Perfect 🔥 Now we step into **Chapter 14 – Chakra Lessons**, where Ratan officially begins his first cultivation training under the **Snake Spirit Master**, continuing directly from **Chapter 13 (Snake Spirit Master Appears)**.
This chapter is about **discipline, pain, and the opening of a true path**. The pacing will remain heavy (style), with inner struggle, detailed cultivation method, and the bond between Ratan and his master beginning to form.
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# **Chapter 14 – Chakra Lessons**
The night after his initiation, Ratan could barely sleep. The circle of symbols still burned in his mind, glowing with a power that hummed deep within his chest. His Root Chakra pulsed steadily, no longer wild and unpredictable—it was awake, restless, hungry.
When dawn painted the horizon with streaks of orange, the Snake Spirit Master's shadow fell across Ratan's hut.
"Up," the master's voice commanded, sharp as the strike of a whip.
Ratan scrambled out, eyes bleary but determined. His father, Mahadev, stood silently nearby, jaw tight. He did not interfere. His gaze followed the boy as he walked toward the trees with the cloaked figure. It was the first time Ratan left not as his son, but as a disciple.
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### **The First Lesson: Breathing of the Serpent**
The master led him to a clearing by the river. Mist coiled above the surface, curling like white serpents in the morning air.
"Sit."
Ratan folded his legs, spine straight, heart pounding.
The master knelt before him, his golden eyes gleaming. "The body is a cage. The Chakras are the locks. The serpent spirit is the key. If you do not learn to breathe correctly, you will suffocate before the path even begins."
He demonstrated, drawing in a slow, deliberate breath through the nose, then releasing it in a hissing exhale that echoed like a serpent's whisper.
"This is the **Breath of the Serpent.** With every inhale, you draw energy from the earth into your Root Chakra. With every exhale, you purge weakness, fear, and hesitation."
Ratan imitated him, awkwardly at first. His lungs burned, his chest felt tight. Sweat broke across his forehead.
"Again," the master barked.
Ratan forced himself to continue. The world seemed to blur, his hearing sharpened, and he could feel faint tremors beneath the soil as if the earth itself had a heartbeat.
When his vision swayed, the master struck him lightly across the back of the head. "Do not faint. The serpent does not faint. The serpent endures."
Hours passed in silence, broken only by the hiss of exhaled breath. When the sun reached its peak, Ratan's body trembled with exhaustion, yet his Root Chakra glowed brighter within him—steady, powerful.
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### **The Second Lesson: Stance of the Coil**
"Stand," the master ordered.
Ratan rose shakily.
The master planted his staff into the ground, drawing a spiral in the dirt with its tip. "The serpent coils before it strikes. Strength is born not from speed or size, but from patience and precision. To master the Root Chakra, you must learn the **Stance of the Coil.**"
He demonstrated, lowering into a crouch with his body curved slightly, arms loose yet ready, feet rooted as though fused to the earth.
Ratan copied him. Immediately his legs screamed in pain.
"Hold."
Minutes passed. Sweat dripped into Ratan's eyes. His thighs burned, his knees shook. The urge to collapse nearly overwhelmed him.
But the master's cold voice cut through his weakness: "If you cannot even hold the stance of a serpent, you are unworthy of its fangs."
Biting his lip until it bled, Ratan endured. His Root Chakra thrummed, sending small vibrations into the ground beneath his feet. For a moment, he felt a strange stability—like roots growing downward.
When he finally collapsed after what felt like an eternity, the master nodded once. "Acceptable."
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### **The Third Lesson: Listening to the Earth**
By evening, Ratan's body was nearly broken. His breath rasped, his legs felt like shattered stone. But the master did not relent.
"Lie on the soil. Close your eyes."
Ratan obeyed.
"Now listen."
At first, he heard only his own ragged breathing. But slowly—ever so slowly—other sounds emerged. The rustle of grass. The trickle of river water. The shifting of pebbles in the current.
Then deeper still—thuds, vibrations, faint yet undeniable. The footsteps of deer beyond the forest. The burrowing of moles beneath the ground. The heartbeat of the valley itself.
His Root Chakra resonated with these sounds, each pulse aligning with the rhythms of the earth.
The master's voice whispered above him, low but sharp: "The earth speaks. Most men are deaf to it. You will not be. To master the Muladhara is to root yourself in the world until nothing can uproot you."
Ratan opened his eyes, chest heaving. He had felt it—the whisper of the earth, alive and vast.
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### **The Price of Cultivation**
The training ended at nightfall. Ratan staggered back to the village, every step a battle. His mother rushed to support him, horrified by his battered state, but Mahadev stopped her.
"Let him walk," he said quietly. His eyes shone with a mix of pride and sorrow.
When Ratan collapsed onto his mat, his body screamed in pain, but his heart burned with exhilaration. The serpent spirit coiled warmly within him, whispering:
*Yes. Suffer. Endure. This is the soil of strength.*
As sleep took him, he realized: cultivation was not glory. It was pain. But it was pain that made him more.
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### **Foreshadowing**
The Snake Spirit Master sat alone by the river after sending Ratan home. He gazed at the moon, his golden eyes shadowed.
"He endures better than I expected," he murmured. "The Root accepts him. Perhaps… he truly can awaken all Seven Chakras."
Yet his voice carried a trace of unease, as if he knew the road ahead would demand a price greater than any child should pay.
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## **Chapter Highlights**
1. **Breath of the Serpent** – Ratan learns the first cultivation breathing technique to channel energy into the Root Chakra.
2. **Stance of the Coil** – Brutal physical training to anchor his body like the earth itself.
3. **Listening to the Earth** – Awakens his senses to vibrations and whispers of the ground.
4. **Pain and Endurance** – First taste of the suffering cultivation demands.
5. **Foreshadowing** – Master sees potential but worries about the burden.
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