Chương 3: Chi

Although he had returned to his house, Mason only felt some physical fatigue, so he figured he might as well start bettering his condition right away, and so he did the simplest thing he could. Calisthenics. 18 years was a long time, but he still remembered the basics. It had been painful to watch this body get deteriorated to this current state by the old owner, without being able to do anything, and now that he was in control, he intended to take care of that as soon as possible.

But while Mason's body was weak, he managed to bring it past its limits with some ease, training for the rest of the night. When one reached the physical limits of the human body, it became more a matter of will than body strength, and if there was one thing Mason had in abundance, it was willpower. By the time the sun rose, Mason's body was covered in pearls of sweat, and a puddle had formed under him.

His entire body felt powerless from the strenuous training, but the feeling of weakness in turn gave him a feeling of accomplishment. A normal person would have long fallen, but Mason was not the average man. Not anymore. Before being trapped in this body, Mason came from another world, where the Marvel Universe had been nothing more than a piece of fiction. For reasons even he ignored, Mason met with a being who offered him reincarnation, which Mason accepted as he figured it beat oblivion.

Unfortunately, that being messed up, and he found himself trapped in a body that was already owned. This was quite the terrible experience, and if possible, Mason would rather not have to live through it ever again, even though it allowed him to learn things he never would have otherwise. For the average human, whenever they felt something, the sensation would be shared between their body and their soul, although they only were aware of their bodies. Things had been more complicated for Mason, though.

Since he did not own the body, but still felt everything Old Mason felt, all of it was amplified to 200% for Mason's soul, since he was unable to share the burden with his body. This made everything feel much more intense, be it happiness or pain. Unfortunately, Old Mason was not a very happy person. But while undoubtedly terrible, the experience had allowed Mason to forge both his will and his soul.

As a soul, Mason was unable to sleep, so those 18 years had felt even longer than they should have, and so, to not go crazy, he found something to pass the time. This became the study of the soul. Upon arriving in this world, Mason discovered something quite interesting. He had actually been in control of this body for a short while, when he was nothing more than an embryo.

Of course, the notion of control in this case was relative, but it did raise an important point, and that was that for a short while, the body was soulless, despite being capable of housing one. In other words, Mason had not only discovered the answer to the question of whether there was such a thing as a soul, but more importantly, which of the two predated the other. Before this experience, Mason would have placed his bets on the soul, but he was thankfully not a betting man.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. In any case, the fact that Old Mason's soul had been created after his body was quite important. Through years of observation, Mason had concluded that while the soul and the body worked in a nearly perfect synergy, they were not equal to one another.

Since the soul was, according to Mason's educated guess, which was based on his observation, forged with the body as a mold, it would remain in a position of inferiority to the body for one's entire life. This, in turn, had a pretty big implication, which was that the superior among the two would easily affect the other, while it would hardly be influenced by it. In other words, for the normal person, their body would affect the state of their soul, and not the opposite. This wasn't just a baseless theory either.

Once, Old Mason had gotten a pretty bad cut to the back of his hand, which eventually turned into a small scar. And because of the earlier-mentioned difference in power, that scar had actually transferred over to Old Mason's soul. But Mason was different. He had been training his soul for the past 18 years, delving into the mysteries of it to learn how it worked, and more importantly, how to make it stronger.

Coupled with the constant tempering that was Old Mason's life, Mason's soul had become much, much stronger than his body. This meant that unlike ordinary people, it would be his soul that would affect his body, and quite a bit too, as his soul was massively stronger than his body. The bigger the difference between the two, the more drastic the effects would be, as the two would naturally attempt to form a balance. This started with appearance.

One of the biggest lessons Mason had learned in his past life was that appearances mattered, and so he had spent years in the gym building what many considered to be a dream physique. Of course, to him, it never was enough, but that was besides the point. He did not intend to follow the same path in this life anyway, starting with how useless it would be.

Although he had lived in this body for a long time, his soul had also been sealed deep inside, making it impossible for his soul to influence this body until now, or for the opposite to happen, so his soul looked exactly like it used to when he died. Bar the golden halo, that is. This meant that his body would gradually transform to look closer to his soul, and because of the huge difference in power between the two, the change should be rather fast too.

This meant that even if he did absolutely nothing, his body would reach the form of his soul faster than with the help of any amount of steroids. There was also the inefficiency of going to the gym, especially in this world. Although it was nice to build one's body, and sufficient in his old world, it wasn't enough in this world. Instead of the gym, Mason intended to focus on calisthenics, and more importantly, on martial arts. That's right, martial arts.

The Marvel Universe was an extremely dangerous universe, one where weakness was practically considered a sin. But along its many dangers, it also offered many different ways to strengthen oneself. Some of them even came without any real cost. However, in his current situation, Mason could hardly attain any of them. While his stronger soul allowed for a faster thought process and stronger memory, Mason did not fancy himself a genius.

At least, not on the level where it would matter, so gaining strength through technology wasn't viable unless he depended on someone else. The easiest way would then be through Kamar-Taj, but while the mystic arts and the prospects of using magic were enticing to Mason, as he was quite sure having a stronger soul would help with those, he did not fancy facing the Ancient One just yet. Besides, nothing guaranteed he would be accepted.

He was an outsider's soul after all, and while they might not notice anything, they might also take him for a demon, so Mason intended to avoid them until he managed to attain the power to defend himself. As for most of the other powers, that is serums and mutations, those mainly relied on luck and knowledge. And while Mason remembered quite a bit about Marvel, this world wasn't any of those he knew. From what he could glimpse through Old Mason, this world seemed to be a mix between the MCU and the comics.

So knowledge was not going to make it either, and Mason did not have much trust left in his luck after what happened with his reincarnation. However, the world was not all bleak. His stronger soul granted him quite a few advantages, one of which was enhanced sensitivity. Not only were his five senses stronger, and his reaction time close to zero, but he also had an acute understanding of his body.

He could feel his blood course through his body when he focused hard enough, as well as all of his bodily functions, but more importantly, he could feel something different. Two types of energy inside of him. His lifeforce, or as it would be called by martial artists, Chi. Mason was familiar with the concept of cultivation from his past life, as he had read a few novels revolving around the mastery of Chi and using it to reach immortality, but he also knew that it was a concept that existed in Marvel.

The most famous heroes to use it would probably be the Iron Fist and Shang-Chi. Chi was the lifeforce that permeated every living being, and Mason was no exception. Most of it was gathered in a small metaphysical organ traditionally called the Dantian, located near his heart. But while every living being had Chi inside them, it took the very best martial artists in the world decades of training to even be able to feel it, and decades more to tap into it for the most talented ones.

And even then, without external support, they would hardly be able to exert any real control over it. Mason did not have that problem.