Grey's face contorted in pain. The cultivation technique was putting intense pressure on his brain while ingraining itself into his very subconscious. The understandings, the mysticism and the small enlightenments of the technique were being passed over to him.
[ Trasfering: 1%....5%.....18%.....37%...52%.....84%.....92%.....99%....100% ]
[Transfer complete]
[Astral cultivation technique obtained]
Grey's face finally relaxed. He exhaled the warm air out of his lungs. He closed his eyes again, going into mediation, trying to digest all the new information that had just appeared in his mind.
'With the heart as the cosmic drum, the body as the universe, and the aura as the astral flow, create the indestructible. Shake the heavens with a stomp of your feet. Embrace the cosmic sky with your arms spread wide. Be the start, be the end. Be what was not, be what will be. Unmake what is…to become him. Dance the dance of the cosmic destroyer,'
Grey was astounded by the very first words of the Astral cultivation technique. His hairs stood up on their ends. A mystical feeling filled him, the words were making his heart race, he was shocked as well as confused with the method of cultivating…he had to dance.
"I have to dance? What kind of cultivation method is it? Is this system trying to make a joke out of me again?" Grey was perplexed. Though he was not that familiar with the cultivation techniques of this world, he still felt it was weird. He had never read in any of the novels where the main character cultivates by dancing.
He had only ever read of mediating, throwing one's body into adverse conditions, like cold water, hot lava, field of lightning and others. It was the first time for him to have heard of dancing to cultivate his body and aura.
It was no use now. He himself had chosen this technique. He thought maybe it was primordial rank for a reason, also it was a mixed technique of body and aura. It wouldn't make him do this for anything. Grey released a deep sigh. He removed his sweat soaked shirt and laid it over the grass below.
"Let's try it first. Whatever happens, I'll accept it with grace."
Grey was shirtless, his lean physique now slightly more defined. The chill air of the high plateau at the distance, sweetened by the scent of dew and mountain heather, was pierced by the first silver of dawn. He stood at the center of the wide, open ground, the grass still dark and wet beneath his bare feet.
He inhaled deeply. Filling his lungs with the fresh cold morning air. Steeling himself, discarding all the hesitation and doubt, he began, not with power, but with fluidity.
He planted his right foot firmly, rooting himself into the earth. His left leg was raised, bent at the knee, held effortlessly in the air. Both his arms spread out. His right arm raised high, the fingers and palm curled up, as if holding the very sky in his palm and his left arm above the raised left leg, fingers and palm downwards, like holding the earth tightly in his grasp.
BA-DUM!...BA-DUM!
As he held the pose, his heart started beating loud. the Aura from the core at his naval streamed up, rushing through the meridians like a wave with every beat of the heart.
The dance began as the crescent sun breached the horizon, painting the scene in vibrant hues. Grey's movements were not fluid, but sharply defined, like the beat of a cosmic drum. Each step was a deliberate, controlled expenditure of strength, immediately compensated by a surge of aura.
With a sudden, explosive rotation of his torso, Grey brought his right arm down in a blur. The pure force of the physical swing created a sonic boom through the valley, but the movements didn't end there. As his muscled flexed and rebounded, they drew the aura from the core, turning the physical impact into a wave of directed, silver-grey force that flattened the tall grass in a circle around him.
BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! The heartbeats were getting intense, like the beat of the drum had increased its pace. The tempo abruptly shifted. The slow meditative flow broke into a frenetic, almost impossible sequence of movements. Grey's feet, now bare over the grass, became a blur. He executed a series of lightning fast steps, a rapid, rhythmic stomping that vibrated the very ground.
He immediately transitioned to an incredible back-arch, bending until his torso was parallel to the ground. His left hand swept up out in a wide arc, the air around his palm crackled with silver-grey energy, but instead of throwing it out, he used his physically trained core to compress and pull the energy back into his body, forcing the volatile aura to circulate through his dense, muscle bound back.
Thorgar's training and the aura theory and manipulation classes were showing effects now.
The rhythm was a controlled frenzy, each beat pushing the energies past their comfortable limits, forcing them to occupy the same space. He would leap high, powered by physical strength, only to descend slowly, cushioned by a subtle cushion of silver-grey aura.
With a final, climatic twist, Grey adopted the pose he had started with. His body was heavy, felt like hot molten metal seemed flowing through his vessels, burning the insides and making his body heavy.
His eyes gazed at the far cosmos above. A drop of tear trickled down from the corner of his eyes. He was so lost in the dance that he felt it never ending, for a moment he forgot who he was, he didn't even realize when the sun had risen high up in the sky.
A blinding silver-grey shimmer exploded from his pores, not just a light, but a physical field. The aura now had weight, and the body vibrant with the aura. This new energy flowed like molted quicksilver over the skin, covering his muscles like a flexible, metallic shell.
He finally dropped his raised leg, the combined force of the aura and body cultivation being instantly grounded. The dawn-soaked ground, unable to withstand the dual pressure, cracked beneath his feet, leaving a perfectly formed indentation surrounded by a web of fissures.
Grey now stood motionless, breathing deep. The dance of the unmaking was completed. He had danced the dance of the cosmic destroyer. Power coursed through his body. Loud cracking sounds reverberated through the air as he clenched his fists.
He felt content, relieved and an unknown ecstasy filled him. a mystical feeling that he was unable to explain himself. He exhaled out deep and called for the system to bring up his character interface.