Chapter 7:Disciple and Teacher by force...
Feng paced meditatively along the sides of the pavilion that had been given to Tian Shuangmen....
The old man usually had a fiercely serious look on his face, but this time he looked like a man jaded by life. ....
The previous day's spectacle had been pitiful, not that Xiaoqi could tell him what had happened.... the only thing the little woman had managed to convey to him was that the eccentric cultivator on whom Feng himself did not bet two cents had managed to overcome Mu Xilei in combat in an incredible way, overcoming her in a few minutes of fighting...and that....
And that the match ended with both of them emerging from a huge cloud of dust, Mu Xilei blushing mortally and Tian Shuangmen with no clothes on his torso....
Feng sighed.... didn't understand where that boy got the guts to do everything he had done since his arrival at the Mu Residence....
Mu Xiaoqi received no more answers as to what had happened in this strange outcome, neither from her cousin nor from Sebastian.... the only thing that everyone could see and observe was the girl of great pride, leaving the compound as quickly as she could, while Tian Shuangmen simply left to make medicine....
Needless to say, Mu Huanzhi found out about the whole thing....
That was the reason why Feng was there at that moment. .... It seemed that the clan chief intended to take full advantage of it. ....
Approaching the door, the butler simply walked in, receiving a strong wave of medicinal scent from immediately.....
His aged eyes were immediately drawn to the flower beds and shelves surrounding the walls, all filled with beautiful flora vibrant with life, which was partly responsible for the pleasant scent there....
It only took him a few seconds more to focus on Tian Shuangmen, who stood with his back to the entrance concentrating on a mortar, while his hands concentrated on resolutely grinding seeds to powder....
His body was dressed in the typical clothes of the Mu clan.... another one had not been left, he only had two changes of white clothes.... the first one was taken by the servants and the second one Mu Xilei had taken with his little accident....
Sebastian was only thinking about the medicines in front of him, concentrating on repeating to perfection the steps he had seen so many times, adding to that what he had learned from the books, perhaps only a part of his conscience was still thinking about the previous day, but the truth was that he only regretted the loss of the old man Zhou's clothes....
Tian Shuangmen had not bitten off more than he could chew and had limited himself to making some simple prescriptions....esto because even if he was under the protection of Mu Huanzhi he still did not pull the string much.... if the things he did failed he had no way of knowing how the clan chief would react and how that would affect the interest he showed in him...
The medicines in the world in which he found himself, according to the brief introduction of Elder Zhou, could be divided into three categories of 5 levels each... .... Lower Quality, Medium Quality and Higher Quality...
Zhou Xuzi, despite possessing the knowledge to make medicine of superior quality, for some reason avoided making medicine of even medium quality, the only thing he did was medicine, pills and elixirs that never exceeded the lower quality rank 3....
This was another addition to the list of enigmatic mysteries that the old man had....
Anyway, it was not until he turned to read one of the three tomes he had taken from the house before he set fire to it, which was open on the counter, that Tian Shuangmen caught sight of Feng.
-Oh...old man how are you?...I wasn't planning to see you today...are you curious to see me work?...you wonder why I haven't run off with the clan's resources?...he asked with derision....
Feng narrowed his eyes.... Apparently this kind of interaction between them had become normal....
-Something like that...you look good in the Mu clan colors...savage...at last you look like a respectable cultivator...-the butler mocked-...the clan leader sent me with a specific task...
Sebastian took a deep breath, giving him a sidelong glance before looking at the book again....
-I thought I would see him .... I have three portions of medicine ready and I wanted to see what would happen if someone ingested them..." he answered as if it was nothing, pointing to three rectangular boxes behind his back with his thumb...
Feng was surprised...first because he had concocted medicine so surprisingly quickly...and second because....
-You plan to use the clan chief as a guinea pig? .... Are you an idiot or did a horse kick you in the head?...- he cried in disbelief-.... what if your junk medicine harms the clan chief?....
Tian Shuangmen sighed and looked up from his book, focusing on the gray-haired old man, who was looking at him as if he wanted to swallow and digest it right there....
-You have your reasons to be suspicious which is completely normal since theoretically I am a complete novice in this...-he answered with a sniffle-...but the truth is that I have followed all the steps my master took and I have used his knowledge...-he commented pointing to his finger-...I have cut, I have ground and I have crushed, besides cooking all the times indicated and all the time required. ...if I had to put into words what I have done .... it would be that I have copied the procedure...- the memories that they had of the old man Zhou making pills were still fresh in his mind, printed in such a way that they were interwoven in a perfect mural of multiple images-...this does not have to go wrong...
-According to you it doesn't have to go wrong but ....-Feng sighed-...you realize that you are not at all like a cultivator is supposed to be?.... even an eccentric cultivator would not be so confident!...how did you get to your level of power without being purged of such childish behaviors?....
Tian Shuangmen closed his eyes and sighed before looking the old man in the eye....
-I understand..... the world is dominated by the strong.... the weak have no right to reply...is that so?...-he laughed softly-...Feng...when I first arrived....here...I was mistreated, beaten and almost killed...after being taken in by Mr. Zhou...they also tried to kill me....mori once and tried to kill me twice....I know I am far from what a cultivator should be....but....
His superficial aura, the image he gave of himself as a carefree boy, vanished immediately...
-You can be sure that even if they try to kill me a million times more...I will remain as I am, without changing a single strand of my being!...-he answers looking at him in the eyes in a serious way-...I am a simple person...I pretend few things in life. ...my objective at the moment is to find the murderer of old man Zhou...and I will not hesitate to use everything I have to achieve it.... I don't have to change anything about me...if necessary I will change the world...but never me.... is it clear?....
Feng blinked a little in disbelief....Tian Shuangmen for him was the equivalent of a clumsy and vandalistic boy....pero....now...speaking in that way...his impression of him went up a few points...
The butler narrowed his eyes and for the first time in all he knew Sebastian, gave him a soft smile....
-All right...I'll take you at your word...never change Tian Shuangmen....... since you promised you have no right to take it back!...- he exclaims with a kind of latent emotion...
Sebastian smiled...
-I like that smile, old man....although you look like you're demanding too much from the muscle in your wrinkled face...-he jokes, returning to the book...
Feng snorted and shook his head....
Ya...you shouldn't be bothering your instructor so much...-....-comento...
-Sebastian looked at him again dumbfounded-...as my instructor?.....
The old man smiled this time with mockery....
-The head of the clan found out about your little number with Miss Xilei....
-Ah....-Sebastian began to worry.... he wasn't an idiot, he was aware that the society he now lived in had other codes of behavior...he wasn't sure that even in his first world it was.... well seen, to tear the clothes off a woman's bust in a fight-...emm....is he angry?....
The butler blinked...
-Not at all... in fact he is satisfied...
Sebastian's head stopped for a few moments...
-Is he satisfied .... with what I did?....
-A lot...in fact he hopes that you can do even more.... he hopes that this kind of success will be repeated several times in the tournament...
Tian Shuangmen was stunned for a few seconds....until he simply decided to ignore the topic...he had no way of knowing the customs that this world possessed....he ended up settling himself alone, going with the flow...
-And he sent you to...?
-To be your combat instructor...although your speed of growth is astonishing and power of comprehension enviable...you need to affirm the things you have learned...the clan leader thinks you are taking too many responsibilities at once, of course I don't share his opinion, but he also told me to remind you that you still have time...not to rush....
Mu Huanzhi was really satisfied with what Tian Shuangmen had accomplished in such a short time...so he didn't feel it was necessary to push him....
In his eyes, the boy's level of cultivation, comprehension and combat skills were enviable in his generation, and if he could do medicine like his master...in short, he was a plant worthy of care....
-I guess I can't say no, can I?
-You shouldn't have to say no..." Feng completed as he brought his hands behind his back... ....
Tian Shuangmen sighed and then ended up nodding....
-Well...let's get this over with..." he mused walking towards the exit....
-Will you give up the production of medicine? ....-questioned the old man with a hint of surprise....
-Seh...I already made three portions of deep energy replenishment pills...about 30 pills...they need to be tested of course...but I guess that's enough for today...-he mentions walking out of the compound...
The butler blinked in disbelief...before sending his profound strength towards the boxes....
Those containers, first and foremost, were used to deposit pills if.... but one at a time!....
When his probe hit the containers....incredibly he found 30 pills, perfectly circular and the size of a pea...they didn't look at all like ordinary deep strength pills....
-What kind of book have you read to make these pills?" exclaimed the man in a daze, more to himself than to the young man, who had already left the room....
As soon as the butler took the tomo....his look turned into one of genuine confusion...because the mystery that was Tian Shuangmen was even greater!....
How was it that the young man could make such pills with only memories of what Elder Zhou was doing and...a totally blank book?
After a few breaths.... the old man decided to leave the book on the table.... the young man was a walking mystery, but he didn't have to go around asking himself extra questions about what was going on, as long as Sebastian fulfilled his established duties.... Feng was not interested in anything else...
Remembering that, he went to meet the young man, leaving the premises ...
Minutes later...
Tian Shuangmen found himself standing in a stone courtyard, surrounded on its walls by wooden practice dummies with a powerful deep fluctuation, while in front of him stood Feng, looking at him seriously....
-Okay...as my instructor...amm...what shall we see first...?
-Start circulating your deep strength and let me glimpse your base... Let's see how well you master it...-he mumbles while sitting on a bench in a straight way...
Tian Shuangmen blinks and nods, while closing his eyes....
That week he spent isolated in his room...he had effectively learned to radiate his aura outward....
Doing this took him back a few months into the past, to one of the first nights when Elder Zhou took him in...to the moment when Sebastian smiled at how incredible the situation he fell into was...to be somehow reincarnated in that world...
-Little friend .... -I remember that the old man began -...deep strength, no matter how big it is, how small, whether you have it or not...does not make you different or strange, much less superior... ..... Power by itself never makes a difference...
-So what makes us different, elder? .... why can you walk from here to there without fear and I must depend on the kindness of others?....
The old man took two moments, and then held up two fingers....
-By will and by breath....
-Ah?
-You lament about your situation, you don't like being a useless person who depends on others, but there you are, not contemplating the idea of cultivating yourself at all... ....
-I just... I wouldn't know how to...
And there's the lack of breathing....-musita closing his eyes and exhaling through his nose, giving off two streams of thick air, which snaked from his nostrils as if he was exhaling two dragons-....-breathing, is the motive of life...maybe you think you have nothing to do in this place...that you have no purpose, so you do not think you should cultivate...you have lost your will to live...
A subtle pressure began to descend in the cabin that night, as the old man continued to speak and began to radiate his golden aura....
-If you don't breathe and have the will to keep breathing...everything falls away...whatever the environment, Sebastian...never forget to breathe and keep breathing.......
Back in the present, Tian Shuangmen smiled to himself....
-(Who would imagine that I would understand him after his death and that I would get my will to live once he lost his life...)," he sighed internally....
His eyes remained closed while his concentration increased and he ended up dedicating himself to the exercise....en filling his lungs with air and feeling it accumulate and bubble up in them, retaining the oxygen and taking it to his muscles, stimulating his deep veins...
In Feng's eyes, only a few short breaths of time passed when a more or less powerful gust of wind rushed from the young man, before he was enveloped in a misty gray aura... ....
-Wow, this is amazing..." the old man mumbled with genuine surprise...
Tian Shuangmen opened his eyes and dissipated his aura, standing up straight before questioning him....
-What's surprising? .... didn't I do it right....
-Nothing like that...I'm just surprised that for such a large cultivation base, your spiritual root is so common.......," Feng mused as he looked him up and down....
The spiritual root, just as the dantian was the center of the deep veins and the heart its engine, the spiritual root was the origin of these veins, the base of the deep body, which resonated with one or more elements and depending on its color represented affinity with this or that element or aspect....
A spiritual root of water made its owner beautiful and transparent, one of fire endowed him with an explosive energy...and so on... ....
The aura that Feng saw in Tian Shuangmen, a gray .... showed him that the spiritual root of the young man, was not truly compatible with any element...therefore none of the deep techniques of the clan would serve him .... but...there was a little problem with it if it was so...
Tian Shuangmen...how did you manage to understand the profound displacement technique of Miss Xilei? .... -I asked curiously-...you should not be able to use it if your spiritual root is of a gray color.... -all the profound arts of the clan are made for users of the ice and water attribute.... -let alone use it at the level at which you used it in such a short time...
Truth be told, just as Elder Chen reported to the patriarch, Mu Xiaoqi told everything to Feng....
Sebastian blinked and put his fingers to his chin...
-Well...in the beginning it was difficult...-I muttered remembering the encounter-...his punches and kicks as well as general attacks were too fast and heavy for me...however...as time went by...and he gave me more punches, things gradually became easier to tolerate...
I look at Feng with a grimace of genuine bewilderment...
-When I felt her blow connect and her strength pass through me.... I could perceive Mu Xilei's whole body and her position and posture with respect to space...it was like seeing it in third person....from above or from any angle I wanted...- she said trying to put into words her sensation-...as she was so fast, I was soon able to get an idea of how she moved on the spot....as for the technique... every time she threw a blow, I could see her taking a short breath, I realized that it was a reflex action caused by a lot of practice, that is, that it could not be her normal breathing.... with this in mind I imitated her way of breathing and moving, combining that with my own way of absorbing oxygen, because it did not take me long to realize that I needed to divert my own deep strength to achieve the results she had...but....
-But..." commented Feng as he looked at him with a frown....
-What I copied was not even close to being like Mu Xilei's technique...it was very difficult to keep myself breathing the way she did and even more difficult to divide my attention between keeping myself moving around the courtyard at the same speed, dodging her attacks because by that time she wanted to kill me and trying to keep myself that way...luckily I only managed to do it for a few moments... enough to finish the encounter....-sigh-...after that I felt my lungs burning as if they wanted to come out of my chest....very painful, very painful...besides even I realized that what I did was full of flaws....I didn't move or hit and every time I did my blows were only a third weaker than what I could hit...as you can't call it a copy of that...
The butler looked at him with a blackened face....
-You do realize that you are the only person...the only cultivator that can say something like copying techniques with just a few hits right...?...even if it's just a superficial aspect more than nothing...-I muttered indignantly-.... are you an idiot or some kind of genius?....
-Huh?...isn't that good?....
-It is tremendously unfair!...Miss Xilei had to train for many years to reach the level she possesses in her profound displacement technique...!
-And what's my fault? .... I'm grateful, thanks to her I learned how to infuse my body with deep strength, but I really shouldn't have to apologize if I only learned her technique superficially and so quickly, should I? .... please, it sounds ridiculous...
The old man sighed...why did this airhead come to touch such a good physicist for cultivation?....
-Ya...I guess it will be more convenient for the family branch in the inter sect tournament....-he looked at Tian Shuangmen and questioned-.... how much you can do that copying techniques...to what extent?....
Sebastian stumbled...
-I don't know how to explain it...it's the first time that I can read my opponent's movements and copy asymmetrically what he does...- he mumbles sincerely...
-You see....then we have nothing left to do but to explore this ability of yours...-sighs the old man-...from now on I will be your teacher...
-Didn't you say instructor?
-If you were someone ordinary, some spoiled rich kid, yes...but you are someone who needs to know the limits of his strength, what he can and cannot do, so I will have to be with you in a forced way if we want you to learn this in a little less than a year and the few days we have left...you understand?
Tian Shuangmen squints his eyes....
-And if I refuse?....
-Why would you refuse?....
Sebastian looked at him seriously...
-Why should I recognize you as my master?...you don't bring anything else to my person but comments and threats always... .... Of all those who are qualified to be my master you are not even last on the list...
-You had a list?...then forget it....-he sternly whispers-...this is certainly not my wish, but Mu Huanzhi has ordered me to comply with this...since he did so both you and I are disciple and master by force.... if you still do not understand why let me give you a taste of the reason why even I submit...
Seeing the way things were going...
-Feng... you're not saying that ....?...
-I have not been clear enough?...-a subtle red aura burst from the body of the old man, who looked at him sternly-...what will you do? .... submit or force you to surrender?...
Sebastian looked at him, from head to toe....surprised that the old man possessed such great strength....at least...he knew that Feng was stronger than himself....
A fight with the old man was not appropriate from a moral point of view...but...morals had long since ceased to apply to Sebastian..... as he saw it, the old man was finally proposing a proper catharsis.... he could continue to experience first hand what combat was like and settle the matter of his bad disposition...
Now, Tian Shuangmen was no fool, he could get the idea that Feng was, for the moment, impossible to beat at his level...the only thing he intended to do at this moment, by stretching out his legs and seeking grounding, was to make his displeasure clear!...
Tian Shuangmen's gray aura appeared again, radiating from his body with a soft burst....
-It seems that at least you have a spine," Feng growled, "Come!
Sebastian roared as his body elongated like an arrow, shooting towards the butler at full speed and even faster, using the technique he had copied from Mu Xilei, bursting the rock floor beneath his step...
Eyes furtively watching the encounter were surprised....compared to the first fight he had with Mu Xilei...Tian Shuangmen had changed radically....his movements were precise and accurate as well as confident while closing the distance with Feng...
Sebastian himself smiled before he suddenly dug his left foot in and abruptly changed direction, starting to bounce all over the place around the butler, looking like an intertwining of blue lines at full speed...looking to dizzy him and attack from a blind spot....
He smiled confidently...for he believed that Feng, being old, even if he had more power than he did, must be somehow limited by age....
Feng is a military veteran of the last skirmishes in the territory of the empire, who retired as a butler, master and escort of the Mu clan, he would never be limited even superficially wounded...and secondly...the number of times he had seen that technique used by Tian Shuagmen so confidently, was pure garbage in his eyes! ....!...
To the old man, who hadn't moved from his firmly standing place, Sebastian not only moved really slow, but he also looked like a fool to look so confident and do it so badly...!.....
-Do you really think that because you beat Mu Xilei..." muttered Feng, as he looked ahead and Tian Shuangmen was moving at full speed around him, "you can even surprise me?
By the time the old man's words fell, Sebastian had made the final leap, shooting at Feng from the blind spot behind his left shoulder, throwing his fist forward, ready to deliver his blow full in the man's face, while ignoring his opponent's scornful comment....
However, just when he thought the blow would connect, Feng turned at an outrageous speed and dodged the blow by ducking, letting it pass as if in slow motion. ....!
-You lack a myriad of things, among them, humility and respect for your elders, disciple Tian!...- he exclaimed, before opening his palm wide and rising to full power as he sent his open palm flying into the boy's plexus...!
A single blow...at close range, but for Sebastian...it felt like a hammer brutally slamming into his chest!....
Tian Shuangmen flew away like a broken kite in the air, spitting out a mouthful of blood on the way and landing heavily on the ground...!
I had never imagined that the old man could hit so heavily!...no blow like the one he had received could compare to what he had felt before!....
Once on the ground, breathing heavily while his sight darkened...Feng approached him .... looking at him from above at the same time he began to lose consciousness...
-But ...., you try as a punching bag...Disciple Tian ....- mocked the butler, while he gave him a last smile, before the boy fainted for good...