Birds chirping, Cold wind blowing .... What a pleasant morning... He thought as Long Shen slowly walked out of the hut...
Grand pa Shen & Senior Wong were Meditating near the large tree as always. He thought not to disturb the old men & walked towards his backyard. He was feeling a strange kind of power coursing through his veins. It was as if nothing can dominate his will, The unwavering confidence gave him a strange kind of faith in himself. He slowly clenched his fist (*Crackling sounds were heard as if he were twisting sturdy piece of bones after a long time*). He punched in the air & suddenly he felt the air around his fist being swept away by the force of his punch. Amazed at this he started punching the air with both his hands & was feeling the excitement of sparring with the air. Then he slowly approached a dead tree trunk & punched it with all his strength. It almost split into 2, a deep fist mark is seen on its trunk.
Long Shen was amazed by his drastic power up. He punched the trunk a few more times just to be sure that it wasn't a dream. He can feel that he is 10x more powerful than he was before - at least he felt his body is. Encouraged by this outcome he enthusiastically practiced his martial arts routine taught to him by grandpa, known as [The way of the Buddha] - a simple yet powerful set of Kicks, punches etc used by the monks of his monastery.
As he wandered in his backyard slow rustling voices were heard, as he followed the noise he found a small wolf cub was stumbling with its snow white body filled with blood probably a predator might have attacked it as it wandered away from its pack. Long Shen took pity on it & tried to approach it to help, the startled cub bit him as it could not distinguish help from danger. Long shen clenched his teeth but caught the cub with his other hand. He cleaned its wounds with water & took it to his grandpa for first aid.
Grandpa Shen & Sr, Wong were just finished with their meditation & chores, Sitting under the tree and were drinking tea. "Grandpa! Grandpa! Please save this cub...." came Long Shen running.Both looked at the kid with the hurt cub & Took it from his hands. Grandpa examined the wounds & informed Long Shen that the wounds are not deep & the cub will be healed in a few weeks. He then dressed the wounds of the cub. Long Shen was surprisingly fine even though the cub bit him - he just felt the pain for a minute, There were no visible bite marks on his hands, thanks to his newly strengthened body.
Later that day Both the old guys said that he just fainted during his Qi accumulation exercise due to exhaustion. They did not reveal the earth shattering phenomenon that unfolded at that time. They felt that it would be beneficial for Long Shen to keep it a secret. Who knows what kind of troubles will follow if he revealed it.
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At the same time a man clad in White clothes with a golden design of Dragon & long silver beard entered into the forest. He is the eccentric fortune reader of [Plum village]. It is a village directly under the governance of [Soaring Dragon Sect / Academy]. The Academy is the starting place of countless famous martial arts legends in the [Eastern Dragon Empire]. The Plum Village is at the Southern part of the [Silver wing Forest]. 10 days back the Fortune reader was deeply in meditation when suddenly the ancient relic passed down to him from his master started shaking violently & making a high pitched sound as if it started coming to life. The phenomenon lasted for 15 - 20 minutes & the relic / medallion in the shape of a dragon was floating in the air till then suddenly fell to the ground & became silent as if nothing happened. The Medallion/relic has been passed down to him by a long line of fortune tellers all of them who had eccentric reputations, they divine the future based on the stars & their faith in the {Dragon God Long}. The pillar of their faith.
His master on his deathbed passed on this relic to him & said: "Lin'er, one day if the Dragon God wills you will receive a sign & you should follow it. Pass this to your disciple with the same instructions if you did not receive the calling. This relic has been passed on to us by the originator of our faith [Old man Ji] Who received a heavenly prophesy that he will be the herald for the oncoming of the [Dragon God Long] he was then passed on this fortune telling skill & this medallion by the heavens."
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So when the medallion gave him the sign he was waiting for his entire life, [Old man Lin] Immediately calculated the coordinates for the reason of the medallion's behavior, he approximated it to be the [Silver Wing Forest]
He immediately set sail on foot reaching here after a full 9 days. he was excited as well as exhausted as he entered the forest.
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Grandpa came back after taking care of the cub & inspected Long Shen - There seems to be an invisible force that is making his grandson look mightier than before - an inexplicable majesty in his veins. Every practitioner passes through this phase, it is as if a candle has been lit, Once the Qi starts accumulating, there are unlimited ways of applying this force. As Long Shen was successfully able to start accumulating qi & circulating it - it is time to test his Spirit root potential & learn his element affinity. Sr Shen slowly took a circular stone & asked Long Shen to place his hand on the stone and inject his qi into it. As Long Shen slowly injected his Qi - the stone slowly started to glow - First light yellow, Yellow, Bright Yellow, Then it went to light Green, Green & finally stopped at the darkest green color. Both the Old men were astonished at this, it was the first time they witnessed a green color let alone the darkest of green. Most of the practitioners were born without any spirit roots. a few who are fortunate will have the Mortal rank spirit roots - That vary in Light yellow - Bright yellow color, There were also rumors of people having Earth rank spirit roots that emit green color when tested, but these people were either nobles of very high status or super geniuses of major sects. Today they witnessed the Legendary phenomenon. They were both happy & sad as Long Shen would have had an illustrious path paved for him if he was born in any of the noble houses / raised in sects. Unfortunately he was raised in the monastery. However the future is never certain, who knows what the future holds for Long Shen? They both answered their concerns in this manner.
Next comes the element affinity, Senior wong took out the element affinity grass that is found widely in the forest. It grows like a weed everywhere in the forest due to the large concentration of spirit particles when compared to the rest of the empire. Long Shen passed his Qi into the grass & the grass turned bright orange like amber. Sr. Wong was happy to see this color as he himself had affinity towards fire & Long Shen whom he adored also had fire affinity. He can finally pass on his teachings to the next generation.
Before teaching the fire arts Both old men felt that the kid needed strong basics on Qi accumulation, rotation & manipulation. So they took him to the library where all their books were stored & asked Long Shen to read any book that interests him from the first row of the first shelf- it was dedicated to beginners in cultivation. Long Shen was always a fast learner & showed interest towards reading, he also had an amazing memory of the things he read just once with exceptional interpreting & analyzing skills to match that. Long Shen already read a couple of books on Zen, Meditation & Buddhist philosophy. The books on Qi & martial arts were only accessible to those who started their cultivation & assigned a master to guide them. (There is a serious side effect of Qi deviation if some one practiced these methods recklessly - hence this restriction)
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Long Shen took the book on history of the Martial world & the classification of the various professions etc., The book also included the classifications of beasts (Normal, Wild - That can cultivate, Magical - can change shapes etc.,). In this world there were many professions starting from normal humans - who were unable to cultivate & live simple lives at the outskirts of empires / forests / wastelands. There are also Mages, Knights, Summoners, Kings, Emperors, Necromancers, Black Magicians, Worshipers of the evil forces etc., The beasts are also capable of cultivating where some cannot. The weak become the prey; this is the law everywhere. Those who are strong rule the weak. That is how the Empires & Kingdoms formed. The sects provide the military of the kingdom with soldiers & martial artists in exchange for their autonomy.
Every commoner dreams of entering into a sect / noble household even as a servant to avoid the horrible living conditions they face everyday. Every once in a while there will be a few geniuses who will be born with the ability to cultivate & join a sect. They will be the pillar of their entire clan & everyone will put their 100% efforts in providing everything for the child so that once he enters a sect & becomes a cultivator he can bring them out of their poverty stricken lives.
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Long shen finished the book by nightfall & fell asleep on the library table with his saliva dripping on the pages of his book.....
To be Continued....