The cheerful chatter of people living their lives filled the atmosphere in the main city of the <32nd Murim>. The city was bustling with merchants, traders and other individuals engaging in their day to day activities, it was just like your classic capital city in medieval period novels. But the difference was that the city's look wasn't medieval at all. The city itself was quite developed as I could notice modernized buildings and vehicles, there were actual vehicles in a murim world. In fact, it wasn't a stretch to say it was even more developed than earth as I could notice large panels that seemed to serve the purpose of advertisement like the billboards on earth only that they were floating and looked holographic, on these panels displayed various goods such as the latest Rides; the SRV-XXI and other products. It was a car that from merely looking at it, one could easily tell that the SRV was far superior to any of the Earth's best cars and that was reflected in it's price.
A whooping 70 million coins. A figure that someone like me who possessed literally zero coins couldn't even dream of ever obtaining. I would have to deal with the problem of coins later.
I observed though that most of the 'billboards' were advertising a particular
[
Get your tickets to watch and the <32nd Murim>'s greatest warriors recreate the legendary battle against the heavenly demonic faction.
Hurry, because sale ends on the day of the
Time left till start of contest: 32 days
]
I was still looking around and admiring the city, until.
"Hey, Kim was it. Don't forget why we came here". Lucas called me back to the present.
"Huh, oh right. You said you had to get some things to aid my training right".
"That is correct, we just need some recovery potions, I can get the other things from the school".
"Ok". I simply said before asking
"Um, this.... Who are all these people?" I asked referring to some individuals who didn't look like they belonged in even this world. They wore untraditional clothes and didn't give off the same vibe that most other people belonging to this world gave.
"Huh, you mean you can't recognize these people?" Lucas looked at me and asked while tilting his head ever so slightly.
"......!!" I was silent as I had no idea of what he was talking about.
"Wow....... Losing ones memories is quite scary. Anyway, the people who you are referring to are most likely all transmigrators".
"H-huh?!" I again said louder than I intended and drew the attention of various other people around us.
I was still looking on, dumbfounded when Lucas continued.
"That's right, they are all transmigrators who have come here from other worlds for various business and jobs. Our worlds
"I see". I said out loud while inwardly asking rem why he didn't inform me about all this. And I was replied.
["You didn't ask for information concerning it"]. I was a little pissed at his reply but I quickly regained my composure and made a mental note to never again repeat the same mistake.
Soon after which we obtained the potions and left the city to the training venue.
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We had left the main city and come to the outskirts, in which we were surrounded by trees in all directions. I sat on a stump there waiting for my master, Lucas to finish setting up the things for the training.
After he had finished setting up, he beckoned on me to come take a seat on a mat In front of him. As I sat, I noticed a barrel filled with wooden training swords a few meters away from where I was sitting as well as some kettle filled with burning incense and a bunch of scrolls placed around the venue. I didn't see the recovery potions we bought anywhere but decided against asking, I didn't want to mistakenly poke at his pride by asking such questions. The area around had the atmosphere of a real murim training session. I sat and silently awaited instructions from my teacher.
"Alright. Before I start, I would like to say this In case you have forgotten. Normally, humans can only have one or two attributes, the later being so rare that there aren't up to a hundred people in the entire
"Huh, contradict another attribute, what does that mean?"
"It means that an individual cannot have two opposing attributes. For example, a person can't have the martial artist attribute as well as the mage attribute at the same time".
"Huh, but what if, say a swordsman wants to integrate magic into his sword techniques?" I asked, still a bit confused.
"Good question. If such a situation were to occur then the person would obtain the magical swordsman attribute. Mind you, the martial artist attribute and other warrior attributes are not the same". Lucas answered.
"I see". I answered. It all clicked now. By the way, it seemed that Lucas was quite knowledgeable about a lot of things and this contradicted his looks, so I decided to ask.
"Umm... How old are you?"
"Hmmm. Well I am actually about fifty years old. I think".
What!?? How was that even possible. Even if the world had ended, a fifty year old man couldn't be looking like this. It was totally impossible and implausible.
Lucas seemed to notice my confusion since he let out a loud laugh
"Hahahahaha". The laugh resounded as a result of his deep voice.
"Quite shocked now are we. Well don't be, the old man is at least four times that". My jaw dropped and Lucas just continued laughing.
"H-how?!" I finally asked, the situation was starting to worry me.
"Actually, I owe this vitality to the
What. They were looking like this thanks to a simple training skill?! Now I was even more eager to learn it.
"Alright, that's enough idle chatter. Now let's get down to today's business". He took off his shirt to reveal a set of well trained abs and biceps before telling me to do the same and I did.
We now sat directly facing each other with our shirts off. Any normal bystander who saw this would think the exact opposite of what we were really about to do.
He started out by explaining to me what 'Qi' was. He explained that it was one of the countless
"Now that were done with the introduction, try to feel the Qi energy that is present all around you. The first step is to try and perceive the Qi".
After receiving the instruction, he closed his eyes and tried to do just that. He recalled a certain novel he read which described Qi as energy particles that existed everywhere. Following that analogy, he tried to picture the Qi as particles of light, he focused his attention on doing this for about an hour or so before he finally started to get a glimpse of this Qi. He saw a single brilliant particle of light at first before they started to grow in number and in the next thirty minutes he could already sense all the Qi present in the area, he could feel them moving around and within the surrounding trees and other animals, that probably represented the life forms' internal Qi. The Qi itself was breathing. He could even sense his master's Qi, it was a well trained and refined energy that swirled within him. And just then, he heard a system message.
[
You have become aware of 'Qi'. You
]
"Qi perception is the first and the most difficult stage so it usually takes a long time. Don't rush—"
"I've got it!" he shouted interrupting his master. Lucas replied to this by giving him a long hard and questioning look before.
"Listen, there is a difference between imagining it and actually perceiving it". Lucas said, quite irritated at Kim for interrupting him.
"No, I actually got it. You can even test me if you want". Kim said trying desperately to convince his already irritated master.
Lucas eyed him for some time before.
"Alright, since that's what you want. But if you fail this test, I will stop teaching you. Do you still wish to go through with it?" Lucas asked, believing that Kim would back down at the threat but he didn't. In fact, the look in Kim's eyes showed a strong resolve to prove that what he was sensing wasn't just a mere imagination. Lucas decided to go through with it.
He gathered Qi to a certain part of his body before asking. "Which part can you sense the most Qi around".
Kim looked at his sensei focusing seriously and even sweating a bit before discovering a cluster of Qi around his left arm. Kim looked even closer before shouting.
"Your left arm. I can sense it in the area between the elbow and the palm!"
Lucas' eyes went wide at these words. It normally takes most martial artists a few months to become able to sense Qi and the people who could do this in less than a month were hailed as geniuses.
'to think he'd be able to pin the exact location. Even the old man said it took him a few weeks to sense Qi but this guy did it in less than three hours. Did the old man's skill malfunction or something, how could someone like this not have any potential?'.
"I got it, right?" Kim asked, a triumphant smile could be spotted on his face.
"Yes you did". Lucas said to him in a congratulatory tone.
'Hmmmm, Now that I think about it. The old man did say the maximum was his own potential. If this kid couldn't be measured then...........'
"Alright master, what's next?" Kim said, still beaming the smile.
'i guess this kid is just that much of a monster.......'
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