Bao Feng lunged at him with the agility of a man unburdened by the weight of armor and cleaved at his left forearm from over his left shoulder. Ace attempted to block the attack by planting his feet side by side firmly into the ground and diagonally raising his weapon, flat side prepped to meet the edge of his opponent's blade. Bao Feng acquiesced, slamming the entire force of his strength and his weight into the strike, leaving Ace reeling and gasping as the brutal impact nearly brought him to his knees. It turns out that an 18-year-old, average gym goer was no match for a positively ancient man with the physique of an Olympic-level athlete, a fact made apparent when the other man nearly shattered his sternum with a kick to the chest that almost knocked him back to Earth.
Instantly, he felt all the air leave his body along with the wooden sword, which, for all intents and purposes, seemed to fly away from his grasp at mach ten-speed.
Ace tumbled onto the ice-cold ground, sinking into the white surface with a crash. Once he managed to catch his breath again, Ace politely complimented his adversary. “Ugh, Bao, you hit like an infuriated truck,” He remarked.
When he struggled to get up, he bumped into the tip of Bao’s training sword.
“Were you trying to get hit in the solar plexus?” Bao Feng asked, genuinely looking perplexed, which Ace knew was a sham of a front.
“Yeah, okay. Don’t act so flabbergasted. You know damn well I haven’t done this before. So, teach me, master, the one who knows all,” Ace said, mock-bowing at Bao, once he got up.
Bao Feng sagely inclined his head. “Of course, my deeply troubled disciple,” He straightened up, motioning for Ace to watch him. “Obviously, you made the mistake of letting me kick you, but how do you prevent this?”
“I dunno,” Ace honestly said.
“The answer is,” Bao unsummoned his blade, returning it to wherever it went. “Learn how to fight with your body first; otherwise, what happened here today will happen in the fights that put your life on the line. The style of unarmed fighting I will teach you is designed to be intertwined with the longsword in combat and when you are weaponless.”
Ace bobbed his head. “Alrighty, sounds good. Did you make the style?”
Bao Feng snorted. “No, I am not nearly so creative. The style was made by the Order of the Masked. It’s called the Dragon’s Descent.”
“Humble. What’s the Order of the Masked?”
“No more questions. We have time to train, and your body shape isn’t up to par. Before you start learning to punch, you must cultivate strength first,” Bao Feng snapped his fingers. “Do a hundred pushups as quickly as you can. Only do sets till failure and no rest time over 20 seconds in between sets.”
Ace sighed at the command, shoulders drooping, but quickly became motivated to get on with it when Bao Feng turned into a veritable drill sergeant.
Bao Feng screamed at the top of his lungs. “GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND NOW! CHEST DOWN ALL THE WAY. ARMS OUT WIDER. ALL THE WAY UP.”
Ace’s unprotected face started becoming chilly with him bumping into a sheet of snow every time he dipped down. The terrain certainly wasn’t making things any easier and with the armor he had equipped, he maxed out at twenty-nine.
By the last rep, he certainly was feeling a little peeved, someone please get this guy some Xanax, fucking hell.
Panting heavily from shear strain, Ace had to endure Bao Feng counting out every second he had to rest, one by one. He settled back into his pushup position, keeping one knee down before Bao called out.
“Twenty. Start now.”
And so, it began. Over the next few hours, well into the midday, Ace was forced, ahem, heavily motivated to do a fuckload of bodyweight exercises such as sit-ups, planks, pullups on a nearby tree branch, and more he didn’t want to reminisce about. Bao Feng, as extra training, made him run repeatedly around the campsite, stretching him to his limits. The pain wasn’t without gain, though, and Ace finally attained his first increase in strength since getting here.
(T1) Strength: 5 > 5.5
Took long enough.
Bao Feng didn’t just sit lazing about the whole time. He participated in all the exercises he partook in and more. Whenever Ace faltered, Bao Feng would stand by him, and jump into action once he recovered, not giving him an excuse to quit when his partner was so easily manhandling all the assignments.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Currently, Ace was on his final lap, and though it was cold as balls out in the frozen environment, he felt the heat. Beads of sweat rolled down him that soon disappeared with every thrust of powerful wind that deigned to topple his body. He hardly even saw in front of him anymore, so much as he instinctively fell into the same pattern he’d been tracing in the snow for what felt like days. He was aware in the back of his mind that Bao was somewhere beside him, languidly taking in the gauntlet like it was a short jog on a fine morning. It had been an irritating thing to witness early on. Bao Feng consistently demolishing his endurance and strength with a nonchalant attitude didn’t do wonders for his ego.
Now though, Ace didn’t have the mental willpower to spare more than a moment's attention to his presence. He had to make it. He could taste the finish line, hanging tantalizingly out of his thumping steps that, really, were only stumbling at this point. His vision nearly faded into blackness, until, at last, Ace heard the comforting words that he had so desperately wished to hear uttered for the training session.
“Stop,” Bao Feng commanded, not an ounce of exertion showing in his voice.
“Ughh,” Ace groaned, collapsing face-first into the cushioned ground. He didn’t even possess the energy to speak.
Expectedly, his beloved teacher started his monologue. “You did exceedingly well, Ace. I would be aghast to find that you didn’t receive any stat gains for your efforts. As, frankly, I didn’t even expect you to last halfway into the workout. I’ve taught many students over my extensive lifetime, and I can say without a doubt that you fall into an elite handful of students who can push themselves and their spirit beyond mortal boundaries. Of those, the likes of noble scions, those who have had to work for the barest morsel in their life, and the most talented younglings is where you deserve to be placed in the hierarchy of determination, the very top.”
Thank you, I really appreciate it, now can you please stop talking and help me up.
After Ace got up and relearned how to walk, he sat around the bonfire as Bao got it started, lighting it on fire with a burst of Qi that was colored a cobalt blue, which to no end surprised Ace.
“I thought that you lost your cultivation?” He sought to confirm.
Bao Feng shrugged. “I did. It doesn’t mean I can’t get it back, though. It only requires me to tread the beaten path I once walked.” He placed two large steaks on the pan that was suspended over the fire, held by a metal rod that was planted firmly in the underlying dirt layer.
“That didn’t look like fire, but maybe I’m wrong. Can you teach me some magic right now, while we wait for the food to finish cooking?”
Bao considered the proposal, before consenting. “Sure, but don’t try out anything I talk about until I instruct you to. Got it?”
“Yup,” He agreed
Bao Feng lectured. “There are many aspects of cultivation, and some are more useful than others, but most cultivation stems from the three basic affinity genres. First, are the ten elemental affinities: lightning, wind, fire, earth, water, ice, metal, light, nature, and darkness. There are other elements, but those are the important ones that will affect your daily life for the most part. Next, are the intrinsic affinities: chaos, order, life, and death. The last subset of affinities is the incorporeal affinities: space, time, void, and karma. As always in cultivation, there is more than what is told to you, or written down in your textbook, keep that in the back of your mind.”
“Okay, so, are there any more affinity subsets, or is that all of them?” Ace sought to clarify what he had learned.
In return, Bao Feng stared at him with a blank look emptier than a clean white page of paper. Okay, no bueno, then, alright. As an alternative question, he asked. “How do you transform the elements into animate matter? My major affinities listed are Ice, Darkness, Metal, and Wind, so it’s all basic stuff for me.”
Bao Feng’s grin widened, completely void of the nondescript look he had worn briefly. “I’m glad you asked. The answer is… Qi patterns, as they are called in the cultivation world, or sometimes Qi circulations. To understand this, I oblige you to realize that Qi in its base form is entirely spiritual, but when Qi is circulated through your meridians fast enough, it will transmute into liquid Qi. And when this liquid Qi is released into physical reality, it will turn into the element we all know it to be. Understand?”
Snowflakes fell on Ace’s utterly motionless face as he tried to wrap his mind around what Bao said. He replied. “Yes, but what does that have to do with these ‘Qi patterns?”
“Qi patterns are circulations with your Qi throughout your meridians that will transform Qi into the liquid version,” Bao Feng glanced seriously at Ace. “Hang on for this part. This might be hard to comprehend the first time you hear it. To control what form the Qi takes after it manifests in the physical world, you must imprint your will and desire upon a meridian. For example, if your desire is for a meridian to create an ember of flame when Qi is expelled from it, your will must be strong enough to ensure that the liquid Qi retains that wish upon entering the physical world. Once you achieve this, the accomplishment will be reflected in your status as such.”
System User, Bao Feng, has requested to share a part of his status with you.
Accept / Deny?
Accept, Ace willed mentally. That’s new as well.
Bao Feng’s status popped up in front of Ace’s vision.
Status Segment:
Meridian Imprints:
Wind Spike - Meridians Required - 1
While Ace was caught up in analyzing the text, Bao noted. “You can also check which meridian or meridians are in use by selecting the end number,” He continued. “I realize you have many more questions within you, but the food is ready, and you should be learning how to defend yourself soon. There is no need to waste the sun we have left.”
Ace was tempted to ignore the gentle chastising, but ultimately decided he could ask all he wanted to after slaving away on his more athletic advancements.
So, they each tucked into a hearty steak before resuming their training. More accurately, Ace got his being repeatedly pounded to a pulp while Bao Feng carried out his coaching duties.