The Martial Master - 84 Receding Fog.

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

…

…

…

*THUD*

With a pale face and frail legs, a girl with a transcendent beauty dropped onto a white cloud in a white world. Her left arm was bent in a way it shouldn’t be, and traces of blood littered her face.

She gazed at such a world with stubbornness, grumbling to herself.

“I’m only at the 15th realm and it expects me to fight 50 of them…”

She kicked the puffed cloud beneath her a couple times before getting up with some difficulty. Some excitement seethed as she thought about this strange shop that she has visited 14 times already.

‘I might be able to get a Mortal Dao Spell instead of the usual techniques this time!’

She gripped her fists as she took her usual stroll through the strange world. A black building appeared, and in a similarly disconcerting fashion, it sped towards her at an unusual pace.

A jade appeared in her hands which she grasped. A clear but still dull inscription of a golden mediating figure shone on it, and as she gazed at this figure, she felt that it was becoming increasingly similar to Su Min’s soul.

Nonetheless, she didn’t bother pondering on the issue anymore as the same black and listless building loomed before her. She pushed open the door that had the word ‘Open’ written on it, where a small room with distraught darkness unveiled itself.

*Clink*

Though, this didn’t last as a lamp on the roof turned on and ushered a dull light that would sometimes flicker. She was used to this, so with a light step, she strolled up to a single black orb in the centre of the room.

She breathed a deep breath, then gripping her jade even tighter, she muttered to herself.

“I have saved up 5 wisps, adding onto the realm I cleared, 6 should be enough to get something better than those shabby techniques…”

So, without restraint, she placed her jade-like hand onto the orb. A blackness invaded her vision with a blur, where three different feelings emerged and thrashed her senses.

She stammered a bit as her thoughts grew confused from these feelings, but with grit teeth, she focused on the one with a god-like disposition.

‘Heavenly!’

Silence encompassed her as a couple of sparkling lights emerged from the pitch black space, nevertheless, in an exponential fashion, those few lights transformed into an incomprehensible number.

Some were so blinding that she had to look away, and some were so faint that she had to focus to even notice their existence. Nevertheless, she knew that this was just a facade. Her jade sizzled from this thought, then spewed a three coloured glare onto her.

Everything trembled as those lights dissipated one after another before only a couple remained.

She spoke to herself as she watched this happen.

“I wonder what the brightest lights contain…”

As her voice faded the glowing jade in her hand shook once more as strange wisps began to form around it.

One, two, five, six…

These wisps, each carrying a supernatural disposition, glided around her like beautiful starlight. Wen Mian was expecting six as she had found that after each realm you gain one, but to her shock, the glowing jade didn’t stop at this number…

“Another?”

She became a little jittery as she watched the jade sizzle more, then in a pop, another wisp formed around it and drifted right towards her. Wen Mian couldn’t help but cry with joy as she counted the number of wisps around her.

“Seven!”

Her eyes redirected themselves onto the couple glowing lights around her, focusing onto the lines of text beneath each of them.

‘High Technique’

‘Peak Technique’

‘Peak Technique’

Disappointment flashed as she gazed at the three brightest, but she didn’t want to give up as she surveyed every single orb of light she could see.

‘Low Technique’

‘Low Technique

Middle Technique

Low Technique

High Technique

Low Technique

….’

“Come on!”

She felt hopeless as everything said a similar thing. Nevertheless, in the corner of her eyes, she noticed a strange light reveal itself with a little apprehension. This was a tad odd considering that everything is normally revealed at the beginning.

The orb wasn’t that bright, in fact, it was one of the dimmest, but it carried a peculiar atmosphere that seemed to set it apart from the rest. This caught her eye, so deciding to take a look at the words beneath the light, Wen Mian gulped.

‘First Realm Half-Step Mortal Dao Spell’

Her eyes shined as she, without hesitation, focused onto that light!

‘Even if it is half-step, It is still better than nothing!’

She only had techniques and not spells, and most didn’t even know the difference between the two. But she knew, and anything that was called a spell used transcendent laws that required a strenuous comprehension.

Some people may not understand this and call a spell a technique, and it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Whether you call it a technique or a spell, its power is unparalleled compared to the highest techniques, but most require ones understanding of energy to be at the level of a genius.

She, though, doesn’t have to worry about this…

*WANGG*

Her mind fluttered as that light developed until it became a blinding pulsating orb of fiery matter. It blew hot steam onto her face, and in a strange hymn, a string of words surfaced in her mind.

‘ Oceans strike with power.

I who controls the ocean controls power.

Wherever I am, the ocean is.

My unfurled wings bring the ocean.

My breath breathes life into the ocean.

Draconic waves, utter it.

For oceanic life is my power.

Dragon’s Ocean’

An inexplicable majesty shrouded these words, one that resonated with her to a level she has never felt before. Her eyes quivered and, with a twitch in front of her, a blue book formed from that massive mass of light.

It didn’t take long for the book to develop and the darkness to recede back into the orb. The same room revealed itself, and in her grasp that blue book shone.

It had two words written on it.

‘Dragon’s Ocean’

Wen Mian didn’t move for a while as she stared at the book in her hand, the odd passage echoing in her head time after time.

‘I got a technique created by a dragon..?’

Many may not understand, but she knew that dragons were natural beings bread from nature. They were born with abilities far surpassing anything humanoid, so whatever they create would have contained an essence that most would never be able to replicate.

Techniques made by dragons can rival a spell’s power in some circumstances. Thus a spell with a dragon’s touch would be even more disastrous. This isn’t even adding on the fact that the half-step spell uses the power of oceans, which is what her bloodline works best with.

She giggled a little as she placed the book into her storage pouch with care. She strolled out of the room with a couple happy skips, where she was presented with two gates.

Her gaze locked onto one gate with a peaceful vibe, thinking.

‘I am way too injured right now, and even then I can’t wait to study this spell!’

She didn’t give it a second thought as she jumped into the portal Su Min went into.

…

…

…

Inside of a blurry world where a small plot of ground drifted, a golden-haired man stood. A golden tree was next to him, and a small red-petaled flower behind.

The man spoke with a little enlightenment.

“So it did expand…”

Instead of the 1-meter radius from before it was now 2, allowing Su Min some space to breathe. Though, no real benefit came from this except that he could fit another tree in it.

But why would he do that?

‘Recover…’

Su Min has thin patience right now and he needed to regain his strength at a lightning pace. Of course, that’s going on the prerequisite that with such strength he would be able to escape this void that he’s stuck in.

‘But… To recover I can’t really do anything. Sleeping seems to be the only way to restore the mind, and my mind is the thing that needs recovering. My body doesn’t really get weak, and even when it does it can heal at a startling pace. Adding on with the Red Giant bloodline it has further increased my body’s endurance and tenacity, though it didn’t do a lot for strength…Becoming gigantic is rather useful I guess.’

He is sleeping right now. It’s just that whenever he does so he would get transported to this place. He can’t sense energy, so finding some sort of method to revoke his mental fatigue is improbable.

The only real thing he can do is enter that ancient world that allows him to comprehend the spells of his Ancient Fist Art. This was what he was going to do anyway because he knew that he hasn’t acquired the right spells for his level of cultivation.

‘Alright, let’s go…’

Getting up and off the dirt, Su Min dusted his clothes that weren’t even real and stepped towards the golden tree. A small almost invisible speck of black shone behind the tree, which his black eye could only see.

‘Focus…’

Su Mins eyes narrowed he gazed at the speck. His mind went into a strange daze for a second, then in a surreal whoosh, Su Min’s world rumbled then crumbled in a gradual move towards him. From the edges, till it reached his toes, everything just disappeared…

What revealed itself beneath the disintegrated world was a fogged one. Everything was hazed in this fog, and Su Min stood in the middle with a 5-meter radius of nothingness around him.

Su Min realised that the 5-meter radius represented his previous achievements in his comprehension of ancient energy. But this was false considering that he was able to conjure and control an area with a 150 meters radius even in a weakened state.

This was forgetting that he was also manipulating a second realm energy speck, albeit roughly.

So, with a light step, Su Min gazed at the fog encompassing him and spoke to himself.

“I guess I have to show it my comprehension? I can probably do that without using my mind too much…”

It was a rational thought, but Su Min wasn’t in a great state to do so. However, no matter how weak someone is, their comprehension will always stay the same. They probably won’t be able to put it to use if they don’t have the required power, but that doesn’t matter if you’re just trying to display your comprehension.

It would be different if he was trying to comprehend instead, as that requires a considerable amount of mental energy to achieve.

*SHIINGG*

His golden eye began to shine a peculiar light as the entire world he was in tumbled. It was a shocking spasm; like it wasn’t expecting such a light to spew out of Su Min’s eyes.

‘Display understanding…’

The fog around Su Min disintegrated like mist, but this was just the beginning as an incomprehensible aura soon enveloped Su Min. A haze of gold strung around him, thick and uncanny.

This wasn’t energy, it was the literal culmination of his understanding unfolding in the real world.

*RUMBLE*

The shaking grew to a vast degree as the fog disintegrated at an alarming speed. But, Su Min wasn’t finished as his eyes narrowed and a beautifying light brewed.

It was a light nearing a boundary of some kind, and it made the golden haze around him convulse. Shapes formed and dissolved; divine starlight flickered and shined like blinding fireworks. An aura of profound stature wafted out of him, commencing an even greater shiver to quake through the space around him.

From 50 meters, the fog kept receding like a mouse fleeing from a cat…

100 meters.

150.

200, 300, 400…

Su Min kept his placid gaze that anyone could lose themselves in. The gold in his eye was strange to say the least, no, it was incomprehensible. It carried a ting of orange, yellow, but something else as well.

Each colour, in its own vibrant state, mixed like glowing paint in his pupil, swirling and swishing to form this sort of never seen before glow. His shining gaze was no longer blinding after this. It instead radiated a flickering lucid glare, one that would be almost unnoticeable in daylight. A dim radiance it was.

600.

800.

900…