As I said, I am really grateful with the defensive charm bracelet Master Long gave to Jennifer. I tested the bracelet by deliberately 'accidentally' hit Jennifer on her face. To my surprise, instead of hitting her, my punch bounced back and hit me on my face. So, despite I had to bear the pain caused by my own fist, I now can breathe easy.
When her honeymoon leave is up, like usual, I drive her to D.A office. After that, I go to Dragon Temple to meet Master Long. The old monk really is kind and agrees to take me as his temporary disciple.
According to my memory, I once had fifth level of Spiritual strength and 15th level of Physical strength. Now, I feel like I have a certain level of Physical strength, but my Spiritual strength is gone. The indications are these. First, I have never 'saw' my profound initial power since I woke up on the dumpster, even when I faced near death experiences like I had at Mr. Chekovsky's incident nor when Radwansky shot me. Secondly, al though my brain cells are active, I still can't move a thing with my mind.
When I told this to Master Long, he said that those abilities depend on Spiritual strength. I vaguely remember my old master, Master Derrick - now I remember his name, also told me about it. Thus, I ask Master Long to train me to regain my Spiritual strength.
"Interesting," Master Long mumbles to himself after he scanned my palm for few minutes.
"What's interesting ?" I ask in curious.
"Hmm.. you have three roots," Master Long starts his explanation. He told me before that to cultivate, one must have Spiritual root, the purer the better. Moreover, the type of root determines the method of cultivation.
"That's great, right ?" I ask.
"Yes and no," Master Long says. I keep my mouth shut to wait for his explanation. "Your main root is Wind. It is actually, not that pure. The other two are buried deep. I'm guessing your old master did it on purpose."
"But why ?"
"Because they are opposite to each other, yet both are the strongest kind of spiritual. One is Earth, the strongest for defense. The other is Lighting, the strongest for offense," Master Long turns to me, "No man in history is able to bear both strengths. They collide to each other inside our body and corrupt it from inside."
"What is wind ?"
"Wind can both be defense and offense, but far weaker than the other two."
"Can't only one of them be awaken ?" I ask again. Honestly, my greediness doesn't want to let them go.
Master Long shakes his head. "When one of them awakes, the other will awake, too."
I sigh in disappointment. "Okay, then. Let's just keep them buried," I reluctantly make decision.
"Good decision," Master Long says. He then gets up from the floor. "Let's start."
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Since my wind root is not too pure, Master Long warns me to be patient in cultivating. Not only that I will need more time that ones who has purer roots, I also need to cultivate in a denser Spiritual energy, or he calls it as Chi, places.
According to Master Long, there are not many places that has dense chi on Earth. That definitely makes me suspect that Master Long might have travelled to places other than Earth. But I keep my curiosity to my self as I continue listening to the old man. Despite Earth has only few dense chi places, I can actually attract and gather chi with a special method.
Thus, first thing Master Long teaches me after how to cultivate based on my root is how to gather chi. He gives me a crystal-like stone. He says the stone is very precious and couldn't buy with any money. The stone needs to be placed on my head as the 'antenna' to attract and capture chi.
The place to cultivate must be free from any electromagnet things as it surely can disrupt the chi wave. And most importantly, the place must have certain amount chi. If the place doesn't have any chi. the crystal will forcefully attract chi from other places and even humans that have chi. That will cause chaos and unbalance in Earth. The crystal-like stone will change color when it detects chi/ The denser the chi is, the more solid its color will be.
Master Long brings me to his room and the stone on my hand immediately changes color into vague pinkish red.
"You can cultivate here," He says before showing me how the proper position to cultivate.
I mimic him, sitting on the floor with both soles on top of my knees. I put the crystal on my head then put my hands on my thigh before starting to breathe and chanting my cultivation words inwardly.
At first, I feel nothing. But the more I chant, slowly I can feel some kind of energy sipping into my body from my head. This energy feels very familiar to me. I vaguely remember to feel the same sensation long time a go, when I was Quint Rauss. The difference is, I don't remember putting any stone on my head.
"That's good for a start," Master Long says after checking my chi when I finish cultivating. "You can come here daily to cultivate. My room has the densest chi in this temple, but other rooms, like Han's room also have suitable chi. If you can celibate, that will fasten your progress," Master Long says to me before I leave his temple.
I gulp to hear his last sentence but says no word. Despite with Jennifer five and a half month pregnant, she will definitely complain if I utter the idea of celibate. It is often that she is the one who initiates out love making session.
"It's just a suggestion," Master Long adds. Maybe he sees the change on my face to hear about celibate.
I sigh in relieve. "Thank you, Master. See you tomorrow," I say my good bye.