Excruciating Training and Unknown Phenomenon's

Early in the morning at Jin Tang's palace, a masked man was watching two young boys run around the palace walls from atop a tall building with deep green roof tiles, until another masked man appeared next to him.

"That's them, isn't it?" The masked man asked as Jin Tang descended from the roof of another building and landed in front of the young boy running in front.

"Yes, that's them. But who's that person training them?"

"That's Jin Tang, the Wandering Master."

"Jin Tang? Why is he training the targets?"

"He must have seen talent in one of them. But they wouldn't come unless both of them went as well."

"Well, if we want to get to the boys then we'll have to deal with Jin Tang, and it'll take some time to gather enough manpower to do that."

"Either way, we have to recover the artifact from those boys. I'll go and inform master that we've found them. You stay here and keep an eye on them." Said the first masked man as he disappeared from the rooftop.

'You two won't escape this time.' The second man thought as he watched Jin Tang move towards the young boy who had passed out immediately after hearing the signal to stop running.

---

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Thomas looked down at the cutting board with a medium sized pile of uncooked chicken and an uncut chicken breast sprinkled with a reddish orange seasoning with a groggy look on his face.

'What the hell was that workout?... At first it seemed easy, but now I can barely even stand to cook myself dinner.' Thomas thought as he recalled the rest of the workout in Jin Tang's palace.

"Squat down and hold your arms out like so." Jin Tang said as he squatted down until his legs seemed to create a ninety degree angle and held his arms out directly in front of him.

"Before I do that Master, what part of my body will this help?"

"It will help your legs, core, shoulders, feet, and your balance. Now squat!"

Thomas slowly dropped into the position that Jin Tang had shown him and instantly regretted it, as his legs began to burn more the lower he dropped.

"Grhhhhhhhh!"

"You've only just started and you're already in pain. Sigh, this is pathetic Myeol Mang,"

"If I'm so pathetic then why am I here training…. Agghhhh….. While Sung Ho is resting!"

"Keep your emotions in check Myeol Mang! In Jianghu, if you wear your emotions on your sleeves and get angry over an insult you won't go far! Keep the anger inside of you and let it drive you." Jin Tang said as he walked over to Myeol Mang after picking up a wooden sword that was resting on the wall.

"Wait, what are you going to do with that sword!?" Myeol Mang asked with fear visible in his eyes.

"You have the energy to talk while still in that stance, so you must not be tired. This wooden sword is going to help with that." Jin Tang said while raising the sword to hit Myeol Mang.

"I- I barely have the energy to stay in this pos-..." Myeol Mang stuttered out before Jin Tang hit him on the left shoulder with the wooden sword, throwing him onto the floor in the process.

"Who said you could rest on the floor, get back into position!" Jin Tang said as he raised the wooden sword once more.

After getting up off the floor as fast as he could, Myeol Mang quickly dropped back into the squat position and held his arms out in front of him.

"Too tired to speak now, Myeol Mang?

"I'm focusing on the sq-..." Myeol Mang said before being hit by the wooden sword on the right shoulder, knocking him down to the floor once more.

"Again, Myeol Mang! Who told you it was time to rest!?" Jin Tang said before hitting Myeol Mang on his calf with the wooden sword.

"ARGHHHHHHH!"

"Are you groaning from pain in front of your master? How shameless of you Myeol Mang!" Jin Tang said as he began to hit Myeol Mang with the wooden sword all over his body.

Crack!

Clack!

Jin Tang turned to his right after hearing the loud crack of the wooden sword snapping and saw the top half of the sword clattering away from him and Myeol Mang's location.

'The wooden sword….. Broke?'

Turning back to Myeol Mang who was still lying on the ground, Jin Tang looked down at Myeol Mang's right thigh, which had broken the wooden sword.

"Ughhhhhhh"

"You're still awake, Myeol Mang?"

"Cough…. Barely….."

"Well then, your training is done for today, get some rest."

---

Creak!

Thomas closed the oven door after sliding the pan of chicken in and turned the oven on to three hundred and fifty degrees before sitting down on the couch.

Thomas sat forwards and pulled up his shorts on his right leg and looked down at the dark purple sword mark running along his entire thigh.

'How the hell did my thigh break a wooden sword? And why did Master Tang even start hitting me with the sword? That training was already tough without it.'

Rubbing the bruise along his thigh as he leaned back into the couch, Thomas let out an exhausted sigh as he waited for the chicken to get done cooking.

---

'Why did Myeol Mang's thigh break the wooden sword?' Jin Tang thought as he looked down at Myeol Mang's unconscious body.

Jin Tang stepped next to Myeol Mang's body and started to investigate the thigh that broke the wooden sword, only to become more confused when he felt nothing on his thigh.

'So either I swung too hard, or his thighs are stronger than wood'

Jin Tang set the broken wooden sword down and hoisted Myeol Mang off the ground using his drenched clothes as a handle.

'Well, it doesn't seem like he's going to wake up again, so I'll toss him in bed with Sung Ho.'

Jin Tang walked towards the training hall doors with Myeol Mang's feet dragging on the floor while he hung from Jin Tang's hand.

'Oh, right. Now that Myeol Mang and Sung Ho are both out cold, I can take care of "them".'

Jin Tang set Myeol Mang down on the ground right outside the training hall doors and looked up at the roof of the tallest building.

"There you are." Said Jin Tang as he vanished from where he stood.

"Shit! Where'd he go!?" Said the masked man atop the building with concern.

"Right here." Jin Tang said as he swiftly kicked the masked man in the back of the head and caught him before he fell off the tower.

'This guy has been spying on the palace all day from atop my precious Martial Library. He could have spent his time sneaking books out of it, but instead he was watching Myeol Mang and Sung Ho. This isn't adding up.'

Jin Tang jumped off the Martial Library's roof while holding the unconscious masked man. However, the sight that he was met with on the ground riddled his brain with confusion.

'What on earth is happening?...."

Jin Tang stood motionless with confusion on his face as he watched Myeol Mang's throat and mouth move like it was eating and a slimy black liquid oozed out of Myeol Mang's skin.

'I haven't taught him how to use internal energy yet….. So how is his body pushing out all of the toxic elements in his blood points?'

Jin Tang dismissed his questions for the time and grabbed Myeol Mang by his drenched clothes once more and walked towards Sung Ho and Myeol Mang's room.

---

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Noticing the oven's timer going off, Thomas slid off the couch and walked into the kitchen to grab his chicken out of the oven.

'Why does cooking always take so long? I nearly fell asleep again because of it.'

After putting on oven mitts and opening the oven door, Thomas grabbed the pan full of chicken and moved it to the counter.

'The wait was worth it though, I haven't eaten since lunch earlier, well, I haven't eaten in Texas since lunch earlier.'

Thomas grabbed a pair of tongs out from one of the cutlery drawers and began moving the chicken from the pan onto an empty plate on the counter and thought, 'wait, did I even put enough seasoning on the chicken? I barely paid any attention because of how tired I was.'

Shrugging off his question as he placed the last piece of chicken on his plate, Thomas moved over to the table with his plate and started eating the slightly under seasoned chicken.

'I knew it, I didn't put enough seasoning on the chicken. Oh well, I'm not gonna waste food when I'm this hungry.'

Thomas began stuffing his face with the chicken until his cheeks looked like a chipmunk with a mouth full of nuts. However as he started to chew he noticed something strange about his hand.

'Wait, what is that stuff coming out of my hand!?'

Quickly swallowing the mouthful of chicken, Thomas set down his fork and touched the slimy black liquid coming out of his hand.

'What the hell is this stuff? It feels slimy yet sticky at the same time….. And it also smells like absolute shit!' Thomas thought as he wiped his hand off and covered his nose with his shirt.

Yet when Thomas looked at his other hand, he noticed the same black liquid spewing out of his palm and forearm.

"What the hell!?"

Forgetting about his freshly made chicken, Thomas bolted out of his chair and into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror with disgust.

"Why is this stuff coming out of my face as well!? Is it coming out of my whole body!?"

Thomas quickly took off his shirt and looked down at his tightly packed upper body with distraught as he noticed the slimy black liquid coming out from numerous spots on his stomach and chest.

"What in the world is happening right now?!?" Thomas exclaimed as he looked back up at the mirror and slammed his palms down onto the sink's counter.