Chapter 25 - Epiphany in the Woods

Elijah left the private training yard. Ancestral techniques are something secret and private between master and student. As it is said, the Dao cannot be imparted easily. Although Elijah knew that Maikal was willing to let him see this Martial Art, he wanted it to remain a secret between Maikal and Nerun.

Maikal stood in the centre of the courtyard and assumed a horse stance. "Watch carefully. I will show you these first moves once. Then you will slowly follow me."

Nerun was fascinated by the movements. Maikal began to move his arms slowly from side to side, in a continuous flow without pause. His feet also followed a slow, rhythmic movement, almost like a dance. For a moment Nerun thought he saw a current of water in Maikal, sometimes gentle and calm, ready to accept everything, sometimes violent and terrible as if it were an overflowing river.

Maikal finished the steps, and then asked Nerun, "What did you think?

Nerun replied, "I think it's fantastic for a dance in the streets. We could get a coin or two, it is quite pretty".

"Smartass," replied Maikal. "This martial art, while it was well known in my family, no one has been able to use it successfully for many generations. While they may know the movements, they could not adapt them to their way of being, nor to their Warrior's route, or Tao. For this reason, while this Martial Art could help them all the way to being a Qi Monarch, once they were emperors, the Martial Art actually conflicted with their Tao. I went through the same thing. This Martial Art lends itself poorly to the violent temperament of most warriors, as well as their desire for their will to prevail in the natural world".

In the way of the Warrior and the Adept, there was a fundamental difference. The Warrior imposes his Will upon the world. The Adept influences the Will of the world and adapts it to his own. While the end is the same, the method is completely different. The Free Flowing Fist, on the other hand, seems to want to adapt to the natural world, similar to what the Adepts do, but uses Qi to do so, which seems to be a major contradiction.

Maikal's family could never understand, nor develop this Martial Art, which is why they made variants and developed new Martial Techniques for the Family. It was always a source of shame for them that they could not make use of their Family's Ancestral Martial Art.

When Nerun began to follow Maikal's movements, he felt nothing. What's more, he didn't really understand what the movements were for. He did feel his muscles and joints relax little by little, but he did not understand the meaning behind the movements. When Nerun tried to make his Qi keep pace with the movements, he began to feel a small circulation of Qi inside him and how the natural energy of heaven and earth was attracted to him. Nerun felt blissful as his Qi began to build up, however, it did not take long for it to stop. The Qi that was being absorbed seemed to encounter some sort of barrier that hindered its circulation.

Nerun frowned. Maikal couldn't help but say, "Don't try to circulate the Qi. If the movements you make are not perfect, the circulation of Qi will be markedly impaired. First, learn the forms until it is engraved in your body's memory. This martial art has several forms. The shortest and its First Form has 24 movements, and that is the one you are going to learn these days. If you manage to learn the First Form and do it without mistakes in a month, I promise you will be rewarded".

Nerun was excited to hear Maikal's words, so without further ado, he began to practice the First Form slowly and steadily, without circulating the Qi. The movements seemed easy to imitate and follow, but Nerun noticed as he repeated them that the forms seemed to have a clear meaning and direction, but this was easily lost if Nerun did not follow the steps precisely. Having previous experience with Qi Revolution, Nerun opted to arm himself with patience and repeat the steps over and over without tiring.

As the days passed, Nerun after the morning exercises, escaped to the Woods to practice the First Form of the Free Flowing Fist. Although Nerun managed to learn the sequence of the 24 movements in only 5 days, he still felt that something was not right, and he could not link his Qi with the First Form. On the twentieth day of practising, Whitey appeared at the edge of the Forest, close to where Nerun was. Whitey was excited to see Nerun and Nerun, who was feeling a bit stressed and bored of repeating the movements without getting any improvement, decided to rest that day and go and play with Whitey inside the Woods.

Whitey took Nerun on a new trail they had not been on before, and they continued to explore the Woods happily, picking wild fruits to eat. When they had gone a couple of kilometres into the forest, they suddenly heard a tremor in the distance. Whitey began to tremble greatly, his hair standing on end. Nerun didn't know what was going on and tried to calm Whitey down.

Suddenly the sky, which had been clear and cloudless, without warning filled with heavy, dark, greyish clouds, with lots of thunder and lightning inside. A bolt of lightning seemed to pierce the sky at that instant and appeared to be heading for the top of a mountain. Nerun and Whitey were miles away, but they could see the scene clearly even in the distance.

Nerun would swear that in the lightning bolt that crossed the sky, there was a figure within it in the form of a draconic serpent, fiercely attacking a large figure on top of the mountain. Considering that the mountain was several miles away and that the figure was seen to occupy the entire peak, it was easy to imagine the size of the Magical Beast. The whole Forest seemed to be reverberating due to the fight between these two Beast Lords. Whitey especially did not raise his head, his instinct prevented him from looking at the kings of the Magical Beasts, however, Nerun only had an immense curiosity in his eyes.

"Don't be afraid Whitey. If you are afraid before you even face your opponent, then how can you keep getting stronger to become a Beast Lord someday," Nerun encouraged Whitey.

For a Magical Beast to rise through the ranks to become a Beast Lord was incredibly difficult, possibly more difficult than for a human to become a level 90 Legend or Arch Sage. This required not only an increase in the age of the Magical Beast, but also its genetic potential, its ancestry, the Spiritual Treasures it could consume, and of course the fighting, winning and devouring of other beasts, warriors and adepts that would allow it to perfect its evolution. In theory, any Magical Beast has the potential to become a Beast Lord, but few have truly succeeded.

Nerun's words somehow gave Whitey courage. Even though he was trembling, he raised his head with some difficulty and dared to look at the two Beast Lords in the distance. The first step of rebellion against your own limits is perhaps to dare to look beyond them.

Nerun was proud to see Whitey raise his head. Nerun himself wanted to observe the battle more clearly. Thunder and small earthquakes could be felt throughout the Rando Woods. Nerun guessed that they were fighting for some Spiritual Treasure or some Magical Plant that appeared in the centre of the forest. Nerun wasted no time and climbed the tallest tree he could find nearby. He mounted the highest branch and activating his meridian eyes he observed into the distance.

Although Nerun could not see with absolute clarity what was happening, he did manage to visualise the shadow of two figures fighting fiercely. One of them was a large snake, at least 500 metres long and several metres wide, with a small horn on its forehead. It had no claws or wings, so it was not yet a dragon, but it was certainly an imposing beast. It was the Great Cloud Serpent, one of the tyrants of the Rando Forest. The other Beast, was also large, ape-like in appearance, at least 100 metres tall, with large and powerful arms, pillar-like legs and a torso of enormous size. It was copper-coloured and had a ferocious face with large, sharp fangs. It was the Sabretooth Gorilla. Both were Rank 9 Beasts and the de facto Lords of the Rando Woods.

The Beasts were fighting with immense ferocity. The ape was attacking with his arms violently and with great momentum, as if his palms were two giant hammers, capable of sweeping down any mountain. The Snake for its part seemed to adapt to the Gorilla's movements and circled around it while lashing out with its tail like a whip. When the Gorilla showed any apparent weakness, it would launch electric shocks from its jaws, and attempt to bite it.

The mountain on which they were fighting seemed to be on the point of collapse, as it could not longer contain the power of the two great Beasts.

Nerun's eyes were fixed on the movements of the two Beast Lords. One of them was attacking and fighting forcibly, while the other was trying to adapt to these movements and counterattack, taking advantage of every weak point to weaken his enemy.

At that moment, Nerun had an epiphany. He understood why he could not achieve even a modicum of success with the First Form of the Free Flowing Fist. The reason was clear, it was because Nerun was only imitating the movements. But they had no life, no intent, no purpose. Nerun began to stare at the movements of the Great Cloud Serpent and began to slowly practice the 24 movements of the First Form. Slowly his speed increased and his hand movements began to instinctively synchronise with the Snake's attacks. His steps became rapid as he moved through the branches of the trees as if he were one with nature. He was visualizing his enemy, and moving according to his imaginary enemy strikes and responding accordingly with the movements of the First Form. He was Shadow Boxing.

In fact, Nerun, without realising it, at that moment became One with the World. He closed his eyes and began to move with great agility and speed, repeating the 24 movements over and over again. His Qi began to move in his body, and the Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth moved with each step. If Nerun could use these moves in a real fight and include them in his fighting style, he knew that he would become immensely stronger, since when he fought, not only would he use his inner Qi in each strike, but the Natural Energy would be supplementing each attack. This would mean that if two people had the same level of Qi, Nerun would gain a power advantage with every attack he used. Not to mention, the moves would encompass defence, attack, agility and above all, using the enemy's strength against him.

This alone would make the Free Flowing Fist one of the most powerful martial arts on the entire continent. However, Nerun himself felt that there was still something discordant. When Nerun wanted to exert his "will" with the Qi towards the natural world, it was rejected, thus dispersing the Natural Energy. This meant that while the Free Flowing Fist could still be used with Qi alone, its true capacity was limited to more than 50%, and this made it just another Martial Art, perhaps useful, and slightly above most, but certainly not on par with other combat techniques in the World, which are capable of creating devastating attacks by exploding and circulating Qi in a tempestuous manner.

This was precisely the problem that Maikal had commented on. Perhaps in the early ranks this difference would hardly be significant. But when at the higher levels of the Warrior Path, where experts use techniques and martial arts that are capable of levelling mountains, this Martial Art would serve little more than an aesthetic display.

Nerun's Qi began to increase automatically, but at the same time, Nerun felt as if the Mana in his mental palace began to become unstable as if it might start to evaporate and disappear at any moment. Nerun knew this would happen since if Mana increases, Qi tends to decrease and vice versa. But Nerun truly in his heart did not want this to happen.

Ever since Nerun had heard about the ways of Qi and Mana, he could not get the idea of being an expert in both out of his head. Although he had heard time and time again, that it was impossible due to the First Law of EON, Nerun refused not to even try. Sometimes ignorance can be quite bold. And sometimes said boldness can become a miracle. It just needs a little spark, luck, and maybe the innocence of a child who knows no better.