Above Heavens I Stand

Chapter 2 - Disciple and Master

Time passed slowly and eventually a little breeze passed by Li Lan. The leaves on the shattered sticks, whether it had parted from its original tree and was left on the ground, they still rustled and left a calm and sincere feeling.

Li Lan opened his eyes, looked around suspiciously. Then let out a breath of relief. Seemingly he had thought that he had heard someone along with the breeze, but unable to see or hear anymore, he let it be.

Once again he sat in the middle of a spring. The presence sat on a branch looking down at him, while he himself also meditated. What the presence saw was an ambitious young man, if not a young child. His long yet not long black hair, sat on the stone with no clothing.

The presence nodded in accept. Closed his eyes and stayed around. A few days passed like this. Li Lan sat cross-legged on a rock in the middle of the little lake, rather close to the small waterfall. His heart jumped every other minute.

Li Lan began to feel despair, soon a month had passed by. There had been no progress in his energy accumulation, and he had yet to even feel the slight energy enter his body. Li Lan skinny yet muscular chose to stop temporarily to go hunt.

He put on his robe, tattered as it was. Picked up his belt and put it in, then he attached the pouch. Hidden under some tattered clothing was his weapon, it was almost blunt after the endless use of multiple years. It was a blade that had been reinforced with leftover steel.

Li Lan gave himself a satisfied nod, as if he had just created this weapon of his, even though he had made it many years ago. The presence smiled lightly as he watched Li Lan place his weapon on the rock. Li Lan picked up some flint and gritted at the blade.

After an hour of sharpening the blade he stood up and with flickering eyes he ran into the forest. Filled with excitement and hope for the prey he would find. When the presence saw this, he followed by, not close, but not far away either.

"Leaving my personal barrier kid, you have guts!" the presence thought to himself. For three hours Li Lan kept hunting, he picked up some pelt that he could use to sew as an attachment to his robe. This pelt came from a middle aged bear that Li Lan spent an hour and a half trying to defeat.

Feeling his energy having depleted by half, he was still not satisfied with his haul. He had only gotten enough meat for a few days, and he kept going. Soon he was embraced by a small mountain chain and decided to move along at the end.

Soon Li Lan stumbled upon a cave in the mountain, it was not particularly big, and inside was a dim shine of a turquoise bluish light. He entered and as soon as he did he felt a dense air, not breeze but the whole cave was filled with some kind of emanating energy.

Li Lan soon realized what was upon him, and he went into a room in the side of the small cave. It was not bigger than thirty feet, the cave that is. In the room he entered an even denser air. Li Lan felt as if this energy had been accumulated for multiple years.

Cross-legged he sat in the middle of the room and he began sweating. This time he had finally managed to feel a thread of energy moving through his body. Trying to get a hang of the energy his face was distorted. He had never expected the pressure would be this hard.