this chapter is a bit more graphic than the previous ones, hope you don't mind. i will probably edit this chapter later on and expand on it later, but for now this will be the final version ^^
(unless i made some humongous ungodly mistake or smth)
tell me if i did!
CHAPTER 5 --- TO KILL, OR NOT TO KILL?
At the end of the 2 weeks the elder stood in front of Ren’s house again. By now Ren’s wounds had healed. What he didn’t know was that his wounds healed incredibly fast because the Qi in his body worked to heal him. To him, healing that fast seemed normal. He had never been hurt that bad in his life, never even broken anything, so he cluelessly thought it was just natural!
The elder once more dragged an unwilling Ren to the arena. When Ren arrived in the field, his opponent was once more a child. He immediately got ready, not wanting to be caught by surprise like last time. But this time the kid seemed a lot weaker somehow.
He easily parried a few blows with his sword, and although he wielded the sword a bit awkwardly, he could now use it for more than just randomly slashing at the kid. He learned quickly, afraid to accidentally kill again.
As the fight continued, Ren quickly disarmed his opponent. This time he was a lot more careful though, and immediately went to pick up the kid’s weapon. Ignoring the crowd’s encouragement to kill, he moved for his entrance, and just waited.
After about 10 minutes, the elder angrily arrived and dragged him in. He did not waste any words and just threw Ren in a room. This roo had nothing but a bed in it, not even a toilet. Ren just shrugged, happy he hadn’t had to kill his opponent this time. After cultivating for a while, he was happy to notice that he was about to reach the next stage. Qi could freely flow through his body, and although there was still a little delay, he could feel he would soon be able to control it with a thought! Ren happily went to sleep after knowing this.
But the next morning, any happy thought was gone. When he woke up, there was a box next to him. Opening it, he found 2 hands! He immediately turned around, the contents of his stomach quickly leaving him as he vomited all over the floor.
“W…wh…WHAT THE FUCK!!!!”
He yelled, and started knocking on his door as hard as he could.
“Let me out!! HEY!! LET ME OUT!!!! PLEASE!!!”
After hours of yelling, his throat finally gave out. He pushed the box in a corner, and sat on his bed while crying. This was just too much, why would they do this? Whose hands were that?
A sense of dread spread over him as the image of yesterday’s opponent involuntarily flashed across his mind.
“N..no way… right?!”
He thought, unwilling to believe it.
For the rest of the day, he didn’t even manage to cultivate. He was thrown into complete chaos and tears flooded his face in his panic. He cried until he fell asleep, starting to lose all hope.
The next day, he woke up with a new box next two him, this time two feet. As his stomach tried to pour out its contents again, it failed and all that came out was air. But this was even more painful, although he did not care at the moment. He once more pushed the box in the corner, and started crying to be let out, begging for them to stop.
But no one answered him, leaving him broken and alone, crying on the floor. This day he crumbled completely, guilt and anger overwhelming him. He felt like this was all his fault, but didn’t understand why someone would do this, how they COULD do this.
This lack of understanding left him in complete and utter despair. He had tried hard to stay himself despite everything, to not let anything change him, even thinking it was all a dream or something, but this finally cracked something in him.
Something inside him had slowly started to break.
That day, he didn’t even manage to get back to his bed, and slept against the door, which was covered in blood from him knocking, scratching, and running into it.
The next day he woke up in his bed, with another box next to him. He could guess what was in it, but his guilt still forced him to open it. Inside were 2 arms, with no hands on them. Seeing this, he started gagging, but didn’t vomit, his tears once more flowed in his eyes, but he didn’t yell or cry out. He simply pushed the box in the same corner as the others, walked up the door, and started knocking on it.
But this time he didn’t desperately knock and cry, no, he just calmly knocked in the same rhythm.
*BANG…….BANG…….BANG…….BANG……BANG…..*
His mind was completely blank, and tears just flowed out of his eyes as he continuously hit the door.
*BANG…….BANG…….BANG…….BANG……BANG…..*
Blood started flowing out of his hands, but he just continued hitting.
*BANG…….BANG…….BANG…….BANG……BANG…..*
His awareness started to grow faint, but he just continued.
*BANG…….BANG…….BANG…….BANG……BANG…..*
He didn’t know why he did this, nor could he explain it, but the rhythm calmed him down. The pain he felt, the despair he suffered, all of it was drowned out by the rhythm.
*BANG…….BANG…….BANG…….BANG……BANG…..*
He continued hitting, until finally, he fainted. His fists so damaged that the bones could be seen. He had continued for hours on end, scaring the guards in that place. They knew it was him knocking on the door, but for someone to knock so hard, so calm, so long, was somehow incredibly scary! When it finally stopped, the guards let out sighs of relief, without them knowing it, they had been incredibly tense, their backs filled with cold sweat.
When he woke up the next day he was somehow calm. His mind had been completely blank while he knocked on the door, but strangely, it had helped him put all his thoughts in order. It had helped him leave behind the despair, the guilt, the dread! The only thing that remained inside of him was apathy, and another feeling he had never had before: killing intent!
Looking next to him was another box, containing to legs. After opening it, no tears came to him, nor did he have the urge to vomit, he didn’t eve feel disgusted! He just simply closed the box without minding his hurt hands, and then pushed it into the corner with the rest. A barely audible ‘sorry’ could be heard in the room.
Then he sat down cross-legged on the bed, and ignoring the pain of his bloody hands, he did something he hadn’t done for days: cultivating! He noticed that he had unknowingly completed the Qi-manipulation stage, so he quickly thought about what was written in the Qi-manifestation stage.
“Slowly start moving all the Qi from your core into your body. By now your body should be able to handle the strain. Once all the Qi is out of your core, the aura should become translucent and you will be able to see your core. Once you see your core it will have the color of your element/elements if you are lucky enough to have one.”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
As he cultivated, his mind was not completely focused, but he kept at it. He needed to become stronger if he wanted to get out of here. Then he could start thinking of revenge! By now he had noticed his body toughening up after the Qi-manipulation stage. The essence he absorbed constantly refined his body. His body had by now already adapted to constantly absorb it, only speeding up when he focused on it.
As he cultivated, his whole body started to hurt. Especially his hands, which were slowly being restored by the Qi without him knowing it. This was because this time, his whole body was being filled at once. The previous pulses he sent through it were just to ‘stretch’ his body, so to speak. Like blowing a bit of air into a balloon, then deflating it.
The next time you blow air in it, it will be a lot easier. What he was doing now, was like blowing a balloon until it almost popped. He needed to fill his whole body with Qi, and empty his core completely. This was bound to hurt, but would also improve his body a lot!
As he kept pouring Qi from his core into his body, the pain intensified, but he just continued, ignoring the pain. By now he was so used to it that he could just shrug it off. After suffering for almost a whole day, he finally succumbed to the pain, fainting in his bed.
This time he did not wake up next to a box, but was pulled out of his bed violently! Falling to the ground, he quickly tried to get up. Once he was standing, he saw the elder, and a servant. But more importantly was what the servant was carrying. It was his previous opponent from the arena! He was actually still alive!
“Now,” the elder said with a smile, throwing a short sword to the ground “you see what happens when you don’t listen to me? Now you’re going to kill this kid, and if you don’t kill your opponent next time, the same will happen!”
Ren just stared at him with dead, emotionless eyes. He picked up the sword, still starting at the elder. Seeing this caused shivers to run down the elder’s back! He had always ejoyed making others suffer this way, seeing them crying and begging, or even going completely crazy! He derived a perverse satisfaction from doing so, but this time, he couldn’t help but feel regret.
The kid was just plain scary! He actually couldn’t feel any presence or emotional fluctuations from him! It was like the kid wasn’t really standing in front of him. But what scared him most of all was his eyes, his rainbow eyes that had been so soothing before now almost seemed like they would pull him in and swallow him, leaving nothing behind.
Ren silently walked up to the kid, looking in his eyes. He could see the kid’s hopelessness, his pain and suffering, and his will to die carved in them. Without hesitating he slashed with his sword, cutting the kid’s throat.
Then, before anyone could react, he turned around and stabbed at the elder! But before he could even reach the elder, the elder had disappeared. He reappeared next to Ren and knocked him out with a knife-hand to the back of the neck.
Ren could faintly hear the elder’s mocking laughter as he started to black out.
When he woke back up, he was back in his house in the academy. He got up and looked around, but there was no one with him, and the only thing there was foo and water. After not having anything to eat or drink for 4 days, Ren quickly ate his fill. Without realizing it, he had lived for 5 days without food or drink.
This was because he was a cultivator. By unconsciously using a part of the essence he naturally absorbed, he could sustain his body for a short period of time. Of course, there was still a limit to this and he still needed to eat and drink, but he could go without drink for about a week, and without food for about 2.
After he ate, he immediately washed himself. His whole body was covered in blood and puke, and his shoulders, arms and hands were covered in wounds from hitting the door. He smelled horribly! As he finished washing up, he sat down on his bed, thinking about what had happened. As he sat there, one lone tear slowly dripped down his face.
From then on, he no longer spared his opponents in his fights. He had to fight once every 2 weeks, and went to classes once every 3-4 days. The rest of the time he spent in his room, silently cultivating. The elder hadn’t visited him again after last time, and didn’t even come to his matches anymore.
After 2 months passed his cultivation went up a stage again, advancing to the elemental integration stage. As he arrived here, he was incomparably shocked! His core was made up of lots of diferent colors, reminding him of his eyes! This firt made him happy, but then incomparably gloomyas soon as he completely read through the next stage of cultivation!
“If you do not have an element, skip this stage! If you do have one, then slowly attune all the Qi in your body with the element. This can be done by sending the Qi through your elemental seed. The elemental seed cannot be seen, it can only be felt. Each element has its own color:
Fire is red Water is blue Wind is green Earth is brown
Lightning is yellow Ice is purple Sound is cyan Metal is grey
Light is white Darkness is black Space is silver Spirit is gold
You will be able to see this color in your core. Once you see it, try to feel for its origin. This is the seed! After this you simply have to pour your Qi into it. If you have more than one element, you will have to pour your Qi into each element one at a time. Each new element added will take twice the amount of Qi, but will make your Qi 2 times as pure. If, by some miracle, you have more than 2 elements, pour your Qi into the elements in the order marked above. Once you have poured all the Qi in your body into your element(s), you will have passed to the next stage.”
Under each element’s explanation was a small image of a corresponding core.
As Ren was done cursing, he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry! His Qi was potentially incredibly powerful, but the time he would spend attuning it… this would be the longest time he spent on on any stage until now! He quickly started looking for the origin of his fire element, following the heat he could feel from the red color with his mind. In doing so he found 1 miniscule point in that color that was a bright glowing red. He sent his Qi into it and then started attuning his QI.