Author’s note- Hey, I’m just gonna mash all the chapter parts together in here, so you can read them together in this complete chapter if you wish. Scroll down for the updated parts that are shown in giant bold. So here is Vol. 1 Chapter 5- Fire

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Fire (part 1)

???- “Fire… is like a battle. It may be intense, but in the end there is only ashes…”

A man looked at me with at dark and looming gaze, his expression unreadable.

???- “Will you also become one with the flame, Daniel?”

An image of ashes suddenly superimposed on the man, and suddenly his expression took on an expression of greed. A sense of horror rose within me, and I backed away a step. But suddenly the man rushed within me, and I felt paralyzed, as if I could no longer move. And in the next moment, I opened my mouth and started to speak, in a voice that was clearly not my own.

Me???- “Well, there really was no need to ask that question. After all, we are already one.”

I bridled up with maniacal laughter, and flamed up into ashes.

******************

I woke up in a cold sweat, and I closely examined myself and my surroundings as a reflex to my dream. The bed was just how I remembered it, with brown sheets that covered my body and the top of my bedpost was halfway broken off. The room was my room, except for traces of muddy foot prints too large to be my own. But wait… I was supposed to be at the orphanage, that woman! She tried to kill me, so I slashed her and… Nothing.

Feeling around my body for any traces of bruises, I found no area that hurt. In fact, my skin felt much more responsive to every touch, and every part of my body felt like it was brimming with an energy previously unknown to me.

I spoke to myself in partial amazement,

Me- “Wow! I feel great!”

I stretched my muscles, and they responded with a flexibility previously unknown to me. And surprisingly, it felt really good. Soon, I started testing out all kinds of movements that I could of never done before. Touching my toes without bending my knees, bending backwards so far my head reached the level of my waist, and doing a straight up split1 without even flinching!

(1: A split is where both your legs go sideways and you lay them flat on the ground. The legs have to be completely opposite to each other)

And with my improved flexibility, it was time to test out the Earth Shattering Fist. Taking the posture for the fist, I slowly performed each movement that I had fully copied down. Then I snapped my arm back to the position, and struck out quickly.

I performed the same actions as I did before, yet there was something different to me about those movements than before. It felt like something, something foreign moved with me as I performed the martial art. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t seem to isolate that feeling.

So I decided to try something new. I sat down, and just tried to observe my bodily functions. I moved one muscle at a time, searching for that feeling. But it was not within my muscle. So next, I resigned myself to observing the next easiest thing. Breathing.

However, even though I felt like I understood more about myself than ever before, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. But I decided on trying to listen at one more thing, My heartbeat.

Sitting still in an area void of noise, I was suddenly able to feel individual heartbeats starting in my chest. Then I moved my perception upwards, and felt the blood pulsing up at my head. Unsatisfied, I spread my perception to even the outer extremities of my arms. But I did not achieve results. So lastly, I focused on my legs to see if I could feel a heartbeat from there.

However, unlike all the other areas of my body, My legs were surprisingly hard to feel. The most I could feel my pulse to was my stomach. Finally getting a challenge, I focused all my efforts on my legs. And I was not disappointed. It was faint, but it was still there.

So then I redrew my still hyper-focused attention back to my chest when all of a sudden my pulse seemed disoriented. It was almost as if I had, two pulses?

I shook my head in disbelief. That didn’t seem right…

Feeling for anything abnormal, I focused on my chest again. But the feeling was on and off. It felt like whenever I breathed, I could no longer have access to that feeling. It was just like the irritation that comes to a man when he new to fishing. Just when he thinks the fish are about to be his, they swim away from his fishing hook.

Me- “Well if breathing is the problem, I’ll just stop breathing!”

The Idea may have been silly, but it ended up working. I could finally understand that foreign feeling. So I quietly observed it as long as I could hold my breath.

It was a bizarre to know that there was something you never knew about now moving around inside you. And the way it moved was different than anything else in my body too. It felt like a raindrop slowly inching down a window, but suddenly another raindrop would collide into it. Then both of them would speed up together, leaving a trail of water behind. Eventually, that raindrop would start inching yet again, and another raindrop would gather from the trail of water left behind. It then would hit the raindrop in front of it, causing the whole process to happen over again.

It truly felt incredibly strange. But yet, the whole process seemed so familiar, like it had happened my whole life. It was just that I was never able to sense it.

I was drawn into a mysterious state by feeling those two raindrops circulate throughout my body. Eventually, it got to the point where I could literally see it. But oblivious to the changes within me, the raindrops still continued in their slow, mysterious way, circulating within me. But after a little bit, the raindrops within me started to slowly speed up, as if they were being drawn like a magnet to something.

They grew faster and faster, and suddenly the raindrops dropped into a large, spherical area with a small globe of water in the center. Flying forward, they became one with a chaotic section of the globe, and soon after, another 2 droplets were sent out. They went into a chamber opposite to the one they came in and continued the cycle eternally.

A sudden insight flashed in my mind while in that mysterious state, and I waited until the aura was within my arm. Then I jumped to my feet and drew myself into the stance for the Earth Shattering Fist.

At this point, the droplets suddenly stopped and coiled like a spring, waiting for something to happen. I did not disappoint them. I struck forward with the Earth Shattering Fist, which now contained an indomitable might. The drops sprung forward and spiraled out of my channels into the air. They formed a rippling flame that seemed to spiral around my arm till they reached the end of my fist.

It created a burning shockwave, which compressed the air by suppressing a purplish sort of energy. The two spiraled together until reaching an object; one that seemed fragile compared to the fist I let out. The two energies penetrated the object, and then they suddenly collided together within the object and exploded.

“BOOM!!!”

The object shattered, and splintered remains flew out. Most of them bounced across my clothing, but one of them cut past my cheek, leaving a small cut. But I was not thinking about that. Instead, I was still focused on the now smaller raindrops that rode on the purplish energy and tried to re enter my body.

With a single thought, the raindrops turned into thin streams that entered where they left. With another, they continued circulation. And with this another thought came to mind: If I can make them exit and re enter my body, why can’t I speed up their circulation? So using this train of thought, I continued to exercise my newfound ‘limb’. That is, until dad came bursting through the room.

Dad- “Daniel!? Are you ok? What was that noise?”

Dad came in with no trace of the sadistic smile from yesterday. Instead, it was one of worry. But when he saw the shattered bedpost, he grew silent.

I turned to look at the shattered remains of the already damaged bedpost. Sheepishly grinning at dad, I weakly said,

Me- “We’re fine. I was just practicing the Earth Shattering Fist, but this happened…”

Dad’s tone instantly took on a tone of scolding, although he wasn’t truly angry,

Dad- “Daniel, you shouldn’t practice the Earth Shattering Fist with aura in the house. First of all, you should only aim your fist at a large space of empty air when you’re a beginner. Secondly, you have to control your aura to detonate it before it hits anythi-. Wait! You can control your aura!?”

Me- “So that’s what it was… I should have known.”

Dad smiled proudly, and murmured something about proving those fools wrong. Then he asked excitedly, like it was his own awakening,

Dad- “What element did you awaken to!?”

Instead of answering, I smiled and brought the liquid aura outside my arm, letting the faint flame flicker around on the surface of my skin. I could not, however, make it invade the area like that, woman, did. I wonder why?

Me- “Dad, why can’t it leave the surface of my skin? I clearly remember sending it out like a shot for the Earth Shattering Fist, and that woman could invade a whole area with hers.”

Dad- “Oh, you mean like this?”

Dad’s eyes flickered with a greenish golden light, and suddenly a rolling mist came out of his body and flooded the area. However, it was not black like that woman. Instead, it was the same color as the light from dad’s eyes, a greenish golden color, which gave me a feeling of joy and insurmountable self-confidence.

Dad- “This, is aura. But the reason you can’t do this with your aura is because Caldera and I are both true cultivators, and we both can extend our aura to the extremities of our magespaces.”

I cringed at the unfamiliar terms.

Me- “Dad, when you say true cultivator, you make it sound like there are false ones. And I’ve heard the term magespace before, but no one was willing to explain it to me.”

Dad was always eager to explain something, as long as it wasn’t about the clan. So he answered without hesitating,

Dad- “Well, they aren’t really false, but one who awakens with pills will never have an edge over a true cultivator. As long as they have the same abilities of course. But a true cultivator is one who awakens on his own, without the assistance of pills. And a magespace, well, it’s hard to explain. You’ll understand when you advance to the basic realm.”

Dad grinned and continued on,

Dad- “And who knows? You may get a headstart from how young you are, by advancing to the basic realm before 12. That would be an unbeatable record, especially due to the fact that only the emperor can awaken before the age of 12.”

I smiled proudly as I let my emotions get the better of me. But so what? I had nothing to hide. In fact, I feel like going straight to Luke just to bragg in his face. But then I looked at dad’s now stern gaze, and threw my sky high thoughts back down to earth. That’s right. If the bandits discovered I had that kind of talent, it didn't matter what I did. I would be at the mercy of murderers and drunks, who might try and ruin me without thought for the consequences.

The best example of this was that old woman, Caldera. She already had pre-existing hatred with me, and that made her try and kill me even while she was on her last straw. Luckily, the power difference between her and my father was too great for her to do anything. But if someone at the 2nd or 3rd level of the basic realm who wasn’t so old tried to kill me, I might not even know how I died.

I took a deep breath and nodded at Dad, showing I understood. Sometimes we just had those moments where not even a word was needed to express what the other was feeling. That was just a part of who we were.

Me- “Dad, how do I cultivate? Am I even allowed to currently?”

Dad hesitated as conflicting emotions appeared on his face, but he decided to answer my question.

Dad- “Well, to cultivate you need an art that is suited towards you. And I don’t currently know of any fire attributed methods, only a universal one that is passed down through our family. Do you want to learn it? It will not boost the prowess of your natural energy, being a non-attributed method, but the foundational abilities of this method are second to none. Of course, the method comes with conversion abilities so you can use attributed energy in spells as long as you are willing to wait using your aura.”

Whenever Dad talked about it’s foundational abilities, he sounded extremely confident. But the problem was, I didn’t even know the importance of a foundation.

Me- “What’s a foundation, and why is it important? I thought you could just absorb energy and eventually advance ranks…”

Dad’s suave smile froze for a moment, then he started cursing under his breath about stupid clan members and their pointless rules. Then he continued,

Dad- “Well, of course you wouldn’t know this at your age. Have you ever heard the saying, haste makes waste?”

I nodded my head yes.

Dad- “This saying is the crux of the foundation. A foundation is the amount of latent energy accumulated in your body and core. This latent energy is the energy used to break through from level to level. Your foundation also affects things like recovery speed, battle prowess, and the rate at which you cultivate. Basically the better your foundation, the better your life. The amount of ease at which you accumulate a foundation is talent, and an accumulated foundation can only be disturbed by certain things. These are receiving a life threatening wound without immediate healing, using a secret technique to draw out latent energy for battle prowess, and advancing to the next realm too early.”

Me- “Ok… But you still haven’t told me the most important thing; how to gain a foundation. I don’t really need to know how to lose one yet if I don’t even have one, right.”

Dad- “Cough, cough. I was just getting to that. You accumulate a foundation through many methods. The first and most common method is to eat magical beasts that you have hunted. They will improve your flesh and blood from the inside out, and you will immediately see some results. Of course, you cannot eat the same kind of meat every time or else the effects will start to wane, but this is still the cheapest and easiest method. The second most common is to get a higher quality cultivation technique. The better the technique, the more the energy will penetrate and refine your body in a greater amount of area. Also, a good cultivation technique will more often than not be suited to a certain kind of element. Everytime you cultivate it will draw in small amounts of essence aura into your natural energy, making it easier to control through your own aura. This kind of method will also strengthen your natural energy, making an even better foundation. It will also of course, add a boosting effect to spells and martial arts that follow that element.”

I frowned slightly. He mentioned that the universal method was non-attributed. Does that mean that it won’t have any boosting effect whatsoever?

Me- “Dad, you mentioned a universal method. How much of an effect on my combat capabilities will it have for me to use a non-attributed method.”

Dad looked like he was answering a difficult question. But after a moment, he spoke carefully,

Dad- “I’ll be honest with you. It won’t affect you during the first rank of the basic realm, but it will affect your capabilities by 10% at the second rank and 30% at the third rank. This is mainly because your elemental attacks will take more time to mobilize than normal. However, your perfect foundation will increase your combat capabilities by 5% at the first rank, 10% at the second rank, and 15% at the third rank. So in total, you will be stronger than others at the first rank, same as others in the second rank, and weaker than others in the 3rd rank. However, this method will give you the highest possible chance to advance into the intermediate realm.”

Dad stared at me expectantly, but also with a trace of fear. If I chose not to learn the universal method, I would be able to keep up with the rest and become as strong as dad. However, I would also be giving up a greater chance to become infinitely stronger. But isn’t the third rank enough for me? I have no need for all that strength.

So I made the choice to not use the universal method. But just as I opened my mouth to make my refusal, I just couldn’t say no. I knew he would be incredibly disappointed in me if I chose to give up my heritage for another method. I said somewhat disappointedly,

Me- “I’ll cultivate our Universal Method…”

But when I saw the expression of joy and pride on my father’s face, I knew I had made the right choice.

Me- “How do I start?”

Fire (part 2)

Dad smiled, and began to recount a story from ages back.

Dad- “The Swiftblade family’s roots extend back, back into the beginnings of the lightning empire. And the technique was developed and perfected right after Theren awakened not just the Electricity attributed cores, but the others as well. This technique is said to have been developed by the sword saint Aviran Swiftblade, who later on broke through the void.

In the story, Aviran was born from a normal family with advanced realm talent. But while he ascended to become prevalent in the perfect realm, his family was still tottering around the basic realm. As you know Daniel, those separated by realms are quite literally in a different world. Your reaction speed, movement, even the speed of talking makes you so much different than them that there is just no way to converse with them. Therefore, upon an inspiration that allowed him to reach perfection, he made the technique for the family. He inscribed the technique onto an incomparably hard tablet1 that contains the methods to perfection!

(1: A nokia!!!)

However, although this method should have made our family strong, it was actually the cause of our downfall. Jealous of our heritage, the sk-”

Dad paused, as if he was thinking about something.

Dad- “Well, when you are strong enough you will naturally know who destroyed our family. But that doesn’t have much to do with you, after all that was hundreds of years ago. Anyways, should our heritage ever be lost, the beginning stages were passed on both in memory and in writing. After those, they were all passed down in riddles. They were all said in order, and I will recount them exactly how they were written.

1- I lie deep within an ocean. But a peculiar ocean it is, for the water is green, yet there are no fishes within. And when the cold should freeze it over, it instead disappears.

2- I lie between my mother’s embrace, but yet I am also within a flame. And when you evoke her anger, I shall come from within.

3- I rest within an essential component for life, yet you cannot find me where there is light. But I also rest within a popular area, where thousands always disturb me.

4- I rest where only my friends can find me, yes, the ones who surf the blue and white ocean tide. Only through my intelligent friends shall you meet me once again, though you may see me without them.

These are the the four riddles that note the location of the remaining scripture. Of course, the first one corresponds to the basic realm, the second one corresponds to the intermediate realm, the third one corresponds to the advanced realm, and the 4th corresponds to the perfect realm.”

Now I was confused. We were going to talk about the cultivation technique, but why did he start speaking in riddles? Could it be I would have to look for each one just to cultivate to the basic realm?

Dad seemed to laugh at my confusion, but he didn’t move to admit he was joking. So I could only consider that he was telling the truth.

Me- “Dad… Did you cultivate with this method?”

He nodded his head, still grinning.

Me- “Then how did you reach the peak of the basic realm? Wait...”

Dad- “Do you know the answer to the first riddle?”

My eyes literally brightened up, a phenomenon I was not used to.

Me- “A forest! Dad, you found one in the forest? But the forest is huge! How did you find out?”

Without unnecessary suspense, dad grabbed a crystal blue, spherical pendant from his breast. It seemed to somewhat reflect the surroundings, and it had 4 small, clear and delicate wings that were almost like a butterfly’s. He handled it carefully, and with a gentle breath he let the pendant take flight.

As if it had life, the pendant magically fluttered in a circle around my dad, and then flew into the hallway. I followed after it, and so did dad. Eventually it rested on a part of the wall, and flew back to dad. It landed on his hand and he put it back in his breast.

Dad- “The tablet rests within the walls of this house now.”

Dad removed one of the stones making up the wall, but instead of collapsing, there was a secret hole containing an ancient tablet. It was made up of the same material as the pendant, but it was the same color as the secret compartment. If it was not emitting light, I would have not noticed it.

Dad- “The tablet will only respond to those with the pendant, otherwise it will only be hidden within the environment. Only those with our bloodline can use it, and that is limited to us two.”

He handed both the tablet over to me, and said quietly,

Dad- “Memorize it alone in your room; find me when you finish.”

*******************

About 20 minutes later, I could recite the content of the tablet without leaving out a single word. The cultivation technique was called, “Revolutions of the Universal Foundation,” and to put it simply, it involved 7 stages.

(Because these explanations are really lengthy and go deeply into mechanics of my story, I don’t feel that many would like to read it. But hey, for you go getters go ahead and read both! However for the others, I’ll notify you where the summary starts in bold.)

The first stage needed you to compress the aura sphere within your core, and rotate it as fast as you can. The faster the rotational speed, the faster the energy is drawn closer to you. When the natural energy drawn in fully takes your shape as it tries to get closer to your body, you have to rotate the core of the sphere in the opposite way, and send the outside aura flying outwards, leaving behind a rotational ‘seed’ that is spinning a bit faster than the previous. This ‘seed’ will draw the aura released back in, bringing in the natural energy with it. This is the natural energy gathering stage.

The second stage was to then incorporate the natural energy into the outer layer of the aura sphere, and spin the aura around using the momentum of the ‘seed’. The rotational speed will then slowly separate the natural energy into its counterparts, material energy and immaterial energy. The immaterial energy will move into your seed, and the material energy will spin around the edges of the aura sphere. This is the divide stage.

The third stage was to take the possession of the energy you gained, or conquer it. You use your aura as mini chains that attach to segments of natural energy. Then using your aura chains, you squeeze the natural energy to imprint it with your ‘signature’. Once the individual imprinting is done, you create openings from your seed to the edge of the aura sphere. Using these ‘tunnels’ you can send immaterial energy outwards to the edge of the sphere without disrupting the rotations of your aura. Next you recombine the energy and send it back through the tunnels to your seed. This combined energy will be re printed with your ‘signature’, making the energy thoroughly follow your command. This is the conquer stage.

The fourth stage was to reinforce your ‘tunnels’ with the imprinted natural energy by layering the natural energy between the aura of the tunnels. Let the rotations of your aura to further compress and consolidate these tunnels, until material and immaterial energy can be sent throughout the tunnels without the slightest ripple. Once this was completed, you needed to merge your 2 types of natural energy into one again at the edge, and wait until the unimprinted natural energy fully takes your shape. Then reverse the rotations of your seed to send your aura outside your body and the imprinted natural energy throughout your body. The imprinted energy will refine your body from the inside, and the unimprinted natural energy will refine most in the areas that your imprinted energy hit the least from the outside. This is the reinforcement stage.

After completing these stages, one would repeat the steps while omitting the constructing parts of aura that weren’t needed to be done again for the technique. The more times you could repeat the technique without messing up, the faster your power progressed. But there were 3 special stages that were used when the situation calls for it. Those were the fifth, sixth, and seventh stage respectively.

The fifth stage was a impurity removement technique. It was used when you adsorbed natural energy from somewhere other than the environment, namely dans and herbs. In those, there would always be traces of impurities. So to get rid of the impurities, you would first draw your natural energy into your aura sphere. Then you would rotate the energy as fast as you could to separate the energies, and therefore the impurities. Since impurities cannot be printed, you can then fuse the energy together without the impurities using the tunnels. Then take a trace of natural energy and bond it to the impurities. After that, one must draw the clean energy back into the seed, and then leave the impurities at the edge of the sphere. Lastly, you reverse the aura seed, blowing the energy to the extremities of your body. But this time you do not keep spinning the aura seed, but instead control your aura to make the energy exit through one of the seven orifices. Severe the connection to your aura, and leave the energy to dissipate in the world. Aura regenerates at a slow pace, so the loss of it will not be permanent. This is the refinement stage.

The sixth stage was a stage used to assist in breakthroughs. It works by spinning threads of aura and energy throughout the body, and circulating it and cultivating at the same time. The threads move from the head, to the arms and legs, in the center, and back to the core. This will slowly awaken the body's potential without hurting it. Then bind the aura to the energy in your body, and rush it back to your core while now using your aura according to steps 1-4. If done when the user has accumulated enough foundation, they will break through to the next level. This is the activation stage.

The seventh and last technique was one for raising battle potential. Unlike the other techniques, this one did not work using a complete sphere. Instead, it used the tunnels as anchors in the edge and sent the outer layer of the aura sphere outwards onto the edges of the core, while having material energy on one side, and immaterial on the other. Then one would form a natural energy line separating the core into two halfs. These edges would rotate in opposite directions, while the seed focuses on separating the two. When the user needed a power boost, one would temporarily retract the natural energy line causing the two to send out a pulse wave of energy throughout the user, boosting him/her by up to a full 50% for a moment. The boost percentage depends on the time the aura and energy takes to rotate at full speed again. This is the burst stage.

(Summary starts here!)

I laid down from my sitting position, and tried to summarize what I just learned

After establishing the foundations for the technique, the first stage gathers energy in your body. The second stage and third stage divides and conquers the energy you just gathered, and the fourth stage reinforces your body and special tunnels for energy within your aura. Then you would move directly from the fourth stage to the second stage, and continue the process faster and faster until you can’t maintain the technique.

Once one failed to perform one of the stages appropriately as the energy gathered faster and faster, the energy will stop rotation, and one must restart the process from the first stage to continue cultivation.

There were also 3 special techniques that were tailored to suit special needs. These were the refinement stage, the activation stage, and the burst stage.

The refinement stage was to be used directly after impure energy entered the body, and it forced that energy out at the cost of a bit of cultivation and aura. Both are recoverable by time.

The activation stage sent energy throughout your body to awaken and gather latent energy / foundation. This energy would then be sent to your core riding on the wave of extra energy entering your body. If the energy requirements are met, one would directly be able to raise their cultivation, but if they weren’t, ones foundation will be scattered. This scattered foundation will have to be reaccumulated, although the recovery speed would be much faster than accumulating it from scratch.

The burst stage sent out instantaneous waves of energy throughout your body, boosting your base power by a full 50% for a moment. Although this energy needed time to recover after a single burst, it did not harm foundations unlike most battle power raising techniques. Therefore it was probably one of the most practical techniques of the 3 special stages.

According to the tablet, any of the 3 special stages could be used in conjunction with each other, or they could be used with the foundational stages.

This was my father’s cultivation technique, Revolutions of the Universal Foundation.

Fire (part 3)

According to my dad’s instructions, I went over and recited the technique exactly how it appeared on the tablet and explained what it meant until he was satisfied. Then he grasped the pendant, and took it off his neck. Handing it to me, he said quietly,

Dad- “It is yours now. May our ancestors protect you as they have me with this pendant.”

Again I marveled at the exquisite detail of the pendant, where no flaws could be seen. The four clear, crystal wings had a lifelike detail, and could be simply described as perfect. The orb seemed to have endless crystal clear seas within, where one could look for 100 years, and still never be tired of the beautiful sight! And the orb was not limited to just this! If you looked at the orb at a different angle, you could also see another mini-world within. Everything on the outside of the orb was reflected within, and I would not be surprised if the mini-me came alive, if not for the bluish tint that separated its reality from ours.

Reluctantly taking my eyes off the pendant that seemed to contain endless mysteries within, I looked to dad for further instruction.

Dad- “You’ll get used to the orb eventually. Believe me, when I first got it all I would do was stare at it. But eventually I became somewhat immune to its wonders, especially after being exposed to the world of cultivation. After all, there is a whole world out there, full of peculiarities like this pendant.”

I was extremely sceptical to his words; hadn’t I been in the world as well? But then I thought again. Wasn’t I also surrounded by pelicularities? The wooden sword, the ancient tablet, the recent surge of weird dreams, even the pendant were all things that seemed to surround me, especially since I did one fundamental thing. I moved out alone, without my clan being there to shoulder the danger for me. But that ‘woman’ almost killed me. Wait, what happened after I slashed her?

Me- “Yeah I guess. But now that it comes to mind, what happened to that, woman? After I slashed her...”

An incomparably cold expression appeared on his face.

Dad- “That demoness got what she deserved. She will serve as a living example for those who think of crossing our paths in the future.”

His face drew into a savage grin,

Dad- “And your cut? Don’t worry about it. I made sure it stays there as well. Permanently.”

I smiled savagely as well, unconsciously imitating his grin.

Me- “How deep was it?”

Dad- “Bone deep!”

We both laughed at the same time, not knowing why. It was just one of those moments with true family, where an inseparable connection is formed. But ruining the moment, Dad took on a worried expression.

Dad- “Daniel. I originally didn’t plan to let you to cultivate until you were 12, like the rest of the kids. But after a situation like this, everyone will know you have awakened to your aura. It would be best if you could reach the basic realm as fast as possible, even if it is dangerous as you have not matured in body nor mind yet. I am doing this because I believe in you, and I believe in our heritage. Others may call me foolish, but when have I not been treated this way? It will just add another item to the list of things I get disapproved of for, even if they don’t dare to say it to my face.”

Dad took a swig of water from the gourd of alcohol that hung eternally at his waist, and handed it to me.

Dad- “But you. You’re different. By choosing to cultivate at this age, not only will you be hated by your peers for their jealousy, they will not stay hidden in their groups. You will have confrontations, direct ones, where they will not only try and take the righteous ground while masking their envy! They will also get at you in secret, disturbing you even at your most private times. However, at the end of this path is the mantle of a genius, who can compete with peers over 5 years older than him! Will you take this path with me; a path riddled with thorns for a greater future?”

I stared dad straight in the eye, trying to convey that this was never even a question for me. I decisively took a swig of the gourd1, sealing our covenant.

(1: This gourd is the same Jack uses to pretend he is drunk all the time to others. He uses it as an excuse to stay within seclusion, and protect Daniel.)

******************

A lone figure sat cross legged in a dark room, the only illumination in the room coming from a small trace of flame that occasionally flickered across the skin. But this fire was akin to the calm before the storm. For suddenly, the flame exploded out from the skin burning red with a passion. In the next moment, the flame resembled a giant whirlpool as it receded back into the figure in a spherical fashion. If spectating cultivators could observe the figure’s cultivation, they would be incomparably shocked! The flame had drawn in a trace of natural energy as it receded, and this was coming into a seven year old boy!

Me- “Hmm. So I have finally managed to draw in some natural energy. Unexpectedly, the technique to draw in the natural energy is harder than the tablet made it seem. I suppose he failed to put it on the tablet, as it seemed self-explanatory.”

At first, I had followed the method to circulate my aura sphere and compress it. The process was relatively simple, as it only took a simple intention from my mind. But when I reversed the ‘seed’ and sent the outer layer aura exploding out, it pushed away all the energy I gathered on my skin! Only traces of it remained, and all of that got refined within my skin before it even reached within my body.

Disappointedly, I tried again, following the instructions on the tablet to every single detail. But the same thing happened again, even though this time I made no mistakes. So instead, I thought to do something a little different. Why don’t I split the aura off into needles after it exits my body, and then form a sphere again? After all, the technique doesn’t specify how to draw the natural energy into your body after making the energy into a human shaped mold, right?

Without a moment of hesitation I put my plan in action. Accelerating the circulation of my aura sphere as fast as I could, I drew the energy in closer and closer. After an unknown period of time, the natural energy had coated my skin like the grass is covered in morning dew. It was time!

I suddenly reversed the aura seed, and the outer sphere exploded out in all directions. When it reached my skin, the flame separated into a sea of needles that penetrated through the natural energy quicker than a knife cuts through butter. Then I allowed my aura to be affected by the seed’s influence, and it suddenly pooled out into a bubble of flame. It receded inwards quickly, and for the first time in my life, natural energy entered within my body.

Me- “Ah!!!”

Spreading quickly within my body, the natural energy seemed to want to destroy everything it came across. My body was also diametrically opposed to it, as it wanted to refine all my hard earned energy that I had just gotten. But the thing is that neither my body nor the energy won out. The energy was destroying parts of my body, making it incredibly painful if I may add, but my body was using the energy to build the parts it had destroyed anew, stronger than ever. In contrast to the other feeling, it felt soothing. But altogether it felt like a dull ache that prevaded throughout my body.

They were at a stalemate for the period of time that the energy went to my core, but thankfully there was at least half of the energy left that I could use for my cultivation. The energy drawn into my core accelerated more and more as it got closer to my seed, and I suddenly realized that my work just now was currently in peril. But the only thing I could do was to continue to circulate my seed as fast as I could, as I didn’t want to lose the momentum so essential to the technique.

The natural energy smashed into my seed, and this almost caused it to go out of control. The only thing that kept it from doing so was the fact that it was spinning so fast that some of the force got deflected by the pure rotational prowess of my seed. This dissipated force was added onto the momentum of my seed, driving the spinning speed outside the limits of what I could do on my own. It was still within my control though, so I continued with the technique.

In a matter of time, the natural energy separated into two respective components: one, the immaterial energy, and two, the material energy. They gradually moved into their respective places while I was maintaining the aura sphere’s speed. Now it was time to divide and conquer.

I started to slowly compress my seed onto the immaterial energy that had ended up in the center of my seed. At the same time, I split the outer layer into needles which penetrated through the material energy and compressed the material energy onto the rotational ‘shell’ of the seed. Then I manipulated all or my aura into chains, and had them borrow from the rotational force to compress the energy even further, which would result in a more thorough imprinting.

Once I could feel my own unique flame chain pattern mark on the energies, I created makeshift pathways by manipulating the flow of the aura while it was rotating. However, this method took up too much of my control, and the rotational speed regressed to normal. After this was completed, I sent the

immaterial energy out through the tunnels so they could recombine with their counterparts to make natural energy. I chain compressed this natural energy to the limit finally making it completely my own. The conquering was successful!

Next, I lined up my tunnels with the imprinted natural energy, according to the Revolutions of the Perfect Foundation, and waited for a while letting my aura sphere spin without complications. After the tunnels seemed solid, and the imprinted natural energy had stabilized, I sent wisps of immaterial energy through the tunnels.

They went through without complications, so I tested them with material energy. Interestingly enough, the material energy seemed to cause the tunnel to ripple as it passed through. Obviously, that meant the tunnels weren’t stable enough, so I continued to condense the natural energy of the tunnels and then tried again. They passed through without a hitch.

Now was the hardest part, and the beginning of true cultivation with this method. I had to condense the energy like a shell outside my aura sphere, and explode it out just like the first time. But unlike before, the energy is not only coming from the outside; it is coming from the inside as well. The significance of this is that the pain will be double, no triple that of the previous refinement.

The energy that I explode out from my core will wreak havoc within my body like the last time, but that is only the start. Once it bounces off my skin, my aura will start being drawn in, bringing in the unimprinted natural energy with it. The unimprinted energy will then collide with the imprinted, and the energies will both flood back to my core. But not before going agonizingly slowly in parts. It was like holding your finger to a flame. If your finger went in and out quickly, it would not be burned.

But imagine if you let that finger roast in the fire before pulling it out. The pain would be unimaginable! And when you finally got your finger out, you would have a well done human finger, ready for consumption.

Thinking of this made me hesitate, and feel a powerful unwillingness to continue with the technique. I held off at a stalemate with my body, one side wanting to hold off until the other dull ache faded, and then indefinitely until it was ready. The other side was my mind, and it wanted to go now because it knew that the longer I waited, the greater the hesitation would be. I spoke to myself out loud, encouragingly,

Me- “Daniel, are you kidding me? We need to do this for our dad, for our promise!”

A resolve welled up within me, founded upon my promises, and the love I had for my father. I would not disappoint myself, nor my father!

Immediately, I reversed the seed within me, and it exploded outwards! The energy within me reignited the dull ache that was slowly fading, and it flared up to an intensity that made my cry out.

With teardrops of pain running down my cheeks, I split the aura into needles that penetrated through the natural energy. And now it was time!

Me- “Come! I do not fear Fire!”

I attracted all the aura to come back to me, and the flame pooled out and rushed inside me.

And the pain was unimaginable! It felt like I was being roasted from the outside, and from within! The sharp stabs of pain kept sending tremors throughout my body, and the tears now came down like a flood.

A low animalistic growl came from deep within, in defiance of all the pain I was going through. And right as I thought I couldn’t hold on any longer, the energy finally finished going inside my core. The deed was done, leaving my body in tatters.

With the last trace of consciousness I had, I refined the energy that I gained and reinforced the tunnels. After that, I could hold on no longer, and fell into the familiar world of blackness.

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The Universe Catalog

Author’s note 2- So this chapter was 7723 words in total. That is like 25 pages on standard lined paper. That’s a lot! So I hope you enjoy the big chapter...