The Full Moon
His training continued, and while he carried on his training in school, he was secretly training his body.
What surprised him was how quickly he was seeming to build muscle. He incorporated heavy weightlifting into his regime, lifting heavy rocks and objects that he could find in his academy and the city's public greenery.
However, every single time he would cultivate, he would feel nothing. This totally confused him.
Warriors could only breach past the physical limits of the body with the use of qi in the body. It didn't have to be directly be released into the body from the dantian, but it had to be there.
How did he have superhuman abilities like this, without any qi to show for it?
This was also raising the suspicions of his fellow teammates and his master. Whenever they would go through any form of physical training, he didn't seem to be lagging behind and didn't show the strength of an ordinary human.
He seemed beyond that.
Inside his academy, he was currently in one of the teacher's offices. They had their own quarters, where they would complete their own duties outside of teaching and supervision.
"Abel, as much as we want to continue helping you to begin cultivating, you are using up our resources. If you cannot form a dantian within these next few weeks, we will be forced to expel you from this academy." His master stated.
In his voice, Abel could hear a sense of disdain and contempt. His heart started to accelerate, and for some reason, he felt himself getting angry. It was a fury he hadn't felt very often, and he was confused at why he was getting so riled up over just a conversation like this.
He clenched his fist and tried his best to veil his growing anger.
"I understand, Master Oscar. I will try my best to cultivate and advance my powers." He claimed.
"Yes, well empty promises will get you nowhere, Abel. It is final. If you cannot form a dantian in the next 2 months, you will be removed from this academy."
"2 months?! Only 2 months?" Abel blurted out, perplexed.
He had no clue what had happened to him, and he had returned to square one. He felt no connection to his soul whatsoever, it was like he didn't even have one.
How was he going to form a dantian from scratch in just two months?
Nobody on the entire planet created their dantian in such a way, a feat of that calibre would be impossible.
"It is final! Your pure lack of talent is not our fault! We cannot tolerate this stagnant improvement any longer!" He retorted, making Abel silent and still.
"Sorry, master. I shall work with that order, and form a dantian within 2 months time." He replied, standing to then bow at his master.
"I hope you do the same." He replied more calmly, before lifting his arm in a wave-like manner.
"You are dismissed."
Abel rushed out of the room of his teacher, brushing past his friends. Before he could move past them, though, Duncan stopped him from going further.
He turned back and could see the concern in his face. Compared to the aggressive, disdainful face of his master, Duncan's was calmer and warmer.
"What's going on, man. You've been being really quiet recently, ever since that spar. What's happened with you?" Duncan asked.
"Yeah, we don't want to know anything we shouldn't but... I'm just really worried about you, that's all!" Zeke said, making Abel's eyes fall to the floor.
The way he was treating his friends right now felt wrong. He totally isolated himself from them, when they were the only ones to give him respect and attention.
However, if he so much as left training for a day, he could ruin his hopes of becoming a powerful qi cultivator.
The academy was all he had left to try and achieve this goal of his. Without them, he would be sentenced to a life of mundanity and weakness. He would constantly be in the hands of the superiors. The more talented.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the way I've acted, but I must go." Abel replied quickly, turning around to rush away from them and out of the academy premises.
Duncan's arm remained outreached as Abel ripped his arm from his grasp, and he slowly dropped it before Zeke tapped on his shoulder. Out of the three, Zeke could tell that Duncan was the most caring out of all of them.
He had come from a working-class, average family, and was just one of their least promising youths. He was their protector when they would be ridiculed and bullied. He had received his fair share of beatings in the past, but he never failed to stand up for those he cared about.
"Just give him time. He'll come around soon enough." Zeke stated reassuringly, tapping his shoulder again.
Duncan looked back to his hand, though, which was slightly bruised. He had been holding him down using superhuman strength, but Abel still managed to free himself from his grasp.
'Just what is up with you, Abel?' He wondered, watching him walk off.
Abel crashed into his room, and revealed the parchment rolled up in his dark jade robe.
Beginning his cultivation, there was nothing at all. Not so much as even a movement of air. He felt awfully still and couldn't feel any form of supernatural connection.
Looking to the worn piece of parchment in his palms, he felt growing anger at his failure at forming a dantian. With training his body, he could feel progress being made, but he never had any form of progress here.
Tear!
He angrily ripped the paper in his hand to shreds, before throwing it to the ground.
He was now in his siheyuan after a long day of training in school, and just couldn't bear his loss any longer.
Rushing out his room, he entered the streets in the late evening. The sky was now a dark blue, twinkling with the stars of the night sky.
As he stormed forward at a pace, he could feel his body getting warmer. It was an uneasy feeling, but he just attributed it to his growing frustration.
What shone above him was the bright full moon, slowly lifting to eventually reach its apex.
He arrived at a local bar in the city, which was filled with old men of a wide range of ages, talking together and having a good time. The seats they were laid on were of a dark oak, and the ground was made of a lighter wood colour.
They were drinking the alcohol most popular in this walled city. With human populations being quite isolated from each other, the drinks of one city could be totally unique and different to one near it.
They were mostly drinking alcohol that was totally black, which was known as 'Obsidian Wine'. It was made with rice wine, mixed in with the enchanted blood of the Obsidian Golem. Obsidian Golems would secrete a blood that, mixed in with the right materials, would become incredibly sweet and delicious to humans.
Abel settled on some Desert Cowmilk Tea. This was tea made from the fatty, sweet milk of the desert cow.
He would take the tea in a bottle, which was odd, and he would receive eyes from people as he did this. However, he would venture out into the nearby parks and greenery of the city.
Sitting on a tree, he'd just look at the stars. it was a good way for him to calm down, and he would do this after having quite a tumultuous day at his academy.
After what had happened, this day certainly qualified to be one of those tumultuous days, and he drank the light brown tea, feeling warmed and soothed with every gulp.
The slight breeze over his skin made him feel slightly chilly, but this tea mediated this feeling.
Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Looking up at the full moon, he suddenly felt his heart pumping harder than usual. It was a weird, uncomfortable feeling, and the warmth within his body soon turned into an unbearable heat.
"Argh! What is this!" He whispered to himself, dropping the bottle of tea that he had bought.
The container rolled away from him, and he grabbed his aching chest, before he felt a sharp prick.
He pulled away his hand to see his fingers were now bloody, with growing claws across them.
'What the-' He thought, before stumbling onto his backside.
He could then feel the unbearable pain from within his jaw, as fangs grew in his mouth. The heat in his body turned into something else entirely. It was like he was on a spit roast, and the heat just continued to intensify.
KRAK!
"AAARGH!!"