...…

"Then I suggest you stop practicing Martial-Arts for the time being."

The corner of Shin's mouth kept on twitching uncontrollably after hearing those words. And since he found it too ironic to what Professor Plum had told him before, he couldn't help but ask. "What are you talking about, Old Geezer? Did you drink the wrong medicine this time?"

Old Plum suddenly smirked when he heard those words. Then he replied. "Don't freak out yet kid. I am only saying to you to delay your Martial-Art progress and not to disregard it entirely."

Hearing that, Shin immediately responded. "That is what I am talking about, Old Geezer! You said before that it is better to keep my Martial-Art attainments and Mentalism cultivation in an equal state. That way fusing them together was going to be much easier in the future."

"Oh! I said that? Then I am taking it back right now," said Professor Plum nonchalantly while also stroking his long beard.

The corner of Shin's mouth twitched even more after hearing that. He wanted to say something but he couldn't voice it out; all he could do was to open and close his mouth with no words coming out.

Watching the scene from the side, Grandmaster Benn released a helpless sigh before deciding to join the conversation. "That is enough fooling around, Old Monster."

He looked at Shin before adding. "Originally, that is what you are supposed to do. Keeping your Martial-Arts and Mentalism Techniques in equal state will surely make it easier for you to fuse them together."

Old Benn paused for a moment to hold his chin with his hand before continuing. "But that is only applicable to ordinary people."

Then Old Plum immediately added. "And you don't fall in that category, kid. You are in a special case. And the majority of the reason is because of the Demonic Qi in your system."

"Due to that oddity, your state has always been in a very risky state. That is why you always need to keep your emotions in check. And no matter how strong your willpower is, there will always be a time where you will become exhausted and lose some focus. Especially when you are fighting consecutive intense battles."

Then Old Plum crossed his arms in front of his chest before continuing. "What's more, you are currently suffering a Qi Confliction, so you need to be too careful this time. Maybe you are quite fine right now but it is going to be very dangerous for you if you mishandle your case. Especially that we are talking about the Demonic Qi here."

"If not because of your special Mental Energy that is currently calming the conflicting Internal Qi inside your dantian, then your case is going to be even more disastrous."

Grandmaster Benn nodded his head before adding. "Given that, you need to focus your training on your Mentalism to keep those opposing Qi in check."

After that, the two old men finally took a pause which gave Shin a window to ask a question. "Then what is going to happen to my Martial-Arts? Am I just going to halt all of its progress? And how is my special training going to be if that was the case?"

Hearing that, Old Plum suddenly clicked his tongue before saying. "Tsk! This rascal. Didn't I already tell you not to freak out about it? We are just saying that you need to DELAY your Martial-Arts' progress for a bit so that your Mentalism can overtake it a little."

Then he took another pause before forming an evil grin before continuing. "As for your special training, there is nothing to worry about that. We already prepared a very good training plan for you."

Shin suddenly felt his body run cold the moment he heard that. For some reason, he really got a very bad feeling about this. And when Old Plum noticed that, his grin further raised upwards before adding. "And-… reassured, kid. We are delaying the progress of your Martial-Art attainments but that doesn't mean we can't continue improving your body foundation."

The sudden chill that ran through Shin's body became even more noticeable after hearing that. He even gulped a mouthful of saliva as his instincts were telling him about the 'disaster' that was about to come.

While Shin was still having an internal struggle, Old Plum suddenly said to Shin, shooing him away. "Alright, that is all for now. You can now go back and take a few more rest."

Hearing that, Shin took a deep breath before standing up and taking a bow to bid his farewell. But before he could even raise his body up, he suddenly heard Old Plum additional instructions. "And while you are it, I also need you to prepare yourself since we are leaving the day after tomorrow."

"But I suggest you refrain from doing any kind of training for the time being and focus only on recovering your peak state so that you can be even more ready for your special training."

Then Shin nodded his head and replied. "I understand," before turning his body around to leave.

...…

When Shin went back to his room, he found himself pretty much bored. He just lied down on his bed, doing nothing. And since he just woke up earlier, he also couldn't bring himself to take another sleep.

During this time, he was most probably going to enter his Gaming Pod and dived inside the game. Unfortunately, the game already started its maintenance for another huge update.

From what Arthur had said, it was for the new regions and other system setups. There were also some interesting contents added in the game; and those were heavy focused for the leading players.

Players who were too advanced compared to the others were struggling to gain some levels in the latter stages of the game. And even if they had top-class items and equipment, leveling up by killing monsters became much harder for them.

Meanwhile, the Quests that they could do in that stage were quite limited and also pretty much impossible to be cleared even with someone like Arthur who was a Peak Godlike Player.

Thinking about all of this, Shin decided to take a look at the current news of the game. So, he suddenly got up from his lying position and sat on his bed before quickly opening his Advance Watch. And right after opening it, he immediately went to the official forum page of the game to see what happened when he was offline.

"What the!?" When Shin opened the page, his eyes were immediately greeted by some huge news. And in fact, there were only two news stories in total. But the changes that they would bring in the game were quite massive.

"So, this is the real reason why the major update was initiated ahead of time," muttered Shin as he looked at the different posts on the forum. And after a slight browsing, he decided to read the current hottest topic first.

– Big News at the Blind Abyss Empire, Home turf of the Undying Guild.

Two Top Ranking Guilds were currently in war with each other.

--The Central Order officially declared an all-out war with the Undying Guild due to the discovered Ancient Ruins at the borders of the Empire.

Based on the rumors and some photos taken by independent players who managed to sneak inside the place, the said Ancient Ruins was closely related to an Ancient God of the game. This case was even proven by some top players who were focusing on studying the history of the game.

...

Shin continued to read the entire article with extreme concentration. It was not because he was interested in the ongoing war, but it was due to the place which became the cause of the war.

He currently had a high-ranking hidden quest related to Ancient Powers which was also related to the Ancient Gods. So, if he took a look at this place, maybe he was going to get some clues about his quest.

But Shin's body suddenly froze while he was reading the latter parts of the article. It was because he saw some photos which gave him some hints about something else.

Seeing that, he continued to browse the photos one by one, trying to confirm his suspicions. And a few moments later, he finally saw a photo that gave him the proof that he was looking for.

In that photo, there was a huge wall full of cracks. On its surface, a huge drawing of a Sun was engraved on it. And Shin was pretty much familiar with that symbol since he already saw it a couple of times in the walls of the 'Church of the Sun and the Moon'. That emblem symbolized one of the gods of that Church, a fallen god, and the father of the first envoy of the church – the Sun God.

Seeing that, Shin finally decided to take a 'visit' to this place no matter what when he got back in the game.

Meanwhile, the second news was also quite massive. The entire article was quite short, but the significance that it had for the game was much larger compared to the other one.

– Massive NEWS! The Sky Island finally appeared! And it was discovered by two players who also managed to get all of its pioneering rights.

...…