Competition 2 (V): The Enlightenment

[Any random idiot cam swing a sword, smarter idiots can hurt or even kill with it. But it takes a very special kind of person to wield it. The art of the sword, is the art of all weapons. If you know how to wield a sword, then using a spear, a saber, or a dagger becomes easy. The only thing that would be hard for you would be a bow, and that is why the bow is the only real rival of the sword, it's not the saber or the spear, it's the bow.

Some people learn to wield a sword, growing in familiarity with the blade until it becomes a part of them. But the path of learning how to wield a sword is different for many people, some choose to subjugate the Emperor of all weapons, others want to coax and serve it, and while the true lucky few, want it to become a part of themselves, mind, body and soul. Some people are born for it, destined to wield it better than even the best swordsmen, warriors who have trained for hundreds of years just to get to their currently level of mastery. It might seem unfair, but the world favors and it doesn't. But as for those who are born for the sword, there is only one way you can truly recognize them...…..and that's when you see your death nestled within their eyes.]

Kong Shi Tian.

Left Minister Of The Empire Of Heaven

Alex was being tortured, he couldn't help the feeling that his father was punishing for accepting to being trained by his uncle for the competition. But it was not really his fault, his father should have known that Alex would not have come out of that room the same way, his view of the world would change and so would his heart. He loved his father, but he was not going to let past matters stop him from gaining something, when it's offered to him on a platter of gold.

He did not agree with the philosophy of the cultivation world, he had to believe there was good and rationality within the fabric of that reality, a sense of normalcy bred from consequences and conscience. But even if he did not agree, most of what it believes in is true, and while Alex would try his best to be a good person, he had no intention of being a saint.

But even then he wasn't really sure about his future, Alex knew fourteen was much to young an age to be bothered about his beliefs and approach towards life. But this world, as amazing as it was, had no room for childhoods, unless your parents were powerful enough to afford you such a luxury.

Every child had to grow, and grow as fast as possible. The legal and marriageable age of maturity was sixteen and seventeen in most colonies, only the few countries still standing and left untouched by the colonization of the heavens empire, could still afford to let their teens get to eighteen before they could be considered adults.

This was a world of men and women, not boys and girls. And with a past and ancestry as complex as his; Alex knew he, more than anyone else had to grow quickly and smartly. That would probably be the only way he would have a say in his own life and future.

"Stop day dreaming Alex! I need you to focus." Ben's voice cut through his thoughts.

Zhang Wuyang was sitting a few dozen meters away, leisurely reading a book as his attendants read out a report to him. Alex on the other hand was in a rather precarious position. When he had chosen to learn how to use the sword, he had thought all he had to do was learn to swing the sword and move his feet in some fancy way, but the hell he and Anya were currently going through right now, threw his entire perception of swordsmanship out the window.

"Using a sword is not about fancy movements and elegant swings. In fact a master could kill a thousand people with just one swing of his sword, and it would be a casuals one at that. The sword is not called the emperor of weapons for nothing, it's true power lies in the fact that it forces you to use everything and nothing at the same time.

To properly use a sword, muscle, breathing, technique, Qi, strength, speed, movements, eyesight, smell, hearing, feeling and even taste would come into play. Each of them working with the other like a well oiled machine to bring about a destructive force that could be released with just an elegant strike, or a simple chop from a blade. But to first learn about any Weapon, Alex and you too Anya, have to learn endurance, persistence and faith.

Which is why you're both hanging upside down with you weapons serving as your support. You have to trust in your weapons to hold you, and you have to last long enough to earn the trust of your weapons. They have to acknowledge you." Ben said as he watched both teenagers hanging upside down, with their weapons planted on the sand covered ground below them.

"Looks like your ingenuity with training, as well as your perception about weapons and skills have not dulled this fourteen years you chose to be a simple painter. I expected nothing less from the Analyst. Such a shame, you would have really made a great elder of the sect. You know Ben it's not too late to.....…."

"There's no such person as the Analyst Zhang Wuyang!, if there was, then he's already dead. There's only Ben, father, soccer coach, and now teacher to this two wonderful children."

Alex felt his eye twitch, he was in pain here, it had only been thirty minutes, but hanging upside down with your hands on the hilt of your swords as they were planted beside a river bank was not a walk in the park. Yet this two grown men are having a special episode of whatever drama show they were currently staring in. Then Anya asked a question.

"Permit me to ask, but how do we know that we've received the acknowledgement of our weapons." It was Zhang Wuyang who answered.

"that would be when your weapon starts holding you up, rather than relying on the strength of your arms to keep yourself upright."

"Oh! Thank you very much, that was soooo helpful!" Anya answered sarcastically.

"Alex I challenge you, my scythe is going to acknowledge me first, you want to make a bet." Anya suddenly said as she looked at Alex with a teasing smile on her face.

Alex knew what she was doing, he knew she was playing with his head, but this was Alex's fatal flaw. He could never resist or say no to a challenge, it was in his blood, in his heart and in his mind. The only time he ever showed or did his best, was when the stakes were high or against him. He lived for this. He looked at Alex, and just said two words.

"You're on!"

A few steps from them, Zhang Wuyang came close to Ben and whispered to him.

"Do you think we should tell them that evolving weapons only acknowledge their owners when that person is in the true element realm at most, and at the open dantian realm at least." Ben shook his head as he whispered back.

"No let them compete, failure will be a good lesson for them, and besides, they might pull of a miracle."

Alex took a deep breath and focused, the smell of the Niger river beside him invigorated his body as he felt his mind become sharpened with a singular focus. His arms were shaking, but he chose not to pay any attention to it as he focused he gaze on the swords below him.

His legs felt numb and his head heavy as all the blood in his body had rushed there. But he was not worried about it, West Wind and East Cloud had all of his focus and he tried to feel and communicate with both swords.

But he was not really sure how this worked, so he just took deep breaths and focused on them, choosing not to care about the current discomfort his body was currently experiencing.

Sweat dripped down from his body, past his neck, all the way to his forehead where it hung precariously waiting for it's moment to fall. Alex felt the whole world slow down, it was still but not silent. He could hear the wind moving, and even with it's movement Alex could have sworn he heard voices, thousands of them, whispering, singing, talking and shouting. Each unique sound a frequency exposed to him in the stillness of the moment.

He had lost his perception of the entire world, with the only focus being his swords in his eyes, and the wind in his ears. Everything in his body had become completely still, even the perspiration on him had stopped moving, even his heartbeat was still, as was his breathing. Alex was stuck in a moment in time, the whole world went on ahead, but he was left behind, frozen in contemplation and enlightenment.

Then the sound of the wind in his ears took on different pitches, the voices, the echoes. They came in waves, and sometimes in streams. There was a vibration to it, each of them shook as they hid within the wind, relying on it to carry them across to Alex. And Alex was stuck in that moment, living a loop of sounds and vibrations over and over again, listening to the very voice of the earth, and it's occupants. And then his heart skipped a beat, and everything sped up once again.

The hours he had spent frozen on those swords quickly caught up to him as his hands lost power and he fell to the ground. But at that moment the swords in his hands shifted themselves, the movement was so imperceptible that unless you knew what you were looking for and had a good eyesight you wouldn't have seen it. The swords shifting their position made his soon to be very painful fall onto the sand covered river bank, a mild and simple one.

Alex felt so exhausted, that he had to let out huge gasps of air, as he struggled to a sitting position, using the swords in his hands as a crutch. He looked up and was surprised to see the moon in the sky as darkness seems to have fallen. Looking at how dark it was, it was past eight pm or almost nine.

He had been stuck on those swords for the whole day. He turned his head to see Anya, his father and uncle staring at him like they had just seen a monster. Alex was perplexed by their looks so he had to ask, what happened. The reply he received shocked him to the point of unconsciousness as his fatigue caught up to him. And just before his eyes went shut he replayed what Anya just told him.

"Alex! You've been hanging over that sword for three days."