A month before. Near noon, the caravan finally returned to their village.
"Brother, I've already decided. I won't join the next trip. Three weeks of walking the whole journey! Do you think my legs are made of stone?"
"I told you back then, but you won't relent. The journey is so far, but you... Go back and rest; inform the other brothers of what we have witnessed along the way."
"Okay. Brother, although I said that, It was actually quiet something."
"Of course, it's a vast grassland. When have you ever walked that far away from the village?"
Soon, the people who had just gotten back were met by their energetic villagers. They can't escape, as they were already surrounded.
When they looked around, they found some of them missing. They want to cry but have no tears to show. "At least take me with you!"
However, his call was to no avail. They were immediately dragged around to be questioned by all kinds of aunts and uncles.
Forest, at the meeting tree house.
The village chief and the elders were already seated around the table.
"The room hasn't changed one bit since I left."
The old man, Garut, came in from the outside. He placed the bag on the table and sat down beside the village chief's empty chair.
The elders around frowned, looking at the half-filled bag. "Why so little? Did you drink some secretly while on the journey?"
"Is this a joke? "If this is, then this isn't funny." The elder beside Argar slapped the table down as he angrily said.
Garut took a glance and immediately knew this was Argar's scheme. 'Childish.'
Argar also noticed Garut's look. He felt like he had triumphed over him, so he smiled in provocation.
In just a while, the meeting room started to get rowdy. The elders were somewhat annoyed by the small amount of miracle water exchange this time.
"Acceptor Garut, tell us the whole thing." The village chief knocked on the table three times before giving his father the right to speak.
The noise immediately died down, and everyone was waiting.
Such disrespect.
"This is how it began..." Garut calmly spoke about everything that had happened during the exchange. His expression was cold as thought looking at bunch of bones on the road.
He did not bother to ask why Argar was giving him smiles, as he thought victory was already his.
Cause in the, it was the village that he likes and not the individuals living on it.
...
An hour later.
Only Garut and the village chief remain seated around the table.
"They've already left, village chief." After getting the cue from the guard outside, the two looked at each other for a while.
"The elders are clearly dissatisfied. We can't control it." The village chief sighed, feeling complicated in his heart.
"I'm afraid Argar's decision is going to be favored this time. Should we do something?"
Garut was silent; he didn't reply. His mind was elsewhere. A while later, he made a decision. "Let them be."
The village chief widened his eyes in disbelief; however, he still reigned in his trembling voice.
"Are you sure, father?"
"Yes." He received the affirmation.
"..."
Garut shook his head, looking at his grown son. The world sure works in unexpected ways.
His son is the village chief, while only a handful of his fingers know that he Garut is the father.
Being an accepter seems to lengthen his lifespan.
"Let them be. I have a plan."
Looking at the expressionless face of his father, he nodded. "Alright."
Garut stood up and said, "I'll rest first. "I'll try to find a suitable girl in the village for our fellow friend Nai."
"Eh? I thought..." The village chief was stunned. "Didn't father mean to agree with Argar's thoughts?"
Garut laughed, saying, "Hahaha, what are you talking about? They can't kill him. Instead, we'll use this chance to clean up them up instead."
"I'll take my leave first. Don't forget to prepare more caravan groups according to the plan." Laughing, Garut left the meeting house.
Leaving his son's eyes flashing with bright light. "I see. As expected of a father. The older, the wiser." He understood what his father means, and this moved him greatly.
"Men!" I still had many things to learn after all.
A second after the call, a bulky man wearing a coat entered the room. "Village Chief, you called?"
The village chief walked towards the exit as he spoke with the dignity of someone on the top of the ladder. "Prepare..."
...
Browny's Shelter.
The underground land dragon Nai called Browny was eating the dirt under its shelter.
Aside from eating meat, its diet usually revolves around the soil around it for meals.
As it can't come out during the day because he won't be able to see anything due to the heat's brightness covering the land.
So having nothing to do, returning underground became its new goal for now. That is why it was eating the ground beneath it until it started to shape like a tunnel.
As for the noisy shouting that would ring out from time to time outside and the vibrations on land almost every day,
It didn't bother it after a casual look in the past few days.
It know some kind of idiot was running around doing some unspeakable things outside.
...
"Two months! And I got my castle's foundation work accelerated several times faster than I had anticipated." Nai felt emotional while doing some movement exercises.
Strength really does make things much easier.
The human body has a limit, no matter how much one exercises. A bodybuilder human will remain a mortal who will die from a shot from a gun.
"However, for me, those limits are all a joke in the face of the extraordinary." Touching the thing hanging on his neck.
Security and motivation pulsed out of his strong heart. Ensuring him that all of this isn't a dream but a reality that will take him to his goal.
Clenching his palm into a fist and doing some light jumping "I don't know how much my body has grown stronger. The illusion I had before that I could pierce concrete with a punch might not be impossible at all."
With a wooosh sound from punching the air, Nai felt carefree and unrestrained.
However, he felt unsatisfied about that. He felt like a brawly man instead. "I hope I won't grow into a brawn man with muscles bulging everywhere."
He closed his eyes and used his inner sight to look at his muscles, then at his blood vessels.
He actually had something in mind by doing this every day. "I was wondering if I could make something like qi circulation like those from cultivation novels, but it seems I'm too hasty."
Those who practice this method seems to gain strength without getting fatted muscles everywhere be it in novels or reality.
He found something interesting, though. Amidst his experiment, he found something during the days.
Every day, early in the morning. He would wake up early. Do meditation and light exercise before taking a bath and eating breakfast.
As time goes by, he notices something during his breathing.
There were times when something he couldn't explain would appear vaguely in his senses. However, it was intermittent.
He tried to find that vague feeling and soon discovered a pattern. It's a breathing rhythm.
After a few days of hard work, concentration, and relaxation, "I made my own extraordinary method!"
Breathing exercise.
Even in his previous world, it was considered a way of communicating with the world.
Martial arts and all kinds of meditations were connected by breathing.
When Nai finally compiled the breathing pattern. Naturally, he tried it on himself, and guess what?
Although still vague, he now had a continues feeling of it's existence.
There's something in the air that would remain in his body after it passed through the lungs.
"This should be the qi, right?" It might be oxygen or whatnot. The only thing he knew was this something he couldn't describe must not remained unattended.
It would disappear after a few breaths.
Even if he continued to do the breathing exercises, they would not accumulate at all.
"Where did it go?"
Even with his inner sight, he can't see what this something was or where it disappeared. He can only follow where his senses lead him.
Knowing that he can't just let it be after all his hard work. He focused his mind and tried to imagine himself.
Hypnotizing his mind so that he can control it. Although it was hard, he did it.
With his will, something started coursing through his blood vessels. It follows the circulation of his blood in his body.
"Looks east but it took me days to make it happened."
Although it was slow. He noticed something peculiar. That something is growing.
However, like always, it was minimal. It didn't even feel like it was emitting heat nor coldness.
When he finished circulated that air something like nine times around his body, he stop.
The last thing where to stop would be his heart. Though it existence would disappeared from his senses if he stopped the doing that breathing exercise.
Acting like some kind of storage. He had some kind of expectation.
In his mind, "the heart is the source of life."
If he lets that unknown something dwell in his heart. Something like some kind of nurturing might have happened, giving him a long life.
It was just a guess. If he really does find himself in peril. He can just go and dove underwater in the pond.
He only hoped that no pain he would feel on him during that time.
And so he decided to do breathing exercises during his meditation early in the morning.
Looking at the bright orange, nostalgic color of the sun light Nai stretched out his hand and moaned in pleasure.
He walked towards the stele while bringing with him his self-made stone hammer and carving tools.
"This breathing exercise is worthy of being recorded as one of the foundations of my family." Placing his tools on the stele, he thought for a bit in his heart.
"As for the name, I will be calling it Viridescent Vitality Breathing Exercise."