Chapter 22: Determination

The group continued with their training, the soon discovered that with the passage of time the bouoders got easier to move, and they could move the boulders up and down the hill three times in less than three hours, but Feng didn't still seem impressed, he instructed them to increase the amount of times they moved the boulder to four.

This practice continued for a few days and after the fifth day, Chen could be seen sweating profusely and breathing heavily, as with the other members of the group.

"How long would we be doing this for" Chen couldn't help but ask

"As long as I want you guys to, I still believe you haven't built up enough strength and stamina for us to proceed to the next phase of training, since that is a very critical phase and the slightest of mistakes in your training might live you with a permanent damage to you spirit body, so I suggest you keep doing as I instruct" Feng said

The group left the hills and went towards the pond to have a bath and cool off, their arms and legs felt very sorry but they forcefully ignored it and dragged themselves towards the pool, they had their baths, and when they are done they all walked back to the tents in their briefs, after spending a few days in the jungle they all seemed to have gotten used to the nasty environment and biting cold, they got into the tent and waited for their bodies to get dry, before proceeding to sleep off, no one seemed to bother about taking watch again, for the few days they have stayed in this area of the jungle they have had a considerable number of encounters with different animals, a lot of they were very strange but they ended up dealing with them effortlessly, the most difficult animal they encountered was a reptile that seemed to secrete sticky fluids from virtually every part of it's body, and had a very tough hide, so they couldn't touch it, cut it, step on places where it had been, this proved to be difficult but Klaus managed to kill it but throwing a knife so hard at the eyes of the reptile, this fact made them less concerned about taking watch at night, since they felt the creatures in the jungle were of mo threat to them

Morning seemed to come quickly and everyone rose again and began the morning by meditating and practicing the breathing techniques which Feng had thought them, Feng didn't seem to be around most of the time, he only appeared during training session or when he had instructions to give out, no one bothered to ask him about his whereabouts , since they felt it was none of their business.

When they were Done with their meditation they set out to search for fruits to eat, compared to their second day things like this seemed to be very much easier, since they didn't need to go deeper into the jungle anymore and could differentiate between foods harmful to them and the ones not harmful, when they were done with eating, they didn't bother to rest and once again set our towards the hills again, in a few hours they had completed the task that was given to them, this continued for a few more days and klays was getting irritated at the fact that they were doing the same thing countless times and the only result they seemed to be getting was sore muscles, he decided to confront Feng on the issue, he found Feng at the top of a tree and signalled for him to get down so they could have a discussion, Feng leapt down from the branch he was on, which was about twenty meters high like it was nothing and stood in front of Klaus.

"What can I help you with" Feng asked

"I would like to know why we still have to keep up with this task after two weeks, you don't even seem to be paying attention to it anymore, i think we should move on to the next phase of the training" Klaus said with irritation in his voice

"Firstly I want yo to mind your tone, whenever you speak to me, I am not a subordinate to you neither am I your lackey, moreover if you want to move on to the next phase of training I would like you to prove your worthiness to me, you performance is tantamount to progression of you and your group to the next training session" Feng said

"How do you want me to prove my worth and that of my friends to you" Klaus asked

"Look at that tree over there, it has been standing for over eight hundred years and has survived a lot of storms, if you can punch a hole through it, then by tommorow we would be commencing with the next stage of training" Feng said while pointing to tree behind him.

Klaus took a look at the tree and was shocked he looked into the skies and couldn't see the top of the tree sincthe branches of other trees were blocking his sight, he didn't quaver since this was what he signed for, he walked around the tree to check out it's trunk he couldn't say he was surprised by the width, it was over ten meters in diameter.

Feng walked away with a smirk on his face, he knew that this would proved very difficult and mostly impossible for Klaus to execute but he didn't care, the truth was that they are done with the first stage of training and he could have started teachingbthem the second stage a week ago but since he disliked them and didn't trust them he decided to let them carry on with the training for another week and might even have let them go into a third week, if Klaus had not come over to complain about it, but now Klaus had simply given him an excuse as to why they wouldn't progress with the training.

Klaus decided to take a rest before commencing to punch a hole through the tree, he knew he had a long night ahead of him and would need all his strength.