Ball of Nothing

Hua Tuo woke up to the smell of breakfast in the form of roasted fish. Zero was already sitting cross-legged under the Aggression Fall meditating with a frown on his face. The physician smiled at his student's enthusiasm. Last night must have been something if Zero was so ready to dive into facing his fears head-on so early in the morning.

The Sage God ate his roasted fish and steamed rice before doing his morning ritual to warm his old bag of bones. The qi gathered at Trigression Falls was a lot denser than at Endow Hill and Hua Tuo could feel the immediate difference as the qi circulated in his body, opening up the twelve meridians in his body.

Feeling that it might be good to bring his qi gong to the next level, Hua Tuo focussed on his breath and meditated while going through the familiar moves to stimulate the eight spiritual axes. Zero felt a strange pressure gathering in the air around the cave and decided that it might be a good time to take a break of his own since he hasn't made much progress.

When he opened his eyes and hopped off the platform, the teenager couldn't believe his eyes and rubbed them a bit to see if he was dreaming.

Hua Tuo moved with the grace of water and Zero recognised the moves. It was a sick combination between Tai Ji and Qi Gong with simultaneous meditation if the dense gathering of qi around his teacher was any indication. Zero could see the traces of where the energy was being gathered in the focal point called dantian somewhere below his teacher's navel. It was the core of every cultivator's power according to Hua Tuo and Zero observed closely how the gathered qi spun like a ball of yarn in the small space before redistributing it to the rest of the body through the meridian network.

This was something Hua Tuo had yet to teach Zero but the brunet wasn't too worried. His teacher would probably teach it to him once he reached the Progression Falls stage. Now that he knew what lay ahead of him, the young doctor was even more determined to conquer the Aggression Falls.

Zero decided that maybe changing his meditation position might help. Hua Tuo was meditating perfectly well while engaging movement and Zero tried to imitate it with the basic qi gong movements he was taught.

An hour later, Hua Tuo ended his morning exercise and decided to check on his disciple. He didn't hear or sense anything funny while he was warming up so the brat must be doing well enough to cope.

The moment he stepped out of the sanctuary, the physician was greeted by a water dragon of some sort controlled by qi. The Sage God ducked just in time to avoid getting hit by it. Zero's roar could be heard above the sound of water and Hua Tuo snapped his neck towards his student with wide eyes.

The brunet was there with eyes ablaze and pulling the elements together combining it with his morning qi gong routine. Beside the water dragon was an earth dragon made from the soil, an air dragon, a fire dragon from the campfire last night, a light dragon and a shadow dragon made from Zero's magic. The physician heard the childish roar again and side-stepped the earth dragon passing by.

Why did his student decide to take inspiration and practice qi gong under the Aggression Falls of all the waterfalls he could choose? It was the worst possible waterfall Zero could choose to cultivate in. Given the nature of the Aggression Falls, it was not surprising that the kid would go out of control. The water there was feeding the negative feelings into Zero's heart and fuelling his inner fears to channel them into destructive powers. At this rate, Zero might really fall into cultivating the unorthodox methods.

Hua Tuo didn't fling a pebble this time. He took out a mini golden pagoda loaned by Buddha and used it to seal Zero in it. The teenager tried to attack the pagoda with his elemental dragons in his berserk state but Hua Tuo was quicker and chanted the heart mantra, shackling the frenzy in Zero's eyes. It was a good thing Zero was incapable of being corrupted with his naturally chaotic existence as the void. Once the boy was out of the water, the effects would gradually wear off on its own and Zero would revert back to normal.

Still, that didn't mean Zero was off the hook. Hua Tuo was definitely going to give the boy a piece of his mind.

Once Zero was sealed inside of the mini golden pagoda, Hua Tuo summoned it back into his sleeve and waited for the powered-up dragons to die off on their own. Without a steady supply of mana or qi, these dragons didn't last long and returned to their origin. Hua Tuo glared at Zero who was trapped in the pagoda.

"What do you think you were doing?" the Sage God growled and Zero laughed sheepishly.

"I thought I would focus better if I imitated what you did... it is still very difficult for me to grasp the technique behind conquering the Aggression Falls and I don't have much time."

Hua Tuo sighed and let Zero out. Once the boy was out, the physician flicked him on the forehead mercilessly, leaving a bruise that rapidly healed. That didn't mean Zero didn't feel the pain and he collapsed onto the floor clutching his forehead with tears at the corners of his eyes. The apprentice groaned and accepted the punishment without question. He probably deserved that.

"Do you know why it is called the Aggression Falls and not the Peaceful Falls? I think the clue is in the name and as the smart child you are, you should be able to put two and two together without needing my input."

The sarcasm was thick and Zero knew Hua Tuo was mad. It wasn't often that he saw Hua Tuo genuinely angry but normally, the physician got angry when safety was compromised. He must have really messed up this time.

"Sorry," Zero apologised meekly and dared not meet his teacher's eyes.

Seeing Zero transform into a scared kitten, the physician sighed. It was partially his fault for not keeping an eye on his student better. He should have known better than to train in the comforts of that cave. It blocked out sounds after all.

"No, the fault is partially mine this time. I didn't explain it well. Listen closely because I will not repeat it again. The only way to conquer the Aggression Falls is to completely surrender to it. Any form of resistance will be detected by the waterfall and then it will attempt to drown you. You cannot conquer it by logic, unlike other obstacles that you face. It cannot be solved by force either as you've seen. Let go of everything and the answer will come to you."

Zero blinked and Hua Tuo shrugged the top of his robe off to prepare for his personal cultivation session under the Progression Falls. His words left a huge impact on Zero who sat on the cave floor, pondering over them.

What did it mean to let go? Zero couldn't understand it. The meaning was simple but the apprentice didn't know what consisted of letting go. How could he open up his vulnerabilities for the fearsome waterfall to attack him? Why must he suffer damage from the waterfall in order to win? Was such a victory worth it?

Mii and Bob left Zero to his overwhelming thoughts and decided that this time, they wouldn't help. From the third person's point of view, the answer was clear as day. Sometimes the best way to win a battle was to do nothing at all. Let nature take its course and let fate decide the outcome. That was a natural concept to understand as part of the living who weren't almighty existences.

Strange enough, this was probably the hardest lesson for powerful beings like Gods, Angels and Demons to learn. Zero who belonged in a class of his own as the creator and destroyer of the world had an even harder time understanding it.

For four solid hours, Zero tried to understand the riddle in Hua Tuo's answer. He researched and read up everything he could in his library and even tried to work out a mathematical formula to derive an answer. Sadly, none of those did anything and Zero felt depressed at the sight of an insurmountable wall in front of him. This wasn't a problem that could be overcome by hard work or creativity. Zero finally realised that there were problems in this world that were greater than his existence. There simply was no way around this.

Was defeat the only option in his way? Zero spiralled downwards into his depression by the time lunch came by. He didn't know who he was or what he wanted any more with the Aggression Falls taunting him the whole time outside of the cave.

Hua Tuo saw the hopeless expression on Zero's face and was secretly pleased. After the soil settles, the water becomes clear. Right now, Zero was finally in the right direction and the physician was thrilled. All that was left was for Zero to take the final gamble with his potential to discover the answer.

One could train endurance and the ability to take everything that life threw in their way. However, it was not the same thing for faith and patience. These were virtues to be cultivated and taken to one's grave. Zero was a very hardworking student who overcame all obstacles in his path by training his fist to be harder to break down tougher walls posed to him. However, this method doesn't always work.

Before Zero could learn the art of Tai Ji, he had to understand the concept of fluidity where the user doesn't do anything and allow nature to take its course. Tai Ji was a fighting style that allowed the user to win the battle without exerting any force of their own. It consisted of a lot of waiting for the right moment to strike with a quick mind to make sound judgements. While it was merciful by nature and does not aim to kill, merely defend against. Zero's method of breaking down walls had to change if he wanted to save lives. An axe heel dropkick from the sky with gravity enhanced magic was aimed to destroy and kill, a style that Hua Tuo didn't want to see Zero use unless the situation called for it.

As his student struggled with himself, the teacher got up and washed the dishes. They had a long week ahead of them and judging from Zero's varying levels of frustration, the physician would give it another three hours or less before Zero tries something more desperate. For now, it was time for a good nap to recharge for the battle later.

Zero didn't notice how Hua Tuo had gone silent and was taking a short nap. He'd already gone insane enough to be talking to himself, listing out the pros and cons about taking the advice literally. Mii and Bob tried their best not to judge Zero for who he was with the new ridiculous ideas that Zero's brain supplied him. However, it was a very difficult feat to accomplish when Zero decided that he should take precautions by transforming into a lungfish so that the water couldn't drown him literally.

"But shifu didn't want us doing anything fancy," the good and rational side of Zero protested.

The desperate and rebellious side of Zero scoffed. "I'm protecting our interest. Who'd be so dumb as to believe that letting the water drown us will let us achieve enlightenment? Unless they achieved it while dying and somehow attained immortality after, which we already have, it's going to be impossible!"

The rational side of Zero got angry and countered that advice was always given for a reason.

The rebellious side of the doctor rolled their eyes and brushed it off. A piece of advice was an opinion formed by experience and logical conclusions of the individual giving it. Zero had a fairly special constitution that might not allow for such things to apply. It would be foolish to follow the recipe of a blind cook when there was a far more effective way of doing things with the same result.

"This way, we could prevent any unnecessary loss and still be able to overcome the trial. Who is to say that there aren't any lungfishes who'd attained enlightenment after cultivating in all three waterfalls? The turtles here are cultivated, the plants here are also cultivated."

The saner side of Zero thought about it and slowly came to an agreement while they hashed out details. Bob and Mii refrained from commenting. Zero might have thought of a good solution but they highly doubted it would do anything. Zero was probably going to fail again. Even if he conquered his irrational fear of drowning in the waterfall, it did nothing to help with the more important underlying issue of embracing himself.

The assistants exchanged a look and Mii prepared to wake Hua Tuo up in case something in Zero's experiments went wrong this time. They were not taking any chances and leaving Zero to his own devices would be a bad idea. Nobody wanted a repeat of the earlier accident and Bob promised to keep an eye on the teenager while Mii busied away.

It was going to be along month and it was only the second day. Bob felt older by a few centuries already even if he was still a hatchling. Could this be the effect Zero had on people?