The Wheel Of Samsara

As they walked into the house, Amon made his way to his mother"s room, leaving Daniel behind.

Daniel just smiled wryly as he dropped the bags with food in the kitchen and found himself a seat in the living room.

He was staring intently at the black sword hanging there, Raven, with eyes full of reminiscence. His smile turned sad as he remembered the matters of five years ago. Although Erin"s words had been sharp and offensive, they held some truth. Daniel truly felt that Amon was somewhat pitiful.

Thinking about this, his smile turned into one of self-loathing. His own situation was not really much better. Maybe the Rebecca of ten years ago had found Daniel to be as pitiful as he found Amon now and thus decided to take him under her wing.

He sighed. Being a scion of a powerful family and not living up to their expectations was complicated. He wondered how his little brother felt when his father told him that Daniel "decided to live on his own" and left the household.

It had been years since they had last seen each other, and now he even heard that the little brat had gotten himself the position of direct disciple of Sect Master Borgin. His talent was really something else, even more than what their father ever expected.

He wondered if they would see each other again. Maybe at the time Jake would be old enough to share a cup of wine with him. Daniel"s smile widened a bit at the thought. He really missed the days when they would play together, the laughter of the young lad echoing through the halls of the house…

While Daniel was lost in thought, Amon had quietly knocked his mother"s door. The familiar and warm voice welcome him in. "Come in."

Amon opened the door and made his way inside. His mother was still in the bed, looking outside through the open window beside her. She continued gazing at the trees and the sky for a moment before turning to face Amon.

"What"s wrong?" She asked, seeing something in his expression. His eyes were growing red and his face was tense. Amon shook his head, made his way into her bed and hugged her tightly. "I love you, mom."

Rebecca was surprised at him acting like that, but she returned the hug and gently started patting his back. "I love you too."

They stayed like this for a while, before Amon finally managed to recover somewhat. He released his arms and looked at her.

"Want to tell me what happened?" She asked, but he simply shook his head again. She started ruffling his hair as she looked at her son.

"Daniel somehow got a commission and he want us to go in the Scavenging. The pay is really good and the job seems to be easy." He started talking with a weary voice. Rebecca quietly listened to him explaining the details.

After Amon finished talking, she asked: "So, what do you want to do?"

Amon had a pensive look as he pondered. "I don"t want to go, but the pay is good. We could cover the expenses for almost a month in just four days."

"And why don"t you want to go?"

Amon frowned at her question. She knew the answer very well. "I"m afraid. I don"t want that to happen again."

Hearing this, Rebecca"s expression turned even gentler. "Why do you think it will happen again?"

"Mom, I felt it. Even before that thing appeared, I felt it coming. And I"m sure it felt me too. I knew it was coming for me. I don"t know how to explain it, something just started churning inside me, and somehow I knew there was something coming." Rebecca nodded gently as he spoke, never stopping to ruffle his hair.

"Do you think it"s your fault?"

"Of course it is, mom! If I hadn"t been there, if I had listened to you and had never taken part in the Scavenging that thing would have never attacked you. You… you wouldn"t be like that today."

She stopped ruffling his hair. Amon continued, his voice growing louder and louder. "I have no idea what fath… that man did to me, but I haven"t been myself since that day. I can hear things, mom. I can see things. I can sense them. And my eyes and hair…"

Tears started spilling form his eyes as he spoke, and before he could finish he was sobbing so much he wasn"t able to speak. Rebecca"s expression turned serious as she used her hands to hold his face close to hers and sent him a penetrating glance.

"Listen to me, Amon. What happened is not your fault. There is no way anyone could have seen a Silverback Wolf showing up so close to the sect. Sometimes, coincidences happen. They change the courses of our lives, for the good or the bad. They are trials fate throw at us. We need to surpa.s.s them if we ever want to grow. It is part of life." She gave a sad smile as she spoke, her eyes turning blurry.

"These were words your father said to me once. No matter what he did after, there are truth in them. If you just cower in fear inside this house, life will simply pa.s.s by you, and when you realize it, it will be too late to try and live again."

"I want you to go with Daniel. I want you to do the commission and have a good time. I want you to surpa.s.s your fears. There is nothing as a mother that I want to see more than you growing up, but for that you must never let fear hold you back." She hugged him again. It was a warm, firm hug. One of those only loving mothers could give. Amon hadn"t stopped crying yet, but he nodded his head as he silently accepted what she told him.

After a good while, they finally let each other go. Amon wiped his runny nose and his tears with his sleeves, making Rebecca lightly poke his forehead.

"Alright. I"ll go." His voice was low, but it was enough for Rebecca to hear.

"Good. But don"t do anything reckless, listen to Daniel."

"I will. I promise." His words made Rebecca satisfied.

"Are you hungry? I bought food for the week. I"ll go make lunch." He said, standing up.

"I love your food." She said with a smile.

Amon made his way into the kitchen and saw Daniel in a daze looking at the wall were Raven hung. Daniel must have realized it, because he broke out of his daze and looked at Amon. Amon"s face was still somewhat wet from the tears and his eyes were red, but Daniel made no comments.

Amon used the iron pot he had and quickly made some rice porridge with carrots and onions. He took a wooden bowl and served food in it. He then looked around him, making sure Daniel wasn"t watching before he took a small porcelain bottle from his clothes.

In the bottle were the Nourishing Pills he had paid a fortune for in the Exchange Center. He opened the bottle and took a single pill, crushing it in his hands and throwing the powder into the bowl. He quietly mixed the food with the powder, before being satisfied. It had a very faint smell of medicine, but he thought it was not enough to be noticed by his mother.

He returned to his mother"s room and gave the bowl with the porridge. She smiled and thanked him.

"I"ll meditate for a bit now."

"Remember to focus." Her voice echoed in the room as he left.

Amon sent Daniel a glance and walked into his own room. Daniel stood up and accompanied him.

Amon sat in the black mat in the middle of his room with his legs crossed. He closed his eyes, trying hard to control his breathing. Daniel was standing beside him, carefully watching his actions. "You are still too tense. Relax your body. Relax your mind."

Amon tried his best to follow his instructions. He relaxed his members as he breathed rhythmically, clearing his mind.

"Spread your divine sense outwards. Don"t try to use it to see your surroundings, feel them instead." Daniel continued to patiently guide him.

It took a good while, but Amon was slowly entering a strange state. Daniel"s voice seemed to be echoing from the distance, as if he was walking away as he spoke.

"There are no memories."

"There are no emotions."

"There are no thoughts."

"There is no one."

"There is no you."

Daniel slowly recited the mantra cultivators used when preparing their minds for meditation. For one to open their divine sense, they must first give up their notions of self. They had to enter a stated of conscious emptiness. Only then would one be able to feel the Qi that permeated the world. It was a delicate balance to maintain. Only with years of practice and self-discipline could one enter and leave such a state at will.

"There is only the nature."

"There is only the world."

"There is only Qi."

His voice was hypnotic, echoing inside Amon"s head while he tried to perceive his surroundings.

Sensing Qi had nothing to do with the five senses, it had to do with a special talent only few people ever developed. Some called it a sixth sense. Cultivators called it a divine sense.

Amon gradually lost himself in the nothingness, Daniel"s voice still echoing in his mind. Eventually, the voice faded away and there was only the dark. Then, Amon sensed it.

It was as if he opened his eyes, but they remained closed. The world around him presented itself through his divine sense, and he could feel everything around him. He could not see anything. He could not hear anything. He could not touch anything. He could not taste anything. He could not smell anything. He simply knew what was happening in his surroundings.

Everything 10 meters around him seemed to be covered by a faint mist. It emanated from the earth, it flew around with the wind and it swirled around Daniel like a whirlpool. The mist was sometimes thick, sometimes thin, but it was always there. The way it felt changed when it was in touch with different things.

This mist was the Qi that permeated everything in the world. Anyone with divine sense could feel it. People with a bit of talent could manipulate it with their wills. A few of those could absorb it into their bodies.

These were the three stages of Qi Gathering. Sensing, manipulating and absorbing, the initial, middle and late stages. When one managed to absorb Qi in their bodies and make it flow through their meridians and into their dantian, one would be able to step into the Body Tempering realm.

Amon had been stuck at the initial stages of Qi Gathering for years now. He could feel it, but still couldn"t manipulate even a tiny bit of it. His affinity with Qi was low, and therefore, so was his talent.

Daniel put on a satisfied smile as he saw Amon breathing at a regular pace, having entered a meditative state. He quietly left the room and made his way to Rebecca"s after picking up a chair from the living room.

Before he could even knock on the door, he heard her voice. "Come on in, Daniel."

He closed the door behind him after he entered. He put the chair in the ground and sat on it, facing Rebecca. She was sitting on the bed, an empty bowl of food by her side. Daniel could smell a faint fragrance. Rebecca realized it. "I have a good, yet stubborn son. I don"t know how many times I told him to stop buying Nourishing Pills for me and just get something for himself."

Daniel smiled hearing that.

"So, what happened at the Station?" Her voice was still warm and gentle, but there was an authority hidden in it. It sounded more like an order for a report than a question.

Daniel showed her his right palm. A faint mark could still be seen were the stone had pierced his skin. "Erin. He reached Body Tempering."

Rebecca sighed when she heard this. It would be troublesome.

"There were no provocations. He just threw the stone at Amon"s head." Daniel continued.

As Daniel said that, he felt a chill creeping up his spine. The room"s temperature seemed to drop several degrees as a cold killing intent surged from the woman facing him.

It was as if Daniel was facing a completely different person. Rebecca"s clear eyes were filled with fury, and all the gentleness surrounding her disappeared, swallowed by pure hostility. There was no Qi or technique involved, just sheer rage. Very few cultivators in the whole Abyss sect would have been able to produce an aura like that.

"Looks like Claude is as incompetent a father as he is a cultivator. I should have taught him a lesson long ago." Rebecca"s voice could freeze one"s soul, but it was also filled with regret.

In her current state, there was not much she could do. To think people once feared her name. The White Flame of the Abyss, Rebecca Skoller.

"Don"t you find it funny, Daniel? When you are strong, people all around you will show respect and avoid getting on your bad side. If you show respect back, they will gladly sing your praises and call you a role model. If, however, you step on them, they will only cower in fear." Rebecca spoke with a dull voice, like a machine. Her eyes were distant, as if she was gazing at something far away.

"Still, if you ever fall from grace, the end result will mostly be the same. It doesn"t matter if you were kind or cruel when you were strong, what was important was the fact that you had strength. The moment you become like them, you are just like everyone else. They never wanted to be respected back by the strong, and they didn"t mind being stepped on. They just wanted someone they could rely on. As soon as they can"t rely on you anymore, you disappear from their eyes. After all, they want to be carried by the strong, not to carry the weak."

"Talking about this with you might be raining in the wet, but sometimes I"m surprised at just how low humans can be." Her look turned sad, her threatening aura slowly subsiding, like a ball slowly deflating after having a hole poked on it.

Daniel nodded his head firmly. Of course he knew all of that.

"I think the best decision I ever made in my life, other than having Amon, was helping you that day. I"m really glad I could become friends with one of the few decent people in this h.e.l.l hole." She smiled as she said that. A genuine, but sad smile.

"You can always count on me, auntie."

Rebecca laughed hearing that. Every time Daniel called her "auntie", she felt strange.

"Of course you know this, but Amon agreed on going to the Scavenging. You pulled off a nice trick. Even if he was suspicious it was too good a deal for him to ignore."

"Well, he would have never accepted my contribution points if I just gave it to him. Doing things this way will also help him out with his problems related to the Scavenging, so it is killing two birds with one stone."

Rebecca agreed with his words. Her son was a bit too proud and stubborn in some ways. "Really, thank you for the help, Daniel. I can"t thank you enough."

"Don"t mind it auntie."

"Please, promise me you will take good care of him."

"Of course I will. For me, he is a little brother."

Rebecca smiled gently hearing that. She knew Amon saw Daniel as an older brother too.

"Good luck on the Scavenging. I really hope you do find something. The spear I found twenty years ago was buried right there." Her eyes were filled with good memories of those times when she was still a young girl, trying hard to become a strong cultivator.

"Well, Amon is meditating in his room. I"ll go take care of the preparations."

"Goodbye, Daniel."

With that, Daniel left the house. Rebecca turned her eyes to the open windows, wistfully looking at the white clouds in the blue sky, thinking that life was unfair with the good people of the world.

Maybe that was the reason this world was filled with trash. She couldn"t help but remember her husband"s broad back as he left, the cold wind of the night entering through the open door and making her shudder as tears fell from her face. In the end, what kind of person was he?