99 The Martials Hut. (1/2)

”Hut, please bless me with fortune... Perhaps some of those crystals, eh?”

Su Min spoke with hope as he took a step towards the blurry hut.

*WHOOSH*

The wind in the air rang and screeched, yet it all still remained unreactive to Su Min's presence. A couple steps passed, and Su Min was in front of the hut.

Its edges were maligned and a strange scent of blood permeated the air around it. Nonetheless, its existence was blurry, but Su Min could still catch its somewhat random shakes due to the wind.

A feeling arose in Su Min as he stared at the pitch black entrance, one that even he couldn't peer into. His black eye seemed to hymn a slight monotonous tune due to this, where that feeling began to take shape.

”How odd...”

Su Min mumbled under his breath as he found this feeling to be indescribable. It contained a hunger similar to when he consumed that Red Giant bloodline, but it was also something more than that; a mystical, almost forbidden feeling.

”Closeness...”

His eyes flashed as his thought cleared up a little. He could tell, and with utmost shock, that he felt an old familiarity with this hut! It was similar to nostalgia, but something more forgotten and ancient. It was akin to never entering a place before, but feeling that this place was home.

A rare hint of hesitation streaked passed Su Min. This feeling was way too strong, and whatever it was, he felt that he may discover something he would rather not know from it.

Yet, as this surfaced an iron will seemed to get roused in his mind. His face lifted with a laugh, and he no longer stopped himself.

”So what?”

*Step*

His foot slammed the ground as he entered the fogged darkness shrouding the hut; thus, his body disappeared and entered an exceptional world...

The black figure seemed to notice this as he opened his eyes and stared at the hut. He giggled a little, where a trace of respect gleamed in his eyes.

”The Martial's Hut... Maybe he'll find some of its many uses.”

*Ssss*

Su Min, just as he took the step, felt a primordial strength quake through him. His blood churned, and before his unshaken eyes, a black world flared and unravelled itself around him.

”Hm?”

Shock blazed in Su Min's eyes as the absent and bleak space reflected itself in his pupils.

”It's the same..?”

Fog churned and the abyssal blackened ground and sky swirled a constant and writhing tune. The world seemed to be infinitely large, yet from this Su Min felt confusion.

This was because this space was the same space he met the black figure in! Its cold atmosphere; its dead and obtuse earth; he could remember it all...

He didn't move as he stood motionless in the emotionless world he has entered. His eyes traced the blurry fog and the inked sky, mumbling.

”A world within a world. What is this place?”

He has only entered this world twice! Once when he died, and the other when the black figure threw him in it and allowed him to undergo agonising enlightenment!

He didn't really think much about it, but now that he knows that this space is inside a hut within another world, he didn't know what to make of it...

Nonetheless, he began to feel something different. Something that didn't happen when he entered this lifeless space on both past occasions.

'Hot...'

Su Min rubbed his black eye as he felt an odd searing heat writhe out of it. It started off small, but it didn't even take a second for it to become unbearable.

The heat soon reached a point that even holding his hand against his face was painful.

'Maybe this was a bad decision...”

Su Min stammered backwards as the pain begun to feel like he was being burnt from the inside. It was torturous, even for him.

Though, it never passed the boundary that he could handle. The pain was just touching it, and although it was extreme, Su Min could at least deal with it.

”Guh...”

Su Min collapsed on the ground as he concentrated all his efforts on keeping the pain at bay. His mind seethed, and he even began to consume mental energy.

'Goddamit.'

He coughed out a wry smile as he began to pray for this pain to leave him. And funnily enough, it did so.

The heat in his eye dwindled, and Su Min breathed a sigh of relief in response.

”Good... But that seemed a bit pointless.”

He looked around and found that nothing had changed, which led him to believe that his bloodline was a sadist. He hoped that maybe it might have some sort of ability that could help him, but all he was gifted was a blank world and some of his mental energy consumed.

The world also didn't bring happy memories, so he couldn't even be sentimental of such a thing. He can't do anything here, of course, he knew that the black figure could somehow summon tea in this place; but why on earth would he want to know how to do that?

He couldn't sense any Ancient or Martial Energy either, so it wasn't even useful for cultivation. Not that he cultivates with energy anyway, but it would've been something if it contained Martial Energy; pertaining to the fact that he would have to use Martial Energy to cultivate in the future.