Fallen Star

"I see. Thomas, I'm in no position to lecture you, but let me give you a piece of advice, try not to act with anger on your mind. It'll only cause more problems for you if you do. You can go to class now, I'll write a pass if you need one.

"I'll be fine, my next class is nearby" Thomas said as he began to walk out of the gymnasium.

Thomas then walked to his seventh period class while weaving between the crowds of students in the halls, not caring if he bumped into anyone or not. Yet despite the numerous students who Thomas bumped into, not a single one raised their voice towards him in complaint.

'Can this day just be over with?' Thomas thought as he arrived at his seventh period class.

Thomas then walked into the classroom and let out a deep sigh as he sat in his chair, only to pull out a notebook and pencil a moment later as the bell for class rang.

---

Rinnnnngggg!

'Holy crap that was boring.' Thomas thought as he walked out of his seventh period class after hearing the bell ring.

Despite Thomas's now relaxed attitude because of the boring lesson in seventh period he had just gone through, the fierce look in his eyes from sixth period still remained. Causing a bubble of empty space to be formed around him by the students as he walked to the school's exit.

After getting fed up with how slow the bubble of students around him were walking, Thomas sped up his pace and began to weave between the small gaps between the students.

'I'm starting to regret going through all that training now, because of it everyone seems ten times slower than usual! Just walk faster damn it!' Thomas thought as he arrived at the school's exit.

Thomas then reached into his pocket and grabbed his car keys as he walked out of the school and towards his car.

Unlocking his car before entering the driver's seat, Thomas then started the car's engine and let out a sigh as he waited for the car's engine to warm up.

'Thankfully Master is going to help me absorb the qi from Fallen Star today, otherwise I would have snapped way earlier than fifth period.' Thomas thought as he backed out of the parking spot and began to drive out of the school parking lot.

After driving home and parking his car in the driveway, Thomas got out of his car and walked towards the front door with his house keys in hand.

"Anybody home?" Thomas yelled as he walked into the house and closed the door behind him.

"Yeah!" Lilly exclaimed from across the house.

"What are you up to mom?" Thomas asked as he placed his keys on the keybolder by the door

"Nothing much, just finding something to keep myself entertained since I don't want to go back to Murim right now."

"Ahhh, well I'm going to be doing something with Fallen Star and Myeol Mang. So don't go into my room." Thomas said as he walked across the house and entered his room.

"Sigh… Alright Thomas, good luck with whatever you're doing."

After closing his door behind him and setting his bag down by his desk, Thomas walked over to his bed and reached underneath it to grab Fallen Star.

"Master, are you there?" Thomas said to the empty room as he pulled Fallen Star out from under his bed.

"I am always here. Now, are you ready to begin?" Myeol Mang asked as his body pieced itself together in front of Thomas.

"Yes I am." Thomas replied as he unsheathed Fallen Star.

"Good, now I should warn you before I start teaching you this method, Fallen Star currently has too much qi within it for you to absorb all of it at once."

"So how much of the qi within it will I be able to absorb?"

"Roughly ten percent."

"Ten percent? How many years of qi would that even be?"

"Roughly thirty years worth of qi."

"...."

"...."

"What?"

"Ten percent of the total qi within Fallen Star would roughly be thirty years of qi. Do you not believe me?"

"I find it hard to believe that ten percent of the total qi within Fallen Star is thirty years of qi. You're basically telling me that there's three hundred years of qi within Fallen Star, while also telling me that I'm not ready to absorb three hundred years worth of qi yet."

"That is precisely what I'm telling you, and why do you find it so hard to believe? What reason might I have to lie to you?"

"I don't think you're lying, I just find it hard to believe that that much qi got absorbed into the sword. I mean my mom and grandpa haven't used the sword in ages but I didn't expect that much qi to be within it."

"The amount of qi within it is partially because of you Thomas."

"What do you mean?"

"The first realization you had, it played a factor in increasing the qi within Fallen Star."

"I… What?! Screw it, I'm done trying to figure this out, can I start learning how to absorb the qi now?"

"Sure, sit down on the floor in a lotus position and place your hands on the blue part of the sword."

"Alright, now what?" Thomas replied as he placed his hands on Fallen Star.

"Now, slowly bring your internal energy from your dantian to your palms, then once you've gathered a decent amount of internal energy in your palms, attach the energy to the qi within Fallen Star and begin pulling it back into your dantian."

As Thomas gathered his qi within his palms, Myeol Mang walked around him and placed his hands on Thomas's back.

"What are you doing, Master?"

"Focus on bringing your internal energy to your palms, I'm just going to help the flow within your body when you start absorbing the qi."

After several minutes of flowing the internal energy from his dantian to his palms, Thomas then started to combine his internal energy with the qi within Fallen Star and began to pull the qi into his dantian.

As the qi from within Fallen Star traveled up Thomas's arm, a deep hue appeared around his arm and followed the flow of qi.

"Thomas, this part is going to hurt for a moment, endure the pain for as long as possible."

"Yes Master."

A ripple of qi then shot through his back and through the veins and meridians across most of Thomas's body.

"Kuaaak!"

"Hold on Thomas, the pain won't last much longer. Just focus on bringing the qi into your dantian."

Yet as Thomas continued to drag the qi from Fallen Star into his dantian, a ripple of qi shot up his veins and into his chest.

"KUAKK!

"Thomas! Do not move or else it will hurt more!" Myeol Mang exclaimed as a crimson red liquid began to leak out of his mouth and nose.

Yet as Thomas continued to groan in agony as more and more blood slowly flowed out of his mouth and nose, the glowing blue line of energy on Fallen Star grew ever so slightly dimmer.

But as the line of energy continued to grow dimmer that the pain within Thomas's whole body began to dissipate, and the blood flowing out of his mouth and nose hardened around his lips.

"Quickly, begin using the Foundations of Heaven and Earth!"

Yet it was as Thomas began to use the Foundations of Heaven and Earth that Lilly burst into the room.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

"Lilly be quiet! He'll enter Qi Deviation if you don't!"

"Fine, let's go into the Transcendental Path, we can discuss what's going on there." Lilly responded before her head slowly drooped.

"I'll be back soon, keep using the Foundations of Heaven and Earth." Myeol Mang said as his body disintegrated from the room.

"Hoooooooooo….."

As Thomas continued to use the Foundations of Heaven and Earth, as spark of qi from within his dantian then engulfed his dantian and began to compress it.

"Haaaaaaaaaahh…."

That spark of qi then slowly began to let the qi within it flow up and through Thomas's veins and meridians, expunging the black blood stuck at the bottom of his veins through his skin as it continued to flow throughout his entire body.

'Why are there two spots not receiving any qi?' Thomas thought to himself as he felt the qi circulating through his body reach all but the back of his neck and his tailbone.

Thomas began to circulate a portion of the qi from his dantian towards his conception meridian. Yet it was as the qi began to enter the conception meridian that he was interrupted by a hand being placed on his shoulder.

"Do not attempt to flow qi into that meridian or the one near the back of your neck, just focus on the rest of your body for now."

Thomas slowed the Foundations of Heaven and Earth to a stop within his body and stood up and looked Myeol Mang in the eyes.

"What did you do?"

"What do you mean? I did several things while you were absorbing the qi from Fallen Star."

"What did you do when you said the next part would hurt? I felt a ripple of qi shoot through my back and into my veins and meridians. Then after that the qi being removed from Fallen Star became more violent and started destroying my veins!"

"Ahh that, I injected some of this body's qi into your body and began removing the small amount of turbid qi and toxic materials left in your veins that the Transcendental Path wouldn't normally be able to remove."

"And so you ruptured several of my veins to do that?! I could have died!"

"You wouldn't have died, I used the Transcendental Path's power to heal your body back to perfect condition after I flushed all of the turbid qi and toxic materials out of your veins and meridians."

"Well you could have told him that before you did it at least!" Lilly exclaimed as she placed her hand on Thomas's shoulder and stood next to him.

"Lilly, we had this conversation in the Transcendental Path. Thomas did this of his own volition, he wanted to absorb the energy within Fallen Star and so I merely taught him how to."

"I don't think you forcing his veins and meridians to burst is 'helping him'!"

"Sigh… Fine, it's obvious you don't want me here right now so I'll leave you two alone for a while. But you'll be thanking me later for what I did." Myeol Mang said coldly as his body disintegrated from within Thomas's room.