As soon as Qing Shan officially became a Cultivator, his master started to personally take charge of his training. The first thing that Qing Shan was taught was how to control his Third Eye. After all, someone who had been seeing everything normally their whole life would not just quickly adapt to seeing in six colors, seven if you count his own Lightning Qi.
Once Qing Shan finished learning how to open and close his Third Eye at will, he finally began his combat training. As Qing Shan had always been doing chores at his home up until he had twelve years under his belt, his body was naturally sturdy and quick. The body tempering from the Primal Elements had also increased Qing Shan's physique to an astonishing degree. Thus, Qing Shan was able to skip strength training exercise and move straight to learning how to fight.
According to Liu Tiansheng, Qing Shan was not allowed to try to use his Qi while fighting until he had at least as small grasp on how to fight. Liu Tiansheng decided to teach Qing Shan basic fighting instinct in the most effective way: beating him up.
"Remember, Techniques are only tools used in battle! Right now you need to hone your instincts so that you are not crushed beneath others' boots! You are currently just a little lamb, not even ready to use technique yet!"
With this said, Liu Tiansheng darted at Qing Shan, letting loose a few punches at his joints. Naturally, Liu Tiansheng had lowered his abilities to that of someone with the same strength as Qing Shan, he had even turned completely corporeal. However, he still looked as ethereal as ever.
Qing Shan focused on Liu Tiansheng's punch from his right arm, which was clearly aimed at Qing Shan's right shoulder. Qing Shan dipped his shoulder, dodging the punch, but did not manage to dodge the change in motion from the punch, which had turned into a downward palm strike. Right as Qing Shan's shoulder was hit, Liu Tiansheng smoothly used his foot to knock Qing Shan off balance, before easily pushing him onto the floor with his left hand.
"Good! You managed to dodge my first blow this time, but you still ended up on your butt. Next time, try to fall a bit more elegantly, okay?"
While Liu Tiansheng sounded amazingly sarcastic, he was being somewhat truthful with his cheeky advice. If Qing Shan could manage to control how he fell, that would be a next step in his combat performance.
"Master Liu, can you please let me use my Qi? I feel that that would be more effective…"
"No, my disciple. You know that I will not even teach you how to fight with your Qi if you cannot even manage to land a hit on me. Once you are able to consistently land at least one blow on me, only then will I teach you how to fight with Qi.
"Again."
Liu Tiansheng moved toward his disciple once more.
This quick exchange continued for a long time, the two only taking breaks when Qing Shan needed to eat, drink, or sleep. However, by the end of the month, Qing Shan had not made even the smallest bit of improvement.
Liu Tiansheng clapped his hands together, signaling for a break.
"Okay! It is time for you to change things up. Disciple, as of now, your body has very good defense, and you have the muscle needed for lots of power. Unfortunately, to put it bluntly, you move slower than a snail. Your Master, I have never seen someone with your build and age, that was so slow. You are built like a wood plank, but your body has the characteristics of a rock! To fix this, we need you to revisit the Primal Wind element."
"Alright."
Qing Shan nodded his head, knowing what his master meant. Although his memory was blurry, he could still faintly remember some sort of change in his movement the last time he faced the Primal Wind.
Now, understand that Liu Tiansheng did not want to temper Qing Shan's body any further, actually his body had been tempered more than enough. No, Liu Tiansheng was looking for Qing Shan to master the movement that he had when he had entered a state of Enlightenment before he was literally moving around the wind. If Qing Shan could actually control that type of movement, his fighting strength would increase drastically.
Unfortunately, Liu Tiansheng was unaware that Qing Shan had an entirely different perception of time than anyone else. If he had known this, his training for Qing Shan would most likely be entirely different. He also did not know that Qing Shan's Enlightenment had caused Qing Shan to experience time ten times slower than he already did. Based on these facts, if was very unlikely that Qing Shan would be able to pull of the same movements unless he could experience another Enlightenment, which was something that only the luckiest of people even experience once in their lifetime.
However, Qing Shan did know that he had definitely felt time slow down during his Enlightenment, even though he could not remember everything. The only thing that he really remembered was being able to feel each individual current of wind.
Not knowing if this was relevant or not, Qing Shan decided to tell his master what he remembered.
"Time slowed around you? You are saying that you could move between currents of wind? That's actually impossible, even if you felt like time slowed down to ten-fold of its normal speed just seeing the individual currents would not be effective, as you would need the speed to move around them. And in order to actually feel each current if wind time would need to slow down way more than just ten-fold. It would have to be at least one-hundred-fold."
Qing Shan nodded, walking into the world containing the Primal Elements behind his master.
Once Qing Shan entered the pocket dimension, as Liu Tiansheng called this world, Liu Tiansheng went to leave. However, a question played in his mind. Just deciding to check for himself, Liu Tiansheng discreetly used a thread of wind Qi to enter Qing Shan's Third Eye.
Usually, like the Life Core, the Third Eye showed a stable reading of Qing Shan's capabilities. The Life Core recorded the condition of the Body, and the Third Eye recorded the condition of the Mind. When Liu Tiansheng saw the inside of Qing Shan's Third Eye, he was confused. He could tell that there was the same amount of Qi inside this Energy Vessel as there was in the Life Core, but the Qi seemed as if it was all one essence. While it would usually be easy to see the Qi rotating inside any of the Major Energy vessels, Qing Shan's Qi in his Third Eye was rotating so fast that there seemed to be a solid rind of Lightning Energy within his Third Eye.
Liu Tiansheng had no clue what he had just seen. He had never heard of anything like this throughout his entire existence! In the Third Eye the circulation of Qi always stayed the same speed no matter who what. While it was actually quite common for the Qi to become stronger as someone grew older and got smarter, the rotation speed was supposedly the speed thought. Based on what Liu Tiansheng saw, wouldn't this mean that Qing Shan perceived time at least ten times slower than anyone else in the world?
Liu Tiansheng set this matter aside for now. He wanted to meditate on this and try to hypothesize what was wrong with his disciple's Third Eye. From what he could tell, Qing Shan saw the Qi energy in the environment the same as every other cultivator, and he had quickly grasped how to control that.
Confused, Liu Tiansheng left the pocket dimension, leaving Qing Shan to train.
Qing Shan immediately walked six meters toward the Primal Wind. It was not any easier or harder than he remembered getting this point. Holding on to what he remembered from Enlightenment, Qing Shan closed his eyes and loosened his body, trying to get a feel for the wind.
"Wahhhh!"
The moment Qing Shan loosened his body, he was blown backwards until he landed in the Primal Water.
Although he was somewhat frustrated, he had expected this.
Thus, Qing Shan moved back to the six-meter mark and sat down to meditate. He knew that he had definitely touched upon something that had caused his body to move like last time, but he had no clue how to find that feeling again.
Alas, no matter what Qing Shan did, he could not find that feeling. He remained sitting facing the Primal Wind, letting its force wash over his body. His mind was moving as fast as ever, but as of now questions were blowing through it. Qing Shan now knew that questions are sometimes just a means to an end, but he was currently desperately looking for that end.
After a few days of just meditating in the wind and bathing in the Primal Water for sustenance, Qing Shan had not come up with anything. His mind was still whirling with questions and his body was restless.
However, Qing Shan knew that he needed to change something.
'But what? Am I moving in the direct opposite direction, or am I walking right next to the path?'
Finally, Qing Shan decided that he would try something that was basically the complete opposite of what he had been doing the past few days. Qing Shan did start the same, walking out as far as he could before sitting down to meditate. But this time, Qing Shan did not start to fill his mind with questions. No, instead he tried to filter all of those questions out of his mind. At first, this was quite a hard thing for Qing Shan to do. He had always been a thinker, and his mind was filled with creative thoughts and ideas, along with intricate questions and needless desires. One could say that even when Qing Shan was asleep he never let his mind rest. He could always clearly remember his dreams, and more often then not, his dreams were so intricate that they could have been written by an old scholar.
As Qing Shan was having trouble entirely clearing his mind, he decided randomly to focus on just one thing. He focused on the feel of the wind on his skin. He did not question anything about the wind, he just felt the wind against his body with the entirety of his being, until he had no thoughts left in his mind. His mind had not slowed down at all, instead it just focused its entire strength on the wind.
Qing Shan remained in this state for an amount of time that was unknown to him. He began to feel as though he was the wind. He had entirely cleared him mind so that he was no longer even aware that he possessed a body. He felt the motions of the wind differently than before, when his brain had sped up during his Enlightenment. Instead, he now felt everything the wind felt. He felt a sense of freedom, and a somewhat childish desire to do anything.
Suddenly, with his mind as clear as glass, or maybe wind, Qing Shan slowly began to open his eyes.
Liu Tiansheng, who had been quietly observing the goings on in the pocket dimension also started to open his eyes and observe Qing Shan.
Qing Shan stood with entirely different aura around him. He seemed now like he could not be restrained by anything, like nothing could stop him. His already lean body seemed like it had somehow become entirely slack, yet it was still retaining the same amount of strength as before when he braced his whole body. He looked as he was a leopard who was in mid stride, even as he was standing entirely still.
Qing Shan began to move. His muscles clenched for one instant before immediately loosening up again, and he darted forward. As he moved forward to where the wind would normally push him back, Qing Shan's body did something that seemed like the most natural thing in the world, yet also defied logic. In mid-stride, Qing Shan's body turned almost imperceptibly, before correcting himself. When his front foot hit the ground, just past the seven-meter mark, his body tensed again, before moving in an entirely different direction. Again, in mid-stride, Qing Shan began to make small, barely-discernable movements with his body, but this time they did not just happen once, but multiple times. Qing Shan took a few more large, jumping, strides forward, before he was finally blown backwards. It happened again, right at the elven-meter mark.
Unlike last time, Qing Shan's body seemed to regain some balance in midair, and he landed standing in the shallow edge of the Primal Water. Qing Shan immediately sat down right where he was and began to meditate once more.
Qing Shan started nodding to himself only after an entire twenty-four hours passed, and opened his eyes. He had come back to his normal mental state, but the change in his aura and posture was still there. Qing Shan walked toward the Primal Wind one last time, and again started moving in that weird manner, reaching eleven-meters before he was blown back.
Qing Shan stood up tall, and looked into the sky, a rare smile on his face.
"Master Liu, can I come back?"
Instantly, Liu Tiansheng appeared next to Qing Shan and brought him back to the cave, trying to suppress the smile on his face.
'This kid…'
"You uncle, I, is not going to ask what you understood in there, but you definitely made major improvement."
"Master Liu, you know that you are only making me think more of myself right?"
"Let's see if you can still talk like that once I beat you down again!"
"Try you're best Master. I feel confident in getting at least one hit on you before the day is over."
"Remember those words at the end of the day, you little brat!"
Qing Shan began to spar with his Master again, but he still could not get a hit on Liu Tiansheng.
"Woah, boy. You really have improved! You are definitely moving at least fifty percent faster, but that's not the best thing! Those movements of yours are really great! You are getting better at dodging blows, but you still have a long way to go with attacking."
"I don't know Master, but I still feel way too slow. I can clearly see everything that you are doing at any point, but my body takes so long to react. Even when I do manage to react, my body's reaction is super slow."
Listening to Qing Shan, Liu Tiansheng was confused.
'What do you mean? We are actually fighting at almost five times the speed we were before you literally changed your entire way of moving, and you are still saying your body cannot keep up with your mind! I call BS!'
A strange smile appeared on Liu Tiansheng's face.
"Okay, lets say I believe you. What was the fourth attack that I launched at you two spars ago?"
Qing Shan was confused by the question, but he immediately answered.
"Was that not the knee to my spine? Oh wait, no that was the fifth strike. The one before that was the elbow to my right shoulder, and the sixth was the kick behind my knee. Right?"
Liu Tiansheng looked dumfounded as he just stared at the smile on Qing Shan's face. It was a look just screaming, 'Am I right? Or am I right?'.
Liu Tiansheng suddenly remembered the fast movement in Qing Shan's Third Eye.
'Could it be…?'
Liu Tiansheng walked toward Qing Shan, a gloomy expression on his ethereal face.
"I am sorry Master! I was wrong! Please do not beat your precious disciple!"
Liu Tiansheng ignored Qing Shan's antics, pressing his palm to Qing Shan's forehead. He inject a strand of wind Qi that was different then before. This Qi slowed down the movement in Qing Shan's Third Eye, but to the surprise of Liu Tiansheng, it was quickly dissolving.
Qing Shan felt a large headache come over him, and he immediately felt that something was not right.
"Are you okay?"
Hearing his Master speak, Qing Shan was astonished.
'So fast!'
Qing Shan was stunned because he just heard Liu. Tiansheng speak at the same speed that he usually heard his own thoughts. This was surprising, because throughout Qing Shan's life, His own voice, and actions, along with everyone else's had seemed at least ten times slower than his own thoughts. As no one had ever told Qing Shan otherwise, he had come to believe that this was normal. This was why he was so surprised when he clearly heard sound at the same speed as his thoughts.
"I… think so."
Qing Shan immediately realized that he was also talking at the same speed as his thoughts. He tried moving his body, and to his ever-growing astonishment, all of his muscles responded instantaneously.
"What did you do to me?"
Liu Tiansheng just smiled.
"Let's have another spar."
Qing Shan just dully nodded, confused beyond belief.