Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Heaven's Blessing
The sun shines through the leaves in a forest. A man was running through the trees as he breathes heavily.
He was being chased by a few others in a black uniforms with clothes covering their face and were shouting.
"Nie Feng! You can run but you can't hide!"
"Stop!"
"Faster!"
The man called Nie Feng frowned hearing their shouts, but he didn't stop running.
A few hours earlier, he was on his way back home from visiting a neighbouring city when his convoy was blocked by these men. Suddenly, there were dozens more appeared from the forest. Circling Nie Feng and his convoy.
He thought they were just bandits because they were dressed alike, but they were like trained guards just from the way they move circling his convoy. Either that or they were just highly trained bandits, which was quite ridiculous from his perspective.
And there were too many of them compared to his convoy of 50 armed guards.
A fight then broke out.
His guards forge a path open towards the forest and Nie Feng managed to get away from their encirclement.
But of course, the leader of the bandit-look-a-like sent a few of his men after Nie Feng.
"Men! After him!"
And so, Nie Feng escapes through the forest. Maneuvering between the trees, trying to shake off his pursuers by taking advantage of the rough terrain in the forest. He was not a warrior, but he had decent stamina compared to the regular folks since he would sometimes train his body.
"Halt!"
Nie Feng tries to give his all in running through the forest. Sadly, he could see its boundary and was about to leave the periphery of the forest.
"Look! He's going out of the forest! I know this area, there's a cliff in front!"
"There's nowhere he can run to!"
"Hurry! He's out!"
Nie Feng could hear their shouts. Sure enough, there's indeed a cliff in front, and the only way to go in and out of this area was through the forest he just passed.
He could only stop near the edge of the cliff. As Nie Feng looked down below, he could see a long river snaking from left to right, below the cliff.
"Damn it!" Nie Feng cursed.
"There he is!"
"Get him!"
Nie Feng turns toward his pursuer with a frown on his face.
"Who are you!?"
Everyone laughed at him.
"You don't need to know! You just need to die!"
One of them cried out and moved slowly toward Nie Feng with a sword in hand.
As the bandit was getting closer to him, Nie Feng grits his teeth and jumped into the abyss behind him, much to everyone's surprise.
"Huh?"
"Did he just..."
The one who previously rushed to Nie Feng went to the edge of the cliff to look but there was no sign of him.
"He's gone!"
"Damn it!"
They tried to wait for a couple of minutes but there was still no sign of Nie Feng in the river down below.
Since there was nothing, they decided to just go back and report it to the leader.
A few moments after they were gone, a transparent mysterious presence arrived and look over at the river below the cliff.
It soon disappeared just like the way it appeared.
As for Nie Feng, after his body went into the river, he struggled to breathe from the impact of hitting the water and immediately passed out. Luckily, there were no big rocks in this river. Nie Feng's body then floated on the water, carrying his unconscious body down the stream before it arrived at a riverbank.
Moments after, the mysterious presence from earlier appeared near Nie Feng.
Then the mysterious presence began to fluctuate and some sort of invisible energy wave shot to Nie Feng who was still unconscious, the mysterious presence disappeared right after.
Moments after, a series of coughing from Nie Feng sounded as he started to cough out the water that entered his lungs, and slowly after that, Nie Feng regains consciousness and woke up.
Oddly enough, Nie Feng didn't feel the discomfort of having water discharged from his lungs. Perhaps feeling disoriented was the only bad thing he felt.
After a few moments of calming himself, Nie Feng drags his body out of the water while feeling his weirdly energetic body even though he had almost drowned to his death.
At the same time, Nie Feng could feel something strange in the air around him. Other than that, he felt like he had some energy to run for days and still won't run out of energy.
Just when he was thinking about how he could have a lot of energy, some information pops into his mind.
[Heaven's Blessing.]
He was stunned.
He didn't know what to think.
He received a blessing from Heaven out of nowhere.
The legendary Heaven.
According to what he knows, Heaven never bestowed blessing to anyone. Heaven only watches as the world moves. And instead of a blessing, Heaven might just send a disaster to everyone.
It already happened. A long time ago.
From what Nie Feng knew, it happened thousands of years ago.
Back then, all living beings could live forever. It was an era where everyone doesn't care about their lifespan. No one dies of old age. Everyone could live for tens of thousands of years.
But one day, everything changed.
An ethereal voice swept the whole world into chaos.
[Death.]
In that instant of the word was heard, almost ninety percent of the living beings died. Those who were dying had aged until they become so old they turned to ashes. Dispersing under the wind.
And the only thing left after that...
Was a chaotic world.
Nie Feng didn't know the details of the event back then. But just from the records he read in the scriptures, anyone could guess it was bad.
Shaking the piece of history out of his head, Nie Feng thinks again about the blessing.
It's great that he received a blessing. But it's just going to be useless if he didn't know what it was for. His body having a lot of energy might be one of the perks of the blessing. And, what other benefits could there be?
Something entered his mind when he was thinking about it.
[Cultivate. Body. Absorb. Qi. Vitality.]
Nie Feng was a bit confused about it. He could understand each word, but what is their purpose? What should he do about it? He was stumped.
Suddenly, two words seemed to flash inside his mind.
[Absorb. Qi.]
"Absorb... Qi...?" he muttered unconsciously.
It was at that moment when Nie Feng noticed again the strange atmosphere he felt earlier.
Ever since he regained his consciousness, there was this strange energy in the air around him. It was flowing through the grass, and the trees and some even flowed along with the river.
"Perhaps...? Is that Qi?"
Thinking about the information he received earlier, Nie Feng felt everything made sense. At least he thought it did.
Cultivate the body by absorbing qi and having his vitality improve. Meaning, having a long life.
"Having a long life... A long life..."
The piece of history he shakes off earlier resurfaced in his mind and his eyes lit up even though Nie Feng still felt a bit of doubt.
It was too much to think about it at his current stage since it was so far away, but he just couldn't help it.
If he cultivates his body, perhaps he would obtain a massive amount of vitality and he would be able to have a long life, just like the beings of the past.
Nie Feng's excitement rises to the peak.
Nie Feng wanted to cultivate!
And just when he was about to move to absorb the qi, he suddenly stops in his track. He realize he didn't know how to do it.
Right then, pieces of images and information appeared inside his mind.
It was of a person sitting cross-legged with lines running through the person's body that looks like they originated from the abdomen and went around the whole body, with the end of the lines at the edges of the body.
Nie Feng feels like he could somehow understand them. Even though he still has no idea how to absorb qi, he feels like he should follow the images so he would be able to do it.
The blurry images might have appeared out of nowhere, but he knew it should be something that came along with the blessing.
Nie Feng immediately finds a relatively large tree to shield himself from the Sun and sat cross-legged under it before following the posture from the images.
But...
A few minutes had passed but nothing happened.
Nie Feng was puzzled.
He discovered that he still can't absorb qi. And he still didn't know how to do it.
Nie Feng sighed in disappointment, he wonders what he should do.
Slowly, his mind started to wander and become blank.
Nie Feng had unknowingly let his mind become empty.
Just then, his body shivered slightly.
Something had entered his body before he recovered from his dazed state.
Surprised by that, Nie Feng felt something inside his body. He realized he had absorbed a sliver of qi.
A smile blossomed on Nie Feng's face. He had found a way to absorb qi.
He immediately sprang into action to continue.
Nie Feng closed his eyes and tried to make his mind empty. Just thinking about absorbing qi and nothing else.
Moments passed as Nie Feng stays like that.
Wisps of qi started to enter and circulate inside his body before they eventually arrived at a place in his abdomen, the dantian.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Moonxious
Moonxious And yes, a heads up again just to remind you, Volume 1 is just a huge prologue.
Just want to say Volume 2 is where everything will start properly.
Don't want to say anything more in case of spoilers. Lol
I'll remind you guys again when Volume 1 about to end. 20 chapters max.
If you find any error in words, grammar, and/or the plot, please do leave a comment wherever it is.
And perhaps if you have some idea about my story, comment it and let me know.
Hope you guys enjoy.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone