The Wizard World

In a large forest with countless vibrant green trees, there was a tall yellow mountain that looked like a piece of a cake standing among the trees, its tip surrounded by white mist.

The top of the mountain was flat and covered with green moss.

*WOO*

Something soared through the gray sky.

On the far side of the mountain, a dark-red crossguard sword was falling. The sword rotated like a red wheel and stabbed into the mountain.

*CLANK*

With a noise, half of the blade stabbed into the ground. The handle of the sword that remained above looked like a strange scorpion with a red body.

Suddenly, the blade trembled and a red dot was released from the tip of the handle, quickly disappearing in the sky.

Time slowly passed and the season changed. A thick layer of snow covered the surface of the mountain; the snow melted after the spring came, but the mountain was covered again the next winter.

*Ka-ta Ka-ta*

The wind was blowing, the trees and the ground were all covered by the snow.

On the cliff, someone was walking on the snow at a steady pace.

Several minutes later, an old man with white hair appeared beside the sword. He was carrying a basket on his back, which was filled up with herbs.

"Why is there a sword here?" He walked to the dark-red crossguard sword and crouched. "This is the Herb Mountain, why would someone with a sword climb this mountain? Maybe it's the Mountaineers…" the old man muttered. He noticed that the surface of the crossguard sword and the handle were covered with rust and moss.

He grabbed the handle and tried to pull it out of the ground.

Then, the old man shook his head and said, "That's deep… Strange…"

He was speaking in the Chaos language.

He hesitated and looked at the sword for a while. However, it was getting dark, and the old man decided to leave.

Time passed.

Ten days later. It was a morning with bright sunlight.

There were four people climbing the mountain. One of them was the old man that approached the sword before. The other three were teenagers that varied in gender but were all wearing tight green outfits.

"Matt, is this the area where you found the sword?" a young girl asked.

"It's right there. Go take a look." The old man pointed at the red sword by the cliff.

The three teenagers cheered and rushed toward the strange sword on the ground.

They surrounded the sword and tried to dig it out of the ground using shovels and such. However, nothing worked—the area around the sword was extremely hard and they could barely stab their shovels into the ground. It seemed like metal tools were not good enough for that.

"Someone probably stabbed the sword into the ground intentionally after reading some strange novels. Let's just head back, there's no point digging it out…"

"True, it doesn't look like an old sword. Someone probably crafted it recently and put it here as a joke."

Two young men and a young woman only managed to dig some of the mud out. They got impatient as it got dark, so they decided to leave.

Many other people heard about the rumor and visited the sword; they all tried to dig or pull it out, but none succeeded.

Years passed.

The red sword was coated with a thick layer of dust, which turned into a sheath. The sheath was getting thicker and thicker as time went.

The metal part of the sword was covered by the sheath made of mud and dust. It looked like a sword-shaped brown stone pillar.

The surface of the stone pillar was covered with thick green moss and there were even flowers growing from it.

People treated it like a tourist attraction and kept visiting it.

However, several years later, people lost their interest and stopped coming.

The sword-shaped stone pillar turned from a rumor into a legend and was forgotten by people.

No one visited the stone pillar after that. But the stone pillar was still getting thicker. Several years later, the pillar lost its sword-like shape and just looked like a normal stone pillar.

There were still people passing by, such as tourists, mountaineers, soldiers, and criminals. There were even people who suicided by jumping off the cliff.

The birds and monkeys would stand on the stone pillar from time to time.

They did not know what was hiding in the stone pillar.

It was a tall mountain and there were not many people living in the area.

Time flew, and more than one hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

　　*******************

One hundred years later…

The golden sunlight of the spring illuminated the surface of the mountain, the light was bright but not warm.

On the edge of the brown cliff, a young man in a black outfit was climbing up the mountain using a rope.

He was sweating heavily; although his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears looked nice, when combined on his face, it looked a bit ugly.

The young man was exhausted, but there was still determination in his eyes. His body was strong, but he still lay on the cliff and started breathing heavily after he reached the top.

"So, this is the Herb Mountain? It's a much easier trip when compared to the Andy Mountain…" the young man muttered, looking disappointed. He stood up and walked to the black stone pillar in front of him.

After he approached the pillar, he put his hand on it while overlooking the trees under the cliff.

The young man inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. It almost looked like that there was white mist coming out of his mouth.

He lowered his hand and straightened his back. The man suddenly swung his arms slightly and a thin layer of gray dust dropped down his body. It was the mud and dust from the surface of the mountain.

The young man started practicing a set of fist skills after removing the dust from his body. His movements were slow but steady. It felt like there were heavy objects on his wrists. The young man had impressive footwork, he looked like a monkey that was preparing for a battle.

Steam rose from the young man's head as he repeated the fist skill set several times.

Suddenly, he hit the stone pillar hard with his fists.

*BAM*

Two deep handprints were left on the stone pillar.

"Ah…"

The young man exhaled slowly and closed his eyes to rest.

"I spent three years to get here from Mountain Kora. I never rested a day, but I still can't break my limit and reach the Knight level…"

He looked at the horizon and noticed that the sun was rising, illuminating the vibrant trees.

"If I can reach the Knight level, I can easily defeat a small army. I can also break metal weapons, wooden weapons, and rocks with my bare hands. Sadly, the situation has changed; no matter how strong I am, one bullet from a handgun will end my life…"

The man sat down with his legs crossed and looked at the trees calmly.

The wind was blowing over the trees, blue birds rotating above them. The birds chased each other and flew to the far side.

"Sadly… I wasn't born when the Minta Country still had its glory…"

*DU*

Suddenly, a sharp noise came from the young man's waist.

His brow furrowed as he took something off his belt. It was a round tablet with a black and white display. A sentence that was written in the Chaos language was displayed on the screen.

The man checked the message, and seemed to become annoyed. He quickly pressed a button on top of the device.

A girl's voice quickly came from the tablet.

"Yun Song, are you in trouble again? There are soldiers from the army looking for you, they've searched the whole hotel! Don't come back, you hear me? Take care of yourself!"

"What happened?" Yun Song's brow furrowed again.

"I don't know, but you should be safe if you stay at a remote area. Listen, don't come back before I finish my investigation."

The voice disappeared.

Yun Song was a bit anxious after hearing those words. He turned the device off and tied it at his belt.

Yun Song lost his father and mother when he was young. He stayed in an orphanage until he was ten years old; then, he was adopted by a Kung Fu master. He lived in an old Kung Fu dojo and considered the Kung Fu master his father.

The Kung Fu master also had a daughter. He treated Yun Song very well—it seemed like he wanted him to pursue the ultimate path of a Kung Fu master.

Yun Song was interested in Kung Fu, so he learned the basics from the Kung Fu master. Sadly, he was not talented. It took him five years to strengthen his body and he still had no idea how he could break the limit.

The old Kung Fu master was disappointed, so he took in two more students—one male and the other female. They were much more talented than Yun Song; however, they also failed to break the limit.

Yun Song was disappointed with himself as well, so he decided to explore the world alone. He was still trying to find a way to break the limit.

The power of an individual was usually ignored in the current society. The guns that were powered by blue crystals were widely used by the military. No matter how strong one was, he would not be able to survive a bullet to the head.

Also, war machines like cannons, tanks, and fighters were getting stronger and stronger. The practice of Kung Fu already turned into a type of exercise.

Yun Song sighed as he thought of the depressing facts and rubbed the two handprints he left on the stone pillar.

Suddenly, the stone pillar started shedding its surface—pebbles were dropping down the pillar and it seemed like the whole thing was about to collapse.

Yun Song was surprised, and quickly took several steps back as the stone pillar collapsed. What was left on the ground was a dark-red sword.

Yun Song saw the red light coming from the sword and shouted, "What's this?!"

*WOO*

The earth started shaking. The red sword jumped out of the ground, turned into a red string, and flew toward Yun Song's forehead.

*CHI*

The sword stabbed into Yun Song's forehead; however, it seemed like the sword did not hurt him and was absorbed by his body whole, only leaving a flashing scorpion mark between his eyebrows.

Yun Song just stood there when the sword was being absorbed by his body. Everything returned to normal after the sword disappeared.

However, a dark-red glow surrounded his eyes, getting brighter and brighter.