Chapter 2: First Training
[STUDY OF THE ART OF QI AS POTRAYED BY THE INVADERS IS QUITE PECULIAR INDEED. AND WHILE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR ANCESTRAL ARTS AND CUSTOMS ARE BEING PURGED, I DO NOT DESPAIR FOR I SEE A BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS FUTURE FOR US, A FUTURE WHERE OUR OWN METHODS AND BELIEFS WILL CREATE OUR VERY OWN BRAND OF MARTIAL ARTS AND CULTIVATION. SO I HAVE SET OUT TO STUDY THEIR WAYS, LEARNING FROM THEIR MASTERS IN HUMILITY AS WE ALL SOUGHT TO UNLOCK THE LIMITS OF THE HUMAN BODY AND KNOCK ON THE GATES OF IMMORTALITY ITSELF.]
BARTHOLOMEW ÁLĒ.
This book was more like a diary than a manual, a diary that could get Alex a date with the executioner. His ancestor was crazy, he had big dreams that was for sure, but a cultivation system would take thousands of years to make and refine. It was common knowledge that Qi and cultivators have existed for thousands of years longer than was believed to be. Qi and all it's related compendium became open knowledge in the 1600, that was when mankind truly became conversant with the hidden world that only a lucky few could ever had a chance of living in.
But then here comes an ancestor intending to take everything ever learnt, then reforge and make it into his own image, essentially cementing his name in history as the greatest man to have walked out of the dark continent, or a heretic that had his head cut of by the royal family. Alex had no idea how profound this book was, but it's opening words were already damning enough.
Alex turned to the next page where a training method for the body refining realm, and along with it, was another diary entry.
[ THE BODY REFINING REALM IS THE FIRST OF THE MORTAL GATE, AND THE VERY FIRST STEP ANY MORTAL COULD TAKE IN THE JOURNEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT AND IMMORTALITY. SO FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, THIS REALM IS MEANT TO STRAIN AND PUSH THE HUMAN BODY TO THE VERY EDGE AND PEAK OF ITS LIMITS. IT IS A JOURNEY TO FIND AND CREATE THE PERFERCT MORTAL BODY. BUT LIKE EVERYTHING IN CULTIVATION, THE BODY REFINING REALM HAS A REASON AND A GOAL. AND THAT GOAL COULD BE SUMMED UP IN ONE WORD; FOUNDATION. THE BODY REFINING REALM IS THE GROUND ON WHICH THE FOUNDATION FOR IMORTALITY IS BUILT. YOU CAN NOT BECOME IMMORTAL IF YOUR MORTAL BODY CANNOT HANDLE DIVINITY. AS SUCH THE BODY REFINING REALM INCREASES THE LIMIT OF A MORTAL BODY FOR TRANSFORMATION INTO THE IMMORTAL BODY. AND THAT IS WHY I HAVE CREATED MY (SKY PYTHON SWIMS IN WATER) BODY REFINING TECHNIQUE.]
He went on to explain how the (SKY PYTHON SWIMS IN WATER) technique really worked. It lay on the basic muscles and components of a snake's body, and in particular a python. Alex pulled a long face because of all the things he was terrified of the most in this world, it was snakes. Now he had to learn how to fight like one.
The refining method required one to train every muscle in their body, so that it could be as strong as a pythons, but also as nimble as a viper. It was a balanced skill that emphasized on having strength, speed, and grace. Hence the swimming in water and sky part of the techniques name. There was a slew of body postures and instructions to go with them, at the sight of the first one Alex's eyeballs shrunk in fright. What was this mad man thinking, was he trying to kill his subsequent descendants or something. With the way this exercise looked, Alex wondered how his father had survived practicing it till the open dantian realm.
[THIS TECHNIQUE CAN BE PRACTICED FOR AS LONG AS ONE IS A MARTIAL ARTIST, THE GAIN HOWEVER WOULD ONLY BE OBVIOUS IN THE BODY REFINING REALM, AFTER THAT IT COULD BE SUPLEMENTED FOR A BETTER TECHNIQUE. IT CAN STILL BE PRACTICED BUT WITH A LESS NOTICEABLE GAIN. TAKE NOTE THIS TECHNIQUE IS NOT COMPLETE, AT LEAST I DON'T THINK IT IS, THERE'S STILL A POSSIBILITY OF IMPROVING IT TO A HIGHER GRADE. SO TO MY FUTURE DESCENDANTS OR STUDENTS, IT IS UP TO YOU TO PERFECT MY FIRST AND ONLY(SOMEWHAT) COMPLETE TECHNIQUE.]
Alex blinked his eyes, and then he blinked them again. He could not help but begin to curse very loudly from the north to the south, insulting Bartholomew and every ancestor before him for spawning such and unconventional idiot that only left a legacy which would get his descendants killed. But there was nothing he could do, before today his father had forbidden him from learning martial arts or any fighting skills at all.
Not to mention they were not wealthy enough to have Alex go to the local martial arts academy, so he had to go to the normal village school and learn normal stuff.
"Well what choice do I have."
Alex muttered to himself.
The first exercise required Alex to have really thick ropes entwined all over his body while he was hanging from a tree with both his hands and legs spread wide in an X form. The rope was connected in such a way that if he moved his hands, his legs and abdomen would suffer from the ropes biting into his flesh, if he moved his legs, his arms, chest and neck would suffer from the ropes. He had to stay completely still in such a precarious position, and to be honest, it was more pain than he could handle.
Within a period of three days, Alex had been able to adapt to the exercise and had to move on to the next one. For the next one he was required to tie a huge rock to his feet and throw it into a rapidly flowing river, it was up to him to fight the pull of the rock and the currents by stressing and flexing his muscles.
It was a long week of pain and torture, but with even his aching limbs and shortened breath, Alex was able to notice the increase in strength, speed and flexibility, he was like a dancer or something. Which now brought Him to the third part of his training. He had to take in Qi to consolidate and increase his foundation. All this training that he had just gone through could be considered as digging the foundation, now adding Qi into his body was like adding cement and solidifying his foundation, which meant unless he was seriously injured or poisoned, what ever stage he trained his body to, it would not regress. And that was the mysteriousness of Qi.
Because normally if you trained and exercised, and then you stopped keeping your body fit, then everything you had trained for would be lost. Qi made your body remain in its most optimal and healthy state.
Alex did not have a Qi cultivation technique of any sort, and he was much to afraid for his life and future cultivation to try anything from his ancestor's book. An incomplete cultivation manual if practiced, could cause serious damage.
So without any technique, all Alex was left with was breathing and meditating. Even though martial arts had been somewhat of a taboo in their house, Alex had taken every opportunity he could get to learn and study about the Wulin (martial world) as much as he could.
Meditation was an art that preceded cultivation, in fact it was through this method that people got to discover Qi. But after the discovery of Qi Meditation evolved into what was now known as cultivation arts and internal martial arts. But for people like Alex who did not have access to cultivation arts, it was obvious they had to fall back to the father of all cultivation art, meditation.
Alex has been able to get himself to the mid stage of the first level of the body refining realm. Just by being alive, that was a feat in itself which meant that for the whole of his life, Alex had a body that would increase in cultivation, just by him existing. Now if all these could happen unconsciously, what then would happen when he meditated intentionally.
Alex sat beneath a tree in the backyard of their quaint family house. It used to be what one would consider the house of a common guard, but the Ale family line had fallen from grace until it was only Alex and his father. They took the name Matthews as penance for not being strong and worthy enough to carry the family name. So until such a time as either he or his father could make that name prestigious again, they were not worthy of being known by it.
The tree had served as his torturer for the past week, but it has also been here since his great grandfather was a boy, apparently it was planted by the same maniac who made the python diary.
Alex positioned himself under the tree and closed his eyes, he tired to open his senses and body to the essence of life in the air, to Qi. Since this was the first time Alex had no idea how to truly identify the feeling one got when they came in contact with Qi. So he took a deep breath, and the world around him went haywire.
His body was like a starving man who had seen food for the first time in a month. His pores were open, and the hair on his skin and head were standing up as if he had been shocked by electricity, his muscles tightened as they spasms and contracted according to the rhythm of his breathing.
As for Alex himself he had no idea what was going on outside his body, because within himself he could see a light, it was the character for wind, written in the literary symbol of the empire of heaven. Alex recognized this symbol, after all it was a part of the name his mother gave him. Zhang Xiao Feng, that was his name, or the name given from one side of his lineage. His father had named him Alex ÉléójòÁlè Matthews. But he had chose to discard his full name from both sides, choosing what worked best for him. Hence his name became Alex Feng Matthews.
The light pulsed three times then dispersed into little dots that formed letters. It was a letter, and from the looks of it, it was written by his mother. Alex was shocked, normally he should not be able to look into his soul until he got to the heavens gate of cultivation, however his mother was so powerful that she could leave a message in his soul, and made it so, that he would be able to read it the very first moment he consciously came in contact with Qi.
[My Son, My Sweet Little Boy. I'm Sorry I Couldn't Raise You, But This Is How The World Works. There Are Matters And Responsibilities Greater Than Me Being Your Mother. And I Know How Painful It Sounds To Hear That I Chose Duty Over You My Son But I Didn't Have A Choice, But I Hope Sometime In The Future You'll Come To Understand. If
You're Lucky And Blessed With Talent, Then Finding Me Would Not Be To Hard For You, If Not Then Just Work Hard And Try Your Best To Live Your Life The Way It's Supposed To Be. I Gave You Up So That You Can Have A Chance In Choosing Your Own Destiny So That You Can Be Safe. But If You Come After Me, You Will Be Subjected To The Same Responsibility And Duty As I Was, So Come Prepared. Tell Your Father I Love Him, As Of The Time You're Reading This Letter I Doubt I Would Still Have A Place In His Heart. The World Says I Have Loved A Lot Of Men In My Over Hundred And Fourty Years Of Existence, But Whether That Be True Or Not, None Of Them Gave Me The Joy And Peace Of Living A Good Life. Your Father Made Me See And Truly Understand What It Meant To Be Alive, And For That I Thank Him. I Love You My Son, And I Pray And Look Forward To The Day You Would Join Your Elder Sister And Me. We're Waiting For You Here, At Your Home. Come Find Us At The Wudang Mountains, That Is Your True Home.]
Seriously, how was this woman raised. Who would tell their son that their father was just a bus stop in their long line of flings. Not to mention he had a sister. But before Alex could ponder the message any deeply, he heard the sound of thundering booms within his body, as his body shook from the impact. He felt as if walls were being broken, while massive blocks were being thrown on the foundations he made. This time Alex was more conscious of what was going on in his body. His muscles pulled and strained, then expanded and contracted. He felt his bones creaking as they absorbed Qi in massive amounts. The thundering booms were now within his head, as Alex felt like someone was banging a war hammer on his body.
A small whirlwind had formed with Alex at the center, with the Qi in his immediate vicinity being funneled through it, and into his body. His father ran out in surprise at the sudden change in the area, there was shock written all over his face by the amount of Qi his son was absorbing at the moment.
"Second level of the body refining realm!"
"peak stage of the second level of body refining realm"
"mid stage of the third level of the body refining realm."
"fourth level of the body refining realm, oh ancestors above what is going on."
Alex's father could not say anything as he was speechless with shock. He knew his son was talented, but this was just inhuman. He consecutively broke through three levels in less than thirty seconds. If the great sects in the east heard about this, forget Wudang, every single one of them will fight over him, even the reclusive Shaolin temple would want to have him. At that moment, he did not know whether to be happy and proud of his son, or scared of his talent and for his safety.
Eventually the wind dispersed to reveal a passed out Alex. It was not surprising as most people were always overwhelmed the first time they cultivated, it was even more so for Alex who broke through multiple levels in such a short time. Ben went and picked his son up ignoring the stench and foul black liquid escaping from his body. His eyes narrowed as he muttered to himself.
"Mid stage of the fifth level of body refining realm."
"it is what it is my son."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Anone
Anone I couldn't resist popping out an extra chapter, it was mainly to see if I could get any reaction, so if you liked what you read, then tell me by reviewing, commenting, rating and don't forget voting. If there's more reception for this novel than my other two, then I might consider putting more emphasis on it. But that's all up to you readers, so show your support.
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