“Nothing,” Wolf answered. He racked his brain, but nothing sparked to mind at the mention of cultivation. After Xian said nothing further, he grumbled out, “What is it?”

Xian glanced at Wolf with distaste. “It is the consolidation of mind, body, and soul, into a whole much greater than its parts.” Xian walked out into the yard, and for the first time Wolf noticed he was barefoot. “Every living thing radiates ambient qi. Cultivation is a process of gathering that qi into oneself,” continued Xian. As they walked among the others, Wolf noticed several glances in his direction. Of those, some looked with narrowed eyes and Wolf made it a point to bare his teeth.

Xian continued his diatribe, “Our bodies contain seven meridians and three chakras. Most cannot use any of the potential hidden within. Here we are teaching out students how to guide their qi. We show them how to unlock that dormant power through exercise, knowledge, and meditation, for the mind, body, and soul.”

For the first time, Wolf noticed that students locked in staff combat were striking with enough force to snap bones. Students moving through martial forms moved with inhuman, lithe grace. Students deep into their meditation were resonating palpable power. This wasn’t like the tales he read about hidden monasteries; this was certainly something much greater.

“Will I be trained to cultivate like them?” Wolf asked, still focused on the students and trying hard to keep the eagerness from his voice.

“Perhaps, but perhaps not. That much depends on you.”

Wolf felt his hackles rise in disagreement briefly, as he checked his anger.

“We do not know you. Cultivation is merely a tool, but to those that train in wielding it, a powerful tool it becomes. Many before you have petitioned, fought, paid, and proven that they deserve to be here.” Xian continued, “You... Well, you are an outlier with an obvious self-control issue. Hemi has requested that I see if you can be saved. The headmaster agrees, and so here we are.”

As they reached the other side of the yard Xian turned and Wolf followed the motion. In front of them were two rows of roughly twenty young cultivators. For the first time, Wolf felt a little nervous.

“We haven’t utilized this method of induction in a generation, but we have dusted off the cobwebs on the gauntlet... just for you,” Xian said, still looking forward.

Wolf felt a growl rising in his throat.

“In a test of mind, body, and spirit, you must walk to the end of the line. Every student will be allowed to strike at you, and you may not stop nor strike back. This is the gauntlet.” continued Xian.

This was ridiculous. Part of Wolf wanted to guffaw at this farce, but deep down he felt concerned. If not this, then where else would he go if they forced him out? “Why can’t I strike back?” Inquired Wolf.

“For one, because I said so,” Xian said without a hint of humor as he continued, “And it is a test of your spirit. Without the ability to control it, we refuse to train you.”

Wolf pondered that for a moment. He didn’t like it, but certainly it was solid logic. “Alright, I’ll do it. So, what do I do? And when?”

Xian glanced at him again with that seemingly permanent, dour expression. “Now.” Xian said with a tone indicating it couldn’t be more obvious.

Wolf stepped forward. His health had returned, and he was feeling stir-crazy from being locked away in that cramped, confining room. But Wolf was only thirteen cycles old. He didn’t have much time to study the rows, but a majority of the students before him were much older, stronger, and bigger than he.

Wolf grimaced. It would take more than intimidation to stop him. He stepped forward once more, now between the first two students. From his left came a strike landing solidly in the meat of his shoulder. The student had landed a high kick with his right leg. At that same moment, the second student opposite the first, struck Wolf’s kidney with a left-handed chop. Wolf staggered, more in surprise than pain.

Wolf knew the strikes were coming, but they somehow still felt unexpected. He was certain the students weren’t using their full power. The strikes were meant as a warning, as if to say, “Go no further.” The animalistic instincts screamed to be unchained, but Wolf’s dogged determination pushed his legs forward.

Next came a spin-kick to the back of Wolf’s legs, met in time with a punch to his arm. This wasn’t feeling all that bad. An exchange of temporary pain for a mountain of knowledge, a trade he was willing to make any day. He had now crossed the fourth set of cultivators, when his senses screamed danger.

The powerful kick was fast and landed hard on Wolf’s gut, not allowing him the chance to flinch, and sent him flying ten paces backward. He immediately twisted to his side, vomiting that morning’s porridge into the dirt. He was struggling to catch his breath as he dry-heaved on the ground.

After a few moments, Wolf finally found his breath and his vision flashed red. The anger spiked, putting him on his feet as he charged the student. Only step away, Wolf already had his fist cocked back. A twitch appeared at the corner of the student’s mouth, stopping Wolf cold in his tracks. Wolf’s human side screaming at him as he stood there breathing heavily, fist still raised high.

Xian had told Wolf that he mustn’t fight back, but this treacherous dung had baited him. A second wave of anger began flooding him, but he pushed it down with all his might. The opportunity given to him at this monastery was too important to waste on a moment of vengeance. As Wolf lowered his hand, he noticed the older boy scowled briefly. He knew this was the right decision. Xian hadn’t moved a muscle, instead just studied the situation.

Gathering all his willpower to focus on the task before him, Wolf returned to position, and took another step forward. The next strike was hard, but more comparable to the first three sets of students. He found something to focus upon, bottled it, and used it to continue on.

Reigning himself in was necessary, and Wolf reasoned that when he consumed the knowledge offered here, his revenge would be sweet. His mind busy with that thought and what lay ahead, he hadn’t noticed Xian’s look of alarm toward the dark smile Wolf now had.

Master Xian was simultaneously confused, curious, and conflicted. This boy couldn’t be older than thirteen, maybe fourteen, cycles. Yet here the boy was, walking the gauntlet, taking strikes from the bigger, stronger young men with nary a reaction.

The boy wasn’t truly meant to complete the gauntlet. It was more a test of endurance, self-control, and reaction. Doing as they were told, the students were holding back with the exception of Shen, but Master Xian could still feel the power in the strikes.

Wolf began to approach the final three sets of students. The strikes until now should have felt like a mule had just kicked, but he appeared to barely register the pain. The previous seven sets shouldn’t have the power to break bones, but the final three weren’t told to hold back and they must just break bones.

Master Xian weighed on this, he needed to decide if this gauntlet should be stopped before the boy stepped any further. Borus had been busy telling everyone about the feral boy he found in the woods, and Xian had heard the same story. Until this point, he wondered if anyone had really acknowledged what that story meant, including himself.

The Darkhold forest was a dangerous place. All of their current students were escorted by Father Borus, or someone of that same skill level, through their secret path. Anyone attempting to find the monastery without an army at their beck and call, would likely fail before half a tenday. Even the most skilled of bandits wouldn’t hold up in the forest.

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This boy had survived. Master Xian and the elders thought it was a fluke, a simple twist of fate, but now Xian wasn’t so sure. He would need to speak with the headmaster and see what that old monster was up to. Wolf’s foot landed between the eighth set of students, but before either could land a strike, Xian shook himself into the now and shouted, “Stop!”

As he finished stepping between the two older men, he felt the immense power of a blow coming toward his upper body. Wolf hadn’t heard the shout, but fortunately the students had. The power of the strike was such that even stopping a hair’s breadth short of snapping his shoulder, would leave a heavy bruise.

Wolf’s growl was audible this time, but he wondered what stopped the student. Did they think he was too weak? He wouldn’t be put out like this, he would show them after obtaining his goal, he...

A hand grasped hard on Wolf’s shoulder, interrupting those thoughts. Wolf nearly lashed out except he was able to ground himself a bit easier this time. Master Xian stood at his shoulder.

“You’ve done well, but that’s far enough.” Xian gave a stern look followed by a quick nod to the students. “Dismissed.” Xian rumbled in his firm baritone.

“Why did you stop me?” Wolf grumbled.

“You made it far enough.” Xian continued, “I can see you have strength, you have the will power, but your mind worries me.” Xian turned and motioned Wolf to follow. “I see it even now, the rage bubbling underneath your skin. Your control over it is amorphous.” They both continued walking toward a small garden at the edge of the yard.

Earlier Wolf had seen the meditation group here, but it was empty now. “Because of this, we must focus on working your mind.” Xian sat in what he called the “lotus position”, legs crossed underneath him, back straight, and wrists resting on his knees with palms upward. “Do as I do.” Xian said.

Wolf wasn’t sure how learning to sit like that would help in a fight. He wanted to inquire about this seemingly fruitless activity, and so he did just that. “What is this? This isn’t fighting. Hemi told me you would teach me how to fight.”

Xian stared at him, long enough that Wolf’s cheeks reddened. Whether it was shame or anger, not even Wolf knew, but he took his seat and got into position.

“First off, we do not teach fighting, we teach cultivation. Cultivation is to fighting, as a Dragon is to a salamander.” Xian had said the word “fighting” as if it was a putrid taste in his mouth. “Second, if you do not like the methods I use, you know where the exit to this monastery is.”

The two sat in silence intently staring at each other. Xian proved the victor again as Wolf gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

“Now close your eyes and I will talk you through your first meditation.” Wolf was hesitant but did what he was told. Xian smiled and quietly spoke something to himself and then said, “Let’s see if you have any talent for what we teach here, boy.”

……………………………..

Wolf growled in annoyance but was better at reigning it in and quickly did so before one of Master Xian’s assistants scowled him. It had been a week since Xian had shown him “meditation”. This felt like the most ridiculous training he had ever heard of, and it was getting under his skin. Wolf’s meditation was meant to allow him to feel the ocean of qi inside and connect with it.

Apparently, one had to find and begin directing the inner qi in order to open their dantian. Whether the brain, stomach, or heart, one would vastly decide his cultivation direction. He hadn’t felt an ocean, nor even a pond. At best it was a large rock.

“Shen, is it me or does he look constipated?” There was soft laughter, nothing loud enough to bring Xian’s attention this way. Wolf was grinding his teeth but didn’t care nor need to ask which student spoke, it was certainly one of Shen’s lackies.

After their meditation training last week, Wolf was told by Master Xian that he wouldn’t be participating in combat training until he learned to sense his qi. Wolf wanted to start learning combat training immediately. He wanted to fight every goddess-be-damned student who had struck him in the gauntlet.

Even more than that, Wolf wanted to beat Shen within an inch of life. Rumors made their way to him, and he heard Shen had gone off book by striking him with such force. He learned that Master Xian had scolded the rebellious Shen.

Wolf kept himself calm and ignored everything else. Those dung beetles only did this to distract him from achieving his greater goal. Wolf reached for his center, searching for his dantian, he would not be distracted.

“What’s that smell? Oh, it must be a dog... I mean wolf.” There were light chuckles followed by a roar as Wolf sprang to his feet.

“’What smells’ is gonna be your corpse you grundel’s nut!” Wolf shouted as he charged Shen, fist already swinging.

Shen was similar in size to Wolf, with straw-blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Shen was also apparently much quicker. Shen made a simple sidestep as Wolf lunged, tripping Wolf as he passed.

Wolf’s lips coated with dirt as his face impacted the ground, but he immediately rebounded to his feet with a feral growl.

“Enough!” Shouted Master Xian, coming to stand between the boys in an instant. “You, come with me.” Master Xian said, looking directly at Wolf. This was surprising as Master Xian hadn’t spoken to him all week. Wolf had no choice but to follow. Wolf glanced back over his shoulder at Shen with a menacing look in his eyes, but Shen met it with a smirk.

As Master Xian and Wolf passed through the monastery, they came to the healers’ area where Master Hemi’s duties were. It was an open space with beds lined up behind curtains, but most of the room appeared to be set for the alchemy tables and books belonging to the Gnomish healer.

As they walked into the room, a faint, pleasant odor of herbs touched Wolf’s nose. Hemi briefly looked up from his mortar and pestle, gave a nod, and continued grinding some herbs. Master Xian looked to Wolf, “You, sit here,” as he pointed at a small stool off to the side of the room. Xian made his way to Hemi’s table, and the two began quietly speaking.

Wolf looked around, taking note that he wasn’t ever brought to these beds, but instead confined away to a room of his own. Wolf tried not to feel angry about being segregated away from the moment he arrived.

Xian began exiting the room as Hemi approached Wolf. The gnome pulled up a small stool and sat across from him. “So, Wolf. Xian tells me there have been problems.”

Wolf fidgeted, but spoke earnestly, “It’s not my fault. The other boys kept provoking me because they know I will become angry.”

Hemi looked amused. “Wolf, Xian doesn’t care about your fighting with the other boys. He is after all the combat teacher, and all of you boys are still quite young.” Wolf’s face showing his surprise caused Hemi to chuckle. “No. You’re here because Xian is concerned that after an entire week, you are unable to sense your qi.”

“By this stage, you should have already sensed it. Do you think you can tell me more about what is going on?” Hemi asked.

Wolf visibly deflated. There was an itching sense of worry in the back of his mind that they were going to kick him out if he couldn’t sense his qi. A small animalistic portion of him longed for the solitude of the forest, but after all this time here he also feared being alone again.

“There is no qi of sea. I don’t feel any qi flowing in my body. The most I sense is an iron pit in my stomach. When I meditate, it seems impossible to keep my focus.” At this, Hemi nodded and replied, “Why can’t you focus?”

Wolf swallowed. “The... the anger. It’s always there raging inside like a wildfire. I... I feel like I can barely contain it.”

Hemi put his hand to his chin. “Well, this is a conundrum.” The gnome stood and walked to his bookshelf. “I truly don’t know what to tell you. The qi needs to be felt in order to guide it. In the beginning, one can only coax out the waters to gather in one’s qi of sea.”

Hemi found the book he was looking for, grabbed it and glanced briefly at it before returning it to the shelf. “Once one’s qi of sea is full of the waters, one learns how to generate waves from it.” Hemi grabbed another book and absently flipped through it.

“The waves are meant to break away the walls, or meridians, that are naturally in the body. As the meridians break, the qi of sea expands, eventually becoming an ocean of qi. Overtime, one learns to condense this. One then channels this to gain strength.”

“This is the way of cultivation. But frankly, it all depends on sensing your qi. If you do not have qi, sadly you will never cultivate.” He pushed the book back onto the shelf and turned to Wolf. “Obviously, this is all metaphorical, your qi isn’t water, and there are no actual waves.” Hemi smiled as if he had just made a clever joke, but it was completely lost on Wolf if it was a joke.

Hemi continued, “I will recommend to Xian that you be allowed to begin training with the other boys. We are concerned because we do not want any injuries.”

Wolf scoffed, “Fine, I’ll try not to injure anyone.”

Hemi shook his head. “It is not them. Instead, it is you we are worried about. With no qi like the other students to enforce your body, they will have to take it too easy on you. That isn’t good for anybody’s training.”

Hemi took a few moments to think about it, the silence heavy. “But I see no other choice. You need to work out your anger, or you will never learn meditation. The headmaster thinks it is imperative that you are given the opportunity to proceed, even if Xian and I are hesitant about it.”

The gnome's hand was oddly fast as he wrote out a note on scrap paper. “Take this to Master Xian. It is my decision that you be given permission to begin.” Wolf tried to contain himself, his excitement boiling over.

Before Hemi could even reach forward to give him the note, he snatched it from the healer's little hands and practically ran down the hall toward the training grounds. Wolf’s mind was flooded with pleasure as he sped down the hall, a nice break from the anger. It was time to show these brats who the real apex predator was. A feral grin plastered across his face.