Lee could be seen seated in a lotus position on a bed in a small room that had only a wooden table and chair, this didn't look like the proper room of Lee in his father's residence. It was with no doubt not Lee's room, after Lee had accepted the Dragon call needles, he had wanted to start cultivating the art, but courtesy demanded him not to, with him not able to fulfill this wish he decided to lose himself in his thoughts and that was what he did till the auction ended, he didn't even know what the main item was, he speedily left the palace and searched around for an inn where he could rent and cultivate the art, it didn't take long before he found one.
Lee brought out the scroll and needles from his storage ring, he unfolded the scroll and began to read through the content, it took a while before he digested everything.
Lee could not help but shake his head, no wonder cultivators ran mad, you had to place your mind under some certain amount of pressure, it was like placing an heavy hammer weighing several Pims on an egg, naturally the egg is meant to be smashed, but the art thought otherwise, rather it made you use the hammer to strengthen the egg.
The process was very risky, any slight mistake your mind would be set in turmoil but in cases of success you would not only strengthen your mind but end up producing mental energy.
Lee took in a deep breath, he began to ponder on what he read in the scroll the risks where high but the gains were without doubt enticing, possessing what only ring cultivators should have was an edge ahead of his peers, though ring cultivators had mental energy not all of them cultivated it.
He was intransigent but not stupid, he suddenly made a decision, he was going to try and produce mental energy but if things began to go out of hand he would immediately stop, with this his eyes sparked with determination .
He took in one last deep breath and then began to form hand seals as instructed in the scroll, in the first few breaths nothing unusual happened until suddenly Lee who had his eyes shut found himself drawn into a dark space almost similar to the one he formed his dantian from, it was called a mental space as indicated in the scroll it was the first step of progress, Lee didn't pause the seals, he just got to the most important stage. While Lee was forming the seals, inside the mental space a huge vortex was suddenly formed, as soon as it appeared it began to spin wild carrying along with it berserk currents of air, the mental space was thrown into chaos and the resulting effect was that Lee's mind felt as though it was stabbed by daggers and at the same time as though it was been hammered.
Lee gritted his teeth, the pain was tormenting, no wonder cultivators ran mad, but he wasn't ready to give up, with this resolve he continued to form the seals and as expected the intensity of the power accompanying the vortex increased in several folds, white streaks of light were appearing around the dark space like spider webs they spread around the space at an unimaginable rate, the vortex sent out strong air like shards of glass which flew and exploded around the dark space.
"Arggh!!" Lee screamed in pains, his eyes were beginning to turn red, the pain was so insane that he felt his sense of reasoning begin to slip away, he immediately bit hard on his tongue, which sent a sharp pain to his head that reduced the rate at which he was losing his sanity, Lee's eyes were filled with stubbornness, he wasn't going to come this far and then give up..never!
With this Lee continued to form the seals, the vortex as Lee continued to form the seals began to expand and the berserk energy it spread around the mental space also increased, the dark space like as though was glass began to have more visible cracks, if this continued then no doubt the dark space would explode and then Lee would certainly lose his mind.
At this point, Lee knew it would be wise to stop forming the seals or else he would just become deranged at an early stage of his life, with this he stopped forming the seals, but naive was Lee's thought, he had no idea that the other cultivators like him that had tried the art and went mad had also stopped at this point, what Lee and the unfortunate cultivators didn't know was that at the level that had formed the seals to, the vortex had grown too strong to stop, it wouldn't grow in strength but would continue to cause havoc.
"Why has this damn thing not stopped?" Lee yelled has panic begun to dwell on him, if the damn vortex didn't stop then the dark space would collapse and he would..........." No that wouldn't happen, haven't I put myself in trouble"
Lee thought, his face was plastered with trepidation, the pain his mind was going through didn't bother him as much as the fact that he was at the edge of becoming deranged.
The vortex continued to lash on the dark space which had white lines spread all around it like a web at this point, it needed just few more force, before it became rubble. Lee suddenly became calm, he began to reminisce about past events, his father , his clan his dreams, his mother.
Mother!
"Would I lose my mind before I get the chance to know anything about my mother!.....Never!"
Lee suddenly became pumped up a strange strength filled him and anger filled his tormented mind.
"You silly thing I order you to STOP!!!" Lee screamed in his mind and this sounded like the command of an emperor which caused several events to occur.
Lee's sword totem that silently floated in his dantian where the little spiritual energy he had gathered was stored, the second Lee's voice rang out the totem vibrated violently as though answering the call of its master, a blue beam of light burst out it's blade which disappeared the moment it appeared.
The vortex was still spinning wildly sending berserk air current about, it was just at this moment, that the beam of blue light appeared, with no hesitation it slammed towards the vortex, the moment it made contact, it seemed as though time had paused as immediately ice began to spread around the vortex with a speed that the eyes could not follow, the violent vortex could surprisingly not struggle with freezing effect and in no time the terrible vortex had become an ice statue.
It may seem slow but it all happened it few breaths.
Lee had his jaw dropped open, what type of entity was his sword totem, with how powerful the vortex was it couldn't even resist, first was the strange liquids that had aided his breakthrough now it was this.
The vortex now an ice statue began to have cracks spread round it and in seconds it shattered into debris, when all this was happening the mental space was already self healing returning back to its original form, in matter of seconds everything just changed, Lee was still shocked stiff as he witnessed everything happen.
Few breaths passed and the mental space was back to shape, but there was an unusual entity floating inside of it a white milky ball which emanated strong energy undulations, it was nothing more than MENTAL ENERGY!