Chapter 53: Cultivation Enlightenment?

Wang Zen went through all the forms he knew. He had been doing this non-stop for a few hours now. His mind was not all there, his body may have been moving on its own accord as his mind was plagued by thoughts, fighting for his attention.

He thought of his hate for Chen Jian; of his inferiority to the prodigy; of the loathsome deal he made with Xu Hau to stay in a place he did not like much; his missed opportunity to go home and his family’s newly learned status of bribeblood.

He screamed as he finished the form with a kick, emptying what little air his burning lungs held. The exhaustion caught up with him all at once, causing him to fall back like a chopped tree. He was surprised to see the stars overhead. When he started, the sun was setting but now all around him was darkness with only the moon, stars and Shibi’s red fur, as the monkey came over to lie at his side, being the things his unujusted eyes could see.

Shibi whimpered a little as he touched is furred head to his cheek. Zen brought a hand up and rubbed the ape’s head.

“Sorry if I scared you Shibi,” he cooed as he looked up at the glinting stars. His eyelids slowly fell over his eyes, plunging him into the welcomed, calming darkness. He felt his rapidly beating heart echo through his body, his clothes clinging to his sweat covered body and his chest rising and falling. That’s when he noticed it! His body was absorbing more mana from his surroundings. His eyes snapped open, curiosity etched on his face. He closed his eyes again, the pace at which the mana entered his acupoints was now starting to slow down to its normal rate after an intense workout but it was still elevated.

Finally, it had lowered to its normal rate. He sat up, looking at his hands in thought.

“Why did my mana absorption increase so much?” he asked himself. “I mean, I’ve increased it before by exerting myself but never that much. What was so different this time.” His eyes widened when he figured out why. “Anger!”

Shibi flinched, getting onto his feet as he looked worriedly up at Zen.

Zen remembered what Lu Daomeng had told him some time ago in his office about how meditation and mechanical were two cultivation methods existing at the opposite sides of a spectrum. “What if both aspects of the method are also completely different, so where meditation cultivation depends on peace of mind, mechanical cultivation actually requires the chaos of mind, like strong emotions of anger and hate.”

The more he thought of it, the more it made sense to him. He thought back to when he absorbed so much mana to that he created enough ki to breakthrough to Intermediary. He was fighting Yu Wuwen and his mind was far from peaceful. If anything, he was caught up in the frenzy of surviving, in the panic of defeating a stronger opponent, of the desire to make it through a life and death battle.

He smirked, “that’s what I’ve been missing in my cultivation. When I exert myself like this, I am detached and therefore my cultivation does not speed up but if I were to participate in more life and death battles…” he looked at Shibi and offered it his hand.

The ape ran up his arm as if it were a roadway, before sitting at his shoulder.

“Shibi, you’re going to the apartment and staying there.” he said. “While I… well, I’m going to go to the school’s forest and taking on the biggest beast I see!”