This world is a miserable place
Pity the humans that live in it
Alleviate suffering from this world
It Is a long and arduous task
But only then will I be exultant
Daniel’s father, Spencer, recited the poem. Spencer was a little over six feet tall and muscular body. His sleeveless plaid shirt was only that way because he had torn off the sleeves. With them, the heat of where they lived would have made them miserable. On his head, he wore a ball cap that couldn’t contain his long hair. Spencer’s blond hair went down to his chin. A solemn look was on his face.
The poem was something that he had said many times. Those were the words he chose to live by. He also only recited it right before he was about to head out.
Daniel couldn’t understand. What suffering? He didn’t see people suffering. He didn’t see anyone in trouble. But he also lived out in the middle of nowhere. His father had built a small hovel at the base of Paragreen Mountain. The mountain was large enough that it gave shade from the sun. It also provided a small amount of water for Daniel’s family to grow their plants.
As far as Daniel could see, their small family home was the only place that had plants. The entire world around the mountain was covered in nothing but dry desert. There was nothing but sand all around. Not even eagles or snakes could be seen.
Despite that, Spencer Shaw would leave a few times a year to sell the apples that he grew on his trees to the nearest village. But what village? Daniel hadn’t seen a single other person except his father and mother for miles.
“Do you really have to go?” Daniel asked.
The two of them were sitting on their porch swing. Both of them were sweating after a long day of training. Each day they had the same routine. Morning, they would stretch and do a jog around the mountain. Then it was breakfast. Studies came after that, then picking apples, lunch, training, and finally dinner before bed.
It provided structure to Daniel. He knew what would happen each day. He knew the routine like the back of his hand.
Then there were the days that would completely mess up the routine. And that was when Spencer would go out to the nearest village. When his father was about to set out, he would have Daniel sit on the porch with him. The two of them would just sit there and talk.
Daniel loved spending time with his father, but these moments always made him sad. Why did his father have to go? Why did he have to leave him behind?
Spencer gestured to the world around. “Take a look at the world around, do you know why there’s no one around here?”
Of course Daniel knew, his father taught him this in his studies. “Because the nuclear war.”
His father had told him long ago, the world had been destroyed when mankind had unleashed balls of fire on itself. Those balls of fire consumed the world, killing off many people, wiping out the history and wonders that mankind had built. Because of this, the world was now completely cut-off, distrustful of each other.
Only a handful of people were able to gather together in villages. These villages would have less than fifty people in them. And those who had a powerful influence in the area were known as organizations. That was what his father called them at least. There were varying kinds of organizations that could have been summed up as cults, sects, and gangs. There were more words, but Daniel was still learning to pronounce them.
“Yes, nuclear war killed many people and poisoned the land. This world is filled with bad karma, thus we must use good karma to offset the imbalance.”
“By giving apples?” Daniel asked. That was what his father seemed to give to the world. He didn't know his father to do anything else there.
Spencer laughed. “It is a start. Dan-Dan, do you know how blessed we are to have this small apple orchard?”
Daniel shook his head. Although he and his father talked before he left, he hadn’t brought up their apple orchard.
“Many foods out in the world are dangerous to eat. Many people are unsure whether they will live or die from their next meal. Each day is a struggle to survive. The only ones that can live in such luxury are the three major sects and their various branches.
“Do you remember what the three major organizations are?”
Daniel remembered. “There is the Nirvana Conglomerate to the East." Daniel found the word conglomerate to be a harder one to say. He probably missed a few letters, but his father didn't say anything. "Flame Drum Cult in the West, and Scarlet Grove Sect in the North. Scarlet Grove Sect is the largest of the three.”
His father nodded. “And which territory are we in?”
“Scarlet Grove,” Daniel said. He was so proud to say that they were in the largest sect in the known world.
“And what about the South, what is there?”
“Pure Land Sect – they provide most of the food for the world.” As Spencer mentioned, Pure Land could very well consider themselves a big organization. The only things was that they tended to keep to themselves and hardly compete against others. Because of this, their reputation wasn't as good. But in terms of experts, they weren't lacking.
But the main purpose of Pure Land Sect wasn't to compete. In fact, most of their time was devoted to provided food for the world. There were still small areas like their Paragreen Mountain where food can be grown. But the Pure Land Sect was the largest known area that could provide clean food. It was their benevolence that made the world livable. But only just.
Daniel’s father held the Pure Land sect in high esteem. Every so often, his father would talk about the sect. His father, naturally had a chance to visit the place, but he said the place itself was too indescribable, that there were no words that could describe what the sect was like. Their little home in Paragreen Mountain was said to be a pale shadow compared to the Pure Land sect.
Spencer nodded at his son’s answer. “Yes, the Pure Land Sect is important,” Spencer said. “They are the heart of the world. If the Pure Land Sect falls, then this world would truly be doomed. In this world, they put out the most good karma.”
“Is karma so powerful?” Daniel asked.
“Powerful?” Spencer gave a soft chuckle. “I heard that before this world was plunged into the state it is now, it was because many people had placed a lot of bad karma into the world. The nuclear wastelands were because of the people’s evil, thus our world hoped to cleanse the world of evil. And by the mercy of the heaven and earth, a few of us survived.”
“But people are still doing evil, right?”
“Right. Son, many people still do not believe in karma, thus they will continue to do evil. Evil breeds evil in this world. Even if it doesn’t come to you, it will harm others. Isn’t this doing evil? Now look what breeding so much evil does to the world.” Spencer gestured out into the wasteland. He sighed. “Lamentable, lamentable.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Then I should do good too, to bring good karma to this world.”
“Good,” Spencer rubbed Daniel on his head again. “You’re a good boy. If there were more people like you in this world, maybe the world wouldn’t have come to such a state.”
Spencer nudged his chin forward. “Let’s get to training before I go.”
“Okay,” Daniel said.
“Qi gathering stance,” Spencer commanded.
Daniel went into the stance. In olden days, this was called Horse Stance. His father explained it that this stance would train both body and soul. It would allow a person to gather qi while also train a person to build a solid foundation.
Ever since he could remember, Daniel had been training like this. His father had been training him to master qi, an ethereal art he called it. It was because of this skill that his father hadn’t been bothered by other organizations for years. Back when he was younger, it was said that his father could handle a hundred regular people on his own.
“Roving Cloud Skill.”
“Long Fist Skill.”
“Reset.”
These were the various techniques that his father had taught him. They were the applications of qi that were in his body. They focused on his feet, his hands, and his dantian respectively.
Roving Cloud Skill was the first technique his father taught him. It was an escaping technique. It had two points. The first was the thunder step, with a strike to the ground, a person could travel much faster and with more force than an average person. The second was the cloud glide, it would reduce a person’s resistance to the air, allowing for the person to move farther than the usual person could.
Daniel had only been able to leap a mere three feet in the air and travel twenty feet in a single step. His father was even more impressive. He once saw his father leap ten feet in the air and travel fifty feet in a single bound. The sight had amazed Daniel. He couldn’t wait to reach his father’s level.
Until then, his father had him leap into the air. Just jumping up and down in the same place for so long became boring. Thus his father had him leap from left to right. His father would note the distance and the force behind his son's execution and then give pointers on where he could improve.
Long Fist Skill would allow a person to use their qi to extend the range on their attacks as well as increase the force behind it. According to his father, Daniel’s punch carried with it only a hundred-fifty psi. Daniel thought that sounded quite impressive. A hundred? He could only count to three hundred. That meant that he could punch a fraction of what he could count to. Spencer’s Long Fist skill was more impressive. Naturally, his skill made each strike a thousand psi. That was more than Daniel could count.
For his training, Daniel would punch the air in front of him. His father was there to see how far Daniel’s punches were landing. If he felt it, he would mark it in the sand with his foot. If not, he would take a step closer.
Thus far, Daniel was only able to extend the range of his fist to a foot farther than his arm. He wanted to get father than that. Each time Daniel punched, he willed it inside his mind to reach farther. He wanted his qi to extend farther.
This time, he told himself. He would be able to extend his range. This time he told himself. He would be able to reach farther. This time, he would be able to shatter his limit.
The sound of air pressure being compressed could be heard. Small explosive sounds could be heard as Daniel raced towards his goal.
All the while, Spencer stood there. He stared at his son, but nothing happened. He didn’t mark the area in the sand in front of him.
Reset was what his father called, placing qi back into one’s dantian. Much like how a stomach can expand if continually stuffed, the dantian could expand if continually expanded. Thus, during reset, Daniel would place most of his qi into his dantian, leaving only a small sliver behind to stay alive. Daniel had to sit around for half an hour to gather his qi back while doing horse stance.
If he kept going past that the thirty minute mark, his qi would become too large and his dantian would rupture. And as his father would say, he would go berserk.
They would repeat the set over and over again until it had gone dark.
But it wasn’t a normal day. They spent only half the time of their usual training time before Spencer had called it quits. “Come on, let’s head inside.”
Daniel was exhausted. During the last set, he had given everything he had. But thus far, he hadn’t seen any improvement at all. He punched his fist into the ground. A small crater formed. It wasn’t anything impressive, but it helped.
“We’re back,” Spencer called.
“Done already,” Colleen asked.
Colleen was Daniel’s mother. Unlike her husband whose face was red from being out in the sun, she had pale white skin. Her features were rather soft, but Daniel knew that didn’t mean she was. Her hair was typically worn in a braid that went over her shoulder and hung on her left side.
Spencer shrugged. “I got to head about before it gets dark.”
Colleen pouted. “Can’t you postpone your trip?”
“Not a chance.”
The two went in close for a kiss.
“Ew!” Daniel said.
The two of them rolled their eyes. They then went to the dining table. It was a thin folding table, something that Spencer’s ancestor found many years ago. Even after all this time, it was still in pristine condition. His father had taken care of it all this time. He had taken care of all the things that he had with him from their chairs to the entire orchard. How he had time for it all, Daniel had no clue.
Laid on the table was a plaid pattern table cloth. Laid in the center was a basket of apples. And right around the basket were three plates. Each one of them had some apple based dish. This one was apple stew.
Around the table were white plastic chairs. Spencer claimed that the chairs were meant to have been used for the outside when people would have a party. But Daniel didn’t see the point. It was always hot outside. Who would want to go there? And besides – what was a party?
Daniel sat on the side with the lone plastic chair.
“Is there anything that we need from the village?” Spencer asked.
“Coal,” Colleen said without hesitation.
“Okay, anything else?”
“Our ice box is starting to have some problems. Could you take a look and see if there’s a part that needs replacing.”
“Sure.” Spencer went over to the large rectangular box they had off in the corner of the house. Daniel once left it open so that it cool down the entire house. All it did was spoil the food inside and get his parents mad at him.
Spencer looked behind it. He placed his hand on the box. “Yeah, it is starting to warm up.” He looked around the room for something. “I forgot my screwdriver broke. I’ll see if I can get a new one in the village.”
"It'd be even better if we can get someone to fix it," Coleen complained.
"Not a chance, I can do this myself." Spencer took a few more minutes trying a few things to test it. Mostly he just knocked on different areas and taking a look at the inside.
He dusted off his hands, wiping the cobwebs that stayed on the back of the fridge on his pants. “If I’m there, I might as well get a new power cell for our ice box too.”
Colleen frowned. “Do we even have enough apples to pay for a power cell?”
“I have a few friends in the village, I’ll see if I can get a deal on one.” Spencer held up his fingers and began to count. “We got coal, screwdriver, power cell, and what else?”
“A new ladder,” Daniel suggested.
“A ladder?” Spencer laughed. “Why would we need a ladder?”
“So we can pick more apples.”
“Dan-Dan, we can already reach the apples with our Cloud Roving Skill. Do you really think that we need a ladder?”
“No?” Daniel said in an unsure voice.
“I think a ladder wouldn’t be such a bad thing to get,” Colleen said. The two of them looked at her. “Well, Dan-Dan can’t leap as high as you can. Maybe a ladder would help him pick the apples on the higher branches?”
Spencer rubbed his chin. “I guess it wouldn’t be so bad,” he muttered. “I’ll try asking around for one. But if they don’t have it…”
“I won’t be disappointed.”
In the past, Daniel had asked for different things. But some of the things he had asked for, his father couldn’t find. This led to Daniel being disappointed and his father having to find a way to cheer him up. Mostly, he read him stories from half burnt books.
After reading the first chapter Philosopher’s Stone five times in a row, Spencer had to remind his son that he couldn’t throw a fit if they didn’t have what he asked for. These past few trips, Daniel had all but given up on anything that he wanted. Toys? Couldn’t have that. Books? Not many of those were left in the world. His father was just lucky enough to grab the first few chapters of Philosopher‘s Stone. The rest of it had been charred to a crisp. So his father had to come up with a new ending every time he read it to Daniel.
These days, Daniel would only blurt out a few items that he thought could have been useful. But he didn’t really care whether his father got them or not. And in the long run, his father used most of the things he asked for.
But even still, his father still had him say that he wouldn’t throw a fit each trip. Although it didn’t matter to him whether his father found what he wanted or not, he wanted to be sure Daniel wouldn’t get made or sulk all day.
From there, the family just talked. There really wasn’t much that was new, but even these same old stories, it meant that there was nothing to worry about.
This was there peace.
Their Eden.
After dinner, Spencer packed up a few things for the road. He had gathered a few apples that they had picked that morning or the day before. They were carried in a large sack that his father carried on his back. He reminded Daniel of a picture his father once had. It was a large man in a red suit. He carried a large red sack on his back. But that man had been old and chubby. Spencer didn’t look like him, but Colleen used to joke with him that he did.
Spencer waved bye to his family.
Daniel smiled as his father left. He waved and blew a kiss to his father.
In a single bound, his father had already cleared fifty feet. Each step he took, small bits of sand would be blown back. They watched him leave until he was nothing more than a spot on the horizon.