Chapter 18: Law Of Time.
Haru turned around to see a man who looked to be in his early sixties with a big bushy beard and grey hair. He was built like a tank with muscles that nearly ripped through his shirt.
"Haru is that you? Your hair is longer than in the pictures. I swear your mother needs to take better care of you. First, she moves to Japan with that horrible husband of hers, and then she enrols you into a school like that." The old man began to rant about Haru's parents.
Haru didn't really feel comfortable around his parents but he did think of them as actual parents since he never met his parents from his last life, so he became slightly angry as this stranger began to shit talk about them.
"Who do you think you are to talk about my parents like that? You decrepit old man. How dare you barge your way in here when we were having a discussion and insult my family? Get out or I will throw you out." Haru looked towards him and stared him down.
"But Haru, I'm your grandfather surely you wouldn't…" Before he could finish Haru pushed his hand out and sent a wave of Qi towards the man sending him flying backward out of the room as the doors slammed behind him. "You were saying something about laws? What are those?" Haru quickly changed the topic.
"Ah yes, laws. Little Shen, if you could take out an inscription for Haru that would be great thanks. I could just put them into his head but a chick won't learn how to fly into the skies if its mother carried it, would it?" Li Jun said to the sect master, who immediately pulled out a stone tablet from seemingly nowhere.
"How do you guys keep doing that? Where are you pulling everything from?" Haru asked as he had seen it happen a few times now and still had no idea.
"Oh, yeah. If you manage to learn this one within an hour, I will give you a storage ring." Li Jun said.
Haru stood for a moment. 'A storage ring? I wonder how they work.'
He had used magic to store his stuff before, but the cultivation world was still very new to him. "A storage ring? Is that where you keep pulling things from?" Haru asked.
"Yeah, a storage ring is like the storage magic you guys use on those devices. But the difference is that they are forged from rare materials that have no Qi in them, so when you put Qi into them it will hold anything you need within them. Here, take this." The sect master explained before handing the stone tablet to Haru.
Haru looked at the tablet for a little bit and didn't understand a single thing.
"What am I supposed to do with it?" Haru asked.
Li Jun sighed in frustration. "Just cultivate whilst holding it, and you will see what happens." Haru sat down and crossed his legs whilst holding the tablet in his hands.
As soon as he closed his eyes he was taken away into a place so amazing he wouldn't even be able to dream about it. He opened his eyes and found a place of pure ice. It was an endless snowy desert with no living creature within sight. He then felt the chilling cold as his body began to form ice crystals all around and his skin became purple with frostbite.
He didn't know what to do. He had already opened his eyes. Why wasn't he in the elder hall anymore? He thought about it for a moment. "I have to leave the nest? To learn how to soar through the sky? Okay, game on."
Haru began to fight against the freezing cold, lifting one foot at a time out of the snow lining the ground like quicksand. The slower he moved the faster the snow would move in to devour him.
He crossed the barren lands layered in ice and snow one step at a time holding onto his fading consciousness with each move that he made. That was when it called out to him. Almost like an oasis, there seemed to be a structure in the middle of this unknown place.
Haru thought he was imagining things at first as each step closer he made toward the structure the further away it seemed to be. It wouldn't stop him though. Haru walked and walked, losing all hope with each step. Until a thought came to him.
'None of this was real…'
Why was he feeling pain? It was all just his imagination. And with that simple thought alone the feeling of fatigue disappeared completely. The whole thing was just inside his head. All of the snow was the tablet influencing his mind. It was just an illusion. And then with that thought, the whole place slowly faded to black.
He was standing alone in complete darkness and left with nothing but his thoughts to guide him. He then began to imagine the place again. The endless snow and freezing cold and not to much surprise the place came back. He once again stood in the endless amount of snow.
Was this whole thing just to give him a better understanding of his mind? He was confused once again. What was the point of this whole thing? Would it teach him to understand something? He began to walk once again with a fire burning within him. He would reach the structure no matter what.
He walked and walked. His clothes soon became tattered and his hair grew longer and longer until he felt facial hair hitting his neck. He put all distractions into the back of his mind as his body grew old and his hair began to turn grey. His body began to hunch over as the fatigue in his body grew stronger and stronger until he had no motivation to carry on. He put his hands out in front of him and let his body fall.
As his body started to fall he was caught by something. He opened his eyes and looked toward the rock structure in front of him. The smooth stone of the tower that seemingly led to heaven stood in front of him. He pulled himself back to his feet as a door seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He entered slowly, hunched over and struggling to breathe. The room was light and warm with the only thing around being mirrors on all sides of him.
Haru looked into the mirror horrified with his appearance. His clothes were all worn down and he appeared shorter than before because of a deformation in his spine. His skin was stained with dried sweat and tears from his journey. His hair had grown into a long mess on the floor beneath him.
His skin was wrinkled and looked as fragile as tissue paper. He was half a step away from death when he realised what the test was about. No matter what there was no escaping time. He pictured what he looked like as he closed his eyes. He opened them to find his usual appearance staring back at him. His clothes had been repaired and his youthfulness had come back.
The tower began to vibrate as it slowly disappeared into nothingness. Each brick slowly vanished one by one until there was nothing left. The snow clouds in the sky were moving in reverse sucking all the snow back up into them and Haru began tracing his steps backward in reverse until he was back at the starting point. He opened his eyes and found himself back in the room where he had started. He slowly stood up and turned to face Li Jun.
"I finished," Haru said and stared at Li Jun who was staring back in shock.
"You just sat down. How can you be done that fast?" Li Jun said in outrage.
"Shen, which law inscription did you give to him?" Li Jun asked the sect master who was equally as shocked. "It… It was the law of time."
"The law of time for his first time!? What! Are you trying to kill the poor kid!?" Li Jun shouted at the sect master who hung his head in shame. Li Jun then held out his hand before a large branch appeared in his hand.
"Okay then. Here show me what you can do." Li Jun threw the branch toward Haru.
Haru caught the branch and thought back to the experience he had in that place. And how he had managed to make time flow in reverse. He tried and tried but nothing happened. He was confused but then realised the branch looked and felt weird.
He looked at it for a second before he remembered the feeling. Retrace the steps he thought to himself. The branch slowly began flaking off with little chunks of it beginning to vanish. He then realised what he was holding. It was in fact a spear that had been rusted for years on end. All the bits of rust suddenly vanished leaving behind a golden coloured spear.
"I guess you actually did learn how to use the law of time. Here is your storage ring. There are some pills in there for your cultivation so don't tell people that I don't treat you well." Li Jun said before throwing a small silver ring towards Haru.
Haru put the ring on his finger. "Why is this so big? It just keeps falling off." Haru said as he struggled for a minute.
"Put you Qi into it… Do I have to help you with everything?" Li Jun complained before Haru put his Qi into the ring. The ring suddenly shrunk to fit his finger perfectly.