– This child, sooner or later, would become an outstanding person by himself. He was just the one who helped this kid shorten time. (Eugene)
***
Eugene saw Angus bow in front of him, thinking to himself that the feeling of accepting a disciple was indeed good enough. He was about to reach out his hand and touch the boy's head to encourage him, but the hand that reached out midway drew back.
Forget it! He was not familiar with these kinds of action.
Of course, Angus was not aware of Eugene's recent move. He raised his head, looking at Eugene with expectant eyes, looking forward to the first lesson.
Eugene nodded: "Okay, let's practice. From today onwards, try to focus more on meditation."
Angus asked, "Can you say a little more clearly?"
Eugene slowly explained: "Most human of the Dragon Race was born with one of the three natural elements: Fire, Water, or Lightning. Only a few people, usually Metis, possess two, or even three elements."
"These elements can help each other make your practice easier, but they can also counteract each other to make it difficult for you. Even so, there will always be one element that is superior to the others."
"During this stage, you should concentrate on meditation, go deep into your mind, to discover what is your core strength."
There were a few things about race that Eugene did not say.
The Dragon race was a powerful race with an extreme racial superiority. They possessed great physical capacity, intellectual power, and internal power, in which the physical factor was really superior compared to the two others. This was an advantage, but also a downside.
It was true that when compared to the other races, the Dragon race's physical strength, intelligence, and internal power were superior. But when compared to themselves, the physical strength and internal power were too high compared to the intellectual, making most of them brave, warlike, with a hasty personality.
In the case of Angus, most people of the Dragon Race would undoubtedly be rushing into practice every day rather than trying to find out the root of the problem. But this kid was different. He was patient enough to spend time considering his problems while maintaining good study results. He knew which goals needed priority, which ones needed long-term effort.
Born with the gift, accompanied with the self-discipline and hard-working nature.
Eugene knew that, sooner or later, this child would become an outstanding person by himself. He was just the one who helped this kid shorten time.
Following Eugene's instruction, Angus began to meditate in the forest.
In the quiet space of the artificial forest, Angus sat in silence. Eugene rested his head back to a big tree, his eyes closed. May be he was sleeping, or may be he was just simply resting.
Angus meditated for an afternoon, Eugene also sat there for the whole afternoon. Then the two returned to dormitory so that Angus could participate in physical activities the next morning.
The second day was similar, but Eugene no longer sat on the ground. He sat on a resting chair with a soft cushion and a sunshade above.
Angus was meditating on the ground: "..." Did not know where teacher took such great toys from?
On the third day, Angus told Eugene: "You can go this afternoon, I'll be here all night."
There was no progress in the past two days, so Angus wanted to try mediating for a little longer. He could not be absent from the morning physical activities, so he could only take advantage of the evening. Anyway, not sleeping for a few nights was not a big problem!
Eugene nodded, "Go ahead, don't need to care about me." I had such a great chair, I could sleep anywhere!
The night fell down. The sky was twinkling with stars.
The boy was sitting cross-legged, his back was straight, his breath was steady, around his body existed a kind of mystic air that appeared and disappeared alternately.
Eugene quietly opened his eyes to observe for a moment and then closed his eyes. The corner of his mouth slightly arched, his face looking relaxed.
Finally this kid was able to enter the state of "samadhi"! (*)
...
At five in the morning, Angus opened his eyes.
In addition to his prediction, he was not tired but even more alert and comfortable than usual. He jogged back to the dorm, washed his face, changed into training uniform and then came to the training ground with the other students.
At this time, the Class K crowd was gathering together and chatting. When Angus came, they all started to talking with him.
"Leader, Leader, Nissyen said he saw you running back to the dorm early morning! You didn't come back last night?"
Angus nodded: "Ah."
Since the day having a little practice with the whole class, the next afternoons Angus did not study with Class K any more, but trained individually with Teacher Eugene.
Class K was divided into three groups of Water, Fire and Lightning, with the instruction and monitor of three instructors. In this regard, Class K had nothing to be dissatisfied with, they even felt that of course. They were all aware that their Leader was such talented, and spending time practicing basic steps with them was just a waste of time!
Leader should take advantage of his own privilege to quickly enhance his strength! That was what the national First-ranked would do!
Dallton continued to ask, "You slept in the forest?"
Angus shook his head. "No. I didn't sleep."
Dallton: "..." Oh shit! He forgot that their Leader was always strong as a bull!
But when seeing that his Leader who did not sleep for the whole night but still ranked top of the three physical categories, Dallton then understood what "strong as a bull" really was.
Well, he had worried too much!
***
The fifth day practice with Teacher Eugene.
From the first time successfully entering the "samadhi" state after several hours of meditation, Angus gradually learned how to enter this state faster. Like today, he only needed about half an hour.
Eugene was consistent to maintain the image of being able to sleep anywhere and anytime, however at the moments that Angus could not see, Eugene always timely caught the unusual changes from Angus.
Just like this moment.
The usual lazy expression was no longer existing on Eugene's handsome face, instead, he was gazing at Angus.
Some strange patterns suddenly appeared on Angus hands, then gradually spread onto his arms. In a closer look, he could see the color circulating in the patterns, as the fire burning inside.
Eugene was startled. That was...
Although it was a bit different, but he could realize!
However... instead of the orange-yellow color like the patterns he had seen before, for Angus' pattern – It was the alternation between two colors: light blue and orange red.
Before Eugene could think more carefully, he saw that Angus had strange expressions. His breath became urgent and unstable, his eyebrows fussed uncomfortably, and sweat from the top of his head streamed out like a stream.
At the same time, the two colors inside the pattern moved chaotic.
Eugene immediately approached Angus, discovering the air around Angus radiating astonishing heat. His whole body was like a burning coal with extremely high temperature.
Eugene hesitated. If he used Water power to intervene, would it harm the boy?
Seeing the colors in the pattern increasingly chaotic, Eugene determinedly reached out his hand: "Water sphere."
A big sphere of water immediately appeared, from above of Angus falling onto his body.
Boom!
Angus startled, opened his eyes. His whole body was soaking wet, some white smoke spread out from his body. It took him several seconds to stabilize his breath: "Thank you... teacher."
"What's wrong with you?" Eugene asked.
Angus frowned, recalling what happened.
"I see... my body has two sources of heat. It's an orange-red flame, and... a blue flame."
After going deep into his consciousness, he found himself standing in an endless, vast space, in front of two burning flames.
On the one side, there was the fire with the common color like everyone saw. It had bright yellow heart, turning gradually to orange and the outer being red. On the other side, there was a pale blue flame.
That was the pure blue color, not mixed with any other impurities. It was unlike the blue-yellow-red mixed flame that he created when practicing Fire power. Just blue.
The point was, compared to the red flame, the blue flame was like a tiny person next to the giant.
Angus tried activating his internal power, then the situation was... the two flames tended to fuse each other. Red fire dominated in size and scope, so it encroaches and swallows the blue fire. At the same time, he felt short of breath, his entire body was stretched out and covered in pain, just like the blood vessels all over the body were on fire.
The feeling was extremely similar to when he tried his best to perform intermediate and advanced Fire skills.
"I used to think that the reason that I couldn't perform high-level skills of Fire was due to the effects of soul switching. Or maybe because I was a Water mixed-blood, my physical was unsuitable for practicing Fire power. But now..."
Now he had a strong feeling that – He, seem like he was not a Water mix-blooded.
But if he was a Fire dragon, why he had trouble using Fire power?
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Samadhi
- Definition by Google: A state of intense concentration achieved through meditation.
- Definition by Dictionary.com: The highest stage in meditation, in which a person experiences oneness with the universe.