Alone in the forest

While gathering roots and bays I searched for dead branches to light up a fire, create a weapon and get rid of the cold tonight. Unfortunetly I didn't find any small animals to add to my meal. I first created a short spear made of wood while I could still see, prepared the fire and waited for my roots to warm up while crunshing the bays in paste. After some time I took a branche and pierced the now softer roots with it. I began eating while thinking of this world.

'There is probably a lot of beast in the world now. I think they may have become stronger, faster and smarter. I need to be carefull.'

Just while I was thinking that, a growl was heard and a pair of yellow slited eyes were seen in the dark. The sun had set 3 hours ago and there was no light apart from the fire. A one-eyed grey wolf came slowly in the fire light and began to watch and monitor me, while advancing slowly, to stop me from doing anything dangerous. 'If I moved just a little it would pounce on me,I'm sure of it.'

I was freezed for a split second but I succeed to make myself calm again and analyse the situation. My short spear was near my right foot but I knew that I should be extra carefull because the distance between it and me was little by little decreasing. I tried to rush to the spear but was slammed on the ground by the wolf. We were just beside the fire and my spear was now too far to reach. The jaw of the wolf was 10 centimeters away from my face when I put my left arm in the way and received the brunt of it's bite.

"ARRGGHHH"

I didn't even have time to swear that I took my resolves and plunged my hand in the fire, took one of the branches covered in flames and with all my strength pierced it in it's remaining eye. It shrieked like crazy and I took the chance to get up and lunged to my right. I took my short spear, gave a kick in the stomach of the wolf to make it stumble and lose it's balance and with all my body strenght and weight I pierced it's throat.

"Finally... It's seems Blisters like me." I said after looking at my right hand covered in blisters and burns.

It was a good remainder. I had a new chance at life but I couldn't make a mistake. It's really do or die and little by little my will to live and see this world grew, I couldn't pass this chance to change myself when all my life I had been waiting for this.

I took my time to bandage my burns with a piece of my T-shirt that I had cut and decided to make myself stronger in the shortest time possible, I had only 3 years of blessing. To do it I had to make a concrete plan. I already knew of the 3 first stages of qi cultivation : Qi sensing, QI Core Creation, Qi Gathering. The first stage, Qi sensing was divided in 3 levels, Qi sensing, Qi gathering and Qi refining. The first level was the foundation, you had to learn to relax yourself and sense your energy and the energy of the world, qi. Differents persons have differents affinity and then Talent.

Some are able to learn elemental qi easier while other are at ease with demonic qi.

Each of these qi had differents use, differents attributes and features. fire and time qi were definitely different in their use and their complexity.

The second level was Qi gathering, it was focused on the gathering of the differents energies. Alas no method to do it was given.

'We are truly by ourselves...'

It worked like a bridge, you had to fill yourself with qi to the brim but had to stop the qi from escaping your body since it wasn't yours yet. Since it was complicated to keep the qi inside at this stage the second and third level of Qi sensing were usually done in one swoop.

The third level was Qi refining. You had to take the qi imprisoned in your body and expel impurities to, after brand it as yours. To do it you had to use your energy you had sensed during the first level to mix, after expeling impurities, with the remenant energy and repeat the process until your body is filled again with qi. But this time yours.

'it seems a bit too complicated...as if someone hadnt took the time to make the best method possible...'

I took the wolf and dragged it's corpse outside of my campfire to avoid other beasts being attracted by the smell of blood. I butched it as well as I could but it was quite mediocre if you ask me, I just got some pelts, bones, fangs and fleshs. after that I returned to the camp and put the flesh to cook, and this time I kept my short spear within arms reach.

Fortunetly no beast reapered during the rest of my meal.

After eating I created a shelter made of giant leaves and wood I had collected and sit in it.

That's when I finally took the time to truly look at where I was. I was in a forest with giant trees, we know but it's just now that I took notes of the fact no noises were heard. There was no fauna and flora noises. Everything was silent and seemed figed in time, there was just the lustrious stars behind the giants trees, hanging in the dark sky to know that the time didn't stop. There was an ancient an mysterious feeling in this forest which makes one really uncomfortable.

'I have the impression that tonight won't be a night of peacefull sleep.'

With the light reflected from the sun by the moon and the stars, I could see that the trunk of the trees were a dark silver. I took a branche on the floor near me and scrutinized it. I sensed something special about it but didn't know what it was. I thought it was probably qi but without being sure I prefered to put it aside for now. It's only the next morning that I heaved a sigh of relief. My first night of my new life in a new world had passed, and I was more determined to become strong fast than ever before.

I decided, now that I saw the light of the day, to try the first level of Qi sensing. I needed to be completely torough in the creation of my futures arts and cultivations techniques ti prevent future problem like inner demon and the likes. To do so The First stage, Qi sensing must be mastered as best as could, to lay a sturdy foundation.

I lay down on my bed made of fern and put myself in sleep position.

'I need to be carefull not to fall asleep.'

I began to relax myself and focus my senses around me, I just knew what was around my body for a distance of 5 centimenters. It was clearly not enough for me. I focused my senses and after I spent three hours in a semi-meditation state I sensed for the second time qi. The first was when I found the branche emanating strange energy. I could now confirm my hypothesis and say for sure, It's qi. Still I didn't know what type of qi it was, I just knew it was silver.

Now I decided to try to differentiate the differents type of qi. After focusing for aproximatively 5 hours I perceived a change in the color of the qi and the feeling it gaves. There was a big part devoted to the green color, producing a calm and welcoming feeling. The next one was blue and gaves the feeling of ever-changing. There was a little bit of red qi and it was aggressive, I had the impression it wanted to eat anything it could.

The last part was the strangest, It was silver and gave a ancient and mysterious feeling. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the night I spend watching the stars mooving.

Alas I knew that what I was seeing wasn't everything I could hope to see. The qis were so mingled together that I couldn't see clearly all the nuances present. I could barely see some brown and some black but it wasn't enough clear to know what I was seeing and what feeling it could give me.

I inspected the qis I already knew of, the green, blue, red and silver and after 1 day of inspection, my range improved to 1 meter away from my body. I knew now that the qis were in fact tendril of qi, they were sometimes mixed together, sometimes alone. I already had some thoughts about what element it could represent but without proofs, it was useless thoughts.

It was already night when I got up and stretched my sore muscles.

I was a bit stunned to see that my sight wasn't much hindered by the night, I couldn't see as well as during the day, but I could see in a 10 meters radius without fire. Something I couldn't do yesterday. It was quite the improvement.

I light up a fire to warm me up and put some of the fleshs I got from the wolf to cook, I relaxed myself and waited for it, I was quite hungry. I couldn't help but stare at the fire and hope that my hypothesis was right. I was thinking that the red agressive qi was the one produced by the fire I light up yesterday night. It was a chance to see if I was right or not.

After 10 minutes I took away my flesh and ate it while still watching the fire. I continued staring at the fire but kept my attention and others senses focused on my surrounding. I didn't want to repeat what happened last night and be caught unprepared if a wolf came to say "Hi".

20 minutes after eating I relaxed myself and tried to make myself the most in tune with the world. My senses were all stretched outside and I looked at the fire. What I saw was millions of little tendrils of red qi emanating from green tendrils. The green tendrils were clearly representing wood qi, while the reds were fire qi. I watched in astonishment at the beauty of what was happening. The branches in the fire was glowing with green tendrils and the tendrils were little by little seperated from the wood and transformed in red qi. I remarqued that there was also silver tendrils around the branches, even though it was some tiny little part, it didn't interact or did anything noticeable.

I was elated to see my improvement and hypothesis confirm. In one day, from sensing nothing at all, I could see the different tendrils and their interaction in a one meter radius.

'I'm pretty sure this speed of improvement comes from the Blessings, I'm not this talented, right ?? I really need to make the most of it.'

I refocused and tried to move the qi near me, but it was slow and sluggish. I had to put my all just to move it a little.

I spend all night doing exercices in order to strengthen my handling of qi and I saw a lot of improvement. Not only was I able to move the qi swiftlier and more skillfully than the day before, I was now able to separate the differents tendrils of qi. It was an idea I had.

I thought that by combining differents or similar tendrils of qi I could create some phenomena.

'Is it just me or my tolerance to sleep has increased ?? I remember that before the God came, I couldn't stay awake if I didn't have at least 6 hours of sleep. But now I spend 2 days without sleeping ?? Muahaha, I'm adapting too fast.'

I grined and prepared myself to move, I needed to find a HQ. I couldn't spend all my time near a campfire where it was difficult to defend. Imagine I encountered a pack of wolf this time. I would be dead for sure...

After taking what I needed : my spear, the strange silver branche with aboundant qi and the loot from the wolf, I went in a direction I found pleasant. I didn't know where I was, how to find my location and how to know north from south. Given the fact that if I went in direction of the edge of the forest I was fine because it would be easier for people to regroup and interact and if I went in direction of the center of the forest, it would be more dangerous for sure, but it was good too because I would improve myself faster compared to normal if I was in dangerous and letal situation. My potiential would be squeezed. So all in all it didn't really matter.

'I know that in this new world, the strong will be suprem and no one weak will have a right to speak. So I need to become strong, so strong just my name alone discourage all my ennemies. Just thinking of my name would makes them have an expression of frustration because they know they can't do anything about me.'