Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Chapter 28

According to Li, cultivation works by taking in or absorbing qi from the heaven and earth into the body, storing the collected qi inside the practitioner’s dantians. His world was a backyard planet among the stars in the universe, and so cultivation methods there were often crude and not of the best techniques, only few of the major sects had good cultivation techniques handed to them by their parent sect located in a higher cultivation planet. The demonic sect was one of these previllaged sects, but as it should be, only the most talented inner deciples are thought, some elders don’t even dare learn this cultivation technique. As it was, each of these sects with good cultivation techniques treasured them as their sect’s inherited techniques that are thought only to the best talents within the inner sect disciples. Being an outer sect disciple, Li never saw light of this wonderful technique, so all he could teach Julius was the basic foundation building, the best he knew, and the best cultivation method he came across later in life while searching through the library books, when he had already gone far with the one he was thought as an outer sect disciple, to learn this specific one, he had to destroy his years of practice and start all over again. The fact that his talent was bad was enough to discourage him, luckily, he possesses a good memory, so he can remember the technique.

“Mmm. Li, I’m ready to begin. Let’s waste no time.” Julius said to the ghost with such enthusiasm, it make Li happy that he could be a teacher to someone. Back in his world, no body would even dream to learn from trash like him.

“Alright, let’s begin.”

After some light stretches, Julius was instructed to sit on the ground with his legs crossed. This part only, proved to be difficult, as Julius was not one that crossed his legs when sitting, neither was he particularly flexible in any way. After a while, he finally managed to set himself in the posture, using his coat to support himself behind. Li explained the technique once  again, how it works, the structure, and how one would know if it was working. Using the information given by his young teacher, Julius started. First of all he needed to figure out how to substitute mana for qi, which sounded easy in theory but was quite difficult in practical. A few solid hours passed and he could neither feel nor absorb mana, his legs already felt dead due to lack of blood flow, his body still wasn’t used to this sitting position. While in his thoughts he wondered why it wasn’t working. ‘It could be that mana cannot be substituted for qi at all, or maybe the laws of the universe just doesn’t allow a person utilize techniques from other worlds. Hmm..,’ As he kept on thinking, a sudden thought entered his mind, which made him feel dumb, this would be the dumbest he has been since birth. ‘How could I have forgotten the effect of the tattooed artefact, since it blocks mana from reaching my body, it’s only natural that I won’t be able to absorb it. Eh, I feel so dumb.’

“I’ve figured out the problem Li.”

“Oh, you have?”

“Yes, I have something called an artefact that is tattooed to my back. It blocks out mana from reacing me, that’s how I’ve been able to survive in this forest, it’s also the reason why I can’t absorb the mana around me since it can’t even reach me.”

“Oh, that’s great. I was starting to question my knowledge for a second there, this is relieving. So there are things like that here also, interesting.” Li’s ghostly form seemed more relaxed after hearing the good news. Julius deactivated his artefact, as soon as he did, he felt pain all over his skin.

  “Damn! This place really is amazing. Urgh! Even with the protection of the array, the purity and intensity of the mana is no joke. I have to start taking in all this mana now.” As Julius cried out in pain while readying himself in the position Li taught him, he noticed something strange, Li’s words were no longer understandable. He could recognise that fact that Li was speaking to him, but he couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. Without wasting time, Julius reactivated the artefact. The pain in his body subsided gradually as he took in a big inhale before exhaling. The pain was so sudden and unprepared for, it took him totally by surprise. “Hey Li, for a moment there I couldn’t understand your words, almost as if you were speaking a different language.”

“Really?” Li looking confused, responded with is thoughts aloud, “I also thought about he fact that we could understand each other perfectly, but didn’t think much of it. Hmm.”

“It must be my artefact, wow, it really is a treasure of the gods. I still wonder why it was abandoned as an incomplete piece.”

“Probably because the gods don’t need such basic abilities as speech translation and some of the things it provides. Back in my world, Immortals have no problem staying in space for extended periods of time, but a cultivator who has not reached that level yet might need magical treasures for that to be possible, or they might have to learn techniques that make that possible.”

“Mm, true.”

“In the mean time, you should stabilize yourself and take it slow, don’t focus on fighting the pain more than doing the technique right. Getting it wrong might end up damaging your dantians, so be careful.”

With this both men(more appropriately, man and ghost) readied themselves as when Julius starts, they won’t be able to communicate with each other, so they said everything that had to be said before he started. Deactivating the artefact again, this time he was ready for the pain, Julius was already sitting down in position. As soon as he felt the mana pricking his skin, he began the cultivation technique. After about five days, Julius opened his eyes which, “It was a, success?” He said in a calm voice, sounding not too sure. He looked towards Li to get an affirmation, as he received a nod. “Phew, how long have I been cultivating?”

“Hmm, about five or six days now.”

“Really?! That’s crazy, it feels like mere moments. To think it has been that long. I even feel more relaxed than before, this is impressive.”

“Why don’t you try moving around a bit.”

Julius was on his feet soon after, the pain on his skin had greatly reduced, now he only felt soft stings, child’s play compared to what he felt before. Just walking around, he felt how light his body had become, compared to this one could argue that he had been carrying around a baggage the entire time. He stepped outside after reactivating his artefact, the only reason he could deactivate it inside the cave was because of the array formation which blocked out about 90 percent of the mana outside from entering, with a little mana from the remaining ten percent sipping inside. That little amount was able to cause such effect, imagine the full one-hundred percent. After jumping over the crystal clear stream that was at least four meters wide easily to the other side, he realised just how much his body had developed. He ran like a mad man all over the place enjoying his speed, truely this was an adventure. He could run almost as fast as an antelope, could jump over six meters vertically, and his leaps were not bad, he could leave a mark on boulders with his attacks and many other advancements in his senses and so on. Cultivation was truly fascinating.

The trick behind this whole process wasn’t so hard. Firstly, someone like Julius who had to open his dantians since they were closed, just like a total novice who had never practiced any form of cultivation before. Everybody had dantians, people in this world just never needed them so they never knew of their existence. After opening up the dantians to enable qi to flow freely, a space is formed inside the body, almost like another dimension, where the qi absorbed is contained, this place is referred to as inner space. Inside this based which every cultivator possesses; the space would be filled with qi or mana in Julius’ case, and depending on how quantity and quality of the qi, it would condense into liquid. Top cultivators are said to have rivers and seas in their inner space. Luckily, Julius already possessed and understood mana veins, so he connected a large percentage of his mana viens to his dantiens, which were connected to his inner space, causing mana to flow freely almost everywhere in his body. The artefact repaired his mana veins,so they were as good as new.

Julius returned to the cave all happy and excited, he had experienced something he had never been able to do in his whole life today, and it was fascinating. “Wow, cultivation really is the sauce.”

“Hahaha, you look like a baby fawning over honey. Now that you have established a base, it is not strong yet so you still have to practice more and also, you have to train your body.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that earlier. I’ll start the training right away, since I have the artefact to heal me, I’ll do extra. Also, it seems that I won’t be needing to eat regularly anymore.”

“You shouldn’t over stress yourself, as that could work against you in the long run.”

“Yes, I know.”

Starting from that moment, Julius stepped out of the cave and started physical training. He would run for as long as he could without implementing any mana, followed by swimming upstream against the turbulent yet quiet currents of the river of ends in a section that narrowed down, he would practice various stance that Li thought his while maintaining balance at the top of tall trees for hours, sometimes days and many other daring and brutal body conditioning. At first it was extremely hard for him to keep up, but he never slacked off, nor complained, he put in his all until it became like walking to him. Soon, deactivating his artefact inside the cave no longer hurt his skin.

Over the course of two months, he developed his physical body to the best of his ability, to top peak condition. The thirty year old looking Julius was now toned with well defined rigid muscles covering his body. All these were good except the terrible news that Li’s soul would completely decimate in the next two months, or within that time period.

“Hmm, looking good. Now that you’ve trained your body, it’s time to solidify your base/foundation. A house can’t be built on weak foundation, and since I’ll soon be leaving you soon, I should pour into you all the knowledge I possess that will be helpful in your cultivation.”  

And so, Li transferred his knowledge of cultivation and many cultivation techniques directly into Julius’ mind, now Julius knew almost everything that Li does. The information was so much that it caused Julius to pass out for some hours. When he woke up, he was ready set to cultivate, utilizing the knowledge he was blessed with.