Chapter 2: 2 - Lightning storm
When Su Tao woke up, he was more sore than he had ever been in his life. His whole body felt like it would be torn apart simply by him moving. But he knew that sitting still would be the same as moving. It would still hurt, only less.
Forcing himself to get up, he groaned in intense pain. But he pushed through it, going to the bathroom.
When he got to the bathroom, he filled it with burning hot water, but it would not burn him since he was a bronze ranked warrior. As he got into the water, he winced in pain since it was still extremely hot, and even though it wouldn't burn him, it would still cause him a tiny bit of pain, and on top of the pain from his aching muscles, it was very painful.
But the pain went away very quickly and soon relaxed his muscles. As his muscles relaxed in the hot water, the pain lowered to a tolerable point so that he could train again.
But he did not get out of the water immediately. Instead, he lied in it for another fifteen minutes. When he did get out, he got dressed and went to eat breakfast, which had been left on the table by his mother.
After eating, Su Tao went back to the training area. Those that saw him here after his training from yesterday thought that he was crazy, and that his muscles must feel like breaking, but they didn't say anything to his face. They only mocked him in hushed voices while looking at him with disdain.
Only a couple people stood up for him. "Don't be so tough on him. You wouldn't be any better off if the one you loved most in the world was raped and killed with no consequence." But even these people did not regard him highly and only pitied him.
After training for another six hours, Su Tao was utterly exhausted and he was dripping in sweat. However, he could feel that his muscles had started to grow and get stronger. As such, he was happy.
After going home and getting a meal and rest, he came back to train for another four hours, the same as yesterday. All those that saw him thought that he had gone insane. After all, too much training would cause hidden injuries and prevent further progress.
However, Su Tao knew what his body could handle, and he knew what it could not handle. He was pushing his body past it's limits on purpose, but not to the point that it would cause hidden injuries.
All those that had reached the bronze ranked warrior level had increased healing abilities. This was why they were able to train for as long as they could, and it was why they would get stronger so much faster.
All the injuries accumulated in the muscle tissue while training would be repaired within only one day's time as opposed to the regular three to four days for commoners. This was why Su Tao trained so relentlessly even when his muscles had deteriorated. Of course, his muscles would not be so deteriorated for long should he keep up this routine.
He estimated that it would take about two weeks for him to get himself back up to the standards that he had before his sister had died. This was due to not only the increased muscle gaining speed from the healing speed of the muscles, but also because of his relentless training schedule that was at least twice as long and twice as tough as others.
But even still, it would rely on the tissue memory that would help him regain the muscle that he had already had before.
When he was done with his intense training, he was once again dripping with sweat and his muscles felt like they were being stabbed and cut by hot needles and knives. Every step that he took was painful, but he pushed through the pain.
He pushed through the pain though. He knew that if he could not handle such a simple pain as this, then he would never have the chance at revenge. He needed revenge, and he was bent on it. He would not stop until he succeeded or died trying.
As he walked home, he could not ignore the excruciating pain and had to take frequent stops to take a break. When he did get home, he was not greeted by his mother like he usually was. But he did not mind it as sometimes she would stay late at her job.
He fixed himself some dinner and then went into another burning hot bath, which helped to relax his muscles and got rid of the pain by half.
After this, he went to bed. The same process repeated of him training every day twice a day until his whole body ached, then going home and taking a hot bath in the morning and night. This went on for a whole week.
At the end of the week, he was no longer the thin and fragile little boy that he had been one week ago. Now, it could not be said that he was muscular, but he rather had an average look with average muscles. He was now at the normal strength of a one star bronze ranked warrior. However, compared to before, he was much stronger and was back on track to live up to his sister's wishes.
However, if he wanted to progress any further, it would take much more work. If he wanted to get back to where he was before his sister's death, then he would need to do the same routine for another week. However, at this point, he was so exhausted all of the time that he could barely walk. But he did not want to give up so he forced himself to go to the training area every day.
At this point, he could punch with a force of one hundred pounds, which was the average for those at the first bronze star. However, to reach the second bronze star, one would need to be able to punch with the force of one hundred fifty pounds, which was much harder to achieve.
Through training, almost everyone was able to reach this point, but for those like Su Tao who had little talent and even less potential, they would have to struggle to reach this level.
His mother had only ever reached this level, but she had reached the age of thirty by then and was no longer allowed to train in peace and instead had to work for the family. As such, she had made no progress since then and she now only had one hundred twenty pounds of strength.
The difference of fifty pounds of strength might not sound like a lot, but it must be known that those who had little talent were restricted by the potential of their bodies, not allowing them to build up the muscle required to make the breakthrough.
This was why so few people were able to break through and become a silver ranked warrior.
Take the city master's daughter for example; she was extremely talented and not only broke through to the silver rank at fifteen, but she also was able to train very quickly when she was in the bronze rank, reaching the third bronze star while only being fourteen years old.
Most people would only ever be able to break through to the silver rank when they were forty to sixty and it was only one in ten people who were able to do so.
When one was at the silver rank, it became easier to break through because one did not need to train their body anymore, but they also had to have a much higher potential to break through.
This was why it took the city master's daughter a year to break through to the silver rank yet she was now at the peak of the first silver star while only being at the silver rank for just over half a year, which was a very short time to break through to the peak first silver star.
Being strong enough was important to cultivation, but nothing was more important than potential. Su Tao was born with a low potential, and he would have to work tirelessly to overcome this low potential.
This was why he had never reached the second bronze star while he was fourteen years old. Those his age had mostly become second bronze stars while he was stuck on the first. Only when one became twenty would they normally break through to the third bronze star.
When one reached the silver rank, they would be considered to be an inner disciple of the family. They would be raised better and receive better resources and skills. All those at the bronze rank were outer disciples of the family until they were thirty.
This meant that Su Tao was currently an outer disciple. His dream was to become an inner disciple, but he knew that it was a long shot from ever happening, and if he wanted to realize his goal, he would need to tear down the walls that his low potential put in place.
There had been stories of people overcoming low potential, but it was only stories after all because no one had ever seen it happen in the history of the city of silver sparrow.
Thinking about this, he could not help his excitement and worry. He was excited to see if he could do it, but he was more worried that he would forever be at the bottom of this world and never see anything more.
This morning, he was also going to the training area again, and this time, he would train just as hard as every other time he had trained in the past week.
When he got there, he once again went directly up to the weird pillar. When he hit it, he felt that he was much stronger than a week ago when he had only had about eighty pounds of strength in each of his muscles.
He felt good despite the constant aching in his body.
Maybe it was his need for revenge against the young master that fueled him to go on and push his body past its limits each and every day. Or maybe it was because he felt the need to get stronger so that no one would tread on him again?
It did not matter, because all that mattered was that he was getting stronger and he was slowly approaching his goals.
Going back to his house for lunch, he felt good. But on the way, he was stopped by a disciple on the street. He knew this disciple.
His name was Su Chao, and this was one of the disciples that always looked for trouble with him. Luckily for Su Tao, he did not live anywhere near Su Chao, so he did not get bullied often by the latter, but when they did meet, he knew that the latter would try to humiliate him in any way he could.
"Hey Su Tao, I heard that you were hiding in your house for the last two months. When did you come out? Could it be that you want to avenge your sister?" Su Chao spoke coldly and without regard to Su Tao's feelings, also publicly humiliating him in front of the others on the street. He purposely spoke loud to attract other's attention. He also purposely spoke of his sister to make Su Tao angry.
"I also heard that you were training like a madman. Could it be that you've finally snapped?"
However, contrary to Su Chao's expectations, Su Tao simply walked past him like he was a cloud of air not worth paying attention to.
This, of course, made Su Chao angry. Su Chao was at the second rank of the martial path, which was much higher than Su Tao, who was only around the middle of the first rank. Seeing Su Tao ignore him, Su Chao got extremely angry and simply attacked Su Tao.
This was what usually ended up happening anyways, so Su Tao decided to make it so that Su Chao would humiliate him less before he beat him up in front of the others.
Su Chao attacked Su Tao's back, and the latter quickly tried to spin out of the way, but he was too slow and his shoulder got hit, which instantly dislocated his shoulder. "Agghh!!" he cried out in pain.
But he ignored the pain the next moment and swung his other arm straight into Su Chao's face. The latter was not prepared for the unexpected turn of events and got hit square in the face, but all that happened was he took three steps back while Su Tao's arm tingled from pain and numbness.
This showed the distance between the first and second rank of the martial path. Although one had missed the other where he intended to hit, he had still done immense damage, while the one who was weaker had made a direct hit but was not able to do any damage to the opponent at all.
"You're courting death!!" screamed Su Chao as he pounced over. He had never been punched in the face like this before and although he had always beaten Su Tao in the past, he had only ever gotten hit in the chest or the sides, never his face. As such, he was extremely angry and now pounced over with even more strength than before.
When they were younger, Su Chao had always bullied Su Tao because he was always the stronger of the two, and yet now, the weaker one dared to punch him in the face? How could he let this pass?
Su Chao jumped over with extreme speed. Not only would one get faster as they got higher in the ranks, they would also become faster and more resilient.
This was why Su Tao's punch did nothing other than knock him back a couple steps even though it was a perfectly formed punch directly to the face. With a punch of his, he could exert up to one hundred sixty pounds of force and would be much more resilient and faster than his opponent as well. So even though he was not as skilled as Su Tao, he easily won in the end.
After the fight was over, Su Chao walked away from Su Tao, who was now lying on the ground with a puddle of blood next to his mouth. He had been internally injured by this fight, and he would not be able to train for a while now.
'Damn it!' he silently cursed to himself. He could not help but be angry at Su Chao, who humiliated him for no reason other than the fact that he was stronger.
Picking himself up, he slammed his arm against the ground. Following that, a crisp *CRACK* sound rang out. It was the sound of his dislocated arm popping back into its socket.
After this, Su Tao collected himself and went home. There was nothing more that he could do about it as he was not strong enough, and those at higher positions in the sect would not care about a mere second star bronze ranked warrior who had broken the rules. This was why Su Chao dared to attack him, and he knew it.
But just a few seconds before he got home, there was a rumble in the sky, followed by a torrential downpour. It was so sudden that everyone on the street was caught off guard and they were all utterly soaked before they even had a chance to cover themselves with something to protect against the rain.
'Just great, the only thing that could make this day better,' Thought Su Tao to himself sarcastically.
The very next moment, the rumbling in the sky suddenly grew louder.
*BOOM!*
Suddenly, lightning touched down a hundred feet in front of Su Tao. The flash was so bright that he couldn't see after it. However, this was not the end.
There was another strike of lightning a hundred feet to his back left. Everyone around him was running away from the lightning in fear. Only he stood there, temporarily blinded by the flash of lightning and unable to go anywhere.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?" Su Tao could not contain himself from yelling out loud. However, he was drowned out by the sound of lightning and thunder and no one could hear him. Even if they could hear him, they would not care in the slightest as they were all terrified of the lightning.
Suddenly, more lightning strikes sounded around him. He could feel the danger of death approaching. His whole body was filled with adrenaline, but what use was adrenaline against lightning? He tried desperately to run away, but it was no use.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM* the sound of thunder rang out throughout the whole city, instantly descending it into chaos. All the two big families and eight small families were overrun by lightning descending everywhere. Some unlucky people were struck by the lightning, and only a few of them survived with being severely injured.
As Su Tao's vision slowly recovered, he looked up to the sky, only to be astonished by what he saw. All around him were thousands of lightning bolts striking wherever they could. It was as if god himself was angry and had descended a lightning storm out of hell to punish the mortals.
What was even more confusing was that these lightning bolts were all gold in color, unlike normal lightning which was purple. However, despite the change in color, the lightning strikes were actually weaker than normal. They were deafeningly loud, much louder than normal lightning, but it was not dangerous compared to normal lighting.
If one got struck by lightning normally, unless one was at the fifth rank of the martial path and a second star silver ranked warrior, one would instantly be exploded or shocked to death.
However, these gold lightning bolts could only harm those under the third bronze star, which was many times weaker than one at the second silver star.
But the sheer number of lightning strikes made up for its lethality. There were so many lightning bolts in the sky that one could see hundreds of strikes every minute.
But what happened next no one would be able to explain. At this time, everyone other than Su Tao had managed to get inside their houses and even if it wasn't their house, they were invited inside to protect them from the lightning.
But seeing as Su Tao was temporarily blinded by the first bolt, he still could not find his way to someone's house to seek shelter. As such, no one was around to see what happened next.
At this moment, the sound of the thunder got much louder, and the golden lightning stopped striking the ground. Instead, it continued to rumble in the air as if it was still striking the ground.
All at once, the golden lightning stopped striking the ground. Instead, it was shifting around in the clouds. The whole world felt like it was shaking at this moment, and no one was excluded from this feeling, including the gold rank warrior who was the city master.
He instantly went outside of his house to see what the hell was happening, but since he was at the center of the city, all that he saw was the golden lightning gathering in the clouds and going somewhere.
Little did everyone know that that somewhere was directly over Su Tao's head, who was still temporarily blinded and only managed to see the lightning in the sky above him, but not that it was gathering.
Then, without any warning, the lightning that was originally golden in color suddenly shifted into a vibrant green. Then, this green lightning gathered all the once golden now green lightning into one singular point. Then, it violently struck down onto Su Tao. More specifically, because he was looking up into the sky, it had struck his right eye.
Instantly, all his clothes were incinerated down to dust and he lost consciousness.
A lightning scar appeared on his body going down from his right eye to the bottoms of his feet. All over his entire body, there were marks of lightning, and he was bleeding from all over his whole body. Since he lost consciousness instantly, he did not have time to close his eyes.
At this moment, his left eye was normal. It was like it was before, deep blue seeming to contain an entire ocean, but you would expect his right eye to be incinerated down to dust like his clothes.
However, on the contrary, his right eye had turned green, the same color as the lightning which had struck it. It seemed wicked and entrancing, as if it contained an entire universe of wickedness within it. However, it also seemed to be able to pierce through anything at all. It would be the most beautiful eye that most people had ever seen if it didn't seem to be so wicked and piercing.
His eyes fell closed as the green lightning left his body and spread into the surrounding ground, leaving his body with trails of lightning on it. With that, the violent lightning storm was over.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone