The Tower of Emnu

After his morning routine, where he skipped the cultivation part because he was out of beastcores, Aaron made himself a deliberately slow breakfast. It wasn't that he was anxious about facing the trial of the third kata, it was more that he was unsure if it was the right decision. Considering his circumstances he thought it was, but you never know with these kinds of decisions. What if it slowed him down for months or longer?

Aaron paused after he let the ridiculousness of that thought pass him by. He would live centuries, millennia even. What were a few months for slow, steady progress? He needed to get used to thinking in years not weeks for his plans. It was difficult to do for Aaron and hard to believe as well. People who were mortal rushed their lives, filled them with work and even if the work was fulfilling to them, even if it was their destiny and they were happy about it, even then they still burned themselves out shouldering too much. Aaron had seen it plenty of times in his old life.

When looking at people and researching their lives, this pattern of hyperfocus and working yourself to death was extremely common. The people who took it less serious, who had a better balance in life were usually not targets that landed on his platter back then. So maybe Aaron did have a skewed view on the matter.

He himself tended to rush and focus on things, but in his case he had plenty of good reasons to seek strength. His experience in the tower had taught him that only personal power was worth anything because some asshole could decide to want you dead for no reason whatsoever. But this immediate danger made it really difficult to plan for the long term and not just like normal people thought of long term, like cultivators did. All of his teachers, be it the great master, Mei or Sylus had cautioned him patience and were giving him things one step at a time. It was annoying and outright dangerous, but the more Aaron thought about it, the more sense did it make. To them he was a child on his first steps of cultivation. Over and over they had stressed mastery in his techniques, in combat over anything else because that was what you pursued if you had all the time in the world. Mastery.

If you perfected just a single aspect of your combat it would make you invincible against normal foes and considering they themselves were going up against other cultivators with equal lifespans it was probably just the most efficient long term. Master the techniques, progress slowly. Those who rushed or had a shoddy foundation would falter in the end when faced with someone who had never skipped a step to power. That was their view and it was probably backed by centuries of experience.

Aaron did not think they were wrong, he just thought it left any student of Cultivation like him in a very precarious situation. They had amended some of their ways as well, Sensory Harmony was a foundation realm technique that had saved his life more times than he could count because it had allowed him to stay out of dangerous situations in the first place. It was also the source of all of his major weakspots except his lingering hunger. He understood why the great master had not given it to him immediately, but at the same time he thought a lot of trouble could have been avoided if he had.

Learning the third kata and finishing the first triplet of the Heavenly kata was similar. Learning it now was a reaction to the challenges he faced and not entirely beneficial. The smart thing would be to hunt wildcats and behemoths with his enchanted dagger and absorb these cores twice a day until he was in the foundation realm. But that would slow down his training during that time to a crawl. Realistically he should do this hunting and killing of the magical beasts with the techniques he had now and grow with them to get further and further ahead. Let the pressure of the enemies smooth out any rough edges he still had. But that would slow him down even further because he would get so few beastcores to cultivate with each day. So Aaron thought it was a good compromise to learn the technique, finish the triplet and keep up his training even if it would slow down his Cultivation speed significantly. He hoped the increase in beastcores he could hunt with the third kata would make up the difference and that it would allow him to advance all of his katas more.

But slowing down might not be such a big deal in the end. Because what were a few more months of training to someone with centuries of lifespan?

With his mind made up Aaron got out the right memory core. He had gotten more of a sense impression of them and could feel a sharp piercing intent behind this core that was quite unlike the other two cores. He slowed his breathing, let his senses collapse in on themselves before he found tranquility. It was a tedious process today and only after his mind had calmed down he found the place of complete focus. Then he activated the memory core.

There was some pressure to it and Aaron felt like the core was asking him if he was sure. If he was safe enough to be taking the test. It was a curious thing and Aaron checked once more with his hearing and sense of smell for any danger before he accepted.

Aaron felt like he was pulled into darkness, he tumbled forwards without moving, his mind absorbed in a whirlwind and then he stood in a dimly lit cave. Aaron blinked into the darkness, but his senses were not his senses anymore. They were dull, incredibly dull compared to his real senses and it felt like he was deaf and stupid. It took Aaron a while to acclimatize to the body he was using and he quickly found out that it was that of a rather young adolescent boy. Sylus own body as a child, Aaron guessed. With his senses calmed down he finally looked around properly. This illusion was strange. He was not reliving a memory, he was actively participating in one. Sylus had said he was not good with memory cores, but this trial made him a liar.

Slowly Aaron stepped forward while he scanned the dark cave around him. Besides rough uneven rock and debris, he rather quickly spotted an opening that was cut into the stone at the end of the cave. Above the opening were letters carved into the rock, that Aaron could read despite never having seen them before, it spelled out: "Trial of the Mind."

Well okay, that was both ominous and strange. What did his mind have to do with anything? This trial should have been the third kata, but whatever. He took the time to inspect the cave and besides another opening leading out of the cave that Aaron did not want to take, or rather the body he inhabited did not want to take, there was nothing else in the cave but the small opening into darkness.

With a shrug and a frown he sat down and dangled his feet into the hole. He could barely see anything underneath his feet and yet he gave himself a push and jumped down. He did not fall so much as slide down a tube made out of rock. It was dark and besides his own breath and the sound of his clothes scraping against rock as he sped up, nothing could be heard. But it did not take long for the tube to open up and deposit him into a clear lake.

Aaron instinctively activated Wind Steps to slow his fall and nothing happened as he splashed into the ice cold water. He struggled only for a moment, before he pushed himself off the rock floor towards the surface. With a gasp he broke through the surface and Aaron felt strangely calm as he swam to the shore. The cave down here was lit by a torches set into alcoves along the walls and although the underground river and pool were probably natural, the rest of the cave was not. In front of Aaron stretched a long dimly lit corridor with dark alcoves to both sides where the shadows concealed anything deeper than a hand's width. It was an ominous corridor and yet Aaron fell back into the katas he had learned and stepped forward. He was not afraid of some trial Sylus had beaten as a kid. His own mastery might never rival that of his teacher, but he had used the katas in life and death situations for months. He had made a lot of progress and he was not afraid.

When the wet soles of his boots crossed an imaginary threshold in the corridor things started to move out of the darkness. They were...well difficult to describe. They were taller than a man, made out of clay or soil and had glowing red eyes that looked absolutely terrifying. Their massive claw like appendages were snapping with a metallic sound together and the first five or six started to move slowly towards Aaron. They vaguely reminded Aaron of descriptions of golems, or at least it was the closest equivalent he could think of.

Aaron moved forward, his steps smooth but slow. He had not realized how much he had integrated wind steps into his every move. Now when he did not have it, he felt like someone had bound him with chains to the ground. But he would make do. A massive fist made out of clay shot at Aaron's face and he instinctively stepped forward and guided the fist past him with the Unceasing palm kata, making the golem miss and overextend. Aaron punched the clay golem in the stomach and nothing happened at all. Because the golem was made out of clay and that seemed to be all it was made out of. Concussive force did not do anything to something like that. But the force did make the golem take a step back to balance itself on its legs.

Another one of the golems stepped forward and Aaron slowly tested out their strengths and weaknesses. First of all these golems were slow, cumbersome almost. Their attacks were heavy, but easily guided. But on the other hand it was very difficult to damage them and they just kept coming. After a bit of experimentation, Aaron figured out that hitting them in the face had the best effect of disabling them for a moment. But that was it.

Sylus adolescent body did not have the strength Aaron had grown accustomed to. In the tower his fists were strong enough to eviscerate beasts from the sheer force he could put behind each punch. Aaron would have mowed through these golems in his real body and barely even blinked. But that was not part of this trial. He had to make do with what he was given and while Aaron discovered patterns and the way the golems fought another fact crept into his consciousness. He got tired. That feeling shocked him a bit. So much so that he got nicked by one of the clay claws. The pain was sharp and then stopped as darkness took over Aaron's mind. Suddenly he was back in the water of the lake he had dropped into and was struggling to the surface. Aaron gasped when he made it out of the water agin and was surprised. Had he been sent back here by one of the golems?

But no, the golems were not in the corridor anymore and his arm did not have the cut from the claw anymore. Which meant the trial reset whenever he got hit. Aaron groaned and looked at the corridor itself. It was long and ended in an intersection with a small altar in the center. Two more corridors branched off at the altar and besides that he did not see anything.

So if he could not be hit and he got tired then it was probably a test to see how well he could get through this corridor, not how well he could defeat the golems. The Rejuvenating Fist would refresh him and the Unceasing Palm kata would keep him safe. It made a lot of sense. But it still looked difficult. There had been five golems coming at him at the start but there were dozens of alcoves lining the corridor. If he had to fight all of them this might get difficult without wind steps.

But there was nothing to it. Aaron stepped forward into the corridor and the golems came for him, taking a ponderous step out of their alcoves. Aaron hit the first one in the face with a straight punch and kept moving around it to the next golem. Soon he was guiding attacks away from him as he fought multiple golems at the same time. But their size and bulk made it difficult for them to attack him together and so Aaron kept slipping through their lines. Only to get hit in the back and wake up in the pool of water again.

What the hell happened? He had not sensed that attack coming for him at all...oh. Shit. Sensory Harmony was not active as well, which meant he did not have perfect situational awareness. How the hell was he supposed to do this?!

Through trial and error he found out how after another five botched attempts. Never keep your back to an enemy unless you are moving away from it and you are faster than it. It was really simple in theory, but difficult to do in practice. It meant often he had to turn his back to the wall and he had to keep moving to not get bogged down by the golems. But Aaron had mastered the katas. He just relied on other means to make them even more effective usually. So he had to relearn how to rely only on the katas to get through. Using the Rejuvenating Fist was an absolute necessity. He had to make the golems back off or he would get swarmed within seconds. The rejuvenating effect was also key to be able to fight for longer. He made it halfway through the corridor at his last attempt and thought he had figured it out.

Aaron moved slowly, smoothly, kept his steps even as he almost danced through the golems blocking the corridor. He let his hands do their work and focused on moving through the enemies efficiently. He snapped heads back with his fists, dodged and used the increased reaction speed of the Unceasing Palm kata to not just evade one attack, but plan how to deal with the attacks following after that. Rarely had Aaron had to think as much as he had to right now when fighting. Sylus body was very used to the katas and it moved honestly probably better than Aaron's real body would have without all of its enhancements. But it was also weak, got tired and a single hit would reset the trial.

Finally he made it through the corridor to the altar and anticipating the golems to swarm him from both sides he was surprised to see the golems back off from behind him and nothing coming after him from the sides.

"A checkpoint, huh." Aaron said to himself in a young boys voice that creeped him out a bit, so he stayed silent. He looked into both corridors, but they looked exactly like the one he had just crossed. Shadowy alcoves, sandstone everywhere else, torches burning in rows. So he focused on the altar itself. A whole section of the sandstone wall built the foundation of the altar and in the center of it surrounded by depictions of the heavenly kata was an empty slot that looked like a circle. Confused by what to do next Aaron studied every inch of the altar and paused when he studied the carved pictures of the heavenly kata. Maybe this was where he could learn the Piercing Finger? But no, every picture was about the Rejuvenating Fist or the Unceasing Palm kata. The left side was dedicated to the fist, the right to the palm.

Aaron recognized a lot of the pictures as stances in both katas but soon he also noticed that they were slightly off. The punches seemed to hit things further away from it than seemed physically possible and the palm acted like a shield more so than a simple physical technique. He could see the palm wave and arrows fall out of the air, could see punches connecting with enemies two feet apart. He frowned and was not sure if this was artistic license or a clue until he found a description at the bottom of the altar.

"A will everlasting, an intent to break the heavens and block the darkness of night. Fuse two into one to unlock the third heaven."

Aaron could read the script not because of the universal translator in his real head, but because Sylus could read the signs. This was clearly a hint and Aaron slowly dissected it in his mind. First and foremost the last line was almost a direct instruction. Fuse two into one to unlock the third heaven. The third heaven most likely meant the third heavenly kata or a third part of the trial or maybe both. Fusing two into one might be about the two heavenly katas he already knew. But fusing them into one was exactly what he had done so far. No, there must be more to it. Maybe it was meant more literally. Aaron's eyes wandered up to the empty socket in the center of the altar. There was a distinct possibility that there was a key around here, maybe even two keys you had to fuse into one to progress. He looked down the two corridors, but they curved around so he could not see their ends. The key pieces might wait at the end of the corridors, or he might be wrong entirely.

The first sentence was more difficult to dissect. A will everlasting meant little to him. This was the trial of the mind after all not will, but maybe that word, will meant more in their language than it actually did for Aaron. An intent to break the heavens and block the darkness of night was mysterious. Intent was the word with the most emphasis on it and he had encountered it before. When he had first gotten the memory cores Sylus had said they could be used through intent. To will them to work with his Qi. Will, intent. Aaron looked at the depictions of the katas that did more than they were physically able to do. What if...but how would that even work? He remembered seeing the Asura, who was a master of Killing intent. Remembered the assault he was helpless against with a simple gaze. He remembered unlocking the cores without touch, but simply by willing them to do what he wanted them to do.

His will when combined with Qi was more than just a mental thing, but a manifestation of something else. Of his mind expressed through Qi? Could that be used in combat? No, of course it could, the Asura was the living proof of that, the question was more could Aaron use it in combat?

Aaron stared at the depictions and frowned, deep in thought. He had no idea how to do that. Combat, especially with Sylus body was so much more complicated already, he needed to rely upon his reflexes and his mastery over the katas to do anything. Putting another mental burden on top of that felt suicidal. But this was the trial of the Mind after all. Everything fit and yet Aaron did not like it. His mind being directly responsible for manifesting something into reality was strangely alien to him. Could this really be the answer?

So he tested it. He went slowly through the two katas, who were like muscle memory to him now. He did not need to think to execute them properly. All he needed to do was let himself fall into the familiar movements. Then he tried to add intent to it. He willed his punch to be stronger, then longer. He willed, he focused and then he imagined like he had with the memory cores. Nothing happened at first, but then something clicked. It happened only once after more than two dozen tries, but that was enough. Aaron felt his Qi shift while he was in the Rejuvenating Fist kata and his punch became the fulcrum to release Qi that was naturally flowing because of the kata. It was like the movements of the kata, the precise always the same movements twisted his internal Qi into something more. Then his mind took a hold of that and projected the Qi outwards, let his will enhance the effect until he felt the Qi leave his fist with the punch. The result was a crack in the air as the air was displaced by an unshapely wave of Qi.

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Aaron paused and marveled at the novel sensation. Then he tried to do it again. He remembered the feeling and tried to replicate it, but it was difficult. Honing his intent felt like twisting his brain into shapes and it had to align perfectly with the movement or punch he was doing at that exact moment. It felt like those exercises where you had to do two things at once, rub your belly and pat your head. Aaron was terrible at it. But it wasn't just rather simple multitasking. It was more honing and focusing on a specific outcome to get a result within the time it took to execute a single punch. It was entirely useless! There was no way he could do that reliably. Especially not in combat.

Aaron frowned and guessed he had misunderstood something, so he went over the riddle again. Nope. It had to be intent, had to be will, a feat of the mind. This was the solution. He had no other ideas at all.

Frustrated with his slow progress with his new idea he walked towards the left corridor. Maybe he did not need this to finish the trial. If this was even the right answer at all. As expected Golems stepped out from the alcoves, but these golems looked entirely different than the ones from the corridor he had just passed. They were covered in grisly looking spikes from head to toe and while they walked even slower and more cumbersome than their spikeless cousins. They looked like an insurmountable obstacle. Aaron could not be hit once. How was he supposed to do this? He evaded one of the closest golems punch and felt the wall behind him as he scurried around the hulking spikeball. Only to be surrounded by three more spiky golems. He tried to use the Unceasing palm kata, but he still got cut while defending himself and ended up in the pool at the start of the trial.

Spluttering Aaron came to the surface and cursed like a sailor. What the fuck kind of trial was this? Mad and confused he went back into the first corridor and pummeled the hell out of the golems, dodging, weaving, rejuvenating until he was finally back at the altar. It did take him two more baths and resets because he had been so mad he had done dumb mistakes. Pointedly ignoring the left corridor he went to the right, expecting more spiky golems, because of course there would be.

He was wrong. Instead of spikes these golems looked sleek, metallic and they had blades for arms, sharp very deadly looking blades. Their red eyes glowed and then they moved. The golems were fast, almost too fast to react and Aaron used the unceasing palm kata to dodge and then punched one of the golems in its metal face. The golem stumbled back, although Aaron's hand hurt. And then he felt a blade pierce into his back and impale him as the blade burst out of his chest.

Aaron shuddered when he came up for air from the pool. That had hurt. Not as much as with sensory harmony, but still. Ouch. When he was out of the pool he just lied back on the cold stone of the cave and looked up into the shadowy darkness of the ceiling. He thought about the trial, thought about the altar and the hints. Yeah. This was all about intent. He had already been able to focus his intent once, it was possible. He just had to do it better. He had to train.

With a groan he stood up and stretched. Something Sylus adolescent body had not done often it seemed like, because it felt awkward and hurt. But once he was done, Aaron had calmed down and was able to rationally see the path forward. He would use the first corridor towards the altar to hone his intent. The golems there were not as bad and he could get away with mistakes with them. It was more and more clear to him that the spiky golems had to be punched with intent to get through and the fast blade golems had to be defended against with the upgraded version of the Unceasing Palm kata. This was something new.

His mind, his concentration and his will would push himself forward. There was no time in this trial, no sense of passing moments. Just a never changing set of enemies he could grind his will and techniques on. So Aaron began.

He started with going through his katas slowly, imbuing each and every move with Qi until the intent caught and he felt the physical effect of the Qi moving and doing something. He was not sure if it was the Trial or if a cultivator really got this much Qi back just from breathing, but Sylus Qi pool inside of himself felt like it was inexhaustible. So he did the only thing he could and repeated the katas over and over. With each strike or each dodge he weaved into his combination kata he imbued his hands with Qi. With a will to hit further, to defend at range, to block or to hit hard like his fists were made out of steel, or like he was shooting a projectile from his knuckles. It was a slow arduous process, but Aaron slowly but surely learned how each set of movements encouraged a certain type of intent enhancement. Where there was a punch, an offensive action, the Qi surged with the body to a point of release he could feel and enhance with his will to do more. If it was a slamming action, a physical feat or an elbow blow, the Qi surged to reinforce the body part and Aaron was surprised to learn he had done this before.

His reinforcement technique Sylus had taught him was exactly this! He had used this so many times to ensure his body would not be hurt. Once he realized that things progressed much smoother. He imagined every time he punched his fist was like steel, like diamond. His muscles reinforced, his bones harder than steel. It was simple stuff, but Aaron could feel the physical changes brought by the Qi and quickly found out the more compatible the thought, the will, the intent, the stronger the reaction. Certain punches were made to release Qi, others were not. The same was the case with the Unceasing Palm kata. Some actions were made to be used like a shield, to weave Qi after the hand like a veil of immaterial defense, others were not.

The Unceasing Palm kata was fluid, never the same, ever changing, reactive and yet the stances themselves had preordained compatible Intent as well, he slowly found over many, many repetitions.

Only when he was able to conjure the intent with little effort in every stance and position in both katas did Aaron challenge the golems again. And immediately got smacked in the face. He was too slow. He needed to speed this whole process up. Aaron quickly realized he did not have to imbue every action with intent, some were fine without it and so he could pick and choose. He fought, slowly acclimated to the strange mental gymnastics of intending his punches to reach further. But the results were absolutely blowing his mind.

The golems heads exploded when Aaron managed the sequence of events just right. When he was releasing just the right amount of Qi and the right intent the force was multiplied by many, many times and he did not even touch the golem while he smashed them apart. The Unceasing Palm kata was actually easier to imbue with intent because the relative time he seemed to have was increased. The sensation of the world slowing down while he did not was prevalent and so it was much easier to imbue his movements with Qi. Instead of moving aside a blade by the wrist of the golem, he moved the sword with a wave of Qi and with the right intent could block more than one strike or pull or push the golem away. The options he suddenly had felt almost limitless. It was only up to his mind to think of them.

Aaron had no idea how long he fought with the golems in the first corridor, had no idea how long he honed his Qi. When he was through the corridor usually he touched the altar and then returned back down the corridor until he had smashed all the golems apart and was stepping over broken husks of clay and earth. When he was done with the first corridor he moved on to the left and faced the spiked versions.

Here was where he usually got killed. The spiked versions needed to be handled by Qi alone. Every movement had to be imbued or planned ahead of time. When he pricked his hand again and was sent back into the water he roared in frustration. He was so close, damn it. He could feel it, like he was standing in front of a threshold. His mind felt like it was as inexhaustible as the Qi inside of Sylus body.

So he challenged the corridors again and again. He got further and further down the spiked corridor. His punches managing to damage or pushing back the golems to make some space, before evading and defending himself against the inevitable counter attack. Moving was paramount and standing still death. Losing focus just once was an instant reset. His mind sunk into the task as he increased the time he had to react with the Unceasing Palm kata as much as he could. It was like a puzzle, like a moving living puzzle he needed the answers for.

This punch needed that intent. That arm smashing down on him, needed that palm to go there with that intent. It was never the same, no answer was always correct, no situation repeating itself. But he learned the range of movement of the spiked golems, learned their speed, their habits, their senses. He weaved through them like a ghost, time standing still to his mind as he planned and opened up paths in between the hulking obstacles looming over him with their sharp spikes promising death and failure. Aaron punched a golem in the face, the puff of Qi perfectly regulated as it smashed apart the golem's eyes and making the golem useless, even an obstacle to its brethren. He dodged underneath a swipe by a spiked hand that was like a spiked mace as it flew by. Aaron stepped forward, past the attacker, casually guiding it to overextend and stumble forward while he pulled and pushed it against another attack coming for him. Then there was a new set of problems.

His body moved before his mind did and all Aaron had to do was will his punches to tear his enemies apart, will his palms to weave Qi in between him and the offending enemy. Until he suddenly stepped onto the end of the left corridor. Like before the golems paused and then returned to their alcoves. Some with trouble because they were that damaged.

Aaron was panting, tired, exhausted mentally and physically as he collapsed and took a breather. He was bathed from head to toe with sweat and even though he had rejuvenated himself, it was still so difficult to do this. It took him a few minutes to catch his breath and only then he looked around at the end of the corridor.

There was nothing much to see. Just another small altar with a glimmering half circle made out of jade placed on top. The green was bright and beautiful and Aaron reached out gingerly to touch it. It felt smooth under his fingers and yet he could feel a resonance, felt Qi from the jade. Aaron's eyebrows rose and he gently pried the jade out from its socket. He held it carefully and studied it intently. There were no carvings on it at all and he was almost disappointed. But then he sensed the hint of Qi inside of it again and he reached out with his mind. Let Qi flow into it as he willed it to life. To work.

A wash of memories entered his mind and he was sucked into it in an instant.

Sylus stood in front of a training dummy and beat the straw and leather contraption with a deep fury. He had been beaten by one of the kids his age and he was so frustrated. He wished he could smash that smug bastards face in. Damn that guy. His fist landed and got smothered by the dummy and he hated it for it. Break damn it. He channeled all his hurt all his anger into his punch and released it. He felt his Qi leave with it and the training dummy was smashed apart. Sylus stared at the resilient dummy with awe and then looked at his fist. From that time he honed his secret weapon to get revenge. He would show that idiot! He trained in secret every day until it was time for their weekly duels again.

Sylus let the idiot get overconfident, let him take the advantage, before he unleashed his secret weapon. The idiots face was smashed with an invisible force and he landed undignified on his back, howling in pain. Sylus smirked. Served him right.

"Sylus." an old stern voice interrupted his gloating and he saw his grandfather look at him with that knowing and judging look. Sylus insides froze and he felt suddenly so ashamed. Why had he done this? He followed his grandfather looking down and barely heard the other elders tirade about honor in sparring and vicious sneak attacks. He was waiting for his grandfather to say anything, but he just lead him back to his compound. There Sylus sat down on the floor and tried his best to look as guilty as he felt. Secretly he was still delighted though. It had worked!

"That was a neat little trick there, but why did you have to be so clumsy about it?" his grandfather said and Sylus looked up surprised. His grandfather had one of his knowing smirks on his lips and Sylus felt embarrassed again.

"Come with me, you might be still a bit young, but once you have tasted the power of the third kata its difficult to make you stop. So I better teach you how to do it right."

"The third kata?"

"Yes, the Piercing Finger is a projection kata. It teaches you how to project Qi inside of your body and on the outside. Of course its also a proper kata, with its own complementary move set, but this is the foundation of it. Its just like you to find this answer on your own. Come one, follow me."

His grandfather led him to their small training area and a training dummy, quite similar to the one Sylus had destroyed. But this one had an array carved into its socket so it was much better. More resilient and yet made out of the same rather soft material.

"If you project Qi and intent into your Rejuvenating Fist then you want to shape the intent properly. Please demonstrate it on the dummy."

Sylus frowned and then channeled his feelings and hatred into the fist to make it stronger and then punched.

"Hmmm, weak. What is your mental image?"

"My what?"

"What do you think about while infusing your fist with intent, with Qi."

"Oh...err...how much I hate that stupid moron?"

His grandfather chuckled merrily and shook his head in amazement.

"That will not do. What if you are not angry anymore? Better to imagine your fist to be made out of steel to reinforce it. Try it."

Sylus did, his mind conjuring the image of his arm glimmering like steel, hard unyielding, heavy. His fist smashed into the dummy with a satisfying loud crash.

"Good, better. Now another punch, like this." Grandfather demonstrated a rather weak straight punch that Sylus usually did not like to use much. But he followed his guidance and it...really did not work well.

"Did you feel the difference?"

"Yes, but why? This punch sucks."

His grandfather chuckled again and shook his head.

"No Sylus, its not the punch that sucks, but your image, your intent. Focus. Imagine your fist being longer, like a spear piercing into your enemies chest. Take a half step back, keep the intent in your mind and then let it flow out of you with the punch."

Sylus took a half step back and imagined the punch to reach further to pierce the dummy, to punch through it as his arm grew in length. Then he punched. A sharp snap sound came from the dummy as his Qi bellowed out and hit the dummy in the stomach. Sylus grinned, wide eyed. He could hit things at range?!

"Good, excellent. You have talent for this, Sylus. Now, this was a rather unshapely bit of Qi. Piercing might be a bit too far. Hmmm, tell me how should a fist hit?"

"Like a mace, like steel, like a hammer." Sylus said passionately.

"Yes, exactly. So imagine that your arm is the handle of a mace and the Qi its head, smashing into the enemy. Keep it tight, like a small ball of metal."

"Why small? Should the mace not be big, so it does a lot of damage?"

"Oh no, its the opposite. A small heavy object will do much more damage than a big one, if they have the same mass and weight behind it. Small, compact, but heavy like lead. Try the difference for yourself, go on."

Sylus first imagined a giant hammerhead on the end of his fist as he repeated the punch and his Qi smacked loudly into the dummy. Sylus grinned and then tried it like his grandpa wanted to, to humor him. He imagined a small lead ball smaller than his fist to smack into the dummy as he released the punch. The dummy cracked and a small hole appeared in its chest, where the leather and straw had been dented inwards by a few inches. The sound was far less impressive, but the damage was. Sylus stared in disbelief and his grandfather chuckled.

"The right image, the right intent for the right situation. Of course no situation will be the same. There is no absolute perfection, only close enough unless you are a master of nine."

A master of all nine heavenly katas. Sylus knew Grandfather was a master of nine, but he was retired as he was one of the oldest still living members of his clan. Sometimes he forgot that fact when his grandfather taught him.

"Take the Unceasing Palm for example. It needs fluid movements, never cease, never falter, be liquid as water." Grandfather said and demonstrated as he went through the supernaturally fluid movements of his rendition of the Unceasing Palm kata. His hands trailed actual water to Sylus amazement. It looked like he was moving a ball of water around with his palms and only on a second look he realized that it was Qi manifested into physical form, not water as it trailed, left streaks in the air and moved around the old man like a living being.

"The Unceasing Palm is your shield, your bastion against all attackers. Qi follows the palm and is like water. No force can do more than ripple an ocean and Qi has no depths, only intent."

Aaron was catapulted out of the memory and found himself inside of the trial again. But now he had the accumulated wisdom of Sylus about intent, or at least a small amount of it. It was still so much knowledge in that memory so many insights condensed into watching the old man move, in being taught by him. Aaron had felt it viscerally how strong, graceful and impenetrable that Unceasing Palm kata had been.

"Qi has no depths, only intent. Like an ocean..." he murmured. He felt like he had barely begun learning anything when comparing his own accomplishments with that of even the young Sylus, not to speak of his grandfather. But he could learn from them both. The way the old man had used the Unceasing palm kata was inspiring.

Aaron fell instinctively into the Unceasing Palm kata as he tried to mimic the old mans movements. It felt like trying to dance ballet after having only seen it once. Sure in this analogy Aaron was a dancer already, but he had never really danced like this. He had never used the kata like this. Any attack that would encounter his Qi should not bounce off or simply be guided away. Its force should vanish in the depths of the ocean. It should sink in, slow down. But this was difficult to do without anyone actively hitting him.

Almost in a trance he moved into the corridor again, facing the spiked golems once more. This time he focused on defense only. He let their spiked morgenstern like hands sink into the Qi he weaved while moving through them. He guided their force away and let it sink in. There was at first little difference, but the more his mind followed that path the more true it became. The more easy it was to let their attacks vanish in the Ocean of his Qi. The golems smashed into Aaron only to be slowed by his Qi, almost tethered to it until Aaron was long gone and they horribly out of position, open to attack. His fists were like projectiles and more effective than a shotgun blast to the face as he punished the openings he created. Aaron released one punch after another, while he moved through the golems that had given him so much trouble before. Now it felt like they were mere training dummies to hone his intent on.

In his trance like state he moved through the katas at every step, his every movement, no matter how small was an expression of the martial arts he had learned. The effect of his seemingly limitless Qi he could spend here was immediate and striking. After no more than 15 minutes of fighting, which felt much longer due to his increased perception of time during the Unceasing Palm kata, he finished off the last golem in the left corridor. But he was not done. Had not reached the limit of what he wanted to test, wanted to accomplish. So he moved on to the right corridor.

Here he was put on the defense immediately. His movements and strikes were still slow, the time needed to imbue intent was seconds, which was far too long in the high pace combat the sword golems practiced. Before long Aaron was catapulted back into the water as he was cut by one of the golems. But Aaron did not mind. He reveled in the challenge and threw himself into the first corridor again. He slowly worked through the golems up to the altar, defeating them this time, not just avoiding them. Then he moved on to the left corridor again, beating the golems to a pulp while he refined his mental image. In his head he continued to will his Qi to flow like water, imagined dancing upon the ocean, each golem just another wave to scale, their attacks dissipating within moments, his own attacks like cannon balls from a ship, ripping apart any enemy vessels traveling on the sea. His mental image for his Qi releases were refined, but as he slowly drifted out of the Trance he was in, he realized the problems he would have with this new way of fighting. It used up an ungodly amount of Qi. Like he could be emptying his entire dantian fighting like this within half an hour.

This realization catapulted him out of his harmonic state and Aaron assessed what he had gained and what he needed to learn. It was not enough to know how to release Qi and hone his mental image so that the attack was quick and natural. He needed to be able to not do it as well. To pick and choose when to use it. The most efficient usage of Qi was to enhance the attacks and defensive options that did not release Qi, because internal Qi enhanced with Intent was basically recycled again. But once he released a punch with Qi to strike something, the energy was gone.

Frowning Aaron picked up the jade half circle and returned to the central altar. He would need to learn how to do all of this again, even after mastering it with full Qi usage, simply because it was otherwise unusable for his real body.

Still he was elated, felt deep joy in learning and growing stronger by the minute. He could worry about efficiency and Qi usage after he had conquered the right corridor.