Blood bond and Practice

Now I knew what to do. I just had to sense some more Qis to begin my cultivation.

Well I needed to become proficient in controlling and manipulating them but the most complicated for now was the sensing part.

I spent two weeks with Osis travelling towards the core area of the Time Forest. I named it as such since there is an abundance of Time Qi in it. It was quite a peacefull journey until we arrived at the foot of a moutain and a bear 3 meters high found us.

It was completely dark brown and It was viciously looking at us. It walked in our direction and swung its sharps shinings claws. I dived on my left as Osis flew away.

Seeing that one of it's preys was going too far from it's reach, it focalised all its attention towards me. I used my short spear to continuoulsy poke at his mistakes.

It was much more inteligent than animals back from earth, but didn't create Qi techniques yet and only used pure power and srenght. Osis, meanwhile, was diving every so often and already had taken the left eye of the bear, making it howl and squeal in anger.

As we were slowly tiring the bear to death, It had a burst of energy, Its sharps claws directed for my head. I barely dodged but was struck dumb to see that its true target was Osis. While I was dodging the frenzied attack of the Bear, Osis dived to give assistance and relieve bit of my burden.

The bear knew that Osis would pounce at it to give me time to collect myself and used its last movement to power the next, sinking its sharp claws in the abdomen of Osis.

"NOOO..." I screamed and rushed at the bear which now had its back completely open to me. I jumped and with all my strenght slashed at the back of its neck. The wound wasn't profound enough to kill it in one hit so I had to take bigger risk, but right now my mind was fixed on how to quickly kill this bear so I could help Osis the best I could.

I was hoping my Blood or Golden Qi would do the trick and heal him. Yes, I said "him" because even if it was only for 3 weeks, Osis had been by my side and talked to me. Well that was a conversation based only on nods and shakes but since I was completely alone nearly one week at the start of my journey, I knew how precious someone who had your back could amout to. Also these semi-conversations did prevent me from turning mad from solitude. He became my only compagnion and I could call him my friend without any shame.

While the bear was returning itselves I was conturning it to stay in front of his back. I jumped again but the bear sensed it and dodged. We were now face to face. It stood up and roared at me, I rushed and jumped for the last time as I took support on its hind legs and propulsed myself. I plunged my short spear its throat while exerting all my remaining strenght. I didn't want it to ever wake up again.

After the bear fell down to never get up again, I ran for Osis and reached him.

" Don't worry, buddy, I'll make sure you'are even more handsome after this is finished."

I said while tears began to roll on my cheeks. He looked at me with tiredness and touched weakly with his wing the area near the wound. It was filled with blood and torn off feathers. He moved his wing, with the tip red in blood, in my direction and touched me. I didn't understand what he wanted and was too concentrated on manipulating the Blood and Golden qi in the viscinity to ponder on what he was doing. The problem was that I had trained in Blood Qi using my blood and wasn't really proficient using the other's. I took my spear and poked lightly at my finger so there would

be a point of exit for the blood coming out of my body. I planned to use it to try to heal Osis but was interrupted by him.

Osis had suddenly wide open eyes sparkling with hope and appreciation. He swung his wing faster than I thought he would and touched, with his red blood tip, my finger and the blood on it.

I sensed a warm feeling and my blood begin to boil. My vision retracted and everything was black with little dots of lights, ressembling stars. I sensed as if my thoughts were taken away from me making me scream in pain. It was a really strange feeling, as if your entire being was cut in two piece and one of them was taken away.

I felt my body begin to slowly rearrange itself and the pain it caused me was something I had never imagined was possible. I could hear and feel my bones and my fleshs cracks and recover. My muscles change places to after replace themselves. I couldn't bear it anymore and passed out.

After a certain amount of time I woke up with an headache and sore body I had never had before.

"Shit where is Osis ? I'm sure he was at death's door before I passed out." I said while looking at my surrounding.

'Please don't talk so loud now, I have an headache. You have read a lot of easterns novels so you should have an idea of what was happening.' A deep and gutural voice sounded in my head.

'While I was on death's door I decided to put my life on the line and create a blood bond between us. You're the only human I meet since the departation. I know that a lot of beasts and humans will evolve and breakthrought from now on and become more and more powerfull. I sensed nearly 3weeks ago your overwelming talent in soul cultivation, so I thought it was quite a good idea to have you as my blood brother.'

" Osis ? Shit, a blood bond, seriously ? How do you even know the method to do it ? Body and Soul cultivation exist too ? And I have incredible talent in Soul cultivation ? How do you even know all that shit ????

' Alright calm down. Of course there is Soul and Body cultivation. Please you used to read a lot, can you use your memories and intelect sometimes ? How do you think you can sense all these differents Qi if you don't have a overwhelming talent in Soul cultivation ?? As for the blood bond, as beasts we have advantages that humans doesn't and vice versa. You have a lot of differents means to enhance your strenght as weapons, cultivation of Qi, Body and Soul, and tricks impossible for beasts to use. We received some memories about blood bond and how to use our inherent Qi the first time we came to this world. It was a gift from God for our weakness in soul cultivation and our lack of weapon and tricks. Us, Qi Beasts, just have Qi cultivation and Body cultivation as real strenght. Even if there are Qi Beast who can use soul attacks, they aren't really proficient or aren't very talented in it and we despise weapons since our bodies are so strong. Our true strenght comes from our body for a reason.'

That was too much information to take in one go. He now had a blood brother which coul talk to him through its thoughts, discovered that Soul and Body cultivation existed and that he was precisely talented for Soul cultivation.

" Ahhh... As your blood brother tell me why I can undestand your thoughts and how the fuck do you know I used to read a lot ?"

I was really exasperated by my lack of informations and began to understand how difficult becoming strong was. I needed strenght, informations and connections. I had none of them and was lost who know where. Also I had to duscovereverythung by myself and forge myself a path through cultivation obstacle and foes.

' When we established our bond through our bloods we created a bridge for our souls to communicate, know where we are in a certain range and know the past of each other. We can also borrow strenght through this link but for now it is useless as we are too weak. Try to think your answers and we should be able to communicate without making a sound.'

I did it and thought that Osis looked like a shiny pigeon. He looked at me and humphed.

I was quite happy because with this link, I had my first contact with the Soul Qi. Even if it was rudimentary and I couldn't use it yet, I knew the feeling and could meditate and try to create and manipulate Soul Qi from now on. It was always easier to create something which already existed than just do it based on just theories and hypothesis and create from nothing.

The second stage of Qi cultivation was Qi Core Creating. You had to create an image of a construction which would be the foundation of your future progress. It should be extremely comprehensive and have an unimaginable depth. To increase the chance of passing this cultivation stage smoothly, you had to sense the required Qi from the first level of the Qi sensing Stage. For exemple if you wanted to become a Fire Qi user you could use Fire to create the image of Wisp, a creature which had the body of a flame. Its body and soul was the same so the flame would grow alongside the soul. That's why James who could already have started gathering the Qis he sensed and refining them was hell bent on having all the differents and necessary Qi sensed before gathering and refining them.

He just had to sense or create artificially Space, Lightning, Metal and Spear qi to begin gathering them and refining them.

Well he said 'just' but for the common mortal sensing two Qis was really good, sensing 3 to 5 was a genius and 5 to 7 was a peerless genius. Even if he didn't know it yet, his talent in soul cultivation was really out of this world.

It wasn't as easy as one could think to gather and refine Qis. You had to do it in one smooth go. The gathering and refining part were pretty easy, It was done in one fell swoop to stop the Qi from escaping the body. But after, the Qi didn't know where to stay and could turn chaotic and damage the body of the cultivator.That's why the Qi Core Creating was done just after these two minor level. The Qi Core Creating was the same as creating an organ which could store the Qi inside your body. It was linked to the image you had created which rested in your soul.

The core was situated in the dantian and was linked to the image in your soul.

'Hum I need to sense these four type of Qis and learn how to use them, It will be extremely important for my future plans.'

After that I put Osis who had fallen asleep in my arms and created a campfire for us to rest.

The next day we were already healed and could move just fine. The process of blood bond had reshaped ourselves to accept the power of each other and at the same time healed us. Since we were from different races our entire body was transformed and we were covered in blood and sweet at the end of the process. It's just in the morning that I realised how I smelled and how my clothes were so dirty I looked like a homeless vagabond, after 3 weeks spend without a shower it was quite normal. I was nearly insulting the homeless by calling me this. I decided to learn how to sew and learn pretty easily. I used filament of lether cut from pelts I had taken from my daily hunt, to sew and succeed in creating some rudimentary clothes. I looked like a cavemen but it was an improvement.

I searched for a place to settle as I was pretty bored by my constant journey in the wood. Fortunetly I found the cave which probably used to be the rest place of the bear.

After settling I began to try creating cultivation arts. Cultivations Arts were differents from Cultivations Techniques, they were techniques used to fight efficiently, providing immense dammage thanks to the use of Qi. Cultivations Techniques were methodes used to direct and manipulate Qi inside the body to increase it's quality or quantity. Also the Cultivation Techniques often gave bonus effect which were quite usefull.

I had to be ultra carefull because I didn't want to have Qi deviation, which was a problem every cultivator risked. It wad when the Qi inside yourselves turned chaotic and wasn't in your control anymore. It could end with your body and soul exploding or your cultivation being crippled.

I practiced a set of spear technique I created. I called it the Piercing Clouds Art. It focalised on piercing attack and could create little gust of wind at the end of each attack. The problem was that It wasn't really comfortable and I sensed that I forgot something.

That's when I remembered that a spear could slash too. I just used to poke and run back every time. The only time I slashed at an ennemy was when I was fighting the bear.

After finding where I could improve myself, I spend 2 month practicing my Piercing Clouds Art but soon found a new bottleneck. I wasn't just practicing the morning but also tried to sense the differents Qis and how to manipulate it. I learned quite happily that Osis just needed to eat other Qi Beasts to little by little increase its strenght. So while I was practicing my Arts and sensing differents Qis, Osis was tasked with our basics needs.

To pass the bottleneck in my art, I found that I could mix my practice in manipulating and sensing Qi with improving my Art. I decided to try to merge some Wind Qi and Water Qi to improve the sharpness, fluidness and speed of my Art and was quite delighted to see big improvements.

3 other months passed and my Piercing Clouds Art needed to change name. After merging four differents Qis it was completely differents. It was fast as Wind, without any form as Water, as sturdy and tough as Earth and as explosive and aggressive as Fire. It was a great Art for defence and offence. I renamed it Four Elementals Spears Art.

By merging and creating this art my control over the four Elementals Qis were already outstanding but I wasn't happy with this. I knew that a lot of my progress came from the blessing of adaptablity and comprehension. Also, since I decided to sense a lot of differents Qis, my attention and talent was divided between them all. I had to work harder.

During the 5 months I spend practicing my new art, I just managed to sense Metal Qi through my constant uses and experiences of Earth Qi. I still had Space, Lightning and Spear Qis.

I sensed that I wasn't nearly ready enough to sense Spear Qi and wasn't too worried about it. It was known by all reader of easterns novels that Weapons Qi were the most time consumming of all Qis. But I was worried about the Lightning and Space Qis. It was through a lot of coincidences and opportinities that I was able to touch upon all my differents Qis but now that I was unable to advance in the sensing part, I didn't know what I could do.

I needed to change that and fast because nearly 6 months had passed since I had come in this world and I wasn't even able to finish the first level of the first stage. Knowing that sensing just two to three differents Qis were more than enough to pass the first level of Qi Sensing, I knew that some others were already ahead of me. I couldn't let them take the lead too much or I would be left in the dust.