Heaven's Gifted Genius 天赐奇才

Chapter 8 - Advance to cultivator

Bu Lan Deng and Thi En Tran moved swiftly to return to their musty living quarters, though Thi En Tran's was practically in shambles after the stunt he pulled with his vigorous internal energy.

Obviously, two men weren't allowed in a cell at once, so the pair went to great lengths to stay undetected while they moved over to Thi En Tran's cell. It was already half collapsed, so it probably wouldn't matter to the slave camp if they just 'finished the job'. Bu Lan Deng thought the place needed renovations anyway.

"Brother Tran, they're slipping!" Bu Lan Deng said hysterically, almost attempting to grab his rear in desperation.

Thi En Tran quickly covered his poor friend's mouth. "Shut it for now, brother Bu, we're almost there just stay quiet and follow my lead!" Thi En peeked around the corner to wait for the plate mail covered guard to pass. He cursed internally at the realisation that recently they've been upping their patrols for some unknown reason, but had no choice but to bear it anyway.

"Brother Bu now! Wait hold on, there's another one, just wait for him to pass." He whispered occasionally.

Slipping through the narrow corridors with their shadows flickering in the firelight, he saw familiar looking bars wrought from cold iron. Inside his head, Thi En Tran was constantly thanking his martial ancestors. He opened the gate, and although it creaked with an ungodly screech, nobody seemed to have heard it or have bothered to check it out. The place was already spooky enough, and all of the guards were on edge since they were all tasked with guarding the perimeter around the cells. Thi En Tran was even more on edge, as in an hour, roll call would begin for the evening and it would soon be discovered that he and Bu Lan Deng were not there.

"This isn't gonna hurt right?" Bu Lan Deng asked while dusting the floor so he could sit.

Thi En Tran grinned "If you're worried about the pain I suggest you just return to the mines and live your life as normal." He said jokingly. "Shouldn't hurt more than putting those spirit stones up there though."

Bu Lan Deng sat cross legged and took off his shirt, and Thi En Tran began explaining to him the method for controlling his qi and cultivating in the future. What he was teaching Bu Lan Deng was a profound secret art, as he knew that this guy would be one of the top pillars of the world in the future. Obviously he couldn't just wantonly spread around his Nine Heavens Yang secret art, it was more like a watered down version of it that would continue to be useful until he reached about the same peak Thi En Tran did in his previous life.

"The process does tear every muscle in your body however."

"Wait brother Tran!-"

Thi En Tran swiftly planted open palms onto Bu Lan Deng's back, while promoting the accumulation of world qi from the air. Naturally, Bu Lan Deng could not withstand this sudden invasion within his body and started to shiver and tense up uncontrollably, sweating bullets as he screamed. Despite Thi En Tran's immense strength, he could not help grunting through laboured breaths.

"Do it, Brother Bu, do the thing I taught you!"

Even through the immense pain, Thi En Tran's words had reached Bu Lan Deng's ears, and he suddenly opened his eyes with a sort of unreadable but dignified expression. It was as if his body was telling him to do nothing but persist. He began feeling the flow of qi from within, guiding it through his meridians down to his lower abdomen. Upon closer inspection, he could see some kind of reaction occurring, the solidification of particles, and an acceleration in the accumulation of world qi.

"I can feel it brother Tran, I can feel the energy rising inside of me!"

His thoughts were becoming hazy, like his entire consciousness was splitting apart and dissipating, but he knew that if he failed here now, he didn't deserve to embark on the path of martial arts in the future. He tried to hold back his screams of pain but they could not be blocked by his lips.

...

A few metres away, around a corner, a young blonde haired guard was sitting on a chair sipping a kind of green tea. When he heard strange noises, he hesitated, but eventually decided to go investigate. Otherwise, there would be no reason to pay him if he wasn't doing his job.

Dan Ni Du stood up and sat his teacup by the teapot on the floor, placing one hand on the side of his waist where the hilt of his sword lay. As he slowly approached, the weird shouts and noises began growing louder. Two voices, he recorded in his brain internally. Normally due to his timid nature he would just leave it be or even run and tell his seniors to take care of the problem instead, but one could see a look of resolve on his face. He wasn't running anymore, not this time.

When he rounded the corner to see the cell closest to him, he could see tons of dust kicked about, and two shirtless men obscured by a bit of rubble. The first man was fairly toned, and was standing with his hands laid out in front of him. The second man was slightly lower underneath him and was also shirtless, and Dan Ni Du could tell even though he could only see parts of his shoulders.

The pair was often grunting and sounded like they were under some sort of strain, not that he would know what it was. He could hear snippets of a conversation, but he could not hear it under the sound of a swirling storm. Though he could only pick up things like "Do it!" and "Inside me!" It was plenty to infer what was going on.

With a deadpan expression on his face, Dan Ni Du decided to leave. Not leaving to return to his post or anything, but to turn in his resignation letter.

...

Back inside Thi En Tran's cell, it felt like the world was collapsing around them. A wild torrent of world energy whipped around them as it began concentrating into a vortex in the middle of the cell.

"Keep it up, Brother Bu, we're almost there!"

With furrowed brows, Bu Lan Deng seemed like he was under the most intense pressure in the world, but while his face often flickered with pain, there were also signs that he was comprehending something. The storm around him was loud, but to him, there was a deep and hidden undertone that was being fed into his brain, broadening his understanding of everything around him. All of a sudden faint wisps of qi manifested around the pair, and Thi En Tran released his hands from Bu Lan Deng's back and began to weave mysterious seals with his hands, which caused the wisps to rapidly enter a spot in the lower section of Bu Lan Deng's backside.

Energy suddenly burst out with a bluish light, and then silence.

"Bu Lan Deng, how do you feel?"

Bu Lan Deng stood up and opened his eyes, seemingly inspecting himself and clenching his fist a few times.

"I feel amazing! Brother Tran you're truly a dragon among men!" He said earnestly.

He launched his fists forward in the air a couple of times like he was shadow boxing. There was great force behind those punches, from within the prisoners, he was probably only second to Thi En Tran in terms of pure force.

"Impressive!" Thi En Tran laughed while collecting himself. The process was extremely taxing so Thi En Tran being tired was an understatement. While the whole process only took an hour, it felt like he had been running for days on end.

"Hold on a minute, it's been an hour? Oh damn it! Brother, but we have to get moving, now!" He yelled, while hurriedly putting on his shirt.

Bu Lan Deng was doing the same thing but raised a question. "Wait, why?"

"We've missed roll call, they'll come for us soon!"

Bu Lan Deng's face paled slightly.

"Quickly, take this." Thi En Tran placed two fingers in the middle of his forehead and closed his eyes, then pulled out a small wisp of luminous energy. "It's information on a movement technique I developed a while back, quickly study it and if you can use it, excellent!"

Bu Lan Deng cupped his fists and absorbed the small wisp of spiritual energy, and it seemed like Thi En Tran's comprehension of martial arts was flowing into his brain. "Many thanks brother Tran!"

Thi En Tran was quite reluctant to hand over his entire movement technique that he spent years developing for free like that, but there was no time to dawdle on such paltry matters for now. 

From somewhere above them, they heard a big commotion, it seemed like something big was happening and it was quite obvious what was going on.