A/N: Here is the first chapter of the promised two chapters for Christmas. I woke up late and had some issues with pring. The second chapter is already complete and just need to be pred so it will come out within the hour. This chapter and the next one should help clear up some stuff and show how the story will progress for a while. Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

*****

“Haa….haaa… we finally caught up to you, you damn bitch… I was planning on letting you go peacefully after you gave us the manual, but I’ve changed my mind after now. I’m going to cut you up real good.”

The shadows that Shin Yong had seen earlier were now in a stand still on an open plain. Due to the bright full moon in the sky, if anyone was there to look they would see ten males that wore black clothes along with a mask that covered the lower half of their face, making it impossible to identify them. Even though their facial expressions couldn’t be seen, their eyes expressed their fury plenty enough for anyone to see.

Ten feet in front of them, was a girl that had flowing black hair that reached her lower back and beautiful pure blue eyes that reminded others of the sky. Her face was small and her skin like porcelain. Due to the tight fitting clothes she wore, people could see that she had the curves in all the right places which would cause men to go crazy. The girl was exactly the same person who had rushed into Shin Yong’s room at a hotel previously.

After the group had gotten their breath back, they slowly fanned out and surrounded the girl. Seeing them slowly approach, despair appeared within her eyes. For the past several days, she had been fleeing from them, to no avail. Whenever she thought she finally got rid of them, a new group would appear and chase after her. It seemed as though there were numerous groups in various locations that would begin chasing after her after she finally lost one group. After running almost non-stop for that long, she really had spent up all her ki and energy.

The ten males were not lenient with her. Even though she was world shaking beauty, they relentlessly beated her. Thankfully though, they didn’t use weapons and cut her like one of the men stated earlier. They knew that even though they could get away with hurting her and running away, if they actually killed her, they really wouldn’t be able to handle the fury of those who was behind her and they would be chased to the end of the world.

Hiding in the shadows of a tree nearby, Shin Yong watched the scene play out with cold eyes. There was no movement to actually go out and help as he patiently waited. Only as the girl began to lose her consciousness and the shadows grew tired did he finally take action.

While the ten males were panting and catching their breath with looks of satisfaction on their face, in between them appeared a lone figure that exuded a vicious aura. Not even bothering to wait for their shock, he immediately threw out four daggers from each of his hand, hitting eight of them in the throat or chest. Without even verifying whether the victims died, he rushed forward and slashed through the throat of the last two survivors before he finally came to a stand still.

Right as he stopped and stood tall, the ten bodies all collapsed as if the strings that were holding them up had been cut through. Taking a few moment to retrieve the throwing daggers, he wiped the blood off of them and put them back within his shirt. Afterwards, he walked toward the beautiful woman. On the way there, just as if he was speaking to himself, he spoke out loud.

“Moon Geun, get rid of the corpses.”

Without even verifying whether he had heard the command, Shin Yong continued to walk forward. Between the dead corpses a figure hazily appeared. Taking a bottle out of his shirt, he began to drop a couple drops of acid onto the bodies which quickly began to disintegrate, leaving no signs that they were there previously.

As Shin Yong got near the lady, he couldn’t help but click his head in disgust. Those guys really hadn’t gone easy on her and had left several bruises all over her body. Actually, the reason he had not intervened in the beginning was because he did not want the girl to see his face. That’s why he waited until the moment she had lost consciousness and then taken action. If she had seen his face, he would have had to silence her for forever so that information of him wouldn’t leak out. This was also one of the reason that even though a year had passed since he took over the Gray Shadow Sect that no outsiders knew of his actual strength and skill.

Shin Yong began to lower his body. Placing his arms behind her back and knees, he was slowly raising her when a small wooden box fell out from her shirt. Placing her gently back on the ground, he looked at the thing that had fallen.

It was some kind of jewelry box with a figurine inside of it. Unlike the regulars ones that showed people dancing, the figure was actually of a sturdy man who was going through some unarmed martial techniques. As he picked the box up with curiosity, he noticed that there were tiny red lines all over the figurine and that a blue light was moving along the red lines.

When he saw all of this, he couldn’t help but be surprised. That little figurine was actually showing a martial technique! Not only was it actually demonstrating the movements, but it also showed how the ki should be moving within his body with each movement. Even though he had experienced and saw numerous things throughout his travel and time during the war, Shin Yong never saw something so fascinating. Not only was it a lot more effective than reading an actual manual, it actually was just as effective as if a master was there to teach you.

After he intensely focused on the figurine and watched it go through each movement twice, he finally memorized all of the movements and the movement of the ki. A genuine smile appeared on his face. This expenditure had given him quite the profit.

The martial technique that the figurine displayed was a barehanded one. Since he used a dagger technique, the two were very complimentary of each other. There were always time when he would not have any weapons on him as he threw his daggers, after all. Even though he already knew a barehanded technique, it didn’t even compare to the one he just learned so he already decided to change them out.

Just as he was about to close the lid, a click sound rang out and a hidden compartment beneath the figurine opened up. Inside the small space, was a pill that was pure white. Extending his hand out to pick the pill up, he felt an intense chill as his finger tips approached the pill. Bringing his arm back, he looked in shock at the pill.

The pill in front of him was even rarer than top level martial techniques. It was an Ice Ki Condensation pill. For those who did not have Ice ki, it would condense Ice ki within the person while for those who already had Ice ki, it would improve their ice ki quality by several levels.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The majority of people had ki, but no attribute. It was said that there might be just one person out of every ten thousand that would be born with ki that had an attribute. For the very select few, they would have one of the following attribute of ki: Fire, Wind, Earth, Ice.

Fire ki gave the owner more explosive short burst power.

Wind ki helped increase the speed of the owner.

Earth ki hardened the muscles and bones of their owners, making the body itself a weapon and armor.

Ice ki nulled the reaction speed of all those in the immediate area, causing them to react more slowly.

This was not the end of the classification of ki, however. The quality of  ki were divided into ten levels. The levels went from the tenth level all the way to the first level. As your ki level went lower, it indicated that their ki was purer and stronger. For example, a martial artist at the fourth level would be able to bring about much more explosive power than a martial artist at the eight level with Fire Ki.

Shin Yong himself was a fourth level Fire ki martial artist. This was the reason why once Ryu Won and him started using ki he was able to cut through Ryu Won’s muscles easily. Even though his ki level was considered pretty high, there were still various experts and geniuses who had a higher talent for ki.

Still, just because one had a higher level in ki didn’t mean that the outcome was set in stone. A slash through the throat or a stab to the heart would still kill them, after all. Throughout the war, he had killed a countless number of martial artists who were more talented than him and some who were considered as geniuses.

Before taking the pill, Shin Yong hesitated for a moment. Since he didn’t have Ice ki, it was somewhat dangerous for him to take the pill. If the Ice Ki level was too high and he couldn’t handle it, the ki would spread throughout his body and freeze him from the inside.

Still, the hesitation didn’t last long before he reached out and swallowed the pill. Even though he couldn’t be considered a genius with the talents of his fire attribute ki levels, he was still someone who had reached one of the highest levels in ki cultivation throughout the continent. You could literally count on one hand those who had reached higher level than him in ki cultivation on the continent, which was a completely different field than Ki level and attribute. After sitting down and getting into his cultivation pose, he swiftly swallowed the pill.

Once the pill entered his body, the Ice ki within the pill immediately bursted forth. As the ki spread throughout his body, he felt as though his muscles and bones were being frozen. Even though it was mind numbingly painful, Shin Yong didn’t yell out loud and just gritted his teeth while he forced his Fire ki to start surrounding the Ice ki and bringing them toward his dantian.

After thirty minutes, he painstakingly gathered all the Ice ki toward his dantian. He secretly rejoiced at having Fire ki as it helped cancel out some of the coldness from the Ice ki. Still, even though it was all in one place now, it now felt as though his dantian was going to freeze over.

Now that he got to this point, he knew that he had to let the Ice ki to flow through his ki veins so that he could refine them and finally assimilate with it. As he forced the Ice ki along his veins though, not only did he find that he wasn’t able to bring the ki under his influence at all, he even felt his ki veins being slowly frozen over.

Panicked, he tried to think of what he should. If he continued to let the Ice ki flow through his ki veins like this, the veins would eventually freeze and break apart, spelling his own demise. As he frantically thought over what to do, a sudden thought came to him.

’Eh, could it be that I have to move the Ice ki along the path that the figurine showed me?’

Thinking up to this point, Shin Yong immediately began to force the Ice ki along the path that he saw on the figurine. After noticing that it become a little tamed after going through a full circulation, he became excited. Urging the ki forward even more quickly, he put all his effort into refining it.

After the Ice ki had circulated through his ki veins hundreds of times, it was finally refined and under his control. To his surprise, he found that the ki was at the fifth level. Noticing that, he cursed at whoever put the pill inside the box.

’Crazy bastard, condensing Ice ki of the fifth level into the pill. If someone below my ki cultivation level without Ice Ki, or someone who’s Ice ki was below the fifth level to begin with, had taken the pill, they would have surely died a pitiful death.’

Even though those thoughts arouse, he really wasn’t that mad. He had, after all, attained Ice ki now. Even though it was at a lower level than his Fire Ki, it wasn’t by much and it would be very beneficial to him in a battle since depending on the situation he could switch between the two now. Satisfied, he finally opened his eyes and stood back up.

When he saw Shin Yong stand up, Moon Geun let a large sigh out. After taking care of the corpses and erasing all the signs of battle, he had seen Shin Yong sit down and swallow the pill. Even though he didn’t know what kind of pill it was, he immediately saw the painful expression on his face and him gritting his teeth. Knowing how high Shin Yong’s pain tolerance was, he was immediately startled. Also, he was able to sense the strong force of Ice ki surrounding him now and figured out that what Shin Yong swallowed was a Ice Ki Condensation pill.

After knowing that, he didn’t dare to try to help him. He knew that if he tried to force his own ki into Shin Yong’s body to assist him, it would cause the direct opposite effect and make it worse. All he could do was stay to the side and pray that his lord would be able to assimilate the Ice ki.

When Shin Yong opened his and stood up, he finally saw that Moon Geun was standing to the side and had an expression of relief on his face. After seeing that face, Shin Yong could guess how worried he had been for that sort of expression to show up on his face. While inwardly being grateful to have such an aide under him who cared for him so much while also feeling embarrassed, he turned around and started walking back toward the town that they were staying in.

“Moon Geun, bring the girl back with us. Have our doctors come and treat her.”

“Yes, my lord.”