Haiyang was sitting in a clear pool of water. The water still carried lingering heat and the air held faint medical fragrance. His eyes twitched as he opened them.

He tried standing up but too much force was put into his back legs and he shot 40 centimeters into the air. Haiyang was shocked that he couldn’t control his body. He landed lightly and tried to take a step forward and right when his paw landed he launched himself towards the door.

He was barely able to stop himself before slamming into the stone door. He was breathing heavily and retracted every ounce of strength he could. He walked gingerly placing one paw in front of the other. Using the lightest amount of force Haiyang creaked open the door.

The sunlight pierced his eyes and he shot back into the room. He forgot to control his strength and ended halfway back in the room.

Haiyang took a minute to recompose himself before slowly walking back out. He slowly made his way toward his tree before sitting down. He looked at where he walked and he saw many paw prints. Each one 5 centimeters deep, and good thing he was careful or he would’ve gone flying.

He stood up and took a few deep breaths relaxing his body. He stopped restraining his strength and took a step forward. His paw immediately sunk into the soft ground! His body lurched forward. He tried to pull out the one paw but the one he was using as a prop up sunk into the ground too.

‘Fuck this shit,’ he thought! Restraining his strength he used his back half to pull out the front half.

With his body out of the ground, he tried to think of a way to walk normally. He couldn’t permanently restrain strength but he also couldn’t not move. He could only think of a better way. He sunk into deep thought as the sun passed through the sky.

When the sun was almost set and the sky red a smile crawled onto Haiyang’s face. He thought and thought but came to the conclusion that the best way would be to find some way to seal his strength. Something to weaken him so he can move but still be strong enough to fight.

He combed through the memories that the immortal left behind. He searched through the ones that he could look at. He finally found something. A technique called “Seals of Nine Tide”.

The technique read, “The sealing of the nine tides builds off the principle of continuous seals building off the previous. This is like the tides where each one gets stronger and stronger. With the power of all nine seals, one can seal the ocean’s tides and transform it into a tranquil lake.”

The technique was graded as a high-grade 9th-star soul rank. Haiyang had no idea what the grading meant but he knew it was a high ranking. Star ranked was one of the fewest techniques that showed up. He felt excited and immediately started to read through it.

Haiyang read through the technique trying to gain an idea of the first seal. It was a small character made of five simple strokes. Each stroke caused a relaxing feeling both physically and mentally.

In his mind, he stared at the character. He tried to feel the flow of qi in each stroke.

Hours soon past, the sun was close to setting dying the sky red and orange. Haiyang finally opened his eyes which shone with a light of comprehension.

Haiyang placed his paw on the ground let his qi flow. In through the ground marking it with the seal. After, he made the third stroke he made a mistake in qi output. The whole seal just broke and wouldn’t allow any further strokes.

So he erased it and tried again. When he failed he erased then tried again. This process of making and erasing until the 20th time. The twentieth time he got it correct. He grew excited, his mouth curved into a smile and his ears started to twitch. He continued to make seal after seal.

The first 5 times the seals messed up. The sixth time the seal was correct. This trend followed of making then erasing till the mistakes dwindled down and down. Soon the seals were perfect and he didn’t make a mistake when drawing them.

Haiyang finally looked up to the sky and saw that the moon was high overhead. He gave himself a wry smile as he let out a small laugh.

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Haiyang took a deep breath letting the yin qi from the air flow through his body. He held his paw up in front of him. In the center laid a the tide seal made of silver yin qi.

Slowly Haiyang willed it off is paw and into the air. It hovered a few centimeters away before growing unstable and collapsing into sparkles of silver. He gave a sad smile but quickly took a breath and started again.

Again and again, the same thing happened until the tenth time. The seal finally hovered in front of his paw in a stable fashion. He grew excited and feeling of satisfaction flowed through him. He jumped up but ended up going flying.

Coming down with ease Haiyang thought, “Righttttt….this is why I’m doing this.”

With his motivation renewed he focused back on to the seals. He let one hover in front of his paw trying to enlarge and shrink the seal. After a few tries, he got it, as it wasn’t very difficult.

The biggest he got it was the size of an adult human head while the smallest was about the size of an ant. When he finished dealing with the size adjustments the sun was about the rise.

Haiyang decided to proceed to step three. He had to apply the seal to an object. He conjured a seal on his paw and slightly slapped the ground. With four or five tries he was able to do it.

Now, something more difficult is shooting out the seal. So he summoned up a seal and shot it out. It went 30 centimeters away before breaking and scattering. Haiyang didn’t give up and continued to shoot out seal after seal of varying sizes.

Soon noon came and seals were flying out like crazy. There were seals on trees, rocks, and walls of all sizes. Haiyang was happy but not pleased. He didn’t like how it was only the technique not the power of it. None of the seals had the restricting power described in the technique.

Haiyang tried to apply aspects to the seals that would cause them to change. The technique said that the seals should be like a wall blocking, limiting, or trapping energy and strength from going through. He tried to apply these factors, but when the limiting factor was applied the seal shattered.

From noon to the sun almost set tried and tried. Finally, a limiting factor was applied without shattering. Haiyang kept shooting out true seals. Practicing on sudden changes and increasing the speed of the seals. He wanted to build a solid foundation in controlling his qi.

Seals were everywhere some small and some big but all had an aura of suppression. Haiyang had thought of the last bit of testing he had to do before he was done.

Haiyang had a plan and had the means to do it. There was a bird feeder in the tree. Once of twice a day birds of all types would come and eat from it. So he sat there waiting and waiting.

Soon birds were coming. A red one landed on the ground pecking at dirt. Haiyang raised his paw and started forming a seal. The seal reached the size of only a few centimeters wide. Then it shot out aiming right for the bird!

The seal rushed right at the bird's chest! When the seal was only a few centimeters away the bird flapped its wings and flew away.

‘FUCK YOU BIRD,” Haiyang roared in his head!

Haiyang continued to wait and continue to shoot seals at the birds. A few hours past and with every failure he made a change. Some changes worked some failed terribly.

With continuous shooting Haiyang slowly realized how to hit the birds. With a moment of enlightenment, he realized that the birds could sense the aura. When they sensed something they reacted to their instincts to a T. The aura sends a danger signal so all he had to do is restrain the aura. Slowly he started to condense the aura of the seals.

When the seals had almost zero aura emanating out he tried hitting the birds. A small seal condensed at his paw and shot out toward a bluebird. It struck right between the wings!

The bird started to struggle but couldn’t move. Its wings wouldn’t flap with enough power so it couldn’t fly away. Haiyang slowly made his way towards the bird. He examined it by sending qi throughout its body.

The seal did no harm to the bird itself. The bird’s muscles still moved but they couldn’t produce any strength. As the bird was unharmed Haiyang broke the seal. When the bird found out it could move it flew away as Haiyang watched thoughtlessly.

With the final test done and proved the seals to be safe Haiyang was determined. He was going to use the seals to lock away some of his strength.

He sat down and took some deep breaths, steadying himself. Slowly he gathered silver yin qi in the center of his chest. He shaped it into the seal marking. He suppressed it’s aura and made its limiting strength only on the muscles.

Next, he formed one on his right paw, then the left paw, the back right paw, and finally the back left paw. Without suppressing his strength he stood up with a small hop.

Haiyang smiled and walked around a few times. He couldn’t help but smile as his strength didn’t stop him or cause indents in the ground. His body was still stronger than before but only slightly. It would need some getting used too but he’ll be able to slowly unlock more and more of the strength.

Haiyang spent the last few nights awake and didn’t have an ounce of sleep. His mental fatigue finally hit him in a wave. He dragged his body to his small bed and plopped down into a nice peaceful sleep.