"How is a drawing supposed to help you achieve Harmonization? Plus, what the heck is yin and yang?"
Although the drawing had a certain charm emitting from it, at the end of the day, it was merely a drawing. This whole darkness and light thing did not really change anything either. V needed answers.
"It's not necessarily the drawing itself but what it represents. Listen carefully.
Yin and Yang: Two halves that together complete wholeness. Yin and yang are also the starting point for change. When something is whole, by definition it is unchanging and complete. So when you split something into two halves it becomes yin and yang, it upsets the equilibrium of wholeness. This forces both halves to chase after each other as they seek a new balance with each other.
The word Yin basically means 'shady side' and Yang 'sunny side'.
Yin Yang is the concept of duality forming a whole. We encounter examples of Yin and Yang every day. Here are some more examples: night (Yin) and day (Yang), female (Yin) and male (Yang). Over thousands of years, quite a bit has been sorted and grouped under various Yin Yang classification systems.
The symbol for Yin Yang is called the taijitu. Some people just call it the yin yang symbol. The taijitu symbol has been found in more than one culture and over the years has come to represent a religion called Taoism."
V was quiet. This was too profound for her to understand. She was very intelligent, but she was still young. She understood most of what Bastian said but still didn't get how it was relevant here. Bastian realized this and sighed.
"Look, I'll make this simple for you. Imagine water as yin and fire as yang. According to the taijitu opposites always contain a bit of the other force. Yang has a bit of yin and yin has a bit of yang.
An example is day and night, night goes on and flows into becoming day and day goes into becoming night right? Neither can stand by itself. One needs the other to come into existence. Only then can order come true.
Fire and water are opposing forces. But that is only because we see them as singular! What if we think of them as two halves of a whole with each half containing a bit of the other?"
V heard Bastian's monologue, and frankly, she thought it was nonsense, it sounded pretty and all but it didn't sound logical.
"OK mister genius. Why don't you tell me, what happens when you mix fire and water? There is no such thing!" said V with confidence.
"Why don't you wait and find out?" said Bastian, with grin on his face.
He sat down cross legged and started pulling in world energy. V stood on and watched, ready to mock his futile attempts.
As soon as Bastian took in two flakes of fire and water World Energy, he took some of his Soul Force and split it into four parts. Then he used two of those parts to isolate a small part of both the fire and water flakes. These little isolated bits were perfectly circular, and then he forcefully transplanted them into their counterparts.
This won't hold for long, I have to hurry.
He took the third part of his soul force and created fence around both flakes. At the same time he, used the fourth part of his soul force to create an inverted 'S' like boundary between both flakes. The fence sealed the two flakes together. Creating a three dimensional cylinder-like taijitu!
Bastian then spent the next few hours trying to get the shape as perfect as possible. At the beginning nothing happened, leading to Bastian feeling discontent.
This has to work. It has to!
Gradually, a feeling within him started resonating in his body; it was almost as if his own blood wanted him to do this. Bastian allowed himself to be swayed by this instinct. He was curious to see what exactly would happen if this continued.
Something amazing occurred. The taijitu started vibrating; it wasn't an intense kind of vibrating. This was a rhythmic vibration. At some point, it created a perfect balance within itself. Bastian saw that the fire and water world energy were no longer resisting, so he removed his soul force.
The world energy stopped vibrating and stood still. The two opposing elements stopped fighting. They achieved a perfect equilibrium! This was Harmonization between two elements!
Bastian was overjoyed. This meant he could finally then cultivate. He was no longer trash, nor was he a cripple, he was now officially a cultivator.
.
The only issue at that moment was that Bastian did not have a cultivation method.
The first time one takes in World Energy, would be crucial to one's cultivation. It would essentially determine one's path and possibly and one's talent in the future. Even if in the future one learnt a new method, one's original path would already be one's body's foundation!
Bastian could not stop what he was doing to look for a decent cultivation method. For all he knew, the Harmonization he had just achieved was an accident.
What if I cannot do it again in the future?
The World Energy could not sit still forever. If he took too long to guide it, it would destabilize and leave his body. Bastian eyed the energy carefully; he decided to move it the moment it showed signs of destabilizing. He waited for a few seconds, then a few seconds became a few minutes. Then after ten minutes there was still no change.
Could it be that it was so perfectly stable that it would not fall apart?
Bastian decided to test his theory. After about half an hour there was still no change. That is when Bastian concluded that the World Energy was perfectly stable!
Normally, destabilization occurs after at most 30 seconds, yet as time went on, there were no signs of it destabilizing. In fact, after sweeping it with his Soul Force, Bastian saw that the energy was actually moving bit by bit by itself!
"This! This is incredible!"
World Energy moving by itself, this phenomenon only started occurring in the later stages of cultivation, once one's body had adjusted to the path. Yet here, the energy was taking a path itself.
"Should I stop it? Or should I give it a little push?"
All Bastian had to do to make it go faster, was to increase his intake of World Energy. Since the two elements had Harmonized, all of the World Energy he took in would assume the shape of its predecessors.
Let me take the chance.
Bastian wanted to be a mage. The reason was simple; he was a scientist, so the mage profession suited him more. Not to mention that he did not like the idea of hand to hand combat. Bastian decided to push the energy and see where it would go. If it wanted to stop below the neckline, then he would forcefully make it go above, so he could be a mage.
To Bastian's delight, the energy did go above the neckline of its own accord.
Yes! I'm going to be a mage!
After getting his desired results, Bastian started absorbing even more world energy to quicken the movement, the energy kept going higher and higher in his body, to the point where it was about to enter his brain. Bastian realized this and tried to divert it back downwards but he lost control. It was as if the world energy itself was sentient and had broken out of his control.
No I don't want to die!
Bastian tried to stop but to no avail.
*Bang!*
The World Energy charged into his brain like a speeding train. Bastian immediately lost consciousness.
...
When Bastian opened his eyes, he couldn't believe his sight.
He looked around himself but he had no body, it was if he was only a consciousness floating in the sky. It was like he was in a dream. The rain falling all around him was passing through him as if he didn't exist. It felt so surreal.
Bastian looked up and saw a large majestic two headed dragon.
This dragon was unlike the large golden oriental one that was long and thin. No, this dragon was huge and very muscular. Its body looked like it was the size of an entire continent; its eyes were as big as the moon in the night sky.
Incredible!
One head was azure and the other was vermilion. Its thick muscular body was purple, but this was not a normal purple, it was a dark shade of purple with a reddish hue.
I know that shade of purple, it's called tyrian!
Both heads had long sharp horns. The beast stood upright like a person in midair, flapping its large purple, or rather tyrian wings. Purple lightning was visible all around the dragon, and clouds covered most of the sky around it. Incredible winds, in the form of very large tornadoes were rapidly moving around the dragon.
There was only water below Bastian and the dragon. The water was incredibly turbulent. Large waves that were kilometers high and wide smashed into each other at high speed. Bastian's body was not really there but he could feel the power, the aura and the radiance of the dragon bearing down on him. He had the urge to prostrate himself in front of the beast and pledge his allegiance, and he would have, if he had a body to prostrate with.
With one mighty earth shaking roar, all the chaos stopped, the rain stopped falling, the waters calmed. The lightning stopped falling and the clouds cleared away.
Only the moon itself remained. That's when Bastian realized something.
"The moon, it looks like the taijitu!"
Indeed. The surface of the moon looked like the taijitu. Azure represented yin and vermilion represented yang.
Bastian marveled at the sight. This moon and the dragon were the most incredible sights he had ever seen.
Then Bastian saw something strange. He could have sworn that he saw the two heads of the dragon smile. This expression however was brief.
Suddenly the dragon started flying toward Bastian. Bastian thought he did not exist. He thought he wasn't real, but the piercing gaze from the two sets of eyes belonging to the dragon told him otherwise. It was almost as if it was saying 'I see you, boy.'
Bastian was scared out of his wits. He wanted to runaway but he did not have a body to move with. He wanted to scream but he did not have a mouth to do so. All he could do was stare at the near infinite gaze of the dragon heads as it flew toward him. Both heads opened their stupendously large mouths and bit towards Bastian. Something so large should be slow, yet this happened faster than a human could blink.
...
Bastian snapped out of his dream, he jumped up in fright and looked around him. When he saw that he was back in the desert safe and sound, he breathed a sigh of relief. He plopped his powerless body onto the ground and sighed with all his strength.
That is when Bastian felt it. His body was different. It was stronger than before, its senses were heightened, wspecially his sense of smell.
Bastian sniffed the air. Suddenly a smell he was all too familiar with attacked his nose. Bastian quickly pinched his nose, in an attempt to stop this smell, but his actions were futile.
"This is urine!"
Indeed. The smell of urine assaulted Bastian like a tidal wave. He looked around, only to see another ridiculous sight. V was scrunched up into ball with her hands covering her head. She was almost 30 meters away.
She was busy whispering "Please don't kill me." over and over again. She looked scared to death. Her skin was pale and her body covered in sandy patches. But that was not the most surprising thing.
Below V, was a tiny patch of wet sand, it only took one guess to know what it was.
Bastian ran over to the quivering V, she looked like she had just had her worst nightmare. This sight was one Bastian never expected to see in his lifetime. The Inkume were trained to fear nothing, even death. Yet here before Bastian, was one scared out of its wits.As soon as Bastian got closer, he crouched next to her and started soothing her, or rather he tried.I am not good at this sort of thing. Wait, is my voice slightly different?Bastian was not used to comforting others, so he was rather lost. He also detected that his voice sounded different. It sounded more... coarse. Due to the current circumstances, he had to put this thought at the back of his mind.After spending five very difficult minutes getting her to calm down, he asked her what had happened.V sighed in resignation. She did not want to recall what had happened but she knew that Bastian needed to know."I was standing over you whilst you were cultivating. I expected you
To be more precise, what Bastian could see was the heel of the footprint.Mother-F.....of my future children! What the heck is this?!Bastian had reached the maximum height he could, so he started to fall. As he fell, he felt very comfortable. He never did have a fear of heights, and in this situation, he knew V would catch him, or do something, so he was relaxed.The image of the giant footprint only lingered in his mind for a little bit, before it was replaced by a feeling of Deja vu. Bastian had never free fallen before in his previous life, nor had he done anything similar to this one.Yet, there was something about the wind brushing against his skin, the incredible force of air resistance, and the bird's eye view that felt so familiar to him. This sense of familiarity brought Bastian into a trance like state. He was semi-conscious of his actions, but he let the feeling take over him, because it felt good. Because it felt right!Time seemed to
Bloodline Awakening, one of the least understood phenomenon on the path to cultivation. There are many theories explaining what it is or how it came to be. Some theories suggest that humans are the descendants of gods or powerful beings, and that part of their divine power could be awakened, giving one, extraordinary strength. This was the most accepted theory. Others state that it was a random mutation that gave one a boost in strength.Despite the different theories, everyone still came to the same conclusion. If one had awakened a bloodline, then one's strength would increase by leaps and bounds! It also provided many benefits, depending on what bloodline one has aroused.One person has the potential to awaken lots of bloodlines, as procreation is the combination and fusion of multiple gene pools, but once you have awakened a bloodline, you can't awaken another. Most awaken relatively weak bloodlines, some awaken stronger ones. The strength of your bloodline is roug
Flip! Flip! Flip! Flip!Bastian was very a little distressed. This sort of situation was one he did not want to be in. Although Bastian did not fear death, he did fear pain...a lot. This was also one of the reasons why he wanted to be a mage. The training regimen for warriors was often very painful and excruciating. Not to mention that he had no weapon to fight with.The creature started moving toward Bastian, furiously intending to kill him. Bastian started back tracking, as fast as he could.In front of him, was a massive daemon, with a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton and he was supposed to defeat it with his bare hands, a few hours after he just started cultivating.Impossible! No way.The only weakness these things had was their eyes. Although their bodies were not fast, their stingers were very fast. It would sting him before he even got within a meter of its eyes...and those massive pincers were not slow either.Flip! I am going to kil
Bastian quickly turned to his left, and saw a group of Kalari Scorpions headed towards him. They were moving in what seemed to be a clumsy single file. They would move this way underground, then encircle their prey once they get close. They were about 200 meters away."It was a group of Kalari Scorpions and judging from the scent, there are six of them. Two of them have a slightly different scent from the rest, I think it's the parents," said Bastian with a grave expression.His sense of smell is so sensitive that it can even differentiate numbers! Incredible!V was impressed, but unfortunately, now was not the time to be impressed. Bastian saw that the situation was dire but his previous performance had uplifted his spirit. He did not want V to fight, even though she could easily finish the pack of scorpions in a flash.In an instant, he wanted to test the limits of his new body, much like her. Feeling confident, he searched through the information he ha
Martial techniques were also divided into different categories. These were defensive, offensive, support and movement. The most expensive were the defensive and movement skills, particularly because they directly increased one's chances of survival. Offensive skills were also quite expensive, these skills directly damaged one's opponent.Support martial techniques or skills were the cheapest or the most common. They were the kind that either fitted in none of the other three categories or were in more than one. In general, it was well known that the more uses a martial skill had, the less potent it was in one particular area.It was considered worthwhile for one to have at least three skills, which were specialized in one particular field, especially the one that had aspects from all the three. Of all the four types of skills, movement techniques were the rarest and the most difficult to comprehend. They required complex use of qi and a lot of technique to use.
Bastian regained his consciousness and opened his eyes, dumbfounded by what he saw before him. While still a little dazed, he propped himself up, Bastian absorbed the sights. The room was more like an arena to be precise. The walls were black and had many weapons hanging on it. The roof was as black as night. Yet that was not why Bastian knew it was an arena.The real reason why Bastian knew that this was an arena was because in the arena besides Bastian was a group of chained people. Each person was chained to one other person.Having realized this fact, Bastian looked at his shackled feet to see who he was chained to. It was a shivering teenage boy with long white hair. His upper body was bare whilst his lower body only had a loin cloth. This was no different from Bastian and the rest but what made the boy unique was that he was awake, yet his eyes were as lifeless as an abandoned ruin.His pupils were strange, they were grey. This meant that this boy could ha
In a private room, a person was seated on a lavish chair, behind that person stood a middle aged man.The person seated on the chair was wearing lavish robes, where as the man who was standing was dressed in simple robes.In front of the duo was the view of an arena. Inside the arena were shackled slaves, each going toward the wall choosing a weapon.The person seated in the chair was quite young. He was a teenager who had just entered youth.He sat there nervously, gazing at the vicious looking men below."Kai, are you sure they can't see us?" said the young man nervously."Young master, rest assured that they cannot see us. A formation had been placed above their heads, so all they would be able to see is a roof. Adding on to the fact that their cultivation had been sealed, I can guarantee that no harm can come to you." said Kai as he laughed.One look at the two and it was clear what kind of relationship they had. They were a serva