Chapter 7Chen Zhen woke to the sound of birds chirping. His body had never felt so relaxed and refreshed in his entire life. He couldn"t put into words how good he felt at this moment. Before he could even stop himself a moan of pleasure escaped his mouth. A chuckling sound could be heard from across the room he was sleeping in. This caused Chen Zhen"s face to turn beet red with embarra.s.sment. As he opened his eyes and looked around he noticed he was in a one room open shack that was roughly thirty feet by thirty feet square. Two of the walls on opposite sides of the room had large windows that took up two-thirds of the walls height and length. Looking towards the foot of the bed he was lying in he could see a door leading outside. Next to the door was a very plain table with two wicker chairs. In one of the wicker chairs was Shanggu Julong enjoying a cup of tea and laughing at Chen Zhen"s expense during this awkward moment for him. Shanggu Julong wasn"t in any hurry so he let Chen Zhen observe his new surround without interrupting him. As Chen Zhen continued to look to his right were he saw a fireplace in between the beds. The living conditions of this place was very spartan.
Chen Zhen stood up and stretched his body, marveling at how amazing he felt and catching himself this time before he moaned in pleasure again. As Chen Zhen left the bed he was suddenly a.s.saulted by the must pungent odor he had ever smelt in his like. He covered his nose and quickly rushed to the window to try to escape from the smell.
Laughing again Shanggu Julong told him, "That smell is coming from you, so no matter how far you travel you will never escape it!"
Chen Zhen looked back at Shanggu Julong in horror! He then looked back at the bed and he could see a man shaped black tar like substance covering the sheets he had just been laying on. He had no idea where that horrible stuff came from or how it was a.s.sociated with him. Chen Zhen didn"t know what to do, he could only look back at Shanggu Julong with and imploring face, begging him to take pity on him and help. Seeing Chen Zhen"s absolutely pathetic countenance Shanggu Julong couldn"t help but hold his belly as he doubled over and laughed even harder.
"Just… haha… just… hahaha… just wash yourself in the stream outside…. Hahahaha!!!", Shanggu Julong could barely control his laughter as he told Chen Zhen what would help him.
Giving Shanggu Julong the stink eye for laughing at his misfortune, Chen Zhen promptly rushed to the stream he could see at the edge of the clearing the shack was in. What seemed like a distance of almost two hundred yards took Chen Zhen a mere twenty seconds to run to. As Chen Zhen jumped into the stream he realized that after running that far so fast he wasn"t even winded. As Chen Zhen soaked in the stream even though the water was on the cold side it didn"t seem to bother him one bit. Chen Zhen could see more and more of the black tar like substance being washed away from his body. Chen Zhen grabbed some sand from the streambed to help wash more of it off himself. The more he scrubbed the lighter his body felt in the water. The stream water was crystal clear and as Chen Zhen cupped his hands to drink a mouthful a shadow soon blocked out the sun from behind him.
"You may drink no more then one handful of water a day for your first week. Your body is still adjusting to our world.", with that Shanggu Julong turn around and walked back toward the shack.
Seeing that he was still alive and knowing how powerful Shanggu Julong was, Chen Zhen didn"t see any reason not to trust Shanggu Julong"s words. But Chen Zhen was a little skeptical, why could he only drink one handful of water? That made absolutely no sense to him… until he took that first sip of water. As soon as then water entered into his throat a sudden rushing gale of power that surged into his body. As soon as it reached his stomach the wisp of dragon lightening that was still in his body took control of that power and started to circulate it thru his body. Chen Zhen was astounded! Wasn"t this just water? How could it have so much power? As the power in his body completed a full circulation thru the major meridians in his body and returned to his dantian he could feel the power rest there in his dantian like someone took a balloon and blew a slight puff of air into it. This marvelous feeling was addictive and euphoric at the same time. Chen Zhen kept sipping the water and letting it make it way thru his body to his dantian. When he finally finished that handful of water his dantian felt swollen like a balloon that was about to pop. Chen Zhen didn"t know what to do with this excess energy. He left the stream and ran back to the shack were Shanggu Julong was waiting for him. As he ran back he paid more attention to his nakedness, so when he arrived at the shack he poked his head thru the door trying very hard to hide his nudity. If Chen Zhen knew that Shanggu Julong"s spiritual sense allowed him to see everything around the entire clearing and more with his minds eye he would have known how futile his efforts were. With a wave of his hand Shanggu Julong used his energy to create a set of clothes for Chen Zhen. The clothes looked like they fit in an episode of Dragon Ball Z. They even had a weight to this that made Chen Zhen exert a considerable effort just to move around. If Chen Zhen didn"t have the extra energy inside his dantian helping him to resist the weight of his clothes he would have fallen flat on his face, instead of just forcing him to double over.
By the time Chen Zhen straightened his body back up Shanggu Julong was standing in the door way. Chen Zhen could see the mirth in Shanggu Julong"s eyes. He remembered the many times he was referred to as an ant by these incredibly powerful beings. He refused to let them win this little battle in his head. Using every ounce of his strength he force his back straight and looked Shanggu Julong in the eyes. Seeing Chen Zhen"s determination Shanggu Julong gave a small nod of approval before walking out of the shack and beckoning Chen Zhen to follow him.
"That disgusting black stuff was some of the impurities that you have acc.u.mulated over your life being expelled. This world is abundant in heaven and earth energy. The best way for you to understand this is that this world contains a type of radiation that is very beneficial for the body. The people of this world are commonly referred to as cultivators. Cultivators progress from body refinement and ultimately to Immortal cultivators if they are talented and fortunate enough. Because this world is ruled by the powerful, strength is the defining factor of all things. The strong lord over the weak. In your world there is a moral code of conduct that protect the weak and allow for fair justice in all matters. In this world strength is justice. The strong determine who is right and who is wrong, no matter what evidence there might be to the contrary.
So your first goal to help you to achieve your hope of returning to your world and your family is to gain strength. Coming from your world you are much too weak. Any ordinary person from this world would be a G.o.d in your world, able to dominate anywhere they chose as long as the had enough energy. The only problem is that you crossing the dimensional plane into our world left a tiny hole in the barrier that separates our two worlds. To use terms from your world that you will understand it"s like you put a tiny pin hole in a giant balloon. Except this balloon is the size of a planet that is one hundred times larger then your own. Your planet will fill up with spiritual energy eventually over time. This will create a balance between our two worlds that will weaken the barrier till eventually it will crumble and be no more. But that is for another time. Right now you only need to focus on getting stronger. You first exercise will be to run around the clearing, you have until dinner time to complete one hundred laps.
I am a fair teacher but I am also a firm teacher. I will not coddle you. I"m not your mother. While you are here I will instruct to make you the best warrior possible, but I will not hold your hand through out this training. If you can"t follow my instruction I will expel you from this sanctuary whether you are strong enough to face the outside world or not. You may ask me questions along the way but if I don"t feel they are pertinent to your cultivation I will choose whether to answer them or not. Now begin running your burning daylight.", with that Shanggu Julong walked back into the shack and slammed the door in Chen Zhen"s face.
Chen Zhen knew there was nothing he could do but to listen to Shanggu Julong"s instruction. He knew Shanggu Julong was right about this world. Just breathing the air made his body full of a potent energy. The water he drank earlier already gave his body more energy than he could handle, and that was only a handful. Chen Zhen could just imagine how powerful a child who drank this from birth would be. That child could probably kill him with a mere slap. This depressing thought spurned Chen Zhen as he started to run his laps. He started off very slowly because the weight of his clothes was more then he thought he could handle. Chen Zhen soon realized that has he took in huge breaths of air he would soon feel revitalized. That small wisp of energy was still circulating constantly thru his body bringing energy to his tired and aching muscles. Before long Chen Zhen could jog one complete lap without having to stop. Even though it still took him the whole day by the time the moon was up in the night sky Chen Zhen had completed his one hundredth lap and returned to the shack with a smile on his face.
Shanggu Julong had prepared a dinner of a simple stew for them to eat. To Chen Zhen this food tasted absolutely amazing because of the spiritual energy it contained. Shanggu Julong let Chen Zhen eat till his hearts content, then smiled mischievously when he saw discomfort begin to appear on Chen Zhen"s face. When Chen Zhen looked up and saw Shanggu Julong"s face he knew something wasn"t right.
Shanggu Julong looked Chen Zhen in the eyes and said, "It"s time for you to learn how to cultivate the energy to take into your body. And we need to hurry before you explode….."