Chapter 14 Watch and Learn

Whoosh!

Old man Dan appeared silently on top of a tree branch while looking down on a boy who looked silly jumping around.

“Pft!”

He could not help but snicker and continued to watch holding his laughter.

The boy was naturally Eznho who was trying to practice the Tiger Chasing the Wind, he started yesterday but barely made a progress. He could only leap a couple of meters, according to the description, he should at least jump for ten meters if he successfully learned it.

Aside from leaping, he had to do jumps, pounce and do zigzag movements. He tried to do as instructed but it resulted in sore muscles and even nearly snapped his tendons.

He was exhausted and started to give up, tearing pain filled his muscles. In the end, his body was not prepared for this kind of activities. Feeling that his energy was depleted, he sat down and started to meditate.

“Hmmm?”

Old man Dan was observing and already scanned Eznho’s body without him knowing. He even performed a simple divination and was shocked.

“To think that a big change happened to him while I was gone, I don’t even know if this is good or bad,”

Destiny was a delicate subject to cultivators but simple divinations could be done by experts who reached a certain level. As long as they did not pry deeper, repercussions will not come. He already divined him previously but most of his destiny roads led to mediocrity, meaning he will not step into the path of cultivation.

But after his divination today, he could not see anything. A gray mist shrouded it and he did not even dare to try and penetrate it.

“His destiny is unknown, maybe only divination cultivators can read him.”

His face turned serious and started to ponder.

“Our karma has already intertwined, might as well gamble. Who knows he might be of assistance in the future,”

After deciding, he made up his mind.

....

Eznho, on the other hand, was frowning, he was applying ointment on his sore muscles. It was harder to infuse heavenly energy with it than the skin, doing it like last time would take at least a week. He was contemplating when suddenly he heard someone,

“Ahem, since you are stupid and a dumb sissy I could not watch it anymore so I have decided to impart my boundless knowledge to you,”

A boastful old voice spoke,

Eznho already guessed who it is and started to get irritated,

“Tsk, what do you know? You are just a smelly old man.”

He was not that surprised as he had already some suspicions towards the old man.

“What did you say? You sissy! Tsk, let’s see how long will it take you to perfect your movements, hmph!”

Veins popped on the old man’s head and started to walk away. He decided to help but was pissed with Eznho’s answer.

Eznho did not answer and continued applying ointment, his mind was in conflict.

“He’s just messing around, but what if he really can help?”

After a while, he gritted his teeth and shouted,

“Wait!”

But nobody answered, he looked back and no one was there.

“Stupid old man,” He cursed and turned his head back.

“What did you say?”

A wrinkly old face with a beaming smile suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was a few inches in front of his face.

“Ah!”

He was frightened and subconsciously leaped backward.

“Good reflex, zehahaha,” Old man Dan praised while laughing.

“Tsk,”

Eznho ignored him but his heart was still beating fast.

.....

The two of them sat in a meditative state facing each other with a meter gap space in between them.

“How did you start sissy?”

Old man Dan asked seriously,

“Stop calling me a sissy, and I don’t have to answer your question.”

Eznho answered back in an irritated manner. He still did not trust the old man so he didn’t want to talk about the ring or the gray flame.

“I’ll call you whatever I want sissy, fine, I won’t ask anymore,”

Old man Dan answered nonchalantly and continued talking.

“I can see that you already started and made some progress, you even have a good assistive technique. But your body was not properly baptized, I don’t have time for that so I’ll teach some tricks to lessen the strain on your muscles.”

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He was inwardly surprised about the boy’s progress but he did not show it on his face and started to teach him.

“I’ll teach a simple trick that greatly helps low-level cultivators like you, it’s called energy manipulation. This will also benefit you in the future, due to your limited energy stock you have to know how to use them properly and efficiently. I believe you already started to manipulate heavenly energy and generally spreading to your body.”

Eznho nodded in agreement, it was true he could manipulate his energy in general.

“Well, that is a total waste of energy, if you had a good teacher they will say the same. Have you tried moving your consciousness out of your body?”

“No?” Eznho answered with confusion.

His consciousness has always been inside his body and could not move not even an inch outside.

“That’s normal, but once you surpassed the cleansing stage, everything will have a qualitative change including your soul. The soul has the most influence on your consciousness or what we call soul sense. It can be used in many different ways, it can be used to scout your surroundings, manipulate heavenly energy and others. Once you reach higher cultivation you can even use it to kill others but that’s none of your business right now, whether you succeed or not fully depends on you. Many cultivators spread heavenly energy throughout their body for protection, but for low-level cultivators, it would be hard to maintain it.”

“For beginners like you, energy manipulation is quite hard, but based on your talent you would have discovered it yourself anyway but it would take time. Try controlling your consciousness and get into your dantian.”

Old man Dan instructed.

Eznho dove his consciousness inside his dantian filled with a thin mist.

“Now, integrate your consciousness with the heavenly energy, be one with the energy. Do it slowly, your consciousness is still weak and can only control a certain amount. Once you control an amount, try circulating it throughout your meridians and do a full circle.”

Eznho did as instructed, he had the gist of controlling it but once he tried circulating it, he lost control and the energy dissipated. Fully controlling heavenly energy is different from just absorbing and circulating it throughout the meridians.

It’s like driving an automatic and a manual car.

“I’ll give you half a day to perfectly circulate that energy around your meridians.”

Old man Dan sat in a meditative position and spread out his soul sense observing any movements.

Eznho calmed down and patiently started with small amounts. After having controlled small amounts, he slowly increased until he reached his limit. One-fifth of his whole energy was his limit.

.....

Only four hours passed and he gained full control. Old man Dan sensed this and opened his eyes.

“Hmmm? Not bad, that was faster than expected. Okay, that’s for the better as I have things to do.”

Eznho, on the other hand, felt delighted while circulating energy around his meridians with ease.

“The next would be easier, now use the energy you manipulated and use it only on one part of your body that you need to use, for example, your feet or just use it on your chest if someone attacks you there. You can also use it to coat your weapon and make it sharper, if you even want you can use it to form a weapon but that would consume too much energy. The more energy you use the stronger the power output would be but there will always be a limit. It would be up to you to discover these things.”

Listening to the old man’s explanations, Eznho already had insights and ideas and was eager to try it out.

“I'm too lazy to explain everything, I’ll show it once and up to you if you learn anything. Watch and learn,”

Old man Dan started to manipulate a small amount of heavenly energy and concentrated it on his hand. White energy covered his hand and punched it on a nearby three-meter tall boulder.

Boom!

He casually punched and the boulder turned in small fragments, some even turned to dust.

“Opps! Zehahaha, sorry about that I couldn’t control my overwhelming power. Did you see that sissy? I could turn you into dust if I wanted to,”

The old man boasted while puffing his chest out.

Eznho could not help but be astonished inside.

This smelly old man is that strong?

But how could he allow the old man to boast in front of him? So he mocked him instead,

“Tsk, what is so great about that? If I was your age I could turn that whole boulder into dust,”

“You ungrateful sissy! That was just a tenth of my power,”

The old man was furious, a boy was mocking his power. If it were others he would have beaten them to death.

“Sure, whatever you say,”

Eznho answered nonchalantly.

The old man’s face was beginning to get red but he forced himself to calm down.

“A mere sissy dares to look down on me? Hmph! Let’s see how far you go on the road of cultivation. Let me warn you, once you start, your road will be filled with blood and countless killing. “

Old man Dan turned serious and warned Eznho.

“Anyways, what you do after this is your business. One more thing, if I were you I’d leave within three days.”

He started to walk and disappeared in a flashy way.

Keep boasting old man I’ll make you eat your words, hmph!

Eznho was a bit pissed about the old man’s boasting but he could not help but admit, he really possess the right to. How strong exactly is he, he has no idea. He stopped thinking about and meditated before starting to practice.

.....

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Eznho leaped over nine meters and nearing ten meters then moved his feet to do another one but towards a different direction. Since practicing yesterday, he had great results.

Using energy manipulation, he concentrated it on his feet while practicing the Tiger Chasing the Wind. By using the energy as a propelling force, the stress on his muscles and tendons lessened but there is a limit on how much power they can withstand.

He had already a small success in doing the movements. The average man could not even compare to him anymore, his body became tougher and could do movements others could not.

While doing the movements, he did not ignore his bones and chanted the mantra from time to time. Purifying the bone was so painful that he was traumatized and even had second thoughts every time was about to start the mantra. But despite that, he had no choice. Passing this stage was a requirement if he was to continue cultivating.

.....

Another day passed, this was his last. He continued practicing like usual and was already halfway through. Two days was his estimate before he could finally succeed. Reaching this point, he furrowed his brows, purifying the blood was not impossible but without external help, it could take weeks to succeed. Drinking beast blood could help but the quality and quantity should also be considered.

He was thinking of buying but he had no idea how to differentiate this thing. A thought passed through his mind but he shook his head and ignored it.

“I don’t even know where he is,”

He continued to practice until evening, unknown to him that the old man was watching the whole time.

“Not bad, let’s see what happens tomorrow and I’ll decide after that.”

.....

“Boss, the boy is leaving tomorrow morning by the looks of it. So I can’t work inside the mines for now.” Eagle Eye eagerly reported with anticipation.

He’d rather set an ambush for the boy earlier and waste time rather than work inside the mines. More than a dozen had already died fighting the beasts, especially now, they seemed to go berserk and attacked with no regard. He had no time to investigate what the boy has been up to because every manpower was poured inside the mine.

“Do as you wish but don’t take long, also, don’t forget my share.”

A middle-aged man leisurely drank wine while answering, he didn’t care as long as he will get a part of the loot.

“Yes Boss, then I’ll take my leave.”

Eagle Eye left in a hurry with an excitement in his eyes.

.....

Eznho started to pack his things and got ready for his journey tomorrow.

Home

He could not hide his excitement, it has been a year since he left. A lot has happened during this year, he was already eleven years old. It’s time for him to go home and be with the two most important people for him in this world.

After preparing everything, he meditated then called it a day.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of a new journey for him.