I've never been one for violence.

Mother dearest would always explain to me that the best way to deal with violence was to either not get in trouble or talk your way out. And in a nice peaceful Kingdom that would be the perfect parental raising plan.

Unfortunately, the Verworfen Kingdom was never a kingdom of peace. Stuck on the frontier of civilisation with no; previously, other power to keep them in check and coupled with a corrupt and decadent system, I'm honestly surprised that the monarchy hasn't been overthrown at this point.

But that's beside the point right now.

Before I started reminiscing and the adrenaline stopped, I had observed how my Qi was naturally combining with my blood. I don't know the full implication of what it did to my body. But I'm guessing that from my 'fight' it was a natural reaction to get my body into better shape for the fight and possible make it easier for me to call upon my Qi.

After the fight and I had begun to circulate my Qi, I could even feel that I had become a bit more powerful due to my blood and Qi combining. Though I'll admit I wasn't paying the utmost attention to what else was happening to my body since I was a bit fixated on the whole blood and Qi combination.  

However, towards the end of my adrenaline trip cool down, I was lucky enough to observe some alteration to my body. Though I'm doubtful if there good or bad alterations. Since after I tore my eyes away from my blood and begun looking around the rest of my body I happened to notice a peculiar situation arising from my bones. At first, the most eye-catching thing was my bones and how they had become that much whiter.

Though looking at my bones I'm beginning to notice a lot of black specs coming off the bone and floating away to my skin. Whatever those things were I do hope it was beneficial, since random black specs inside your body is not a usual occurrence one might see.

Though I'll admit I never paid attention to most of my anatomy before when I first delved inside my body, but I can make an assumption that the black specs and  whiter bones weren't here before the Qi-blood combination; seriously even looking at those bones for too long is hurting my eyes.

Blinding aside other than body alteration I can feel a certain but faint aura coming off from my body now, and before the fight that aura wasn't there. Now it isn't on any level like those monster that decimated the army back in the endless forest. But, feeling it now it's filling me with confidence and an urge to get even stronger, especially since it came after I had fought that weird green monster.

But, at that moment I begin to think back and I can't help but wonder if this is the reason why mother always told me to stay out of trouble. Mother may of know what battling did to a person and being so closely related she must of know I would go through this and wanted a better life for me. One not on the battlefield, following in her steps as a mercenary captain. But feeling it now I'm both eager and afraid.

I'm afraid since the opponents from now on are only going to get stronger, both from Ramaze and that mysterious man and I'm not too enthusiastic on a potentially early death. But I'm equally eager since I want to know how far I can go, I want to know if I can leave my name in the history books, I also want to know how many...

“Henry!” Indulging in my fantasies for a mere second that ghostly voice from Ramaze surfaces again, and from the sharp pain in my back and the sky in my eyes, I'm guessing my position wasn't very stable when Ramaze gave me the surprise of my life.

Feeling quite uncomfortable now with my back to the grass and legs still crossed, I involuntarily open my eyes and after picking myself up I notice two things.

One is the rather obvious armored coach, whose crossed armed posture either means I'm going to get a lecture or a new round of hell's training. I'm hoping for the latter since it seems like I've been in that state for quite some time, around noon I'd guess.

The other begin the horrid smell and extreme dampness that I'm feeling from my clothes. Now a normal person would be composed in a situation like this and think of ways this has happened while also looking for alternative clothing that didn't involve cheap cloth and old leather armor. Unfortunately, begin raised with a slight silver spoon, I'm not one of those people. “Oh God, what is this smell, why am I wet? Ew ew ew ew!” Can't say this is one of my better moments but dear god is this an awful feeling.

….................................................................................................................................................................................

Currently, I'm shocked. This dancing monkey in front of me is the only student I've every had to start running around after they manage to cleanse some of the waste from their body. Sure I can be partially blamed for not telling the boy what happens after you succeed in your first rotation. But then again what idiot runs around in drenched clothing flinging the shit attached to them as they go.

Thankfully watching this ordeal of a dance is put to an end quickly once a great orb of water materializes out of nowhere above Henry and drenches him. Seems the old man isn't a fan of Henry rain dance either. So ignoring Henry and his protests for a moment, I turn my attention to the rapidly fading formation above Henry.

And still, I'm bemused. I simply can't fathom how this type of martial arts came to be. The only arts that are similar are the ones used by the puppeteers and alchemists, but neither of them can summon the elements from a simple formation; they either spend huge resources on one construct at a time or spend huge resources making new resources.  

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

But what's most curious is how these skills take little Qi to use and are practically undetectable in the smaller and lesser condensed arts. The only time I can truly say I've detected it before seeing it was with the wolf pack and how he sent multiple formations out at once. Even then, though, I barely noticed it.  

However, even with this bizarre arts, I doubt the story of him being an ancient warrior from aeons ago,  it just doesn't make sense for someone from the legends era to appear in this continent, since it would mean that he and his kin managed to find the portal to this place thousands of years ago. They would have surely managed to conquer this back-water place with relative ease.

But I do suspect that whatever managed to kill his main body is powerful, since a man wielding power like that, being both strange and undetectable, can't mean he lead a normal life and surely must have been trained to the limits of life and death.

Well, in the end, it doesn't really matter anyway. It's not like I'm being paid to do this job, as long as he doesn't turn on me, he can continue with his little experiments he often goes on about. Besides if anything, I'm having a great time with my own little experiment on Henry.

Since I want to know how far he can go, especially for someone past the ideal age of improvement, yet still somehow breaking through his limits on his first rotation.

I do hope William won't mind sharing Henry for a while.

….................................................................................................................................................................................

That boy really needs to learn etiquette. Flinging water and random shit around the place. We're not animals you know Henry. Geez, I even had to bath the little monster, we're not going to see any game around here for the next few days with the stench Henry just released unto the world.

But I do wonder what that black stuff is.

My first guess would be some sort of defect inside the body, which when trained is gradually released so as to allow the person to become that much stronger. Though I'll have to monitor the black release again to get more accurate readings. Thought the whitening of t he bones and the expanding of the meridians should be all the evidence I need.

But if that's the case I may have to make another trip to see if I can spot these anomalies in Henry's body, because the last time I went to his body none of these black stuff were visible or detectable. Which can either mean that they only surfaced due to Henry training? Or the body has changed to accommodate Henry new power, certain aspects of the body are deemed undesirable and therefore must be purged in order to perfect the body.  

If it's the latter option I wonder if I'll be able to preemptively purge the black stuff from Henry's system in an effort to further boost his growth. But I'll have to be careful since I don't know if my own mana will be able to replace the mana from Henry's own body that dug out the black stuff and strengthened his body.

But if my own mana can replace Henry's own mana then that'll mean that I can augment Henry's strength that much quicker, meaning gaining a body for myself will also be that much faster.

Thought if the black stuff comes from the former then that'll mean I'll have to think off a new solution. Which may just be me simply smoothing out the results to help Henry get an advantage in fights that in the same strength category.    

Even if it's not the latter option I still have to keep my hopes up. One way being that when I do get my new body, I'll need to see if it's changed to my own bodily specifics and not to this current world's specifics. Which means that the black stuff that I managed to capture while looking in Henry's body will need to be tested to see if I can improve my body the same way by purging any undesirable material.

I'll have to get George to do the testing, though, I never did finish my 101 Alchemistic tests. Should be fine, though, George hasn't let me down yet.

I'll also need to figure out how this world evolved this way as well. Since when I make my new body I need to make it as similar as to my old world's body, in the case of any defects that might appear due to a Dantian and mana pool sharing the same space.

Fortunately, however, I do have a nice guinea pig to test and see if my magic formations are usable to this world's population.

Besides, I'm sure Ramaze won't mind me stealing Henry back for a few lessons. I'll even go as far as to say that Ramaze would also love to get a little show and tell on how my formation's work and how they are formed. Though I'll have to be a little careful to not show off the inner workings of the formation's since I can't really trust my warden from the Rising Lotus sect.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a set-up to try and steal my magic techniques by either viewing and replicating them, or by the good old method of brute forcing your way to information. Since the latter option is my favorite method, I'm sure as hell not going to fall into some trap on our way to our destination.  

Though that being said I can't fully count on Henry to be reliable and not get in trouble, plus if Ramaze does turn out to be a traitor and manages to isolate Henry while I'm away, then not only can that be  troublesome, it can potentially lead to my doom.  

Huh, when am I ever going to get a break, I really need a vacation.