Pathway To Eternity 5 Coming Of Age Ii

Aodh, with arms clasped behind his body, fixed his gaze on his grandson standing in front of him, who was bare-chested and had a serious face on.

"Ways to follow for combat. Training systems that have been arranged for combat. Martial arts really demand a unique and great sense of physical, spiritual and mental control to avoid inflicting harm to yourself or to your training partner, this will also let one understand and determine how to adequately employ such techniques to its full advantage when necessary.

This is the reason why the Dao training philosophies of martial arts place a great amount of emphasis on things such as mental tranquility and anger control as a response to aggression, pain, or even fear; so because of this, martial arts has been regarded as a mental sparring compet.i.tion with one's inner opponent. Haider, if you are able to control your emotions and reactions by being rational during situations where your opponent is executing an attack such as throws, punches, or stabs, you will then be able to easily face any variant of it. The training philosophy of the arts includes moral codes that exhibit these philosophies as a way of life."

Aodh raised three fingers up.

"There are three Dao training philosophies. Every individual who has not trained in all of the three philosophies is not considered as a complete or true martial artist. These philosophies are spiritual, mental, and physical.

They are divided into basics, forms, weapons, stances, meditation, Chi and applications.

The basics are the beginning steps. A vital part of any martial training, you cannot progress to the more advanced stages without them. They will enhance your upper body, lower body and core strength. In turn, these strength training exercises will help to improve your punching power, kicking power and others."

Aodh walking up to his grandson, put a hand on his shoulder.

"You will start on basics."

Haider nodded vigorously, his eyes on his grandfather who looked at him with an easy smile and continued.

"You have great strenght in your body, we will start by gradually bringing out your true strength. You will be using the Trueworld bodyweight technique. And today, we will focus on your Upper Body Strength Training. This technique will help your upper body to generate stronger punches and grappling power.

Let's start."

Aodh taught Haider the trueworld bodyweight technique. Aodh started him on his body ma.s.s as the source of weight before gradually increasing the weight by adding external ma.s.ses of stones to his body weight.

"This will strengthen the muscles in your chest, shoulders, back and arms."

Haider continued the training of his upper body strength without resting. His strength was unbelievable for such a young age. Aodh added twice the stone ma.s.s for his grandson's age level, but he kept on practicing the technique without much worries.

"So much power, so much strength. By the time...."

After training for four hours Aodh stopped him and gave him one blue crystalline. Since he had not started sensing and gathering Chi, the crystalline Chi flowed through his body, replenis.h.i.+ng and strengthening his body. He felt like he could carry the world on his head, his exhausted body fully restored.

"Grandpa, i feel like walking on my head."

"Hehehe, let's continue your training for a bit more time then."

He continued training for another two hours.

"We stop here for today, we will continue tomorrow. For daily balance, you need to train with your grandmother and mother."

"Okay, grandpa. Thank you." Cupping his hands in respect, he bowed to his waist.

Aodh smiled and nodded. He was happy with his grandson frame of mind. If a mind was at the right path, cultivation would be easier and faster.

They returned to the cave and after some time, Euanthe took Haider to the pool side. It was her turn to train her grandson. The pool was peaceful and its area is quiet too. She did a quick spun and smiled brightly. All forms of nature are wonderful.

Looking at her grandson, she gleamed happily.

"Mystical arts are essence fundamentals."

"Essence is the ultimate nature of a body or any other ent.i.ty. It's simply, a body's fundamental. Without it, plainly, you cannot exist."

Mortal soul is always in a limbo. Short existence and reincarnation over and over again. The only way to stop short existence is to bring the soul out of limbo into manifestation. A true manifested soul. The soul essence."

"Because the soul is in limbo, the essence energy, Chi energy, the true life force of a body, is scattered all over the body. And being in disharmony, they continually leak into the sorroundings."

Euanthe, who had been gesturing with her hands, then, pointed a finger at her grandson.

"There is Chi in your body Haider, but not organized. This is because you are still a mortal, not a cultivator. Since you have started the path of cultivation, you will be able to gather your Chi into your dantian. A step into forming nascent soul.

"In the world of cultivation, cultivators strive to form a nascent soul. A stage of immortality. No more short life spans naturally, unless somebody or something kills you. The soul in your body must transform into a true immortal form. There are some elemental energies in our bodies. Four of them are the primary states of matter. Do you know what the four elements are, Haider?"

"Fire, air, terra and water." Came the quick answer.

"Good."

"Fire. Igneous in nature."

"Air. Gaseous in form"

"Terra[soil]. It's nature is solid"

"And, Water. In liquid state"

Euanthe spreaded her hands to encompa.s.s her sorrounding.

"Like the body, the soul also is made up of elemental energies. Elements are the basic const.i.tuents of all matter. Look around you my grandson, everything in the universe is composed of the Four Elements, in varying proportions and amounts."

"Everything. Even your body is composed of the four elements."

"These four elements formed the foundation of the Dao conception of the universe."

Euanthe tapped gently on the floor with her foot.

"At the center of our world is the terra, as the planet we live on, the ground and support beneath our feet. Because of terra's great heaviness and density, all things gravitate towards it. Running over and around the soil is Water, in the form of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Water nourishes the terra, giving it Life. Over the spheres of soil and Water is the sphere of Air, the atmosphere in which we live, move and have our being. Air's essence is exchange, contact and movement. All living things need Air to breathe."

"And finally"

Euanthe turned her palm upward and a tongue of fire manifested.

"Fire lights up the Sun, Moon, and stars in the celestial firmament. Fire has brilliance and spirit, and symbolizes the Life Force within us."

"The human body, your body, and each of its const.i.tuent parts is also composed of the Four Elements, in varying proportions. The basic distribution and arrangement of the elements in the human body, reflects that of the bigger part of Nature. All souls are in affinity to elemental energies. The Chi energy and elemental energies in the dantian formed the essence fundamentals. These are the fundamentals that transform the state of the soul into a mystical one."

"Your grandmother is still in the evanesce core stage, i have a long way to go before i can form a true soul. But, i know my elemental affinity is fire, i can draw on the power of fire but no true soul. Your mother already did, maybe she can show you what a true soul looks like."

"But today."

Euanthe touched her grandson on the head and chest.

"I will teach you soul serenity. Although, your soul is in limbo, you are still connected to it. I want you to realize that although our universe appears to be ever reaching, ever expanding, out of reach, and ever so far, we are cosmically connected and thus this connection has an impact on the very reason that we are who we are.

Serenading the soul will put it in a state of peace. Calmness. With this, comes enlightenment of the soul. Your soul taking the first step of realizing it's in limbo, and then gradually coming out of it through all these training we are giving you. I will teach you the soul pith technique. It's simple but very effective. Our ancestors have all used it before us. Let me show you how it work."

Euanthe showed her grandson the technique who quickly sat down to start practicing it. Euanthe watched him, it was like a dream. She remembered the time she thought she would never had a child much less a grand child. Her daughter was even a deity, half deity, a deity nonetheless. A full immortal. She recalled the nascent soul of her daughter when she showed them, white feathered amour and wings of fire, phoenix wings? It was a sight.

She was beaming with joy with teary eyes. How could she not be happy, from hopelessness to one filled with great potentials. A grandmother! And he was growing really fast and strong. This must be the heavens. Surely, or how could you explain all these? Heavens did favoured her.

Lost in thoughts, it was evening before she realized it. Haider was still practicing. She decided it was time to leave, they still had the following day and many days ahead. They arrived at the cave to see Aodh returning with jars of fresh milk from the farm.

They all gathered in the main chamber. It was the day Haider started his long road of cultivation. Her mother made a special food for them, roasted yellow-green spirit gra.s.s spiced deer and millet coated in the honey of the cloud honeygourd bee. Goat milk in variants. They ate to their content. It was a good day. One of their own had started cultivating, hard, dangerous, but a thing for celebration. The drink they toasted to Haider after their meal.

"Mother, can i come with you?"

"Don't be impatient, Haider. Do you think i forgot about you?" Looking at her son's face, she patted his back and smiled.

"Follow me."

They went inside the cultivation chamber, sitting in lotus positions facing each other, Reena took out a bottled elixir and gave it to his son.

"Take a little drink out of it. It will help sooth your veins."

"Cultivation is a way for the soul to be eternal, without natural death. To be free of reincarnation. Immortality is the reason why all cultivators practice cultivation. I can a.s.sure you that cultivation is a true way."

Taking back the bottle after haider had a drink, Reena said.

"For generations, our family has been keeping the sky sapphire ma.n.u.script safely secured.. It has techniques for cultivation, martial and mystical arts. The astral primal technique it contains is a great benefit for us. It's a bit painful when practicing but you can imagine the advantages it brings. You need to see it for yourself to understand.

Before we start, i want you to remember that martial arts, mystical arts and immortal cultivation can be used to compliment one another. True martial artists use Chi from cultivation to enhance the power of cultivation. They also use mystical arts to give their martial abilities, essence elemental energies for great advantages. About mystical arts, they rely on body and soul to be performed. Because of these they need martial artists and immortal cultivators.. But, since they deal with the spirituality of the soul, they help in enlightening the soul to be one with the elements of nature. They help in cultivation. So, a true cultivator will know the three."

"Let's start. Since you are already familiar with the breathing technique, let's begin, with you sensing the Chi energy in your body."

Reena, still glancing at her son, started talking in a quiet tone.

"Close your eyes, now, start breathing the way i showed you."

Haider shut his eyes and started using the astral fetal breathing technique. Like all embryos, he had been using the fetal breathing technique when he was in the womb. This was a welcomed continuation, much appreciated.

"As you continue to breathe, you will feel a sensation in your body, like energy. Let me know when you feel it."

Few hours later.

"Now that you can sense the Chi in your body, just let the energy flow in your body.

Haider training continued diligently at a steady pace for the following three years. He was growing fast in strength and power. His physique was not getting bigger like the first four years after his birth, but for an eight year old, he was big.

In martial arts, he had finished learning the basics. And, he was almost done with the stances.

In the mystical arts, he discovered that he had traces of affinity to light and wind, though, he couldn't use them.

In immortal cultivation, he was at the middle stage of Juchi, gathering Chi. The Astral primal technique was gradually and unceasingly enlarging his dantian and meridians. The blue crystalline he was consuming kept on supplying his body with Chi that was circulated through the meridians and absorbed into the dantian.