9 Chapter IX: Martial Intent

"Six Natures, Six senses all powered by the soul. Sound, smell, touch, taste, sight. The sixth appears after the mastery of the first five—extrasensory perception. The benefit of training the senses is a solid soul foundation and enhanced comprehension in the form of the mind meridian. As the senses are trained to their apex, the sea of consciousness will slowly expand and refine without the pain of common soul cultivation techniques…

Hmm, this isn't much different from my enhanced sense during my time on earth. If I can master the first sense, I should be strong enough to pass the leaf bath training. All five senses, let alone the first, shouldn't be that hard for me to retrain. And it can help my Martial Arts if applied correctly. A boost of comprehension is a plus." I spoke to myself.

Remembering this particular moment in time always makes me laugh. The nonchalant behavior and gross underestimation of such a profound technique. I had no idea that a broken technique would make sweat.

At the time, I dived back into the scroll. Before long, I was in my courtyard ordering around servants to reconstruct training equipment from the training grounds in my courtyard.

"Young Master." Janis, the male servant, spoke, "The project is finished."

I, who was sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed, didn't even bother to reply. Instead, I handed Janis a sign that read: Absolute Silence. Do not disturb. I could feel Janis bow before he turned away and ushered the clan servants out of my courtyard.

Pulling the gates shut, Janis then stamped my sign for all to see.

The days that followed were a relief for everyone as I never moved from my seated position. Instead, I pushed all of my soul force to my sense of sound. I listened to my courtyard --the fluttering wings of the small flying creatures, the subtle continuous drips of water from the well pump.

After a few weeks, my soul had strengthened enough to listen to a casual conversation up to two kilometers out. I could hear the heartbeat of the gate guard as clear as the footsteps of passing commoners.

Finally, moving again, an intense hunger struck me, pushing me to devour two Rank 2 Daemon Beasts. When I was finished, I walked out of my room to see a large octagon structure with revolving doors. With a single punch, the pressure caused the doors to spin as I put on a blindfold to practice my movement techniques based on sound alone.

Approaching the structure, I calmed my heart and entered the death trap. The revolving doors of the structure were positioned on spindles within and bordering the octagon. As each door spun without a care for my well-being, I managed to use my basic footwork -Dancing Pixie, to slip two revolving doors. Unfortunately, that was enough as the third door clipped the bottom of my calf. I buckled.

The fourth door hit me into the fifth. The fifth hit me across to a sixth, and I was knocked around by twenty-four revolving doors before the training structure spat out of the octagon.

I hit the ground with a thud, and the revolving doors crafted from 100-year-old ironwood trees left me beaten and battered. At the same time, my father watched me from his study.

"You have two options, son." he thought as he wanted for me to pick my sorry ass up from the ground, 'Lay there or get up and do it again. The former is how potential geniuses became cow dung. Get up, son. Get up'

As if I heard my father's thoughts had a direct line to my thoughts, I began to move. My tenderized muscles quivered on the forceful contraction. My bones wailed like banshees, yet I steeled myself. By the time I stood firm on my two feet, the Nature Qi that I had cultivated began to do its job, slowly healing and strengthening me.

I had failed once. How not to fail again is the question. What could I do differently? Where did I go wrong?

I stepped back into the training structure twelve more times that day and discovered science from my previous life still applied to my current world in some ways. But, unfortunately, I couldn't succeed due to the delay between hearing the doors, separating them to find their location, and moving to react to them—a problem I didn't have in my past life.

Not only was I retraining my senses, but my mind and body to work in tandem with them.

The blindfold never came off for seven months as I trained my sense of sound to the maximum, or at least what I thought was the maximum at the time. The soul technique didn't clearly explain that achieving basic mastery of hearing was enough to amplify the next sense.

I learned the hard way when a revolving door struck me, and the sensation electrified my entire body --signifying my sense of touch had amplified, ready to be molded.

During those unimaginable strenuous months, I order a new structure to be built. Another octagon with high walls and an empty center. This structure was meant for me to practice combat by hitting balls off the eight walls with nothing but sound to guide him to their location.

So engrossed in my training and the progress I was making, I quickly forgot about the leaf bath training and kept the blindfold on to train all of my four senses in and creative ways.

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Three Years later…

In the Main Courtyard of the Vamoria Clan. A blindfolded young man with a scared olive brown-skinned body stood shirtless, surrounded by nine legionnaires in green robes. The young man was tall for his age, standing at 5 feet and five inches tall. His gold streaked silver hair touched his tailbone and covered his ears, only revealing their pointed elven tips.

This Young man...is me, Orym Vamoria. For three and a half years, I had survived without sight. Training my senses of sound, touch, smell, and taste to insane degrees.

As for the people in green robes, each of them is a legionnaire in my father's Woodland Legion. They have personally witnessed the dire fatalities and praiseworthy achievements of my training as my sparing group over the years. Off to the side, Fei Rong, Nimue, my mother, father, and the three guest Elders watched as I spoke in a calm voice, "Officer Hu Yin, please begin."

Hu Yin nodded her head, and she gave a silent signal. Guards launched flying discs were launched into the air as my body twisted, and a bow with five arrows appeared from my interspatial ring. The arrows were drawn and fired all in one motion as five plates 25 kilometers in the sky shattered into fragments and dust. I didn't stop there as I fired seven more shots to destroy all dozen of the plates in the air.

Ching! The snapping of the chain rang.

A rank one Shadow leopard sprung out with a sound. My bow was exchanged for a Chained Dagger as it left my hand to impale the beast before pulling it back. Unlike most low-ranking beasts, Shadow Leopards have sweet-scented blood that can be smelled even if the beast doesn't have wounds.

A sword then appeared in my hand as the Shadow Leparods directed their aggression at me as one of their own had been injured by me. I engaged the beast slaughtering them one by one.

Sniff!

'Fresh-cut grass. Slugwood Poison!' I thought. I had become good at identifying poisons, herbs, people, anything with a scent that I could remember, really.

With the introduction of the Slugwood Poison, I immediately stopped and threw a javelin into the fog box in the far corner of the courtyard. My father reacted quickly and destroyed it with fire.

Sniff! 'Fei Rong'

I flipped into the air as I couldn't hear Fei Rong, but I could smell her fruity scent. Fei Rong could move freely on the quietest day, without a sound, as an expert of the wind element. It was thanks to her the Woodland Legion had a well-manned assassination unit.

"Haha!" Fei Rong laughed as her spear missed me by a hair. Immediately after, I summoned a spear of my own to react to the movement of the woodland legionnaires. I fought them off in a flurry sweep, thrusts, and shop.

Pah! Clank!

I was hit with a palm then disarmed by a second soldier. Recovering quickly, I engaged in hand-to-hand combat like a Martial God. Pushing myself to the limit as my hands faced weapons and a mischievous woman with a battle fetish.

Suddenly my heart thumped in the heat of battle, my body shook, and the world came into focus. This state of being was new but felt as if it was meant to be. A great aura erupted and misty white energy radiated from my body like steam on a cold day after a workout.

Everyone's eyes widened as my moves evolved, and my next palm strike shattered Hu Yin's ribs. Hu Yin sat firmly in at stage one of the Martial foundation Realm. One complete realm above me. The woodland legion was immediately signaled to stop, and only Fei Rong engaged him. I gave the spar everything I had as Fei Rong shoved me over the edge. Her purpose was to stimulate me until I entered a state of enlightenment.

At the moment before opening the gates of enlightenment, I performed my Dancing Pixie movement technique, and Fei Rong's eyes narrowed at a nearly unnoticeable gale converged under my steps. I then flawlessly stepped into the first form of the Cold Water Palm as the slight emergence of the water and wind element completed the Cold Water Palm giving birth to ice. Fei Rong could feel the brisk wind as she slipped my first palm strike.

When my last palm launched, Fei Rong appeared next to my mother as my last palm left a massive imprint on the courtyard wall. My aura increased ten folds as he relaxed and quickly fell to the lotus position. Gilles, Mina, and Fei Rong looked at the handprint and the thin layer of frost covering it in amazement.

'He's actually doing it,' my mother thought with proud excitement. ' To achieve Martial Intent at such a weak cultivation level.'

' Tsk, It took you long enough...' My father smiled at me in silence, not willing to voice his thoughts.

Meanwhile, every martial Skill learned came to the forefront of my mind as phantoms executed the martial arts and movement techniques flawlessly. Even the arts of my past life like Jeet Kune Do, and Muay Thai appeared.

'Lower attainment of Martial intent,' I thought in my heart. 'I see it. The flaws in my steps. The opening in my forms. Wasteful power of my thrusts. Hmm?'

I suddenly witnessed the phantom figures merge as my martial arts became one. The ferociousness of the technique was apparent even without an opponent to use as a demonstration.

Outside of my mind, my father spoke to my mother, the Woodland Legion spoke amongst themselves. But everyone was slacked jawed to witness a boy at the tender age of ten years old comprehend the Martial Intent.

In the world of Cultivation. Intents and concepts were the building blocks of Dao. While Martial Skills, weapons, and other non-elemental paths were labeled 'Intents', all elements and attributes were labeled 'Concepts'. Attributes can be considered war, slaughter, destruction, sound, buddha, all things that affect the world but not considered elements. Only when an intent or concept has surpassed perfection can a cultivator touch its Dao.

A few days passed, then weeks, as I contemplated this sudden enlightenment and the creation of my personalized martial arts. Finally, when my eyes began to flutter, my eyelids snapped open with a glimmer that was hidden behind my blindfold.

Rising to my feet, I stretched my body, and for the first time in three and a half years, I took off my blindfold and viewed the world with my own eyes.

'The colors are so vivid and intense. Hmm, I almost forgot what the world looked like.' I thought as I popped a pill into my mouth, taking in the energy. While some escaped, most of the energy was swallowed by my body to help my strength after weeks of inactivity.

Leaving the courtyard, I went to find my mother. After asking around, I found both of my parents in the main hall turning down another request for marriage. Though I remained at the first stage of body refinement, my prowess was widely known, and many believed that I was cultivating in another way not known to them. Not to mention my family is rich, and my father is a Legion General.

"Father. Mother." I called spoke as I walked through the doors of the greeting room.

My father smiled pridefully at me as he reintroduced me to General Situ of the Mountain Legion.