Ringo arrived at Hell's headquarters, where he was talking to Li about Chi and their progress so far, but Li had an unexpected surprise for Ringo.
In the training room, Li, clearly a little younger again, closed his eyes while Ringo watched curiously. The man seemed very pleased and proud when he called him, leaving Ringo quite intrigued as to why.
However, while he was confused about what the old man was up to, his eyes widened slightly.
He felt a spiritual presence touching his body, it was weak, erratic, but it was there, like a being from the Nightmare. Ringo could perfectly discern the source.
Li, standing before him, opened his eyes as the spiritual energy dissipated, a smile still on his face, but clearly tired in the depths of his eyes, not physical tiredness, but spiritual!
-How?- Ringo asked, his eyes wide. If Ringo hadn't been certain it was really Li in front of him, he would have thought a psychic had possessed the old man's body.
-Your idea to expand Chi outside the body was interesting, but as I continued to practice with it, I noticed how wasteful this technique was, a good portion of the Chi was dispersed while I tried to practice it. Although this was evidently due to a lack of control, it still didn't feel right.- Li began, using his hand to rub his neck with his eyes closed.
He opened his eyes and brought his hand to the front of his body, looking at it, he continued. - It was while I was meditating that I had an idea, a bold idea that I had never tried before.
He looked at Ringo and spoke. - All these years I have meditated seeking to improve my mind as well as my body, but until now, although this meditation had obvious spiritual benefits, mainly as a defense against Espers with mind-focused powers, I had never really tried to use my mind as I use Chi. This thought made me meditate for several days, trying in my mental landscape to make my spiritual energy leave my body.
-At first it was very difficult, I had never done this before, it took months to achieve something and even longer to expand this energy a few meters.- Li closed his eyes, as if concentrating on something, but he didn't stop talking. -For now, this isn't very useful to me. I need to remain still and concentrate completely just to expand this energy a few meters from me. Besides, unlike Chi, it's even more uncontrollable, but I discovered with Melissa's help that while she can feel the Chi around her, she didn't feel any of my spiritual energy.
Ringo had already understood what Li meant at that point and sighed deeply, that old man... he really is a fucking monster.
He is not a spiritual race, nor does he possess a Super gene related to spirits, but with sheer willpower, he managed to extract spiritual energy from within himself and use it!
Sure, it was like watching a missile being used to knock down a tree, maybe even more expensive than that, but it was still incredible.
Ringo frowned and asked. -Why didn't you tell me before? I could have helped you a lot with my evolutionary energy.
Li scoffed and said. -Boy, not everything needs to be done in a hurry and in pursuit of efficiency. Do you know what it feels like to achieve so much through your own efforts? You're always rushing and don't appreciate the journey, always thinking about the destination.
Ringo stared at him with dead eyes. Was this old man serious? But in the end, he sighed and shook his head. Li had his own way of doing things.
-Okay, so what? Why show me this now?- Ringo asked, curious.
Li pursed his lips and said. -It's taking too long!
Ringo:...
Dude, what did you just say?!
Ringo almost wanted to punch Li in the head a few times to find out that something was still rattling inside there.
Holding back a sigh, he frowned and became thoughtful.
He didn't respond to Li, instead, he closed his eyes and tried to do something he had never attempted before. Like Chi, he didn't use his racial abilities or Super gene, he simply tried to focus on his own pure spiritual energy, attempting to draw it from within himself.
He remained like that for several minutes before frowning, he couldn't do it.
Compared to Li, his spiritual energy was much greater, like comparing a shallow puddle on the road to a lake, but unlike Li, Ringo had no practice in that regard, the man probably spent more time meditating than Ringo had lived, counting the time of the old Ringo.
It was like trying to lift a truck with a stick, no matter how hard he tried, his spiritual energy wouldn't budge at all.
Sighing, he opened his eyes again, only to see Li's half-smile, the old man understood what he was doing and knew he hadn't succeeded.
Ringo felt like when he tried to learn how to use Chi again.
Pursing his lips, he finally shook his head and swallowed his pride. -Teach me.
Li let out a thunderous laugh and said. -Of course... son.
Ringo's lips trembled fiercely, his urge to punch Li reaching its peak, but he knew that if he attacked him now, he would completely refuse to teach him! It was clearly a low move, but Li didn't care in the slightest, still smiling like a child at Christmas.