places!

Well, it wasn’t that it was vanishing, but Ryan was too slow. His human eyesight was too slow to catch up with the roc’s movements. As soon as he realized this, he sat down to observe the scene some more. More and more time passed, with the scene replaying over and over again.

This time, Ryan was now able to see the details of the threads. The roc flapped its gigantic wings, causing the streams of wind to be pushed backwards at a rapid pace. The streams that were pushed backwards dispersed into singular threads. The threads that were in the front formed more and more streams, which were pushed back by the roc, afterwards dispersing into singular threads!

‘Oh, that’s how it was doing it? No wonder! The roc was chasing the wind! In actuality, it was chasing the streams and using them to accelerate much further! If I can see the streams, that means I can now start practicing the movement technique! I can’t wait!’ he thought, as he began to get more excited.

He suddenly rose up and looked in front of him, and the scene that was playing faded away, leaving Ryan looking at a windy desert. There were tornadoes going around, and whirlwinds spinning like vortexes, blowing sand all over the place. Ryan gasped at this scene. They were huge, with the smallest whirlwind being 200 meters in height.

He turned to the whirlwinds, and observed them closely. From a distance, he could see countless waves spinning in a circular manner.

“You can see the waves right?” said a voice that seemed familiar.

Ryan turned to look behind him, and saw Rogarth standing there, with a proud look on his face. “Why did you leave me here? I want to go home!” shouted Ryan.

“Don’t worry, here’s what we’re going to do. If you can survive that whirlwind then I can take you home”, replied Rogarth with a devilish look plastered on his face.

“Wait, what--” before he finished speaking, Rogarth grabbed him and threw him across the sandy desert right into one of the spinning whirlwinds!

“Remember, apply what you have learnt to get out of the whirlwind! If you manage to leave alive, then we’ll go home, and consider it your good fortune!” shouted Rogarth, before disappearing again.

Ryan tried to curse Rogarth, but he was already gone. When he tried to open his mouth, a lot of sand filled in and he found it difficult to breathe. He was hurled around by the whirlwind, and he couldn’t even open his eyes to see what was going on!

From the moment Ryan had started cultivating in the mini-dimension up to the time Myra left, it had only been five minutes in the real world. However, in the mini-dimension, it had been a year, and the latter half of the time spent there was gruesome.

Ryan was in the whirlwind, unconscious. He had woken up twice, but the conditions had been so unbearable he passed out. He was hurled around in the whirlwind until he got into the eye of the whirlwind. The pressure was very low, and everything was floating, including the unconscious Ryan. His clothes were torn, and he had wounds everywhere.

As he woke up, he started feeling weightless. He was confused for a moment, before his eyes gained clarity, and then he threw up. His vomit floated up right in front of him, and he threw up some more. After getting used to the feeling of weightlessness, he knew what he had to do!

‘I have to get out of here! That’s what he wanted, isn’t it? That bastard! I’m going to make sure I make him pay somehow! How dare he do this to me? Didn’t he say that I was his successor? Why would he treat a successor like this?’ he sighed as he thought to himself. He continued, ‘Anyways, the question now is, how do I get out of here? This place is so calm it’s terrifying! There is no wind whatsoever, so I cannot use the roc chasing the wind technique! If only I could make my own wind! Wait a minute, inside the whirlwind there are many waves moving about haphazardly.’

He looked at the roaring winds moving about in a circular fashion. If a normal person were thrown into something like that, their body would be torn apart instantly!

‘All I need to use the roc chasing the wind technique is some threads; even the slightest will propel me into the whirlwind! After that, I can use the waves to accelerate out of it! The question that still remains is how to get the threads.’

As he hovered there trying to figure out what to do, he noticed that there were individual threads at the periphery of the calm zone, close to the raging waves. The threads were moving along the waves very slowly. Ryan tried to edge closer to the threads, but he realized that he could not! His movement could only go up, not sideways or down, and unlike the roc, he didn’t have wings so he couldn’t fly.

He decided to go up, which was easier because all he had to do was to wave his hands and feet in a swimming motion. He was carried upwards, albeit in a very slow manner.

It took him a full month, at least in this mini-dimension, to get up closer to the top of the whirlwind, where there was even more pressure! However, he realized that the pressure was pushing him downwards, closer to the periphery of the calm zone. His feet touched a couple of threads, and he launched the movement technique, trying to copy the golden roc, but instead of pushing the threads with wings, he used his feet!

He was propelled a distance of less than 5 meters, directly into the raging winds! He closed his eyes but still, he was pushed around in circles by the winds. He tried to open them, only to have sand fill up. As he was being pushed around, he tried to calm down, but he couldn’t. Nothing was going according to plan! He suddenly realized he had miscalculated. However, in that moment of despair, he stepped on something. Actually, his feet touched a wave.

He launched the movement technique in that instant, and thus began a battle against the winds. He kept being pushed backwards, while he was trying to propel himself forwards. However, due to the winds going around in circles, he was carried upwards, while rotating in circles!

Finally, he managed to reach the very top of the whirlwind. There was more pressure at the top; however, he had gotten a little used to it. After a lot of struggling, he finally stepped on some threads that were closer to him, and then launched the movement technique!

He finally managed to get out! However, he was now falling from a height of over 200 meters! His speed picked up as he dropped.

150 meters...145 meters...140 meters...

The distance between him and the ground was dropping rapidly, as he was falling. If he fell, there was no doubt that he would die!

Suddenly, he started seeing very small threads. These threads were different from the ones he had seen before. They were violet in color, and they were very thin. He tried to grab hold on one of the threads but it shattered instantly, and his falling speed increased! The amount of the violet threads started increasing as he fell. Ryan was perplexed. He tried to think what this meant, but couldn’t come up with any ideas. He just decided to try launching the movement technique without touching the threads.

Roc chasing the wind!

He was propelled to a distance of 10 meters in a slanted direction! He launched it again, and he was propelled another distance of 10 meters again! He kept launching the movement technique, until he was 40 meter above the ground.

30 meters...20 meters...10 meters...

Thud!

He fell onto the sand, which was scattered in every direction upon impact.

“Congratulations, you have managed to survive the wind. Now you have the ability to move at very fast speed! You have yet to reach minor success though”, said Rogarth who appeared behind Ryan, who had stood up, spitting sand and dusting himself.

“Pth... You... Y-you...Pth...” he tried to speak but his mouth was filled with sand. The only thing he managed to do was spit out large amounts of sand.

“Time for you to go home now”, said Rogarth.

Space shifted, and Ryan found himself outside the mini-dimension. He was sitting cross-legged on Cloud’s peak. Myra was nowhere to be found, and there was a glowing shield surrounding the place he was sitting. The sandy taste was gone from his mouth, and everything was now normal.

“It won’t do you any good to try to resist!” said one of the soldiers who were surrounding Michael, Marjory, Dr. Paige, George and June.

“What do you want with me?” asked Michael.

The soldier kept quiet. However, that was when middle-aged man, who was wearing a green uniform with multiple badges on his shoulder walked into view. He had a scar that stretched from between his eyes to his left cheek.

“Has the blueprint been found?” he asked.

“Yes General, we found it on the table in the garage, as per intel”, said a soldier who handed over the blueprint Michael had placed on the table before.

“General? Blueprint? You guys were after that thing all along?” snapped Michael.

The general ignored Michael, and continued, “Good job you two. Your mission is now complete. Report to Mission Control for your next assignment!”

As he spoke, he was looking at the direction June and George were standing.

“Yes General”, they both replied and started moving away.

“Wait, June, George, what’s going on? What are you guys doing?” shouted Michael.

“Michael, you can’t be this slow, could you? Can’t you tell by now that they were spies sent to infiltrate your farm and obtain that blueprint?” asked Dr. Paige.

“But--”

“Lady and gentlemen, my apologies for the late introduction. My name is General O’Brian”, said the general with a slight smile.