6 Power does not Equal Cultivation

And with their parting words, Alastar returned to the Jamisons. They ate a simple silent dinner, almost painfully silent, it was like a word wanted to leave someone's mouth but nobody spoke. After that Alastar returned to his room to practice.

[{Village Fist}] was an extraordinary martial art. It belonged in a unique section of cultivation arts, it was a truly limitless art. No set limits, nothing, all it required was that the practitioner teaches it. Alastar started to practice the things he had taught, when he taught them they felt simple but now they were complex.

Before he had taught Cripple the martial art was barely even an art more of a collection of philosophies but now it had reformed itself into a genuinely powerful martial art.

Still, the power Alastar could release from his Tempered Body Level 12 was limited. He was at the limit of the Tempered Body Stage. There was little to no power he could gain from refining his body through normal methods.

If only his meridians were not destroyed then he would have the perfect setup to begin refining Qi Essence. But his meridians were destroyed and with that final thought, Alastar fell asleep.

He was awoken by Cripple, which was strange because Cripple did not live with him, or near him, or he hoped to talk to him.

"Mrs. Jamison let me in when I told her I was your friend. Lovely fucking women." Cripple spat out as if he had a million ideas and each of them as inane as the other. Cripple sat by the door holding an apple that had been somewhat chewed on the right side.

"Why'd you wake me up? We don't have work on Seclusion Days right?" Alastar liked his Seclusion Days. They were a great time to relax, train, meditate, and even just sleep. Apparently Cripple did not share Alastars love for the day.

"Seclusion Day is the perfect day for a journey. I've packed food and a good spirit." Cripple spat big globs of spit as he talked. One of them hit Alastars pinky.

"And where would we go on this journey?" And with that, he set Cripple off on a rampage of words.

"The market of course. I need new shoes and you need new everything." Alastar couldn't help agreeing, the clothes that he had now were not particularly, attractive. This is only talking about the sliver of cloth that Alastar really did have.

Alastar said goodbye to the Jamisons and went out the door of the house with Cripple. They went through the winding roads of the town until they hit the thick jungle surrounding it. Great big vines hugged trees tightly for dear life and occasional howls of Jungle Beasts came from the woods.

It was very different from the jungle from when Alastar had arrived on the island. Alastar waited for a second, fear had set into his bones, he wasn't strong enough, he wasn't confident enough.

"Stop being such a pussy, if we die we die. It's no use worrying about if we are gonna die. Otherwise, you have that martial arts shit, we will be fine." Alastar grunted in agreement, Cripple was sadly right.

The jungle was a dark place. Little bits of life would drop down but in general, it was total darkness. They moved like frogs, bouncing on the tips of roots and then hopping to the next one. Cripple seemed to be completely fine despite missing a leg.

"That martial art you showed me. I taught it to everyone I know. It's really so ingenious, it makes me feel so, so powerful." Cripple gave an evil laugh, for a second Alastar couldn't tell if it was a genuine evil laugh and then he remembered even if Cripple was evil how much damage could he really do.

"Oh really? You think your strong? Try fighting me, I bet I could give you a run for your money." Alastar shouted at Cripple from another root behind him.

"I take that as a challenge to my authority." Cripple stopped in the middle of the jungle, turned around and threw a fist directly at Alastar. From inside of Cripple's dantian twelve bits of karma came out and entwined with his fist.

Alastar moved to dodge but some of the bits of karma detached from Cripple's face and changed direction towards him.

"Ah, so you can control the karma. But does your karma truly have power!" And with that Alastar kicked the specks of karma coming at him. With Alastar's kick came a singular piece of karma. This one seemed to be different. Not in the way it was formed, or the way it looked, no in the way it moved it seemed to have a little bit of personality on its own.

Of course, Alastar nor Cripple noticed this change, all they saw was Alastar's and Cripple karma entwining into a battle of their own. While their karma was fighting Cripple sent the rest of his bits of karma to his other arm and sent it flying out towards.

Alastar was one step ahead of Cripple though and the karma hit one of the trees directly splitting it in half. Alastar took in a deep breath, jumped up and kicked Cripple straight in the jaw. Cripple was sent flying straight into a tree.

The bits of karma that were used in the battle returned to their respective users.

"How did you beat me! I had more karma then you. I even weaponized it better then you just like you said." Cripple shouted from his unflattering position on the ground.

"I'm still just simply a stronger fighter than you. Train harder and teach more." Alastar grunted at him from the root he was on.

Cripple pushed himself off the ground, dusted himself off a bit and faced Alastar.

"Oh I will, and you should be afraid, very fucking afraid of me." And with that Alastar laughed a great hearty laugh, a little bit of his worries sliding off of him when he laughed.

"Oh, I will. I'll be so afraid of you." Cripple laughed and they continued on their journey. The jungle was huge and expansive but in the end, they did not meet a single soul. In the grasslands, however, they did but these were just simple merchant caravans from the three other villages on the island. They hopped, skipped and jumped through each different environment until they arrived at a city.

It wasn't just huge, it was massive. Great towers of stone that reached towards the sky, walls that a mortal could barely see the top of. It was truly a great city in the middle of nowhere. On the top of the tallest tower in the city was a red diamond. It was red like an out of season apple and it seemed to call out to Alastar.

Something about it seemed to want to be with Alastar, seemed to know Alastar, or seemed to know something inside of him.