Stone Fist

The gruesome massacre had long ended, and the triad resumed their journey. Within the carriage, the Guard and Huo Fenhua chatted. Huo Fenhua learned of many small things, but most importantly learned of the guard's name and why the guard did not use such explosive strength from the beginning. The former's answer was Lin Zun. The latter was to lure the bandits out of the forest, decreasing the number of escapees.

Huo Fenhua spent the next hour or two pestering Lin Zun with constant questions, to which Lin Zun patiently answered. "Senior Lin, why do you work for Elder Ma when you've nearly reached the Limit Breaker stage? You're very powerful," Huo Fenhua asked him. Then for a brief moment, he hesitated to think if to continue. "Nobody in that small city could fight back if you or your family wanted to take over." He said as his voice wavered.

Lin Zun glanced at the kid and let out a subtle chuckle as he answered, "Not only is it immoral to do so, but it would be foolish..." His voice became slightly serious towards the end as he let that sink in before he continued, "There are many that play the weak to catch the strong. Waiting, observing when to and when not to strike."

Thoughts about what Lin Zun had said, considering who or what could be the bigger fish behind the scenes, calmly filled Huo Fenhua's mind.

Lin Zun spoke again, "As for why I work for Brother Ma, his late grandfather had once rescued our current patriarch from the Temple of Yelhim. While this should be insider knowledge, no harm in telling Haoyu's kid, especially since your karma is untainted."

The words rung in Huo Fenhua's head as he attempted to understand the information further. Primarily the comment about karma. It did not make sense that a warrior from a small city, who can't even manipulate qi, would be capable of detecting karma. Unless an even more prominent force behind his family existed. Enlightenment materialized in Huo Fenhua's eyes as he inquired, "Are you hinting that your family is under a much larger force, and if you took the city over, the enemies of the larger force would target you?"

Lin Zun grinned with stupefaction in his eyes as he responded with a cheery tone, "No."

"The city is already under the reign of a mighty individual from the shadows. A prophecy of a treasure that was to form here, bringing an abundance of qi to this city, is why they are here. I'm telling you this because this secret doesn't matter to my family as long it doesn't reach the hands of our enemies. Maybe you're a prodigy who in a year will be strong enough to claim it yourself." Lin Zun laughed after the last part.

Still dejected from his flat-out wrong answer, he nodded without looking up and thanked him for the information. Lin Zun half laughed at the boy's behavior and comforted him.

With that, the daytime had ended, and the night had begun to fall. With everything taken care of, Huo Fenhua proceeded to sleep.

…

Within a dream, Huo Fenhua stood in an empty expanse of black. He sighed and spoke to the darkness, "This dream again… tsk, repeating itself yearly."

Colors in the form of specks of glowing light appeared, filling the emptiness with many bright stars. The stars vanished seconds later, and replacing them was the silhouette of three men unfamiliar to the boy.

There was a man who held a miniature sun in his hand. There was a man with an oppressive aura, even if he was not truly there. Lastly, there was a man whose silhouette had a bit of color, eyes gleaming purple.

Despite their entire figures, besides the purple eyes, naturally blending into the black expanse, Huo Fenhua could discern each of their bodies' contours and features. The man with the sun made the sun vanish and put out a hand as if it were to ask Huo Fenhua to join him. The second man made his oppressive aura vanish and mirrored the first man's actions. The last one only stared at Huo Fenhua with a look of understanding.

Space then cracked as the third teleported away. The two remaining stood motionless like sculptures, the spatial cracks not daring to approach them.

Then Huo Fenhua woke up.

…

As he awoke, Huo Fenhua noticed he no longer sat up. Instead, he laid down while a blanket covered him. 'Senior Lin must've slept outside to let me sleep comfortably…' Huo Fenhua thought, incredibly appreciative of the action. His head peeked outside the carriage and saw the Driver and Lin Zun sparring with wooden weapons. Lin Zun was obviously suppressing his strength.

The Driver tried his hardest with every move performed, and Lin Zun flawlessly countered it. Each time he swung his sword, Lin Zun would redirect it, making the bearer of the sword suffer the consequences of it. It continued until Lin Zun chose to end the fight with his sword hitting the Driver directly in the chest. The hit landed the Driver on the ground. Lin Zun then outstretched his hand and lifted the Driver up.

"You did well, Brother Hei Rongxi. How about we wrap up our sparring for today, our junior seems to have awoken." Lin Zun said, looking over to the head and peeking out the door. The Driver, Hei Rongxi, nodded and quickly stood to give a slight bow to the same man who had brought him to the ground seconds earlier.

Lin Zun made his way to the inside of the carriage after placing the swords away. After he had done so, the carriage began to move once again. Lin Zun's attention was now on Huo Fenhua, who, after noticing the battle was over, chose to meditate. "Fenhua." Lin Zun spoke, causing the one he addressed to open his eyes. "Do you want to learn The Nine Meditative Gates technique just in case your cultivation talent is only so-and-so?"

Huo Fenhua's eyes sparkled upon seeing this lucky encounter, quickly nodded in agreement as he readily said yes.

Clearing his throat, Lin Zun began his instruction, "To begin, I'll first tell you of the realms for a Martial Artist. Body Tempering, Body Forger, Blood Qi, Limit Breaker, Vital Body, and Reborn Body."

"Body Tempering well tempers the body through meditation and practicing martial arts, which passively activates the blood qi in your body. It is more of a preparation stage since it can still be an easy loss against normal people. Next is Body Forger, which boils the blood qi from the previous stage to burn the impurities in the body, primarily the heart." Lin Zun paused here to let Huo Fenhua absorb the new knowledge, and when he felt enough time had passed, he spoke again.

"Anything past this realm is something I won't disclose yet, but know a the Body Forger realm is similar to Qi Formation Cultivator in strength. However, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the Martial Artist loses."

This info was quickly committed to memory as Fenhua awaited learning how to embark upon the journey of Martial Arts. Lin Zun would not disappoint his expectations. "First, you must learn the Nine Meditative Gates technique and at least one of the skills. When we get to the city, I will ask one of my sworn brothers for a physical copy of the technique for you to own; For now, I'll guide you through the steps."

Lin Zun then jumped out of the carriage with a careless smile. Running at the same pace as the carriage, he asked Hei Rongxi to stop the carriage. To which he begrudgingly did.

From outside the carriage, Lin Zun yelled, "Come on outside, keep all your accessories and items inside the carriage." Huo Fenhua took off the necklace around his neck and the bag by his side and placed it inside the carriage. He then quickly made his way outside the carriage.

Lin Zun then returned to his instructions, "Good, good, now sit down," Lin Zun pointed to a black circle with symbols around it on the ground. It all looked like paint. Huo Fenhua quickly sat and shut his eyes, trusting his Senior Lin. Lin Zun placed his hand on Fenhua's head, and the black circle and symbols lit up red. A blue tinge appeared as Hei Rongxi positioned his hand on Lin Zun's back.

"Fenhua, this here is a formation used for transferring information. Courtesy of Brother Hei Rongxi. It will be enough information to get you to Body Forger Realm, no further." Lin Xun explained, quelling Fenhua's thoughts that this is how he dies.

The formation was lit up for 40 seconds before its dissipation began, leaving nothing remaining. Fenhua wasted no time and immediately began to use the meditation technique. He manually took over his breath, each breath done with intent. Lin Xun continued his teaching, "Once you get the breathing right, begin trying to sense the Blood Qi leave your heart. Then quickly get into the stone fist skill's position when you can sense it. It may take a-."

As Lin Xun's voice trailed off, Fenhua stood up and entered the position using the Stone Fist skill[1]. His legs moved apart, causing his thighs to parallel the ground. His feet pointed forward, flatly planted on the slightly soft ground. His back kept straight, with his knees slightly forward to counteract the balance. Both fists were clenched and placed to the side of his ribs and the palm facing upward. Fenhua took in a powerful inhale as he did this. Then a powerful exhale as he punched his left arm outwards and rotated it mid-punch; The palm was now facing the ground. His torso turned so his left arm would be forward, while his right fist followed the rotation of the torso. During this, he firmly planted his lower body into the ground.

It was all done in one slow and smooth motion. Huo Fenhua took a deep breath inward and began to bring his left arm back to its initial state, and began to punch outwards with the right arm. As the punch completed, Huo Fenhua released another powerful exhale. As Huo Fenhua cycled through this, he felt the Blood Qi move from his heart to the navel and the navel to his tendons and muscles.

He also felt the Blood Qi was traveling through his blood to arrive where it needed to be. It felt as if almost any power that came from this technique, which wasn't much since this wasn't the part used for fighting, came from the Blood Qi that seemed to reach his knuckles that only hit the air.

After about the 100th punch that signified he had been holding the position for 3 minutes, he stepped out of his stance and lost more than a bit of control over his breathing.

Lin Zun seeing Huo Fenhua had now given up, smiled and clapped as he spoke with praise, "That was excellent! Most people wouldn't get the position right first try, let alone sense the Blood Qi so quickly. Not yet prodigy level, but definitely talented for sure."

[Word Count: 1848]