Stepping More Firmly on the Earth

Huan Wei was sitting alone on one of the rocks in the campsite. The fire had gone out because he had stopped putting twigs in it. He made no sound. He was just staring at the embers left by the extinguished fire.

He couldn't think of anything. The only thing inside his mind, which always made plans, was emptiness this time. It was just a bottomless unknown.

A child who grew up without love would dream of many things when he saw love for the first time. The need to be loved in one's heart would turn into a gnawing hunger. He wanted more. He would give anything to taste a little more of that feeling that ignites his soul.

Huan Wei wasn't sure what to feel. For as long as he could remember, he had dreamed of a life without his father. He wanted him to die. He thought everything would be easier without him by his side.

So why didn't he feel like his life was easier?

Was it because of the Bright Forest? Was he afraid of being alone in the dangers of this forest? Or was he afraid because he knew that his father, who had always been there even though he hated him, would no longer be there?

He pulled his legs up to his stomach and put his head in his hands. He continued to take deep breaths as the pain of being alone in this unknown world enveloped his heart.

He waited for a few minutes without thinking about anything. The pill Huan Chao had given him was right next to him. He had not yet gathered the mental strength to use it.

He stood up calmly and looked once more where the man had gone. The wound on his left hand still hurt, but he didn't care. He didn't see that the demon mark had finally covered his entire palm. The anger that was slowly spreading through his soul made his body begin to tremble.

Suddenly he shouted angrily and kicked the rock where his father was sitting. It hurt a lot when his foot hit the stone, but he didn't care about that either. He kept kicking and punching the stone. His angry shouts forced the animals to run away from him.

Perhaps it was the ominous Qi that had accumulated in the campsite. The demon mark had not disappeared. Corrupt Qi was accumulating around Huan Wei. The young man didn't even notice it as he was throwing a tantrum.

When he raised his hand once more to punch, he saw two names engraved on the stone. They were exactly where his father had looked while sitting on the rock. Slowly he bowed his head and read them.

"Chao, Yanmei..."

He walked backwards away from the rock. He understood what Huan Chao had been staring at in silence. At that moment, he realized that his father was not protecting him. Huan Chao had only protected Huan Yanmei's memory. He had taken the last thing he had left of the woman he loved out of town.

He walked to the rock where he was sitting. When he sat on it again, there were no animals left in the forest close to him. Even some of the natural beasts were running away from this ominous energy. The pain in Huan Wei's soul was corrupting there.

The young man looked at the pill again. He held the small box in his hand. The bright green color made him think of many things.

Body Tempering was not something one could do through meditation. It required many different resources. Various herbs were used and muscles were nourished to improve the body. The body was built up to capacities that ordinary people could not reach.

Huan Wei was a relatively thin young man. When he wielded a sword with both hands, he could bring out good power. But in battles of physical strength, it was clear that he would lose to most people. That was why he relied on his speed.

If he had entered the first stage of Body Tempering, the Oakbody tier, things would have been different.

Very few of the young people in the town could do Body Tempering. To them it was unnecessary to invest so much money in it. They had no big dreams. They believed they would spend their whole lives in Bitter Sea Town. That's why their families didn't invest in it either.

Huan Chao, on the other hand, was attracted to Body Tempering because of his chosen fighting style and his profession. It seems that his father and mother had once had big dreams for Huan Wei. This pill should have been worth at least a few gold coins. Because instead of consuming many different ingredients, one pill would allow him to enter the Body Tempering.

Huan Wei raised his head and looked up at the sky. The sun was shining in all its splendor. But the young man could not feel its light on him.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he said to himself. "After everything... I'm not supposed to feel like this."

He slowly popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed. As it made its way to his stomach, the loneliness he felt continued to burn inside him.

For a few minutes nothing happened. Then he felt his muscles begin to tingle. He sat cross-legged on the rock and closed his eyes to meditate.

He felt his body taking a firmer place in the Earth. It felt heavier now. He was getting stronger. The loser Huan Wei was being left behind. The Earth was beginning to accept him.

He continued meditating as his whole body began to tingle. He waited for hours. Eventually, as evening fell, the uncomfortable feeling passed and his whole body became a bit more free of its old weakness.

When Huan Wei opened his eyes, he saw that the leaves of some of the trees near him had begun to dry up. There were not even any fireflies near the young man. A small breeze blew most of the dried leaves away and carried them away. Even a few of the flowers had withered.

The young man stood up. His brow was furrowed. Huan Chao had kept what was rightfully his for 14 years. He was the architect of the miserable situation he was constantly humiliating. Even though he knew, he had not given him the pill and had turned a blind eye to everything.

Huan Wei kicked the rock where the man had been sitting. This time his foot didn't hurt. On the contrary, a crack opened up where he had kicked and some of the stone broke.

When he saw this, he looked at his own body in amazement. He looked bigger than before. At least he had regained ordinary appearance.

He bent his legs and jumped with all his might. He could jump much higher now. He went to one of the trees and punched it hard. When he saw the bark crack, he smiled. This was Body Tempering.

He forgot his pain for a moment and continued punching the trees. Despite the Corrupt Qi gathering in the area, he did not feel bad. There was no burning in his throat and no pain in his eyes. He continued to punch the trees with enthusiasm. The fact that his hand was not damaged made him even more excited.

After a while he came back to the rocks and tried to lift one of them. The rock was almost twice his size. He could move it a little, but he could not lift it. At that moment he remembered that he was still not a god. He had only entered the first stage. What he could do was limited.

"I want more," he said. He picked up some sticks and broke them to throw into the fire. The branches felt very light in his hands. In fact, his hands almost felt empty. This continued to excite him.

Huan Chao had left the magnesium rod beside him. Huan Wei didn't know exactly what this thing was. But it was clear that it made it very easy to start a fire without matches.

Alchemists didn't just make war materials or pills. They invented many things that could make everyday life easier. Household stoves and matches were simple examples. Things that ordinary people could buy were not expensive. But because so many people bought them, they provided a good money for the alchemists.

Huan Wei lit the fire and stood by it. He held his broken sword in his hand. This sword had been in his house since he was little. He didn't know who had bought it. But it had been his weapon from the first time he went into the forest. He used it for all his training. He had killed Huan Liwei with it.

His father had thrown it at him after they killed Huan Kong.

It was his only possession from the past. It was almost useless now. The material was of poor quality and half of the metal was gone. Still, Huan Wei did not want to throw it away. He sheathed it back into its scabbard and placed it on the ground beside him.

Now a new life was beginning. He would explore the unknown world alone. 14 years of torture were over. He was no longer a loser. He would be in communities that did not know him and he did not know them. 

"First of all, I need to get out of this forest."