Embracing the Sun - Early Qi Gathering

''Mister, we all know who did the swindling. You didn't even tell me that I needed an invitation for the fair of souls. Don't worry I am not here to ask for compensation. Actually, I am here to pay you some money. I heard that you teach how to read, I'm here for learning.''

Mayton said teasingly. He was a bit annoyed about being deceived at first, but after thinking it through, he realized that this pair of fugitives had no other way to stay alive at the time. Thus he forgave them.

''Oh, a customer! Come in, come in. Let us talk about the price.''

The old man opened the door with a greedy gleam in his eyes. Mayton didn't mind the old man. He trusted him to not do anything evil, so he entered the house without worries.

Interior of the house was just like its exterior. From the half ruined doors and non-existent furniture, it was easy to see this place didn't see much usage in a long time. The only thing that indicated people were living in here was a half-opened bundle of personal items at the corner of the what was probably the living room before this place got abandoned and a few candles which dimly illuminated the house.

''Miss, why don't you got to the other room while I iron out the details with our first customer?''

The young woman nodded in assent and left them to discuss their business.

''Old man you know I don't have much money. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here in the slums. So lets cut this negotiation phase short. I'll pay you half the normal hourly rate. Deal?''

''Sigh, it's better than nothing I guess. If it was before...''

The old man looked like he was daydreaming about better days of the past.

''Then we have a deal. But I can't keep calling you mister all the time right? I am Mayton.''

Said Mayton, as he curiously looked at the old man. This duo definitely had a complicated story, but he didn't have the time nor the desire to meddle in other people's problems right now. He had a clear goal and anything deviated from it was a waste of time. His goal was improving his strength in a short period of time so as to be more assured of finding his parents' souls.

''My name is Char...les. It's Charles.''

the old man said. Mayton was sure the old man's name wasn't Charles, but he didn't care anyway. The less he knew, the less he would be involved in their matters.

''Mister Charles, if it's not a problem for you, can we start the lesson right now? I am a bit pressed for time.''

'What a diligent kid. If only young master was half as willing to study as this kid…' the old man sighed as he thought.

''Of course, as long as you pay I can even teach at midnight.''

Said the old man, clearly joking.

''You mean it? Then, today I'll be your guest!''

That night, Mayton really did stay at the old man's home and tried to learn as much as possible. Actually, being able to recognize the letters were enough for him. He may not be able to fluently read with a single night of studying, but thanks to the chart he made using the alphabet from his past life, it was no problem to understand what was written in the scroll.

'Finally, I will be able to properly cultivate.''

Mayton muttered after the lesson was over. When their lesson ended, it was already past midnight so Mayton decided to stay for the night. Even though they were fugitives and thus didn't trust other people easily, Mayton was an exception since he saved their lives before. Because of their trust, they let him sleep in their house and gave one of the rooms to Mayton for him to sleep. This house lacked a lot of things, but empty rooms certainly were not one of them.

As soon as he was alone, Mayton unfurled the scroll containing the cultivation technique and started to read it letter by letter. The title was 'Embracing the Sun' written in fiery red. After that was a general introduction to cultivation starting by the qi sensing phase. Qi sensing phase was followed by the qi gathering. Then came foundation establishment and core formation phases. Finally, there was the legendary nascent soul phase.

Mayton skimmed past the part about the qi sensing phase since he already completed it and read what was written about the other phases.

This cultivation technique had three main stages named; Absorbing the Sun, Kindling the Flames of the Heart, and Combining the External with the Internal.

At the first stage, Absorbing the Sun, cultivator had to absorb the fire qi from the sun and use it to cleanse his body. This cleansing perfected the body for cultivating fire qi by making it possible to store the qi without harming the body. Fully cleansing the body corresponded to the peak qi gathering phase.

After completing the first stage, came the second one, Kindling the Flames of the Heart. At this stage, cultivator needed to generate fire qi in his heart and use that fire qi to open up his dantian. Opening the dantian corresponded to the initial foundation establishment phase, while filling it to the brim corresponded to the peak foundation establishment phase.

Then came the third and the final stage, Combining the Internal with the External. This stage required the cultivator to combine the fire qi from the sun and the internal qi stored in his dantian to form a fire core. When the core fully formed it meant that the cultivator was in the peak core formation phase.

When Mayton finally finished reading the cultivation manual 'Embracing the Sun' the first rays of the sun was already starting to brighten up the sky. Unknowingly, he spent all his night absorbed in his reading without getting any sleep using up a lot of candles in the process.

''I need to be in my top condition to start cultivating. I better sleep until I feel refreshed before starting.''

Mayton muttered to himself as he got ready to sleep on the ground. Unfortunately, there were no beds in this house. After sniffing out the candle and lying down on a linen sheet his hosts provided, it didn't take too long for him to fall asleep.

It was afternoon when he woke up. The first thing he heard was Ghorzhang and Doyle chatting with the young woman who opened the door to him. Apparently, they came to find him because he didn't return last night. Since Doyle was with him they took the address of 'Charles' from the Dealer, they knew where to look for him. Thus they came here shortly after dawn. Unfortunately, he was already asleep by that time, so he couldn't greet them.

''Uncle Doyle, Ghorzhang, let's leave for the new courtyard as soon as possible. I wonder how it looks after the furnishing. Mister Charles, here is the agreed upon sum. Goodbye Mister, elder sister. Let us meet again if fate permits. ''

He didn't really want to see the state of their new courtyard of course. He was just too excited to start his cultivation. Ghorzhang and Doyle had no reason to stay here either. So after saying their goodbyes, they left for their new abode. From what Mayton from Ghorzhang on the way, rest of the hunters were already there since early morning, organizing the place to make it functional faster. That place would be the place they will spend the rest of their lives if something out of the ordinary won't happen.

After a tour of the hunters' new residence, Mayton excused himself despite the hunters' attempt to involve him in the furnishing process. They wanted him to choose almost everything, saying that he was the one who earned the money in the first place. But Mayton couldn't care less about how they used the money. As far as he was concerned, he already did his best for his fellow villagers. Now, he was going to dive into a more exciting and dangerous world, the world of cultivation.

Mayton found himself a small, simply decorated room and warned the hunters to not disturb him no matter what happened before starting his first closed door cultivation session. First, he sat down cross legged and started the breathing exercise provided in the cultivation manual. This breathing exercise was required to calm his mind and relax his body. He wanted to start cleansing his body with fire qi. This was a dangerous procedure. With stray thoughts in his mind, it was easy to make a mistake during the cleansing which might even be fatal.

Only after using the breathing technique for hours did Mayton succeed in emptying his mind. The reason for this was simple. He was afraid of cleansing thanks to the terrible memories from his past life's last days.

But finally, his perseverance won over his fear, and Mayton started the next step. Now, he needed to use the fire qi, the red particles he saw in his body before, to burn away the impurities in his body.

Impurities varied from the cultivator to cultivator depending on the type of qi they used. For example; for a divine cultivator, impurities meant any kind of qi other than the pure qi. For a demonic cultivator who uses fire qi to cultivate like Mayton, impurities meant any kind of qi other than fire qi. So essentially what Mayton needed to do was getting rid of the other kinds of qi accumulated in his body..

When he started to cleanse his body, he felt the fire qi inside of him burn fiercely. Those little particles akin to fireflies were now like pieces of burning coal, emitting heat as Mayton felt a burning sensation spread all over his body. He needed to focus all of his qi on one part of his body to cleanse that part, then repeat it until he cleansed all his body.

He started from his feet as per the instructions from the manual. As soon as he focused all his qi on his feet the pain increase by an enormous amount. After almost losing his consciousness due to pain Mayton gritted his teeth and endured it. This continued for days as the pain got more and more intense with time.

''It has already been more than two days. I think we should check out Mayton. What if something happened to him? ''

''He didn't even eat anything or used the restroom. He might have lost his consciousness. I say we should at least knock on his door.''

'' He said don't disturb me even if I don't exit the room for a long time. When did he make a wrong choice? I am sure he knows what he is doing.''

Mayton already lost track of time while struggling to not get overwhelmed by the intense pain while some of the hunters were getting anxious as Mayton's cultivation continued. Thankfully, Mayton warned them about the potential duration of his closed door cultivation thus they didn't interrupt his cultivation. Right now, he was at the crucial moment. He was cleansing the impurities in his head.

According to the cultivation manual, the souls of people were located at their glabella and since the glabella had the soul, it was the hardest part of the body to cleanse. During this process, the tiniest of mistakes would be fatal for the cultivator. For this reason, Mayton focused all his attention on his glabella. But something surprising happened as he woke up from the trance like state he was in.

''Huh, why is it like this?''

muttered Mayton as he rubbed his eyes. He was already fully awake, and he saw a simply decorated room instead of the burning fire qi he was seeing for the past days.

Even though he could feel that he succeeded in his cultivation, and was now in the early qi gathering phase, things didn't go the way like they were supposed to. The cultivation manual depicted this last step as the hardest and the most crucial step, but for Mayton, it was the easiest step. Actually, it was so easy, he didn't even need to control the fire qi to burn away the impurities, all he did was channeling his qi to his glabella, and the qi did the job automatically.

What he didn't know was that he emitted the same ancient aura he emitted when he was trying to sense the qi for the first time. This time the aura was even stronger.