[Tai Lung's POV]
The icy land of the North was not kind.
The icy blankets of snow covered the entire landscape. Mountains were nothing but huge pillars of ice and the sun never shared its warmth. The land was cursed.
There was no life in this land for it snuffed out any spark of life in its endless depth of cold. A perpetual blizzard describes the climate of this land and instead of the cycle of seasons, there was only eternal winter.
I have forgotten the sensation of warmth the moment I left the Panda Village.
Yet I was able to traverse such a chilling landscape due to my species. I was designed to live in such a harsh climate, to survive in the unforgiving cold.
The frigid bite of the air could not penetrate my fur and I released a thawing breath as I finally reached my destination.
Nowhere.
It was not a name, I was literally in the middle of nowhere.
"This is such a bad idea." I said to myself as I looked around, at the endless expanse of white and everything that was not warm.
A bad idea, but I couldn't think of any other way to get my training done. The Panda Village was too nice and relaxing that I could not focused on training.
It was nearly the end of my month long vacation and I had to get my mind ready to face the challenges ahead. The fact that I got a message from Shen which informed me of what happened at the border of Nanzhao also played a factor.
A small army of 500 soldiers was able to defeat an army of 3000 soldiers. It was either the smaller army was exceptionally strong or the bigger army was laughably weak.
I have fought against the soldiers of Nanzhao so I knew it was not the latter. That means the smaller army - the Tibetan soldiers - were exceptionally strong.
How strong exactly, I did not know. But I was going to prepare that's for certain.
I did not exactly know how as I have no concrete plan but what I was doing was the first thing that came to my mind. It was similar to how I would take an ice bath for training my body and to sharpen my mind in my past life.
I sat down on the icy plain and crossed my legs. Then I cleared my mind and mediated under the harsh weather of constant snow storms and numbing blizzards.
I meditated. I would've liked to say I cultivated but there was no such thing.
I did not know how long had passed, there was no sun to tell the time. I did mental training, reviewing my past battles and coming up with new ways I could fight.
Mental training was one of the most important training. It was said to be superior to physical training at a certain point and Oogway often favoured it over the latter.
In such a violent and unwelcoming environment, the chi also felt a little different as I used inner chi to interact with the chi around me.
I also tried to come up with solutions to my problem of not having the amount of Chi I desired. Storing Chi, while it could work, did not suit my taste due to its limitations.
"Haaaaa..." I released a sigh. Then I started using sun breathing as I felt a chill run down my spine. My body heat rose sharply and released a visible vapour.
"I think that's enough. Mental training and mediation are not really my thing." I learn better with action. Like during a sparring or in the middle of battle, that's when my genius really shone.
*VOOOOOOOOWW!!!!!*
Flames erupted from my body and challenged the endless expanse of frigid ice. My flames were like hungry beasts as they grew hotter and bigger.
The land experiences a rare occasion of hot versus cold. The cold which had reigned over the land for hundreds of years witnessed the birth of searing flames.
I felt my fur getting wet as the ice I sat on melts into water. I increased the heat of my flames as they turned blue and they released a constant force of shockwave that pushed away the melted ice from fooding my place.
"Let's test a theory of mine shall we?" I said with a wide smile as I inhaled the hot air around me which further boost my flames.
"Can you increase your chi by using everything and allowing it to recover? Basically overexerting it like the muscles." I said and raised my hand, the flames rose too.
A weird phenomenon took place where the icy landscape of the north experienced heat for the first time. My fire rose to a frightening degree even while battling with the natural climate and could be seen from miles away.
The place turned into a foggy land where water vapour occupied the whole place. A bright blue and yellow dome of heat was visible.
I did so until I ran out of Chi.
..
..
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"Test completed, you can expand your chi but the result is pathetically weak. This may differ due to age, I suspect that A growing child or teenager would show better results but for me, it's not worth it." I said as I lay in the middle of nowhere.
I passed out after I used up all of my chi and only woke up half a day later. Although my instincts would've protected me from death, it was not wise to use up all your chi like that. Especially when you have no one around you.
Considering all of the effort I put in, the result was not worth it. For comparison, if my chi was 1,000,000, after exhaustion my chi and recovery, it increased by 0.1.
If I was not extremely acute with my chi, it would've been impossible to tell the difference, So it's official that trying to increase my chi like this was useless.
"Test number two." I said with a smile.
There are a few days left until I finally have to start conquering the world. During that time, I must put my mind back to training and become ready...
To take on the world.
I will find a way eventually.
Afterall, I am Tai Lung.
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[IMAGE]
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Author : Daily update will return next week since I have finished stacking up chapters on patreon and I am finally able to breathe again from all the real life work.
God damn this week was hectic. For future me who read this again maybe a year later, I hope everything you did was worth it.
It's Friday so I am giving myself a 12 hours of sleep after only managing a couple of hours the whole week.
Double-ish chapter btw.
I don't think I've said this enough in this fic but..
Thanks for reading!!