27/05/1164

A small cottage near the edge of the Monastery.

Following the sound of water splashing against the floor, a gasp filled the room. Zack’s eye snapped open. Breathing roughly, Zack looked around to find himself, along with the floor of the room, drenched in water.

“Hah… Hah… Where did all this water come from...” Tilting his head upwards, he saw a familiar man in saffron robes, his head reflecting the radiance of the sun. In his hand he held a bucket, still half filled with water.

Shooting up to his feet, Zack greeted, “Teacher!”

Zhu nodded in response before asking, “Finally up? I didn’t think you’ll be out cold for over half a day by just a little beating. And here I was thinking I’d soon get to use my cane.”

Smiling bitterly, Zack recalled the happenings after the council meeting the day before. As soon as he asked the type of training they would do, Zhu smiled while replying that it’d be the same as the day before. After returning, under the guise of helping Zack with Ki Arts’ initiation, Zhu beat the boy till he turned black and blue.

Looking at the apprehensive kid, Zhu chuckled inside before saying, “I thought about it some more and I don’t think beating you — *cough* I mean, using the kneading technique to speed up your natural Ki initiation alone would be anything worthwhile. After all, we don’t know how long it’d take and in the off-case your Ki isn’t triggered before you leave, you wouldn’t have learnt a thing. Which would be less than ideal. Thus, during the day, I’ll be teaching you about how to use weapons. Who knows, maybe that’d help you stimulate your Ki enough?”

Zack nodded, feeling pleased inside. ‘I just got spared a beating, didn’t I? And he’s right. Learning about weapons is also important. It’ll make me stronger. And being stronger means getting another step closer to my target.’

Watching the glint in the boy’s eyes turn from fear to a burning desire to get stronger, Zhu couldn’t help but sigh. A bag materialised in his hands, which he tossed over.

“Your breakfast and dinner. I have business to handle. I’ll return in an hour or two, so be ready. This training won’t be as easy as you think.”

Leaving his words floating in the air, Zhu walked off, disappearing from sight.

With a heart full of anticipation, Zack opened the bag Zhu had just passed over. Inside, he saw purple colored fruits the size of his fist. Picking one up, he tightened his grip, feeling it to be soft, as if it were a slightly firm sack of water.

Without a second thought, he bit into it.

A mild, bitter taste filled his mouth. From where he bit, a dark blue sap dripped out. Pushing aside his desire to spit it out, he used his other hand to pinch his nose tight before closing his eye and swallowing it down in one gulp.

‘Bitter. That was really bitter.’ Thinking of the taste, he shivered.’I-I don’t believe that this is the only type of fruit he left for me.’

Rummaging through the bag, his expression fell.

‘He did. He only left me these fruits. That… no. I promised not to. I won’t curse him. This is just one of many hardships I will face. If I want to be strong, it’s not just a strong body and good techniques, I also need a strong mind. And a strong mind is to accept all hardships.’

Gritting his teeth, he closed his eye before picking one fruit in each hand. One after another, he bit into a fruit to drain it from its sap before munching on its relatively sweeter exterior, after which he would move on to the next fruit while picking up another from the bag to replace the one he just ate.

In a matter of seconds, the edge of his eye turned moist. A prickling sensation filled his tongue, making him taste nothing other than a bitter taste. A few minutes later, feeling his stomach to be filled, he stopped.

To prevent himself from throwing up, he reached out to a nearby jug of water before downing it in one go.

While wiping his mouth, he thought, ‘I should warm up before Teacher comes.’

Even before finishing his thought, he was walking out.

‘Whoa! Although I didn’t notice it earlier, this place… it’s really big. If this is just a corner of the monastery, I wonder how big the whole if it is. And that mountain over there. I wonder if anyone lives there.’

Surveying his surroundings, he saw his hut and the path leading to it being the only constructs as far as he could see. Everything besides that was a sparsely populated plane, with nary a tree or two. Lush grass barely taller than his foot covered the ground. A few kilometres away, he saw a lushly vegetated mountain, contrasting against the wide open plains all around him.

Shaking his head, he began running around like a wild horse let loose. Feeling his legs getting tired, he stopped on the spot before beginning a set of pushups, followed by squats and more pushups.

But before he could finish the second set of pushups, he saw Zhu coming over. Without waiting for him to come over, Zack ran towards the man.

Looking at the excited boy, Zhu smiled. Without saying a word, he walked off the path and into the plains, stopping a few dozen metres from the hut, with Zack following shortly after.

With his hands clasped behind his back, a solemn air surrounded Zhu. Looking the picture of a strict teacher, he asked, “Have you ever used a weapon before?”

Zack shook his head.

Nodding, Zhu continued, “So, which weapon do you think suits you the best?”

After thinking about it a little, Zack replied, “I don’t know. I don’t even know what type of weapons there are, so I can’t say.”

“If I were to say that everything, both what you can and can not see, is a weapon. What about then?” Zhu asked, his eyes flickering with interest.

After a few minutes of silent thinking, Zack shook his head. “I don’t think that there is a best weapon.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’d say that it’s the same thing as the lumistone and blastrock.”

“What? Mind explaining a little?”

“From where I came from, there is a saying, where you need a lumistone, don’t look for a blastrock, and where you need to blow something up, don’t bother with a lumistone. It means to use the right tool for a job if you can get it.”

Shaking his head, Zhu changed the topic as if he hadn’t asked the questions from before. “Today we will learn about spears. For your safety, we will start with a wooden one. Catch.”