Chapter 14 I know Kung Fu
It was in the morning of the next day when Khyree finally stirred from his cultivation practice. The first thing he noticed was that he was covered in filth. His servant’s attire was drenched in a thick odious tarry black substance. Large parts of it had dried up on his skin. “Oh now that is disgusting,” Khyree said to himself. He found himself almost gagging on the smell. He quickly stripped out of his clothes, and took a hot bath.
He discovered over the course of the night that the amount of essence he absorbed was not equal to the amount of energy that came out of his spiritual center. It was not even close. Over a period of time he had really focused down on the energy exchange in an attempt to quantify it and thanks to his system was finally able to estimate the exchange rate of essence as compared to the darkness Ka he was getting in return.
Khyree thought that the rate was abysmal at just slightly more than ten thousand units to one. Of course he realized that the exchange rate was very different when he was actively meditating versus passively doing so.
He had no way of knowing what the average rate of exchange was for other Immortals but if it was anything comparable to his, he figured that progressing through the ranks required an unimaginable amount of essence.
Once he was all fresh and clean again, he disposed of the dirty clothes in the ancient realm. He figured the discarded garments were beyond saving anyway. He donned a clean servant’s tunic and a pair of pants and went about the rest of his day.
Jobs for servants in the Southern district were overseen by the Hall of Assignments, it was an official looking building that actually consisted of three square shaped buildings that were all connected together with one building in front and two in the back. The buildings were made of black alabaster.
As usual the Hall of Assignments was pretty busy first thing in the morning, it was one of the only places that Khyree routinely saw a large group of servants in the Sect. He had just walked out of the building after accepting a few jobs for the day, when he spotted brother Kendrick approaching him.
“Grand rising to you, brother Khyree,” said Kendrick Aminu in greeting. “Hey we didn’t get a chance to talk after getting back to the Sect last night. We lost a lot of fellow servants on that mission, it couldn’t have been easy to deal with that. I know I was struggling. But you seemed like you were particularly in distress. Did you have some lingering injuries that needed tended to or was there something else?”
“Forgiveness, brother Kendrick,” Khyree replied. He gestured for Kendrick to walk with him as he headed towards the fields for his first job assignment. Kendrick walked by his side with a curious expression.
After they had made some distance from the crowds, Khyree began to speak aloud “I’m afraid that I wasn’t entirely honest about everything that happened while on the mission we undertook.” Khyree had thought long and hard about what he was going to share with his friend. While he trusted the senior servant there were some things about himself that he was not willing to share with anyone, close friend or not. But he did not wish to alienate the one friend that he had among his fellow servants.
“You remember that I told you about how I was unable to cultivate due to an imbalance of my soul right? Well after we entered the portal I came across an incredible treasure. Honestly I didn’t even know what it was, other than that it was a strange plant. A type I had never seen before. But I felt drawn to it in a way that I couldn’t explain, and before I even knew it I had eaten the entire plant, stems, roots and all. Afterwards I must have fallen unconscious, because the only thing I remember after that was being awakened by that abyss damned inner student with a mean streak a kilometer wide.
At any rate so on the ride back to the Sect, I found my body changing in an unexpected manner. There was like a burning sensation that was happening in my center. The intensity of the heat got so bad that it was all that I could do to silently bear the pain. After I stumbled back home, the only thing that seemed to help was the cultivation technique that I was given when I first came here,” finished Khyree with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Wait, so hold on. You mean to say that on the other side of the portal, you found a strange plant that you couldn’t identify and your response was to eat it? Oh brother, that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do. At the best of times it is always best to be very careful when examining unknown plants. Now I’m no alchemist by any means or anywhere near close to being an herbalist but even I know one does not simply go about eating strange plants,” said Kendrick, as he admonished his young friend gently. “Well I’m glad you didn’t die. But that was a very risky thing to do. So were you actually able to cultivate? And why didn’t you say anything when we were back on the Sacred Barque? Those inner students are Immortals, they might have been able to help you to process all of the changes you were going through. Or at least offer some kind of guidance.”
“Come on now, brother. You know me. I have never liked Immortals the way you do, and I certainly didn’t trust those inner students. Especially not after the failure of a mission like that. There is no telling how they might have reacted, had I told them about the plant that I ate. It would have been just my luck that even though we were told that any good fortune we came across was ours to keep, that they would have claimed that I had stolen it from them. And who would have believed the word of a servant versus an inner student. Of course that’s even if I had survived the trip back. They could have just simply killed both of us and tossed us over the side of the vessel and claimed our lives were lost along with the other servants.”
“Well that got dark pretty fast, brother,” exclaimed Kendrick, with a crooked smile. He never did understand why Khyree had such open distaste and distrust for Immortals. Especially since his own cousin was an Immortal. But try as he might, and he had tried many times over the past few months he just never could get the young brother to tell him why he hated Immortals with such a passion.
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"So what's your plan then? Now that you are able to cultivate you are going to need resources to grow and develop your cultivation base," Kendrick asked. He actually was very happy for his friend that he was able to come across such a wonderful spirit treasure. He wished that the heavens would have smiled on him as well, but he would not let his own desires take away his joy for his friend.
"That's actually something that I have been thinking about. But honestly I could use your advice. Brother, you have been studying everything related to Immortals for a long time, plus you have been a part of the Sect for far longer than I have. Do I have to report the change in my status right away? I would prefer to consolidate my gains before undergoing any kind of scrutiny if possible.”
“Hmm, as far as I know there is no specific rule in the Sect that states that you have to report your status. So you're safe there. But the path of Immortality is a very long and expensive journey that requires tons of cultivation resources. Most Immortals would jump at the opportunity to be promoted, simply because with an increase in rank comes access to more resources and techniques.
But you know now that I think about it, you not reporting your change for a while could probably be a good thing. As it will allow you the time you need to fill in some gaps in regards to your education of Immortals. As servants, not much is expected of us other than that we serve. But an Immortal of the Sect is required to constantly strive for excellence, as well faithfully represent the Sect on missions and in competitions.”
“Are these gaps you speak of, something that you could me out with?” asked Khyree with a serious look on his face.
“Of course,” replied Kendrick. “But first let me ask you something, what do you know about fighting?”
Khyree was offended to even be asked such a question. Since his earliest days in the Wilds he had been forced to live a life of near constant fighting. It has only been since he had left for the outside world a few years ago that he wasn’t forced to fight for every scrap of food he could find. He thought back to the many days and nights, he had been laid up bleeding and with broken bones as he watched essence beasts much stronger than him, a mere human child feast, on some prized carcass or essence fruit that he was unable to obtain.
“I know everything about fighting,” Khyree responded confidently.
Kendrick moved over to the side of the road, with Khyree following him closely. When he reached a decent sized cleared area, he stopped and turned to face Khyree.
"Then show me," said Kendrick.
Over the next several months Khyree and Kendrick worked their usual variety of jobs for the Sect during the day, and at night they trained while Kendrick sought to explain everything he knew about Immortals to Khyree. Kendrick knew that Khyree often forgoed sleep entirely and would instead cultivate during the late hours.
Having been a part of the recruitment mission that had brought Khyree to the Sect, Kendrick knew that Khyree was a born fighter. Khyree was a relentless and tenacious opponent with an inexhaustible battle spirit, and now coupled with the ability to draw in essence Khyree was growing faster and stronger seemingly on a daily basis.
But while Khyree had the ability and the will to fight, he wasn't really that good at it. At least not in comparison to anyone who had some training. His move set largely consisted of untrained punches and kicks as well as intuitive dodges. From their first full contact sparring match Kendrick quickly learned that Khyree was completely ignorant of any of the basic combat arts.
So the first thing Kendrick went over with him was the basic warrior arts that all aspiring Immortals should know as all future techniques built on that foundation of knowledge. Those warrior arts consisted of: stick fighting, grappling, and fist fighting. It turned out that Khyree was a natural when it came to unarmed combat. Once he was introduced to the proper stances, and the correct forms it didn’t take long for him to start executing lightning fast punches, and smooth takedowns.
From there it was simply a matter of practicing the various strikes and grapples over and over again until they were ingrained in his muscle memory. Kendrick, who soon got tired of being used as a punching bag for the developing fighter, recruited some servants who he knew and trusted to not speak of their training activities to spar with Khyree. He paid them for their time out of Khyree’s merit points. Khyree who was grateful for the assistance, and who had no large pressing need for the points was happy to fork over the unused points.
The one area that Kendrick had trouble with teaching Khyree was when it came to stick fighting. As graceful and dexterous as Khyree was, he was simply inept and showed no talent when fighting with weapons. It didn’t seem to matter if the sticks were short or long, single or being dual wielded Khyree was more inclined to use the weapons exactly the same way that he fought with his fists. So it was of no surprise to Kendrick when Khyree chose to drop weapons training after only a short month in favor of having more unarmed sparring sessions.
It was also during this period of time that Kendrick Aminu explained to Khyree the ranking of Immortals. For the longest time, Khyree had only heard of early and mid stage Immortals with no reference to really understand the difference involved between them. Kendrick told Khyree that all Immortals start off in the condensation stage. It is the very beginning of the cultivation journey. The condensation stage is broken down into nine ranks in order. The first rank is when one gains the ability to sense the essence of the earth and the universe.
The second rank is when an Immortal is able to forge a connection to the Ether, and begins to cultivate their ka or personal essence. This is called the gathering rank. It is signified as a monumental change with their physical structure, and starts one’s transition from a mere human to something else. An Immortal. As soon as a human begins to tread that path, the normal natural limits of what a human is capable of no longer applies to them.
The third rank comes about when an Immortal gains enough awareness of essence within themselves and their surroundings that they develop a sixth sense. A truly divine sense, that was called the God’s Eye. The God’s Eye is a sensory ability that is far greater than of the five senses combined and can be used in a variety of different ways from utility to combat. Once an Immortal awakens their God’s Eye sensory ability, they will have truly stepped onto the path of the supernatural.
The following ranks of condensation were broken down into the saturation of the body with one's ka, and the formation of the sea. The sea of ka is what Immortals use for the energy to fuel all of their early techniques. They could get by with using the early formed strands, but the Immortal Techniques are all very energy draining abilities.
When Khyree asked what stage came after the condensation stage, he was told that he would have to find that information out on his own as the information regarding the higher stages was restricted to only Immortals and their closest families.
Kendrick didn't know the reason for that mandate exactly but he suspected that it was due to the higher ups wanting to maintain the mysterious nature of Immortals from humans. Khyree took to the lessons and the training with a shocking alacrity. He was able to absorb and comprehend skills and knowledge in months that would have taken others years to learn.