In this world, there were two types of martial practitioner. The first was the one who did not have dantian essense flow. This type depended on his own physical strength. They were considered to be common martial practitioners.
The second was practitioners with dantian essense flow -- (氣 Qì or energy) the vital life essense in living creature. The energy was flowing within the body, likely blood stream, that could affect the living and nature. The practitioners were called cultivators. To use the essense, the dantian gate had to be opened. And not anyone had that priviledge.
It was either bornt with it or practiced it for life long. Too bad that life long, eternity, immortality, was just a myth. Human life was fleeting -- gone like a wind, disappeared along with morning dew. It was nearly impossible to learn cultivation.
As the human's age was short, they prefered to chase things that could be attained. Being common martial practitioner was good enough. But some tried extreme way to opened up dantian gate with force. Yes, it was possible, and yet death was one of the results.
Yang Jun was the first type martial practitioner. He was bornt with dantian closed gate. One day, he sneaked into his grandfather's study room. There were a lot of ancient scriptures. One of them was about the history of cultivation and the ancient sects. Out of curiosity, he opened his own gate according to the scripture.
Resulting, he was convulsed for hours, in the verge of living and death for months. When he woke up, he could feel the energy flowing inside his body, his dantian gate was opened and filled with yang energy. It was the same day, he swore not to do extreme experiment on himself again.
The old scripture he read, mentioned about the ancient sects. The sects of cultivators, but some of them were practising dangerous arts, which could break and defy the law of nature. They fed on nature essense, transforming the essense within their own body, modifying it to create something 'unknown'.
At that time, he did not understand anything. Normally, cultivators manipulated the nature, but they could not defy the nature law itself. Example, if someone flowed his own energy into the sword, it manipulated its weight, direction, and sharpness. But sword was just a sword -- a tool -- that could not change into something else. If it could transform into different kinds of weapons, it had defied the law of nature.
Creating, eleminating, and transforming something out of nothing, was nonsense and illogical. And now, after witnessing with his own eyes, how a skinny boned boy grew meat and muscles, how bruises over his body disappeared, Yang Jun finally understood by 'defying the nature' meaning.
"Hey, are you alright?" Yang Jun waved his hands in front of the boy.
"....."
He did not answer; his black onyx eyes looked at Yang Jun puzzledly.
"Hey, can you hear me?" He asked again. Is it the side effect of the accupunture? Or something had gotten into his brain while half dying?
Yang Jun tried to touch his face, yet it was swiftly dismissed. Yang Jun smirked lightly, "Look like you are just fine. What is your name and where are you from?"
"....."
He was silent again. After a moment, he shivered in cold. Yang Jun shook his head, taking off his outer robe and put it to cover the boy. When he tried to fend him off, Yang Jun said,
"Just take it. Your current outfit cannot warm you up." He circled that robe around that boy's shoulder and covered him up.
"...."
"Since you do not say anything, I will take that as agreement." He stood up, stretching out his arm, "Come on, we need to get out of here."
The boy looked at Yang Jun, hesitated, then finally took his hand. "You stand here. I will pound the door. When they come in, cripple them in one hit at the back of their neck." Yang Jun instructed while giving him a piece of long wood.
"...."
He was hopeless. That boy didn't seem to understand his words or just wanted to ignore him. "Alright. Just stand there and leave it to me..." He gave out body signals. The boy only stood there glancing him enigmaticly. Yang Jun did not say anymore. He pounded on the door as hard as he could, several times, until he heard swearing.
"You are looking for death, Kid. I swear, I don't give a fuck who you are. You die in my hand..." He could hear the furious footsteps getting closer.
"Hey, where are you going? We are told to look after them not the otherwise." The sober one stopped the drunkard move.
"I am going to teach that kid a lesson he won't forget."
"Stop that. You are drunk."
"No, I am not."
As they argued, a loud thud was heard again. This time the drunkard had lost his patience. He took his blade and stormed out.
"Stop that!" His friend yelled, tring to stop him, but this time he did not listen.
"If you try to stop me again, I will kill you too." He furiously shouted. The sober one gave up.
Yang Jun cunningly smirked behind the door. Living in barrack, he learnt about human psychology. He knew some drunkards would be very sensitive to sound. A little bang could ring inside their head for quite long time. He used that to provoke the person outside to create division between them.
He had prepared stances to counter attack. In a second, the drunk one had barged in. He held a 弯刀 (Wān Dāo) on his hand. His eyes were furiously red, even his veins were visible.
"You little bastard, why can't you just shut the fuck up? I will have you learn a lesson, not to mess with me." He shouted in rage.
Yang Jun ready to tackled as the man raised his wān dāo. But, suddenly that boy used his fist to hit that man's belly. The hit was so hard that the man flung backward. He swiftly took the wān dāo, then slashed the man's neck ruthlessly. All of that happened within few seconds. The boy's movement was so fast that couldn't be caught by bare eyes.
His onyx eyes were cold and deep, did not even flich seeing bursting blood; as if he was used to it. The man's friend who was behind him was stumbled, fell down on his butt. He remembered his leader murmured the boy might had killed the ShenGang horse bandits. At that time, he was laughing along with the others. And now, he could laugh no more.
Who wouldn't scare seeing such thing before their eyes? He crawled, wanting to escape, the boy had already stood before him; tugging his hair, not letting him go. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate at the time the boy raised his fist.
"Stop....!"
A loud voice was clear and crisp. The boy stopped in sudden. He tried to move his fist again, yet the voice ordered him, "I said , STOP!" The man turned back, seeing Yang Jun standing there with frightening aura. What's going with the boys nowadays? Why are they so scary?
The boy tried to move but he couldn't. He perplexed, what's going on? Why can't I move?
Yang Jun grinned victoriously, "It is useless. I used my own essense to relive you. Now, you are bound to me. You cannot do things contradict me."
The boy did not understand what Yang Jun murmured about, yet he knew that his body serve another master now. That yang energy which opposite to his, had dwelled inside his core. He laughed faintly, what a devious act! He looked innocent, but being able to pull this trick.
Yang Jun walked toward the bandit. "Do you wish to live?"
He nodded in fear.
"Then serve us some food..."
"What?!"
"Should I repeat my words? When I was locked inside, both you and your friend had some meat and wine. Now, serve us all of them."
The bandit hurriedly rose up, preparing food to eat.
"I bet you haven't had proper meals for ages. Eat and fill your stomach heartily." He said to the boy who was stupefied standing there. He gave the body signal telling him to sit and eat meals. He was not happy with Yang Jun, still obidiently followed him.
Yang Jun sat on the chair, like a little boss. The bandit served them some meat that he had had with his friend. He looked at them, holding on wine bottle with doubt.
"No worry, I have drunk wine since I was seven. Moreover, wine is good during winter." Yang Jun took the wine bottle and pour a cup to the boy, gesturing him to drink it. The boy ate like beast, chomping the food like never had it before.
"Eat at ease. No one will fight over it." Yang Jun chuckled seeing the huge lump on his cheeks. After a moment, he averted his gaze to the bandit who was kneeling before him.
"How come a weak witted person like you becoming a bandit?" That was an insult, but Yang Jun spurted it politely with innocent face.
"It is none of your business..." Yang Jun had hurt his pride. For second, he thought dead was still better than being humiliated like this.
"Hmm..." Yang Jun took out something from his robe -- a bronze whistle, a qilin was crafted on it.
"Do you know what is this?" He showed the whistle to the bandit.
Noticing a qilin image, the bandit turned pale. He immediately kowtowed to the ground repeating, "Master, beg your mercy... beg your mercy..."
He recognised the qilin was the symbol of Yang Family, which the second in command after emperor. The family had huge influence over Gifu. The family specially governed the east region of Rou and southern east Dong Nan. The one who hold qilin symbol had to be main branch of Yang Family who resided in capital city.
"I see that this symbol is still powerful outside capital city. If you are a normal bandit, I will not even use family crest. Since the late emperor Fu Zhong becoming the king, and my grandfather as his advisor, the slavery and trafficking had been terminated. It had stated as national law. Now, tell me who is the one brave enough to break the law of great nation Gifu?"
The bandit was helpless by the time Yang Jun mentioned 'grandfather' and 'advisor'. This boy looked like a noble and different. Nevertheless, he never thought that he was prime minister's son.
And clearly to him, meeting this boy was not coincidence. He deliberately let himself arrested in order to investigate the matter. From the timing calculation, the climate change, and his position, this operation was meticulously calculated.
This boy, the 2nd son of prime minister, Yang Jun, was really terrifying. His strength did not lay on his physic, but his patience and calmness.
Glossary
1. 弯刀 (Wān Dāo) – "Curved Saber"
· Design: Single-edged, deeply curved blades (similar to scimitars or Turko-Mongol sabers).
· Purpose: Ideal for horseback slashing, quick draw cuts, and brutal close combat.
· Bandit Fit: Matches the hit-and-run tactics of desert raiders.