Xu Long stumbled out into the Endless Forest more than a little confused about Old Wu pushing him out of the entrance, but judging by the annoyance he could feel from him after he asked that question Xu Long decided it better to pretend that he hadn’t asked it at all. Especially in light of Old Wu having quite a bit of control over his quality of life for the next couple of months.
Instead of dwelling on the conundrum, Xu Long started focusing on his surroundings and he was more than a little shocked as he did. The last time he was here he was a small mortal 6 year old boy, now he was returning as a cultivator, albeit one who couldn’t see anything. Still, the picture he had of the forest from his youth was one of stillness and ancientness, now that he was here feeling the qi around him he was almost overwhelmed. It was a riotous cacophony of qi flowing every which way, all very powerful, all very chaotic. Xu Long stood still trying to come to terms with just what he was experiencing, he started with something simple, locate the static amongst the chaos.
He started by putting his hand on the tree that he knew to be behind him, as soon as he touched it he felt more calm, where before he felt like he was going to be swept away with the current, now he felt anchored, safe. The qi of the tree was unlike those of the valley, which were more uniform and stable, in comparison these ancient trees felt more alive, for as calm and tranquil as they appeared on the outside, inside they were rich and diverse with qi.
After several moments Xu Long had finally got a handle on the trees of the forest and he started noticing the ones that he wasn’t directly touching out in the chaos that was the forest. With the trees also came the roots that protruded from the ground frequently yet haphazardly, this did allow him to get a better lay of the land though as distinguishing between the roots and flow of the qi in the earth helped Xu Long immensely to recognise the ground around him, instead of feeling like he was floating in a chaotic sea of qi flows.
As he was scanning his surroundings he noticed that the anomaly that he associated with Old Wu was standing not far away, presumably watching and waiting for him to get a handle on this forest. He moved his head in that general direction.
“Sorry Old Wu, this forest is so noisy and confusing that it is taking me a second.”
Old Wu chuckled, “I am surprised that you can discern anything at all kid, there is a reason that this is one of the most dangerous forests in the realm. The incredible concentration of qi here attracts the strongest spirit beasts who wage bloody war for every single piece of the forest.”
Xu Long concentrated on the trees and Old Wu to keep his bearings in the chaos as he listened to Old Wu. “So you intend to test me further south?”
“No kid, you are not understanding, you are a fresh cultivator, barely a few months in and you have yet to learn a single art, most of this forest is an instant death sentence for you. Thus, I will be taking you all the way south, and a fair bit east as well. Nevermind that though, I will explain when we are there, shouldn’t take long.”
Xu Long felt Old Wu basically teleport directly next to him, he wasn’t actually sure if that is what he was doing or if he just moved so fast that it appeared that way to the fledgling Xu Long. He felt that familiar bear-like paw on his shoulder and then his body was wrapped in what felt like a cocoon of dense energy. It was a familiar sensation, having experienced this mode of transportation before, and yet now that he was better equipped to watch the process, he was absolutely floored. ‘This must be lightning qi, Mother said Old Wu’s nickname was Thunder God after all.’
Before he could get a better grip on what Old Wu was doing, the world around him started to shift at an incredible pace, and it didn’t stop. Xu Long felt like he was rushing up a river at incredible speed, the flows of qi were parting for their passage, but Xu Long had to concentrate immensely just to see them do so, they were moving past so quickly. This state of affairs went on for what felt like at least an hour to Xu Long, but he honestly couldn’t be sure about anything. When they finally stopped though he found that they were still in a forest, but more important to him, he could actually tell fairly easily.
His current surroundings were very reminiscent of the valley, there were still differences, obviously, but he could distinguish trees and rocks and the ground with instinctual ease once again. Xu Long was more than a little relieved, when he first exited the valley and found that the qi sight that he had labored over for more than a month was virtually useless in an environment that he had been able to navigate with ease at the tender age of 6, he was more than a little disheartened.
“Welcome to the southern reaches of the Endless Forest, kid. About half a day's walk south of here you would find yourself face to face with the wall of the Great Plateau. I have also taken us fairly east so we are now technically in the territory of the Azure Dragon Academy, however they will never know we were here and we will be heading west regardless.
“Why, you may ask, would we be moving away from your soon to be Academy? The answer is relatively simple, all new enrollments to both of the Academies are handled in the trade city of Tianyun, thus we will travel from here to Tianyun City over the next two months.
“Now a few things to note about this particular training session. Firstly, I will be ensuring that you do not have a run in with a single other cultivator during the next two months, this is a forest survival training session, not a lesson on how to deal with possibly the most dangerous aspect of the shallow reaches of the forest, your fellow cultivators. You will be learning how to deal with them extensively in the Academy, not to mention that you will actually be learning from a proper teacher in the ways of the sword.
“Secondly, I will be with you for the rest of today, but after that you will effectively be on your own. This will be your test. I want to see if you can reach Tianyun blindfolded and alone in this rather inhospitable forest. If you can’t, you will have proven to both me and yourself that this plan of yours to blindfold yourself outside of sword training is untenable and should be rethought. If you can, then you have my blessing to walk down this ridiculous path you have chosen.”
Xu Long was looking in Old Wu’s direction, now that he was able to spot him in this new environment with relative ease, listening intently to the old man’s spiel. When he heard Old Wu’s ultimatum he smiled at him. “Alright old man, where do we begin?”
Old Wu chuckled at Xu Long’s predictable confidence. “First we make sure that you can tell your cardinal directions with your blindfold on, so tell me kid how were you traversing the valley?”
Xu Long had to have a quick think. “Mostly landmarks, the river and the streams, the canyon walls, certain rocks and trees. But the only thing I can think of that is applicable to here is feeling the direction of the sun.”
“Well at least you know that much. Tell me kid, can you feel the moss growing on the trees and rocks?”
Xu Long had to concentrate, he first focused on the trees around him but he was having trouble distinguishing moss from tree, he needed an example. “Can you show me a rock with moss?”
Old Wu disappeared and then reappeared to Xu Long’s left where he heard the old man’s voice from a second after he disappeared. “Over here kid.”
Ignoring Old Wu’s antics, Xu Long concentrated on the large rock by Old Wu. Seeing the distinction between rock and moss turned out to be incredibly easy, once he had a reference he began to search for similar patterns on the trees around him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
It took Xu Long a few minutes before he started spotting moss growing on the trees around him, and a few more until his every guess to Old Wu was correct.
“Good, now something that you need to know about moss is that it prefers darker, more humid environments to grow in, so you will find, on average, that it grows on the north side of trees and rocks alike. Similarly trees will often have more branches facing south, though I am unsure if your qi sight is that granular as of yet.”
Old Wu had to ponder about any other methods that Xu Long could utilize blindfolded, in the end he just shook his head. “Eh, I can’t really think of anything else that you could utilize with your current limitations, I suppose if all else fails you could utilize the function your mother built into your blindfold and read the stars…she did at least teach you how to tell directions from the stars, didn’t she?”
Xu Long smiled and nodded his head.
“Alright, you should be fine with those three, you just need to head west anyway, I don’t foresee you getting lost, but I guess we will see, well I will see anyway.” Old Wu started chuckling at his own joke.
“Now our next topic to go over will depend on your decision with regards to my next question. You know, of course, from your lessons that cultivators eventually get to the point that they don’t require food for sustenance and largely only eat for pleasure, yes?” After getting a nod from Xu Long he continued. “Well for the more dedicated this state of being can be achieved by the Core Formation Realm, however, when I say ‘dedicated’ that naturally means that it does involve some sacrifice. The particular sacrifice in this case being that the cultivator forgoes food altogether relatively early on in their cultivation journey and merely sustains their body via supplements and qi, this has the effect of forcing the body to adapt to sustaining itself on qi at a much faster rate.
“Naturally this path has its drawbacks. First, gnawing hunger for at least the first couple of weeks, possibly a month. Second, and probably where most who attempt fail, you cannot eat at all until you are well into Core Formation and have solidified your bodies adaptation. If you do, you will basically have rendered all your previous efforts null and void, and will more likely than not, depending on how quickly you folded, just achieve that state when everybody else who didn’t bother going down this somewhat extreme path does.
“Now that we have gotten the hardships out of the way, on to the benefits. Firstly there is of course the most obvious one, you don’t have to worry about procuring food or going hungry, provided you have a stash of supplements on you at all times, say, in a rather fancy bracelet. Secondly and more importantly, it can have a somewhat negligible effect, though an effect nonetheless, on your cultivation foundations. You remember, I am sure, the impurities that were flushed from your body during your first breakthrough.”
Old Wu watched Xu Long’s face as he was prompted to recall that particular memory, with a slight smile before he continued. “The idea behind this ‘abstaining from food’ course of action is to minimize adding any additional impurities while you are in the process of systematically flushing them from your body. Food intake being one of the largest contributors and realistically the only one that we have any reasonable control over.
“Having said all of that, I imagine the question I have for you is glaringly obvious.”
Xu Long just looked in Old Wu’s direction, a deadpan expression on his face. “Did you honestly imagine me ever saying no?”
Old Wu had a chuckle. “Obviously I didn’t. But I have to ask nonetheless. Why don’t you empty the nodes with Xiao Xing’s food for me.”
Nodding his head, Xu Long held his hand out, palm facing down as he materialized a barrel and crate, which Old Wu promptly materialized another crate of 16 bottles on top of, however these pills were a distinct dark green as opposed to Xu Xing’s faint purple. Xu Long then took one of the bottles out of the crate and stored the barrel and now two crates back in the same node in his bracelet. Before he put his new supplements away with Xu Xing’s food he quickly unsheathed his sword and left a mark on the lid of his pill bottle.
“Congratulations, your journey through the forest has just become both easier and more difficult. Easier because you no longer have to learn how to properly butcher a spirit beast carcass and then cook it while blindfolded, which by the way would have been your punishment had you taken the easy road. More difficult because you will now be completing the first leg of your journey with an aching hunger that you cannot satiate.
“Still keen, kid?”
Xu Long did not even bother to dignify that with an answer and just continued to look in Old Wu’s general direction, a move that made Old Wu chuckle.
“You have certainly got that stubborn determination down, I’ll give you that kid. Moving on then, sleep. Unfortunately sleep is not as easy to forgo as food, sure the required sleep that you need to stay a functional human being drops with every step you take along your path, but it will ultimately still be with you for quite a while along your journey. There are however, slight workarounds to the issue of finding yourself out in a forest at night without a bed in sight. First we find a good tree.”
Old Wu walked over to a little clearing surrounded by a few trees before turning back to the following Xu Long. “So kid, what can you ‘see’ about the branches on each of these trees?”
Xu Long started focusing harder on the trees in his vicinity, they were all very tall, taller than most of the trees in the valley, not as tall as those ancient trees further into the Endless Forest. After gaining as reasonable a handle on them as he thought he was going to get he started describing each of them to Old Wu.
“This one is either hollow or dying and it’s branches feel sickly, this one I can’t gleam anything from, it seems entirely average, this last one feels the strongest, the abundant wood qi and the life I can feel from its branches is higher than I can feel from any of the surrounding trees.”
Old Wu, a little surprised, replied. “Not bad kid, you can see more than I gave you credit for. Pick a branch of the sturdy tree and sit on it with your back to the trunk. I suggest you get in the habit of picking branches higher to the top, mainly because your little fox will want to see the stars but it also hides you better from predators roaming the night. You still want to be within the foliage though, there aren’t any particularly dangerous flying spirit beasts this far into the forest, but that is certainly a different story further in.”
Xu Long didn’t need long, he had already started scanning the tree for a good spot while Old Wu was talking, this next part was going to be new though. He had not actually climbed a tree outright while blindfolded before, jumping around on the low branches while chasing a wily spirit fox, sure, but not a straight vertical climb where he couldn’t make out all the hand holds. As he was thinking about the logistics of the climb, something unexpected happened, Xu Xing jumped out of her favorite spot and started ascending the tree, when she got to the first branch that Xu Long could still reach with a jump she turned around and gave him a yip.
He had to smile, well that certainly would be easier. “Are you going to be my eyes Xiao Xing?”
Getting an affirmative yip in return he laughed and jumped for the branch she had stopped on, grabbing it and then pulling himself up to stand on it with ease. Before he could tell her that he was ready, Xu Xing had set off again to the next branch. They continued in this fashion until Xu Long made it to within jumping distance of the branch he was aiming for.
“That’s the one Xiao Xing.”
She yipped and was standing on the branch he was pointing at before he was even ready to make the jump, no doubt a triumphant look on her face. After Xu Long had pulled himself up and then taken a seat with his back to the trunk he felt Old Wu appear on a tiny branch next to him that in no way should be able to support his weight.
Old Wu looked down to the ground. “Alright this should be good.” He then blew some powder into Xu Long’s face, leaving him coughing and spluttering.
“You have just been poisoned with a rather mild sleep inducing poison, your task will be to meditate and allow yourself to fall into a light sleep during said meditation all while you ensure that you are seated and stationary during either. The consequences of not remaining stationary should be fairly obvious.” He added whilst looking down at the ground.
“If you get a decent sleep at some point over the course of the remainder of the day and night the poison will be out of your system by the time the sun rises tomorrow. When you wake tomorrow I won’t be here anymore and your test will have begun, remember, you just need to head west. Good luck kid.”
Xu Long sat on the branch, more than a little stunned at the sudden turn of events and feeling quite drowsy already. “What the fuck…”