82 Spells. (1/2)

'Shop'

”..?”

Su Min squinted for a while as he tried to gather his thoughts regarding the abruptness of everything.

”How strange...”

His eyes shimmered as he held that luke-warm jade, which soon redirected themselves to that old sign in front. He found this world to be similar to the heavens, or at least, he felt a certain hatred towards it.

But the jade in his hand was the opposite; and considering that the symbol was the exact same to the one on his chest, he even felt a little familiarity to the symbol.

It was just that the symbol held no lustre, not even a hint of that one of a kind aura. It felt more like a shabby replica than something originating from his own blood.

”Well, that beast was definitely something resembling my bloodline...”

He sighed as he put away the jade in a pocket, realising that he should go and get one of those storage pouches.

*Step*

”Let's hope that Wen Mian doesn't die in this place, heh... Agh, fuck...”

A little apprehension clouded his expression as he wandered past the sign and through the frothed fog. He soon found a small black building in the far distance, but in a rather disconcerting fashion, that far-away object lessened in distance a little too fast.

It was like it was coming towards him instead of him walking towards it, but that didn't seem to be the case as he arrived at its front, metallic door.

”Black...”

Su Min murmured as he gazed upon the black box. It had no windows, its roof was flat, and the door seemed to blend in with everything else. The only reason he could see it was because it had a small sign on it, brushed with the word 'open'.

Lifting his arm to push, Su Min shoved the door open and took a step in. What greeted him was a pitch blackness, one so distraught that it seemed to engulf the light that tried to enter into it.

*CLINK*

Yet, with a press, that blackness dissipated in an instant as a small lamp on the roof flickered a monotonous tune. Su Min's eyes flashed as he noticed a single black orb float in the middle of the room.

Nothing else but this orb was present, and to Su Min, this orb seemed to contain something inexplicable. It was as if it was telling him to touch it, though it wasn't malicious; it was just a sort of hint.

”I wouldn't call this a shop, but ok...”

Su Min took a couple light steps as he appeared before the orb, eyes narrowing with a hint of nostalgia; it wasn't towards the orb itself, but what it represented. A shop, as such.

*Wanggg*

Soft energy enveloped Su Min as he went within arms reach of the orb, where his vision blurred a little and three distinct sensations swept through him.

One depicted an oppressive and somewhat godly atmosphere as if it was the pinnacle of the world. The other next to it had a certain fierceness that wanted to pierce this atmosphere, glowing in a mighty gold.

The last, but not least, held something a little more ordinary. It carried no special property, but maybe because of this, it felt all-encompassing. As if it held every power in the world, and held them tight.

Su Min's eyes narrowed as these three distinct feelings bombarded his senses. He knew one all too well, but such a thing wasn't what he needed.

'I need to cultivate martial energy, so...'

His mind locked onto a certain sensation, and in a surreal fashion, a drowning blackness drenched his sight and formed a limitless array of lights in his vision.

Each light conveyed a different feeling, and each seemed to represent something.

Some lights were more blinding than others, and some simply flickered like a dull lamp without oil. As Su Min saw this, he found that the jade in his hand was beginning to sizzle.

”Hm?”

His expression changed as a strange glare spewed out of such a jade, enveloping him in a three colour flash. A golden, white, blackened light. It didn't seem like energy to him, as he couldn't recognise the gold to be ancient energy, which confused him greatly.

*PSST*

The blackness encompassing him trembled as those blinding lights dimmed until they disappeared. In fact, nearly everything disappeared in view.

The only thing left was a dim light in the corner of his eye, floating with a weak gait that seemed near dead. That multicoloured light around him had also merged into a strange wisp. One without colour, more like a transparent lucid thing...

It didn't seem tangible in his eyes, but it floated around him nonetheless. He got an odd sensation as he gazed at this wisp gliding, but by a rare occurrence, he couldn't work out what it was.

It felt out of this world, like something surpassing anything he could know. By any form of guesswork, the only answer he could come up with was that this was energy in the second realm...

'The second realm that I have only touched, could it be..?'

Su Min didn't know a lot about such a realm, but in comparison to other cultivators, what he knows is at a level of expertise. He has used and felt the power of second realm energy, and it was a mighty almost god-like feeling.

Yet, this was a different thing altogether, and it was a fierce riddle that contradicted his view on the second realm.

'Energy represents power, so if this is second realm energy, why is it emitting so little? In fact, I feel the same I would for a single wisp of ancient energy...'

Su Min stared at this wisp with growing uncertainty. Its unique presence brought that unsurpassable feeling, yet, it carried the same power as the first realm... So what was it?

'Mhm... I'll leave this for now.'

With a sigh and a slight turn, Su Min decided to forget about the issue as he focused on that bleak light in his eyes. The light wasn't anything special, akin to a small flame or a mortal's lamp.

Though, without him noticing, a line of text had formed beneath the light. His gaze shifted to such a small line under the light, a strange light brewing in his eyes.

'First Realm Mortal Dao Spell.'