After many days of grueling reading and numeracy lessons, I'm finally allowed to learn more about elemental power. The scenery changed, probably because I can accidentally destroy the Chasm.
So now, we're in a vast ocean where it's all blue with no dangerous craggy rocks to destroy. A school of colorful fish swims by like a shimmering rainbow. My mouth waters just by looking at them. With a flick of his wrist, my master made bubbles around each fish, lining them up.
"You're not going to use your Elemental Air Blast today. Instead, you need to balance it out. This time, I want to see you use a vacuum technique."
Vacuum? How do I do that? I look at him, confused.
He scratches his chin and his brows furrows.
"I've seen how you eat, you vacuum up all the krill, so apply it to this."
Each small fish is wrapped in a bubble and whirls around me, making me dizzy.
But he continued saying, "Go on, eat your fill."
Eat my fill? I like this kind of training. Open wide! So I drop my jaw wide and chomp away, but the fish keeps evading me. I keep missing. He's moving the bubbles away from me.
"Hey! That's not fair! Don't play with my food!"
"You're not following my instructions. I said vacuum." He demonstrates this by taking a deep breath.
Suddenly, a strong current appears. All the bubbles rapidly gravitate towards him. Just before they reach his mouth, they stop and float up again.
"You can try it, except you can eat it. I don't like eating raw fish."
This is interesting. I take a deep breath, mouth agape, drawing in as much as possible. Then I splutter. All I'm getting is water. The fish barely made its way towards me. It remains stationed. And then you know what my master did?
He takes a book out of his sleeve and starts reading.
"Um, is that all? Aren't you going to teach me?"
"I've shown you enough. You'll get it. Keep at it."
I take another deep breath, suck like a goby. I start choking on water. He doesn't even spare a glance at me. He flips another page over. I suppose he can't help me with this. He can't do it for me. It is my body, after all.
I had a long think about it. When I used my blast, all I thought was screaming at the top of my lungs, pushing all the air out of my body. Air! That's all I thought about. What would happen if I just focused on the air and sucked in the air?
I give it another go. Just concentrating on the air in the water. And feeling and sensing the air pockets. The little tiny air molecules. I only want the air.
I take a deep breath. And then the bubbles of fish slowly gravitate towards me. As it moves towards me, I hear another page flip.
He flicks his wrist again, and the fish start swirling.
I close my eyes before the dizziness takes over and try to sense the flow of the currents.
I sniff the scent of fish. I stick out my tongue to taste the salty sea. I raise my head and start to draw in just the air.
To my surprise, keeping my eyes closed, there's a fish in my mouth. That's one.
My eyes snap open and the bubbles are swirling around me again. I managed to get one. I can feel it wriggling in my mouth.
Crunch! This is a new taste for me. It's scrumptious! I like this training.
That appetizer made my stomach grumble, and my mouth salivate. Eager for more, I keep my eyes peeled; I prefer to see what I eat.
The swirling doesn't bother me anymore as they rotate like a whirlpool. To me, it means that there's a lot of fish for me to eat. I gape like a baby bird and gobble them all in, munching away happily. With all the extra air that I'm inhaling, my stomach starts to bloat. Oh no, I need to release it!
And then a large wheezing sound escapes me.
My master pinches his nose.
"Most people exhale air out, either through their nose or mouth. Must you use the rear end?"
"Better out than in."
He shakes his head, still pinching his nose.
"How about we try without any incentive?"
Then, he points his fingers up. Air bubbles swirl around me. The training is not as fun without food, but I want to get stronger, so I ready myself.
I take a deep breath. I start sucking all the air bubbles.
To my surprise, it didn't budge. I glance over at him.
He has already shifted his attention to his book. His hand extends, and he's still holding the air bubbles.
"Uh, Master, do you think you can let it go?"
He shakes his head. He puts down his hand and flips a page.
But the bubbles remain there, even though he's not holding it anymore. How does he do that when he's not even looking?
I dart towards the bubble with jaw agape, ready to feast, but the air bubble keeps evading me. He's moving the bubbles while reading, and he's not even looking! This significant gap between power is so frustrating!
I groan, my mind reels: What do I do? Will applying the new technique work? Why won't the bubbles budge? What am I doing wrong? It should be easier. It should be lighter. It doesn't have fish in it. What did I do last time? Did I only focus on the air? Or did I get distracted by the fish? Yeah, I was focusing on the fish.
Now, I'm visualizing and sensing my surroundings again. There are no currents. The bubbles are stagnant. Not a single ripple. They are more subtle now. Or are they?
I focus harder. There it is, the air pockets. I'm literally honing in on nothing. So instead of trying to find something, I'm searching for nothing. And in that nothing, those are the air pockets. Masses of air pockets.
So I focus on those masses of air pockets and suck.
And I can see that they are finally gravitating towards me.
As they reach my mouth, I gobble it all up. Since releasing from the rear wasn't well received, where else can I release it?
The weirdest hissing sound escapes me as I let the excess pressure out of my ears.
He looks up and arches a brow.
"Well, that is different. Have you considered exhaling through the nose or mouth?"
"What's the fun in that? I want to see where else I can go with this. It's not like you were paying attention anyway."
Long Fei scratches his chin with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
"Oh? Are you sure you want me to pay attention? I'll give you a glimpse of what happens when I pay attention. Since you want a challenge, see if you can handle this."
His eyes sharpen. A bunch of air bubbles appear shaped like arrows.
"This is going to hurt. I suggest you avoid them".
One arrow torpedoes towards me. I shift my body to no avail. It crashed into me, the pain made me yelp. My body convulses. It seriously hurts! He wasn't kidding.
The arrows barrage at me. I try to dodge, but it keeps hitting me repeatedly. No matter where I go or dodge, one will slam into me. I'm a slow target. This training is not fair!
Wait a minute, it's just lateral. So, as it shoots towards me, I dive. At long last, a little relief!
The arrows change their trajectory and keep attacking me. Ah, the pain! This is not training, this is torture!
My body is bruised and battered, but I refuse to give up. No, I can't allow this to continue.
As more arrows dart towards me, I vacuum it all up. It disappears into my mouth. And the excess pressure goes out the rear. Nearby fish float upside down as green mist suffocates them.
My master immediately pinches his nose.
"Alright, that's enough. Let's call it a day," his voice muffled behind his sleeve.
This is a win right? I learnt a new technique. Then I start feeling dizzy, I shudder as the world starts spinning, and I start to sink. Oh no, it's happening again. I've overexerted myself.
***
Back at home in our gloomy cave, my eyes snap open. There is a parchment floating in front of my face.
It read:
Courage: Level 6
Elemental Power: Level 6
Physical Power: Level 6
Strategy: Level 6
Agility: Level 4
Speed: Level 3
Agility and Speed are still low? No wonder those arrows came at me like bulls to a red flag. Talk about being an easy target.
But check out the rest. I actually did it! Leveled up with bruises and training scars to prove it. Pretty soon I'll have battle scars. Look out world, get ready for Ling Yue!
Leveling up seriously drains you. I admit, today was more challenging than expected. Tomorrow is going to be a new day. If I survive the training.