44 Aimless. Living. (Part 1)

"What do you want from me?" Shura asked the elderly man.

All of this was so unrelated to him. Had his eye technique failed him? Shura didn't want to continue down that line of thought. His spur-of-the-moment action made him very regretful now.

"You are not ready to hear my answer yet. I will send for you when it is time," the elderly man said as walked toward the exit.

'If I'm not ready, why did you come here and tell me all of these things? What the hell!?' Shura thought. 'No. No. No. All of this is a waste of time, I should forget about it and go along with my own business.'

"Send him off," the elderly man said to the young woman beside them as he disappeared.

"What was that?" Shura asked the young woman. She was the start of all of this. All of this had been very odd. Weren't they the ones who made him come here?

The young woman didn't reply, she only shook her head with an apologetic expression.

A minute later Shura was now on one of the many streets of this megalopolis.

'What now?' he asked himself. He had wasted time. But what did it mean to waste time? It was to use time on something that wasn't important when that time could've been spent on something else more important. And what was that something else? Must there be that something else, that important thing to do?

What if he didn't think of it? What if it didn't exist? If that was the case, then what were people living for, what was he living for? They were living For wants, for desires. What was he living for if he wasn't living for something, for wants?

Shura wandered around on the streets of the city. He didn't know how long he had been like that, but he soon noticed something going on with his body: he felt hungry, very, very hungry. He also felt very weak, like he could collapse at any moment. He had been so out of it earlier that he hadn't noticed the sensations until it had become very bad.

A strange changed occured to Shura's body. He needed to eat food, otherwise, he would be in pain and become weak. He also needed to sleep. He had never seen, read, or heard of something like this happening to cultivators before. Cultivators would be tireless and have unlimited stamina as long as their inner energy reserve still existed. They could absorb the spiritual energy in the air and use it as sustenance instead.

Shura inspected himself for what was wrong. Then another thing came to attention. He no longer had spirit senses. He couldn't use this sixth sense to scan his body or surrounding or anything it could do.

Shura came to the conclusion right away. He was no different than a mortal in certain areas. Non-cultivator humans had an average life expectancy of one hundred years. He could probably live ten times that amount. This was simply a change of quantity and not quality, so it wasn't something too strange. He was still human, normal, or mortal in his eyes.

He needed to eat like normal people, nothing else could sustain. He also needed sleep. All of this was necessary to continue to live, to continue function and not die.

This was a necessity, a need, and not a want, not a desire.

Aside from having a body that was so extremely stronger and faster and more durable than normal people, and able to control a substance in the body known as "energy" to enhance attack or defense, and to breathe in the spirit energy in the atmosphere to cultivate and increase overall strength, Shura was currently no different than a normal person at all.

The strange transformation that had occurred within Shura had changed his physiology and even mindset.

He was only concerned about survival, the continuation of life--his life, right now.

Shura knew that he would be unable to afford anything in this large city, a city of the Godly Realms no less. His wealth was not much in the Higher Realm, it wouldn't be considered anything if viewed from the perspective of a cultivator of the Godly Realms. He immediately decided to leave the city and find some place to live outside, far away from the bustle of the city that had nothing to do with him.

The megalopolis was extremely huge. It took Shura many days to finally leave it. During the time that he was traveling he begged for alms to buy food, and for shelter, he slept on the streets.

Shura knew he had arrived at his destination when he saw beautiful hills and mountains in the distance with clear rivers and lakes and a large forest. Shura immediately continued. By the time he had arrived at the periphery of the forest, it was already dark. He found a good spot and slept.

…

Shura woke up in the morning. His stomach growled. He needed to find something to eat. He would go hunting.

Shura hunted and ate a grilled something that morning. He didn't know the name of the animal. He only knew that it had fur. The animal was large. Its meat was enough to keep Shura fed for the whole day. After the morning hunt he didn't need to worry about meat for the entire day.

With his belly filled, it was now time to turn his attention to where he would live. Shura began to search for a cave to dwell in. A cave was convenient in that he didn't need to do anything to build it at all, it was natural and already existing.

At noon Shura still did not manage to find a cave. At the evening he still couldn't find the cave. He could only give up and sleep another night out in the open.

For some reason, tonight sleep didn't come easily to Shura. He couldn't fall asleep. He watched the stars in the night sky as he waited to fall asleep.

Eventually, Shura fell asleep.

...

Shura went out to hunt again. He found an animal, killed it, and cooked the meat.

After his stomach was full he decided to work on his dwelling. He looked around, there were so many materials to construct a home out of. Since he couldn't find a cave, then he would make his own home in the wilderness.

Shura's fingers aided by his inner energy could be as sharp and precise as any tool. He began chopping down trees. This wasn't anything new to Shura, he was a professional woodchopper.

Many trees were felled and soon a large pile laid on the ground. Shura then worked on making them into smaller and more precise pieces. After that was done he began the construction. There would always be some tool or material missing, but Shura was able to think on his feet and solve the issue in the end.

At the end of the day, a modestly-sized house made out of wood appeared in the middle of the forest. This would be his dwelling from now on.

That night, Shura had a roof over his head while he slept.

...

Nothing changed significantly the day afterward. By now a pattern was established, a pattern of normalcy, a pattern of living.

Shura didn't think much of anything at all, he only acted. He did the things that he needed to do to allow him to continue to live.

He had plenty of time on his hand when all of his basic needs were met. He spent those times doing... nothing, absolutely nothing.

Time always continued. So just like that, Shura spent his time. Every passing moment was a moment lived.

At any one time if Shura wasn't doing anything his mind would wander and think about random and strange things. This was natural too. And moments like these happened a lot throughout the day.

When his mind wasn't wandering, when he had something to do, he did it. He searched for an animal to hunt. He fought the animals and killed it, then he either cooked it right away or stored it for later consumption.

Everything that was needed was done, there was no excess. There was nothing else but living.

Nothing occurred either in the environment or within himself to change this way of living so Shura continued with it. Every day seemed like it was a repeat of the previous day with some sort of small variation or slight differences. However, it was not really a repeat if one viewed the experience as only occurring in the present.

Wake up. Eat. Bathe. Do nothing. Sleep. Sometimes dream. Wake up.

This was Shura's current life right now. He was really living the life, there wasn't anything distracting him at all. There weren't any excesses either. He had enough to live, and no more than that.

Spectators of this might think living like this was ridiculous or meaningless, but to Shura this was very, very instructive and meaningful.