"Alright, alright! Let’s start, Senior," Razeal said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, eyes gleaming as if he was about to open a treasure chest.
The old man took a few steps closer but then as if thinking of sothing, without a word turned around and placed his sword gently on a nearby rock, as if declaring he wouldn’t be needing it.
Razeal blinked, watching the sword being left behind like it held no importance.
He put the sword down... That tiny action sohow stung more than it should have. He knew he was weak but the old man didn’t even consider using a weapon to teach. It felt dismissive. Humbling. Bitter, even.
Sighh. He just sighed.
"I don’t know, boy... if you’ll ever be able to master it," the old man muttered, hands behind his back as he walked with slow, deliberate steps toward Razeal again. In that mont, his entire aura shifted. Gone was the perverted old coot; now he moved like a sage, an expert who had lived through centuries. "But since you’ve co here, I suppose I’ll teach you."
"What is this skill, though?" Razeal asked eagerly, unable to hold back the thrill rising in his chest. His eyes glead like he was about to be handed another SSS-ranked ability.
But the old man didn’t answer. Instead, he examined Razeal silently, eyes narrowing with a quiet, unnerving intensity.
"I have to say," the old man finally spoke, stroking his long beard, "you have so of the shittiest talent I’ve ever seen. In all my life, I’ve rarely seen soone your age with so little."
Razeal almost spat out blood, but he held it in.
"But... you do have sothing. Sothing interesting."
"A sharp perception far beyond what most could dream of. Most likely tied to your hearing, which is unusually sensitive. And your physique... it’s healthy. More than that. You heal faster than normal if i am not wrong. Even the sound of your steps tells your body is light like umm If I had to guess... it’s like one fifth of your body weight is missing weirdly enough."
He said it so casually, as if he’d run a full physical analysis in the ti it took to blink.
Razeal blinked anyway, stunned. This old man’s crazy...
He was impressed, though. As expected of an SSS-ranked monster even the smallest things didn’t escape his attention.
Tho how did he found this out? Razeal thought but let it go, its not important.
Then the old man asked, "So. Since you ca here, you must know what kind of expertise I possess, right?"
Razeal froze.
Shit. Fuck my system. he cursed
He couldn’t just say no, could he?
"Of course, Senior! I’ve heard you’re renowned for your unparalleled dodging and evasion techniques as also swordsmanship," Razeal replied quickly, trying to sound as respectful as possible.
The old man’s face instantly contorted.
"Wrong!" he snapped, the word echoing through the bamboo forest. His voice thundered like a lightning strike. "You ca to learn from without even knowing what I truly teach?!"
Razeal instinctively raised both hands, like a student caught copying during an exam. Apologizing instantly.
"I’m sorry, Senior! Forgive this ignorant junior! No one ever truly speaks of your art... it’s hidden, legendary! Please enlighten !"
He poured every drop of regret and pleading into his voice. If this crusty old geezer refused to teach him now, after everything he’d done to get here Razeal swore he’d spit fire from his mouth and roast this ancient raisin alive.
Thankfully, the old man just shook his head, sighing at the younger generation’s ignorance.
"If it weren’t for the sacred beauty you brought as tribute... if you hadn’t paid proper homage to the eternal art..." he his eyes fell back to the book he put on stone farr away his eyes still held so reverence, and his expression softened.
"...Then I wouldn’t be wasting my ti."
He exhaled deeply, then fixed Razeal with a stern gaze.
"Listen closely, brat. First what I know is not swordsmanship. I don’t even like swords. But dodging? Movent? Evasion? That... I own."
He straightened as much as his bent back would allow, and his voice, despite the age it carried, was sharp as steel.
"I don’t think there’s anyone not in this world, or across the entire cosmos who understands it better than ."
The words struck like thunder.
Razeal swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry.
"What is it then, Senior?" he asked carefully, almost afraid of the answer.
The old man grinned.
Slowly, he raised a single finger into the air, one hand still behind his arched back.
"...Flow," he said, voice hushed like it carried a sacred truth.
"I know how to use flow."
Flow?
Razeal blinked, staring at the old man with a blank face. The word had dropped like a stone into his mind, causing only ripples of confusion.
"Flow?" he repeated slowly, almost suspiciously. It didn’t sound cool. Not like so fancy nad move Void Edge Slash, Demon King’s Laceration, or even Dragon Fang Pierce. No, it was just... "Flow." Sounded like sothing you’d learn in a yoga class.
Still, this was an SSS-ranked villain. Maybe weird, boring nas ca with that territory? He didn’t know.
But sothing made him pause.
The old man hadn’t said, "I mastered Flow." He said, "I know how to use Flow." That subtle difference scratched the back of Razeal’s mind. Did that an the old man hadn’t mastered it? That he was only using it half-baked? Was Razeal going to receive an incomplete teaching? That thought alone gave him an uncomfortable itch in the back of his mind a vague anxiety like ofcourse it feel empty when you goes to soone who is obiosly supposed to be all might but using words he should.
The old man, however, stood calmly.
"It’s not a technique or skill, if you’re asking," he said, his voice as steady as the wind brushing the bamboo leaves around them. "I don’t have any techniques. I don’t have any nad moves. I don’t wield anything flashy. I simply go with the flow. And I know how to use it."
Razeal blinked harder.
Flow?
More question marks started flying above his head.
[Ohhh this old guy is a genius,] the system suddenly chid in.
"Huh?!" Razeal nearly jumped. That made things worse. Even the system understood this nonsense?
"Can you explain what the hell is going on then?!"
[Let him explain, host. Focus.]
Razeal swore under his breath. "You never help..."
But decided to keep listening.
The old man, unfazed by Razeal’s confused aura, began walking slowly across the training field, each step gentle and deliberate.
"Flow," the old man continued, "is everything. In the simplest of terms it’s movent."
Razeal squinted. Not helpful
He paused, watching Razeal’s blank expression.
"Think of wind. Think of water. That is flow. Movent is flow. Breathing is flow. Even your heartbeat it’s all flow."
He stopped and raised a hand, letting a bamboo leaf fall into his palm as it drifted from the air.
"Your muscles move in a flow. Your breath moves in a flow. Even your thoughts and reactions are part of your inner flow. I simply know how to use that."
As the old man smiled softly, the aura around him subtly shifted. He wasn’t glowing, wasn’t flaring with power. He just stood there, quiet as a breeze, and yet the confidence in his body made him feel larger than the sky. As if just talking about his strongest smills making him feels like he is the god.
Still, Razeal asked, carefully, "So... does that an you’ve mastered flow? You can make water or wind move? Like summon a tsunami or sothing?"
Razeal got the muscle-and-movent part now. It sounded like so advanced martial arts technique. But this was supposed to be an SSS ranked villain, not a street perforr doing Tai Chi.
If it were just body control, he could’ve learned that from any monk like A ranked villains or sothing?. Right, there had to be more to it.
But the old man scoffed loudly, almost offended.
"No, brat. Can’t you hear ?" the old man snapped, clearly frustrated. I said I know how to use the flow not control it. You’ve twisted the entire concept. Are you dumb or what? I wasn’t talking about the wind or the damn water. I’m talking about flow the movent of everything. I know how to use that."
His voice grew sharper with each word, hands gesturing as if pulling invisible threads from the air.
"I can go with the flow," he continued. "Use it. Ride it. Let it shape my fighting rhythm, shift my montum, let it carry through the tide of battle. I don’t fight the wave I ride it. That’s what I an."
Razeal blinked, still not fully grasping it. His blank face said it all.
The old man took a long breath, gathering his patience. Then, slowly, as if explaining to a toddler, he continued, "The energy or montum that exists around anything in motion, which can be tapped into by soone who can "feel" or "ride" it like a surfer riding a wave."
The silence that followed was heavy.
But Razeal’s expression slowly dropped. He tried to hide it, tried to keep a respectful face, but his disappointnt showed through. His lips twitched. His shoulders slumped. His eyes were flat.
’System, you’re seriously telling ... this dude’s so called legendary skill is this... bullshit?’ Razeal asked in his head, utterly unconvinced.
He’d read too many martial arts novels to fall for that. He knew this kind of "philosophical martial crap." Water steps? Flow like water? So poetic babble about erosion or the gentleness of streams breaking stone? At the end of the day, it was just slow circular punching that looked flashy and did absolutely nothing in real life.
People wasted ti practicing that shit when they could’ve just... you know, punched?
’If this is his ultimate ability the one that got him to SSS rank then I swear he’s either conning , or the world’s gone mad,’ Razeal thought. He couldn’t help but feel cheated. SSS-rank villain? Master of flow? This?
It’s just overly romanticized garbage, Razeal thought bitterly. If this thing had been an A-rank or even B-rank skill, sure, maybe I’d nod along. But an SSS-ranked ability?
He controlled himself, trying to suppress the rising frustration. His faith in this whole lesson wavered hard.
[Host... are you a complete idiot?] the system’s voice suddenly cut in, sharp and unimpressed.
[That ability from all angles is well deserving of its SSS-rank classification. In fact, if not for certain flaws, it could’ve easily surpassed most other normal SSS ranked abilities.]
Razeal blinked.
’Huh? Wait. What?’
[You’re seriously underestimating it just because you don’t understand it. That’s why I told you to shut up and focus.] the system snapped. [This isn’t so flashy magic skill or dramatic attack. It’s one of the foundational law.]
Razeal fell silent, the annoyance lting into confusion and then curiosity.
"Huh? Wait... you an like the killing concept you explained to before?" he asked, blinking, trying to connect the pieces.
[Yes. It’s on the sa level as the Killing Intent SSS skill you received.] The system replied with a slower, more grounded tone. [Even if this old man doesn’t grasp the full concept, what he’s trying to walk upon... is fluidity one of the supre primordial concept. Just like the killing flow has no true reverse, flow itself has no beginning or end either. Everything in this world, Host... nothing is ever still and never will be.]
Razeal blinked again, the dots slowly starting to connect in his mind but not fully. The thoughts were swirling, ideas clashing. He could feel there was sothing big here. But it was still too vague.
And before he could fully gather his thoughts, the old man’s voice cut in, dragging him back to reality.
"Let’s leave the core concept aside. Not like you’re going to understand it anyway," the old man muttered with a sigh, shaking his head as if exhausted. "I’ve given up. I’ve tried everything to help you understand this, but it’s pointless. All you really want is to learn how to use it, right? You don’t give a damn how it works or what it ans anyways."
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