The light of the sun rising shone brightly on the Toe Village, a young boy could be seen training in the middle of a quiet courtyard. The calm windy breeze turned into a fresh sensation that embraced Sheng Hao in a refreshing hug.
After more than nine years in the village, the young boy had grown from a fragile toddler to an energetic boy that had attracted the attention of every elder currently living in the village.
During the past years, he received his grandfather's blacksmithing knowledge and Flamelle's alchemy, the young boy had finally managed to spend some time with two other elders that were living in this village.
One of them was called Victor Asimov and was a spiritualist that was well known among his peers for being obsessed with the study of astral planes. Although Sheng Hao didn't receive the reclusive man's legacy, he had still managed to spend some time with him and had received some bribes of knowledge from the reclusive old man.
The other spiritualist was a spiritual tailor that was able to craft strong and durable clothes with special properties. The old woman was named Beirhaz and after spending a few afternoons with the young boy, she ended up gifting him a set of clothes that fitted his frame perfectly. After testing them for a few days, the young boy had noticed that the comfortable garment seemed to help him feel fresh during the piping hot summer yet still sheltered him conveniently through the winter.
Despite using them during his training, that single outfit was left undamaged even after months of his high intensity regiment. After seeing the results of the old woman's clothing, he couldn't help himself for wanting to try her craft but was disappointed when she plainly refused. However she still promised to later impart some of her knowledge if he was still interested in her craft.
The reincarnated man couldn't help but feel that her techniques were mesmerizing. Among the elders, he had assessed that she was the known with the most dexterity. When it came to the usage of her ten fingers, nobody bested her. Although he wasn't that intrigued by the art of crafting magical clothing, he was still tempted when he saw the way her wrist would turn into dozens of fleeting afterimages when she was controlling her needles.
Although the young boy had ample time to interact with Asimov and Beirhaz, he was still obliged to follow the specific routine Sheng Wang and Flamelle had prepared for him. The intense amount of studying and practicing had left his mind feels as though it had been filled to the brim with information and knowledge about the common metals and spiritual herbs that could be found all over the Portalia Continent.
Through the past two years, his reading ability was finally completed as he could now go through Flamelle's library on his own. The day he attained that level of comfort in his reading ability, he focused part of his free time on the vast library of books in order to prepare himself for the day he would depart from the quiet Toe Village.
Thankfully he didn't spend the entirety of his time on learning knowledge. Sheng Hao found pleasure in discovering legends through books he had managed to acquire stories from Asimov. Fantasy books from the Portalia Continent.
The esoteric and mystical stories in these books helped him understand more about the culture of the world he was now living in. Contrary to the old man's stoic and emotionless appearance, the stoic Asimov was in possession of dozens of books that were made out of a collection of short stories.
Sheng Hao was surprised to recognize some of the stories in these books, but he didn't find further signs showing that the culture of this world was the same as Earth's culture.
The young boy's breath silently echoed through the quiet courtyard. Today, his grandfather was absent and had left him manage his own practice regiment.
Currently he was going through a set of exercise his grandfather had taught him a few months ago. None of the stances were overly complicated to execute but necessitated a specific focus on coordinating one's breath and movement to a near perfection. Sheng Wang had imparted this set of exercise on the young boy to help him start building his martial foundation. He had seen his grandson's hard work through the past years and was sure that he wasn't going to veer from the path of a spiritualist.
The basic set of exercise originated from the Jianshen Empire, named the Forty Six Lunar Equation after the numerous changes one could go through when studying the set of exercise. This specific exercise was taught in the army and could help one develop his control over their own spiritual power; even if the overall content of that spiritual power was limited and couldn't be used to produce any strong technique. A soldier would still be able to execute their attack with more vigor when they practiced this art,
One could only imagine the might an entire squadron of footed soldiers would produce when they mastered the Forty Six Lunar Equation. If Sheng Wang was reluctant in the beginning, he soon calmed down when he noticed the way Sheng Hao dealt with his training.
The way he trained seemed to possess an innate methodology, with the growing newborn from the Sheng Clan possessing a ruthless training ethic that made him always push himself further through his routines.
At first, that fact caused anxiety and stress to run around the mind of the old man. He was too afraid to see his grandson break down and burn his spirit, but the small child seemed to listen to his body and mind. Always stopping at the right moment and advanced relentlessly toward his future.
Currently Sheng Hao was moving from the Thirty Six Movement to the next one. His legs split apart with his body trunk lunging forward in a deep bow, his back curved before snapping in a straight curve looking like a thigh bowstring that had just released an arrow toward his enemy. The reincarnated man couldn't help but breathe deeply, exhaling a swift arrow of breath whenever he exploded with strength.
Although his strength had developed by a large margin due to the intense focus, he put on his physical development. The young boy seemed to have hit a plateau when it came to developing his muscles. Thankfully the appearance of the Forty Six Lunar Equation was god sent for him, helping him learn how to better control all the types of strength that existed in his body. Both the soft and hard tissues that existed in the human body were triggered during the practice of this technique, tempering his tendons and bones with the small specks of spiritual power he was generating.
The results weren't incredible as the young boy hadn't developed the cultivation of this martial art to the peak of its mastery. But the practice of the technique still taught him how to produce an explosive amount of strength in a short amount of time, making him realize that he had underestimated his physique far too much. With that factors in mind, it could be said that the Forty Six Lunar Equation helped him immensely when it came to his skill with the hammer.
A sharp exhalation escaped from the lips of the sweating young boy, his eyebrows tensed as he couldn't help but focus his entire being on the last stances that composed the Forty Six Lunar Equation. The clothes he was wearing suddenly danced and flapped in rhythm with the air currents that flowed in the courtyard. Despite the wind currents coming to a stop, the momentum of his action would sometime force his sleeves to move in a strange delayed flap that echoed through the courtyard.
"Hisssss!" A final breath escaped from the lips of the young boy and his controlled motion came to a sudden stop. The air coming from his lung turned into a translucent visible arrow that traveled for a few inches before dissipating in air, nobody could notice that feat as he was practicing the art all by himself inside the quiet courtyard.
"Not bad…" he mumbled slowly as he couldn't help but feel the aftereffects of training with the Forty Six Lunar Equation.
The reincarnated man felt as though the windy current of the courtyard were entering through his pores and sending a chilling coldness inside his body. "Can't help but feel that this world's martial art practices are far superior to those existing on Earth." He couldn't help but think back about the times he had tried his hand at karate, boxing and taekwondo.
Even then, he had enjoyed his first few sessions but his manager had nagged him far too much and forced him to abandon his pursuit of that craft, he didn't mind it as he too was well aware of the importance of his hands when it came to his success in the musical world.
"This sensation is truly the best!" he exclaimed while folding his body in deep stretches that made him appreciate the soreness of his body.
"I wonder if I will be able to control my spiritual power at will when I will attain perfection with the Forty Six Lunar Equation…" he pondered quietly as he couldn't help but feel that he was unable to completely control the rotation of his own energy yet.
"Nothing is pressing… I can't really force this kind of matter without risking a severe injury to my mind" he calmed himself down in a low mumble and reminded himself of Sheng Wang's words. His mind couldn't help but think about the progress he had made through the past two years, that thought forced a small smile to appear on his face as he sat on the green grass and looked around him with a mindless gaze.
At some point he couldn't help but imagine what his senses would feel like if he was able to constantly monitor the surrounding spiritual energy.
"I don't know if it might fry my brain or on the contrary turn me into some kind of super genius…" he mumbled as he couldn't help but have trouble imaging that specific state of mind.
"Truly impressive how every single grass of weed is moving in sync from the motion of the wind…" he mumbled lightly as he couldn't help but feel that his senses were missing something else in the movement of the flora. If before he wasn't aware of what it felt like to sense spiritual energy, now that his senses had sharpened a little he couldn't help but try to better understand the world that surrounded him.
The young boy continued sitting on the same spot, unmoving as though his body had turned into an iron structure that had taken root on the herb. His eyes, although mindless, flashed from time to time with a peculiar gleam that would only appear when someone was pondering on abstruse subjects.
He didn't know why, but he could sense that even if the thousands of weed grasses were following the wind current, they also seemed to be influenced by something else. Sadly the reincarnated man's senses were far from being developed enough to enable him to sense the exact reason behind these movements.
"What if they are moving with the ambient spiritual energy of the world…" he mumbled silently as he couldn't help but feel that this theory of his could be probable.
"I remember back then how even those small tadpoles were able to attract the natural spiritual energy of the world." His mind flashed through dozens of computations in mere seconds, crossing the theory that weren't based and leaving the ones that were vowed to be verifiable.
However, before the reincarnated man had the opportunity to find the answer to his random pondering about this world, he heard a voice from the other side of the house. Sheng Hao rose to his feet with a push from his hands, knowing that the voice he had heard was coming from his grandfather Sheng Wang. He entered the small cottage, ready to give the old man a warm greeting and harass him with a few questions related to the Forty Six Lunar Equation.
The moment he stepped inside the house, he couldn't help but notice a second presence inside the small construct. His large eyes opened widely as he couldn't help but dart in a run before jumping toward the man that was standing next to Sheng Wang.
"Uncle Buckethead!?" exclaimed Sheng Hao while releasing a pearly laugh that befitted someone his age. His reaction forced a smile to appear on the two old men as they couldn't help but enjoy this honest size of the usually quiet boy.
"No one told me you were on your way back from your trip!" The excitement was real as the reincarnated man had truly developed an attachment for the burlesque spiritualist.
The gift Buckethead had left him before departing from the village had helped him develop his strength at a fast rate. Without the wooden dumbbells, he knew that he wouldn't have developed the required physique necessary for him to learn metallurgy.
"Ha ha ha! Quite energetic you little brat!" The large man's voice shook the wooden cottage and nearly forced Sheng Hao to shut his ears with his small hands.
"Looks like you've grown quite a lot in the past few years…" his hand rose to his chin and rubbed it slowly before adding in a calm tone.
"Last time I've met you were only this tall, but look at you now!" his hands moved showing the height he remembered before slapping the young boy in the center of his back.
The shock from the slap nearly sent the young boy flying, but he managed to tense up and regained his stability before looking at Buckethead with a strange gaze.