CHAPTER 132: REJUVANATED

Wang Zen went through the form for the 12th time. His body was shining with sweat. It had been 2 months since Chu Jiahai left and his training was all he had left. The death of one friend broke him, the departure of another re-forged him. All he did was train everyday till exhaustion while juggling his studies. Though, his inner peace was still in tatters, making meditation cultivation useless to him.

“You want enternal, unwavering inner peace?” Daomeng said, sounding like he was holding back a laugh when Wang Zen aksed him about inner peace. “Then shave your head, join a monestry and be a monk. No? Not willing to? Then accept that as long as you live in this world, there’ll probably be no such thing for you because, like all of us, you interact with the world around. You grow attached, you love, you lose, you hope, you hate… you live and with each event you put your inner peace at stake. Attaining inner peace is not a once off thing, Young Master Wang, it is an evolving process that will take a lifetime.”

As Zen sparred with his cousin Jao Cong, he thought of this moment and accepted that right now, he did not have inner peace but perhaps, in time, he hoped he would regain it. He blocked Cong’s punch by grbbing his wrist. He was forced to abandon this action when he blocked Cong’s retaliatory fist. He blocked a few more quick jabs from shorter boy and retailiated with a round kick that Cong blocked. The kick sent his cousin stumbling and blocked two more of Zen’s attacks.

Cong rushed in and kicked out. Zen blocked and shifted to the opening Cong’s attack left and thrust out a fist that stopped inches from his cousin’s cheek.

Cong sighed and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.

“You’re getting better, coz.” Zen said.

“How can you tell when I never beat you?”

“That’s because I’m also getting better.”

“That does not sound fair!” Cong complained. “How am I suppose to catch up to you if you are getting better while I’m getting better.”

“Easy, get better than my better.” Zen smirked.

“That makes no sense,” Cong said, folding his legs so that he was in a lotus position. “The training session went a little longer than I expected tonight. I’ll need to catch up on my cultivation.”

“Okay,” Zen said, as Shibi climbed onto his shouler. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

“Zen,” Cong tilted his head, “other than that one time, I have never really seen you meditate.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you?” Cong uneasily asked. “You know ki forms the main basis of power.”

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“True,” Zen said in thought as he rubbed Shibi’s head. “I guess you are technically stronger than me, since you have more and greater quality ki.”

“I guess but you need to build up your ki too and I see Cracked Earth isn’t working out for you.”

“You’ve seen me do Cracked Earth?”

“I’ve seen how not to do Cracked Earth from you.” Cong said. “Shibi does it better than you.”

“Is that so,” Zen smirked while rubbing Shibi’s head. “Is that why your as powerful as me?”

“Actually, I think Shibi is stronger than you.”

“O…kay. You know, usually, the insults between us flows in the reverse order.”

“I am not trying to insult you,” Cong waved his hands. “Its just something I noticed. I remember a while ago I stumbled across a meditation technique. I think you should try it.” He got up and ran to his house.

“It’s not just Cracked Earth!” Zen shouted after him. “It’s every meditation technique!” He was about to explain the philosophy of inner peace when his cousin came running out.

“It should be okay,” Cong said. “This cultivation technique is more mechanical than meditation, its called the Half Step to Fullness.”

“Half Step to Fullness? Sounds dumb.” Zen accepted the old rolled up scroll from his cousin. Unfurling it, he read the text and the accompanying pictures. “Seems to have more movement than normal. Is this what you use?”

“No, I use the cultivation technique granpa gave my sister and I.”

Zen peeked over the parchment at his cousin, “Granpa also gave you guys Cracked Earth?”

“No, he gave us a much better cultivation technique.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Zen sighed before he returned to the parchment. “Thank you cousin. I’ll try it.”

He did try Half Step to Fullness the next night. He placed the parchment down and stood to his full height.

“Alright, let’s do this.” He said, unenthusiastically. He began to run through the first few forms he had memorised. His eyes widened as he felt the energy flow into him. He gazed at his hands.

“It… It seems to be better than Cracked Earth.” Zen smirked. “Maybe my luck has finally turned.”

Zen continued with the forms, learning them all. The longer he cycled through the forms, the more ki he was able to refine. In one hour, he had cultivated more ki than he had in the last month. The forms were also exhausting but his stamina held out and even though every muscle ached for him to stop, he pushed on.

By the time the sun rose, the amount of ki he could cultivate had lessened but it did not matter for he could not move anymore. He laid flat on the ground looking at the sky which was getting brighter. During the course of his training he had stripped down to his underwear to relieve the heat his body were generating. He could hear some of the early female wakers, gasping and giggling at his state of undress but he was too tired and too happy to care.

After a few hours, Shibi was able to cajoul him back to his feet where he got dressed and made his way to Jao’s to thank him for the technique. He knocked on the door and was surprised to see the person opening it. It was Jao Fuu, with Jao Cng stading behind her nerviously.

“Jao Fuu? Nice to see you.” Zen said. “Yo, Cong’er, that technique you gave me, its amazing!”

“Wang Zen… are… are you okay?” Jao Fuu said.

“Yeah,” Zen smirked. “I just had a great cultivation session!”

“That’s good,” she nodded and smiled at her cousin. “You keep yourself occupied with training.”

Zen frowned, “What are you talking about?”

“You mean… you don’t know, don’t you.” Fuu said in sadness

“Know what?” he said.

The twins exchanged a look before looking sadly at him.

“Tell me!” he snapped.

“It’s… It’s your father, Wang Zen.” Jao Fuu said. “He… Well… Uncle Wang was attacked and is currently badly hurt.”