“Time’s up.” Declared Hihi.
Before Zilan could even react, he was tossed out of the Cloud Inheritance Palace. He was no longer startled by the ejection as he immediately closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.
After all the information he had just absorbed from the shadow coach, he needed some time to properly digest all of it before coming up with an accurate plan of training. Thankfully, he didn’t have to bother about [Rain Shower] and could now dedicate his entire effort towards the two techniques [Rain Storm] and [Rain Drizzle].
That being said, he did not want to favour one technique over the other. Call him selfish but Zilan wanted to progress evenly in both techniques at the same pace. Should he gain results from cultivating [Rain Storm], [Rain Drizzle] must also progress.
During this long period of closed door training, a first for Zilan, he had decided to put everything into his training. Everything else could be put on hold.
His eyes slowly opened, a glow of determination could be seen within them.
“Now for Ki.”
As only four hours had passed in the physical world, Zilan still had a lot of time to work with thus he decided to look over the technique/ability his Grandmother Spring Dragon left him.
Despite his calm demeanour, Zilan was actually secretly excited. To many people especially mortal humans Ki was something that was usually associated with Martial arts. According to their understanding it aided in force exertion and to a degree it possessed the same qualities as Prana. Unfortunately, to the truly strong Ki, the one true Ki, was something far more complex and all encompassing.
Depending on the person studying Ki, their achievements would greatly differ. This was a fact known to everyone and this was also why regardless of Beast or Human or any other life form, Ki was a concept that they all accepted.
Ki had no agenda, had no real form and was not biased. It was just there! Some people viewed it as a concept above the [Laws] while others thought of it as something useful but not entirely necessary. It all depended on one’s outlook on Life or more specifically their Dao.
In fact, it wasn’t the least bit uncommon for powerful experts to be unable to manipulate Ki. This was primarily due to their Dao and whether or not it resonated with the Universe. After all, there existed many people whose way of life was to dominate everything, kill everything and lay waste to all existence. With this as their Dao they could very well became powerful beings in the Universe however, overall, they would never reach the pinnacle in their lifetimes.
Naturally as a species born from the Universe Zilan was someone who resonated very well with its principles and concepts. After all, he could see most of them.
Opening his mind and reviewing the technique known as the, [The Embodiment, Detection, Manipulation and Understanding of Ki], Zilan was shocked by his findings.
In his mind there was only a single piece of text written in the most Ancient of the Dragon language.
“Ki is the [flow]. To [detect] it one must open oneself to this [flow]. To [Manipulate] it one mustn’t…”
“AHHHH!”
Zilan’s mind started hurting the instant he tried to read more. The pain was so strong that he felt that if he pressed on, the only possible outcome would be his head’s instantaneous explosion.
Cold sweat dripped down from his temple and down his back, drenching him. The pressure he felt upon reading those words was similar to the kind he felt when he was being suppressed by [Origin]. Of course, the type of energy the two pressures was completely different but their effect was unfortunately very similar.
“Too profound.” These were words Zilan was unashamed to admit. The were few things comprehension-wise that were beyond his grasp however, the things that were, are not to be taken lightly.
That being said, looking at the line of the text that he could read, his heartbeat started getting louder and his body was slowly shaking. No, he wasn’t shaking, he was vibrating at a particular frequency. The speed would occasionally vary but the vibrations looked like they weren’t stopping any time soon.
Zilan’s breathing was also forcefully being directed to inhale and exhale at a certain rhythm that was completely unnatural. In fact, should a normal person see him, they would find it hard to believe that one would be able to breathe with such short intervals between each breath.
As this phenomenon continued, a sudden ringing sound like that of a bell sounded right above Zilan’s head. The sound disappeared just as soon as it came but a moment later and Zilan’s head was actually split open.
No blood could be seen from the splitting of his head however, his sea of consciousness, his soul, everything was currently in full view. This feeling was worse than being stripped naked yet Zilan suddenly broke out a smile, extremely excited.
A soft purified white wind, suddenly shattered the space around the training chamber and entered his sea of consciousness. If one looked closer though, they’d notice that space was actually making way for this white wind.
The soft wind had a calm, completely unnoticeable aura, almost like it didn’t exist. It carefully examined Zilan’s sea of consciousness as well as his mind, as one would normally survey a potential home.
Too bad for Zilan after looking around for what felt like an instant, the white wind indifferently left his mind and travelled back through space to wherever it was it was going.
Zilan’s smile immediately faded, replacing it was despair.
“What exactly am I missing?” His split head returned to normal, and without warning he fainted.
He was awoken the next day by Hihi’s angered voice,
“I’ve seen your true colours today Zilan. After managing to attract the Ki flow, you actually didn’t inform Hihi. I bet you wanted to hog it all for yourself. Hahaha, too bad you’re still unqualified.”
Zilan slowly opened his eyes, ignoring whatever Hihi had to say.
His eyes were in a daze and he seemed to have grasped hold of something.
“This was the first step, opening oneself to the flow….I was never meant to keep it.”
He then stared at the ceiling for a while before laughing out loud,
“Hahahaha, Enough, enough….this is definitely enough for me.”
Although he hadn’t been able to keep the wind, he was still able to house it even if it was only for a second. During that period of time, he found that his sea of consciousness had some minute changes.
For example, he was now extremely sensitive to energies of all types. When he opened the scorched gates, this sensitivity turned into him being able to make out the faint figure of an energy type that he had never seen before. Granted, he had to strain himself to his limit to achieve this and the range was too small but he was now sure that he was seeing before him was actually Ki.
What exactly is Ki? What exactly is this flow? And what exactly does this new energy signify? Are most likely some of the questions on your mind.
Well in it’s bare form Ki could be described as the flow of the Universe’s energy. What did this mean exactly? Well everything in existence possessed an aura, even if it wasn’t a living thing, it had an aura. And to the primitive this aura could be described as Ki while to the more advanced the way in which this aura ‘flowed’ was what they referred to as Ki.
Put into practical context, say you were about to be attacked by a hostile party concealing himself. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t suspect a thing even if you looked at him however, if you could see the ‘flow’ of energy, you could see his aura change from docile to hostile and not only that, you could even see which area his aura was concentrated or projecting to and you could tell how he was going to attack as well as when he was going to attack.
This was the simplest application of Ki and it was the level that Zilan was currently at. With more experimentation, the stress involved in using this new sense would disappear and its application will also continue to vary.
A thirst for the rest of the text teaching him how to Manipulate Ki could be felt throughout Zilan’s bones. However, he quickly calmed himself. He knew it would take a long time before he reached that level. For the moment, he was happy with what he had.
“The foundation is set. A few more steps are left before I can begin phase 1 of the plan.” Thought Zilan as he gripped his fist in anticipation. An unspoken, suffocating, determination filled the room even affecting the fuming Hihi.
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