Feeling his body getting colder and colder, his mind felt as if it were shutting itself off piece by piece as the fierce struggle that he fought to stay awake and alive was getting quickly extinguished.
The child didn't even notice when its body had been picked up and something was forced into its mouth to swallow.
It was only when it felt that the dark abyss it was falling into began to feel a tiny bit warmer. Instead of being dragged deeper into that dark abode, the child felt itself being lifted slowly back into the warm embrace of the summer sun.
"Wake up youngling, your fall shall not be at this place. One with such a fierce soul as yours has much to yet accomplish."
Barely hearing bits and parts of the words spoken to him, the small child's body began to mend the bones and stitch together the muscles that had been broken and torn. Even though the pill was given by the mysterious savior, it had been the weakest pill that such a youngling's body would be able to handle without exploding from the potent herbs within.
Suffice to say, the child's initial warmth turned into a blazing heat as the process of healing its life-threatening wounds occurred at a rapid pace. Even so, the child did not cry and instead used its newfound strength to open its eyelids to gaze upon who had saved him.
The tall and lean shadow looked upon the youngling in its arms when a pair of vibrant jade green cat eyes with a tinge of royal orange hue greeted its own. A flash of thoughts flooded his mind as he saw that color of eyes and the shadow quickly let slip a burst of his killing intent. And even though the shadow corrected itself in an instant, the tall shadow sighed as sadly.
Fully expecting the youngling to have perished under its killing intent and cursing at itself for being so careless at its level, the shadow was undoubtedly shocked when it felt a tug on its cloak.
"By the moon goddess's grace!?"
In that brief moment of confusion, the tall shadow missed a faint aura covering the small child that was the source of the protection from the being's killing intent. And even would cause a disastrous chain of events in the boy's future.
Thankfully the young beastkin child looked at the pale face of the tall swordsman with wonder as he saw the brilliant sky blue irises shined in stark contrast to the overall dark appearance like a pair of stars in the black night sky.
"So now...what to do now. Hmmm...
Do you have a name youngling?"
Shaking his head in response, the beastkin child was old enough to go through the naming ceremony that most villages and tribes had. But because he was 'orphaned' many did not approve of including him in the rite and didn't even have the proper supplies to test his bloodline strain nor its potency.
"Strange...well then. Would you like this old man to give you a name then?"
Nodding enthusiastically, the child's eyes glittered at the chance to be named by someone clearly very powerful.
"Let's see...how about...Lunaris? That is the name of one of the moons on my world, it guides my kind through the darkness."
Frowning the young child shook his head in disagreement.
Chuckling and rubbing his slight stubble, the tall swordsman thought and gave out a few more names that also were rejected by the young one. Chagrined by the many failed attempts, the swordsman was stumped.
"Ughhh...to think she was right that I'm not great with names and kids. To think that the brightest pupil of the Noxtis Assassinorum is rebuffed by a simple beastkin youngling."
Feeling a tight grip on his cloak once more, the swordsman noticed the previously glazed look of the child light up at the mention of his sect.
"Noxtis? Of all the names..."
Noting the furious nodding of the mysterious black-eared beastkin youth, the swordsman just smiled and took more and more of a liking to this one. What had initially been a complete happenstance turned out to be much more interesting than he expected.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sitting atop a fallen tree, a torn eared beastkin with his eyes closed sat in silence as he breathed silently as if a statue.
A gust of wind began to swirl violently around Noxtis and rush into his body through his nostrils, mouth, and skin and it was at that point where Noxtis felt increasingly uncomfortable to bloated as if he had eaten a week's worth of meals in a moment.
Unperturbed by the straining feeling, Noxtis held all that Qi within his body and compact it further and further. Time flew by as more Qi rushed towards the youth and Noxtis withstood the process another 4 times.
'Okay that's enough kid, you're body won't be able to handle any more Qi tempering.'
"But Master! I can feel the breakthrough coming so close now. I've been stuck at this stage for months now!"
A misty and featureless figure appeared in Noxtis' mind space and shook its head. 'I've told you a thousand times now. Rushing your cultivation will let you become more powerful in the short run, but your foundation will suffer and you'll never be able to reach your best potential.
I am only a fragment of Mirko here to support you when you get to the Qi spirit stage and then you're on your own. By the time you transform your Qi Core into a Sword Spirit will be the time when we will part and you'll be strong enough to adventure on your own.'
Sighing and reigning in his impatience, Noxtis knew that the fragment was right. The moment that Noxtis decided to receive Mirko's Bloodless Assassin cultivation technique was the moment his training had started. Despite being very young, Mirko's fragment trained Noxtis every day till he collapsed in exhaustion.
Much to his frustration, it took Noxtis a whole year to even sense Qi. Gathering Qi inside his body was also a difficulty that Noxtis had not expected. Due to whatever reason, Noxtis took another entire year to gather a noticeable amount of Qi within his dantian.
A couple of years later, Noxtis was able to finally form his Qi seed despite many failures that he wishes he could forget. After forming the seed, however, Noxtis' efforts bore fruit as the seed allowed Noxtis a much easier time (in comparison) to build upon the Qi seed and temper layer upon layer of condensed Qi.
Due to the stringent requirements of his master's fragment, while Noxtis could have finished forming his core ages ago, every single layer had to be painstakingly tempered and strengthened to perfection and without any shred of impurity that would greatly reduce the power of the Bloodless Assassin cultivation skills later on.
There had been plenty of times when Noxtis questioned if all this trouble had been worthwhile. He saw the other children of the village training in body cultivation while he was an outcast and ignored by pretty much everyone but Grandma Reah.
Whenever such thoughts crept into his mind, the vivid memory of the forest and pack of wolves steeled his determination and Noxtis was able to eventually pour all of his will and energy into training his body and mind with the guidance of his master.
In all honesty, Noxtis didn't mind the solitary life he lived. With assistance from his master, Noxtis was able to quickly forage for himself and learn basic hunting and tracking skills which surprised Grandma Reah. She would always happily utilize any herbs and animals that Noxtis was able to gather to cook themselves a tasty meal.
Noxtis had been traveling throughout the parts of the forest that his master was confident that he could travel in search of training as well as looking out for materials for his eventual sword forging.
Most of the common materials were found already through Noxtis' search over the years, however, the special metal eluded him. Mirko's fragment said that this was fairly normal as the metal would need to not only be suitable for the cultivation technique but also resonate well with the user or it would all be for naught.
Sitting on the tree stump and recovering from the tempering, Noxtis looked in his mind space. "Master? I've been curious for a while now. What's the difference between Qi Cultivators and beastkin? And why am I having such trouble cultivating when all the other children in the village have little to no issues? Am I doing something wrong?"
The figureless swordsman sighed. "I was wondering when you'd ask me that question. You really like taking your sweet time to ask the right questions don't you?"
Noxtis frowned glumly and didn't respond.
"This is going to be a long story, so sit down and pay attention. It may seem to be a long tale that doesn't first answer your question but it will make sense in the end."