The Pathway

"Martial arts."

Aodh clasped his arms behind his body. His gaze was fixed on his grandson who standing in front of him, bare-chested and with a look of absolute seriousness on his face.

He knew the effort and energy that martial arts required. Total tranquility and control of the inner aggression, pain and even fear, were needed by a cultivator to be a true martial artist. This was the reason why the Dao martial arts principles, placed great importance on complete tranquility and control.

Emotions and reactions were major problems facing a martial artist.

That was why martial arts had been regarded as a mental sparring competition with the inner opponent. Once a martial artist was able to control the emotions and reactions in a rational way during combat, the opposition's variant attacks would be much more easier to face.

The Dao principles of the martial arts included moral ways. These moral ways showed these principles as a way of life for all martial artists.

"These are guides you must follow when you are preparing for combat and during combat. They have been arranged in systems that will make it much more easier to learn. Jufeng, you must know one important thing about martial art. All these systems, although they made it easier, martial arts still demanded complete control and focus."

Aodh observed the state of his grandson keenly before nodding.

"In combat they will let you understand and determine how to take full advantage of any situation, when it's necessary. And they will also help you to avoid inflicting harm on yourself and others when practicing. "

Aodh raised three fingers up before dropping his hand to his side.

"There are three Dao martial arts principles. Any martial artist who has not trained in all of these three principles is not considered as a complete or true martial artist."

With his fingers, one after the other, Aodh indicated the numbers.

"They are spiritual principle, mental principle and physical principle."

"Although they are divided into basics, forms, weapons, stances, meditation, Chi and applications, they must be learned together."

"For you to be a true martial artist, your body must learn the physicality while your soul must learn the mental and spiritual aspects of it. Martial arts must flow freely without you being conscious of it. A true heart of martial art, a true heart of Dao."

"That's the level I want you to reach, Jufeng."

Aodh who was walking towards one side of the training ground, turned sharply.

"Back to the basics."

He stared at his grandson who was readjusting himself to stand firmer and be more focused.

"The basics are the beginning steps and very important part of any martial training. You cannot progress to the more advanced stages without them."

"They will enhance your upper body, lower body and core strength. In turn, these enhancement will help you to improve your punching power, kicking power and others."

Aodh walked up to his grandson and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You will start with the basics."

Jufeng nodded vigorously, his eyes on his grandfather who looked at him with an easy smile and continued.

"You have great strenght in your body, we will start by gradually bringing out your true strength. You will be using the general trueworld bodyweight technique. And today, we will focus on your upper body strength training since it will help your upper body to generate stronger punches and grappling power."

"Let's start."

Aodh taught Jufeng the trueworld bodyweight technique. He started his grandson on his body mass as the source of weight before gradually increasing the weight by adding external masses of stones to his body weight.

"This will strengthen the muscles in your chest, shoulders, back and arms."

Jufeng continued the training of his upper body strength without resting. His strength was unbelievable for such a young age. Aodh added twice the stone mass for his grandson's age level, but he kept on practicing the technique without stopping.

"His strength is rather high for his age, so much strength. By the time...."

Aodh trailed off smiling as he nodded his head in acknowledgement. All their past efforts were coming to fruition. It had been costly and time consuming but worth every bit of it.

After training for four hours Aodh stopped him and gave him one Bloodroot medicinal pill. Since he had not started sensing and gathering Chi, the blue crystalline would not be ideal for him and could even damage his dantian. The energy from the medicinal pill flowed through his body, replenishing and strengthening his body.

He felt like he could carry the world on his head since his exhausted body had been fully restored.

"Grandpa, my body! I don't feel tired anymore."

"Hehehe, let's continue your training for a bit more time then."

After training for another two hours, Aodh gestured for him to stop.

"We'll stop here for today and we'll continue tomorrow. For daily balance, you need to train with your grandmother and mother."

"Okay, grandpa. Thank you." Cupping his hands in respect as he bowed to his waist.

Aodh smiled and nodded. He was happy with his grandson frame of mind. If a mind was on the right path then cultivation would be easier and faster.

They made their way to the cave, where Euanthe and Reena were preparing the goat milk for sale at the market. After resting, Euanthe took Jufeng to the pool side since it was her turn to train her grandson.

The pool was in a peaceful state and its area was quiet too. She did a quick spun and smiled brightly. All forms of nature are wonderful.

Looking at her grandson, she gleamed happily.

"Mystical arts are essence fundamentals. Do you know what that means, Jufeng? It means without essence, there would be no mystical arts. "

"Essence is the ultimate nature of any existing entity. Simply, it's your life-force and you cannot exist without it. Since you cannot practice mystical arts without your Chi essence, I will tell you more about it."

"Due to the laws of creation regarding reincarnation, mortal soul is always in a limbo. Because of this, the essence energy is scattered all over the body and because of this, it continuously leaked out of the body into the surrounding."

"The only way to stop this essence leakage and the short existence of the mortal body was to gather this essence together in a place in your body called dantian. This will also gradually bring the soul out of limbo into manifestation."

Euanthe, who had been gesturing with her hands, pointed a finger at her grandson.

"There is Chi in your body, Jufeng, but it's not organized. This is because you are still a mortal and not a cultivator. But now that you have started the path of cultivation, you will soon be able to gather your Chi into your dantian."

"A step into knowing the power of essence and you will be able to form a nascent soul. In the world of cultivation, cultivators strive to form a nascent soul which was the true stage of immortality. Unless, somebody or something kills you. "

"Now, Jufeng, I will explain to you how Chi essence which is your life-force, connects to mystical arts. There are elements in our Chi essence and these elements are used to produce mystical arts."

"Although, we manifest different types of these elements, there are four basic elements from which others stemmed out. These four are the primary states of matter. Do you know what the four elements are, Jufeng?"

"Fire, air, terra and water." Came the quick answer.

"Good."

"Fire is igneous in nature."

"Air is gaseous in form."

"Terra[soil] has nature that's solid."

"And Water which is in liquid state."

Euanthe observed her grandson as she contemplated.

"The life-force is made up of these elements. Since the life-force connects the soul to the body, the body and soul shared these elements. But because of the law of reincarnation, the mortal soul is only connected to the life-force by few threads and the life-force is scattered all over the body."

"But with cultivation, the life-force can be gathered and the soul brought out of limbo making the life-force, the body and the soul become one."

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Euanthe spread her hands to encompass her sorrounding.

"Look around you my grandson. Everything in the universe is composed of the four elements in varying proportions and amounts. I tell you this Jufeng, elements are the basic constituents of all matter. Everything."

She placed her hand on Jufeng's shoulder and smiled gently.

"Even your body is composed of the four elements."

"These four elements formed the foundation of the Dao conception of the universe."

Euanthe tapped gently on the floor with her foot.

"At the center of our world is the terra, as the planet we live on, the ground and support beneath our feet. Because of terra's great heaviness and density, all things gravitate towards it. Running over and around the soil is Water, in the form of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Water nourishes the terra, giving it Life. Over the spheres of soil and Water is the sphere of Air, the atmosphere in which we live, move and have our being. Air's essence is exchange, contact and movement. All living things need Air to breathe."

"And finally"

Euanthe turned her palm upward and a tongue of fire manifested.

"Fire lights up the Sun, the moon and the stars in the celestial firmament. Fire has brilliance and spirit and it symbolizes the Life Force within us. The mortal body, your body, is made up of the four elements in varying proportions. Some elements are more dominant in our bodies than others."

"For some cultivators, it can be one element that's more dominant than the rest while in others, it could be more than one dominant elements. All souls are in affinity to the elements. The Chi energy and elemental energies in the dantian formed the essence fundamentals. These are the fundamentals that transform the state of the soul into a mystical one."

Euanthe shook her head and sighed.

"Your grandmother is still in the evanesce core stage and I have a long way to go before i can form a true soul. I know my element affinity is fire and I can draw on its power but not as a true soul. Your mother already formed her nascent soul maybe she can show you what it looks like."

"But today."

Euanthe touched her grandson on the head and chest.

"I will teach you the serenity of the soul. Although, your soul is in limbo, you are still connected to it by few threads. I want you to realize that although our universe appears to be ever reaching, ever expanding, out of reach, and ever so far, we are cosmically connected. Thus, this connection has an impact on the very reason that we are who we are."

"Serenading the soul will put it in a state of peace. With this calmness, comes enlightenment of the soul. The first step is for your soul to realise that it's in limbo. Then, to gradually come out of it and that's the reason for all these training we are giving you."

"I will teach you the soul pith technique now and then the soul serenade technique later. It's simple but very effective. These techniques are different from the astral foetal breathing technique. Unlike astral foetal used for cultivating meditation, these ones are used for the mystical arts. The elements. Our ancestors have all used to good results. Let me show you how it work."

Euanthe showed the technique to Jufeng who quickly sat down and started practicing it. Euanthe watched him as if it was a dream.

She remembered the time she thought she would never had a child much less a grand child. And her daughter was even a god, a demigod, but a god nonetheless. A full immortal. She vividly recalled the nascent soul that her daughter had shown them.

A white feathered amour and flaming wings. Phoenix wings? It was a sight.

She was joyfully beaming with teary eyes. How could she not be happy? From hopelessness to one filled with great potentials, it was definitely a source of happiness. A grandmother! And her grandson was growing really fast and strong. Surely, this must be the heavens. Or, how could you explain all these?

Heavens did favoured her.

Lost in thoughts, it was evening before she realized the time had swiftly passed by. Though Jufeng was still practicing, she decided it was time to leave. They still had the following day and many days ahead. Leaving the area, they arrived at the cave to see Aodh returning with jars of fresh milk from the farm.

They all gathered in the main chamber. It was the day Jufeng started his long road of cultivation, hence, his mother made a special food for them. Roasted yellow-green spirit grass spiced deer and millet coated in the honey of the cloud honeygourd bee. These went along with goat milk in its variants and they ate to their satisfaction.

It was truly a good day for one of their own had started cultivation. It would be hard and dangerous but surely a thing for celebration. And after the meal, they raised the drink to Jufeng's.

"Mother, can I come with you?"

"Don't be impatient, Jufeng. Do you think I forgot about you?"

Looking at her son's face, she patted him on his shoulder and smiled.

"Follow me."

They went inside the cultivation chamber, sitting in lotus positions facing each other, Reena took out a bottled elixir and gave it to his son.

"Take a little drink out of it. It will help sooth your veins."

After taking back the bottle from Jufeng, Reena continued.

"Cultivation is the way for a soul to reach eternity, without natural death. The path for a soul to be free of reincarnation. Immortality is the reason why we all practice cultivation. I can assure you that cultivation is a true way. For generations, our family has been keeping the Sapphire Sky manuscript safely secured. It has techniques for cultivation method, martial and mystical arts."

"The astral primal technique in the manuscript is a great advantage to us, although, it's extremely painful when practicing it. You can't even imagine the pain and the advantages it brings. You need to feel and see it for yourself to understand."

Reena observed her son and her heart was filled with compassion. The road ahead for her son who was just starting cultivation, would be very difficult. She had been fortunate to be born on the path of a demigod. She would do her best to make it a little easier for him.

"Before we start, I want you to remember that martial arts, mystical arts and immortal cultivation can be used to compliment one another. True cultivators use their Chi essence from cultivation to perform their mystical arts."

"And in turn, they use mystical arts to provide the power of elementals for their martial arts. Mystical arts deal with the life-force by bringing out the elemental energies hidden in it. Hence, a true cultivator will know the three aspects."

"Let's start. Since you are already familiar with the fetal breathing method from the womb, let's begin with you sensing the Chi energy in your body."

Reena glanced at her son and started talking in a quiet tone.

"Close your eyes, now, start breathing the way i showed you."

Jufeng shut his eyes and started using the astral fetal breathing technique. Like all embryos, he had been using the fetal breathing method when he was in the womb. This was a welcomed continuation which was much appreciated.

"As you continue to breathe, you will feel a sensation in your body, like energy. Let me know when you feel it."

Few hours later.

"Now that you can sense the Chi in your body, just let the energy flow in your body.

Jufeng continued to train diligently at a steady pace for the following three years. He was growing up fast in strength and power. His physique was not getting bigger like the first four years after his birth, but for an eight year old, he was quite big.

In martial arts, he had reached the Yinying level of the silver eagle. He had finished learning the basics and was almost done with the stances.

In the mystical arts, he discovered that he had traces of element energy but couldn't determine them yet.

In immortal cultivation, he was at the middle stage of Juchi, the gathering of Chi. The Astral primal technique was gradually and unceasingly enlarging his dantian and meridians. The blue crystalline he was consuming kept on supplying his dantian with Chi energy that was circulated through the meridians.

The heart of his path of cultivation.