First Steps

Kim standing in the kitchen was busy cutting up some vegetables and throwing them into a heating pot for her family when she felt some hands, slowly press their way around her waist and a warm breath came closer to her ear to plant a kiss on her cheek.

Stanford now hugging Kim from behind looked out the window at Rod sitting out in the snow just beyond the barrier and asked "Why is he over there?"

Kim answered, "He said that the barrier absorbs some Ki and lets the rest through to keep itself running, and it's rather disadvantages to cultivate within the area of the barrier" and whilst Stanford was looking out the window she kissed him back.

Kim dished up the soup into wooden bowls and began placing them on the table to then start calling the family. Mike and Mia both waddled out of their room, and Stanford was just waiting for his kids to sit before he took his seat.

The husband spotted an extra bowl just at the edge of the table and asked, "Dear, who's is that" with one brow raised,

"That is extra I am giving to Rod" with a soft smile on her face.

Out beyond the barrier sat a one-armed man in a lotus position, if you looked at him, you could see the world getting distorted around him as he drew in the surrounding Ki.

The amount of energy he was able to bring into his body would normally obliterate anybody's veins, destroying one's chances to ever be able to cultivate again.

There are 4 basic elements that permeate the air and depending on their combination determine the individual's Ki that they are allowed to extract from the air and for the rest of their lives and if you forcefully try to absorb Ki that you shouldn't, will cause an extreme amount of pain and if continued would be certain death.

Feeling all the natural energies that drifted around I began concentrating on extracting all the Ki from the surroundings and slowly drew it in through my pores, whilst it slowly made its way around my body, I focused on extracting the pure essence of each type of Ki and turned it into what I call Chaos Energy.

As the power raging to my abdomen, I could feel myself coming up to the 1st Awaked stage, but that was not something I cared for right now. Reinforcing my body in order to withstand my power was the most important thing to do right now.

I proceeded to let the energy flow into each of my bones, allowing me to strengthen my bones at a rapid rate, which is the first process in allowing myself to take steps into gaining back what I lost.

Upon letting the Ki rush through my body and into my bones, I began to feel a volatile pain as I felt my bones obliterate, then feeling them heal as I constantly absorbed Ki from the area.

After a while, the pain, lowered somewhat, but my bones now only crack or fractured instead of shattering, which meant they had become stronger, but I felt that this wasn't enough, I needed to be stronger, so I steeled my mind and cut off feelings from my face down and increased the influx of Ki.

A whole day passed of crackling noises, coming from my body.

Kim, who occasionally looked out at Rod waited till the children had gone to sleep to make her finale glance out the window, to finally see Rod making his way towards the hut, but she noticed he was stumbling slowly as he made his way back inside the barrier, to out of know where to collapse.

Kim realizes that Rod wasn't going to get back up, and quickly dashed out of the lodge to get to his side. Rolling his face out of the snow, she noticed blood had been leaking out almost all of his pores, but the thing that surprised her the most was an arm that he now had.

Slowly lifting my eyelids, I felt my cheek was buried in a soft feathery pillow and recognized I was laying back inside the lodge, but with the knowledge that I had now completed my cultivation for now.

Sitting up I dropped my legs off the bed to glance down to see I had healed back an anorexic looking left arm, but I moved like any normal arm, all I had to do was strengthen it now.

Throwing the blanket to the side as I stood up, sighing as I saw I was wearing some briefs as I reached for my clothes that were neatly folded on a chair just in front of me.

Putting on my clothes just in case someone were to walk in, as I put my arms into the t-shirt and just before I pulled it over my head, a soft knock came from behind the door.

"Come in, " as I pulled down the t-shirt.

The person who entered soon after was Mike"Hello Rod, my mommy said to see if you're awake"

Looking at him, I noticed he was getting closer to the Awaked Stage by the unclear ripples of energy waving off him, so I had to ask "how many days have I been asleep?"

With a face that was clearly thinking too hard to think, "Um maybe 4 days"

"That's good to know" looking at him smirked "Mike, can you gather your family, I need to say thank you to them"

Before noticing, he had already left to do as I asked, leaving the door slightly ajar.

I left the room to go find a place to sit to inscribe down a martial arts technique I wanted to give them as a thanks, and I found the little dining table and sat down in anticipation of their arrival.

After a while, I saw Mike walk into the kitchen with Kim and Stanford, not too sure where Mia was, but nonetheless, I asked for a book and pen and after a moment Kim gave me an empty book and the pen with a soft smile.

As I opened the book I began to write the different movements down, which consisted of 5 basic, 12 heavenly and 7 godly moves that I hope they could protect themselves.

I don't plan on making this family an ally, but whatever happens, happens and I would at least make them survive. Upon finishing off the book I handed it over to Mike "Remember do not tell anyone outside your family" as I looked at the couple and child.

Sighing, as I got up off the chair and looked at them "If you get the chance, try to enroll in a school, well anyway this is where our paths diverge"

I went back to the front door and grabbed my cloak off the hook and waved it around my back to tighten the little string just in front of my chest and flipped up my hood making it almost impossible to see the ceiling.

Swinging around to face the family, I gave them a silent nod, which was my way of saying my goodbyes for good.

Opening the crooked door, feeling the frosty draft hit my legs as I began to step out on to the landing, to glance at the sheath which was covered with a thick layer of gleaming ice over it and the spear which had fallen over and had blended in due to the snow covering it.

Reached out to pull the spear from beneath the snow and placed it standing straight against the wooden wall not really wanting to take it, I then looked over at the frostbitten sheath and gripped its hilt of the sword to pull it from the sheath cracking off the ice, so it could be functional again.

As they watched Rod buckle the sheath to his waist, turning then walking off into the dense forest, Mike watching this had shown great determination on his face as he walked towards his room, whilst Kim and Stanford had faces of gratitude.

I had trudged through countless miles of deep snow for a few days now using up most of my reserved Ki as sustenance, but feeling it coming to an end I would have to stop to rest to gather some more.

I kept searching for a good place to rest, which had taken me longer than I anticipated, however, soon after I managed to see a bored out tree to rest in for a while, as I entered I unbuckled my sheath and placed it standing on the side to then sit in a comfortable meditation precision.

Upon sealing my mind from the world to solely focus on cultivating and closing my eyes to help with that, I began to slowly focus on my surroundings to begin absorbing Ki and transforming it into my Ki.

An old trick I learned which helped me a lot in life was even the planet's crust absorbs Ki virtually all day and so if you are able to extend your senses into the ground you would be able to extract an almost infant source of power.

Amongst the deep-rooted trees, a white bear's nose was twitching as it peeked up the scent of its new prey, as its nose felt the smell was guiding its head towards the direction of it, finding a newfound feast the bear glanced back at its so-called comrades that looked like a pack of wolves and went on its way with the wolves at foot.

After the group of animals traveled for half a day in the snow never losing the scent, which only kept getting stronger, until In the bear's sight, a large tree with a slit cutting from the base and reaching up to about the middle was completely hollowed out, but a man was quickly spotted sitting, glaring at the bear with ferocious eyes, making the bear halt its tracks.

I had sensed a short while ago that animals had been busy surrounding me, however, then this white bear had come out of the thick snow-covered trees, and they had disrupted my sweet serenity.

Reaching out for my sheath, I gripped the hilt, ripping it from its sheath to then drop it to my left and looked the bear dead in the eyes"leave or die".