"What the actual fuck?"
White's loud exclamation filled the entire room.
"How could this even be possible? It's every living creature's very nature to have it but then.... How and why did something like this happened to this child? This is logically impossible..."
White continued to mumble without a care to his surroundings and soon after, the room was filled with nothing but jumbled mess of words protruded from the bead.
The effect of the words thrown out freely had dizzied Li Kong enough that he couldn't even comprehended a single thing coming out from the bead.
"Umm, White." A shaky voice entered the bead's hearing.
At this, White immediately awakened from his long ponder and then he saw Li Kong, swaying like grasses blew by the wind.
"I think my head would explode if you talk further." Li Kong was at point of nausea as he struggled to even uttered the sentence.
"Ah, sorry. My bad habit start acting up again." White quickly organized his thoughts and stopped mumbling while on the other hand, Li Kong could only raised his hand and sent his thumb up to the sky.
After a quick recovery, the pair returned to their former position and Li Kong stared at the bead with a shaky gaze.
'Did I mess up my assessment? Would I die? Would I explode at any moment?'
"Li Kong..." The voice sounded hesitant. "How should I say this?"
Li Kong's heart rate immediately dropped and he braced himself for the worst.
'Would I really explode? It can't be right? I still have a long future in front of me.' Li Kong mulled the thoughts over and over again in his mind.
"Li Kong..."Li Kong gulped. "You, indeed, have a spirit root of some sort."
Power drained off from his body as his muscles simultaneously relaxed, lowering his back by centimeters.
"Huff... Thought I'll explode." Li Kong leaned on the wall and wiped off the cold sweats he had collected on his forehead.
"But what did you mean by "some sort"?"
"Your spirit root is... a little special?"
"Special? Do you mean that I can shoot lightning like the one you said before? Oh, oh! Or maybe I can conjure ice from thin air? That'd be so cool!" Li Kong jumped excitedly.
But unfortunately the excitement was short-lived, he realized that White's tone was a little bit off and couldn't help but ask to himself.
'If I really got that kind of spirit root won't White be at least a bit happy, no?' Li Kong mused silently.
"It's neither of them." Li Kong could imagined the voice inside of the bead shaking his head.
"It's blank."
Li Kong blinked a few times.
"Hah??"
...
"As you know, spirit root mainly consists of the elements of the five main element and when trying to assess them, the elements usually represented themselves by a specific color commonly paired with the physical attribute of each of the elements.
"The example was fire would be appeared as red, earth as brown, metal as gray, water as blue, and wood as green. This is the five most common element to have.
"Beside the five most common element, there were also spirit root that deviated from them such as lightning, ice, wind, and many more. But even the color was ambiguous, you can still easily figure out what elements they truly are. For example, lightning spirit root would send an electrical current on top of the Revelation Orb and ice spirit root would freeze the orb by a little.
"But you, Li Kong, are an anomaly because you had neither the five colors nor the unique spirit root. Well, yours was certainly unique just not in the exact same definition.
"But don't worry. I can definitely still sense Qi inside of you but I can't sense even a sliver of elemental energy flowing in your spirit root."
Li Kong thought for a moment before speaking.
"Then does that mean my spirit root is too pure? If I remember correctly, the fewer the elements, the purer the spirit root, isn't it?"
"Normally, it is." White nodded in agreement and then continuing his words. "But your case is abnormal one. The purity of someone's spirit root was seen by how many attribute did the spirit root have. The lesser it is, the purer it is. But never did in my long years of living did I've seen someone having not a single attribute."
"Hmm, what could it be then?" It seemed as if Li Kong's musing had completely suppressed his pain receptor as he swayed from right to left, ignoring his delicate bum's state, with his thumb and index finger pinching his chin.
"Well, at least now we know that you have a spirit root inside of you. Now let's see if it's functioning properly."
Li Kong was a bit worried at the "functioning properly" part but he quickly dispersed the thoughts.
"So what am I supposed to do to sense Qi, teacher White?" Li Kong raised his hand.
"Glad you asked that student Li Kong." Li Kong imagined the voice inside of the bead nodding. "And for that, that's the time for this thing."
As White said that, suddenly one of the book floated and showed the book's cover directly to Li Kong's face.
"Woah! What the hell?" He jumped backwards and then dumbfoundedly looked at the bead on his palm.
"Can you please!" Li Kong pleaded. "Can you please warn me before you're doing thing like this? Because if not, I'll die because of a heart attack first before I have the chance of becoming a cultivator."
"Bah. You're exaggerating things. "White swatted away his plea. "You're going to become a cultivator soon. That's more reasons why you should slowly accustomed yourself with this new reality. What good cultivator you be if you were easily scared by tiny act such as this? "
'I don't think that I want to be too accustomed with this though.' Li Kong smiled wryly.
'Hmm. I wonder what will happen if I try to poke at it.'
Li Kong inspected the book carefully and the large characters written in ink was saying "A Basic Cultivation Manual and Qi Methods" and the little "Advanced Version by yours truly White" right beneath the title.
He pointed his index finger toward the floating book and hesitating for a moment before he took the initiative and to his surprise the book was wobbling around the air like it was hanging from a thread as it spun.
"Haha! It wobbled!" Li Kong exclaimed amusingly. Then he unleased a series of pokes accompanied by a flick of his finger at the floating passage.
"You unruly brat. Don't you know what time is it now? Do you want to be spanked by your uncle again and stop flicking the manual! I'm starting to lose control of it!"
Li Kong let out an "Ah" sound and stopped poking at the book.
"Hmph." White sent out a harrumph which Li Kong replied with a wry smile.
"Now open the manual and read it."
Li Kong reached out for the book in the air and to his amazement, the book stopped floating the moment he tried to let it go of his palm.
The book wasn't really that thick and the content of the book was exactly just like what it advertised, basic information about cultivation.
Even though Li Kong didn't know a slightest bit about cultivation before, but he could clearly tell that the topics discussed in the manuals was written for people like him who was unfamiliar with the new world of cultivation.
Besides that, the manual also show a drawing of beautiful scenery with a man riding a sword and flying through the sky and underneath each of the drawing had the aforementioned location.
Even though, the quality of the ink was bad but it was drawn good enough to lightly piqued Li Kong's curiosity.
Hmm... I've almost read all of it and I hadn't found anything special yet. Is there really something special about this book? Li Kong silently recited in his heart as he skimmed through the book.
The manual discussed many topics such as what Qi is, the foundation of cultivation, and ultimately, how to senses Qi and absorbs it.
Although the manual was discussing about how to sense Qi, the manual never explicitly told the reader how to did it actually and only vaguely explaining it like "find a suitable cultivation methods for you".
'Am I not trying to find a cultivation method now?' For some reason, Li Kong felt very pissed at whoever writing this book.
And As if sensing Li Kong's frustration, White took a look at the content of the book and voiced his thought.
"Oh, just skip that part entirely, the next page is what you really searching for." White stated calmly.
"I- Ahem... The great cultivator was too lazy to revised that part so he left it unchanged and the original author's thought still remained there." White explained.
"The original version was a trick by the author to sell copy of another book which contain the cultivation method and even though, you'd purchased the cultivation method, it isn't safe to be practiced as it have many complications with the circulation of Qi that could cause the unaware practitioner to explode from the inside."
Li Kong was agape as White ended his long explanation. Then he cautiously looked at the book in his hand with great caution and subconsciously gulped.
'Damn, are you really sure that this is safe for me? And it seemed scammer never disappeared no matter what world we were, huh.' Li Kong reminded of the time where his uncle was getting scammed.
But all things being said, the "explode from within" thing was really tickling the backside of Li Kong's brain as it sent constant signals to Li Kong as to not practiced it.
Ultimately, he chose to believe at the great cultivator that had revised the book and labeled it as the advanced version.
'O' Great Cultivator blessed me as I've believed in you.' Li Kong prayed sincerely in his heart.
After he was done praying, he took a deep breath before looking at the wide open book in front of him.
'Well, here goes nothing.'
"Oh." Li Kong suddenly voiced out.
"Hmm? What?" White asked lightly.
"I just thought that despite knowing that this book was a scam, why was the great cultivator still chose to revised it?"
"Oh... About that... I just thought at the moment that the book's title had a nice ring to it and so I chose to keep it and later in my life, I suddenly remembered about the book when I was bored and decided to revise it." White clarified.
Li Kong was opening his mouth and clapping in admiration. But he couldn't help to notice that his teacher suddenly changed his way of addressing the great cultivator before quickly abandoning the thoughts.
'White is the great cultivator after all. Well, a remnants to be exact but isn't remnant the same too as the full...? Sigh, I'm too stupid for this. I'll just forget about this.'
After clearing his mind, Li Kong focused back at the manual and true to White's words, the content of the manual immediately changed and the manual quickly turned into more professional looking.
If the page before this was created in a way that it would piqued the reader's curiosity while shying away from the main point, then this point of the manual was the polar opposite.
It was full of detailed explanation and even an illustration of a person and incomprehensible lines that was unknown to Li Kong what the meaning was.
Li Kong's brain started to overheating at the many information that suddenly forced in his brain.
"Focus on the part below the drawing." A helping voice rang.
Li Kong directed his focus to the part White's mentioned and on there was a line of words written neatly.
"The importance of meditation... blah blah blah... How to sense Qi. Oh, here it is."
A set of instructions written in ink engraved on top of the worn-down paper detailing every single steps to executed the method.
After a few minutes, Li Kong closed the manual and soon after White's light voice chimed inside of his ears.
"Now after you'd read it, take the correct posture as written in the manual."
Li Kong fixed his sitting posture and looked straight in front of him.
"Now close your eyes and control your breath."
Li Kong closed his eyes in respond and started to breath rhythmically as his chest went up and down.
"Too fast. Hold your breath for a little longer and let it out slowly. Yes, just like that. Keep that rhythm steady. Now it is too slow. Don't take too much air but rather take just the right amount and breathe the air out in a smooth single breath."
Li Kong was facing difficulty to carrying out White's instruction properly but he persevered and experimenting many ways to breathe.
Li Kong continued to breath calmly and without he consciously thought, his body was starting to relax and his chest moving up and down following the correct rhythm.
"Now keep the rhythm steady as you empty your mind slowly." White further instructed.
Although Li Kong was looking unfazed on the outside, but in the inside he had trouble trying to keep his breath steady while pondering how to empty his mind as White requested.
He imagined that his head was full of scenery and voices and then filled all of it slowly with a black ink. At first, he painted the center, then he continued to the right and from there he slowly painted all of those imageries in black until there was nothing left beside White's voices as he entered a state that similar to a trance.
White, who was put right in front of Li Kong, watched his student's complexion with a slight smile.
"What do you feel like right now?"
'What I'm feeling right now?' Li Kong repeated in his mind.
Li Kong felt that his body had turned into a lake. A lake with still water, unobstructed by outside interference.
Suddenly he became more aware at the the sound of his breath, the feeling of slight change in the air as it brushed his face ever-so-slightly.
It was as though as all of those small things that he usually wouldn't noticed suddenly became a large rock that was thrown to the surface of the still lake and sending ripples throughout the lake's surface making him fully aware of all of them.
Amidst the void, all of a sudden something touched the surface of his lake. The thing that was touching his lake was about the size a grain of sand. The ripple effect was so small that if he didn't happen to find about it by chance, he wouldn't had the hope to detect it if he actively tried to seek for it.
Li Kong in the state was a little confused at the size of the thing. Even the slightest change in the wind felt like a large rock was thrown to him but this unknown thing was just a size of a grain of sand.
'Could this little sand be Qi?' Li Kong gathered all of his focus to sensing the unknown thing.
At first, Li Kong couldn't find anything. But as he continued to recall the sensation of the grain of sand, he continuously scanned through the whole lake and soon he found another small ripple. Then, it turned to few. Twelve. Thirty. One hundred. Three hundred. The numbers kept increasing until Li Kong lost the count and all of his senses was overwhelmed by the barrage of ripples.
'I can feel it.' Li Kong's voice rang in the void.
'This tiny ripples. It must be it! This must be Qi!'
But unfortunately for him, the ripples was too much for him to handle.
He struggled to maintain his concentration and his breath started to show a sign of shaking. He gritted his teeth and desperately maintaining his degree of concentration but to no avail, his concentration was still disturbed by the constant ripples.
As his concentration wavered, he could felt that the ripples reduced rapidly in numbers and ultimately, he couldn't sense any of it again.
As he failed to sense the small ripples, Li Kong broke from his meditation and greedily gasping the air while sweats started trickling down from his forehead to his chin.
"Drink this water first." A light voice was picked up by Li Kong's ears and true to the voice's words, a cup of water was delivered and arrived right in front of his face.
He pulled the cup toward him and gulped down all of the content and put the cup on the desk, not far away from the bed, then collapsed as he leaned toward the wall for support.
White waited for Li Kong to rest for a bit and after he found that Li Kong's breathing had considerably calmed down, he asked his student about his progress.
"So how was that? Do you feel anything weird?" White asked with a hint of concern of his voice.
Li Kong calmly explained to his teacher about he becoming like a lake and the uncountable ripples he felt.
"Was what I felt before Qi?"
"Yes, what you feel was definitely Qi, the sheer volume of Qi in the air is innumerable. You could even say that the amount of Qi is infinite." White replied calmly.
Li Kong once again opened his mouth in admiration to the world of cultivator. There was just too many thing that was beyond his comprehension to understand.
'But surely in the future, I'll grasp it all.' He looked at the moon through his window and reaching out his hand to the moon and clenched it into a fist.
"But there's something interesting that I'd like to point out from your explanation." White interjected his thoughts.
At the sudden remark, Li Kong directed his vision at the bead with a clear confused gaze.
"I think it is interesting that you chose to be a lake to sense Qi. Not to say that the method is wrong, but it's just unusual. Although people usually visualized it in many ways, but I think this is the first time that I've heard someone using a lake to visualized sensing Qi but this isn't something you should worried about." White assured Li Kong.
Li Kong fell into deep thought and let out a little "hmm" sound while he was pinching his chin and swayed his body right and left.
"Then what's the usual then?"
"Based on my knowledge, most people usually visualized Qi as a small flying orb in the air. For reference, the great cultivator sensed Qi this way too. But there are no noticeable drawbacks even if you do it differently, so be assured.
"Okay, enough chit-chat. You're able to sense Qi now albeit not complete. But at least there were some progress. You've done well. Now rest your body and sleep. Rest is as equally important to exercise when you are training."
Then, White lectured Li Kong about the important of having a healthy sleep schedule and the consequences of being sleep-deprived.
Li Kong was already lied on the bed as White lectured him nodded absentmindedly before finally taking a residence at the dream world.
The night ended peacefully...
...
...
...
A blurry figure suddenly emerged from a thin air besides the sleeping Li Kong. The figure looked at Li Kong's carefree sleeping face and a smile formed on its thin lips.
After observing Li Kong for a while, the blurry figure looked at the lunar and countless thoughts created in his mind.
"What were you actually thinking, 'White'?" White muttered under his breath before shaking his head a few times and disappeared from the sight as if he was never there in the first place.
And thus, the night finally ended peacefully.