The Pathway

Jufeng had just reached the martial arts' Yinying stage. This was the silver eagle level of the martial arts. He had just finished learning the stances from his grandfather. Although, he still had a long way to go in his martial arts training. But for now, he would be moving on to swordmanship to have a balance.

He walked up to his grandfather, who was checking the defensive arrays that were protecting the caves. He looked grown as he walked, due to his physique which resembled that of a twelve year old. He was over five feet tall with bones as strong as a cave bear and skin as thick as a bark hide. His eyes', nose's and ears' senses were also growing keener as he trained.

He was already at the practicing area doing some body exercises when his grandpa arrived.

"Good morning grandpa."

"Jufeng, good morning to you too. I guess that means you are ready for your morning training."

"Yes grandpa, I even woke up ealier today to prepare."

"Mhm. I can see that. Then, let's begin."

Aodh produced a sword-shaped wooden stick and gave it to him.

"Swordsmanship means the abilities of a martial artist to use the sword properly."

Aodh materialised his sword, Skyfire. It was a beautiful white sword made from white nephrite with the core of a white wyvern. He glanced at Jufeng as he performed a few rhythmic swings.

"True words, sword is a weapon of blade. It can look beautiful and delicate, but, in the hand of a swordman, it's a deadly weapon. This is the reason why a martial artist must be mentally and spiritually prepared. Proper training must be taken by a cultivator to be a true swordman."

"Know this Jufeng, it takes a true swordsman to know when to draw a sword and when not to. You do not draw your sword for every little arguments and issues. You draw your sword when it's absolutely necessary and you are left with no other alternative."

Aodh stared at his grandson with his brows furrowed tightly.

"Jufeng, which one is easier, to destroy or to make?"

"To destroy something is easier, grandpa."

"Yes, it is easier to destroy. But to make? It can take forever. This is where the nature of a heart comes in. How can a violent and easy to anger heart understand the true nature of the universe? It takes a calm and patient heart."

"Let's start. I will need your extra focus and seriousness."

His eyes on his grandson with unyielding stare.

"The basic defense moves involve blocking and stepping."

Aodh started displaying the moves and guided Jufeng on the proper moves.

"Defense Moves. This move is voiding. It's a defensive move used to step either forward, backward, or sideways, out of the sword's attack range like this."

Aodh moved according to the steps.

Moving his feet back and forth, he checked to see if his grandson followed.

"Moving to stepping. If your back foot passes your front foot in a passing step, it's a burst. If your front foot passes your back foot in a passing step, it's a lunge."

Aodh put himself in different positions as he directed his grandson into the proper positions.

"Stances. The ox ward is a stance. You put the left foot forward with the sword held close to your face and aimed towards the upper regions of your opponent's body."

"Another stance is the the plow ward. This one, you put your right foot forward and place the sword near your knees, with the blade aimed at your opponent's chest."

"And the third one, is the the fool ward. For this one, you put your left foot forward with the sword aimed towards the ground in front of your left foot."

Aodh slowly changed his posture so that Jufeng would grasp it.

"Now attack moves. The first one is the high blow. A vertical blow against the opponent's head."

"The second is the wrath blow. You swing the sword from above, and diagonally aimed towards the opponent's ear."

"The third one is the middle blow. This you do horizontally, either from left to right or right to left."

"The fourth one is low blow. Swinging the sword from below, and aimed towards the opponent's arms."

"The fifth one is the overhead thrust. A move in which you jab the opponent with the sword, single-handedly."

Aodh continued to show Jufeng all the sword moves. They were so immersed in training that they didn't notice the flight of time. It was already eight hours ago when they started. Aodh stopped the training and they left the practice area. On their way back to the cave, Aodh side-glanced his grandson.

"Physical training develops bodily strength and health. It will surely provide you with hardness and toughness of physique, greater mobility and agility."

"You will have wider opportunities for activity, the ability to perform what you do and the capacity to survive and thrive in a crisis. Truly, every man should be physically strong."

Minutes later, Jufeng went to the pool area. He sat down on a mat beside the pool, eyes closed, feeling his inner peace as he waited for his grandma.

"As long as humans have lived on this planet, we have relied on water to nourish and replenish our systems physically."

Jufeng sharply turned his head to the source of the voice to the sight of his grandma. He heaved a sigh of relief, he didn't know when she arrived.

"But it also provide mental and emotional benefits as well. It is a natural progression that we feel so at peace when we are near to water. It is part of who we are."

"The sound and sight of water is not only soothing but can directly affect your mood and environment. The sight of a pleasant water feature can also be a source of healing and relaxing."

Euanthe indicated the pond with a nod.

"These energies are released from water by the power of nature and found in high concentrations virtually anywhere water flows. We absorb these energies with each breath we take."

"When you are around a pond, the air will affect your mood and heighten your ability to concentrate, clean the air and promote a sense of tranquility and inner peace."

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Euanthe produced a mat and sat down opposite his son.

"Spiritual training develops the health and strength of the soul, increasing its ability to delay gratification and deny lower impulses in favor of higher ones, conquer weaknesses and temptations, make weighty decisions with dexterous wisdom, and, willingly serve other people."

Euanthe moved her hand to form the shape of a human as she was speaking.

"Your character is built in the course of your soul spiritual training, inner confrontation."

"Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits that are slowly engraved during the struggle against your own weakness. You become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment."

"If you make disciplined, caring choices, you are slowly engraving certain tendencies into your mind. You are making it more likely that you will desire the right things and execute the right actions."

"If you make selfish, cruel, or disorganized choices, then you are slowly turning the soul inside yourself into something that is fragmented. You can do harm to your soul with nothing more than ignoble thoughts, even if you are not harming anyone else."

"But if you do behave with habitual self-discipline, you will become constant and dependable."

"Which brings us to Karma."

With compassionate eyes, she observed her grandson.

"Do you know what karma is, Jufeng?"

"Good and bad?"

"Close."

Euanthe nooded with a bright smile.

"It's the principle behind the good and bad things we do or say. Everything you do now will have effect on your life in the future."

"Law of karma is a law of creation. It affects everybody in the universe. Good karma will bring good effects and bad karma will bring bad effects. We cannot escape it."

"That's why having a proper frame of mind will help in cultivating good karma. Remember that every thing you do, good or bad, you will face the consequences in the future."

Euanthe pointing to the fish in the pond, said.

"Look at the fish in the pond. Do you see the way they move about in the water peacefully? It's in their mind to do that since they were born. Now they do that as part of their living."

Euanthe smiled reassuringly at her grandson.

"Everything you put in your mind from young age, will continue to grow there if you continue to nurture it. A seed will germinate and grow if properly nurtured."

"Free your mind as before, let your mind be at peace. Then start the soul pith technique."

Jufeng closed his eyes. He freed his mind of any distractions. Just like the peaceful pond, he felt his mind at peace. He started practicing the soul pith technique. He had discovered that his soul was getting more and more stronger.

This was happening whenever he practiced this technique followed by the astral fetal breathing technique. The two techniques were from the same manuscripts, no wonder they complimented each other.

The more stronger his soul, the more clearer he was seeing the universe. He continued to practice, sparse threads of positive energies continued to stream into his soul. Gradually, he was lost in meditation. He saw himself being sorrounded by a faint white light and flickers of lightning. The astral sphere.

After he regained his awareness, he told his grandma about his experience.

"Your astral sphere. Those are your elements energies. Light element energy and lightning element energy. There are four primary elements as you are aware of but these four have many other secondary elements."

"For instance, Ice is a secondary element of water and lightning is a secondary element of air. In your case Jufeng, you have lightning and light, which means that you can use light but not fire, because you need heat and light to make fire."

"But, your affinity is not attuned to heat, so you can only use the light. Same thing with lightning, you can use lightning even if you can't conjure the mystic power of air. Light and lightning are really great energies. I'm really proud of you."

"But no fire grandma."

"Yes, no fire. But you have two affinities, that's a blessing. None of us has two affinities, not to mention lightning. It means you are special, very special. And it's not the affinity you have that matters, it's your heart that does. Now, lighten up and appreciate the gifts."

"Okay, grandma. Thank you."

Jufeng nodded his head and smiled at his grandma.

Oh, how he wanted to be able to make ribbons of fire or fire birds like his mother. He would have prefered fire to a thousand other elements. But light and lightning it is. He had to make do with them. And he had two. He was lucky indeed. His smile brightened.

They left the pond area enjoying the gift of nature as they slowly walked. Euanthe told him she wanted to check the farms, so he decided to follow her. They collected some goat milk and went back to the cave.

Inside the cave, Aodh was in the small book chamber, going through some manuscripts. Euanthe and Reena were discussing about the upcoming village event. Seeing that everyone was occupied, he quietly left for the cultivation chamber. He sat down and started to practice the astral primal technique. His meridians were wide and his dantian was extremely large.

The heavenly spiritual energy was always needed in large quantity to advance in cultivation stages. Cultivators looked for places rich in heavenly spiritual energy to cultivate. It helps in supplying the needed energy.

But he had the blue crystallines. Crystals containing pure refined chi that could replenish an exhausted dantian at a go and the stored energy could last for weeks.

His dantian was so large, but was still absorbing the crystals' energy continuosly. The amount of Chi in his dantian was ridiculously high. He only needed his connection to his elements energy to keep getting stronger. As he connected to his affinities, he would be able to advance in stages.

His mother found him in the cultivation chamber just as he was breaking through to the Chi refining stage, the Lianchi stage, some minutes later.

"Congratulations son, It was about time. You are now at the Chi refining stage."

Reena sat down in front of her son, gently staring at him.

"As you refine the Chi in your body, you can continue to gather Chi into your dantian. We are still gathering Chi into our dantian also. My soul's avatar is still benefitting from the Chi I'm still gathering. So, you can continue with your Chi gathering."

"Okay mother."

"Tomorrow, there will be antique sellers and buyers displaying their goods in the market place. I want you to come with me."

"Yes mother, I have not been to the market place for some time. Thank you mother."

They continued to cultivate together. His mind was on the antique goods.