Chapter 2: Run! Jamie! Run!
Arthur was exhausted and he collapsed. As soon as that happened, Terry made sure that no dangerous beasts would come near Arthur, additionally, Terry healed Arthur's small wounds and rejuvenated him. The whole day passed and another day came. Arthur woke up from his slumbering position in the middle of the forest. He was surprised that he collapsed and it was already morning. He didn't find Jamie and that made him angry and sad about himself. "If I only cultivated." He thought. Since there's nothing he could do and his fruits of labor didn't come to fruition, he went back, worried that Jenny might do something crazy and follow him into the forest.
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Terry saw Arthur departing after waking up, he gave a smile to this descendant and went back to the bamboo house where the young Jamie had woken up as well. Confused, Jamie toured the little bamboo house and didn't find anything special. However, when he went out, he found that the area around was not familiar to him, this made him nervous and scared. Jamie felt anxious when suddenly, he heard a voice from behind. "How are you doing?" It was a hoarse voice, such an old man's voice for him, so, he turned around and saw an old man wearing white robes with long white hair and beard.
"Who are you!?" Jamie cautiously asked. "I am an old man who is traveling around this area. I saw you're dying so I saved you. Is that good enough for you?" Terry answered while making an old man laugh. After hearing Terry's answer, in an old man's voice, Jamie relaxed a bit as he still remembered what exactly happened the day before. "Where are we?" Jamie added a new question.
"Quite a curious kid, huh?" Terry jokingly said. "Here is my temporary home, I built it myself, how was it?" "Answer my question, old man!" Jamie didn't take Terry's words and asked again, but with an added force. "Ho ho, kid... you're still inside the forest, however, you're in a far away area from your home. It would take you 1 year to get back home, but with the beasts in the forest? You'll die." Terry scared Jamie.
"A-a year..." Jamie lost energy on his knees and dropped on the ground. He wept and muttered, "Mother... Father..." while tears fell down from his eyes. Terry smiled at Jamie "Kid, it's easy for me to get you back, however, you said yesterday, you wanted to protect your mother and father, how will you protect them if you can't even protect yourself?"
"I-..." Jamie couldn't answer. He had no answer at all. He kept on crying.
"Then... I will train you for a year. By that time, once you go back, you will be strong and be able to protect your loved ones. How about that?" Terry offered.
"Train me? Are you like one of those strong cultivators in the city?" Jamie relaxed a bit from his miserable state. "Of course, let me give you an example." Terry pulled a sword from his ring and swung it towards a direction away from the bamboo house.
Jamie focused the swing and immediately, he felt a great pressure when Terry motioned the sword downward. In a blink of an eye, the sword was swung downward and a high frequency sound bombarded Jamie's ears. Jamie immediately closed his eyes and after the hubbub, he opened them again and saw the devastation that Terry's sword swing caused. Jamie's eyes became wide open.
"T-that..." Jamie couldn't believe what he saw. The sword swing's direction became empty land. The previous trees were destroyed and it goes far.
"So, what do you think?" Terry smiled. "I-.... Master!" Jamie quickly kowtowed in front of Terry. "Master, huh? Well... I don't like that, you just call me "Old Man" will be enough. I will train you starting tomorrow. Go back to your room and recuperate. My training will be hard but it will pay off and benefit you greatly in the long run. Don't worry about your parents, they are strong people." Terry assured Jamie. Jamie nodded and mustered up to walk back inside the bamboo house.
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"Old man, Master?" Mary came out of her own dimension and teased Terry. "Yes, an old man, just like what I am now. It's too serious if I let him call me "Master" so, an old man should be right." Terry seriously answered. "You really can't take a joke master." Mary commented. "That's what I am, so..." Terry shrugged his shoulders and also went inside the bamboo house to prepare food for little Jamie.
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"Dinner!" Terry called out to Jamie, who was in his room. "Coming!" Jamie answered and exited his room. When Jamie arrived at the dining table, he saw meat and vegetables on it and gasped. "Meat! Vegetables!" Excited, Jamie quickly sat on the chair, however, he didn't dig in immediately and stared at Terry who was bringing the drinks. When Terry placed the drinks on the table, he also sat and invited Jamie to start eating. Jamie nodded and excitedly ate the meat and vegetables. What Jamie didn't know was that all of these foods were beast meats and cultivated fruits that enhance the body and Qi circulation. Terry didn't reveal it and just ate his own portion. Although Terry didn't need to eat at all, he still ate and to make Jamie comfortable.
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The next day came and it was the dawn of the morning. Jamie was sleeping soundly when he was smacked hard by something. It was Mary who did it with a baston. "Hey hey kiddo! Waky waky!" Mary said while being cheeky about it. "Hu... Huh!? Ouch!" Jamie woke up and felt the pain in his butt. "W-who are you!?" Jamie was surprised about Mary, he didn't see her before yesterday and only the old man! "Well!? I'm not important, your training is! Now, the old man needs you to go to the dining table and eat. Fast! Fast! Go!" Mary made another hit to Jamie's butt which made Jamie forcibly move from his bed. "Alright! Alright!" Jamie has no option but to follow.
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When Jamie arrived at the dining table, he saw meat and vegetables but there's this white water added on the table. "What is this, old man?" Jamie asked. "That's what you call "milk", and it's very nutritious, have a sample." Terry answered while gesturing for Jamie to try and drink the milk.
Jamie nodded and drank the thing called "Milk". After a few gulps, Jamie was shocked by how delicious the milk was. "How was it?" Terry asked. "Delicious!" Jamie answered. "That's good to know. Now, hurry and eat fast. You only have ten (10) minutes to eat. Go." Terry ordered. "T-ten... what?" Jamie was clueless.
"Ah... I remembered, this world is so backward that there's no knowledge of counting time, sigh. I already taught this before but millions of years passed and people forgot to count time." Terry thought.
"Well, here... this knowledge will teach you." Terry came close to Jamie and touched Jamie's forehead. A small Qi passed through Terry's fingers and moved towards Jamie's head. After a few minutes, Jamie came back to his senses and showed a shocked expression. "O-old man... this..." Jamie couldn't believe it, there's really a way to count time! And this world has a 24 hours cycle! "Yes, now you know, I'll be placing a clock on the wall and you will follow the routine faithfully, if you can't, Mary here will punish you. And you don't want a butt hurting punishment, ain't you?" Terry cautioned. Jamie nodded vigorously. He knew how painful that was, and the hit Mary did to him was not normal, they linger!
"Oh look at the time, you still have three (3) minutes to eat." Terry smiled while Jamie's expression became terrified, Jamie quickly munched the food on the table at a faster rate.
"And three (3)... two (2)... one (1)... stop." Terry ordered Jamie to stop eating after the last three (3) minutes had passed. Although there was still some food left on the table, ninety percent (90%) were already inside Jamie's stomach. "Now, rest for five (5) minutes and go outside." Terry spoke and went out of the bamboo house.
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Five (5) AM.
Jamie exited the bamboo house and found Terry sitting. He also found that there's a path created around the bamboo house. Jamie became curious and asked Terry what it was about, "Old man, what is that?" Jamie pointed at the track and field like path that was surrounding the bamboo house. "Oh, that? That is a path prepared for you to run around the house. Are you prepared?" Terry answered while smiling. "Huh!? I... will run on that path?" Jamie was surprised and curious on what's the point of running in that round path.
"Oh, you're thinking why you need to run on this path I've created, right?" Terry said the words that were inside Jamie's head. Jamie nodded. "Well, you're eight (8) years old right now, what you need is a solid foundation, and a solid foundation is the body. Although I will not make you do weight training for the meantime, your body needs to be conditioned to take in large amounts of Qi. If your body does not have any good foundation, your body will slowly deteriorate, though you're getting strong when breaking through your cultivation realm, your body is taking large tolls, and that's the reason why most cultivators don't live for more than a thousand years." Terry explained.
Jamie nodded and took in the knowledge. Although he was ignorant of most things, he knew what a cultivator was, they were painted by the village school as people who were immortals and having long lives. But hearing the old man, or his master, explain things to him, he had begun to understand deeper things related to cultivation. He needed to believe in his old man as he already showed what a cultivator was, barehandedly.
"Then, five (5) minutes have passed, run. I will watch you and you won't stop until I say so." Terry ordered. Jamie could only nod as he was afraid of Mary's baston. He started running and after ten (10) laps, Jamie felt fatigue in his legs, however, kept going and never stopped. Terry knew what Jamie felt after that ten (10) laps but didn't order to stop. Terry kept observing Jamie's run.
Twenty (20) laps had passed and Jamie was already gasping for air, his breathing was erratic while his heartbeat was getting faster and faster. His legs were quite numbed as well. Jamie kept on looking out for Terry's order for him to stop running but it never came. He felt angry and tired but he couldn't stop. He needs to keep going. After thirty (30) laps, Jamie collapsed on the ground while gasping and inhaling large amounts of oxygen. Terry came close, "Is that it?"
Jamie couldn't muster more strength to stand up but he exhaustingly uttered "O-old man... I...." Terry smiled, "What? Surrendering already? What if you're in that state and your mother and father were being attacked at this moment, will you let them die while you give up and rest?"
Jamie pictured what Terry said and shouted, "No!" Jamie began to get energized and stood up with difficulty, he faced the track and started running again, though with a lot of difficulties. He looked like a zombie to Terry.
Terry smiled at the little descendant. Jamie collapsed after he finished another lap, the difference was that he lost consciousness. Mary picked up the unconscious Jamie and brought him to his bed. Terry used a small mortal ranked recovery pill to help Jamie's body recover from fatigue.
To be continued.