Child of Destiny

……

Professor Plum and Grandmaster Benn brought Shin and the others at the border of the Main Region and Northern Blue Region. From the spot that they were standing, this place seemed to be a dense and boundless forest.

Shin stared down at the forest for a moment before releasing a helpless sigh. It was not because of the sight that he was seeing, but because of Laura.

“Tsk! In the end, those two old men refuse to tell me the real reason why they want to bring this little girl in this place training,” muttered Shin while glaring at Old Plum and Old Benn who were standing at the forefront of the group.

“They already told you about it, right? It was because Old Benn wanted to take her as his second disciple,” answered David while sweeping his gaze at the dense forest.

“Tch! As if it was that simple,” refuted Shin while turning his head at him.

Then a sudden thought entered his mind and asked. “And why are you tagging along? I thought you are too lazy to join us here?”

Hearing that, David couldn’t help but remember some unpleasant memories that sent a sudden chill on his entire body. Then he gave Shin a wry smile before saying. “Well, I really don’t want to come here but I don’t have any other choice.” 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝑛𝘦𝑡

Then he scratched his cheeks a little before adding. “Let’s say that I am going to be your sparring partner for your training since you are going to improve much faster during the battle.”

He paused for a moment to turn his head at Laura who seemed to be quite excited for this ‘adventure’ before continuing. “And also, to babysit this little girl.”

The group started walking for a few more moments before arriving at a humble nipa hut in the middle of the forest. And right after arriving, Shin immediately noticed the invisible Mentalism Formation that was surrounding the place. He could also tell that it was not a simple formation since he was feeling that it was formed by multiple formations that were combined into one.

To further prove what he was feeling, he turned his head at David who was also quite amazed at the special formation. “Heh! As expected from an old monster of the Mentalism Circle, this formation sure is amazing.”

Meanwhile, Professor Plum suddenly turned his body around and said to the three young’uns. “Alright, this is where we are staying for now. Go on, and enter. We will let you rest for today so that you guys can settle here. We are going to start your training early in the morning tomorrow.”

Then he paused briefly to turn his head at Shin and instructed. “Just wake up in your usual time a day.”

Hearing that, Shin nodded his head before walking towards the nipa hut. And after arriving in front of the door, he immediately pushed it forward to enter.

But his steps came into a sudden halt the moment he saw the inside of the humble house. “What the!?”

Looking at it, Shin took a couple of steps backwards and turned his head left and right to check the length of the nipa hut. And after confirming that he was not wrong, he walked in front of the opened door once again to look inside.

But standing there further shocked him. He was sure that he was not seeing things the inside of the place was completely different from what he was expecting.

Since he was frozen in place, Laura stared at Shin’s with a confused look on her face and knitting brow. She pursed her lips for a moment before taking a step to the side to see what Shin saw.

“Wow! It’s so big!” said Laura as she looked through the opened door. Then she started running inside of the ‘humble hut’ to more of it.

Inside that small house was something that Shin never expected. He was expecting that this nipa hut should have a small room just like the small hut that Old Plum was staying. But in front of him was a place that looked like an interior of a grand hotel.

Seeing that Shin was still in the state of shock, David suddenly slapped his back while saying. “Hey! What are you surprised about? Such things are only a common occurrence for a Mentalist that is on Grandmaster Benn’s level.”

‘Even my master’s place is more amazing than this. There is even a hot spring and a sauna in one of its rooms,’ he added in his mind while walking past Shin.

Feeling the burning pain on his back, Shin finally recovered himself and went back to normal. Though, he was still amazed deep inside. ‘So, this is another application of Mentalism? I read such things before, but seeing it for the first time is really quite shocking.’

……

Shin spent the rest of the day staying inside of his room to achieve his peak form. He didn’t do anything aside from meditating and resting.

The next day, he walked out of his room at the usual time of his morning training. The sky was still dark – and since they were currently in the middle of the forest, the whole surrounding was too dark.

Fortunately, Shin’s eyes were already trained on this kind of environment. So, it didn’t take long for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Outside, Professor Plum and Grandmaster Benn were already waiting for Shin. And they saw him, the latter couldn’t help but give him a little compliment. “Heh! Quite punctual, huh?”

Hearing that, Old Plum couldn’t help but smirk a little since this was one of Shin’s aspects that he really liked the most. ‘This kid is already trained at the Mafia when I take him as my disciple. So, I don’t have to worry about him slacking off on his training.’

After having that thought, he looked at Shin with his sharp eyes as if he was scanning Shin’s body. A moment later, he nodded his head full of satisfaction before saying. “I see that you are in your peak form. If that is the case, then let’s start this training already.”

The moment he said those words, Grandmaster Benn immediately made a snap with his fingers. A second after that, a large amount of Mental Energy was suddenly released from his body and started rushing towards Shin, binding him in place.

Shin was surprised at first, but he still kept his calm and let the rushing Mental Energy enter his body. Not long after, everything went back to normal.

Shin tried to look inside his body and didn’t see any change on it. Then he started doing some body movements he was still doing just fine. Due to that, he suddenly became confused. So, he looked at the two old men in front of him with his knitted eyebrows.

“Heh! You seem fine, right?” Professor Plum suddenly smirked when he saw that expression of Shin. But he immediately explained without wasting any more time. “Don’t worry, its effects will so themselves at the latter stages of your training.”

“And didn’t we tell you that you should stop practicing your Martial-Arts for a moment, right? We are serious about that. During your time here, you are forbidden to use your Internal Qi in battle.”

“This Old Fatty, put a special formation inside your body. Its effects are quite simple, it is going to seal all of your Internal Qi whenever you are going to use them in battle. If you are just going to train your control over them, then it is still fine.”

And when Old Plum paused, Old Benn immediately took over. “You are relying too much on your Martial-Art Skills which is making you use your Mentalism Techniques in similar fashion. Which is not that wrong, but not right either. But you are wasting too much of your Mentalism potential, so we came up on this plan.”

Then it was Professor Plum’s turn once again. “During the morning, you are going to train under me while the rest of your time until night is for your Mentalism training.”

“On my course, we are going to focus on solidifying your foundation even more, so that it could withstand the drawbacks of using my ‘Yin-Yang Arts’. And if you are diligent enough, then you might even nullify all of the side effects of using them by the end of this training.”

He took another pause to raise his right hand with two fingers opened. “There are two major parts of your training. The first part is for physical training while the other part focuses on controlling your twin Internal Qi.”

After saying that, he looked at Shin and asked. “Anything that you want to clarify before we start?”

Hearing that, Shin fell into a deep thought for a moment before shaking his head to tell that he didn’t need any other explanation.

When Old Plum saw that, he nodded his head with satisfaction and said. “Then you should start now.”

He pointed his thumb behind him while saying. “See that huge barrel over there? I want you to fill it with water before the sun rises. If you failed to do that, then there is no breakfast for you.”

After saying those, he threw a pair of small wooden buckets at Shin together with a wooden pole while adding to his instructions. “The river is on the eastern side of the mountain.”

Shin nodded his head before picking up the buckets and wooden pole. He was about to start the task given to him when he suddenly heard the additional words from Old Plum. “I don’t need to tell you that using any Internal Qi and Metal Energy are forbidden, right?”

Shin’s step suddenly paused the moment he heard that. Then he turned his head to look at Old Plum with his twitching face. ‘Do you know you know how high this mountain is?’

Old Plum just ignored the expression on Shin’s face and further rubbed more salts on his wound. “And don’t try cheating on us, that special formation inside your body is going to restrict you from using any of those energies.”

‘So, that is the real purpose of that formation?’ thought Shin to himself as he gulped a mouthful of saliva. He was already starting to see what kind of hell he fell into.

Seeing that Shin was still not moving. Old Plum looked at him with a sneering face before saying. “Why are you still standing there? You don’t want to have your breakfast?”

Hearing that, Shin suddenly clicked his tongue and started running down the mountain at full speed.

…