บท 30: You gotta act like a dragon!

"How can you train the Dragon's rage, you ask? Well, you simply continue practicing it I guess?" Goldy spoke.

"As if I don't know that already! Look, I know you are trying to pull my leg on here. But I am being serious, okay? Tell me how I can learn the skill, so I can practice it and train it as well... Oh, my God! Why do II sound so stupid while I say that shit?" I cried.

Goldy sighed. "Oh jeez, it seems like making fun of you isn't that well liked anymore." He replied.

"Well, I never liked you teasing me, so I hope that you put a stop to it; that would be great, I guess." I spoke.

"Ok cool. I'll tell you how to learn the Dragon's rage. Remember how I placed a Qi core on you?" Goldy asked.

"Yeah, I do. What about it?" I ask back while nodding my head.

"Well, that's gonna be an important component if you want to learn the Dragon's rage." Goldy replied.

"Hmm, how exactly?" I asked.

He took a deep breath. "Ok, explaining time! For guys like me, the guys who possess the pure lineage of the sect, we don't actually need Qi cores; for us, it's an external component that we could bestow upon our external disciples. However, not everyone has it though. You gotta get to the ancient realm to actually gain a Qi core of such. Anyway, as I was saying, for pure lineage guys like myself, we don't actually need Qi cores. Instead, the entire Qi center is modified when we learn the Dragon's rage. But, for people like you; people who are being gifted this Qi core, well, if you need to learn the Dragon's rage, you should really depend on the Qi core because there is no other way for you to learn that." Goldy explained.

"What am I supposed to do with the Qi core? I asked. For some reason, Goldy looked furiously at me when I asked it.

"Well I was getting to it before you rudely interrupted me. Listen to me, ok? I will explain everything that you want me to explain, so you don't have to ask this sort of question again and again. You literally don't have to ask anything because I can already read your mind or at least the monologues. I can already guess what you want to say, so keep your questions to the minimum because I will eventually answer it." Goldy sighed, then eventually got back to the point. "Okay, although the components of learning the Dragon's rage are different for the both of us; for me as I said before it's the Qi center and for you, the Qi core that I gifted. But, the theory is almost the same. You gotta build a dragon out of your Qi core; that's the base of it; that's the most important part of Dragon's rage." Goldy explained.

"What do you mean, build a dragon out of your Qi core?" I asked.

"Well, I meant what I said. In order for you to learn the Dragon's rage, you got to build a dragon out of your core; as for me, it was to build a dragon from my Qi center." He replied as if what he said made total sense. But, how am I supposed to make any sort of sense with what he said just now? Like building a freaking dragon out of your Qi core... Like, it sounds easy, but I clearly don't understand what is trying to say!

"I get it. It's really difficult to understand because the concept is really vague. However, if you just got the gist of it, it's rather simple to understand. Imagine this; you're a sculptor and your Qi core is a giant rock and with the giant rock, you, the sculptor are meant to build a beautiful statue of a dragon. It's as simple as that!" He shrugged. Well, it might sound easy for some other guy but what can I do I am just a stupid idiot who doesn't understand anything... So, I might need further explanation. Like, what the hell do you even mean by sculpting a dragon out of your Qi core? How am I supposed to do that? You gotta tell me that in detail, you know…. I wanted to say this out loud, but I knew he already read my mind, because he seemed really displeased that I thought of this.

"Hmm, let me tell you the basis of sculpting a dragon out of Qi core. First, you gotta learn how to control the Qi that's inside or else you will never be able to do it. Secondly, you gotta imagine yourself as a dragon... Like, you gotta act like a dragon; you gotta walk like a dragon; you gotta talk like a dragon, even though you actually don't know how a Dragon talks... Well, I guess you might have an idea, because I'm a dragon as well. Although, I'm technically my own version of a dragon, and you might have your own sense of what a dragon is. So, you have to act like that version, so that your entire body and being senses that you are an actual dragon. You have to do so and not think you're anything else other than that or else while trying to build it, it will build something else and the core will basically be ruined. It's called Dragon's rage, not human's rage or something like that. I've seen people try to imagine things other than the dragon, but it has always failed miserably, so I prefer that you imagine the dragon as well. And even then, don't be vague about it; you have to believe that the dragon is a strong creature; that the dragon is an absolute being... If you don't believe that, you can't let yourself sculpt a dragon, because the end product will be something weak. Like, I've seen people sculpt crystal dragons... it's a beautiful one, you know? If you get to sense the dragon inside them, it's certainly beautiful, but it's weak and feeble unlike mine, which is a gold dragon because I thought being a dragon meant being for process and being majestic and the only thing I could sense was a Golden Dragon. So, it's like that; think of what is strong; what makes a dragon strong and your dragon will end up being strong according to your thoughts. You see, this skill is more of a mental image training rather than strength training and stuff. So, if you think about it, it's a pretty good first skill to have!" He explained.

"Okay! Sculpt a dragon using the flow of your Qi; and then you gotta act and think like a dragon so the end product will be a dragon. I get that part, but I am confused about something. Why the image training? What is the exact use of it and how does it actually connect to the Dragon's rage?" I asked.

"Well you see, I said it to you before, and I'll say to you now. Dragon's rage is an intimidation skill rather than being a physical skill. The first thing that you learn when you intimidate an opponent is to believe in yourself that you are actually a strong person. I'm not talking about it in a cultivation sense, I am just talking about it in general. Think about it. The only fighters that can intimidate their opponent are the ones who believe that they are strong. That's the theory behind this. You believe that you are strong; you believe that you are a dragon and when you do so people around you will believe that you are a dragon, and you'll be able to intimidate them. That's the first part of the skill; a simple mental training that literally anyone could do. Although, it's the cultivation that actually manifests your thoughts of being strong and being a dragon into an aura that covers you up that lets people know that you are dangerous. The 'sculpting a dragon' part is this so that you can understand what kind of dragon you are and what kind of Dragon that you are gonna end up as, when you eventually succeed in getting to that stage. Do you understand?" He asked.

"More or less, yea!" I replied.

"Good. That means that you currently possess a greater understanding about the Dragon's rage than anyone else in this world other than me, of course." he replied.

"Well, that's not really reassuring, because aren't I the only one who knows about the Dragon's rage other than you?" I asked.

"Yes, that's why I said that you possess a greater understanding of it rather than anyone else in this world." He replied. At that moment, I knew I couldn't argue with the man before me, so I decided to speak no more. I usually don't understand whether he is joking about something or being serious about it, because he sounds sarcastic either way. So I gotta tread that thread lightly or else there is a chance of me getting utterly destroyed. "Anyway, enough about that. Even though you learned about Dragon's rage, it isn't gonna be useful to you at this stage. So, let's think practically and start from the beginning, shall we? Let's talk about controlling your Qi." He spoke with a smile on his face.