I wake up hearing my Dad shouting at me for no reason whatsoever.

"Wake up, son. You ran away last night with the Qi Pool stone and I don't even know what happened."

Though he's smiling, I can hear he gritting his teeths. But I can't even think of an excuse because I just got possed by some god of cultivation last night and forgot he was there at all.

"Sorry Dad, the result was mid-high" but did you have to wake me up just for this?

"Not bad. Go rinse your teeth and come to the training courtyard."

"Yes, Father"

I rinse my teeth as I was told and walk slowly to the destination looking at the desert corridors transversal to the one I'm following now. The manor wasn't like this before, but after Mother went away and I got sick the servants became silent and don't appear easily without being called. Part of the reason is that my disease, if it could be called, seemed to make the Heavenly Energy sparser around me. As the servants are commoners with little talent they were more than glad to come here, a valley rich in Heavenly Energy, to serve us, but as it was sparser around me the servants started to spend the least time around me and just came to do essential things. Basically I only saw them few times in a week.

I reach the courtyard where I see my father and surprisingly, the servants. Some women, but mostly men. There are a few of them that are standing out from the line, but right now I'm more worried about the weapon rack Dad is standing beside, but also expectant. Every kid has had a dream about fighting with swords and spears alright?

"What are you stading in a daze for? Come here, your training will start now. Thirty seconds to choose your weapon. Go!"

The fuck? Forget that, I don't have time to think about Dad's reasoning. I just run to the weapon rack and look at the weapons there. Spears, sabers, daggers, scimitars, halberds, swords and a few other weapons I don't know the name are there. Going by logic, the obvious choice would be a spear because of it's range.

"5 seconds, hurry up"

I'm pretty that barely 10 seconds have passed, but Dad's impassive voice is kinda scary so I don't complain. Damn, I'll just go with the sword. I grab the double-edge sword, I think it classifies as a Jian sword, not that it matters right now.

"Time's up, you are going to fight with Rob. Do your best, son."

I can think of multiple reason why he would do this sort of training, but none of them matter right now. I just have to focus on what's in front of me.

Rob is one of the servants who were standing out before. He stands at around my height, 170 cm tall, but he has some muscles compared to my slim, almost skinny, body. His broad shoulders and big arms are intimidating, but not any more than his eyes. Those aren't the eyes of a normal servant, eyes like a eagle seeing a prey. He walks towards me and bows, not as a servant bowing to a master, but a fighter bowing to his opponent. I bow back and ready myself with the sword in hands.

We are about 10 meters apart, if he comes at me I will have time to react, and vice versa. But man plans, and the other man laughs. In one second he's already covered half of the distance, I step back but I'm not quick enough to even run away. I pivot with my left foot and prepare for his strike. However there was never enough preparation.

He suddenly changes his path and moves diagonally to my right and striking horizontally at my belly. I try to parry his strike but his raw power is enough to make my parry useless and I fall to the ground. Rob's sword on my neck and I pathetically lying in the ground. Truly embarrassing.

"Stand up and fight. You chose this path."

I do as Dad says and stand up, I'm not running away. Rob isn't next to me anymore, but already at his position at the start of the duel. I return to my position and bow towards him and he reciprocates. The second bout begins with Rob running towards me again, but this time I move towards his right hand, his dominant one. With this he won't be able to use his full strength, now begins my strategy.

He swings his sword diagonally aiming towards my neck and I successfully parry his strike this time, purely by reflex. We both step back and I decide to make an the offensive this time. I make a feint for the left and bring my momentum back to the right as I swing my sword aiming not for his neck, but for his chest.

Even if he got fooled by me he still managed to parry although he lost balance. I thrust towards his right shoulder. However his movement becomes so fast I can even follow it with my body and he blocks my strike and from the recoil I fall to the ground once again.

I'm lying on the ground once again without understanding how I lost but the words Dad say are different now.

"You won, son"

"Huh? But he blocked and I'm on the ground"

"True. However, he used Qi to strengthen his strike at the last moment"

I didn't even think of that, I fought only using some strategy I made at the spot, but forgot that I also am a cultivator. Besides, I only won because Rob didn't expect me to counterattack and lost his balance.

"I made you fight with him for two reason, to learn basic combat and the uses of Qi. Qi Strengthening is only the most elemental use of Qi, there are many more you have to learn before you can call yourself a fighter."

"Yes, Dad."

"Now, get ready. This time you won't have it so easy"

He truly meant that. For the next five bouts me and Rob had, he used Qi in every damn strike. When Dad called a end to the training my hands were bleeding between my thumbs and index fingers, that hurts like hell. However, my gains with the training were as great as my pain.

Sword Mastery Lv. 1

Practice makes perfect, hardships are expected when you desire perfection.

Basic Combat Reflexes Lv. 1

Your body works faster than your mind, instincts triumph in a fight.

Though both skills are generic, they are no short of amazing. However they don't defy the Laws like the Traits, but they improve passively my sword skills and combat reflexes respectively although their levels seems dependent on my own skills and reflexes. Therefore the levels are proportial to my actual level of ability on the subject.

After getting medicine from the cabinet besides my study table I sit on the ground in a lotus form and start cultivating. Just like last time I use my Will to drag Heavenly Energy and then refine it into Qi. I repeat the process a few times before I feel a barrier, however I don't intend to break it right now as my instincts tell me it won't work. I grind it a little with my Qi and then gather more Heavenly Energy to replenish the Qi lost in the grinding, as my Cultivation Method tells me, this process will purify my Qi and make it more suitable for the Void Laws in the future and consequentially to all other Laws.

I do this until I'm tired and the barrier is just half as strong as it was before, barely enough for me to destroy it. However I decide to break throught after I get a good feeling on my Qi Strengthening so I already have a good control about my Qi. I try to control a small part of my Qi with my Will and make it run towards my right arm, which it does, but a lot of it is lost on the way because I'm only at the Qi Gathering Stage and haven't opened my meridians yet, so I can only make the Qi travel on the surface of the meridians and not through them.

Though it isn't perfect, the Qi reachs my arm and I infuse the purpose of strengthening on it. The use of "purpose" on Qi is the elementary idea of all Qi based skills, it makes the Qi take the property of what I want it to have, in the realms of what I know and the Laws allow of course.

I punch the wooden training dummy and it's cchest now has a small cavity. But damn, this shit hurts. I forgot the pain because the cultivation partially healed my wounds, but it was really only partially. I should ask Dad to teach me how to heal myself.

I start cultivating again hoping it will alleviate my pain and it sure works, after a few rounds of circulation my wounds once again are at the state they were just before I punched the dummy. However the barrier barely had any alteration, probably the more you grind the harder it'll be to grind further, although easier to smash in one hit.

I go to sleep half nervous and half expectant about tomorrow's training. I'm always looking forward for improvement.