“Now, take a deep breath,” the rat king said through a mouthful.
He did. Wang took a deep breath and waited.
“Now imagine the air in your lung coming out like threads, then back in in the same way,” the critter squeaked.
He tried. Heavy thick threads, as smooth as silk, as thick as linen. Circling inside his lungs before getting yanked out, then replaced by new threads. It took a few times, perhaps more, until he could see the threads clearly in his mind’s eye and the creature spoke again.
“Now take the best and smoothest looking of those threads and instead of breathing them out,” the critter fumbled with the wooden bowl, “let them spin on your dantian, reinforce your core.”
The best looking, the smoothest threads were so thin that hair would look like ropes in comparison. He thought about pulling them, plucking at them with imaginary grips. He started with one, and it came out short. Then laid it on the dantian orb.
The second one was longer, more uniform. The third was similar. One by one they came out with every breath.
“Your body will become purer, and will grow stronger just by having higher quality chi from the surroundings integrated into yourself,” the critter continued.
-
Wang walked outside his room, the little legendary critter hidden beneath his robes. “Those moves were beyond heavens and earth,” he whispered to the tiny creature.
“Of course they were,” the rat king replied, stuffing its mouth with the apple. “Do you think I am called legendary because I look cute?”
Wang took a look at the creature. It wasn’t as cute as it thought itself to be, perhaps because of its consistent bragging. “Just remember, don’t let the others see you,” he said, “they wouldn’t think twice about turning you into a beast’s spirit stone.”
“They are not even capable of killing a july’s moth,” the creature scoffed. “The one that tried to catch me was busy screaming. Like a little girl. A little, insane girl.”
That would be Xiu.
“Holy fuck, I can still feel my dantian’s energy shaking,” Wang tried to calm down and take a few deep breaths to stabilize it, it worked for a bit. He could feel his body being more strong, more healthy. More… pure.
“You realize how that attack move works, right?” the rat king said, “they attack your opponent's energy core, disabling them at low powers, but as you grow stronger, you will be able to destroy them, crippling their cultivation, or just flat out unravel them from the universe.”
Wang gulped.
The creature showed him that move it promised, and it terrified him to even witness the weakened version of it. It was why his dantian was shaking, after all. But Wang did not want to cripple the cultivation of others, let alone unravel them. “Winning will be enough,” he replied.
“As you wish,” the rat king shrugged and began stuffing another piece into its face, “with my cultivation technique, you will be unparalleled in this realm.”
“You!” Wang turned around to see an angry Xiu marching towards him. “How dare you talk to Su? Do you not realize how different you are from her, how unsuitable for such exquisite beauty?”
He charged, strengthening himself with the Iron Body and threw a punch. Wang tried his best to use the technique back. An Iron body punch meeting an Iron Body punch. The two blows stopped one another, and Wang saw Xiu’s eyes widen.
“Impossible,” He snarled. “You learned the Iron Body?”
Wang took deep excited breaths, as he realized he was at the very least similar in strength to Xiu.
“There is a fight,” a villager called, before the others gathered around them. “Xiu and Wang are fighting one another!”
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Wang swallowed hard.
“Well, I still have the upper hand,” Xiu grumbled as he circled him, “I have more experience using it than you do.”
The other blows came in a quick succession, and Wang couldn’t block them all. A flurry of attacks with varying speeds. They weren’t all Iron Body strikes. So he tried his best to block the ones that felt like they were, mainly because they looked like they were slower because of the stance.
He had a hard time trying to block every attack, though.
The normal hits managed to land on his shoulders, sides, and even chest, and after a while of enduring, an Iron punch managed to slip, aimed for the center of his chest.
Wang’s saw time slow before him, an Iron attack on the heart would definitely kill him, he would die if that landed. Was this how he was going to die?
“Impudent fool,” the rat king howled, “you dare strike at where I stand?”
Wang felt the air around him shudder before it became heavier. He nearly dropped to the floor with its… weight. Xiu, too, was moving to a kneeling position, like he was.
“What is this?” Xiu shouted with wide eyes, searching his surroundings. “Is there an immortal nearby?”
Wang looked around too, because the rat king was no longer in his robes.
“I thank you for the food,” the rat king’s voice said, “I shall go home, for now.”
Then the pressure faded, like some sort of giant stopped standing on his back. He was able to breathe properly now.
“Move, get out of my way,” Xiu began pushing the people away, “I have to tell Chu about this, before he starts his tribulations.”
He stopped for a moment and looked back at wang.
“Don’t think this is over,” he growled before he resumed his march.
He did not think it was. Wang stood there, checking the damage that was done to his body. He was surprised to see there wasn’t any.
He silently thanked the rat king and returned inside the room to cultivate.
----------------------------------------
Medical Observations: Josh (501)
The interaction with the squirrel was weird. It seemed like the creature was chittering and speaking with Josh, and Josh responded back. It went back and forth until a form of bribery was performed and a piece of bread and an apple were offered to the critter in exchange for… David could not tell.
Josh seemed jubilant about the trade, though, as the creature seemed to run around in circles and chitter before storming through the room. Josh ended up in a meditating pose again.
“What are you up to with all of this meditation, Josh?” David smiled. The man seemed to either meditate or punch the wall a few times every day. Methodically, too, he might add.
“Doctor,” Olga called and made him break out of his thoughts.
“Tell me, Olga,” He interrupted her before she told him it was time to leave. “Why do you think he does that?” he pointed. “You know, the meditating, the punching. Seems to be far too disciplined of a behavior for a man with psychosis.”
She shrugged. “He crazy, need medicine.”
Okay, that could be one way to look at it.
“Is time to go, doctor,” she said.
Josh stood up and cried out in joy, making the critter flinch and become defensive. Which led to him getting bit when he reached out for it. That would probably need treatment.
But then… the squirrel seemed to be okay with climbing into Josh’s patient’s garb and settling in there.
“Just a few more minutes,” he raised his hand and grabbed his pen to take notes, “I want to see what changed.”
Josh walked out before William rushed towards him. “You!” he shouted, pointing his index finger towards Josh. ““How dare you talk to Su? Do you not realize how different you are from her, how unsuitable for such exquisite beauty?”
David looked back at Olga. Exquisite beauty? More like a witch – or a hag – of the swamp. She was sorta kind though, not a horrible person by any means, so that might explain why the patients seemed to adore her.
Aside from the weird nickname.
William punched the air and Josh punched back at the same time. None of them hit the other, and both looked quite surprised. The squirrel was the most surprised of all, it seemed, as it froze in place.
William said something in a low voice.
“There is a fight!” one of the patients cried out, “Josh and William are fighting one another!”
“Shouldn’t you stop this?” David sipped the coffee.
“No hit, is okay,” Olga shrugged.
“Well, I still have the upper hand,” William grumbled and began to walk in circles, “I have more experience using it than you do.”
William attacked the air with a flurry of quick punches while Josh was striking back and trying to dodge air punches. It was extremely amusing to watch, but…
“You should really stop this,” He told Olga. “It wouldn’t be good for the patients.” both spectators and participants.
Olga began to move before there was a horrible crow-like scream from the squirrel. That caused everything to halt as the squirrel fled the garbs and rushed through the feet of the patients, who of course tried to capture it.
It took a couple of seconds for everything to descend into absolute and utter chaos.