Assessing

One breath at a time, Ryu slowly recovered from the crushing pain spreading through his entire body. However, physical suffering was not his biggest problem, but the possibility of losing his cultivation when his dantian broke down.

As he writhed on the hot rocky ground, Ryu tried to regain his mind to enter a meditative state capable of examining his body from the inside. But filled with anxiety and fighting pain throughout his body, Ryu couldn't concentrate for more than a second, leaving him frustrated, which contributed to his chaotic mood.

Still on the desolate rocks, Ryu realized his situation was even worse than he'd initially thought. If his cultivation had really gone, he would be stuck on top of a rock, far from the city, and without food, as without qi, there was no way to extract anything from a ring of space.

'Maybe it's better this way. I don't want to live if I can't cultivate.' inside Ryu's mind, the worst had become real, and his pessimism overwhelmed him.

As those thoughts surged in his mind, Ryu lost the fight against pain and fainted at the ground, facing a puddle of his own vomit, in the middle of nowhere, where nobody could appear to save him, aside from Bucky. But what can a ferret do?

...

Ryu opened his eyes when he felt something sharp pressing against his cheek. The first thing he saw was a ferret standing on its two back legs starring at him.

"Hummmmpt." moaned Ryu, as he tried to move his body to stand up.

Confused, Ryu assessed his health status; there were pains in his body, especially in his joints, his mouth was dry, and his head ached like a morning with a hangover. After this quick assessment, Ryu fought the pain and pressed his arms against the floor to sit up.

After a sigh, Ryu looked around to see where he was, and it took him a few moments to realize he wasn't anywhere he knew. Still struggling to remember what happened, he made a gentle gesture with his hand and took a bottle of water from the ring, which he drank in one gulp.

"Why am I in this place?" said Ryu, placing the empty bottle on the ground.

As dehydration diminished, Ryu's memory began to return, so he looked at the ferret staring at him and remembered its name. "Bucky! " Ryu said for no particular reason.

As his mind calmed, a pungent odor invaded his nose, churning his empty stomach. *Guach*. If not for his stomach being empty, Ryu would have vomited again, but as he was, there was only the reflex reaction.

Struggling against nausea, Ryu noticed the puddle of dry vomit close to him and crawled away in disgust. Only then did he realize that he was on the top of a rock a few meters above the ground.

Still crawling, Ryu got up to look around, hoping that this would help him remember something; from there, he saw the roofs of a distant city, the forest covering a large part of the view, but nothing remarkable. The sun was close to the horizon, indicating the beginning of a new day, or the end of one, which Ryu couldn't tell just by looking at it.

"That city!" Ryu exclaimed when a memory surged on his mind like thunder falling on a tree. "I remember, now. Nura is trapped in that city, and I have to rescue him." Ryu said, trying to force his memory to return fully.

"But how did I end up here?" Ryu said, sitting back down again and forcing his head to think, "Right, I ran away from those highvale guys.".

"Fuck! My cultivation. My dantian." Ryu panicked when he regained his memory.

As soon as Ryu recovered from his temporary memory loss, he immediately moved to the lotus position to assess his dantian condition. But, just like his master, Feng Po, taught him: to enter a meditative state is easy when you are comfortable and calm in a safe spot, but the real world would require you to do this in a rash environment.

Since his mind was in turmoil, achieving the necessary calmness took a long time, and even that was only possible when Ryu used all the guide Feng Po gave. First, Ryu imagined himself in the safety of his own house, then the furniture was all gone, followed by the room turning black in color, and finally, it was everything dark, with no other thought to disturb his mind.

The moment he reached the cultivation state, Ryu's consciousness went straight into his body, specifically to the place where his dantian should be.

A stream of qi flowing inside his body made Ryu feel thoroughly overjoyed, to the point that he lost concentration, returning his consciousness to the physical world. The second attempt to achieve a good state of mind came many times easier than before, so in no time, he returned back to his dantian.

"What the heck!" Ryu said, drawing Bucky's attention to his sudden exclamation. This second attempt, equally to the first one, only lasted for a single moment before Ryu, again, lost concentration.

This time what he saw wasn't good news, but since he only managed to get a glimpse before panicking, thus losing concentration, he wasn't entirely sure if what he saw was true.

Because if it was, he was ruined for life.

As the saying goes, the third time is a charm, so Ryu sent his consciousness into his body, determined to find answers. There he saw, or more accurately, he did not see his dantian, the round sphere from which all cultivators count to store qi had disappeared, or rather broken.

Although there was qi flowing inside his body, it was just a natural passage of qi traveling through his body, as with all living things, for qi is not retained by physical matter.

For half an hour, Ryu remained blankly staring at where his dantian should be. No matter how hard he looked, he refused to believe that it was gone, worse still, it was because of something stupid he did himself, and now his life as a cultivator is over, by a single bad decision.

It was by a 'tip' from the system that he committed that error, but there was no one to complain since the system had no one administrating it. Even Enlil is just a mere giver of the system but not the one who developed the system cultivation technique.

In fact, it was Leon Umuk who created the technique, but he is gone now, ascended to the immortal realm. And such a person would not care for a brat who has done something wrong with his system.

The moment Ryu gave up fixing his dantian just looking at it, the moon shone in the sky with a single curved line, resembling a smile.

"Even the moon is laughing at how stupid I am. I disgraced myself." complained Ryu, again falling into a vibe of pessimism.

When Ryu began to get depressed, Bucky arrived at his side, dropped the bottle of water at his side, and looked at him.

"Do you want water, Bucky?" Ryu asked, happy to have at least someone to comfort him, even if he was a cute animal.

"Wait!" Ryu grabbed the empty bottle in his hand and said.