The Martial Master - 44 Return.

“Uh…”

Shaking his head, Su Min sighed and gazed at the black wisp inside of the boy’s formless Dantian. It just sat there, listless and unreactive.

‘I hope that only I can sense this…”

Hoping that would be true Su Min grimaced at the suddenness of what he now has to do. He has to find his bloodline, and to do this he has to travel to every inch of this God forsaken world.

“Stand still.”

Pushing the problem aside Su Min decided to gather the first of the unknown number of wisps that he has to collect. What will he gain from such a thing? He has no idea.

*SHING*

Standing up and waving his hand, a great fluctuation of Ancient Energy trembled under his command and wooshed towards him; a five-meter radius, to be exact. Hundreds of these strands dived under Su Min’s control, encompassing seemingly everything in the boy’s eyes.

“Ah…!”

The kid gave a stare of hysteria as he leapt on instinct, but he had already been pushed onto the chair under the firm lock of a couple strands.

“This may hurt… A lot, or not at all.”

Su Min mumbled out as his eyes glistened with a pressuring gold that made the hut emit distinct crackling sounds. Pop and pop; crackle and crash, numerous trembling noises tore into the room as the kid felt his scalp tingle.

*WOOOSH*

A hundred, if not more, strands of gold smudged the air as they whooshed past the ears of the boy and seeped into his body. An agonising tremble shook his dauntless mind as if a thousand pin needles were getting driven right into his skull.

“Gu-UH!”

“I guess it.. burns? Huh.”

Su Min’s eyes shone without a tremble as he watched the boy grasp the chair and gurgle. A couple of villagers outside heard such gagging cries, and they quivered with helplessness.

*SSSSS*

The boy’s eyes jolted with a deep light as that once dormant strand within him stammered with signs of life. Though, it was the sign of something interrupting its long-lasting doze.

“I’ll make sure to thoroughly enslave you this time, slowly but surely. I’ll be the ruler of my power, and you won’t rule me!”

An unyielding light shone within Su Min’s glistening gold pupils that made the sky shudder and ground tremble. It was a gold that glistened with a luminous profound array of darkened hues and brightened oranges, mixing and commingling to form a colour that swishes and churns at a constant revolution.

They are eyes that people can get lost in; lost in the limitless mystical gaze that seemed to originate from a world that transcends and enters a boundary nobody could ever perceive.

Though they will only show when needed, and in any other circumstance, will look simple and plain. It is this bareness that would make people disregard him, ignore him. And that’s fine, as he hates attention anyway.

It is a sheathed sword, one that shines with the dazzling sharpness only when drawn. For how can a sword be sharp when it is tossed around nonchalantly? It is only truly sharp when such a sharpness is used to cut the enemy. And only cut.

*SCREECH*

The black tuft seemed to become alarmed as a sudden blinding gold enveloped its being, coming from the boy’s head. This daunting gold swivelled and trickled, glooping right towards the boy’s belly button; and as such the strand that inhabits it.

Of course, this strand hated such a gold. It was its natural enemy, and not only this, it belonged to Su Min. The Martial.

“HISSSS”

It straightened and vibrated with a sudden hiss as its body began to resemble that of a snake that had become enraged. It was as if it was about to snap at the gold, peck and peck with a furious rage that instilled chills.

“Fight all you want.”

Su Min smirked as his eyes glistened an even deeper fluctuating gold that boosted the already thrumming gold to shroud the tuft of black. However, inside his calm gaze, a fatigue started to billow.

He was controlling at least two hundred strands around him, and this was no easy undertaking. To describe it is to say that he is multitasking two hundred different tasks at the level of a master in each. He cannot exert too much strength, and he cannot make the strands move too much too the left nor right.

It’s finicky and annoying; so even his unnatural mind will sag after a while.

*WOOSH*

Just at this moment, the strand as if it was a rat cornered by a cat rushed out of the boy and leapt into the room. It shivered with joy, then with a muffled boom, plunged right towards the already half shattered door.

“Stupid.”

Su Min’s face lifted into a sneer as his left hand abruptly raised and grasped the air with a strange motion. Not even taking a second, a moment, the air that was in front and all around the escaping strand twisted and churned as a gold surfaced.

It formed a shimmering screen, and it made the tuft screech.

*BANG*

The tuft, with its blitzing momentum, crashed into the gold with a visible echo. Su Min didn’t care, though,as he leapt and rushed towards the strand that was about to rebound like a bouncy ball.

*GRAB*

“Gotcha.” *SSSSS*

Su Min breathed a sigh of relief as he gazed at the wriggling ‘thing’ that throbbed in his hand non-stop with a glare.Of course, he didn’t care.

*WOOSH*

Not even questioning it, Su Min swivelled his arm and thrashed his chest with the tuft and shoved it into his body. Then, as if the tuft had entered a forbidden zone, it shivered and started to act as if it were drunk.

It passed through his chest and through the intricate array that powered his ancient symbol and strutted towards his head on instinct. It wobbled as its existence began to haze over, and before Su Min knew it, the strand was dissolving within him.

“Hm..?”

Su Min felt his mind tremble as the strand adorned a black fog that encased his head. His right pupil that had returned to its normal plainness shuddered as a black that vastly surpassed it invaded and threw the gold out as if it were trash.

“Black?”

He gasped on instinct as that pupil of his became a light ink black that made his ancient bloodline tremble out of unease. It was as if he was housing two beings, one a king and one a peasant. How could he expect them to chat and be courteous to each other? It was obvious who was the mighter being at least…

Though, the reason he gasped was that his once gold environment shuddered like reality was being split. Then, before he knew it, a new black entered his view. He knew what this black was; it was Martial Energy!

“Strange…”

A murmur escaped out of Su Min’s lips as he twiddled his thumbs and played with a strand of black and gold. In fact, he found that his comprehension on the Martial Energy is minuscule compared to the Ancient Energy that was gifted by his body.

He inherently didn’t understand how the Martial Energy worked. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but its one of enlightenment; he feels more enlightened on the ways of the Ancient Energy. It was as if he was comparing a ten-year-old maths student and a renowned professor in mathematics.

Naturally, their skills are different. Like his.

“I guess I need to focus on Martial Energy for a while and comprehend it.”

To cultivate and comprehend are different yet similar terms. One can cultivate, and one can comprehend separately. In particular, this is what separates geniuses to the mediocre.

This is because someone who comprehends more understands the energy more, and as such, they can use it more and do more with it. They may be able to create a flame, and they may even be able to command the energy if they understand it enough.

The advantages are huge, so, the disparity is indisputable. This is the same reason why Su Min can easily overpower people without even using his body; he has comprehended an energy to a degree that allows him to use it without absorbing it, and also manipulate it to resonate with the laws of the world.

Cultivation is what gives you the power, and comprehension is what allows you to control such power.

Though, this doesn’t need to be explained…

“Ah, you can go now.”

Realising that the kid was still in the half broken room, Su Min waved his hand and ushered the dull boy out. The kid wasn’t dead, but that may be about it…

“Hrmmm.”

Su Min grumbled as he tapped the cracked table, thinking. A faint feeling kept troubling after he absorbed the strand. It was small, but it told him that if he absorbed a couple more strands than a change will occur.

“I just need to take it slow… Hm?”

Su Min, in the middle of a thought, trembled as his right golden pupil shimmered and pinpointed someone far in the distance.

“I got more visitors…”

Standing up with a helpless smile, Su Min strutted out to meet them…