The Path To Perfection

Chapter 25: Martial Arts

“I don't have an actual personality.

'Multiple times, on many occasions, different people have said it.

They've said that I don't have a personality. What does that mean? is it true? maybe. I mean, if you look at my past records.

I've done some things that I never knew I could do. As soon as the people watching my children confirmed that they were dead, I just let go.

Did I love Eva?, what would she say if she knew all the things I've done? And would I even defend myself? What about Ivan, he would probably call me a hypocrite. My actions must be justifiable, I need to justify them, or not.

The people I killed, yes, killing is just a means to an end. But the orphanage, I killed those children because I wanted to know how it feels to be the worst criminal. Was I right, no, my parents decide what is right or wrong for these people, that does not apply to me.

What about those ladies I raped, in my defense, all of them were in my black book... still. *sigh* Ahh! Guilt is the most useless feeling honestly. I hoped my conscience had died years ago so that I could achieve my goals effectively, why did it spring up now? It's not helpful and I don't like how it's making me feel. I'm forced to do things I don't want to do. It needs to go and it needs to go fast.

I can already faintly feel something, there might need to be a change of...'

*WHIP!*

Al'ravee's train of thought was broken by the sudden stinging pain in his back. He gritted his teeth and made sure not to drop the pole with two buckets on his shoulders, that would just warrant more pain.

Humiliating? Yes, it was. After coming to the Hidden Gem Temple, he was ready for some hardcore training, but who knew he would almost want to quit after experiencing it firsthand? Almost.

If not for his physique that let him heal small injuries a little faster than usual, his entire body would have been riddled with injuries now.

What is most annoying is that he was meant to call some guy who was not even half his age, master. How disrespectful. He was a god, someone who would soon have the ability to dictate the life and death of these mortals.

Arrogant but true.

The middle-aged man who just wiped him with the wooden cane was one of the assistant instructors. He stared at Al'ravee's back with a narrowed gaze. He and the superiors of the school had already seen first-hand the unnatural healing of this seemingly mysterious man.

Most of these guys were reclusive and hardly knew much about the outside world, so they were not able to recognize him as the exposed leader of a crime syndicate that just got disbanded after the said leader disappeared.

Al'ravee naturally knew about this and he was sure that there would have been people who recognized him on his way here but he was sure that his allies in the government would silence the whistleblowers if they knew what was good for them that is.

Al'ravee has already shown himself to be extremely brutal towards snitches and their families.

This Hidden Gem school hardly accepted outsiders to train and even if they did, it would be children because they still had a lot of potential and could easily be brainwashed.

The children could be trained into highly skilled special mercenaries who can work for government officials. That way, the school could sustain itself with the income and maintain its recluse nature.

It was from some of his government spies that he got news about this organization.

Al'ravee had practically waited outside for three months while foraging for food and water, watching mysterious people go in and out before the elders brought him in for questioning.

Even masters like them weren't patient enough to do such a thing.

Intrigued by Al'ravee's tenacity, they let him work as a servant on the note that he was never going to leave. What a joke, if they knew just how much financial influence he had and his assets outside, would they still do so? No matter how much they trained, a bullet to the head was enough to end them, or so he thought.

Not until he witnessed them sparing with guns like it was child's play. Dodging before the shot was even taken, Al'ravee could swear that he saw their ears twitch in the direction of the gun before the individuals burst into high-speed movement. They used pistols instead of rapid-fire guns, but still, it was very impressive. Their techniques weren't secret for nothing.

With such precise muscle control and such accurate prediction ability, it was almost impossible to imagine a human could do that. The excitement in Al'ravee was rekindled again. He couldn't even wait a week before barging into their main hall meeting, demanding like some entitled second-generation bastard, that he must be taught martial arts.

Of course, he was beaten black and blue, more than anyone had beaten him in his hundred and forty years of life. The beating was so much that Al'ravee was sure that even if Krene, his mother, watched from above, she wouldn't be able to recognize him.

He got punched, and before he could register the pain, a couple more landed on his face. He didn't even know where they came from, all he saw were fists appearing everywhere like ghosts before he was sent flying. Fortunately or unfortunately, they did not beat him to death.

Injuries that would have taken months to recover from disappeared from Al'ravee's body in less than two weeks. Now, he got the attention of the superiors.

None of them were dumb, they have all been heavily injured in the past and they knew that such recovery speed was abnormal.

What did this mean?

Who doesn't want to live forever and watch the world decay before their eyes while they remain immune to the power of time? It is only delusional people and movie characters that would say 'I don't want to live forever because of my family.' Al'ravee has left his first family behind, he's doing fine.

All their assumptions were naturally noticed by Al'ravee but he didn't care, he had revenge on his mind at this point. They dared to beat him up like that.

The superiors allowed him to learn from their different techniques accumulated over thousands of years in the hope of gaining something from observing him. Another reason was that they hoped they could train him into one of those legendary super soldiers that existed when the legendary Ozia had come to their planet. In short, they wanted a suicidal, brainwashed, killing machine that could also give them long life.

Because of this, the training he received was harsh, way harsher than what normal people could endure.

...

"Hua..."

*WHIP!*

"You call that a punch, I've seen better punches from my enemies before I killed them."

"Hyaa"

*WHIP*

"Faster, throw your kicks faster"

"I give you fifty seconds to cross a hundred meters, you will be doing that from now on every morning. Every time you fail, more punishment."

*WHIP!*

"That is not a stance, this is a stance. You have to keep your balance."

Even the children around laughed at him, the instructors were just beating him at the slightest mistake. This was why he almost gave up.

Al'ravee wanted to learn everything as soon as possible. His healing could already be considered a form of cheating, he didn't want to come back here after he had gotten what Krene and Jurdelious had for him. It would have lost its importance by then. He didn't have to wait long before improvements started showing.

Over time, Al'ravee was able to master one technique after the other. Unlike regular human mortals, his cognitive ability was exceptional so it didn't take him long to memorize everything and start building muscle memory for the necessary movements.

In just three years, he completely mastered the standard martial arts technique. Something that would have taken those grey-beard oldies many decades.

Al'ravee didn't waste time at all, he would immediately pick another technique to learn and master it in an even shorter time. His speed had gone from three years for one technique to a few months for one technique. There were just so many techniques.

Al'ravee spent in total, eighty-three years learning more than a hundred techniques of hidden gem school. He entered a seclusion-like state, only coming out to eat, spar with someone, or when he was sent on a mission.

Al'ravee was smart enough to use the missions as an excuse to keep tabs on all his money and properties as he would need them in the future. Of course, he had to return or else he would be hunted down.

And now, the time finally came for him to make one of his fantasies a reality.

....

*Night time*

In a wide-open courtyard surrounded by bungalows and light bulbs, about a hundred people stood ramrod straight, all wearing black combat gear with different weapons on their bodies. Any of these men and women would easily enter the top hundred for the most dangerous people on the planet. Yet, their gaze held fear for what stood before them.

Laying on the floor was a very old familiar man with long white hair and beard. His dead eyes stared at the starry sky in disbelief as blood formed a pool around him. On his left chest was a gaping hole that would surprise anybody with how it was made.

And standing right beside the dead body was a tall man who looked to be in his mid-fifties. The loose black robe he wore left the front area exposed for all to see the massive chest muscles and bulging abs. Tied with a black sash on the waist, the ends of the robe fluttered in the wind behind his imposing figure. And in his right hand was a fresh human heart, dripping with blood.

This man was naturally Al'ravee. He had changed a lot, besides the muscular physique, he now had a pair of strange eyes, eyes that should only belong to cold-hearted killers.

"Master Ravee, what is the meaning of this?"

[Current Age: 223 years]