Training

Chapter 6

He woke up in a daze. He looked to his side to see his mother, who just managed to realize him waking up, and tried to sit up, stuck in his bed. 

"Are you okay," His mother asked caringly, "I heard a thump in your room and came in to see you passed out. Do you feel sick, does anything hurt, I didn't see any blood but you hit your head pretty hard."

Barely managing to get a word out from his barrage of questions, he managed to dispel her fears, "I'm fine, just overworked myself a bit."

Mark realized his mistake, which was keeping the technique activated for too long. Looking at his Qi Energy, which was only a fourth full from his 1 Hour Rest, he could only support Qi Infusion for around a minute at most with full Qi Energy, something he didn't realize the first time, leading to him passing out from lack of Qi from over utilizing the technique, forgetting to turn it off. 

At his realization that he was still tired, he convinced his mother he was okay and went back to sleep. 

He woke up in the morning to learn something very important. It seems that when asleep, his body gradually restores his Qi by taking it from the environment, slowly but surely. 

He got up, but remembered that he was told not to bother Elder Hao until Elder Hao broke through. Taking this chance of free time, he completed all his chores and then decided with nothing else to do, to read the next part of Foundation Breathing. Taking a look at the second part, it was filled with many descriptive and profound words, but could be simplified to a sentence written at the start. 

'The Qi Condensation Realm is the Cultivator Slightly Expanding their Dantian by pushing against its walls and also refining the Qi to be more compact, eventually leading to refining the Qi so compact, you refine it to liquid, which is the breakthrough point to Foundation Establishment.'

Taking this in stride, he spent the rest of the day cultivating, continuously drawing more in Qi, and trying to make it fit in a smaller space, making it just a bit more refined, as such he could hold a bit more, a measly 3% more Qi, but large paths are made of small steps. 

This continued for the next 2 days, increasing Mark's cultivation bit by bit until he felt comfortable in his realm. Out of boredom, he did try to use his Qi techniques once more, but with only tiny improvements. 

On the third day, he suddenly heard a knock on his front door and a couple footsteps before they faded away. Opening the door, he found a letter, something quite rare for him to see. Thinking about it, this was probably from the village elder. 

"What was that knocking Mark?" His Mother, barely awake, questioned.

Quickly thinking of a lie, he quickly replied, "Only one of the neighbors, only something about accidentally trampling his grass or something."

Rubbing his head, with a yawn, she replied, "You got to be more careful, this isn't the first time,"

Smiling awkwardly, he quickly changed the topic, had breakfast, and moved back to his room to read the letter. As he expected, it was a simple letter to tell him that he had broken through Foundation Establishment Peak, and that to come over to his house, bringing his technique books with him. Following the directives, he made his way to Elder Hao's house

Entering, he saw Elder Hao, with a bag by his side, and someone else, older than him, but not by much. 

"You've come, well then, let's head out to my training area." Elder Hao mentioned, then switched to a lower tone staring right at Mark, "Which you've been before," 

Dispelling his stare and low tone he then looked to his side, noticing the situation and the look of confusion on Mark's face. 

"I don't think you've met. Koji, this is my new disciple Mark, who is going to stay here for the village. Mark, this is my son Koji." Elder Hao mentioned, clearly happy with his son. 

"Hello Senior Disciple," Mark bowed. 

Koji returned with a dismissive flick of his hand. 

Elder Hao saw that and explained, "I've been keeping Koji inside for years cultivating, hoping to make sure he isn't arrogant among these mortal villagers, but it seems that has achieved the opposite effect, making him think he is beyond the heavens."

Hearing that from behind, Koji complained, "Father, why stay in this pitiful little village, we are powerful, we could live in the Capital!" 

"Quiet down," Elder Hao replied, "You got your wishes, only another 5 years before we go." 

With that Koji seemed to still be a little bit mad, but remained quiet. 

"That is the future, let's focus on now. Let's go out to the training grounds, I need to teach Mark the basics, and you need to learn the Swift Gale Sword Technique." Hearing that Koji immediately dissipated his annoyed expression for one of happiness, "You finally have a high enough cultivation and now is the right time, you need to be ready once you depart."

Walking out of the house, they made there way to the forest, where despite walking, Elder Hao and Koji managed to be faster than a sprint, causing Mark to run with all of his might to barely catch up, leaving him exhausted, although noticing better stamina than he had before, leaving him in an okay state.

As they arrived there, Mark caught his breath as Elder Hao pulled out some flags from his bag, and set them up at marked points on the ground. As soon as Elder Hao put in the last flag on the ground, Mark immediately felt all of his exhaustion and sweat immediately dissipate. Surprised at the effects, he exclaimed, "What Sorcery!"

Immediately correcting him Elder Hao smacked Mark on the head, not enough to leave damage, but enough to hurt. Although the pain disappeared almost immediately it was still enough to give Mark a jolt.

"You must rise beyond your limited worldview Mark. This is not sorcery, there exists a reason for it. This is cultivation, when something you don't understand happens, don't dismiss it with Sorcery, ask how they did it and with what." Elder Hao disciplined. 

"For example, I made a formation, called the Enhanced Recovery Formation, with Formation Flags, something you would have noticed if you paid attention." 

"Now, I will start training with you Mark, Koji will need my full attention for his technique so I must spend most of my time with him. I will give you what you need to work on and then go help him," Elder Hao explained. 

Hearing these words, Koji went and started meditating over a nearby rock, causing the slight sound of wind to surround him. 

"You must know the reason for these techniques. I hope you are not forced to use them against another but in the path of cultivation, most developed greed. People get changed by the power they hold and are desperate for more. The path of cultivation is mostly a bloody one. This is why you must learn these techniques, to protect yourself from others' greed." Elder Hao guided.

Mark nodded in understanding. 

"Showcase your techniques on that tree," Elder Hao said pointing.

Mark did as told and walked over to the tree. Considering that the Recovery Formation seemed to replenish his Qi, he decided to use the technique that he couldn't use so long before. 

"Qi Infusion" 

Unafraid, he punched the tree as hard as he could. 

"Ow!" Clenching his hand that was in pain, he was confused. 

"You need to manage your Qi Density." Elder Hao guided, "In Qi Infusion, you infused your Qi, but most of it was lost dissipated through your skin as well as too much Qi in the middle of your arm, providing a resistance to breaking your bone but leaving your outer skin too exposed, unable to do anything."

Hearing that, Mark focused, his pain fading away. He slowly used his Qi again, not simply pouring his Qi into his hand, but focusing it on the outside of his hand. Getting ready, he punched again. 

"Qi Infusion!" He said, a bit scared, but much more confident with the technique this time. 

'Thunk' 

Although he still felt a bit of pain, he ignored that, looking at the tree, a centimeter or two now missing from the bark. 

Clearly excited, he laughed, "I did it!"

Elder Hao waited for a moment before commenting, "That was barely the tip of the iceberg, your technique is still highly unrefined." 

Pausing for a moment, Elder Hao continued, "Well moving on, let me see your Qi Arrow."

Mark backed up from the tree, trying to get a stable aim. After a couple of seconds, he held out his hand and, remembering the last technique, imbued the outside of the arrow with Qi, and shot the Golden Qi Arrow forward. Although Mark called it an arrow it was just a mostly straight stick, a few bends here and there.

The Arrow went forward, at a not too swift pace but still made the wind whistle, and crashed into a bush, taking away Mark's happiness with it. 

Elder Hao, looking at the missed arrow, commented, "Well, you seemed to have the right idea, imbuing the outside of the arrow with more Qi, but your poor arrow construction and weight balance makes it highly inaccurate."

Elder Hao paused, "For your arrow construction, it is good to have reference. Take a look at my arrow" 

With that, Elder Hao raised his hand, a Qi Arrow, almost generic, floating above his hand, still. 

Mark walked closer and tried to remember the arrow as well as he could, trying to copy it to great success. It wasn't an exact copy he made, but it was definitely better. 

Still holding the arrow in the air, Elder Hao continued, " For the Qi density, you want to focus most of your Qi on the arrow head, it will give it more power, although it is more likely to break on impact. Although, since the arrow dissipates after, the arrow breaking doesn't matter as long as it hits its target."

"Now watch what a proper Qi Arrow looks like" Elder Hao said pointing out his hand. 

Mark looked over to only see a blur and the sound of a piercing wind, leading to a large crash. Looking at the tree, he walked closer to see a straight hole through the tree, one side to another, and a large hole in the dirt behind it. 

Very excited, he also saw that the Tree and the ground seemed to be repaired, thinking about it, probably due to the Recovery Formation. 

Interrupted from his daydream, Elder Hao called out, "I will not be here to teach you forever. I will help guide but you must advance on your own most of the time. I will leave you here to comprehend what you have learned. I must go help Koji."

With that, Elder Hao walked over to Koji, almost out of sight, Mark only barely being able to see them through the trees. 

Leaving them to his own, Mark started to work on his techniques, focusing on Qi Infusion first, since he thought it would be more helpful than a simple attack. 

After all, strengthening your body could be used for more than punching. 

Testing this theory, Mark tried to infuse his legs with Qi. Taking a second to find the proper pathway, he managed to infuse his legs. Happy at the fact that he realized that his Qi was barely being exhausted due to the Recovery Formation, he tried to jump. 

He managed to jump high, but not too high, since he realized he was heading not straight up, but to the side. 

Landing on the ground, barely shielding his fall with his infused legs, he dispelled Qi Infusion and thought about why he jumped to the side. Thinking about it, he tried to infuse his legs when he realized his mistake.

"I infused too much in one leg," He murmured.

Standing back up, he took extra care to infuse equal amounts of Qi in each leg. Standing back up, he jumped. 

"Woah!" He almost screamed, but remembered Elder Hao, a bit away but his voice could still reach him.

He managed to jump a foot or two higher than he usually could. Almost forgetting about his fall down, he barely managed to grasp his footing back on the ground. Although he landed with a bit of pain. 

"Ow!" He muttered, the inside of his leg hurt from the extended fall. Remembering the lesson before with the Qi Arrow, he figured he didn't infuse enough energy into the inside of his leg, making it more brittle than the outside, allowing him to get injured easier. 

Taking this point into effect, he made sure to infuse enough Qi inside his legs in the future. 

Surprised at this jump, he decided to get better at it. After all, it could be very useful and it's just all around enjoyable to reach higher places. 

Practicing this for about 10 more minutes, he jumped a slight bit higher, just a couple inches, and landed safely and more steadily. 

Deciding not to waste the precious chance of the formation, he moved on to the other techniques.

'Let's get back to what I was originally going to do.' Mark thought, infusing Qi in his arms. 

Taking care to infuse the Qi on mostly the outside, he decided to punch the tree again. 

*Thump*

Hearing an impact, he felt a slight pain in his arm. He then suddenly realized that this could be used to find areas that he didn't infuse enough Qi in. 

Using this technique, he kept changing the amount of Qi in his arms until when he punched, he only felt a numb sensation, not much pain, although he had to decrease the Qi in some areas in order to create a Qi Infusion punch that didn't hurt hitting surfaces at full power. 

Finally after a bit of time, he had an Infusion he was satisfied with. Instead of trying to feel pain, he focused on what he could do with the power first. 

"Qi Infusion," he said, excited to test out the power of his improved punch.

*Thump*

… *Crack*

He hit the tree soundly, managing to crack off a decent bit of the tree bark and even some of the tree wood, not feeling much of any pain. 

Satisfied with his Qi Infusion technique, he moved onto Qi Arrow, using the recovery formation to hopefully make a lot of them. 

Remembering the Qi Arrow from Elder Hao, he tried to create a replica of it, imagining his Qi Arrow forming mostly the same. 

Pointing out his hand, he readied his aim. 

"Qi Arrow," He spoke. 

Out of his palm manifested a golden arrow, a barely pointy arrow tip, a mostly straight arrow, and 3 different length feathers on the bottom. It shot forward towards the tree, barely managing to scrape off the right side, taking off some bark, before embedding itself into the ground, and dissipating. 

Mark continued practicing, making the arrow better and better, to the point it was able to fly straight from his palm and embed itself into the tree.

Right before he was going to launch another arrow he suddenly heard a disturbance. 

*Crack!*

He looked over to the sound, originating from the area Elder Hao and Senior Apprentice Koji were practicing, only to see them, surrounded by bare stumps and many logs and leaves littered on the ground. 

Seeing Mark, Elder Hao waved his hand dismissively, making Mark simply look on in astonishment and eventually make his way back to training. A bit later, Mark suddenly felt the boundless Qi from the Formation disappear and footsteps walking towards him. 

"Mark, we will be leaving now, you may make your way back home. I saw your progress, it was better than expected. If you wish to train further, you can practice here, although the formation will not be set up, too precious to dare loose, this area has higher Qi than normal, leading to better efforts here," Elder Hao spoke. 

"Thank you, Elder Hao," Mark replied.

"Now make your way back home Mark, it gets dangerous here at night if you don't know what you are doing."

Seeing the sky turned slightly dark, Mark abided and made his way back home.