"Our wish was to give beings with exceptionally strong bodies, but who have little talent to follow the path of a Qi-Master, the opportunity to simultaneously fill the Dantian with energy, as humans, dwarves, and elves do, and, like most beastmen, giants or orcs, to additionally use the entire physical body as a reservoir for Qi. If someone is theoretically capable of following both paths, their strength and endurance in combat should far exceed those who only follow one path, but the required resources will also be far above the norm and increase exponentially with one's cultivation. For most humans, for example, it is nearly impossible to flood the skin with Qi from the outside, as is the standard practice for some other races, and these, in turn, cannot channel energy into their dantian. The training methods seem mutually exclusive, yet ancient legends tell of beings who combined them and ultimately achieved a much higher goal.

  When and why was this knowledge lost? Does it contain the secret to exceeding the level of a Qi-Lord?

  The Path of the Ape describes theoretical considerations of how this goal could be reached.

  First, a certain amount of highly concentrated Qi is required, which is rotated through the channels with tremendous speed and precise control. After every ninth rotation, the flowing energy must be directed against the walls of the Qi-paths to pierce them like a thin needle and mix it with the blood. The red blood cells in the veins can transport oxygen, and once these are also set in rotation, Qi can be stored between them. When the blood reaches saturation, the energy should, in theory, be transferred to the muscles, thus strengthening the body from within. Whether this is truly the case and where this path ultimately leads to, remains to be seen...

  May our legacy live forever and lead to a bright future.

  Signed by:

  Gao Kong, Head of the Inner Academy

  Wu Kong the second, patriarch of his clan”

  Slowly, Kilian awoke from his daze with a slightly aching, stuffed head and swam, now clean, to the shore of the lake where master Cayden was already waiting for him.

  "Here is your new robe." He said with a somewhat weary expression, handing the still naked boy a two-tone piece of cloth, "Professor Irwin, master Arto, and I have had a long…let's just say…discussion about which faction you will join at the Inner Academy. From now on, you will wear the black of the blacksmith and the purple of calligraphy. They wouldn't listen to my idea of specializing you as a fighter…But I still hope you won't let your talent with the staff go to waste!"

  “You will remain my teacher, and my staff will protect my beloved!” Kilian assured him, accepting the clothes with bowed head and quickly getting dressed before the fairy-like Qi Master reappeared.

  “The colors suit you! The first two-tone outfit in years…” Lorna's voice rang out again, and she patted the now dressed boy on the shoulder, “Let's get going! A lot of work and a turbulent time await us!”

  A few hours later, after a short, solemn ceremony in which Professor Irwin filled ninety percent of the content with a rambling speech and Master Arto treated his apprentice to a small sip of one-year-old monkey wine, Kilian sat alone again in the training hall of the abandoned dwarf village.

  He now knew every corner, every rock, even every speck of dust, and felt like he was in a lonely, yet safe, second home.

  A short conversation with the Master of Goods, or rather his order, replayed in his mind, "In about half a year, the ruins of the Dragon Lords will open! In them, you will find the remains of a mighty war that took place several thousand years ago. Once, a powerful sect, the League of Dragons, ruled this land, but an army from a foreign world attempted to conquer Terrapin. They were sorcerers who, with the help of foul Yin-Qi, resurrected the dead and, with these walking corpses, waged war against the fiery Yang-Qi of the beastman of the dragon race. In the end, the League won, but they paid a high price. As the last survivor, the then severely injured leader of the Dragon Lords used his remaining strength to transport the battlefield and his lair, around which the headquarters and the capital of the League of Dragons were built, into another dimension. But the fabric of this self-created world is slowly breaking apart, and about every ten years, cracks appear through which many Qi-Gatherers of the small and a few of the medium circle can enter. This will be your first mission as a member of the Academy! You will fight alongside our allies, the kingdom of the house of Arian and the Elves, against the young warriors of the orcs and the Lupus Clan. In these ruins sleeps the legacy of the strongest beings ever to walk on and to fly above Terrapin! I'll give you five months to take the next step on the Path of the Ape! If you succeed, you may enter the ruins! During this time, you are released from all your other duties!”

  Master Arto, growling reluctantly, threw himself into the enormous task of preparing for war all on his own, since Kilian was now constantly training and Thrym was still negotiating with the giants.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Professor Irwin forced Kilian to take several thick books with him so that he could read a little bit during his training breaks because he was not allowed to neglect his studies.

  Equipped with a mountain of resources and food tucked into a small rusty ring on his finger, Kilian set out on the path to reach the next stage of his training.

  "All my clan points went to this little piece of equipment!" He muttered, lost in thought as he turned his long coveted magical artifact over and over on his finger until he finally sighed, "If I fail to master the next step of the Path of the Ape, I won't be allowed to enter the dragonlords' ruins, and I'll be bankrupt... I've borrowed so many Qi-stones, other resources, and food that I now owe Master Arto and Professor Irwin several years of work."

  Sitting in front of the idyllic mountain lake near the abandoned dwarven village, the young warrior prepared for the next step of his training.

  He laid several Qi-stones around him on the floor to increase the Qi concentration in the air and took a potion that briefly sharpened his senses.

  With full concentration, the meditating Qi-Gatherer channeled energy through his paths and measured exactly where it was after nine rotations.

  An increasingly precise map with countless points emerged in his head.

  The first half of his channels was solid, and he had no problem conducting the energy, but the second half was different because Kilian needed all his concentration to avoid damaging the fragile part.

  “One thing after the other!” He murmured calmly, long since accustomed to the peculiarities of his body, and set himself the goal of puncturing at least the first, well-built part, “I have to use my strengths, not my weaknesses, and the Qi charged blood will flow through my entire body anyway! If I make any mistakes in the rotations, the sturdy part of my Qi-paths should be able to take a little bit of a beating without rupturing!”

  The young Qi-Master took a deep breath of the energetic air, sighed contentedly, and this time absorbed only a very small portion of it.

  The aim was not to channel as much Qi as possible into his Dantian, but rather to specifically perforate his Qi-paths without causing any long-lasting damage.

  The small ball of energy in his body continued to compress, and just before the gaseous Qi liquefied under the pressure, he began to count the rotations.

  “...seven, eight, and nine!” He muttered through gritted teeth, forcing the Qi to change direction, and with a violent bang in his ears, it crashed against the sturdy wall of his channels.

  Immediately, he lost control of the small ball with a sudden trembling of his body, and it bounced between the walls of his Qi-paths.

  Without the rotation, the pressure on the accumulation of energy also decreased, and it began to spread instantly.

  The first half of his channels was stable, but what would happen when the violent energy reached the brittle area?

  He had to regain control before that happened!

  With clenched teeth, he tried to compress the rampant energy back into a small ball, but he simply couldn't.

  His new, finely crafted robe was already soaking wet, and one drop of sweat after another fell from his forehead onto the lush grass beneath his feet.

  Time was running out for him!

  At the last second, he managed to compress the Qi enough to prevent his Qi-paths from exploding, but it crashed unhindered, without any control, against the delicate membrane of the brittle part of his Qi-paths.

  It cut through it like a glowing dagger through warm butter.

  Not through a gentle perforation, as described in the training instructions, but through a massive tear that had torn apart a third of his channels, the wild Qi now flowed into Kilian's blood and made it boil.

  He spat a bubbling red gush of blood onto the ground, which immediately dried into a viscous mass, and steam rose in front of the deathly pale boy as if it tried to hide him behind a smokescreen.

  Breathing heavily, he clung to a last, dim shred of consciousness, fished out a small, oval tablet from his magical ring, and stuffed it into his mouth.

  Afterward, he soon slipped into a gentle faint and only briefly tasted several different herbs on his tongue before a deep darkness freed him from the excruciating pain.

  An unknown amount of time later, Kilian woke up with a completely dry throat and gasping for air.

  The current of cold air felt like it cut through his aching throat, and he spat out another gush of blood during a violent coughing fit.

  He tried to use a little bit of Qi to make a potion appear from his small, rusty ring, but the energy no longer obeyed him.

  Meter by meter, he dragged his battered body to the icy mountain lake, and after a short journey, which felt like hours to him, he drank one big gulp after another.

  His stomach rebelled, and he threw up half the water he had drunk, but minutes later, after several breaths, his vision slowly cleared.

  What was going on?

  Where was his Qi?

  He felt nothing around him.

  Nervously, he inspected his inner self and found the second half of his Qi channels completely perforated and scarred, while his Dantian was empty.

  “Am I a cripple now?” He asked the silence around him in despair and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when he noticed his body pulsed and a small, almost invisible wisp of Qi flowed from his blood through the holes in his Qi-paths into his dantian.

  The injured boy reacted immediately and used the barely tangible energy to gather medicine, food, and Qi-stones from his magic ring.

  He carefully took a bite of an apple, and when it remained in his stomach, he devoured a juicy piece of roasted meat.

  The Qi-soaked piece of an earthboar, washed down with a potion from the alchemists of the Inner Academy, strengthened his body to the point where he slowly began to feel the energy around him again.

  He gently began to rotate it and directed it through the channels into his dantian, noticing again and again that a small amount passed through the still-damaged membrane into his blood.

  The painful process of the Qi sliding through the injured channels brought beads of sweat to his forehead again, but he couldn't suppress a grin.

  “Did I make it?” He wondered, trying to search for changes in his body, but soon a deep exhaustion overcame him.

  With a full stomach, he sank into a deep sleep, subconsciously absorbing the air saturated by the Qi-stones around him and slowly refilling his empty dantain.

  Unheard, even from himself, a deep vow was formed in his heart, “I will walk this path of pain to protect the ones I love!”