3 Chapter 3- A Pleasant Surprise

It was a long way back to Wang Wei's house, so he started to think about what happened during his trip through the forest. "A sword fell out of the sky, and I saw the king of the forest, the Red-Eyed Lion. I even made him bow to me. No matter how I think about it, it shouldn't be possible," Wang Wei thought. "This forest is just too big. All I see are trees tall enough to make me feel like an ant. For a better view, I should climb one and see my location. Ha! No problem, I always did this for fun."

The trees were over 30 meters high, which took quite a while to climb. At the top, Wang Wei noticed that he was in the inner part of the forest- the Red-Eyed Lion's territory.

"As long as I go north, I should arrive within the next two hours. Time to come up with an excuse. If I told them the truth, they would call me a lunatic," Wang Wei muttered.

*****

"I'm back. I hope they don't yell my ear off and ground me too harshly," Wang Wei hoped.

"Wei-er! Where have you been? It is almost noon and you JUST returned? If such a thing happens again, don't blame me for not making food. Now, go! Eat and then come train," Wang Jian said angrily.

"Understood Father!"

"Hm? Stage 3 of the Mortal Realm!" Wang Jian said, clearly shocked. "Since when?!"

"This morning, I went into the forest to train. Luckily, I was able to advance," Wang Wei replied.

"Luck huh. Well, that's a skill too I guess. Good! Good!" Wang Jian laughed.

As Wang Wei walked into the house, he heard "Ahh? Finally, you have returned. Here I thought that you didn't want to try the steam buns I made," Wang Li said with puffed up cheeks.

"Little Li, you made food for me?" Wang Wei asked with a smile on his face."How could I refuse when such a cute little sister made me some steam buns? I'll eat them after my bath."

The cottage itself wasn't very big, so the bathroom couldn't have much so magnificent.

As Wang Wei soaked in the tub, he started to relax and feel refreshed. All the tiredness, stress, and thoughts evaporated. After leaving the bath, Wang Wei was in a delightful mood. He reached stage 3 today, started to grasp One with the Wind and survived an encounter with the Red-Eyed Lion, not that he'll tell anyone about it though.

He took a bite out of a steam bun. Cold. But, it tasted good, an effort was clearly put into making it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young girl hiding and looking at him. "This steam bun tastes really good but it is cold. I feel so sad that I couldn't east when it was warm. Poor me!!" Wang Wei said, a little louder than usual. He saw the girl blush and she walked away quietly.

After eating all the steam buns, Wang Wei went outside to begin his afternoon training.

"Start with the One with the Wind stance. Since you are now stage 3, it should be easier and your endurance will be much higher," Wang Jian instructed.

As soon as Wang Wei got into the stance, he immediately felt that something was different. He felt that his control over the qi in and around him improved massively. Wang Wei's fists started to hit the air and the wind started to move out of the way.

Wang Jian's eyes nearly popped out their sockets when he saw this. "Low One with the Wind?!?!" he thought. It took all his self-control to not bang with head on the ground. "What a nice surprise. You were able to reach low One with the Wind so quickly. Haha! Seems like my genes were good for something," he said as calmly as he could while controlling his breathing. Many emotions were in his gaze as he looked at his son. "I'm curious, Wei-er how did you improve so much in so little time?"

"I realized the trick to it." Wang Wei said scratching his head. "All I had to do was control my qi better."

"Control your qi better? Impossible, it requires a lot more than just control in order to perform this move," he thought but didn't probe any deeper. Wang Wei continued to train, with Wang Jian occasionally giving guidance.

The day past quickly, and soon it was night. Wang Wei was in his bedroom getting ready to start cultivating. As soon as he started to circulate his qi, he once again felt a difference. This time, much more qi was entering Wang Wei's body. "Damn! So much qi! If I can't control it, my body would overload," he said clenching his teeth. With so much qi, he was forced to circulate it faster and constantly be on high alert, however, a benefit was that his training would go much faster.

"Huh? What is this?" Wang Wei noticed that there was something inside his body. "THE RUSTY OLD SWORD?!?!" Wang Wei was shocked. "How could this be? I fused with... a sword? Is this the reason for all this qi and why my training has been faster?" he thought. "I wonder what would happen if I directed my qi into the sword." He decided to give it a try. When the qi entered the sword, it came right back out, but this time the qi that left was actually pure!

Pure qi!

What a pleasant surprise!

While there is qi in the air and surroundings, it is definitely not pure. When one takes it into their bodies, they must remove the impurities, and then the small remains would be the qi that is used. Using pure qi to train would without a doubt increase training speed, and strengthen the body even more than normal qi.

Every time qi went into the sword, pure qi came out. It was incredible! After each cycle, the sword would look a little cleaner, and above the handle, a light would slowly become bigger and stronger.

"Just what is this sword? It was damaged this badly and recovers by eating impurities. If it is restored to its former strength, how powerful would it be?" Wang Wei shuttered at the thought. "Well, right now, it is just gonna boost my strength."