‘What is this?’
Lin Ming stared wide-eyed at the ironwood spear in his lap. Back in the shop, he had brought this ironwood spear for two reasons. The first was obviously because it was one of the cheapest spears in the shop quality wise. He had swept his divine sense through the shop and observed all the weapons, so he knew this for a fact. The second reason was because he had observed a hint of life, still being retained in the core of the spear. Ironwood trees were renowned for their tenacity, so it wasn’t such a big surprise that some part of it was still alive, albeit barely. This life meant that he could observe the true nature of wood in it’s entirety. Wood didn’t just mean a literal piece of wood, instead wood was also representative of life in this world. He had already tried observing living beings, such as the Lin Family guard. The chaos was beyond his understanding, so he thought that he would be able to understand the concept of wood better if he observed a smaller, weaker version. Yet, the result was weirder than he could have ever expected.
Through his divine sense, he could see the chaotic mix of black and white particles swirling and flowing. As soon as they came in contact with the ironwood sphere, it seemed as if there some form of chaotic pull that direct them towards the centre of the spear. In a tiny, cylindrical pocket, the particles would suddenly become increasingly chaotic.
‘Each particle is behaving differently. What is the pattern here?!’
After spending more than 10 hours tracking over 200 particles individually, he was ready to pull out his hair. If not for the Gamer’s Mind constantly subduing the bouts of flames emerging from his mind, he may have actually given up. ‘Okay, okay, lets try and think a different way here.’ His mind went back to trying to quantify this problem. ‘There are two common aspects between all particles; they all head in the general direction of the part where the wood is still alive and their movements get even more intricate after getting to the middle.’ He stroked his chin as his thoughts were racing. ‘Mathematically speaking, their movements follow trends rather than rigid rules, where their pathways become probabilistic.’ Closing his eyes he concentrated on the spear once again. ‘In that case, analogically, I’ve been tracking individual data points which obviously cannot give me a clear idea of the trends. I need to look at this in a more zoomed-out manner.’
As the whole spear slowly became clear in his mind, he could finally see it; the full picture. The particles were like lines, some white, some black. As they intertwined and crossed each other, they created runic symbols. It was a repeating symbol that was present all over the ironwood spear, most of the time being incomplete, or damaged in some place. Even in the centre, it was only slightly more complete, about a quarter of it was still damaged.
‘This…what is this?’
Most of the symbols were more or less broken in the same way, missing one corner. Luckily the symbols in the centre had that corner. The combination of the two allowed for him to have the complete picture of the rune. He gulped as a realization was slowly dawning on him. Using his true essence, he began weaving the rune on the top of his palm. Luckily he had the power of his Mana Control as well as Meditation, allowing him to easily weave the complicated picture. A warm glow appeared on top his palm. Through normal vision, nothing would appear but only through using divine sense and probing just beneath the skin of his palm would the actual rune show itself. Lowering his hand, he brought it close the spear, immediately causing the life within to begin expanding as if coming alive. At the same time, shoots began growing out of the shaft alongside some leaves.
‘This is life, life in this world is represented by a mere symbol.’
A chill went up his spine as the realization dawned on him. ‘I can now heal people with a simple symbol.’ Of course it was a lot more complicated than that; life in this world was represented by the element wood, so in reality he could now manipulate the element of wood. ‘Wood, life, thunder, spirit. How can something so complicated like spirit and life be represented by a simple amalgamation of lines?’ He released a sigh. ‘Forget it, I cannot even hope to understand this world by applying the logic of my previous life. I shouldn’t be bogged down by the reasoning of my previous world.’ Another sigh later, his gaze was finally attracted by the notification that had shown up.
[Congratulations on creating a support martial art!]
[Lin Ming’s Wood Palm Martial Art has been created]
He smiled. ‘This skill is very valuable. It can help me heal in crucial times. And it even helped give life to this dead piece of wood.’ Lin Ming scanned across the bumpy shaft of the spear. Admiring the new life he had just given. ‘Man, this kinda feels like cheating, after all, I can give life to even…inanimate objects.’ He creased his brows and began stroking his chin. ‘Giving life…giving life to inanimate objects.’ Another idea was slowly forming in his head. ‘No way, surely not.’ Standing up, he began muttering under his breath as he fetched the candle from the lamps. Placing the unlit candle in front of him, he pinched his fingers, causing a small burst of fire to light up the wick. Then, closing his eyes, he focused his attention on the wick.
‘So I was right.’
In the place of the wick, there was another rune. ‘It’s incomplete.’ Through observation he could tell that the swaying and shifting rune was definitely incomplete. It felt like there wasn’t enough of a flame to completely form the symbol. ‘Would that mean a flame with a greater size or a flame with a higher energy density?’ Standing up, he turned and fired a fireball out the back door, observing with his divine sense as he did so.
