A Broken Sword and the Five Headaches

Again I ate the dirt.

Against the unstoppable oaf, I ate dirt twice. My views and craziness, having thoroughly been broken, are now useless to me.

My sword, which previously was unshattered, now laid in ruins alongside my Sword Will.

My craziness, the definition of my Human Will, proven to be insignificant in the face of true craziness, is left to wallow in defeat.

My death, brought by the hands of a grey sage, undoubtedly pushed me to become a martial artist.

The Crazed Unifier is no more…

Only a broken practitioner is left. Since I am what I am, and I do what I do, I must practice without a shred of lost effort.

Spitting the dirt out of my mouth, I firmly gave up on Unified Swords. They're truly weak compared to martial arts.

Instead of my feet, I rose and sat. With the Lotus position being the best for cultivating inner qi, I gave no thoughts as to how I should sit.

Instead of cultivating, I focused on the depths of my dantian, where a seemingly bottomless hole remained.

It reminds me of what I felt before I awoke in this body. A deep void of nothingness, but ever so soothing to the soul.

Minus the voices I heard of course.

But who did that one voice belong to– I heard a man's voice as soon as I could feel the void, and a similar voice when the voices in my head started to make their return.

They both spoke like the old geezer who killed me, but they sounded young. Maybe it was that elixir he gave me, whatever in the demon cult fuck it was of course. No regular elixir acts that fast without cultivating the inner qi alongside it.

I thinly stretched the qi from my dantian into the pit, a man simply can't trust something they haven't tested for themself.

"Bastard, you stab me with a dagger then try and cultivate?! If you weren't my son you would've been beaten so thin even grass would look thick."

Well, at least I was right about the headaches.

One behind, one inside, and three in the future.

Five total headaches– Just like the natures of qi.

The flame that fuels life. The headache inside me, a flaming pit of qi.

The water that cools our emotions and flows us through life. The headache of the unpredictability of this new life.

The wood that attunes us with nature, following the cycle of the world. The headache of Will's, now shattered and outside of the cycle.

The metal that roots us to reality. The headache of an oaf that is the strongest in the world.

The earth that shares energy to all. The headache of distribution, and the fairness of the energies.

Headaches all around, cultivation all around, I'm trapped between what I hate and what I must rely on…

--- 

'The way he moves, talks and thinks is all bat shit crazy.'

Lee Seok thought amid the silence.

Even after being stabbed, the pain was minimal. His forearm, which had been pierced by the Unified Dagger, still dripped with blood from the hole leftover.

Thankfully, the qi attribute of the Ironwood Splitters was that of flame. To conquer the wood that even metal couldn't, flames are needed.

Using the flames of his qi, he cauterized his wound, thanks to the power of the dagger, he had lost a chunk of muscles. 

'I'll have to eat plenty so this grows back fast, I don't need the sect members giving me shit about this.'

Lee Seok turned as Haneul continued cultivating his inner qi, he had judged that he no longer needed to watch over his son today.

Despite his antagonistic words, he was quite proud of the strength his third son showed. None of his previous sons had managed to harm him in any of their combat trials, but on the first day of his training, his third son had badly damaged his arm.

Since strength of that level brought arrogance, something else was needed to ensure his son would train for the whole week. Clenching his fist as he reached the stairs leading to the surface, Lee Seok imbued a sliver of energy into his fist.

Crumble!

With a slight movement upward, Lee Seok's fist broke the wooden planks above the stairwell.

Despite his size, he was quite fast. Within a few seconds Lee Seok managed to climb the entire stairwell, only to stop just before the door leading to the outside world.

A simple kick against a stone tile on the wall sent the ground into tremors, from down the stairwell the sound of boulders falling filled the air. 

"See you when you surface, brat."

Lee Seok commented before exiting the building.

--- 

The sound of boulders falling woke me from my trance, was this underground sanctuary finally collapsing around me?

I stood up and turned to the origin of the sound, the exit stairwell. Stones were no problem to move, I could just cut them down with a Unified…

Fuck.

"Lee Seok, that oaf, he sure does know how to make someone train. He broke my sword on purpose, knowing I wouldn't be able to use it to cut my way out."

I couldn't help but express my thoughts to the air, that is what sane people do, isn't it?

I'd have to move all these boulders by hand if I wanted to leave, in turn making me stronger. Just what that oaf needs me to do so I can join my Hyungs.

I'd get to that later, for now I'd continue to investigate this hole.

It was weirdly shaped, as if a human head had been slammed into it several times. 

I knelt down and rubbed my fingers on the bottom of the hole, entirely expecting something other than dirt.

Yup, it was mud. This is where I ate dirt several times today, but let's set that hole aside, there is another that needs more attention.

The whole of my dantian was shaking, clearly wanting me to cultivate it more than I already had. Instead of the Lotus position, I laid down on the ground, with the back of my hair reaching the bottom of the hole in the dirt.

The flow was quite simple, from the nose to the solar plexus, from the plexus to the arms and back. From the plexus down to the toes, and the toes to the dantian. Each circulation burned away a small amount of impurities within the meridians, leaving behind only the purest qi to be absorbed into my dantian.

With each breath I took my qi grew in smidgens, accumulating qi isn't easy you know.

Especially with a greedy hole within, taking all that touches it and then some. Almost as if there's a martial artist living in my dantian.