Chapter 001 - What's that sound?

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The day was cool, although shining brilliantly to the east were Goldang and Azurang.

Within the periphery of an ancient forest was a boy, a scion of the Ras Clan, who went by the name ~Ras OxBee~.

OxBee, or Little Ox as he is affectionately called, was not tall. In fact he was one hundred and forty seven centimeters (147 cm) despite his peers being much taller. Which for him was a somewhat undesirable circumstance, caused by late puberty it seems. OxBee was of a woodish-brown complexion, which could be forgiven if it was mistaken for copper-brown. However there was no mistaking OxBee’s hair, which was clearly of a glossy azure shade, which quite frankly, matched perfectly with his brilliant radiant blue eyes.

OxBee’s hair was well groomed, combed in finely braided locks with a few colourful beads attached to their ends, and reached down to his upper back. It was a style rather reminiscent of the Jata hair style worn in ancient times on Earth. But even with its long history, the Jata was in fact, a vogue amongst his peers within his clan, or at least that was how he remembered it.

OxBee was not muscle-bound, however it was evident that he was well built. Yet, that was not his most unique feature, for above all else, OxBee was considered handsome. He could still remember his earlier childhood, where he was regularly chased after by adoring girls. It seems, such an handsome feature was even a little mysterious, due to his entire facial features appearing to have been carved with every possible proportion aligned with the Golden Ratio, or so he had heard.

Thus, with such an handsome appearance, who amongst us could say truthfully, that OxBee seemed ugly or repulsive in anyway?

None!

For even the blind would find themselves wanting to catch a glimpse, much less a person who was fully able sighted. Yet, despite his good looks, his Jata braided hairstyle, and even his knob-like earrings in his tragus, OxBee had a natural masculinity which was quite apparent to anyone who saw him.

OxBee’s clothing choice was a bit novel. He wore a forest-green one piece, which when looked at, was rather reminiscent to the diving skin overall worn by sea divers. His one piece suite had beautiful golden patterns adorning it, and over this OxBee wore a loose-fitting black shorts, with pattern of green trees and golden falling stars. His shorts was very comfortable, flexible, and manoeuvrable. While on his feet was a pair of sturdy black shoes, reminiscent of those worn by soldiers.

OxBee wore a wristband around both his wrist, that were constructed from several cylindrical rods closely and solidly fitted together. It was made out of an unusual metallic crystal, similar in appearance to his staff and its double slotted holster.

In the ancient forest, OxBee was seated in a lotus position against a most conspicuous tree in this section of the woods. The tree was a great ancient looking evergreen tree, at least seventy meters (70m) tall, and yet by no means was this the tallest tree this ancient forest had produced.

With both palms resting on his knees and facing the sky, and a blueish metallic crystal staff resting in his palms, which was 149.5378619cm at its tallest, which was rather precise for some reason. OxBee looked completely relaxed, calm and at peace as he meditated.

While it was the norm for the young, and people in general to meditate and cultivate themselves, there was still a question to be asked.

Why had OxBee chosen an ancient forest for his meditation practice? Could he not have done this at home? After all, it was not like these woods were without a shred of danger.

Well, the answer was rather simple and straightforward.

Since, it was widely known that forest, especially ancient forest, are natural producers for great amount of ‘Environmental Qi’, and as a result, such ancient forest were highly valuable towards meditation and Qi cultivation.

Yes, OxBee was meditating as well as cultivating his Qi.

OxBee had long come to know such seemingly common knowledge, and as such, these practices had become a routine of his.

However, such ancient forest could no longer be found on Earth. And yet this boy, OxBee, was clearly seated in a lotus position meditating within the periphery of such an ancient forest.

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Wait a moment, one may say to hirself. How could this then be?

If such an ancient forest no longer existed on Earth, how could OxBee now be found presently meditating in one?

Was this a dream? A vision of some sort? Maybe this was glimpse into the past of a time long since gone? Ah, or perhaps this was a movie, or some sort of new virtual reality game? All of those, were all reasonable explanations, were they not?

Yes, but none were actual reason.

For this ancient forest was located not on Earth, but on a planet called Dunia. A planet located in the Golden Azure Tang Star System, a star system referred to as the GATS System by the natives of Dunia.

While officially, the major star was called ‘Golden Tang’, it was commonly referred to by Dunia’s natives as ‘Goldang’. While in contrast, the minor star, officially called ‘Azure Tang’, was referred to as ‘Azurang’ by Dunia’s inhabitants.

With the GATS system being a binary star system, looking up into the sky was always a wonderful thing for OxBee. Since this would often fill him with a feeling of being on a far off world on some amazing adventure and so it should, albeit, OXBee didn’t always feel this way.

Even though Dunia had two stars, it was certainly not a dry and arid planet. On the contrary, Dunia was more of a tropical-like planet, filled with many huge, wondrous, ancient and pristine forest.

But, do not for a second be pulled in and deceived by those wondrous and beautiful forest. For within those forest roamed danger, and if one was not strong enough roaming such forest alone would be no different from courting death.

Death in the form of wrongdoers, death in the form of beast. Beast which appeared in all shapes and sizes. Some of which were very cunning, as they boasted an ‘instinct-intelligent’ which was uncannily high. As these animals were….

Still, Dunia was a beautiful and a fertile planet, and such fertile planetary conditions were due to many factors. Chief of which was the number one industry one Dunia, which benefitted from the orbit of Azurang around Goldang. For it was the balance between these two stars which lead to the creation of a large habitable zone, a habitable zone in which Dunia was favourably positioned.   

Thus, if one were to compare Dunia’s GATS system to Earth’s Solar System, then the star ‘Goldang’ would be twice as large as the Sun and similarly positioned in the centre of the system. While the star ‘Azurang’ would be approximately one seventh (1/7) the size of the Sun, and similarly positioned to Neptune. With Dunia on the other hand being located in a similar position to the asteroid belt.

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As the pair of stars, Goldang and Azurang rose in the east, OxBee continued his Qi cultivation.

What could be perceived if one were observant, was a very faint bluish hue around OxBee. In fact, this very faint bluish hue appeared to be fog-like in its nature, and was actually dispersed throughout the entire ancient forest, appearing quite reminiscent of morning fog.

But what exactly was this bluish fog-like hue?

Amazingly, this bluish fog-like hue substance was sucked in, or more accurately, it was inhaled by OxBee with every subtle breathe he took. Looking at it, it was akin to seeing someone inhale smoke.

As a matter of fact, even when OxBee was not inhaling, this bluish fog-like substance could even be observe being subtly pulled towards him.

How could this be? Was not this fog-like substance practically air?

Such questions were perfectly logical, but so too was the answer.

For in actuality, this bluish fog-like hue was really ‘Environmental Qi’, and was the very reason why OxBee came to the periphery of this ancient forest to do his Qi cultivation and meditation.

So powerful is ‘Environmental Qi’, that if a non-practitioner of Qi were to be totally exhausted, and were to then walk in or be taken through such a ancient forest overflowing with ‘Environmental Qi’, that they would in a very short period of time, begin to feel invigorated and revitalized just by being within the vicinity.

If only such forest still existed on Earth, would the human beings of Earth dedicate themselves to the art of meditation and Qi cultivation? Would they practice with a similar level of enthusiasm to how this little boy on Dunia was now practicing?

No one could answer such a question, for the reality was that Earth no longer had such ancient forest, and despite its global re-forestry campaign, those newly planted forest were still too young.

With the days on Dunia being marginally longer than the days on Earth, time seemed more abundant on Dunia.

Consequently, OxBee would often dedicate several hours per day towards gathering and cultivating his Qi, after which he would then attend to his daily duties. However this was not an issue, since the amount of hours in a day on Dunia was Twenty Eight Hours (28 hours) when compared with the amount of hours in a day on Earth.

Still, on this particular day however, OxBee would be unable to complete his usual routines. For little did he know, heading towards him at this very moment was a monster, or so it seemed.

It did not take long before OxBee was able to hear sounds. The sound of rustlings trees, the sound of heavy impacts rushing towards him from an easterly direction.

‘What is that sound?’, OxBe thought upon hearing the rustling of tree in the forest.

‘Something is headed this way’ OxBee thought to himself ‘and it is approaching fast’ he continued, as he quickly started exiting his meditative state.

The sounds grew louder, as OxBee’s now present sense of urgency intensified.

‘Not Good.’ thought OxBee. Judging by the sounds, it was apparent that whatever it was, gave an impression of being rather larg.