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Chapter 2: A not-so-friendly chat and a Reopened Wound
🕑 Added 2024-08-07 08:15:41 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
"Nice to meet you, my name is Leek." He introduced himself, waving the hand he was still holding a little as he smiled.
Ning'er was confused for a moment before realizing that she was still holding Leek's hand, feeling a little embarrassed and pulling her hand back as soon as he let go.
"So, you told me you came to train, right? If you don't mind, can I see how you do it? I've heard about this "cultivation" from a lot of people, but so far I haven't seen anyone do it." He asked a little excitedly.
"What?" Ignoring the request, Ning'er couldn't help but let out her disbelief, this person didn't know what cultivation was? His energy felt different from soul force, but she believed that this, along with his power, was due to some incredibly complex and powerful cultivation technique. "You… have never cultivated?"
"No?" He said a little confused. "From what I've been told, cultivating seems like something similar to meditating, but… while chanting some things in your head while doing it? I don't really understand the concept"
"Then how? How did you get that strength? Humans aren't born with high power"
"Well, I train, you know, things like fighting strong opponents, doing exercises, and such"
"That doesn't make sense, even fighters have to resort to cultivation techniques and body tempering methods to become stronger and increase their soul force, but you say you've never cultivated?"
"Ah, that too, this "soul force" you speak of is the aura surrounding spiritualists, right?" He asked, and she nodded.
"I've never felt anything like that in myself, I use this." He said raising his hand, and instantly a yellow sphere of energy appeared floating above his palm.
Ning'er took a couple of steps back, was that thing like the attack he had launched before?
"W-what is that?"
"This is ki." Leek said before letting the sphere of energy dissipate.
"Ki? What is ki?" She asked, and he seemed to think about something before speaking again.
"Let's do this." He said raising a finger and pointing at her. "Let me watch you cultivate for a while, and in exchange, I will explain to you what ki is, what do you think?"
Ning'er was a little surprised, but in the end, she accepted, it seemed clear that the person in front of her had no malicious intentions, and had not even asked to see her technique, if it was simply to observe her while she cultivated then there should be no problem.
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Leek(?) P.O.V
It had all started with a flash, I didn't remember much about anything in particular, my name was lost, my memories were almost completely scrambled, incomprehensible at first, and even now, I could barely remember anything.
I knew I was a person who had passed away, but any specific details about how I had passed away, when, or if it was my fault, were beyond my reach, like trying to see an image through a dusty window.
Had my sense of identity been lost? I sincerely hoped that wasn't the case, I remembered almost nothing about who I was, but the flashes, the clues, and the essence were still there, somewhere deep inside me.
I knew I didn't like mint ice cream, that my favorite season was winter, that I wanted to be a pilot and work for an airline, that music was one of my favorite hobbies, that dogs were better than cats, that I liked to spend one weekend a month doing absolutely nothing, just lying on the couch watching my favorite TV shows.
Small pieces of a big puzzle, one that I instinctively knew I wouldn't be able to put together in anything less than several years, or perhaps might even remain incomplete for the rest of my "life".
My consciousness fluctuated, and I felt like a leaf floating in the middle of a huge body of water, or a solitary cloud in a clear sky, just going with the flow to wherever it wanted.
I felt like I should be "asleep", I somehow knew that the fact that I was "conscious" was something that shouldn't have happened, but I didn't want this to change, I didn't want to go "sleep" again, because I felt like if I did, I would never wake up again.
So I resisted, with every ounce of will I could muster, but my "consciousness" was faltering more and more, the dark void was calling me to rest in it once more, and it was incredibly tempting, incredibly persuasive, I soon realized that it was only a matter of time before I "closed my eyes" again and let myself be embraced by sleep.
Was my will too weak? I felt small, tiny before the darkness that called to me, perhaps if I were more than just a "human" I could resist?
I fleetingly remembered certain warriors from a franchise I thought I liked, the space marines, and above them, the demi-gods made for war, the Primarchs.
But if I was talking about warriors who traveled the stars with inexhaustible power and will, the Saiyans were the ones who stood out the most, a race made up almost entirely of warriors.
Heh, why could I remember unimportant things like some franchises I liked and not specific parts of my life? Wasn't that incredibly unfair?
I almost felt like crying, take my useless memories and at least let me remember my own face, handsome or ugly, I didn't care, it was mine, and I didn't want to just forget it.
I felt my "eyes" closing and my consciousness faltering, I didn't want to, I really didn't want to go back to "sleep", so in one last outburst, one last way to resist, I "moved", even though I couldn't feel any body, I twisted, I moved my non-existent existence for what seemed like an eternity, and just at the moment I felt like I was about to faint a flash covered all.
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Third Person P.O.V
"Umm." Leek muttered something unintelligible as he watched the girl cultivating, his senses, and ki perception completely immersed in understanding as best as possible what cultivation really was.
And from what he had been observing so far, he could tell that he understood the basis of this, somehow the girl in front of him was absorbing external energy, drawing it towards her and making it her own, strengthening herself in the opposite way that he did.
But there was something strange, something that strongly caught his attention, and that was that somehow this girl's ki felt strange, he had not noticed it before, but now that he was paying attention and watching her cultivate, he noticed it.
As he gathered the energy and absorbed it, something was seeping into Ning'er's body and life energy.
If he had to make a serious comparison, it was like adding more water to a glass of water, but along with this new water, there were some shards of ash.
And from what he could sense, these "impurities" were negatively affecting the girl's ki, so he hurried to tell her.
"Hey, that's enough." He said, drawing the attention of the orange-haired girl, who opened her eyes and looked directly at him.
"I think I understand a little better now what cultivation is"
She didn't answer, but Leek noticed from her gaze that she wanted to ask him something. "Is something wrong?"
"I kept my part of the deal, I want to know what this "ki" you talked about is"
"Oh, sure, I have no problem, but before that I wanted to ask you a question, just to be sure." He asked, and when she nodded, he asked as clearly as possible. "You, don't you feel that there's something wrong with your technique?"
Ning'er was slightly surprised by the question, and her doubt was reflected in her expression, so Leek decided to be more specific. "When you were cultivating, I felt your energy and how you absorbed external energy, but it also seemed that something… harmful, entered your body along with that energy, I just wanted to know if you were aware of this, have you had any similar pain or discomfort?"
The girl seemed completely shocked and took a step back. "You… how do you know that?"
"So it's true? It's like I told you, I felt something interacting in a harmful way with your energy, your ki, and something like that couldn't possibly mean anything good for your body." Leek explained and only then noticed that he hadn't yet explained what ki really was.
"Well, I think it would be best to properly explain to you what ki is first." He said before sitting down and gesturing for her to do the same in front of him.
Once they were both face to face, Leek began. "Ki is a very special, but at the same time, common type of energy"
Ning'er was a little confused, after all, could something really be special and common at the same time? She decided to wait for Leek to finish his explanation before asking any questions.
"Everything that is "alive" has ki, plants, animals, monsters called demonic beasts, humans, even the world itself and the stars have their own ki, that is why I say that it is common, no matter where you are, it will always be almost impossible for you not to find something or someone that does not have ki"
"The only thing I do is take advantage of my own life force, my ki, I control it and shape it to be able to do what I do, whether it is to reinforce my body to make it stronger and more durable." He said, raising an arm that was instantly covered with a layer of energy for a few seconds.
"Or to channel it and turn it into an energy attack." He continued saying, and this time, the layer of energy moved, concentrating in his palm and transforming into a bright yellow sphere of energy.
"The uses that can be given to ki are as wide as the user's imagination and their control over energy, that is what makes ki special." He finished saying, lowering his arm and fading away the aura surrounding the limb along with the energy sphere.
"Anyway." Leek said, standing up. "I won't bother you anymore, I'm done training for today, but I still have to get my food, I would recommend you stop cultivating for a while until you feel better and check thoroughly if there's something you're doing wrong, if you keep absorbing that harmful energy in the worst case you could suffer fatal consequences, a normal injury is a manageable thing, but something capable of affecting ki like that is no joke, will alone can only take you so far if your body degrades more and more"
"Stop cultivating?" She said with a lost voice and looking down.
"That's not possible!!" She looked up, and her eyes tinged with pain and frustration looked directly into Leek's, as if she was complaining to him about the situation she had to live through.
"All the effort I've put in!! All the pain I've endured!! Every night I felt like my body was burning while my legs froze!! The bruises that appeared on my body were like nails in my flesh, and they wouldn't go away no matter what I tried!! I haven't been able to sleep well in months!! Every cultivation session has been so painful that I ended up writhing on the ground!! And I have endured it all until now for only one reason!!"
"It has all been to finally be free, I do not want to be just a tribute from my clan to a more powerful family!! I do not want to marry that despicable Shen Fei and be treated like a slave, a toy in his hands that he will play with until he gets bored or breaks me!!" Her voice rose until she went from speaking loudly to screaming, the beginning of a cry and tears began to be visible.
"And now, when my soul force reached 75 points, when I am so close to reaching bronze rank, you tell me that I must stop to prevent my life from being in danger?!! It is not fair!! What kind of horrible person was I in my previous life for the heavens to punish me in this way!!" And with her last statement, the dam broke.
Xiao Ning'er, the first daughter of the Winged Dragon family, a girl described by almost everyone who had known her as a cold and distant person, a girl who had walked a thorny path by her own choice as she sought to undo the shackles she had been born with, cried.
For the first time in years, she cried not because of the physical pain she had to endure, but because of the helplessness she felt, because of the frustration that her life, her future, was once again out of her control.
Leek watched all this with wide eyes and a shocked expression, he had no idea what this girl was going through, but now that he had heard her sorrows he realized that his advice might have sounded very bad to her.
But what could he do? Well, that was obvious, while it wasn't completely his fault, his actions had made this girl suffer, and like any normal person who had unintentionally made a girl cry, he felt like an idiot.
So the least he could do to feel better would be to offer his help, no matter how little it was.
