The Martial Master - 83 Unresponsive.

*SHIIINGG*

His vision flashed with a three colour light as the entire world dissipated into an empty void. The same urge to close his eyes came, and of course, Su Min obliged with a grumble.

“Happy?”

Yet, as his eyes shut, a strange eeriness shrouded him. He heard no thud, and he seemed to continue floating in this strange space.A cocoon still formed around him, though.

“Uh…”

Su Min’s heart sped up as he felt a light breeze brush past his back even with this. His scalp tingled on instinct, and with a swivel of his fist, he punched out behind him at full force!

It was akin to a thunderous strike of godly stature as the cocoon he was in shattered like glass and the entire realm he was in rumbled! He didn’t hold back, so it was a full force 8th step attack!

*SMACK*

His fist seemed to hit something as a resounding bang brought a dense muffled boom, from which a wild scraping noise soon echoed after. Su Min felt a hard metallic object force itself onto his hand, and even with such a punch, it didn’t move but instead continued to drive itself onto him!

His body froze as he opened his eyes and roared with indignance.

“Are you seriously trying to kill me? Whoever I insulted by resisting earlier, don’t underestimate me!”

He could now see that a strange claw-like shimmering object was attempting to dig itself into his knuckles, seething with a fatal strength that not even he could shake off. It wasn’t attached to anything, as if it was just thrown at him.

Su Min face turned gloomy as he gazed into the rumbling space and spoke with newfound killing intent.

“So you are a dragon!”

He couldn’t find any killing intent on the claw, so this wasn’t intended to kill him, more like to test him. But, how could he just let people think that they can test him whenever they so please?

His right eye shined with a dull gold as his other arm pulsed then erupted with a disastrous power. The entire realm shook even further, and with a pained grunt from Su Min’s pale face, he grabbed the claw with his free arm.

A stream of ancient energy formed around him and entered into his chest. Power brewed as he neared the boundary of the 9th step.

*PSSSST*

Visible sparks brought a dense blinding light as Su Min face paled even further and his chest began to burn. Smoke wafted out, but Su Min didn’t let go as he grabbed tight and attempted to seize the claw!

*CRAC-CK*

Time seemed to pause as a couple veins burst on Su Min’s rock hard biceps, spewing golden blood that glittered like starlight. The claw seemed to lessen in momentum at this moment, allowing Su Min to breathe and grasp the object with even more stubbornness.

He erupted into laughter as he was doing so, mocking whoever threw this thing.

“Ah, as you so kindly gave this to me, I’ll gladly accept it!”

He could tell that this was a great item because it hadn’t even warped under his force. Thus, gritting his teeth and clenching even harder, Su Min threw the object to his side and took the brunt of the remaining momentum.

*BANGGGG*

“Guh!”

His mouth begun to taste sweet as he felt the urge to cough, but he suppressed it and smirked. A shimmering silver claw was beside him, carrying a deadly sharpness that, although unable to pierce his uncanny skin, was exceptional.

It was elongated just like a sword, and it was beyond slender. Its shine was almost blinding, and the metallic aura that came off it was near intoxicating. It wasn’t smooth, no, it took the shape of a thunderbolt.

Su Min grasped the weapon with some excitement, chuckling.

“This seems to just right!”

Its length was a little longer than a traditional sword, and it had no handle. This meant that one would cut themselves if they held it. In fact, if their bodies defences weren’t able to passively take on an attack of a 6th step cultivator, the sword would just slice their hand in half.

It wouldn’t be right to call it a sword, but Su Min felt that it was one. He doesn’t have any sword skills, but the passive ability of his ancient fist arts allows him to use anything with relative skill.

Back when he cut down the tree using the axe in the human sect, he was able to do so because of this passive ability. This ability is, in fact, split into two parts.

One is the level at which he controls energy. This increases as his cultivation does, and currently, he has no idea how well he can control ancient energy. Before it was stuck at a 5m radius around him, but now, he couldn’t tell.

He can’t test it until he has recovered at least. And as for the other part of the passive ability, it was the method at which he uses his body. It seemed to encompass everything, including punching, slashing, even walking.

Everything, without him thinking, follows this strict rule of moving. Its a primal rule, and it seemed to be mandatory to be able to use ancient energy to punch or to infuse it into weapons.

He felt that if he didn’t move with this strict rule everything would break, his cultivation would stammer and he wouldn’t be able to even move. It was like this was the key to his abilities, a law of his race.

His simple punches aren’t simple, they carry this faint law of movement. This movement complements his strength, and it also allows him to use ancient energy to boost his power.

Without it, he felt that it wouldn’t be possible and his strength would plummet. It was as if he would lose his ability to control his body properly.

In essence, one part is what gives him his ability to understand and control the ancient energy; the other part giving his body the correct method of movement that maximises strength and lets him work in harmony with ancient energy.

Su Min has realised that the ancient fist art is his actual cultivation method, where the more you progress in understanding each of the moves, the further his cultivation increase. Consequently, his understanding of the ancient energy would increase and his movements would be refined. This is the source of the God-Like abilities of his race.

Nonetheless, he has somehow gone against this rule and pushed his cultivation up without gaining any new understanding of the fist forms. He could tell that the way he moves is a lot more advanced compared to before, and so is his control over ancient energy. It’s just that he can’t check how far he has gone, but he would find it rather unfortunate if he doesn’t gain the correct spells he should have at this level.

It’s like he is a dragon with a stick; how would he be happy with a stick when he’s meant to have a trident made of impenetrable steel?

‘Hm, I wonder if I can inject ancient energy into this…’

He thought for a while, but he was way too injured to control ancient energy right now. He has already overexerted himself from dealing with this random sword-like thing that was thrown at him.

The void, listless and pitch black, continued to just envelop him as Su Min floated there. Seconds passed and passed and feelings of unbridled dread began to surface.

Su Min looked around as his face turned gloomier per the second, eventually erupting into an aggrieved roar.

“Hey? Can I leave..?!”

Yet, nothing happened as his roar spread out, ushering a slight rumble. He continued to float, fall, who knows whether he was moving or not. He didn’t even know whether he was up or down in this pitch-black void.

The dread continued to grow like a disconcerting thing sprouting in his mind, but he felt that this was a bit too harsh…

“Hey! You can’t just leave me in here!!”

Su Min cried, but still, nothing…

“Fuck…”

He rubbed his forehead as he went and sat down, floating. He twirled in a circle a couple times, growing more and more impatient. He seemed like an infinitely small speck in this place, just dwindling by until he dies…

Impatience developed unbridled as time seemed to lose meaning, but he knew that time was at the utmost importance.

*Sigh*

He took a deep breath, and gazing upon the blankness of this world, wherever it is, he spoke with a small bow.

“I’m sorry…”

A sincere expression was etched on his face, though the only reason he was doing this was that he couldn’t just live in this place. He has someone to guard, and he doesn’t want to piss off the Overseer.

If that wasn’t the case he would happily cultivate here and recover without any disturbances.

*RUMBLE*

His face lit up as a faint tremor shook the space around him, and a weak suppressive feeling to close his eyes emerged.

‘It worked!’

Su Min, without any resistance and even joy, closed his eyes and waited to be transported back.

*…*

“You fuck…”

Nonetheless, nothing happened.

Su Min seemed to lose it as his eyes twitched. He bellowed in a great breath of air, then cried out.

“What more do you want?!”

His voice would cause a mortal to explode into a cloud of blood; even cultivators lower than the 4th step would enter a life and death crisis in front of this booming sound. But, with just a rumble, the void returned to what it once was. A listless silence, one that became increasingly bothering for Su Min.

He kicked the air and propelled himself forwards. Though, it didn’t seem like he was moving as the surroundings remained unchanged. It was a dizzy sight, revoking any sense of location in Su Min’s mind.

He couldn’t tell if he was moving or not anymore, so with a slight ruffle, Su Min went into a lotus position. He didn’t speak, just staring into the void with eyes that could kill.

‘Fine. I’ll recover here then break this fucking world… Goddammit, I hope that Wen Mian doesn’t end up dead, otherwise this whole sect will go down with me!’

He has felt a strange eeriness ever since entering this sect, and considering Wen Mian’s beauty, he couldn’t remove the idea that the sect has bad intentions. That’s not even including the strange altar that they tried to make Wen Mian use, so it wasn’t looking pretty, to say the least.

These thoughts echoed in Su Min’s mind, causing him to begin to disregard staying in this place.

‘If I find that they have done anything when I get out…’

A frightening light brewed in his eyes as he firmed his heart. His jacket seemed to churn in response, emitting a dense crimson that appeared to scream with a unified cry of anguish. For the jacket to have gone through everything with Su Min, even if it was ordinary, it has been baptised in the death of many.

Either that or this jacket is something more than an ordinary blood-sucking treasure. But Su Min couldn’t care less as he closed his eyes and attempted to enter an ancient world that would make anyone quiver.

‘Maybe this is a great chance for her to show what she’s made for. Overseer, I’ll try my best…’