Chapter 13 Baby Steps

“Wait, wait for me,”

Eznho was trying to catch up to a man while running out of breath. He could only see his silhouette and did not even know why he was chasing the man. The silhouette got further and further away.

“Why? Why did you leave us?” Eznho shouted with a desperate voice.

He stumbled and fell on his knees while his two hands were supporting him.

“Wait!” He shouted again but it was useless and started to sob.

....

His eyes snapped open, two deep black eyes stared at the tent ceiling while his left hand was hanging in the air.

“Huh?”

A tear rolled down from his left eye down to his ear, he lowered his hand and wiped the tear.

“Just a dream, was that father?”

He clearly remembered his dream but could not get any clue out of the man he was chasing. Deep within his mind, a nagging feeling of wanting to look for his father was tugging him but he was suppressing it.

“Priorities first,”

Closing his eyes again, he took a deep breath and calmed down. He got up and changed because he was drenched in sweat. As much as he wanted to look for his father, he still had more pressing matters to do. Martin was far more important to him than his own father.

After taking a bath, he had his breakfast of bread and milk. Going back to the place where he practiced yesterday, he adjusted himself and performed the Heaven-Seizing breathing technique for an hour before starting to study the basics of cultivation.

Basing on his performance and current situation, he had officially finished the awakening stage and ready to step into the cleansing stage.

The cleansing stage is preparing the body by removing the impurities of the mortal body and infusing it with heavenly energy. This process can be done by just slowly absorbing heavenly energy and integrating it into the body but that will take a long time, that is why techniques such as the Dragon-Tiger Dance were created to aid the body in removing impurities at the same time strengthening it.

Take note that the heavenly energy only circulates in the meridians and has not yet been absorbed by the fleshly body. Removing the impurities allows the person to be able to make the heavenly energy strengthen the fleshly body.

The cleansing stage is generally split into four parts, the muscle development stage, bone hardening stage, blood purification and internal organs strengthening.

Countless cultivators already have risen and fallen and many of them developed different techniques to improve cultivation methods.

Most of the basic stances or techniques can only improve one part of the body that’s why they have to learn multiple of this technique to complete the cleansing stage.

Higher grades such as the Dragon-Tiger Dance when practiced encompasses most if not all of these stages which results in shortening the time to complete the cleansing stage. These kinds of technique are very rare and not easily obtained by the public.

Eznho skimmed through this information and studied how to perform the Dragon-Tiger Dance. It was thoroughly described but doing it is another thing especially that no one was there to teach or guide him, he was on his own. He would have to assess his progress by comparing it with the information available.

Doing this movements would surely cause minor injuries especially that he did not have a good foundation and was not properly prepared. The only solution was to slowly integrate heavenly energy into his skin to form a little bit of protection and lessen the injuries after and this would give him a slight delay.

Other children who had ample support behind them have already been bathing in medicinal herbs since birth and their bodies have been nourished. With this kind of foundation, passing the cleansing stage would be much smoother for them than the others.

But for Eznho, he had to start from scratch, ignoring this fact, he started to circulate his heavenly energy. Then, he focused and slowly injected in into his skin, stinging pain followed suit. It was like he was being stung by many bees but he gritted his teeth and endured.

Hours later, small amounts of black sticky liquid were flowing throughout his skin along with sweat, this was just the beginning but he was not discouraged as he could see he was making progress albeit rather slowly.

.....

Two days later, a very faint white glow covered his entire body.

“Whew!”

Eznho breathed a sigh of relief after successfully integrating heavenly energy into his skin although it was just a small amount, it will be a big help for him during the cleansing stage.

After preparing himself he studied the first movement of the Dragon-Tiger Dance, Dragon Traversing the Sea.

This movement is done in a body of water, the purpose of this is to have the cultivator have a feel on how to coordinate his body parts with one another.

Although this step can be skipped, people like Eznho needed to learn this in order have a better understanding of doing the second set of movement, Dragon Crossing the Land.

Dragon Traversing the Sea is movement imitating a dragon swimming in the vast sea. Its purpose is to let the cultivator experience first how to coordinate his body movements to attain flexibility without hurting his body that is why it is done with in a body of water.

After scrutinizing the information, he first imagined himself doing the movement then went to the river. He picked a secluded place with the river depth half of his height.

The movement is doing a wave-like and motion like a dragon, he calmed himself and started practicing.

.....

“Glurrgghh!”

Splash!

“Haa, Haa,”

Eznho came out of the water catching his breath, water splashed everywhere.

“It’s harder than I thought,”

Eznho had a dispirited look on his face, imagining it was far easier than actually doing it. Hours passed yet he still kept on drowning and made just a little progress. If somebody was here, he would look like a child just playing in the water and not someone who was training at all.

He went to the riverbank shivering and proceeded to meditate for an hour while playing simulations on his head.

Three days were spent like this, aside from eating and sleeping, he was practicing in the river. Trial and error were his teachers, his comprehension got a lot better when his soul fully absorbed his sea of knowledge. This made him progress a lot faster and slowly understood the principles behind the movement. His sole and palms were already wrinkled due to hours of time spent on the water.

On the fourth day, a boy could be seen doing weird movements while swimming in the river. It would look odd for others but if a cultivator were here he would immediately know that the boy was not swimming, instead, practicing an intricate movement that involves coordination of the body. He was like a young dragon swimming, his movements were not perfect but he was getting there.

The sun has already set and Eznho just finished his meditation, according to the description, he already perfected the move and was ready for the next step which made him excited.

.....

Before starting the second movement, he already went to purchase medicine and pills in advance. The prices got doubled due to recent fights inside the mines but he had no choice but to buy it.

He went back to the forest and started to study the second movement, Dragon Crossing the Land. It was the same movement but instead of doing it in the water, it will be practiced on solid ground.

“This will hurt,”

Eznho had a wry smile while imagining himself practicing. He started to circulate his heavenly energy and a faint white glow covered him.

Scratches started to build up on his skin after practicing for an hour. He had to rest and recover his energy, an hour was his limit before it got depleted. Looking at this scratches, he smiled bitterly.

He continued until the sun has set, his whole body was aching and the scratches produced a stinging pain. Dragging himself, he washed in the river and poured medicine on his wounds when he got back.

“Ouch!”

He gritted his teeth and endured the pain, the medicine was effective and the scratches immediately became scabs the next day.

Just like before, he did not waver and continued to practice to the limit. It took him two days before perfecting it, his tanned skin now had a sheen and became tougher like a beasts hide.

This move concentrated on the skin and had minimal effect on the bones, muscles and tendons. Normal weaponry wielded by non-cultivators would only at most leave a scratch on his skin. After perfection, it was easier to infuse heavenly energy now to his skin and after two hours of circulation larger amounts of black sticky fluid came out of his skin. His skin has now been cleansed and can absorb heavenly energy to nourish it, though just small amounts of it. A refreshing feeling entered him.

The second movement was a lot harder than the other two, Tiger Chasing the Wind. This move imitates the tiger, leaping, pouncing, running and the like. It aims to strengthen the muscles, tendons and bone but there was a mantra accompaniment needed to fully strengthen the bone. He memorized this mantra and started his simulations inside his head.

.....

“Darn it, just setting up this simple formation took me a lot of time. What a disgrace,”

Old Man Dan was grumbling while setting the final preparations.

“Just you wait junior brother, I’ll give you a big surprise in the future, zehahaha,”

Madness flashed in his eyes while remembering something tragic.

Finishing the formation he looked towards the mines,

“I wonder how that sissy is doing, might as well visit him while waiting for the show to begin,”

A playful smile hung on his face as he disappeared in a flash.

....

Old man Dan appeared where his tent was set up but the boy was not there. He spread his consciousness towards the mines.

“Eh?”

The boy was not there but he discovered something else and narrowed his eyes. The miners were already reaching the middle while beast kept on appearing.

“It seems it’s on the verge of a breakthrough, that’s faster than expected but no matter it will still fall in my hands.”

There was confidence in his tone and turned his sight towards the campsite while showing a crafty grin.

“Hmph, you weaklings think you can snatch it from me, very well you might as well help me achieve my plans,”

He then continued to spread his consciousness and noticed something in the nearby forest.

“Hmmm? Interesting,”

He raised his brow while rubbing his chin and disappeared.

.....

Inside one the mercenary tents, every mercenary captain was gathered. They all arrived days before and observed the mines.

“I take it you know why we gathered, I believed you all sensed it. We cannot take anything unless we work together.”

One of them spoke to preside the meeting, his name was Winston and was the oldest. He had white long hair and a thin foot-long white mustache hanging on his face. He was also the strongest in the group.

“I agree with you Winston, but as we know two military officers came. I am sure they also sensed it, who knows maybe they called for back-up. If they did...”

A burly middle-aged man with an axe on his back spoke with a worried tone, but before he could finish he was interrupted.

“Don’t worry I am sure they will not call for one. If they do, then they have to split the spoils with more people, besides we already had an agreement. Although they are stronger than us, we got the numbers. As long as we play our cards right we can get our piece of the pie. Make sure your subordinates don’t blabber their mouth and attract stronger groups.”

Winston warned everyone with a heavy tone.

“Don’t worry, anyone caught will automatically die.”

The others agreed in unison, they were at the bottom of mercenary groups and could barely count as one of the lowest D Rank. They have to make sure that other stronger groups don’t come and steal their prey.

.....

Two people were leisurely drinking wine inside Randolph’s tent while he respectfully stood on the side reporting.

“Captain Batista won’t be coming, he told me someone has to hold the line or the enemies will easily flood in.”

“What a shame I admit I missed that madman after all these years,”

Wilky sighed with a look of respect on his face, he was a thin man with sharp eyes.

Captain Batista was a retired military officer like them but due to an enemy attack, he sacrificed himself to fend them off resulting in serious injuries that destroyed his cultivation. After that, he voluntary retired and became the city guard captain for Sin city, his hometown.

“Well, he’s always been like that you know. Let’s visit him after we are done with this thing.”

Wilfred suggested, he was in his forties with a slim build. The three of them were known as the Killer Trio in the battlefield.

Wilky nodded and started to talk about the main topic,

“According to my investigation, it’s a magical beast making a breakthrough but I don’t know which one specifically. I could not penetrate inside so we have to wait. By my estimation, it is stronger than us but we still have a high chance due to his weakened state after the breakthrough. As for the mercenaries, let them be cannon fodders.”

Wilky said with a tone of disdain.

“What about the enemy’s side?” Wilfred inquired.

“I am not sure how strong they will be, but one thing I am sure of is that they won’t surpass our group. I’m even pretty sure we know some of them, that fucking Floyd might even join.”

Wilky answered with killing intent, Floyd, a name he hated to the core, the one who led the ambush that crippled their brother.

Wilfred also turned solemn,

“Don’t worry brother, he’ll better wash his neck if we meet him.”