Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst

After finishing packing up his things, the boy, having ensured his basic survival needs, returned to his small hut. In there, he lay down on the woven mat and began to sift through his memories, trying to make sense of them and organizing them into two separate timelines.

"There's something that's been bothering me a bit. There's something strange in the green-eyed boy's memories or well, my memories..." the boy muttered softly to himself, his youthful face full of confusion.

The memories he was referring to involved an incredibly vivid image in his mind. It was of a large, muscular man with blond hair, around 40 years old, dressed in bright, intricately decorated plate armor. This man was lifting a boulder that seemed to be about 10 meters in diameter, managing to clear a blocked path caused by a landslide.

"That stone must have weighed at least 100 tons, maybe even 10 times that. But how is something like that possible? Such a feat defies the physical laws of the blue-eyed man's memories. Am I remembering wrong? Are the blue-eyed man's or the green-eyed boy's memories incorrect?...

So far, the blue-eyed man's memories, which I’ll call my past life for convenience, have been extremely useful for survival. Moreover, my body and abilities, while a bit stronger for someone my age, still fall within the understanding of his memories. On the other hand, a human lifting 100 tons by himself is unheard of..."

The boy continued pondering, carefully studying the memories from the few years of his 'new life', trying to retrieve all the fragments related to that knight or any other supernatural elements he could find.

"So, they're called imperial knights... According to some random rumors ‘I heard’, these are sacred warriors who use the essence of the gods to become invincible demigods. But once, the old blacksmith mentioned that they were simply cultivators using 'spiritual energy' to strengthen themselves, a kind of magical energy that filled the universe...

'Spiritual energy' or also called 'chi,' right? There's something similar in the memories of my past life. When I was in high school, I learned some Tai Chi because it was free for students, and in those classes, they talked a lot about chi, the energy of the universe, the macrocosm, the microcosm, and so on. The question is, are they related?... Here, there seems to be something similar... It wouldn't hurt to try..."

With that thought in mind, the boy quickly left his hut and started performing the basic Tai Chi exercises he remembered on the beach, simultaneously trying to focus on any unusual sensations in his body.

After about thirty minutes of nonstop exercises, to his absolute surprise, he suddenly felt a warm and pleasant sensation below his navel, which made him stop his movements.

"Is that chi?!!! It feels strangely pleasant and comforting, but is it real or just an illusion?... Hard to say, maybe I'm just hungry and being on this island is making me have bodily illusions. For now, let's eat, and I'll try again later."

Not feeling like cooking his meat, the boy quickly peeled a coconut and ate a good portion while staring at the sea, his gaze lost as if struggling to accept something beyond his understanding.

Time passed slowly, accompanied by the sound of the waves in the background and the occasional sound of bites, but the strange thing was that the warm sensation below his navel didn't disappear. On the contrary, the more time passed, the clearer and more evident it became, making it impossible to ignore.

"Could it be real? Does 'chi' really exist? But there was nothing like this in the memories of my past life... Sigh Well, it's not like I have anything else to do, so I might as well try more things. Maybe try to make it flow through my body while doing the movements? After all, that teacher kept talking about the importance of 'flow' and a bunch of other 'nonsense'."

Filled with mixed feelings, the boy took his basic Tai Chi position again and tried to imagine the warm sensation moving throughout his body. Almost instantly, it started to happen, the warm sensation 'flowed' to every part of his body at a steady pace.

After a few minutes, the boy's entire body felt warm, which somehow made him feel very strong and full of energy. Once he got used to it a bit, the boy started performing the exercise routine he remembered, and as time passed, he closed his eyes and his movements became more fluid, smoother, and much more graceful.

Without realizing it, the boy's mind went blank, performing the movements almost on autopilot. For some reason, this made him feel 'in the zone'. Everything felt incredibly clear, the world around him seemed to slow down, and he felt as if his body was being guided to follow a special 'flow' or rhythm.

With this strange guidance, the boy gradually began to adjust his movements. At some point, though he didn't know how long he had been repeating the same actions, he started to feel a kind of 'glowing points' surrounding him. These points moved slightly in time with his movements, almost as if they were dancing with him.

The boy continued his movements, focusing all his attention on these points, trying to understand them somehow. After who knows how long, he realized that these points had been guiding him from the beginning, even though he hadn't been able to sense them before. Now it seemed they wanted to convey some type of information more directly, which was terribly strange and confusing, but paradoxically, incredibly clear and easy to follow at the same time.

With this sensation in mind, the boy kept executing his movements, noticing that the 'suggestions' from these energy points strengthened when he followed them. They not only became clearer but also contained increasingly more 'information', which was somewhat uncomfortable. Following his instincts, he decided to continue.

Following the new 'suggestions' from the points, the boy began to radically change his movements to the extent that the original Tai Chi movements were barely recognizable. Additionally, the way his 'chi' moved through his body underwent significant changes.

As an unknown amount of time passed, which felt both like an eternity and an instant to the boy, he felt the energy points begin to enter his body, merging with his 'chi' and somehow 'perfecting' the flow he was following. Simultaneously, he started receiving a large amount of 'suggestions', which he quickly followed.

After completing several cycles of his new movements and 'flow' of ‘chi’, the boy felt the fatigue accumulated from his endless practice vanish, as if his exhaustion had been merely an illusion. He then began to feel a strong sensation of heat throughout his body that seemed to burn him, yet he felt no pain or discomfort.

On the contrary, the intense heat his body was experiencing felt very pleasant, like being in a thermal bath. At the same time, this heat seemed to be 'burning away' enormous shackles that had been on him, so he continued his movements without stopping.

...

...

...

Time passed unceasingly on the beautiful island, bringing rains and storms that eventually erased any evidence of someone having lived there, restoring its pristine, beautiful image.

However, something that not even the worst storm could interrupt was a handsome boy who appeared to be about ten years old, performing movements that seemed part of a martial art. The boy had black hair that resembled a piece of the night sky, adorned with stars and galaxies, standing out against his flawless, porcelain-like white skin.

Despite the boy's beautiful appearance, his 'clothes' told a completely different story, being no more than scraps of dirty fabric hanging carelessly over his small body, leaving him practically naked on the white beaches and at the mercy of the elements.

The boy's movements were not only beautiful but also incredibly diverse. Sometimes he moved with fluid grace, his body 'undulating' to the rhythm of the tides. Then his movements would become firm, moving with unyielding strength, each step and strike resonating with the power of the mountains themselves.

At other times, the boy seemed to dance with the wind, spinning and moving with an almost ethereal agility, his feet landing and lifting off the ground with the softness of a feather. Then, his movements would shift to fast and aggressive, full of sharp kicks and punches imbued with a fierce, burning energy.

But this spectacle, witnessed only by the beautiful island, abruptly came to a halt. The boy breathed softly as he opened his mesmerizing emerald green eyes, filled with a depth and mystery unfathomable for someone so young.

"Wow, I feel so good! I think I've never felt this good in my life, or well, in both my lives. I feel so light, full of energy and strength, hehe, and I'm not even hungry or sleepy despite such intense training," the boy looked at his tattered clothes before continuing, "After all, my clothes are ruined. Good thing I left the rabbit skin to dry, I'd better go get it..."

The boy commented with a cheerful and relaxed voice, not only feeling good physically but even many of his worries had diminished to the point of almost disappearing. He quickly looked behind him to head towards his camp, but there was nothing but white sand.

Confused, the boy began looking around for his camp, but all he could see was the rocky shore, with no trace of his belongings.

“Where are my things?!”

Without wasting time, he ran to the spot where he had left the rabbit skin to dry, but again, found nothing. No matter where he looked, there was no sign that anything had ever been there.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!!! Where the hell are my things? Is someone else here and took them? But that doesn’t make sense. I didn’t notice anything, and there’s no trace that anything was ever here…”

Annoyed and frustrated, the boy started scanning his surroundings, trying to find any tracks or clues, while pondering a possible explanation for what was happening. Suddenly, his eyes widened in surprise, and he looked at his body before exclaiming incredulously.

"Wait... How long have I been 'training'?..."