‘Damn it!’ Three days later Alex cursed to himself walking along the caravan.

Everything was the same – the scenery, horses, carriages and people. There were no dangers or problems, but Alex was in distress. Apart from a rare glass of a good alcohol, he had never used drugs, not even cigarettes, but currently he felt like an addict during the withdrawal. He wanted to ‘play’ with the soul particle so bad he even got light hallucinations of the little thing calling him.

‘It can’t be right!’ Alex thought, ‘Tons of people practice Qi. They sense the soul particles, create brands and break them. I’m not that special so … I’m doing something wrong!’

It was only a logical conclusion and Alex began thinking of ways to solve the problem. But the problem was only there as long as he could not cultivate – He was certain that the moment he closed his eyes and performed the right technique, he would immediately find the particle again!

‘Wait! What if I don’t close my eyes!’ Alex got a ridiculously simple thought, ‘Those motherf*cking saints work with soul particles with ‘all’ their eyes open intruding the consciousness of others. Why wouldn’t I be able to sense my own soul particle?’

The only problem was the cultivation technique he was supposed to perform while meditating, but it wouldn’t be the first time he altered something for his own personal use.

While breathing steadily, Alex continued to take step after step. From a side it looked as if he was walking in trance, maybe tired or overheated. But inside he continued to revolve the Qi in the pattern that more or less resembled what he had to achieve while in a sitting position.

At first it seemed impossible, especially the guiding of Qi through his moving extremities, but since there were combat Qi techniques that focused on a particular Qi flow through the body while fighting, Alex was certain he could figure out a pattern that resembled the practice in a stationary pose, but was doable on the move.

Slowly, making judgments by his own physical discomfort and going with logic and common sense, Alex made alterations to the initial technique. He was annoyed it took him over four days to achieve the result he was content with since in the meantime the constant calling of the soul particle somewhere in the depths of his consciousness continued to drive him crazy.

If any Qi master or a Qi warrior of the worlds he had lived in knew he spent only four days in order to create a new custom technique, they would’ve slapped him dead, but Alex was oblivious to the fact that what he made was something special. He had no clue every new technique was based on something that existed earlier and previous developer’s hard work, therefore all the credit to the current result according to his own understanding went to the emperor.

‘That damned five-eyed motherf*cker! No wonder they say that sovereign Cirius is the strongest of them all. If the guy can think of something like this for his subordinates, I wonder what miraculous techniques he had invented for himself!’ Alex thought, inwardly observing the soul particle dancing in front of his eyes, while at the same time walking side by side with Rafam and pretending to listen to his chatter.

The soul particle was actually still ‘invisible’, but the Qi flow allowed Alex to sense and point out its existence – just like the river feels a rock on a riverbed. Of course, he realized that the impression the particle felt alive and was jumping around in joy similar to how the annoying floaters move in everyone’s vision, came from his own consciousness, but the strange feeling of happiness was real.

In the end Alex didn’t worry much about it. He finally didn’t feel discomfort and it was his initial goal. The fact that from now on he could cultivate Qi while on the move was an additional bonus. Another positive aspect was that the more he got used to the soul particle, the more comfortable he was practicing during the night.

Of course, he returned to the ‘proper’ technique captain Tarazi taught only the next evening, but the result pleasantly surprised him. He didn’t get lost in time even though he worked with the soul particle and remained conscious of his surroundings just like when he cultivated the other, the ‘regular’ techniques.

From then on, apart from the time he needed to take care of the horses, Alex spend the whole day and night cultivating. Normally working with his soul particle should’ve felt dull after an hour or two, but for some reason he felt a strange pleasure in sending streams of Qi to wash over it. It was like an aquatic massage to ones soul, except it gave practical, tangible benefits as well. Alex realized his body noticeably strengthened and grew during the last few days, but luckily the unending Qi supply didn’t allow him to physically starve.

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Several days later caravan left the jungle and entered savanna that stretched endlessly towards the horizon. This time, at least according to Rafam, the scenery won’t change until they reached the capital and the old man was certain it should be in three to four days.

For some reason no one cared they lost the natural shade of the jungle, at least in the mornings and evenings. Every single person felt and acted if the trip was already over. The guards were even allowed to celebrate at the bonfires in the evening and their happy singing seemed to lift the mood of the rest even more.

Alex couldn’t really understand the reason for such joy since no one actually did anything that could cause severe exhaustion or a sense of accomplishment. The route didn’t have any dangerous geographical obstacles, they had fresh water all the time and the hot temperature was bearable. In comparison the time he spent with the expedition in the Holy empire was much harder.

But it was not Alex’s place to judge. Every country and folk had their own traditions and as long as the people left him alone, he didn’t care. After letting the horses drink to their fullest, Alex sat on the ground near one of the carriages, covered himself with the dirty linen cloth and hid his face behind the straw hat, looking just like any other caravan servant.

In a few seconds he entered the comfortable meditative trance and let a thin stream of Qi wash over the soul particle. He had done it numerous times before and had no clue if what he did was correct or what were the next steps he had to take, but there was no one he could turn to for an advice. Contrary to the ‘regular’ practitioners, in every life Alex somehow ended up in situations where he had to figure out the route of cultivation by himself.

His main strength was the awareness he was not in a rush. He already became a Qi master in his previous life and knew it was only a matter of time until he became a Qi warrior in this one – it came down only to the amount of Qi one possessed. On the other hand, experimenting with the cultivation techniques had long become his way to pass the time, basically a hobby.

Earlier, during the day Alex got an inspiration and now he finally could test it out. After ‘checking’ on the soul particle with the thin stream of Qi in his consciousness, he suddenly opened up and poured over it all his reserves, all the Qi he had gathered up until now.

It was like a flood after a dam was broken and he felt an incredible inflow of strength. Because of the Qi concentration, the soul particle also became more distinct, but before Alex could focus on it or begin to worry about running out of Qi, he realized that on one side of the soul particle there was an irregularity. No! There were two tiny irregularities on the opposite sides from the soul particle!

Alex forced himself to calm down along with ‘closing up the dam’ and decreasing the flow of Qi to the minimum, but enough to not loose the two ‘new points of interest’. He observed them for few moments verifying it was indeed as he guessed – these were another two soul particles, but for some reason they were smaller than the first one.

It didn’t make any sense since it was only logical for all particles of one substance to be identical in size and only after observing them for a longer time he realized they only appeared to be smaller because they were further away from his point of view. All this time Alex ‘played’ with his first soul particle in two dimensions, but he never thought of pushing it away or pulling it closer thus making it appear smaller or larger. He couldn’t believe he missed such a simple aspect, but now thinking about it – captain Tarazi did point it out and it was only his own fault for not listening carefully enough.

It took him quite the effort to position all three particles in a similar distance from him as an observer and from each other, but in the end he created a nice equilateral triangle. Normally he would’ve felt satisfied, maybe even a bit proud with such accomplishment, but in the process Alex realized his father’s brand contained thousands if not tens of thousands of soul particles and was actually created three dimensionally. Compared to Phil, he couldn’t be even considered a Qi practitioner, but a completely talentless individual!

Alex practiced a bit with his three soul particles on one hand feeling happy and on the other feeling lost, but in the end inwardly sighed and opened his eyes. There was no reason for him to compare himself with peerless geniuses from this or other worlds since it only would make him feel down. He had his own road to take and the Qi cultivation was something he picked up only for his own pleasure and survival.

Alex energetically sprung up and stretched like a lazy cat. Despite him using large amounts of Qi, he felt refreshed and full of life. The rays of sun slightly blinded him at first, but it was so warm and pleasant compared to the years in Haldenburg, thus he even welcomed the sunshine.

‘Wait! The sun!’ Alex suddenly realized.

The sun was up high and it could only mean he overslept by several hours, but for some reason the old man didn’t wake him up. In addition, he was careful to not loose the track of time, but apparently the discovery of the two soul particles had a similar effect on his senses the first one did back then.

Right before his vision adjusted, a disgusting stench of blood assaulted Alex’s senses and a second later he realized he stood in the middle of a horror movie set. The place that was once a neat campsite was turned into a battlefield – carriages lie in rubble right where they were once parked and wares as well as dismembered corpses of horses and humans were scattered around.

What terrified Alex the most were the twenty or so sand colored mounds that lie around with the three biggest of them being right next to him. It made everything worse that one was currently chewing on what appeared to be the old man’s Rafam’s leg.

In a way Alex never expected, he got the confirmation that the ranked beasts really existed in this world. The twenty odd lions of monstrous sizes were the best proof of that. It would be exaggerated to say they were as big as elephants, but they were at least double or even triple the size compared to the ‘normal’ lions Alex saw back in his first life. While it was not that impressive with the females, the three males that lie close to him were mighty imposing.