3 03
A silent lunch between mother and son. Nothing but silence except for the sound of plate and spoon colliding.
The food was delicious but the mood was rather cold. Too many things were bothering the minds of these family duo.
In the end, Asran asked.
"Mother, please share your burden with me. There's no need to bear all of it any longer."
Tears started dropping away, even with her head facing down Asran could easily saw his mother crying.
It made him felt more guilt than before. But he had to ask no matter what.
"No son, it's fine. You just need to get healthy and that will be enough for me," her voice was trembling yet like any mother she didn't want to make her son worry.
Asran was frustrated hearing the same thing again. But he remained calm and collected.
He didn't question his mother, he knew how stubborn she was. Nevertheless, he answered with his action.
He held his mother's hand, comforting the heart of his mother.
A conversation in silence you might say.
After lunch, Lima bade goodbye to her son. She had work to do and debt to pay. Her heart felt heavy to leave but nothing can be done.
"Be sure to rest and if there's any problem you can call the number under my name," she left and then there was Asran. Solitude in the lonesome apartment.
He stood in front of the balcony window staring at the vast sight of the small nation of Singapore.
The brilliant advance city of Singapore was at the far end of his sight. Yet it wasn't the thing that was floating in his mind.
'The qi here is far too thin,' thought Asran with a frown.
Then his thought floated elsewhere.
'Wealth, Power and Influence. Still the same like I remember.' He wiped the glass window with his long sleeve.
'But nothing beats absolute power,' his eyes gazed upon the blue sky remembering the time when he held that absolute power.
'Sacrificing my future for the sake of this world standard, is it worth it?' He questioned himself, yet the thought of his mother appeared.
The hesitation he had was blown away instantly.
'For mother then,' he vowed that he will make his mother happy like she used to. No matter what the cost.
---
Walking around the park near his apartment, Asran felt it was better to start his journey for absolute power outside rather than inside the apartment.
'At least the amount of qi here is better than in the apartment.'
He looked around taking in the sight of the green trees. A good place for a picnic but Asran was the only one around.
The weather was hot and humid. No one in their right mind would walk around in the park under the blazing sun.
Yet Asran didn't paid much attention to it. He found a nice spot with a good shade and sat down in a leisure manner.
Leaning on the trunk of the tree, he closed his eyes as he remembered a particular book. He utterly despised that book along with its author but in this situation, he couldn't complain about it.
'Who would have thought I would use that bastard technique,' he chuckled just thinking about it.
'An unorthodox method, but effective in my kind of situation. Life Qi Earthen Conversion, sounds rather lame but the side effect is rather devious. Igniting life qi to multiply the gather qi boosting the progression of cultivating.'
True to Asran's words, it was a rather devilish technique. In the long run, his life span will shorten until he finally die. Not the best way to go but what choice do he had.
He sat in silence under the shade of the tree. A slight breeze came, ruffling the tree branches. His loose clothes gently flapped by the wind.
Soon four hours passed.
Asran maintained his position like a stone statue. A few people pass by and none realized his presence.
In this digital age where everything is at a fast pace, he was definitely one of the few who could withstand being idle for four hours straight.
In the end, he sighed out of disappointment.
'Too slow, if continue like this I doubt I will be strong even one second before my death,' thought Asran.
He was cursing at that bastard inwardly. All those braggings he heard from that loudmouth and yet the technique turned out to be mediocre.
Asran doubted whether that bastard had ever cultivate in a place with extreme low qi density like this.
But then, the lax nature of his face turned serious. His head turned to his right side as his sense felt something was amiss.
His eyes narrowed as he tried to see the unseeable. Asran got up and ran like his life depended on it.
Although his legs were weak and on the verge of stumbling down, yet he stay persistent as he saw something.
His eyes were gleaming like blinking stars as this sudden turn of event might be the path of his salvation.
His pace slows down and in the end, he halted while staring at something in front of him.
"Interdimensional gate? On earth? What the hell is going on here?"
It only took him a few seconds to decide and in an instant, he rushed straight into the interdimensional gate which was churning like a vortex.
There was no hesitation at all from his face. Rather his face was brimming with excitement.
Half an hour later, the turbulent interdimensional gate stabilized and remained static.
A few people emerged from within the main park road. Their attires were rather peculiar and interesting, some like knight's armor while some wear tight-fitting bodysuit.
A young petite woman stepped in front of the group with an annoyed look on her face.
"The heck? Why is the portal blue?" Said the petite woman.
A man who was wearing an overcoat under the blazing weather spoke up.
"Use common sense you dunce, someone else is already inside."
The petite woman glared at the overcoat man.
"You think I don't know that?" She was on the verge of hitting the overcoat man.
But someone held her back by the shoulder. A woman dressed in shining thin plate armor. Rather than bulky, her armor was streamline accentuating her figure perfectly.
"Stop bickering Zoe, and Haron don't incite her," said the armor lady.
Haron, the man wearing the overcoat raised both of his hands in the air, a sign of backing off.
Zoe, could only glare at Haron with her arms crossed over her chest.
The armor lady turned her attention to the portal. Her eyes were serious as she said.
"It seems we have an intruder within our territory."
---
In a vast wasteland, a single portal was seen with nothing else around it.
Yet a person appeared from within the portal. The moment he stepped inside, he fell to his knees.
His breath was ragged and his body was covered in blood from top to bottom. Numerous cuts riddled his body and the clothes were close to being torn apart into shreds.
"Shit, didn't thought it would be that bad going through an unstable interdimensional gate," said Asran while smirking.
Ignoring the pain riddling his entire body his eyes shifted across the wasteland.
Some would despair seeing such a barren place but Asran was elated. As if he had seen a gold mine right in front of his very eyes.
"The qi density here is similar to Xuanwu nation, a Royal third-tier kingdom. Although not up too my standards but at least I can cultivate normally," said Asran.
He didn't dawdle and sat in a meditative position. The bloody man closed his eyes and controlled his breathing rate.
Slowly his breathing slowed down and maintain at a slow rate.
'Time to get rid of that bastard stupid technique,' he cast aside the Life Qi Earthen Conversion technique and opt for a superior technique.
He concentrated as his mind searched deep into the reservoir of memories. Then deep within the depth of his memory bank, a vault strapped with black iron chains.
'Release...'
By his words, the chains disintegrated into dust. Then the vault slowly opens by itself as if something was pushing it from the inside.
'Come to me Eternal Seven Nights,' to the beckon of his words, a huge black claw ripped off the vault's door.
Seven entities emerged from the dark depth of the vault and lunged straight at the subconscious representation of Asran's mind.
Asran didn't flinch as he spread his arms wide inviting those seven entities in.
All seven seeped inside Asran's subconscious body. He smiled and as he opened his eyes, the sight of the wasteland greeted him.
"Eternal Seven Nights, the third-best cultivation technique in the entire universe," he was elated yet a tint of regret was hinted from his voice.
"A pity I couldn't find the most powerful cultivation technique but nevertheless, third in the universe is still the best," said Asran. Then a thought came to him.
"I wonder whether that universe is the same as this one," a thought that can provoke the mind.
"Nevermind, that kind of thing is better at a later period," putting that thought on hold, Asran began his cultivation alone in this wasteland.
Circulating the technique, his whole body pores were open wide and what came after was a shocking scene. Gush of qi came rushing at him as if he was a black hole.
To the untrained eye, one could not see the sight of qi moving but certainly they can feel the strong turbulance of the wind.
Asran's shredded clothes were torn apart leaving nothing but his spandex undies. A bony frame of a person close to a perserve mummy. That was how bony he was after the loose clothes being torn away.
But it didn't matter to him as his body was in the process of changing.
A change that will brought forth an incredible power.
Cough...
During the process, he coughed up blood, yet he remained astute and continued cultivating absorbing the surrounding qi like he was the eye of a typhoon.
His body was too weak to withstand the pressure from the influx of qi but he didn't care a shred of it.
Asran needed this and no doubt he had the confidence to obtain it even at the cost of imaginable pain.
Soon, the abudant qi within his body was refined slowly by the Eternal Seven Night technique.
Afterwards, the refined qi was circulated throughout his entire body nurturing every cell in his body.
Those dull cells of his started ravaging the qi absorbing within itself as if they were starving wolves.
Soon, every cells in his body turned vibrant like the light of the moon.
Then it happened.
Night arrived within this other dimension. Asran didn't budge an inch but the ground all around him started to cracked.
Then the night sky started to move as if something was pulling them down.
No doubt it was Asran's doing or to be more precise, the work of Eternal Seven Night technique.
'Night is beautiful like onyx...'
Asran moved his hand as he reached out to the night sky. His palm opened and closed as if he grabbed on something yet there was nothing on his hand.
He yanked down and a loud ripping sound resonated throughout the surrounding.
A black mass in the size of a nail was on his palm. He stared at it for a few seconds before he popped it inside his mouth swallowing it whole.
Asran concentrated once more in his cultivation and a few minutes later, his whole body was cracking like his bones being shattered into pieces.
His whole body was dripping with sweat as the man himself gritted his teeth enduring the hellish pain. At certain point he was just about to faint but he stood persistent.
Within his body the black mass disolved and circulated through his body tainting every vibrant moon-like cells of his with the darkness of the night.
Cold wind surrounded his entire being as the temperature started dropping down like mad.
Then within his body the last cell was finally tainted by the black mass and that was the climax of it all.
"Argh!"
He yelled out of pain into the sky as the threshold of pain was too much even for him. Darkness engulfed his entire being as if he was night itself.
A split second later, the darkness vanished leaving Asran as if nothing had happened.
Flop...
Asran fell on the dusty ground as he slept like a baby. Half an hour later, he woke up.
"Finally,"he stood up and looked at his body.
His previous bony body was now fit and healthy. More like a thin person rather than a mummy yet his muscles were well-defined as if chiseled by a famous sculptor.
All those cuts and bruises were healed and not a blemish could be seen on his skin.
Clenching his fist, Asran let out a punch at the empty air.
He could hear the air ripping apart, a testament of his new obtain strength.
He smiled with a sly smirk as he proclaimed.
"1st stage Qi Frame clear."
