It was the afternoon after Shu He's night of discovery, after he woke up he had a splitting headache that caused him to take another hour of bedrest to recover, though he wasn't surprised with how long he spent experimenting with his newly discovered 'Qi perception', his mother did complain that he was being lazy and that he should get up, but his father seemed to convince her to let him rest, just like Shu He saw last night his dad knew what he was up to, at least to a certain extent, he even let him skip out on morning archery practice that he had regularly kept up since he started.
However Shu He had no intentions of lazing around for the rest of the day, with a new road in front of him full of new discoveries he could barely hold himself back from running out of the house the moment he woke, after resting up some more until his headache had mostly subsided he got dressed in his gear he used for hunting, fur lined boots and padded cloth vest and pants with a faded hooded cloak on top that covered his body, and most importantly his bow and quiver, he had grown a few sizes compared to a couple years back so he had recently obtained a normal sized bow compared to the smaller one he had before, with his regular practice and training despite his young age he had fairly high core body strength and fitness so he could easily use such a bow, granted he was still restricted to a degree because of his age, he had just barely pushed over 4 feet with his height.
In comparison to the other children in the village while he was certainly stronger, he wasn't a stand out growth wise, on that note one certain child had experienced a significant growth spurt and became the centre of attention.
The child's bright orange hair flashed in the back of Shu He's mind as he left his house, he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit jealous of Huo Da's growth that had dwarfed his, pushing past the 4'6 mark, of course that wasn't the only reason he was paid attention to a lot.
'Just like me, since that day something seemed to have changed in him' Shu He thought to himself, he remembered Huo Da's mumblings and had a good guess as to what, but in the end it wasn't really his business so he didn't pay much attention.
He was, however, impressed with his dedication, he had convinced his dad, or rather his foster parent to buy him a sabre somehow, he heard it was because of his constant nagging about it but eventually he caved in, with his size he was barely able to use one but without fail he had trained with it each and every day, even speaking to mercenaries that passed the village to learn from them, eventually in the recent months he was able to take up guard duty for the village away from the older men, none of them had really trained in combat much so Huo Da that had constantly trained like a mad man quickly outclassed them.
All of this just served as a reminder for Shu He that he wasn't the only one moving ahead with their lives, and he was sure it wasn't only Huo Da that was moving ahead, many of the other children had begun learning various crafts from their parents at his age and were playing around less, speaking from his experience in his past life it felt odd seeing children his age acting like this, but it was the effect of circumstances in the end.
Though one figure did surface in his mind that he felt pity for, the little girl with short bobbed brown hair and black eyes, Lulu, or Lu Lihua; It was unfortunate but they had disappeared at one point during the night, her mother being the one that discovered Haoxi's murder scene it was likely she felt guilty for one reason or another and took off with her daughter, he had no idea where they went or if they were fine, not his parents nor any of the others in the village knew, and frankly he could see they didn't care too much.
He shook his head as he walked on, soon he was at the perimeter of the village and quickly left heading towards the forest that was no longer forbidden to him, it had been a long time since that incident and with no other events following everyone's guard was let down, it was assumed to be a one-off.
Shu He had asked his father about it a few times over the past couple years but was told nothing of note, he could tell deep down that his father hadn't let it go though, he wasn't sure why though.
He felt that somewhere, sometime in the future something will happen continuing that incident.
With those thoughts in his head he trod deeper in to the sea of trees that were full of fresh green leaves, the scent of plants and flowers alike thickening the air and drenching his nose with many smells, after a few more minutes of walking he arrived at a clearing, it was a fairly wide open space next to a cliff face, the area had a few trees cleared with their stumps cut to the ground leaving sitting spaces, there was a small stream passing by and not much in the way of wildlife near, it was an area that Shu He had cut out himself in the past as a place to train quietly or as a resting area, a few others knew about it so it wasn't used solely by him but it was the safest place he felt to use.
'Now then' He placed a sack he brought with him, it contained simple necessities like some medication he made in case of emergencies and a simple cup for drinking water among other things.
Shu He stood towards the centre of the area and focused, within a split second his pupils became wreathed with a gold tinge of light and his vision heightened, he activated Qi perception once more, observing his surroundings, the biggest difference this time was that it covered around 50 meters, and the only 'sense' that was used was sight, and he could tune in his hearing whenever he desired, this was the result of his continuous stressed use last night, it may not seem impressive since the ability came to him naturally but distinguishing senses from one another took a lot of mental work, but as a result he can last longer when using less senses and the backlash is a lot lighter!
'I don't see why I'd ever use my sense of taste anyway… I can see smell and touch being useful in certain situations though'.
He deactivated his Qi perception and after reconfirming his achievements he prepared himself.
He didn't come out here just to repeat what he did before, he came to experiment!
He had many ideas from novels or shows of his past life but he knew next to nothing of what would work, the only way to find out was try.
"First things first" He whispered to himself as he took a simple boxing stance, his first idea was simple, could he reinforce himself with this 'Qi'?
He focused for a second on his right fist, his dominant hand and then quickly struck out with a jab.
"…"
'Nothing huh, maybe I have to put more into it?'
He took stance once more, focusing again this time he watched the flame inside of him as it gently flickered then imagined his punch gaining power, he struck out with his entire weight, hitting the air.
"… Still nothing"
'Well, I didn't think it'd be this simple anyway, I'm acting on the assumption it's possible in the first place… I can enhance my senses that are part of my body, so I don't see why I can't enhance my physical body; At least from the limited information I've heard about cultivators they can move faster and are physically stronger than humans so it's not off the board'
Not being disheartened, Shu He continued his practice ranging from punches, kicks, chops and everything above and below them until he physically tired himself out, it should be noted that he wasn't really trained in these kinds of things, his father had only taught him how to move better.
After about an hour he decided to take a break, he sat cross legged on a stump holding the carved cup in his hand while sipping some water he got from the stream with his eyes closed.
'Am I missing something?'
He assumed if he had some sort of ability, it wouldn't be excessively hard to tap in to like his Qi perception, but was he wrong? He thought back to the previous night.
'The first time I activated it…' Right after he first succeeded in 'Igniting the flame', he had jumped in surprise and tried to 'look' around, was it solely based on instinct? But he can activate it at will now…
He stared at the small flame flickering inside him for minutes, until it finally hit him.
'Something IS different!'
The feeling that he felt when he first 'broke through', the cycling warmth in his body, that was missing, he remembered back then that it had gathered on his eyes before his Qi perception activated.
'Am I trying to drive a car without starting it?' He questioned himself.
He quickly dropped the cup he was holding and calmed himself, he wanted to return to the meditative state that he usually fell in to each night, breathing in and out calming himself he emptied his mind, his focused was solely on that flickering flame seated inside him.
Slowly but surely as he cycled his breath and phased out of his surroundings it was like the flame began beating like a heart, embers began flicking off it and a warmth began to suffuse throughout him but he didn't stop there, the cycle continued and soon it was like the pale golden flame was his heart, its light and warmth cycling throughout his body, embracing him, empowering him.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he jumped up, a faint golden light emerged from his body and gathered towards his arm that had snapped back and then-
*CRACK*
It shot forward many times faster than it had before, the air was forced out of the way creating a gust and a slight shockwave shook the area.
A bright smile of joy crossed Shu He's face-
*Crackle*
-Until his arm contorted, the muscles contracting and spasming madly causing pain to shoot up from it, Shu He couldn't help but scream gutturally as he dropped to the floor holding his right arm with his left, squirming, kicking and flailing from the pain and before long he fainted, being unable to bear with it.
… An hour later
Shu He's eyes slowly opened and peered at the blue sky above him, his vision slowly faded in as his ears picked up the gentle breeze rustling the branches and the small stream flowing near him.
'Right, I'm in the forest…' He had blanked out for a second not realising where he was, he took a breath and felt that his clothes were soaked, not from water but sweat, it took a second for him to recall what he was doing, but a tight pain from his right arm reminded him quickly.
He gritted his teeth and used his left arm to hoist himself up, eventually dragging himself to the nearby stump and sitting.
"SHIT!" He swore out loud to vent.
'That hurt, a lot, it still does! Did I do something wrong?! Either way I'm abandoning this for now!' He quickly changed his plans, he had realised experimenting on his body like this without guidance was a terrible idea, the pain had drove that into him.
He tried to clench his right fist only to be greeted with more splitting pain causing him to become increasingly worried.
'Did I break something, tear the muscles or worse?!'
He struggled but managed to pull off his upper clothes and looked at his arm as a whole.
'It looks fine…?' He was confused and even more worried, he didn't know exactly how long it's been but an injury would have showed signs already.
His mind was on the brink of panic but he stopped himself for a second and tried to calm down, doing anything else rash would only make things worse.
He looked over to the bag he had brought with him.
'For now, I need to take some pain killers, maybe some anti-inflammatory salve? Whatever I use I need to do it now…'
"… Huh?" He exclaimed in surprise.
'The noise… it's stopped?' He perked his ears up and tried to listen attentively.
The sound of small animals skuttling through the bushes, the leaves in the wind, the flowing stream and even the insects, everything had turned dead silent.
A cold sweat began to grow on Shu He's back.
It was said that when the animals turned silent, a natural disaster might come; But when even nature itself turns silent, what then?
Shu He turned to the front, facing the centre of the clearing.
There, stood a figure clad in pure white.
His heartbeat raced to a speed he had never thought possible.
His mind spun and shot out many ideas, all followed by the words –
RUN
RUN
RUN!
But no matter what he wanted, he couldn't.
HE COULDN'T EVEN MOVE!