Yousti began wandering the world once again in order to advance his martial arts.
Just like last time he relied on observing the flow of world intent to find interesting events.
But unlike last time when he had first found the Enuncia cult just by following the gathering of world intent.
Yousti could now observe the infinite tapestry of emotion within intent.
He could determine the flow of World Intent and determine its causes from the source by observing what emotions make up the streams of World Intent.
‘Maybe I should visit the American continents?’
Asides from a few Vikings the whole of civilization had never made contact with those other two continents.
Only up until Columbus and other sailors crossing the entire ocean to discover the ‘New World’ and then coming all the way back did civilization on both sides of the planet truly connect.
But Yousti with his knowledge as a transmigrator knew about the happenings of the third millennium.
So Yousti stood at the beach looking at a vast expanse of water with the sun just rising behind him.
He smelled the salty water and felt the cool breeze of the ocean flutter his scarf and robes.
He began stretching every muscle in his body.
He was very good at it thanks to his yoga mastery too.
But as he finished stretching he looked back at the land.
“Never mind.”
Yousti turned around.
His fated ocean marathon would come another day.
For now he felt obligated to check up on the martial world.
“I have to master all five center forms of Silk Song. Reach 5 Energies Converging at the Origin. Find a better way to spread qi to more people. I’m too busy to disappear to the other side of the planet just yet.”
Yousti continued to wander for a few weeks.
Thanks to his martial prowess he could easily travel fast enough to cross entire nations within a couple days.
Power scaling the martial realms is a difficult endeavor.
Because each realm is measured by ones ability to use internal energy, see intent, and use intent.
Not by their raw power.
But, at the very least the conventional limit of the 6 realms that he is aware of is comparable modern military artillery in terms of attack output.
Yousti at his current stage is able to release attacks capable of demolishing the largest brick and concrete structures of this era.
So his travel speed should easily reach that of a high speed vehicle.
Combined with navigating the terrain of wilderness and mountain ranges slowing him down.
Getting anywhere within a week is easy for him.
Yousti had recently observed a stream of World Intent full of pleasure and desire but more importantly it was full of black.
‘Seems like the intent created by some kind of incredible obsession infecting the world intent.
But for this much emotion to exist within the world intent…’
‘whoever created this much intent must be quite significant.’
~
Gao Luen was running for his life.
“Interesting a psychic human from Seres?”
He clutched his sword and swung at the voice.
Clang!
The sword sharply deflected off his assailants neck.
Sparks flew, illuminating their face.
“Much stronger than a normal mortal too!”
Gao Luen was absolutely terrified.
All of his fellow martial artists he had traveled with had been killed.
If it weren’t for the hellish training he did under instructor Aurora as a First Rate martial artist he would’ve been butchered without even realizing an attack even started.
Everyone else was either third or second rate and couldn’t even react and died instantly.
He started running immediately but he couldn’t shake this guy.
The smiling man simply stood there as Gao front kicked his sternum.
Launching both of them away from each other.
Gao Luen immediately turned from his kicks momentum and continued running from the smiling man.
Who had just stood up and began chuckling.
His laughs continued to echo in his ears no matter how far he ran.
“I never learned legendary learned martial arts of the Silk Spirit just to die like this!” He desperately shouted.
Eventually Gao Luen stopped and turned around.
The smiling man was right there.
He was just standing there menacingly.
Running had been useless.
Gao gathered his courage.
‘I have to face this monster or die.
There’s no other way around it.’
Gao pushed through the fear in his heart and took a stance with his sword in his hand.
Its edges were chipped from repeated use against the seemingly indestructible body of the smiling man.
He remembered a quote that the Silk Spirit gave on one of the few times he had ever seen him at the Martial Academy.
“If I gain enlightenment in the morning, then I can die peacefully in the evening.”
It was during one of his rare lectures on martial philosophy that he had been lucky enough to run into.
They were always unannounced and could happen anywhere on the Martial Academy grounds.
‘I will use this martial art.’
Gao began compressing all his internal energy into his spine, then his shoulder, he continued into his elbow, and finally at his wrist.
Each individual joint burst in pain as he violently pushed more internal energy into them and rotated those concentrations at extreme speeds at each joint.
It was a currently an unnamed martial art created by Gao Luen himself.
He left the Martial Academy after Five years as a second rate.
Being praised as a genius by his peers thanks to demonstrating this martial art once.
After that he managed to become a first rate martial artist and joined with a group of third and second rate martial artists travelling the world.
He never expected to be the last survivor.
The rotating qi felt like having all his joints grinded and twisted by the edge of a saw.
It would leave him with joint pain for months.
He felt his joints forcefully be pulled along the spin to swing early, but he resisted..
He could not perform it often so Gao Luen refused to name this martial art until he could perform it as he pleased.
Gao Luen grit his teeth before he widened his eyes.
He saw a clear blue line in the air aiming straight towards the smiling man’s neck.
‘Now!’
He swung with all his might along the blue path towards the neck of the smiling man.
Who was just standing there blankly smiling as if he wasn’t going to get hit at all.
He drew blood.
Gao Luen saw that he had finally scratched the smiling man’s neck with his slash.
‘I reached the peak realm!’
He remembered in the books that the peak realm allowed a martial artist to see a completely different world.
But no matter where he searched or who he asked, Gao could never find out more about the peak realm.
But this was no time to celebrate.
The sword didn’t bounce off, instead it rested on the imperceptibly tiny scratch on the mans neck.
He tried to pull it out to retreat from the smiling man.
But it wouldn’t budge.
“After pressuring you, you became even stronger somehow? Not even other perpetuals can do something like that. And you just a mortal.”
The smiling man reached out his hand towards Gao as he panicked.
It was too fast.
He didn’t have the time to decide to either pull the stuck sword out or turn and run.
Just as the hand of the smiling man’s hand was about to reach Gao Tian as it covered his vision.
He felt an enormous tug and the world blurred.
Gao found himself lying on the ground with his sword tightly bound to his hand with a silky smooth wrapping with a strand from the binding leading back into the trees.
‘Silk?’
“Not bad. You have truly attained the peak realm with your own talent in such a short time.”
Gao Luen felt an enormous sense of relief as his eyes fell in the white robes that shimmered like a rainbow.
Even more shocking were the countless red lines coming from him.
‘I’m saved.’
The Silk Spirit has appeared to save him from that smiling monster.