Crux slowly begins to wake up to the sound of birds chirping, followed by the rays of the sun beaming directly into the narrow slits of his eyes. He slowly sat up with a groan. Feeling a piercing headache he unconsiously begins to rub his temples.

With his mind still blurry, Crux begins to recall some of the matters of what happened before he lost consciousness. Remembering that bloodied man in the crater, Crux takes a look around to find himself in a small, five by five meter little room. With trash piled up in the corner of the room, dirt and pebbles smothered all over the floor, and the small two meter long rock bed topped with grass for a pillow he happens to be sitting on. Finding himself in his usual room, Crux began to wonder if all of what he experienced last night was a dream.

Before his mind began to clear up from his early morning drearyness, footsteps began to sound out outside the door of his shed. Noticing the sun high in the sky through a crack in the wall, Crux abruptly got out of bed; however, in his haste Crux fell to the ground onto his side. Feeling an excruciating pain on his right thigh, Crux grits his teeth. Assuming he fell driectly ontop of one of the rocks sprawled on the floor Crux painfully crawls towards his bed and begins to roll up his dusty, ripped and haggard pants. Seeing a ring shaped mark indented into his skin, Crux feels a sharp pain in the back of his head, and began to remember that after than man shot something into his head, he was tossed a ring. Quickly reaching his hand into his right pocket, Crux finds a completely pitch black ring. With the sounds of footsteps getting closer to the door, Crux immediately went over to the pile of trash to hide the ring. But, before he made it all the way over, as if possessed, Crux abruptly brought his left middle finger to his mouth, and without any hesitation, bit down and ripped off the skin to make his blood flow. Then, he quickly catches the drops of blood onto the top of the ring. With a flash of a blood red light, the pitch black ring began to glow red, and began to liquify. Completely dazed, Crux watched as the now liquified ring began to flow into his finger wound, and disappear along with that very wound.

As a warm feeling began to flow up his left arm from his finger, the door to his room slowly began to creak open. Shaking his head, Crux turned his head too look. Coming in with a bucket of water, a little girl that looked to be around the age of sixteen with blond, disheveled locks flowing down below her shoulders, greyish blue yet downcast eyes, and an extremely frail apperance came in through the door.

"Eh?"

Startled, the girl looked over at the standing Crux. Tilting her head, she looks him up and down. With a slight smile, she walked towards the bed and put down the bucket of water. Rinsing her oddly unblemished hands, she signals Crux to come over and do the same with a nod of her head.

After coming over and smelling the light fragrance of flowers emitting from the little girl, Crux unceremoniously dunks his head into the water bucket. Shaking his head in the water, he then whips his head out; his long brown, once dusty, hair flips back. Slicking his hair back with his hands, he looks over at the now giggling little girl. Putting on his best smile, the girl looks at him with an amused expression. However, that amused expression quickly replaced with one of worry and anger. Seeing the abrupt change of expression, Crux also stops messing around at looks over to the girl with a questioning gaze. Seeing his that gaze, the girl lightly sighed and said, "Crux... two days ago, you were brought back unconscious from the river... you should know what happens when you don't work for two days... I'm afraid, since you were brought back by one of the patrols, me and Jack couldn't cover it up... Jack worked twice as hard to cover your work for the past two days, but..."

Sighing, Crux cuts her off from continuing. Knowing he hadn't woken up for two days and two nights, Crux understands exactly the reason she would be worried. However, in his heart, he is extremely excited. Not even neglecting his duties for a year and recieving the punishment could break apart his happiness. Finally being clear headed, Crux is completely convinced what happened wasn't a dream. All sorts of information is overloadding his brain, and he needs time to digest it. But, one thing he knows for sure, he won't need to be a slave for long. Looking at this little girl infront of him, his gaze goes soft. Thinking that if all goes right, he can fight for her freedom as well. "Sigh... Chelsey, no need to worry. Isn't it just two days? No matter the punishment, as long as I'm alive, none of it matters."

Giving a beaming smile, Crux lifts his hand to pat Chelsey's shoulder. As his hand lands, his face immediately pales in regret. With a scream, Chelsey quickly swats his hand away and backs up to the wall. With tears unconsciously begin to well up in her eyes as she began to shake uncontrollably. "Shit, Chelsey, it's okay, you're okay. No need to worry, no one is going to hurt you."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Looking at the panic stricken little girl, tears begin to well up in the corner of Crux's eyes. He had been a slave working for the baron of Dhylia City since for the past ten years, being sixteen now, Crux had been a slave for most of his life. Chelsey, on the other hand, being only fifteen, had only been a slave for a little over a year. Her entire family had been ransacked by bandits, with herself being the only survivor. Almost being defiled by said bandits, Chelsey was barely saved by the soldiers of Dhylia City. Afterwards, without anyone to rely on, she ended up becoming a maid to one of the baron's mistresses. Ever since the event, anytime a man touched her, she would uncontrollably freak out, like now.

Seeing her uncontrollably shaking in the corner and being completely absentminded, Crux cupped a handful of water and lightly splashed her face. With the abrupt splash of cold water, Chelsey was able to slowly calm down. Looking at Crux with tears in her eyes, she began to wipe off the water and tears from her face. "You're safe... Chelsey..."

"M-hm, I'm sorry.."

Shaking his head, "No no, I'm sorry. I forgot. It's my fault."

Lowering her head, Chelsey walks over to the now half full bucket of water, cupped some in her hand, and with a cheeky smile, splashed it into Crux's face. 

"Humph."

Grumbling, Chelsey walked towards the door. Before she left, she once more looked at Crux with a slightly misty gaze. With a slight smile, and reminding him to start work as soon as possible to avoid a harsher punishment, she left and closed the door.

...

After staring at the closed door absentmindedly for a few minutes, Crux finally came back to himself and shook his head. 

With unconcealable excitement in his eyes Crux ignored going out to do his work, and went over to sit on his bed in a criss cross position. Closing his eyes, Crux began to focus on some of the information in his head. Within his dark consciousness, a red light began to illuminate the darkness. After an unknown amount of time, the red light began to condense into an old, tattered book. On the cover of the book were the words: Demonic Subduing Qi. 

After the book had finally solidifed in his consciousness, Crux found himself floating inside a vast darkness, illuminated by that old, tattered book that stood directly infront of him. Seeing the book with the title Demonic Subduing Qi, Crux excitedly opens to the first page, the first layer, and began to read.

Demonic Subduing Qi, First Layer, Reforging Body

Stage One: Clearing of Meridians

Stage Two: Cleansing Body

Stage Three: Strengthening Body

Stage Four: Reforge the Body

....

Finished reading through the first layer, Crux sat aside his curiousity on the second and third layers, and closed the book. Following the instructions of the first layer, Crux excitedly began to attempt to start the first stage, Clearing the Meridians. Clearing his mind of distractions, Crux began to focus soley on himself. 

After an unknown amount of time of being in a meditative state, Crux's real body began to glow in a faint red light. Within his body, a reddish, black liquid was flowing through his body uninhibited. If one was to pay attention to this liquid, they would notice that it was revolving in a set path that repeat itself over and over again. If Crux himself were to see the pattern that the liquid was moving in, he would notice that it is moving in the exact way of moving his Qi as stated in the first layer of the Demonic Subduing Qi. 

Even after the sun had gone down outside with the moon now high in the sky, Crux was still in his vegetative state of meditation. The red light coming from his body slightly illuminated the darkness of his room. If one was to look closely, one would notice black sludge coming out of the pores of Crux's skin all over his body. A disgusting stench began to permeate throughout the room. 

After another hour of meditation, Crux's eyes began to slowly open, and the redlight surrounding his body faded away. After fully opening his eyes, Crux stood up onto the dirty ground. Taking an abrupt step forward, Crux through a fist into the empty darkness of the room. The sound of a whistle came from the darkness, as the fist flew through the air unimpeded with undiscernable power. Lowering his arm, Crux looked at his fist with a satisfied smile. Following the smile, Crux began to silently laugh. The smile on his face not fading in the slighest, Crux began to mutter to himself, "Cleansing meridians... it was said in the manual, and according to my memories that I inherited, normal people are able to only step into it after a month of cultivation and guidance, yet... I already completed it.. not just stepped in... I completed it! Ahahahaha!"

After an unknown amount of time in self satisfaction, Crux, taking a big breath of fresh air, immediately paled. 'The hell is that smell?' he thought. Lifting his arm and smelling his armpit, Crux almost passes out right there. With a pale face, Crux grabs the bucket from earlier, and quietly opened the door to leave his shed. Looking around, Crux began to make his way towards the river.