3 A Breadth of Time...

Unknowingly, while the scholar continued speaking, Meng Tian began to stretch his breathing. His breath seemed to create spirals within his lungs, on one side and the other. It drew in like the soft call of the ocean returning to land. His mental energy began to stir. The diagram of the human body from "The Art of Self" had finally begun to take shape within his memories. A dull, heavy, drowsiness caused Meng Tian's eyelids to sink. He had withdrawn into his mental world and, in essence, had fallen asleep.

There was an oddity in the way he slept. His eyes remained open, his body still responsive, yet his spirit slumbered. Thinking clearly was inordinately easy in this presence of mind. Meng Tian, upon closer inspection, realized this was the famed Mind and Body as one transition.

'Legend has it that a martial artist can think of 9 by 9 things in a moment, that when the state of balance is achieved, not even an ant could escape his notice from 3 Zhang away.'

The stare of balance was exactly the mind and body uniformly working together. In every persons mind, there is a bit of reservation. Meng Tian unknowingly had transcended this boundary and rapped upon the door to greater potential.

In the breadth of time it took for the Scholar to realize Meng Tian's dazed look, awareness flooded the youths body. The Scholars negative emotion drilled into his body like cold needles.

"Boy," the scholar yelled, " a child with no parents should be taught manners by his teacher and his peers. You unfortunately only have me!"

With a harrumph, the Scholar shook his sleeves. His self important visage called for more attention than the half hearted responses Meng Tian had given. The scholar almost felt as if Meng Tian had been instinctually answering him.

He was.

In a state of shock, Meng Tian forgot to bow his head to the Scholar in apology. When he did hurriedly attempt to bow, the scholar was "too infuriated to teach."

The swiftly leaving back view of the scholar had an interesting hop in his step. Meng Tian, whose mind and body had attuned himself, had begun to notice the intentions of others subconsciously through their actions.

"There is no good or bad, only one," murmured the boy as he frowned. "For someone so angry, those were happy steps."

An hour had passed since the class started. On closer inspection, Meng Tian realized the teacher simply taught him zealous fealty. He had not learned from the supposed scholar any new mathematics or culture since he had mastered the basics.

'Where is he going,' the boy asked himself.

Lithely, Meng Tian began to tail the scholar. He followed from his thatched hut to the village square, from the village square to the village entrance, and from the village entrance to a grove in the distance.

Throughout the journey, the scholars body language showed his impatience. Meng Tian's unexplained and unexplored new senses noticed the slight twitch the scholar did as he checked his surroundings. The scholar also took extensive effort to be brisk, even to the point of nearly skipping at times, as he journeyed.

"Is he meeting someone," mumbled Meng Tian as he felt he was a safe distance away. "Who?"

An incense worth of time passed as Meng Tian wait. The scholar kept the same impatient look since he came to the grove. There was greed and desire plastered on his face. Meng Tian, a young man, had yet to understand the world. Though the look of greed seemed compelling to Meng Tian, the boys mind couldn't explain why the scholar would be so desirous.

"Is it safe," a familiar voice eked from a nearby thicket.

"Yes," the scholar replied. "Come out my dearest. Let this father see your beautiful self."

A woman came into the clearing. Her body devoid of clothes. Meng Tian's eyes nearly popped from his head. 'It couldn't be,' he screamed in his mind. 'Why is the bakers wife naked before the Scholar?'

Lost in his thoughts, Meng Tian stepped backwards. He was shy over the ordeal at uncovering such a nefarious secret. When his conviction told him to leave, his body reacted and retreated.

"Who's there," came the angry shout of the scholar. From his breast he pulled a dagger. "Come out! Show yourself!!"

Meng Tian shrunk further into the shrubs. He had crept back into a small crevice that could hide his body behind leaves.

The scholar glanced over the woods a few times to pacify the bakers wife. Shortly after determining there were no intruders, the sound of intimacy was sung thoroughly.