Birth of Feng

A Chapter by Feng Zi

Chapter 5 – The Birth of Feng

“How long has he been detained?” As two patrol guards stroll down the length of the floor’s corridors, one of them had stopped by Jun Tian’s cell and placed his ear against the door.

“Nuhhh …. Four days I guess …”

“Whoa. I haven’t heard any pleas from within yet … have you?”

“No.”

“Do you think he will ever turn insane like the rest?”

“Yes.”

Right from the very first day of solitary confinement when Jun Tian had sat himself into the lotus position, Jun Tian had still remained in it. With his two hands resting on his laps, nine fingers interlocking and the tips of his two thumbs connecting ( in the shikantaza posture ), Jun Tian had been meditating without a single pinch of sleep for four consecutive days.

And then … without any warning or signs of sorts, Jun Tian opened his eyes.

For four days, the room was devoid of light. For four days, the room was devoid of sound. For four days, the room was devoid of wind.

Yet, all that changed with the awakening of the seventeen year old.

If anyone were present to witness his stirring, he would be instantaneously be cast awe-struck, for in such a room without any single light source, Jun Tian’s frame which was still sitting in the lotus position was abruptly bathed in a bright, soothing yet acute aura of pulsating crimson light.

And as if acknowledging the coming of a new devil, the still air in the cell began to revolve about Jun Tian and with each completion of a revolve, the wind grew stronger, swifter and sharper.

Jun Tian gazed at the space before him dreamily, as if still lazing about in his drowsiness. However, his dreamy gaze quickly vanished and replacing it, were two burning acute paths of sight.

And he spoke finally, breaking the silence in the cell.

“Alas, I finally am done contemplating and have seen the truth of this world. Jun Tian is no more. Feng – is here to stay.”

On the fifth day, Feng began work on perfecting his Core’s SoulScript. What alarmed him, however, was the fact that a huge portion of the ‘alter-ego’ of the nervous system was wrecked.

On further thought, Feng came to the conclusion that it was the result of forcibly healing his wounds.

With this assumption, Feng swiftly repaired the framework of his Core and quickly started on SoulScript V2.0. Unknown to him, this version of SoulScript was to be the original prototype which will be the basic template for further versions.

From V2.0 onwards, all future versions of the SoulScript had one thing in common – they were intentionally designed to kill.

“Killing,” Feng would comment in time to come, “is not murder. Murder is the stealing of life with selfish intentions. Killing, on the contrary, is merely the removing of life with no personal grudge against the prey.”

How do I kill? What – what is the best method to taking the life of others?

This question has had Feng dumbstruck for days before he had finally arrived at the conclusion – speed. With utmost speed, even before one’s prey could react, his heart would have long ceased to beat. With the utmost speed, nothing could harm him. With unmatchable speed, Feng can penetrate the impenetrable.

The nervous pathway, Feng discovered, was much swifter a route, than what Feng had initially thought it to be. The ‘alter-ego’ of the nervous system which Feng had constructed could merely transmit data at half the speed of the original system.

As such, Feng decided to restore and repair the damage to his nervous pathways. Before the discovery of chi, Feng had thought it impossible, for it was utterly wasted away. However, after attempting to revitalize the nerve cells with tremendous amounts of chi, the damaged cells had finally begun to function once more.

The average nervous pathway, however, was too long a route and contained numerous impurities. These flaws, Feng concluded, contributed to the slowing down of data transmission rate. By removing and nullifying the impurities and by reallocating the nerve cells and rearranging the nervous pathways, Feng was now capable of reacting and responding two dozen times swifter than the average man.

On the sixth day, Feng finally exited from his lotus position and stood up. With SoulScript V2.0 completed, he now needed to perfect and troubleshoot it.

After bathing and nourishing his cells with the chi circulating about his body, Feng abruptly began a series of movement at such an inhumane speed that the average naked eye could not clearly pinpoint the exact location of his limbs.

And as if insufficient to satiate Feng’s lust for combat, Feng ended off the series of movements with an explosive punching of his palm into the cell wall.

That day, Feng made two further discoveries of the properties of chi.

Firstly, chi could be expelled out of the body. Instead of merely channeling the chi to parts of his body to increase its explosive power, Feng could actually release packages of chi to his surroundings, yielding certain destructive results.

Secondly, by releasing chi partially into the surface of an object, and retaining part of the same package of chi within his body, Feng was able to establish a connection between the object and the part of his body which was emanating the chi.

On the seventh day, Feng had finally mastered the first steps of one of his signature martial arts – 飞檐走壁.

Feng had been standing on the ceiling of the prison cell for three consecutive hours and he did not exude any symptoms of falling off.

He had managed to fuse the soles of his feet with the cold surface of the ceiling via establishing a chi connection.

Hands behind his back as he stood on the ceiling, Feng’s eyes were closed, his face expressing a charismatic serenity.

“The SoulScript … The Core …” He muttered to himself beneath his breath, his mind racing fast with thought. “They have potentials much greater than I might even expect them to wield.”

But a human body … is nevertheless of flesh and blood … can it withstand such distortion of its limits?

Feng sighed, his eyes remaining closed. He had to think about it.

When the guards opened the door to release Feng from his solitary confinement, they find the seventeen year old silently facing the walls, his back to the guards.

“Jun Tian … Jun Tian …”

“He is not here.” Feng replied as he turned around to face the guards – one of them, Feng recognized, was Uncle Hong.

“Jun Tian … But you are Jun Tian …” Uncle Hong frowned as he stepped forth to approach Feng.

“No, Uncle Hong. I am Feng.”

“As expected, Brother Hong,” The other guard nudged Uncle Hong. “That guy has gone insane. No one has completed solitary confinement without turning mad.”

It was lunch time when Feng was released. He was led by Uncle Hong to the cafeteria where the inmates were queuing up for food.

“Jun Tian, the food here may be bad, but at least you won’t lose weight.” Uncle Hong smiled.

“I’m Feng.” Feng repeated for the umpteenth time already.

“I know … I know. Now Jun – I mean, Feng. I’m very glad that you made it out of the solitary confinement safe … and mostly sound. Now, life here in prison will be almost pleasant but you will just need to be careful of the three factions.”

Feng nodded. He appreciated the concern showered onto him by Uncle Hong, but nevertheless, he found the guard over-talkative.

As Feng made his way to the queue, Uncle Hong sighed and left the cafeteria’s entrance whilst shaking his head. Although much of Jun Tian’s background was not to be revealed and disclosed to the guards, Uncle Hong had heard part of the reason why the seventeen year old had massacred the hospital staff.

Sure, he sympathized with the kid, but for the past two decades he had worked in the prison, he had seen too much already.

Right or wrong, the moment you are sentenced to the prison, you are gone.

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© 2008 Feng Zi

Author's Note

Oh, right. Now Jun Tian goes insane and turns into Feng. Don't ask me what's going on and read for yourself in the next chapter.

This is merely the beginnings of the story and well, the true nature of the story unfolds in the next upcoming chapters.