In a small unnoticed village near the borders of the Great Kingdom of Aetherium a boy could be seen sitting in a lotus position. Slowly he breathed in and out, This boy was Silas in the middle of his daily training.
Controlling his breath Silas quickly felt the familiar buzzing of his life force in his body. Feeling the qi, Silas slowly started to circulate it through his meridians.
Circulating his qi a few times he got up and performed a few qi boosting moves. The technique he was performing right now was called the grand harmony technique. This was a breathing method that was passed down to him by his family in his past life. It could be considered the one of the only useful inheritances he actually got from them.
Silas had many problems with his previous family. In his past life his parents were always cold to him trying to mold him into the next family head so he never knew what it was like to have familial love despite desperately wanting it, that's why he loved his current family so much
This is one of the reasons why he grew so attracted to cultivation, cultivation is all about breaking free from all the shackles of life
Anyways the technique works by helping him quickly gather and grow his qi by harmonizing his body. Harmonizing the body like this multiplies the rate at which qi grows, making it one of the fastest qi growth techniques but it is extremely hard to perform. Thankfully the technique felt easier to perform now than in his past life or else it would have taken much longer to grow his qi
After performing those move sets for 20 minutes he sat back down and controlled his raging qi to start refining his skin. It has been two months since Silas has started his martial arts training and his training was progressing well, he was currently trying to reach the skin refinement stage
Martial artists in his past life got stronger by using their qi to refine their bodies. There are multiple stages. Skin refining, muscle refining, bone refining, and Organ refining, just completing one of these stages can take many years to accomplish thankfully since he was recultivating it, it would be a much shorter period of time. In his previous life Silas was a bone refining expert this made him extremely strong. In his peak he could win in a wrestling match with a bull and break trees with his fists.
Silas knew that even if a band of bandits or a pack of wolves attacked him he would be able to defeat them easily if he had that strength again. It was only then that he would feel somewhat comfortable going out into the world in search of spiritual energy.
Feeling his body burn like a raging fire Silas knew he was reaching his limit for the day, Silas decided to finish his daily training there and go home.
Walking on the poorly paved dirt road Silas silently looked around the village where he was born
The village Silas lived in wasn't honestly that great. All of the houses were poorly made structures with the main material being cobblestone, there were many crudely paved dirt roads and only a few wells to get water. On top of that the people here were equally poor with barley enough money to get by selling the random herbs they find in the forest and the timber they cut down
Here Silas's family was actually considered quite rich. His house was made from bricks and wood so it was very protective and looked amazing compared to the other houses
Many people didn't like Silas because of this so he didn't have any friends. But that didn't bother him! However they could sometimes get annoying
Walking home Silas saw one such annoying person. Leaning on one of the stone houses was a man in dirty rags puking up the alcohol he was just drinking. This man's name was Tobias and he was considered the village drunk.
***
Struggling to stay on his feet after puking up his entire breakfast Tobias took another drink of the alcohol he was holding
For the past couple of years Tobias had been drinking away all his money gaining himself the title of village drunk
He wasn't typically the type of guy to drink in the first place however due to the trauma he received while being an adventure he started to drown himself in alcohol to try to find an escape
Tobias was once a decently strong adventurer in his younger days. He was a professional swordsman but these days he was now a shell of his former self
Slowly steading his body Tobias started to hobble home. When he looked up he was a little boy with black hair and green eyes looking at him with a look of disgust
Silas was never one to drink alcohol as he found it disgusting so whenever he saw someone drinking to an excess he couldn't help but feel extremely disgusted
Seeing Silas give him such a look the already emotionally vulnerable and intoxicated Tobias got really angry
'What did this kid know about me, this kid who had everything given to him!!!!' Tobias thought 'All the people of this damn village already give me that damn look I don't need a kid who knows nothing looking down on me as well!'
He who was once a powerful adventurer was now being disrespected by a kid of all people
As if feeding the fires of Tobbias's rage Silas slowly walked away and ignored him as if he wasn't even there. This took Tobias off the rails
"WHo dO YoU thInk yOu arE!" Tobias shouted slurring his words
Hearing this Silas just kept ignoring him and walking away
Absolutely infuriated Tobias attacked Silas! Running up to the kid Tobias threw a punch directly to the back of his head.
Signing helplessly Silas quickly turned around and jabbed Tobias in the gut knocking all the air out of him. Stumbling backwards Tobias was desperately trying to breathe in air but no matter what his body wouldn't allow air to come in. Seeing Tobias struggling to even stand Silas just stood there watching what was going to happen next
'This kid thinks he can Just WALK AWAY! So what if you got a lucky shot? I am a C class adventurer!!!!' Tobiaas rampaged
Hunched over gripping his stomach Tobais's rage reached its all time high, forgetting all common sense Tobias took out his knife and charged towards the kid.
As this was happening a villager was passing by holding a basket full of laundry. Seeing what was happening they desperately shouted at Tobias to stop while running over trying to stop what was about to happen.
Just as the knife was supposed to stab into the little boy's soft body something completely unexpected happened.
Silas as if his body was on autopilot perfectly knocked away the hand holding the knife and punched him in the ribs
Feeling the punch Tobias felt extremely dizzy but before he could do anything he was thrown to the ground without even realizing it. Then out of nowhere Tobias's whole body was in excruciating pain; it was as if there were several knives cutting up his insides.
Trying to crawl back up to his feet Tobias coughed out a mouthful of blood before finally having his body give out on him and passing out in the middle of the road.
The villager who just witnessed this miraculous feat was completely stunned. All he saw was Tobias charging with a knife and then suddenly he was on the ground coughing up blood and passing out. Silas on the other hand was completely unharmed and just walked away as if what happened was something completely normal.
Looking back at the unconscious man on the ground Silas involuntarily felt a bit of arrogance in his heart but quickly erased it. He knew better than anyone else that being even slightly arrogant without the strength to back it up was the worst possible thing you could do. He had to learn that the hard way from his family
The villager wasn't able to snap out of his confusion until he noticed that the boy behind the incident had disappeared. Seeing the passed out man on the ground the villager decided it was best to take him back to his house to sleep it off
His family wasn't gonna believe it! A seemingly normal kid was able to take down an adult holding a knife! Not even a normal person could do that but an eight year old kid somehow managed!
Silas seeing his house in the distance reflected on the fight that just took place
'I'm getting rusty' he thought
What Silas did at the end of the fight was a technique called the body disruption technique. It was a fighting martial art that sent his qi into the opponent's body and made it run rampant, seriously injuring him.
In the past he would normally be able to kill someone with the amount of qi he sent in but since his control of his qi wasn't enough he couldn't target the heart
'Well it hardly matters right now anyways' Silas thought as he approached the front door of his house
Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of his mother cooking dinner, his father sitting on the table, and Winter curled up in a ball sleeping on one of the chairs. Seeing this Silas felt a small warm smile crawl onto his face
'Ah beefstew my favorite'