1 cale = three metres
Before leaving, Lilia and Bartos asked him to come with them to their house, but Shui refused. He wanted to stay in the shack that his mother left him. Still, he compromised by saying that he would go to their house for dinner and such.
Once the night ended and dawn came, Shui finally came out from the sanctum. His sadness remained, his heart was still heavy, even so, he couldn't make her feel worried in the afterlife.
'Please live freely,'
He remembered her last words and began aimlessly walking through the forest. There was no destination or objective in mind. He simply let his feet take him wherever, as he recalled the past seven years as best as he could.
'Finally, the bitch is gone.'
Suddenly, just as he remembered what Eclos had said and fury began to replace the melancholy he was feeling, he heard grunting.
In front of him was a four-legged hairy beast with horns near its large snout, a boar. This was the first time he saw a boar in the wild since the areas they operated in were far from the waterfall and the route to the village.
Any normal child would run away once they saw this beast staring at them, but Shui stared back. With anger in his heart, he had no qualms about using it as a target to relieve stress.
After brushing the ground twice with its front leg, it charged at him. This boar was almost as tall as he was, but he showed no fear. His mind was like hot water before its boiling point. Anger burned inside him yet there were no ripples, he remained calm. The seconds it took to reach him became minutes in his eyes, so he could closely watch it.
Right before it made contact, he flipped above it, stabbing it in the right eye with the knife he got from Bartos, before landing a seat on the boar's back.
"Bwur!"
The boar moved franctically so he jumped off but kept his attention locked onto it, not minding the ghastly sight of its face. Though he was normally a bit nauseous around blood, this scene in front of him seemed to lack reality. As if all the sensory data around him was simply delivered as information, he could ignore what he was about to do.
Once the boar saw its enemy once more, it turned its crazed eye towards him. Shui, on the other hand, slowly backed away, luring the boar to pounce at him. There was no need for any fancy tricks, this would soon be over.
As the boar rushed at him, he stood in place. He stayed still just before it hit him and then dodged by leaping to the side. A loud thump reached him right after he made it out of the way and he looked to see the boar dazed after slamming into a sturdy tree.
His tactics weren't impressive, it was his serene heart that could carry out the tactics that deserved praise. The boar was still bleeding, it wouldn't last long and he had no desire to finish it off. However, he bowed his head to the dying beast, his way of respecting his first opponent. He no longer felt anger, a new emotion had filled its place.
Even now, only the smell of blood made him grimace. He knew, he knew he was now completely different from normal children. His calmness wasn't brought by experience or necessity, it was something more profound. Something that none of his clan had even touched on. He didn't know what it was, but he could feel it.
Before he lost the feeling, he removed the knife, quickly made his way to the waterfall and splashed himself with the cool, refreshing liquid before standing on the stone mound at the center. With the knife back in its handmade sheath on his back, he began.
It started with him clasping his hands, then he smoothly extended his right hand to the right along with his right leg, and as if compulsed to do the same, the water around him also followed that motion. Next, he lifted his right leg and turned his right palm upwards while standing on just his left leg. The water also became a wave that rose to a high point before dropping.
Each movement he made, took little effort and was followed by a similar movement in the water. Shui noticed this, but his mind was immersed in the dance that he was performing. He was understanding, he was grasping it, he was learning the meaning of martial arts.
To finish off the dance accompanied by waves, he rose both hands to his chest, palms facing down, and then lowered them. As both him and the water settled, he felt his vision suddenly expand. Previously he could only see what a normal person could, but now he could see much more. Even directly behind him was obvious, and he could count the number of lines on the leaves of a tree five cales in front of him. This new sight also allowed him to feel a new energy within his body. Even without cultivating, he could always sense the presence of nature energy so he knew this was different. This feeling inside him was on another plane of profoundity.
As he relished in this feeling, he raised his face towards the sky.
"Mom, are you watching? I've finally understood it."
The last and most important aspect of martial arts, intent. The emotions he felt were transformed into a supernatural will that followed his orders. He could now crush a rock with just his martial intent, which was irrelevant to his body's own physical strength.
It took him a couple more minutes of adjusting to this new feeling, before he noticed the anomaly within his clothes. It was the necklace his mother gave him, the stone was blinking with a blue light.
"Huh?"
This necklace that he accepted in memory of his mother was more impressive than he expected.
'Mom did say this was left by my father.'
As he stared at the stone, and looked at it from different angles, he noticed that the speed of the blinking changed based on its position. After a bit more fiddling, he realised that it was reacting towards the waterfall and so he got closer to it.
In front of his eyes was just rushing water, but he noticed that he actually couldn't see beyond the water with his new vision. Curiosity at its peak, he stretched out his hand and the moment he touched the water,
he was gone.