The Martial Master - 27 1st Step.

‘She needs to fight it… Strength can only be gained by yourself… Right?’

A thought that some may consider being ruthless entered his mind. However, he isn’t being ruthless at all. His future is a muddy road; a road that may cause his end. So how could he let her rely on him all the time?

Looking at his chest, Su Min realized that an immense amount of life force was currently swirling there. Though, he still couldn’t control it.

‘Maybe I’ll be able to control it once I cultivate.’

*Hahh…*

Breathing a deep breath, Su Min sat on the grass and looked at the manual. Pausing, he moved in the same position as the diagram and closed his eyes. His breathing relaxed and his demeanour slouched; resembling a monk.

‘Huh..?’

Su Min felt strange as he tried to follow the technique that didn’t seem like a technique at all. All it told him to do was breath in a specific pattern and try to sense the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

However, without even needing to try, Su Min started to feel a strange presence around him. It was an all-encompassing energy, tingling up his body with an etheral breeze. It was like the whole world was absolutely covered in it, and he had just realized its existence. It’s like air, but even more ever-present.

However, as he looked closer, he felt two different energies! One was golden and fierce; one was black and simple. They floated around him, scraping past his back as he watched.

‘Gold and black?’

Su Min felt that the golden energy resonated with the symbol on his chest, thrumming with a hymn. Considering this, the black energy was completely different. It was simple and didn’t carry anything peculiar at all, and from this, Su Min guessed that it was Martial Energy!

‘The manual didn’t say anything about what happens when you can sense two energies… Does it have something to do with the ancient race?”

Su Min remembered the technique he has from the ancient race, but it said nothing about a unique energy. All it said was that you need to absorb the essence of the world.

‘Maybe the race has its own energy? But then what is martial energy? Why is it martial condensation? Why can’t we cultivate a different form of energy?’

Su Min felt confused as the two forms of energy swished around him, and no matter how hard he tried to think he couldn’t think of an answer. Of course, now he has a dilemma.

‘What would happen if I absorbed the golden energy through the symbol?’

Su Min got curious, so by his will, he directed one of the golden strands of energy towards the symbol on his chest. The energy didn’t fight back at all, making Su Min surprised.

*SWISH*

The symbol on his chest trembled as it sucked the strand with a great force. Su Min wanted to see whether he could cultivate the lifeforce technique with this energy, reinforcing his muscles.

However, instead of this, a strange occurrence happened…

‘Huh- The symbols!’

Su Min gasped as he saw the numerous symbols that had engraved themselves all over his body light up, causing the strand of energy in his chest to dart towards the closest one.

However, the symbol that touched the strand didn’t absorb it, instead, it propelled it forwards! The strand, without Su Min’s control, started to dart around his body. It began at his arm then, within seconds, it had zoomed to his right foot. Yet, it still wasn’t the end as the strand became faster and faster, darting to each and every symbol in Su Min’s body.

‘Uh…’

Su Min groaned as the strand became so fast that it was practically travelling across the whole of his body every second. Though it didn’t stop, instead, it was still getting faster!

‘What is happening?!’

The strand seemed to become a blur as it got the point that it seemed like his whole body contained the strand; like the strand was everywhere at the same time. His bones and his muscles contained the strand, although it was just an illusion due to how fast it was going.

However, instead of feeling discomfort, Su Min felt a strange strength blast into him. It was different from simple fleshly power, it was like he could manipulate it to do things only immortals could do.

At this moment, Su Min’s mind trembled as he realized something!

‘The ancient fist arts!’

Su Min remembered that whenever he performed the art; a strange energy would emerge from the symbols on his body! It was this energy that allowed him to perform the technique, and by all means, the strand he has darting around him must be this energy!

It is like the life force is what builds his body, and this golden energy is what fuels it!

However, what would happen if he absorbed the martial energy as well? He isn’t limited by the races energy; he can use both the human’s martial energy and the ancients races golden energy!

‘What would happen if I cultivate like a human and the ancient race?’

Su Min clenched his teeth, and with a bold move, he manipulated a strand of the black energy surrounding him to dart towards his chest. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the symbol on his chest to even react to it!

‘I guess I can’t absorb it that way… I’ll try the manual’s method.’

Su Min wasn’t disappointed, though, as the symbol on his chest is probably only able to absorb a specific energy. Instead, he went and tried to absorb it the way every cultivator does, by seeping it into their skin.

The strand fluttered under Su Min’s control with unseen precision. If any Martial Condensation cultivator were to see this, they would gasp in shock at the sight.For most, even achieving 10% of the control Su Min has would be considered a lifelong task.

‘Ah?’

The black strand seeped into his skin, although it was a lot more difficult than he thought. It even made him feel a bit tired. Nevertheless, as the strand entered him, none of the symbols reacted to it; even the golden energy ignored it.

‘Cycle it through the body!’

Su Min’s eyes blazed as he conjured all of his mental capacity to manipulate that strand to complete a cycle around his body. It started at the bottom of the belly button, known as the lower dan tian, and cycled towards the top of his head.

Su Min felt an intense fatigue billow on his mortal soul, but he continued to persist! From the top, the strand went in an arc and started falling down the other side of his body. It continued, continued till it reached back to where it started…

*BOOM*

Like a thunderous bang, Su Min’s mind boomed as the strand completed a completed cycle around his body. The world seemed to respond to this, and by a mystical law, 12 points in his body suddenly trembled and opened. They were known as meridians, and as they opened, a gush of the black martial energy outside rushed into them!

The meridians were all around his body, where due to the strange law, the meridians trembled even more and connected to each other with a thin line, forming a path. Through this, the martial energy that was sucked up by Su Min started to cycle through his body.

Like parched water getting drenched in the morning rain, Su Min felt a refreshing feeling rush into him as the martial energy cycled and cycled through his body. A blackness seeped out of his skin as his soul and body got cleansed.

Martial energy stopped gushing into his body as he reached a point of saturation, where he hit the limit he could hold. However, now that he has a constant cycling line of martial energy circling him, he can consider himself a cultivator!

He is at the first step of Martial Condensation!

Although, as it is but a passive cycle, the martial energy travelled at a snail’s pace; requiring an incense stick of time to finish a cycle.

‘Incredible…’

Su Min looked at the intricate cycle that, with his newly opened meridians, gave him a strange power. He felt that he could manipulate that energy in him, and do things he could only dream of!

However, as he watched it, he also watched the darting golden strand that continued without stop. It was strange, but both of the energies seemed to avoid each other because they didn’t even come in contact at all.

Yet, Su Min discovered that the strand had finally stopped accelerating. It seemed like a hazed blur, but with this, it seemed to allow him to manipulate the life force in his symbol!

‘Where should I focus first… Mhm, I should probably increase everything evenly, otherwise, my body will become a mess after a while…’

Su Min decided that focusing on a certain body part is probably not a good choice, as if he had an extremely powerful right arm and nothing else, he may kill himself due to the rebound force… Although that is a guess in itself.

‘Spread!’

Su Min directed his will into the symbol, causing the darting golden strand to rush towards his chest, lighting it up in a holy golden halo. Strands of lifeforce emerged from the symbol as they spread out to every part of Su Min’s body, where they seeped into the symbols on his bones and muscle fibres.

Su Min had already guessed the symbols on his muscles and bone were the way to absorb lifeforce, it was just that he didn’t expect them to have another use; that is to drive an energy he didn’t even know existed.

‘Huh?’

Su Min became dazed as the golden strand of energy that moved the lifeforce got depleted almost instantly. Thus, he could only move a small amount of life force from the symbol, and even then the change was so minute that it couldn’t even be considered a change at all.

He, in layman’s terms, had run out of energy… It was like he had a massive factory, but he only had an ounce of coal to power it. He still had an immense amount of life force left, but he doesn’t have enough energy to move it…

Rubbing his chin, Su Min breathed a deep sigh. He probably couldn’t cultivate like this, as it would take him forever to get anywhere.

‘I guess I have to choose an area to focus on…’

Making a decision, Su Min’s eyes glistened under the ever-present darkness. The symbol on his chest hummed as an intense stream of golden energy rushed into it. It was at least a ten-fold more compared to what he absorbed last time.

A light grin erupted from his face as the thick strand encountered the symbols, propelling it across his body; increasing and increasing in speed.

“Haha! I will pioneer a new cultivation!”