The Tower of Emnu

Sylus was sitting cross legged on the ground in his cell and opened his eyes when Aaron came closer. Aaron felt good, incredible even. His body felt light and his steps were sure. He should be tired after all what he had lived through this day or however long he had been awake since being summoned to his world, but instead he felt refreshed and clear headed. His thoughts flowing with unprecedented speed and clarity.

"Hmph. Truly the Master defies the heavens. Who ever heard of a full inheritance for a full cycling technique from a single wisp of energy? You should be honored boy, that he is so desperate to require your help. To step on the path of cultivation guided by a transcendent master." Sylus shook his head. "You are not worthy."

Aarons easy smile faded and he gave Sylus a cool gaze.

"I am pretty sure you need me just as much as he does, if not far more." he said and Sylus raised his eyebrows and scowled back at Aaron for a moment, before he grinned.

"Indeed I do, but I still won't teach you the Accumulated wisdom of a thousand generations without payment."

"Payment?" Aaron looked down, he was still very naked and uncomfortable.

"As you can see I am quite without anything to pay you with."

Sylus laughed and shook his head.

"The ten heavenly Katas are worth more than anything you will ever posess." he declared haughtily.

"But there is something that I want."

"What?"

"Teach me the Fiend-god art."

"Sylus." the old mans voice floated over to them in a sigh.

Sylus clicked his tongue and pouted.

"Fine, fine, but you have to tell me how it feels, how does it work and eventually I want to know how you cycle your Qi."

"Fine have it your way Sylus." the old man sighed. "But I warned you."

"Yeah yeah." Sylus snorted. "So do we have a deal boy?"

Aaron nodded and shrugged.

"Fine by me."

"Great." Sylus said and clapped his hands together before he stoop up in one impossibly graceful movement.

Suddenly his carefree behavior and slick tongue as well as the smile vanished from the mans face and he turned dead serious.

"The heavenly katas are not just simple combat styles, they are martial arts distilled and refined into a unified system. There are three distinct pairs of 3, each a different approach to combat and each perfected through the hands of thousands of masters. The last, the tenth kata unifies all those styles into one.

A Kata is a set form of movements that will instill into your body and your subconscious mind a set of movements. Using a kata is simple, all it requires is near perfect body control and continuous practice. Mastering one of the heavenly katas is unlikely harder. Mastering a kata will ingrain every single movement into how you walk, how you punch, how you move. It is the purest form of martial arts.

But unlike other katas the heavenly Katas have another distinct advantage. They will train your body, will make you use muscles you did not even know you had. They will reforge you and your body until you embody each fighting style and eventually martial arts itself through your body."

Aaron had never actually done any martial arts in his old life, well a bit of jujitsu while trying out a mixed martial arts gym. But boxing had always been more his thing. Still as Sylus presented it, it sounded pretty incredible. A bit like kung fu, but overcharged. Repetition ingrained turning you into a fighting machine.

"So, how do I start?" he asked.

"You start like any young cultivator on my planet. With the fist kata."

"On your planet?"

"Yes, what did you think we all came from the same planet? Boy, its a multiverse, there are millions of planets in any universe and billions of cultivation worlds we know of. The multiverse is infinite, us 13 only span 3 dimensions."

Sylus frowned and shook his head. "But enough, focus boy. The fist kata is one of the easiest katas to learn, but it is also the hardest to master because of its simplicity. Stand up and mimic my stance."

Sylus raised his fists, one foot behind the other in a relaxed but ready stance. Aaron tried to mimic him, but it was hard and Sylus turned out to be an exceptionally harsh teacher.

"No, idiot, angle the foot more to the right. That’s left you imbecile. Good, your fists are too high, you are not blocking."

Aaron had some instincts instilled into him from his boxing days and those were the first thing Sylus mercilessly attacked.

"Blocking with your arms is folly. This is a heavenly kata not some catch it all martial arts. This is also no battle technique, it is a way to fight. There are other more defensive minded katas, but generally you never want to take on an enemies attack head on.

Only fools and masters can do such a thing, the fool dies and the master is so far above their opponent that they do not need to evade. You are neither of them, so you will evade not block."

Sylus demonstrated very slowly the first steps of the kata. They were simple straight punches with the entire body behind the attack. His movements were ridiculously smooth and easy. His punches cracked in the air like lightning.

Aaron tried to copy the moves, but failed miserably, he could not get the same sound, his punches were always slightly wrong, his stance still more of a boxers than Sylus stance. The man sighed.

"Focus only on the footwork for now. If your feet know the way, your body will follow."

Aaron did not know how long Sylus made him repeat the same steps. It felt like a freaking dance lesson and it was exhausting. To precisely move like he was told to was straining his muscles. After he had done the steps "passably" to Sylus standards, which of course meant flawlessly to anyone elses mind, he was finally allowed to take a break.

Sweating and tired he lied down on the cool stone. But he was barely given any time to do more than catch his breath.

"Again." Sylus ordered and Aaron got up with a groan, but continued. He had never had any problems to tough something out and he was a patient man. This all seemed entirely pointless to him, he did not really see much different between this Fist kata and boxing, but hey maybe he was wrong. He had really hoped for some mystical technique to teach him bad ass moves where he could shoot lightning out of his hands or something.

But instead he felt like karate kid or something. Instead of waxing cars he was dancing and it sucked.

But he persevered, just to see if this all was really a "heavenly" technique or not.

"Again, this time, let your feet do the work and focus on your fists, follow my punches, strike where I strike."

It was a complicated series of straight punches, jabs and all other kinds of punches with fists even boxing had no name of. Or if they had he had no idea what they were. From uppercuts and hooks to other more exotic punches, that in the end were far more prevalent. Punching sideways, slamming your fist down horizontally. Punching something behind you and more. The kata seemed far more in depth than Aaron had first considered and it was fun to punch air at least. But also far more tiring than just following the right steps.

The magical thing was that through the multitude of repetitions his feet basically moved on the path of the kata on their own, even though Sylus made him repeat sections again and again if he messed up even a single step.

"Good, again and this time focus on your posture, on how you shift your weight, give the punches purpose and meaning. Make them light or put your weight behind them. Speed up or slow down. There is not just one rhythm in this kata."

Aaron groaned, but did like he was told to. Sylus always demonstrated the kata for him and all he had to do was copy it. But it was so hard to do everything at the same time.

Hours later Aaron fell in some sort of trance, he was too tired, too beat to move, but his body moved anyways. Followed the ingrained movements in a robotic fashion, following Sylus harsh bellowing voice whenever he had to correct Aaron.

But this repetition he was silent and Aaron simply tried to prevent any mistakes. His body punched, moved, ducked and jumped. From the first step to the last and once Aaron had absolved the last punch and had drawn back into the starting position something changed.

It felt like his body was shuddering, his muscles twitching in spasms as he fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

But Aaron was not collapsing, instead he felt like his body was waking up, his muscles protesting as they unclenched and a feeling of total relaxation came after the strenuous exertion. It felt almost too good.

Moaning softly he fell to the ground and just laid there on the cool stones.

"What is happening?" he asked weakly.

"You have managed to learn the first kata. If you finish a kata perfectly from start to finish your body will change. The kata itself twists your Qi inside of your body in a way that reinforces and strengthens it. It is not a cultivation art, but it does almost the same. It is a marvelous effect that led to the rise of my clan." Sylus said wistfully.

"Whenever you finish this kata perfectly it will strengthen your body and alleviate some of the strain your put your body under."

But Aaron barely heard the man as his body relaxed and his mind drifted away. He was asleep before Sylus had even finished.

The cultivator snorted and sat down, cultivating. He had expected no less, but it was still annoying how disrespectful this new student of his was. At least he should have given him time to finish his sentences.

When Aaron awoke he felt refreshed, but the cold of the hard ground had seeped into him and he sat up quickly. He had rarely slept on the ground before, but he honestly did not feel bad at all now. He stretched and yawned. Everyone seemed to be deep in meditation and it was silent in the Prison. Sylus opened his eyes when Aaron looked at him.

"Finally. I have some final things to say to you boy. So listen well."

Aaron stepped closer to the Cage and looked at Sylus. He did not think the man too arrogant anymore. He was incredibly powerful and a good teacher, if a bit harsh. He doubted anyone could teach this technique this well without exceptional experience.

"The first kata is also called the Rejuvenating Fist. Finishing it perfectly will feel very good and it will train your body more thoroughly than any other workout ever could. You will repeat this kata 100 times a day."

"100 Times?" Aaron looked shocked.

"50 in the morning, 50 in the evening. Be sure to do it perfectly. I will not have any disciple of mine disgrace himself by being lazy."

With the 3 hours of cultivation he was supposed to do for the Fiend-god art and 50 repetitions of this kata would there even be time left to do anything else in a day?

Ignoring Aaron’s discomfort Sylus continued.

"The Rejuvenating Fist is an offensive minded kata, it is straight forward, but adaptable. In its triplet there is The Hand and the Finger kata. I won't teach you those for a while. The Unceasing Palm kata is a defensive kata, which will force any enemy attack away from you, even proper Qi attacks if done right. It is far more complicated and far harder to learn, since it is easiest learned with a partner who can punch you. The third kata, the Piercing Finger, is entirely offensive and introduces Qi attacks into the kata. Its focus is to put all your strength into a single point to break through any defense.

If you bring me extra beast cores I will be able to inscribe them to contain memories of those three katas. Together they will enable you to be a prodigious fighter and no doubt they will carry you through the lower ranks of the tower alone."

Aaron frowned, he was impressed and all and he wanted to learn them, but it still seemed to him like Sylus was ripping him off.

"Fine, I will do what I can."

"Good, trust me, reliving memories is the best way to learn the techniques. It will be worth the price."

"Sure, if you say so." Aaron said unconvinced and turned away from the man.

"Say hi from me to sister Mei." Sylus said before closing his eyes with a smirk.