Chapter 16: Li Jun.
Haru ran over to the fruit before starting to eat them one by one. He managed to eat four of them before something strange happened. His throat felt like it was burning. His stomach then also felt the same. The man then looked over toward Haru.
"Ohh, you probably shouldn't eat too many of those. They are of yang attribute, so if you eat, I would say around three. Your body will most likely explode." The man then took a closer look at Haru, who was holding both his stomach and his throat.
"How many of them did you eat?" He asked. Haru struggled to put up five of his fingers before the man sighed.
"Just when I thought I could get out of this place you go and die on me?" He said, but then an idea came to him. "Here, if you can learn how to cultivate this. Then you should be able to survive. But you should know that you won't be able to use your caster abilities anymore. It's now your choice if you die or not." The man bent down and put his fingertip on Haru's forehead. He then began passing on information about the cultivation technique to Haru.
Haru's pain grew much worse as the information forced its way into his brain. The Abandoned God of Desolation. That was the name of this technique. He didn't even need to think about it. He would happily abandon magic for the rest of his life if he got the chance to live even half the life the man in front of him had.
He felt bad though. He had worked his whole life and fifteen years of his current life to get to where he was right now. But he was throwing all of his efforts away for the chance to experience something greater than the world he had come to know. He wasn't sure, though. Was he really going to die from this? He stayed still for a few minutes before he curled up into a ball as the pain was so excruciating. He really was going to die if he didn't do anything.
He then sat on the floor and crossed his legs. It was like his body remembered how to do this out of muscle memory. He wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing until his attention switched. He was now focusing on the cultivation technique. He could no longer feel the excruciating pain surging throughout his body. It was unreal to him. He wasn't even thinking of anything. The more he tried to think of things to focus on, the emptier his brain would become.
Time didn't matter anymore. He was so comfortable that he didn't want to move. When suddenly he felt something happen to his body. There was a gentle heat coming from his stomach. Then on his skin, he felt cold air slowly drifting towards him and circling around like a gentle breeze before penetrating his stomach, making the feeling amplify as each minute went by.
A few moments passed before Haru's body felt like it was vibrating. There was a gentle feeling running all the way around his body, like a river gently flowing through his veins. He felt a slight pressure weigh down upon his body for a few minutes as his body felt weightless. He opened his eyes to see that his vision had improved.
It was like a film layer was removed from his eyes. He had twenty/twenty vision before and now he had no words. It was like he was seeing the world for the first time. His body felt as light as a feather and as strong as steel. He couldn't quite describe the feeling.
"Four hours and twenty-six minutes. Not bad, kid. You managed to break my personal record. Now, what did you say your name was?" The man asked Haru before sitting down on the floor in front of him.
"I didn't say my name, but it's Haru Kitagawa. And what is yours?" Haru asked the man finally after so much time had passed.
The man put his hand over the floor and out came a bottle of alcohol and two glasses. "Nice to meet you, Haru. My name is Li Jun."
Li Jun then poured a drink for Haru and one for himself. "Come on drink with me." Li Jun said as he handed the class to Haru. "I can't drink yet it is illegal," Haru stated. "Illegal? If you didn't notice, there is nobody here to arrest you. Come on, drink. It is to honour the start of our new friendship." Li Jun said before drinking the glass of wine in one gulp. Haru tried his best to keep up with him.
After four glasses of wine, Haru found it strange that he didn't feel anything. There were no side effects from the alcohol. He then looked down at the glass and sniffed it. The glass definitely had the scent of alcohol on it. Li Jun laughed, "You're wondering why the alcohol isn't affecting you? Welcome to the world of cultivation." They both laughed and talked into the night.
Three years went by in the blink of an eye as Li Jun trained Haru inside the array. The Qi outside was thin, but the whole purpose of the array was to gather Qi and put it into the water so the cultivators on the outside could absorb it at a faster rate. The Qi on the inside was about one hundred times as dense as the regular Qi on earth. So Haru progressed far faster than most people in the lower realms would.
This was still nothing compared to the upper realms. After the intense three years of cultivation, he had found himself at the peak of the form creation stage. He first went through the Qi refining stage, The core refining stage, Spirit core stage, Earthly spirit stage, and the heavenly spirit stage. He was just one step away from a major breakthrough.
For the past three months, he had been refining a solid form of Qi for his spiritual core to turn into a golden core. It was just a matter of condensing his Qi and refining it throughout his body. Li Jun explained many things along the way. He first started with the basic theory lessons of cultivation.
It was much like the mana training Haru had done in the past. The more he used his Qi and got used to moving inside and outside of his body, the more control he would have over his power. Li Jun didn't have a physical body so they couldn't engage in combat training, but he did help when he could. He would refine pills for Haru to take to help with the growth of his power.
Everything was still really new to Haru and he couldn't understand the basic concepts of most of the techniques that Li Jun would teach him, but the advice Li Jun gave each time was simple yet effective.
'Just believe in yourself.'
He would say over and over again until Haru could understand the first part of the technique. From there it was just a matter of rinse and repeat. He would have to use his techniques for everyday things. Instead of walking to the bathroom, he would have to use a movement technique to reach the bathroom. And instead of getting up from lying down, he would have to use simple Qi manipulation to put strength into his body to help lift himself. Every time he would make a mistake, Li Jun would hit him on the head with various objects until it was drilled into his head.
Haru was upset with some of the treatments he was getting from Li Jun, but he couldn't complain too much. In the eyes of Li Jun, Haru was still a child. Even though he had in fact lived for forty-five years, which was nothing in comparison to Li Jun's lifetime.
One day Li Jun spoke out to Haru. "You should be strong enough to break the array if you want too. Or we could both spend another year in here if you really wanted to?" Li Jun smiled for the first time since Haru had been there, but there was a sadness in his eyes. Li Jun knew that their carefree days would come to an end the moment that Haru decided he wanted to leave.
Haru looked back at him and smiled. "Sure, why not?" Li Jun then walked over to the pedestal and picked up the golden ring.
"Haru, this is The Dragon Emperor Ring. It is the thing that my soul is attached to and it also has another purpose, but you will learn about that the moment you put the ring on." He handed the ring to Haru, who was confused for a moment.
Haru put on the ring and a voice echoed out around his head. "Li Jun. I see you have found another disciple? This one seems promising. Unlike that traitorous... Ahem sorry about that. Ah. I see you have also taught him that technique. You sure must trust him."
Li Jun looked over to Haru and spoke. "Yeah, and I see you have been doing okay as well Lao. It must have been boring in there for all this time, right? What do you say we catch up for a bit whilst the kid breaks us out of here?" Li Jun turned into a small translucent orb and floated towards the ring before disappearing inside.
"Haru Go to the array and put you Qi into each of the lines." Li Jun spoke from the inside of his head.
Haru wasted no time and walked over to the array before feeling for the natural Qi from the runes. After a few seconds, he felt them and then poured a bit of his Qi into them. He was blinded by the sunlight as he appeared outside of the entrance to the cave.
One of the older cultivators began walking down the path before spotting Haru. "Hey! We have been looking for you all day. Where did you go!?"