章 12: Chapter 12

After he entered the room, he continued talking with his friends for a while about the match, worldbuilding, and their lives. A few hours later, he left William's house.

The rest of the day went by without anything important happening, or at least, nothing important in the outside world.

In Axel's inner world, things began to change at a fast pace.

After Uno's victory over the beast, Yuoko village grew until it absorbed the rest of the villages on its island, as it had the strength to survive and protect its people from the attacks of the mutated beasts.

Generations passed, and the population grew in number until it reached the thousands.

As time passed, new customs appeared and society changed little by little in a way that those who were capable cultivators saw their social position rise, while those who didn't have talent became little by little less and less important.

Because of this, only those who demonstrated their talent and had reached a certain skill level were able to participate in the big hunts or explore the most dangerous places on the island, while the others were relegated to serving those in power.

One of those important people was Aiden, a 17-year-old boy and the son of the current chief of the village. Since he was young, he had demonstrated great talent, being able to clean his dantian a year ago.

This alone was a great feat, as most people managed to do it around 20 years old, but since he managed to obtain this breakthrough, his improvements slowed so much that he was almost at the same point as a year ago.

"Bad, very bad!" Aiden's father shouted while hitting him with a wooden stick in the right leg.

Aiden tried to endure his father's hits, but he wasn't able to hide his pain, and a little wince appeared on his face. Even so, he held firmly onto his spear and tried to make his father not notice it.

"I thought you would be a genius after you cleaned your dantian, yet you haven't made even the smallest advance in your cultivation since then. You aren't even able to use the most basic martial technique. "

Skillfully, Aiden continued to practice his exercises while his father walked around him, trying to spot any mistakes that Aiden could make and correct them with his wooden stick.

While putting down his weapon, his father expressed disappointment."I guess I had high expectations for you. After all, even the brainless beasts of the suburbs can break through from time to time. "

When he saw his father doing this, Aiden breathed a sigh of relief as he knew that today's practice was already over as the sun was already setting. Without saying anything, his father began to walk towards their home, but when he was about to enter, he stopped.

"Today you are going to stay awake practicing all night," he said without looking back. "If you aren't able to progress with the time you expend practicing, we are going to need to extend your training even longer until you finally begin to get better."

After that, Aiden's father entered the house, and when he was sure he wasn't being watched, he let his spear fall as he sat on the ground and inspected the bruises created by his father all over his body.

Because their house was the biggest in the village, they had a little training ground in the garden that consisted of a circle floor made of stone with a few training dummies made of straw and wood, where he would spend most of the time cultivating and learning new techniques from his father. Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen because, in the end, Aiden had been unable to master any technique since he cleaned his dantian.

If the first step in the world of cultivation was to clean one's dantian from impurities, making it usable for energy absorption, the next step would be to learn how to use that newly available energy to empower one's offensive or defense. These techniques were called "martial arts."

When one was finally able to make use of this energy, the next step would be to absorb energy and fuse it with his dantian so it could grow and contain more energy. When the dantian grew large enough, it would compress itself, increasing the purity and power of the energy that it could absorb and contain.

Even if the existence of martial arts was widely known at that time, most people weren't able to learn any of them, either because of a lack of talent or because they didn't have access to any, as martial arts soon became secret and were mostly monopolized by the bigger families.

"Maybe I should rest a bit. A tired mind doesn't work as well, and walking a bit could help me get inspired by my surroundings. " Aiden thought while standing up.

After that, he took his spear again and left the house's garden while thinking about the techniques that his father tried to teach him.

"Father always says that I should try to focus on the warm feeling of the energy that is inside my dantian and then try to make it go to my spear, but how the hell am I supposed to do that when my dantian is in my abdomen? It would be easier if it was on my hands. " Aiden thought while looking at his hands.

He continued walking while thinking about how to use his energy until he neared the river, where most of the field crops of the village were grown. There he saw how many small irrigation channels were conducting the water to the different fields, and he felt like he had a revelation.

"Wait a moment, if I need to make the energy from my dantian go to my spear, it would make sense if my body had some kind of pathways for my energy, right?" Aiden thought excitedly.

Without losing any time, he sat in the middle of one of the fields and began cultivating until he filled his dantian. When his dantian was overflowing with energy, he tried to make it flow in every direction, and soon he noticed that it was easier in some of the directions.

Without a second thought, he began to push his energy in those directions, discovering that, as he predicted, there were pathways that made it easier for the energy to flow across his body and reach his hands.

Seeing that it was working, he decided to continue trying all night while remembering the explanations from his father, until finally, just half an hour before dawn, he was finally able to coat his weapon with a thin layer of almost invisible blue energy.

Just as he used this technique for the first time, the earth began to shake violently, and a voice resounded all over the island.

"The time has come, my children. Find the entrance to the underground and meet with the other tribes at the sacred archway. " Said a feminine voice.