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Sorry i have been away for a while, been busy with work and such things. Uploads will be infrequent. Thank you for reading! 156Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRBGL4sRL7
(*´∀｀)ﾉ 156Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqQjxRbTzN
Chapter 24: Clearing Out Foliage and Trees 156Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEtcE4sUiWe
A few days had gone by since the brothers had last visited Po and Peat, at the village things were peaceful and Zar was accumulating Mineral Qi before the morning rays of a Tuesday morning. Tar was waking up to the rising aroma of vegetables cooking for the smell would waft up the small mountain where the Grands residency was held. Pam and Lam were mildly chatting in their residence some distance away from where Zar and Tar live, the villagers in general were simply preparing for the day and things were at ease.
“Best not disturb Zar.” Tar thought to himself, noticing his brother sitting at the porch of their now fairly well-made brick house, Zar’s hair was now bright orange due to the large accumulation of Mineral Qi he was building, the Mineral Qi was flowing through his cells and creating an interesting glow around his body, the glow was ever so faintly blue but more so looked like a translucent foggy white cloud, Tar observing Zar realized that he was sweating and could in equal feel the heat emitting from his body. The heat was welcomed since the Sun was yet to reach its peak warmth and the cold atmosphere chilled the bones slightly. “Must be approaching short winter...” Tar pondered to himself in private, he then left Zar to his activities and proceeded down the hill to greet his sisters and eventually grab some fresh Qi Infused food to eat.
“There’s so much I don’t know...” Zar thought, “all this power and I have hardly any clue how to use it. The focal array I use to keep my Mineral Qi tightly bound in my Lower Dantain has never failed me, simply by thought alone I can manipulate the Mineral Qi around my body at any percentage. So far, I have yet to play around with a flow rate above 1%, father said that a flowrate above 1% was lethal enough to disrupt the structure of metal... Metal huh? Father taught us of this mysterious material, but he said it was a rare commodity that was acquired through our forefathers' travels. Currently I am able to store a little more than a cup now of Mineral Qi, I guess a large wooden cup?” Zar was attempting to gauge his development over the many weeks that had gone by. “Perhaps the most interesting thing I have learnt is how to increase my sensory powers by delivering more Mineral Qi to various portions of my head, creates quite a nice feeling sometimes too, feels like I am floating or something... Well, my cup is full now – no need to cultivate any more, I will go eat now and figure the plans for today.” Zar adjusted the focal array in his Lower Dantain which was effectively a faucet made of Qi, this inhibited Mineral Qi’s ability to flow through the meridians and the cells of the body, his cells were already plenty endowed with life force and his dread-locked hair was the brilliant orange to prove it. He, as did Tar, began motioning down the hill or mountain toward where the villagers were gathering, which to no surprise, was around amazing smelling vegetables.
“Here you go Zar!” Mai said, passing food to him and following him with some degree of calculation and shyness for a ‘chat’ about ‘things.’ One of the villagers spoke...
“So Zar, when we will clear all the vegetation at the east gate for farming?”
“Today Brother!”
“Oh good.” Replied the villager, everyone was quite busy chowing down on morning supper to bother adding to the discussion.
Time passed and some of the villagers were heading to the east gate. Beyond the east gate was a large amount of foliage, vegetation, trees etc, you had to be careful where you trod to avoid getting stung by some type of exotic plant.
“We will be clearing an acre, I have placed some large sticks where the acre begins and ends so you know when to stop chopping and landscaping, Zar and many of the men will handle chopping the trees and doing the heavy lifting, we will turn the great majority of the trees into firewood, the rest will handle cutting out ground vegetation, we will plough the land tomorrow to make it available for farming.” Tar said aloud to the villagers who had gathered for the clearing process, it was 70 or so percent of the villagers for some were busy today.
“Making these damn axes was a pain in the ass, finding the right stone for the job and everything...”
“Me and Zar were speaking about metals earlier, he said they can be sharpened and retain their sharpness near indefinitely, would be perfect for something like this ayy?” Gee replied, for Lee and Gee were like two peas in a pod, always hanging around with one another.
“Metals? Another one of Zar’s strange ideas, eh?“
“Oh, come on Lee! You’re just sceptical about things for the sake of it aren’t you? Don’t you remember Pagiath teaching us about all these things when we were young?”
“Well, you know, starving for many years does that to you, makes you a strong sceptic, you know?” Lee said with subtle frustration. “If I see it like I did with the Mineral Qi, I'll believe it!”
“Right, right...” Gee replied solemnly.
Zar chimed in to the general babble of gathered men, Mai was next to him, “Sorry to interrupt your discussions Brothers, but let’s get started with chopping these trees, Tar said whilst he was laying the large sticks down that he counted roughly 200 or so trees, most on the medium size, hopefully you are not already out of practice with your Mineral Qi Cultivation, you will find this significantly easier if you pass at less than 1% flowrate, Mineral Qi through your meridians into your skeletal muscles.”
“Skeletal muscles?” Replied Lee outloud.
“You know, your muscles?” Zar replied with an obvious look.
“Then just say that, you omniscient show-off, it is as though you perfectly recalled all of Pagiaths lessons in the ‘Body Curriculum’ but none in the ‘General Knowledge Curriculum,” Lee replied, giggling to himself.
“Yes, yes Brother, you have the most annoying kind of banter out of all of us, anyway, let’s go and do this!” Zar replied dismissively. The women and some of the men were already busy clearing out the ground vegetation, Mai however had an axe. They all jumped the gate and got to chopping...
“Zar, let’s make a bet!” Mai began, “if I make a bigger tree pile than you, you have to take me on an adventure to the Ploughing Sect or somewhere nice? How’a’bout it?” Zar’s cheeks grew hot at the thought of being alone with Mai and tried to convolute her intentions as innocent.
“Er- ha, sure... You won’t win but I will take you up on it!”
“GREAT! Ha, okay, see you-!” Mai ran to the nearest tree as she finished her sentence getting the head start, Zar decided to observe why she was so confident about this challenge, Mai paused at the tree and let the axe rest upright between her hands and the floor as though she was holding a staff, her hair suddenly begun to change from red to a very beautiful purply orange, she picked up the axe and swung it back, Zar had the instinct to improve his vision and get a closer look, he ‘zoomed’ in and tried to ignore her rather pleasant figure for the sake of scientific observation as to how she was manipulating Mineral Qi, he noticed Mai’s veins were dilating quite significantly and more blood was flowing toward the arm-muscles.
“She must be pushing a significant amount of Qi into her arms, that is not easy, I can tell from my peripheral vision that most of the men are struggling. She must have been prac-” *BOOM!* For what sounded like a small explosion was in-fact a precise hack into the reasonably sized tree causing the fairly sturdy axe to pass 3 quarters into the tree. A blanket of inedible nuts and slightly discoloured leaves began falling all over Mai who had the grin of a winner on her face directed straight at Zar. “Holy ****” Zar accidently said outloud. To add insult to injury, the leaves decorated Mai’s hair and made her look like a fairy of Gaia. “Well, now I just want you...” Zar whispered to himself as he grabbed the axe and simultaneously released a little too much Mineral Qi into his cells walking toward a nearby tree that wasn’t occupied. Mai decided to observe.
“Let’s see if my future husband can do better.” Mai giggled to herself, looking around to make sure no one heard. When Zar reached the tree, he did not even need to pause to manipulate the Mineral Qi within him, for him at this point it was all too natural, he pulled the axe back and his veins and muscles began bulking up as though he had been lifting weights for a year, he then drove the axe in creating a high-pitch whistle as the air around the axe distorted – there was a much louder *BOOM* and then a *crackling* and then the sound of leaves whistling and then!
“EVERYONE, OUT OF THE WAY!” The tree began falling down and Zar had shouted to warn everyone, *vwoosh* as the tree was now laying on the ground. Zar looked at the axe which was now slightly broken and everyone looked at Zar as though he was some freak of nature, and then looked at Mai as though she was equally a freak of nature.
“You know Lee, I think you shouldn’t piss Zar off anymore, excuse my informality.” Gee said bluntly.
“Uhuh...” Lee was too in shock to reply correctly.
“Okay everyone, back to work!” Tar said aloud, trying to restore order again.
“How does he do that?” There were whispers and murmurs among the villagers who were attempting to figure how such a thing was possible.
“Does it have something to do with the Mineral Qi?” One of the female villagers asked as she was picking various leaves.
“THE COMPETITION IS STILL ON ZAR!” Mai stated, wasting no time finishing off her tree, Zar realising the competition was indeed still in play, rushed to the next tree!
“I wonder if I can do that again?” Zar asked himself, as he swung the axe back however, his strength suddenly vanished, and he felt immensely hungry and lacking in energy. “Woah... I am wobbling, I must have used all the excess charge I built up in this morning's Light to Mineral Qi Meditation, I just need to release some from my Lower Dantain to recharge my cells again.” After he felt charged, he went for a swing again and pitched the axe into the tree, after a quieter *BOOM*, the axe only went half-way through. “I guess this much is to be expected, right after Light to Mineral Qi Conversion, one's cells are endowed with the purest form of Mineral Qi at the maximum flowrate I can currently handle, which is slightly less than 1% flowrate since I have been training it in my private time – that was what made it possible... Still, for Mai to be able to get 3 quarters into her tree, she seriously must have been practicing whilst me and Tar were busy with Peat, if I am not careful, I might lose. This is not just a test of strength, but of stamina, constantly calling upon the resources of the Lower Dantain and pushing it into one's muscles, damaging muscle cells slightly due to the powerful contractions and having to mobilize more and more Mineral Qi to heal the subtle tears and maintain cellular balance. Whoever wins this does not have more or less Mineral Qi but has what could arguably be classed as several times more important, that is greater Qi Control.” Following this thought, Zar drove another powerful and loud swing into the tree to finish the chop, Mai however was already onto her third tree! “Damnit!” Zar picked up the pace to keep up.
Hours passed...
“I thought this was meant to be a team exercise? You know, us Greaters coming together to cultivate new land, I was quite excited about it.”
“I know right? But then what do I see to my rear? A female titan bearing over me with claws and fangs asking me to ‘move because I need to win this bet.’ I mean, seriously? Do we live with savages? What bet could motivate a woman to become so passionate...”
“A bet of love!” Another villager chipped into the discussion.
“Between THOSE two?!” Another villager said, also joining the discussion.
“Yes! Of course! Look at them...” Zar and Mai were still chopping the final trees whilst practically all the villagers had changed jobs to simply collecting the remaining forms of ground vegetation.
“Who do you think'll win?” Asked Lam who was actually only joining the landscaping project just now since she had been busy in her house, but she caught on quickly.
“I bet it will be Mai!” Luna, the female village who had previously stated it was due to the passion of love that Mai was so motivated.
“Mai huh, but my blood is prideful, Zar I mean, I guess we will see...”
Soon, nearly all the villagers were watching the battle, there were only 3 trees left, both Zar and Mai were on equal footing for Tar, Lam and Luna had been counting how many trees each of them had chopped and added to their respective pile. It was down to whoever to gain ownership of the final tree after chopping the one they were working on.
“Look, their hair, it has gone from their unique versions of orange to a dimmer and dimmer red, they have used an incredible quantity of their Mineral Qi reserves!” Tar noted to the spectators. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at this simple but useful revelation for the villagers who were not well versed in these matters. “Funny however, although Zar definitely has more storage, he seems to be using more than Mai to achieve the same result, it’s as though Mai can control Mineral Qi better than Zar even though she has significantly less, she has less power than Zar because of this, but can keep up due to the frequency towhich she can slam an axe into the tree. Mai is like a dancer whilst Zar is like a giant, one moves quickly and precisely, the other moves slightly slower but strongly.” There were more ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at Tar’s words. “Erm, Lee, are you okay?”
“My axes...” Lee was sobbing and eating corn to keep his emotions stable as most of his axes were completely destroyed by now.
“OH, OH GUYS! LOOK BOTH OF THEIR TREES FELL AT THE SAME TIME!” Shouted a villager.
“Now, it’s just a case of whoever is faster to the tree at the furthest portion of the acre!”
“Mai is obviously faster than Zar, right?” Asked a villager.
“Perhaps in terms of dexterity yes, but when it comes to running, Zar may have the upper hand! This will be determined by whoever can control the remaining Qi they have and move it to their leg muscles. When you imbue Mineral Qi into running, you take significantly larger leaps, you have to balance just as much in the air so you do not fall over as you do when you land on the ground, the landings have a higher impact as well, this is not trivial at all.” Both Zar and Mai looked at each other as their last-but-not-least tree was felled, looked at the tree quite some distance away, and began running picking up greater and greater speed, their hair was practically back to the red it had been before any of the events up to this day happened. They were on their reserves and Zar, lacking the fidelity Mai had even after all his practice, was being left behind. Mai simply could control the remaining Mineral Qi far better than Zar and reached the tree first!
“I WIN! HA! AH... *puff, puff, puff*.” Mai was catching her breath as she started swinging at the last tree, Zar only but a meter away from the tree smiled completely exhausted, dropped his axe, stood behind her and helped her with the final tree...
“They are getting close, aren’t they?” A villager noticed.
“Don’t you think it’s wrong, spying on them like this?” Lam asked aloud, “we should leave them to their romance...”
“Don’t be a spoil sport Lam, this is great entertainment!” Tar replied to his sister. The final tree was felled, and the villagers started clapping at Mai’s incredible and unthinkable victory and Zar’s brilliant sportsmanship. Mai and Zar carried the final trees back to their respective piles, turned, and looked at their work.
“You would never think this was the east gate of before, would you?” Zar asked Mai.
“No Grand Elder, not at all. We can even see into the far distance where ploughing sect farmland is being well-kept, it’s just spacious trees and land instead of thick forest.”
“Ha, indeed...” Zar was still catching his breath and felt incredibly weak, Mai was also in bad shape, their dreaded hair full of leaves, plants and probably insects too, “no need to call me Grand, call me Zar, Mai.” Mai blushed but caught her smell...
“I need to have a bath.” Mai rushed off in a flurry of embarrassment and Zar simply shook his head with a smile, looking over the villagers who were dispersing in all different directions for all different purposes, there was a large pile of plants and other harvested plant-matter, in another location was all the trees Mai and Zar chopped down and a few trees that the rest of the men chopped down. Zar figured he would deal with that later and following the dispersing villagers who happened to be walking in the same direction as him.
“My axes...”
“Lee, stop being a baby...”
“My masculine pride! AND I was bested by a woman! AND my axesssss!” Lee was almost in tears...
“By the Gods, are you EVEN a man?!” Gee replied, but Lee was too flustered to care about his peers remarks, they both walked to their Greater residence.
End of Chapter 24
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