6 Teacher

The silence between the two went on for a few seconds before Adam said, "Why aren't you kneeling?"

Orizo was puzzled and a little frightened but quickly kneeled anyways, as he did so Jax chimed in.

"Ah right, Orizo doesn't know anything about the master disciple pact. Do you want me to teach him?"

"It's fine I can do it myself, leave us."

Jax nodded and promptly left the study, Orizo took note of the respect Jax had given.

'If Jax is so meek before this guy then how strong is he? Jax said he was mid to late immortal realm than does this mean Adam is Celestial realm?'

Orizo's thoughts didn't get very far when Adam spoke.

"Go sit over there for now, we will talk first. Since you don't know the master disciple pact than I assume you also don't know anything about the cultivation world."

Orizo looked up and saw Adam gesture at the opposite couch as he sat down. Orizo got up in a hurry and moved to sit on the couch while answering, "Yes I only learnt about the cultivation levels from Jax yesterday."

"Yes Jax spoke of that too, give me your hand."

Adam stretched his hand and grasped Orizo's. Orizo could feel a 'hot' energy entering his body, when he probed it with his mind it assaulted him with anger. Orizo was suddenly teleported to a world of red, the sky the colour of blood and the earth a sea of creatures made of condensed blood slightly darker than the sky, the creatures extended into the horizon melding sky and earth. The sea of creatures bared their fangs and claws at him all radiating a sense of fury, suddenly he was pulled from the space and the blood red sky and sea left his vision.

When he regained his mind back in the study Orizo felt a warm liquid traveling down his nose, touching it he could see blood and then heard Adam clicking his tongue.

"Whose kid is this? So dumb..."

Orizo could hear some of Adam's mutterings. Orizo shifted in his seat as Adam let his hand go and sat into the sofa with his hands crossed at his chest muttering something Orizo couldn't hear, sighing loudly Adam then said.

"Alright first lets do the master disciple pact first," Adam snapped his fingers and a piece of paper materialized on the table with long lines of words, "take it and read it, follow what it says and lets get this over with."

Orizo read the paper, despite Orizo's illiteracy he could understand what was written. Despite that Orizo felt that he had read it weirdly, his tone felt off at some areas and the sound that came out of his mouth was unfamiliar to him. Still Orizo continued and towards the end he could feel something attached to him deep within him and the sense of closeness with Adam seemed to intensify.

Orizo closed his eyes trying to find the warm feeling, Adam similarly said out a long pact however Orizo wasn't listening. When Adam was done he snapped his fingers again, the paper on the table disintegrating and brought Orizo's focus on him.

"I am now your master and teacher, for the next few years I will teach you the path of cultivation and the knowledge needed to advance on this path."

"Yes master!" Orizo nodded like a chicken with a smile on his face.

"Good. For the next year we will focus on world knowledge, etiquette and cultivating. The year after that I will teach you martial arts and combat training then I will hold a test for you. If you cannot satisfy me than I will disown you as my disciple. Do you understand?"

"Yes master!" Orizo responded with a worried look on his face.

"First lets clarify and deepen your knowledge on the mortal realm's cultivation levels. So far you only know the names of these levels but I gather you don't know how to advance from one stage to another do you?"

"No? But the names are very simple."

"Yes the names do tell what the levels are but that is not enough, these days the saturation of mana in our world has intensified to the point where even mortals can feel them. The world before had thinner mana and so there was originally another level before the Meridian formation level which dealt in sensing mana and refining it in the body without the meridians and dantian."

"Now the atmospheric mana is so thick that we don't have to train to sense them anymore, so the level became redundant. The Meridian formation has twelve levels, you use the ki you refine from the mana around you to form, cleanse and connect your meridians together. At the end of this level all twelve meridians will be formed and connected into an array in your body which allows you to move ki along your body with ease."

"The dantian formation level and onward is usually where the paths diverge, depending on your path it may have different outcomes. Take my path for example, I practice part of the Realms path which seek control over space that worlds are contained within. My dantian formation had one level, a pseudo pocket realm. The difficulty of forming such a thing is extremely hard especially at such a level but the benefits it brought was equally immense."

"The ki body is a simple level and is most often times an increase in bodily strength, with a little extra. A blood path cultivator will experience a sharp increase in control over their blood and depending on the manual they cultivate can even convert their ki into blood allowing for more blood to use."

"The enlightened soul stage is when cultivators become aware of their soul, another aspect of power. Similarly it depends on the path to give an effect, the Beast tamer path explodes in power at this stage, with the awareness of their soul and usage they can send feelings of friendliness to the beast they wish to tame."

"Lastly the Martial sage stage. This is the highest mortal realm stage and is also a well known bottleneck, this stage is no longer dependent on ki. No matter how much you accumulate the likely hood of advancing in this stage will not increase. The sage level requires knowledge and wisdom of all things. Ascending and past a sage can be easy or hard depending on the path one takes, despite this the youngest sage to ascend to a sage was thirty years old. No matter how much a prodigy one was even if they reached the soul realm at age six they have always attained sage at age twenty, it is mainly attributed to the fact that the sage level requires appropriate knowledge."

Orizo digested the information, Adam kept quiet his gaze wandering on Orizo's body. When Adam felt enough time passed for Orizo to understand what he said he continued, "Right now what is important is what path you want to take. This is important, it will dictate how your future strength will unravel and what you will experience in your journey. The important thing to keep in mind is what you want to do for the rest of your life, do you want to be a blacksmith and make weapons, an alchemist and make potions and pills, a formation user and lay out arrays? What do you see in yourself in the future? A battlefield? A peaceful village? Think about it. The next lesson will be a week from now, I will wait at the training field at first light. Don't be late."

Adam stood up and walked out the door, but before he exited Adam flipped his hand and a book appeared in his palm and placed it on the coffee table.

When the door shut close Orizo glanced at the book and the title read, 'Encyclopedia of Paths'. Orizo didn't pick up the book and instead voice his own thoughts as he pictured himself along, "Peaceful village? A blacksmith? The feeling of the hammer hitting the metal underneath, the feeling of feedback. An alchemist? I don't know anything about them... a formation user too. I've not been to a battlefield either... but I suppose the slums were kind of like a battlefield? Those old vets said so too, a complete mess everyone only caring about their own lives."

"Strength... strength is the thing I need, with strength comes respect and fear. With strength comes money and with money, status."

Orizo stood up from the couch and started to walk around the study holding the book and flipping through the pages, reading their introductions.

"If I understand right... blacksmiths, alchemists and formation masters are under support. They don't have direct strength but instead use connections as strengths by selling their services. That's not what I'm looking for... I want strength direct strength something more stable and controllable. If one day the person I invest in dies then I lose that strength, if I am faced with a strong enemy and the people I make ties with are weak in both mind and body than I will just die. No matter what I give them they will never consider my life above theirs."

Orizo continued to flip through the pages, still reading the support paths but not taking them as options.

"The swordsman path diverges when specialized in other swords, great swords, rapiers. Tank path? Interesting, meant to take punishments but it seems weak in power, it isn't stable enough. Air path? A mana path? No, wait what? It's a ki path... what is this? Using the understanding of what Air is, command it as if it were my very own limb? Interesting, so the Ki path isn't entirely on the physical body only..."

"This... Rebound path is certainly interesting. It seems like it was made with the attainment of 'grasping the earth' as the foundation and idea. To rebound all attacks and curses back onto the attacker... its a mana path though."

As Orizo read this path he consciously felt the earth push against him every step he took. Orizo put down the book after he read the entire catalogue and walked out the study. Orizo walked along the hallways and towards the training hall, his mind fixated, still conscious of the feeling of being pushed back. It wasn't an abrupt push but a constant strong push on every step.

Arriving in the training hall Orizo went to the training dummies, standing in front of one Orizo got into a basic stance. Orizo focused his senses, feeling the push around his feet. Punching out Orizo's fist landed squarely on the dummy's chest and Orizo sensed the dummy push back against his fist and the push from the earth strengthened as well.

Orizo soaked himself in the feeling as he moved back into the stance again, feeling the push from the earth. Orizo then punched out and as he did so increased the push from the earth, punching into the dummy. The impact was immediately felt, a bang sounded from the impact point and the push felt on his fist was stronger.

Orizo relished in the feeling of the force bouncing in his body. Orizo felt the push within him, the result of his own strength. Orizo wanted to feel this, the feedback of his attacks within him.

Orizo had considered the Rebound path, it was interesting and it seemed to have something to do with the push he felt in his body. However the Rebound path was too passive... the main power of the path was to reflect the push back onto the enemy. Orizo didn't want just that he wanted more, to use the push to strengthen his own attacks, to use the push without having someone hit him.

After punching the dummy a few more times and enjoying the feeling within him Orizo retired back to his room with the book in hand. In bed Orizo looked over the paths in the book trying to find a path that focused on the push he felt.

The book sadly held no perfect path that Orizo could see, but there were some paths that dealt in that push.

The next morning, Orizo still on his bed read through the book again hoping that he had skipped some paths. Orizo had started to feel safe in this house, and had started to voice his own thoughts to himself.

"Is there truly no path that focuses on the push within me? Maybe master would know... but he I don't know how to find him... maybe Kaguya?"

"You called master?"

Just as he had said Kaguya's name she appeared in his room startling Orizo.

"Uhm... right Kaguya is there a path that has what I look for?" Orizo felt that Kaguya was probably already in the room when he was voicing his thoughts, though it nerved him a little.

"Yes master, the path you may be looking for is the Force path. However this path is not taken by most, it is a less well known fundamental path."

"Fundamental?"

"Yes, fundamental paths focuses on energies that appear everywhere. Elemental paths as well as life and death paths are part of the fundamental paths."

"Are they stronger than the rest of the paths? Harder to cultivate?"

"Yes the path is known to be extremely hard to cultivate due to having too much information about it, the practitioner is often known to misunderstand and be unable to move on the path. The strength of the path is debatable, the fundamental paths are not well known and very few have cultivated it to great success."

"I see. Do you know where I can find master?"

"Master Adam is currently away from the house, he will return on monday."

"Oh. Can you teach me the Force path?"

"Master this I'm afraid this isn't appropriate, you have acknowledged master Adam as your teacher. If I teach you would that not imply that master Adam is bad with his teachings?"

"Argh. Fine then give me information on this path."

"Of course master."

Kaguya disappeared before his eyes, Orizo a little surprised but quickly got up to ready himself for the day. Starting the day, Orizo enjoyed breakfast with Aaron and returned to the training hall, along the way rejecting Aaron's invitation for a spar. Orizo wanted to feel more of the push, no force, that he felt from his feet as he walked and from his fist as he hit the dummies.

The week passed quickly in Orizo's eyes, that night Kaguya returned with book thicker than what Adam had given him. The book had a pristine white cover with golden linings and the spine had a golden X. The title was simple, Collection of All Paths.

Orizo scanned through the book on that night to find the Force path, labelled under the S rank for difficulty. The path was described in detail up to the Enlightened Soul stage, the martial stage was still detailed but it was obvious there was less martial sages in this path and as the level got higher the details got vaguer and vaguer until it was blank.

On average the path seemed to offer almost an abnormality in power, the path pushed the manipulation of Force to it's height. What's more is somewhere between the Soul and Sage level the cultivator would be able to manipulate more than just kinetic force.

Orizo desired the path even more after reading the details, he knew not about the intricacies within the path but it had already drew him in. The rest of the week was spent reading other paths while he continued to punch the dummies, at the end he was able to increase the force of his punch by roughly two times.

When Adam returned he had Orizo meet him in the training field. It was early morning and the grass was still wet with morning dew. Adam stood in front of him and asked in a commanding tone, "Have you chosen on your path?"

"Yes! I want the Force Path!"

"The Force path? How did you even know about that... tch. No. That path is not allowed."

"What?! But I want the Force Path!" Maybe it was the closeness Orizo felt but the feelings he repressed normally started leaking.

"No. You are my descendant. I'm sure you can feel that. My house DO NOT AND WILL NOT ENTERTAIN ANY PATH THAT IS NOT A MASTER PATH." Adam's voice started to boom, Orizo could feel the vibration in his chest.

"Does that mean that I can take the path if it is the Force Master Path?"

Adam eyed Orizo for a second before a laugh exploded from him, "Force Master Path?! Haha Ahahahaha. The path is harder than you could imagine, what would you know of the path? To speak so simply of this path much less the master path. It seems you spent this week terribly."

Before Orizo could defend himself Adam continued, "A Master Path is harder than you could imagine, it seeks the peak! The path will not accept any less. Why do you think Aaron is still so WEAK? He is a gem heir and yet he is only at the Dantian stage. The Weapons Master Path requires proficiency in a weapon to reach Master rank before it can progress."

"Then the Force Path? How would you prove that you will become a master? The Force Path is already a path filled with torment and hardship, and YOU wish to master it?"

Adam's arms suddenly thrust out catching Orizo off-guard, his palm meeting his chest. Orizo flew backwards before crashing into the wet grass and mud. Orizo was getting angrier by the second as thoughts flew in his head, 'What the fuck?! Piece of shit! Why does he want me to get another path so badly?! It's MY path! NOT his! I WILL GET THIS PATH!'

Orizo supported himself as he got up, his chest burning. The pain seemed to dull as Orizo entertained the thoughts in his head, cursing at Adam. As Orizo got up on his knees and was about to stand Adam appeared before him and sent a kick, Orizo quickly crossed his arms in an attempt to guard but he had misread the kick. It came from below and smashed his hands upwards, the resulting force lifting him to his feet and almost off the ground.

"My family will NOT kneel to ANYONE. My FAMILY will not accept anything under a MASTER Path!" Adam continued to shout at Orizo as he oriented himself, having become slightly dizzy from the kick.

"I-"

Orizo couldn't start his sentence as Adam sent another palm thrust at him. Orizo reacted in time and quickly put his arms still throbbing in pain up before him. When the palm landed on him Orizo almost instantly felt the Force land on his arms, his body started to move as his mind commanded it to, moving the Force from his arms onto his legs and into the ground.

In that instant the ground underneath him trembled, the mud was covered by the grass so it was hard to see but it would have cracked if it was solid ground.

The mud up to his ankles now Orizo then quickly took a step and jumped backwards trying to distance.

Adam stood there with his arms behind him looking at Orizo.

"Hmph, if you are only able to do this much then you won't get very far on this path."

Orizo thought it was over but no sooner had Adam finished his sentence he lunched another attack at him.

Orizo quickly blocked it and sent the Force into the ground, however not just one but multiple attacks came raining on him. Orizo didn't know when but a stick had appeared in Adam's hands and was raining down hits on him.

Orizo could only passively defend, his mind thinking of how to get out of the situation. Dimly at the back of his mind a the importance of the Rebound Path slightly increased.

Orizo focused his mind on the connection between the stick and his arms as the blows landed. The moment he did however the flow of Force was cut off and he had to block the strike in full again.

However this was enough for Orizo, on the next hit he tried to push the Force back unto the stick.

It didn't work well, he could feel his arm hurt even more like a second blow was made and the stick seemed to have not suffered any feedback.

Ideas came and went in his head and quickly came up with a plan, Orizo moved the Force to flow within his body storing it up so he could launch it back at Adam.

The Force was flowed to his command, instinctively gathering in the area around his core.

When Orizo couldn't hold it anymore the Force flowed back onto the stick, the effect could be seen immediately.

The stick exploded from the contact point and Adam was left with only the hilt.

"Finally. At least it seems you have some affinity with this path."

Adam threw the stick away and said, "Go eat your breakfast and ask Jax where your study is."

Orizo couldn't answer in time as Adam disappeared.