Cultivation Fever

I leaned on my back foot and started spinning. The onus was on him to attack.

"Fine, I"ll come to you."

Father trundled forwards menacingly. As soon as his foot touched the ten-foot mark, I attacked, shooting a tether of qi at his trunk, then slicing it down into the ground.

I overextended on purpose and leaned forwards, off balance. Father latched onto the window of opportunity, rocketing forwards and sending out an uppercut.

His delivery was relaxed and slow, antic.i.p.ating my surrender, but I caught myself with a strong foot and shot backwards with a blast of qi.

Father stayed stuck in his motion, and I bounced off my back foot into an Extending Slice, arched my back, strained my arm, then cleaved the air with a sizzling slice.

Shocked out of the regular pattern, Father put his arm, blocking the strike. Qi tendrils writhed and ripped across his skin, scrambling to grab onto his forearm.

One tendril hooked on and the rest surged to envelop his arm. I had caught him!

I stopped the slice as my whip drew taught, gleefully looking at Father. But Father"s face was motionless, his eyes a whirlpool of destruction.

A cold sweat flashed across my skin, and Father grabbed onto my whip. I ordered my qi to swallow his arm, but it was too late. With a simple bicep curl, father yanked the whip.

The world flipped and I flew towards him. Two ma.s.sive hands grabbed my hair and pulled me down, just in time to see a knee shoot towards my head. A knee that would implode my skull.

I recognised my impending death and instinctively rammed both hands into father"s torso, ripping my head away.

My hair was torn out in lumps, but I didn"t miss a beat, "Father, it"s me!"

"I know."

I had always found Father"s gravelly voice soothing, but this was bone chilling. I had to run. I pivoted and channelled a qi blast, but he caught my ankle and I slammed down onto my face.

Running wasn"t an option anymore. I had to fight. Flipping over, I let nearly every drop of qi in my body loose in one wave of destruction.

A monstrous swarm of tentacles burst out of my chest, striking Father head on. He stumbled back, qi constricting every limb, and this time I didn"t hesitate.

Fuelled by fear and panic, I commanded all my qi to consume Father"s body. It tunnelled into every surface, sending his body into spasms.

With a smile, Father tensed his muscles and activated the Spirit Burning Technique. My qi evaporated, draping his body in steam.

The backlash was tremendous, nearly crushing my soul, but I had to run. I picked myself up and channelled what remained of my qi into a final forceful step.

But Father had activated his techniques, and his speed was incomparable to before. He appeared in front of me before I could even move my leg. His giant hand enveloped the side of my head, but there was no force in his grasp.

"Stop now. It"s over." His voice was softer, and the fury was gone from his eyes.

Tension slipped off my chest, and I fell to the floor. How the h.e.l.l had Father convinced me I would die… This was my father… of course he wasn"t going to kill me.

"What you experienced there was killing intent. I"m sorry that I was so harsh on you, but I needed to teach you that lesson," he ruffled my hair with a gentle smile, "I"m proud of you. You reacted better than I could have hoped."

"I… What… I did?"

"Yes. If someone stronger than you emits killing intent, you should run immediately. If you can"t run, you should fight back with your very strongest attack. What you did was perfect."

I wanted to feel happy, being praised by Father. But my heartbeat still hammered in my ears and my stomach felt like it was being flushed down a toilet.

"However," Father continued, "the instant you touched me you should have gone for the kill. Like you did just now when you were trying to overpower me."

Between frantic breaths I managed to eke out a few words, "But… we were… sparring."

"Never drop your guard, even when you"re sparring. You can never trust your opponent."

I took his words to heart, before he dragged me to my feet.

"Come on, compose yourself. Dinner"s ready and if your mother finds out that this last spar happened, she"ll kill me."

"Maybe I will tell her," I joked.

"Hey now, who was it that told me not to go easy? Plus, I was never going to hit you with that knee."

"Yeah, yeah."

We walked to the dining room where Mother sat waiting.

"Oh, there you are, what have you two been–" her eyes widened as she saw the bruises all over my face and forearms, "Carlo! What did you–"

"Mother! It"s okay, we were just sparring."

"He got me real good too, look." Father rolled up his sleeve, revealing a welt that twisted across his forearm like a jellyfish sting.

"Oo, that must have hurt," I laughed.

"You… just…" Mother was lost for words, but she relaxed after seeing our grins, "You two are the worst. Come now, let"s eat."

After the initial tense exchange, this last dinner before I went back to school was joyful. Father and I chatted about our spars, and Mother told stories from the past, frequently embarra.s.sing Father.

When we finished, Mother helped pack what little belongings I needed. She seemed a lot calmer about me going back, but I wondered if that was just a façade.

While I wanted to find out, I knew there was a reason for her to put on a brave face. If she was still vehemently against the whole thing, she would tell me.

I said goodnight to them, then got to meditating. I was drained, with only a few drops of qi left, so this was the final test of the Embryonic Breathing Technique.

After eight hours, all my qi was replenished, and it was time to head off. I asked if I could walk to school on my own, because I wanted to practice Forceful Steps, and they agreed.

I practised transitioning from one step to another on my way to the town. It was difficult to figure out the timing, and I discovered the taste of dirt a few too many times for my liking.

Unlike on earth, walking around on my own was relatively risk free. The majority of people living in the village were either guards or soldiers, and there was a strong moral code of civic duty.

Crime was pretty unheard of, and any incidents were swiftly resolved. Everyone knew each other, and often chose to trade favours rather than pay for services.

It was always refreshing to walk through the town and see everyone thriving in an open community. I had lived in major cities for all my life on earth, and never saw anything like it.

However, today I was experiencing the downside of close-knit villages. Walking through the main high street, familiar eyes flicked to me more than usual, as people exchanged hushed gossip.

Everyone knew who I was, and some of their kids went to my school. They must have heard what happened, but why was there so much gossip? What story had the school constructed?

I rushed to the school as fast as I could, breaking free from the villagers" judging gazes. But a similar treatment awaited me at the school gates. Even the guards looked at me with scorn and suspicion.

Every set of eyes was venomous, and it was all I could do to run through yard and into college. I was never so relieved to see Dong waiting on the stairs.

"Dong! Hi!"

"Ah, Oscar…"

"Thank you so much for saving me," I interrupted, bowing my head deeply.

"Oh no, Tai"s the one you should thank!"

If I hadn"t been facing the ground, Dong would have thought he"d seen a ghost. All colour drained from my face as I tried to process what he had just said.

"Yes," Dong continued, "if Tai hadn"t found you, I don"t know what would have happened. I was in a meeting, but somehow he managed to track me down and get you the help you needed."

This narrative was so twisted. Dong was my saviour? What the f.u.c.k was that about? No, that wasn"t the important question. I swallowed my anger and stood with a pained expression.

"What about the other scholar? Is he ok?"

"That is… Oscar, we need to have a little chat."