“By your opposite half do you mean the devil?” Arbor asked inquisitively.

“Well, by whom the devil you think of as the devil, yes. Partially. Combine your ideal of the devil and mix in the Grim Reaper with an army of underlings. That is the person whom we need your help with. He is the bane of my existence.” Solemnly, Haoshe began to tell Arbor about Veon. “You don’t need to worry about him or his underlings for now. You just need to worry about yourself and gathering your strength.”

With a slightly scared expression, Arbor challenged, “What if I don’t want to help you? I am more interested in exploring all of these realms. Granted, I am thankful for the time and effort this past decade you have all given to training me, but I have already died once. I don’t want to die a second time. Also you didn’t really answer my question, you alluded to it.”

Haoshe turned around after rolling his eyes and started to walk towards the tree with his arms behind his back. Without any change in his voice his spoke, “You will figure it out on your own as you advance in cultivation levels as to why I believe you will be able to help us in a big way. In addition, you will find out that you will naturally attract enemies from the dark side because of your nature. Whether or not you want to help us, is not up to you. You will realize what I mean as you adventure through life. If you aren’t going to appreciate all that we have done for you then you can leave. Within the next year you have to master the basics of everything your seniors have taught you, along with the art of healing that you will be learning from me.”

All of the old fogies became astonished by what Haoshe finished with. He was actually going to teach him how to heal? For millennia after millennia, not one person out of the hundreds whom have aided Haoshe has had the opportunity to learn under his tutelage. Arbor and the rest watched Haoshe disappeared back into the tree in silence.

"We have almost taught him the basics of our own paths. It's up to him to use his imagination and step foot onto his own path. The most important thing for us to teach him now is how to survive. I, no we all believe that what Master said is right, so we have to teach him life saving techniques." Thalli broke the silence with an appropriate response to the new information.

"I'll leave that up to you lot. That isn't my specialty." Vulcan made his way towards his smithy.

"You should learn along with him. That way we don't have to save your damn life every time we get in battle." Telum retorted.

“Wait, what happens after a year?” Looking at his seniors in worry, Arbor frantically began to fear for what was going to happen. Sol, Thalli, Telum, and Pona continued to ignore Arbors questions of concern about what is going to happen to him after a year.

After getting fed up with being ignored by the quarta, with his egg in hand Arbor approached Vulcan's smithy and began gathering materials while conversing with him.

“What do you think is going to happen in a year?” The new parent wondered.

“That...I am afraid..It won’t be as bad as you think. None of us would ever put your life in harm's way on purpose. You are part of the family now kid, there is nothing to be afraid of. Now, what are you thinking of forging?” Vulcan changed the subject in hopes that it would dwell Arbors worries.

After discussing with Vulcan about what a baby papoose is and the functions he wanted it to yield, the two started to get to work. A few hours and adjustments later, Arbor walked away from Vulcans residence.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

…

Two weeks later, just a few hours after the sunrise, a young boy just over the age of ten is sitting in a small clearing within an ancient forest. Patches of sunlight streams that broke through the ancient canopy have created a glowing, majestic scenery. Illuminated flowers and forest glitter floating in the air embellished the view.

Unfortunately, the overall view is ruined by the young boy whom is sitting in a full lotus position. His loose fitting clothes have become skin tight due to the amount of perspiration exuded from his body. The abundant amount of sweat that has weighed his green hair down has created a waterfall off of his chin, and landed on the egg that is cradled in his chest. Grunts and moans came from the little boys mouth as his closed eyes twitched.

Obviously, this little boy is Arbor. At this moment he is opening up his last of his twelve meridians. If he is to succeed, which is likely, he will step into the third realm of cultivation.

At this moment, Arbor’s struggling actions ceased, his legs opened up and he fell into the earth's embrace. An exhale of relief happened naturally, “This thin film must be the impurities that they all told me about. I suppose I should clean myself up before I have to do my chores.”

Yes, that is right. Arbor was given daily chores to do, the day after he met Haoshe. Quickly,

Arbor rinsed himself, the egg, and his clothes in the nearby lake that sat underneath a skinny, but tall waterfall that originated from a mountain.

A five minute brisk walk away from the lake is a cliff face that reaches past the clouds. Where the cliff and ground intersect is the entrance to a cave big enough for two people to fit in side by side. Outside of the cave is a bullock waggon designed for a human to pull, with the cargo space of about one hundred and twenty cubic feet. Ten feet past the entrance, Arbor is alternating swings with a pickaxe to eliminate imbalances in his body strength. The egg was previously moved onto his back so that is was not in the way when he has to carry the discharge from the cave wall to the waggon. An hour later Arbor had finished filling up the wagon with bed rock and began hauling the bullock waggon back to the campsite along a fresh path.

A smile gradually appeared on Arbor’s face as he trekked through the woods. Following the initiation of his of his chores, Arbor slowly began to fall in love with his new daily regiment. Each day he can feel himself growing stronger and stronger. After entering the second level of cultivation his body gained the ability to absorb the essence in the air. Thus, his strength increased day by day. Since opening his twelfth meridian, Arbor could feel that his endurance, strength, and mobility have all increased by fifty percent.

Once Arbor arrived at the smithy at Vulcans residence and began smelting the material. Once it all smelted Arbor created once of each type of basic melee weapon; sword, dagger, halberd, guando, knives, axe, etc. Just after the sun passed high noon, Arbor finished forging all of the weapons and put all of the finished weapons into his space ring for safe keeping.

Soon after, Arbor took a quick breather before moving on to his next chore of herding the hen dragons that were recently brought to the forest by Sol. Wandering randomly thought the forest are those same hen dragons, who somehow mysteriously break out of their coup and roamed throughout the forest. Although Arbor knows that it is the doings from one of Seniors, he doesn't mind. This is because he knows that the chore is great for his hand-eye coordination and footwork. An hour later all of the hen dragons were caught and returned to their coop where Arbor refilled their food. Arbor found todays rounds easier. After a quick thought, chalked it up to his recent breakthrough.

After herding the hen dragons is a quick lunch, followed by learning healing and using essence as a way to stimulate growth in the body from Haoshe. In the beginning, Arbor thoroughly enjoyed learning from Haoshe and assumed that it would continue. After a week and learning the basics, Mo's attitude as an instructor completely changed from being a loving parental figure to an evil step parent.

One day Arbor "forgot" to attend the learning session with Master Mo and was forced into a face down position in the dirt for the rest of the day as punishment, naked. Not only was Arbor not clothed, the small hens dragons were allowed to eat off of his body. Since that dreadful day, Arbor became the perfect student with mannerisms akin to those of a robot; speaking only when spoken to, taking notes, and giving his undivided attention.

His last and most favorite activity required him to do is training with any of the weapons that he has forged himself.