Mercenary Black Mamba

Thunderclap refers to a technique, under which the law of the five phases that harmonize or clash gets applied to the Energetic Palms technique. Energetic Palms refers to a technique that leverages force emanating from giant palms channeling energy flows that were used by Dhṛtarāṣṭra to vanquish, eliminate an evil dragon-in a manner that resembles violently swatting a fly to death.

The mechanism is analogous to the pulling forces of attraction and pushing forces of repulsion of a magnet, but the scale and force function on a different level compared to a neodymium magnet. It could flatten steel and disintegrate rock. It could turn the bones and muscles in a human body into decomposed, desiccated form that resembled a flattened dried fish.

"Again?"

Mu Ssang's hair shot up. Great energy flows rose up and fell down in flux. Two giant hands closed in on Mu Ssang from opposing sides. Their grasping power remained too massive for him to escape, flee from.

"Hahp!"

Mu Ssang narrowed his eyes to concentrate and deflected the force fields emanating from the big palms with the use of psychokinesis. The extended palms warded off his psychokinesis with ease and struck him hard very rapidly. It felt as if he was trying to cope with, survive, confront the torrents of a valley creek with a shovel to tide over the rainy monsoon season.

"Teacher, have you lost your mind?"

Mu Ssang whipped out his Balsara and began to wield, brandish it. The ripping sounds of taut silk being torn apart were heard. The massive, encircling palm had vanished suddenly. When one had disappeared, the other palm vanished simultaneously.

"Teacher, if you persist in carrying on doing this, I will sell your car away, and donate the money from the sale to a charity home or shelter!"

Mu Ssang took the opportunity to exploit Priest Dae Woo's display of weakness. Fiat Panda was the Teacher's sole and highly cherished physical asset or resource. Immersed, soaking in the fun of driving around, the Teacher had even trained in car maintenance work. When a person has something to preserve, shield, shelter, they grow both strong and weak simultaneously. The teacher, who had transcended all material desire, was just ailed by the Fiat Panda as his sole flaw, vulnerability.

The aura of the atmospheric air became disrupted, distorted by waves of force. A foot clad with white rubber shoe suddenly manifested, appeared. Short-sized Priest Dae Woo appeared, glimmering a pristine mirage. He was less than 10 steps away, standing next to a pine tree. Mu Ssang shook his head in dismay. His Dimensional Sight or any battle moves didn't have any effect on the Teacher.

"Hahaha! You have been dealt your moves. You shouldn't have brought that obnoxious, repugnant creature to pollute, desecrate the pristine water of the valley."

Priest Dae Woo remained his usual self. He was bald-headed and bore long bushy eyebrows while short in height. He was wearing white rubber shoes and holding on to a staff made out of a stem of wild-growing spinach that stood as tall as himself. It was the staff that Mu Ssang had crafted for him around seven years ago, during the winter when they had first met. The teacher was still wielding the crafted staff.

"Teacher!"

Mu Ssang leaped out and warmly embraced Priest Dae Woo. His small stature was pressed against closely Mu Ssang's wide-spanning chest. Mu Ssang felt as though he was hugging a bundle of dried weeds close by. The teacher barely ate any food. No wonder his muscles were wasting away and atrophying. Without the muscle bulk, his body resembled a bag of skin that just barely contained some ribs, bones. If Mu Ssang held on to him any tighter, his bones and joints would get crushed into wrecked remains like dried, ruined crops.

"What is this, Teacher! A human body isn't supposed to feel like this!"

Mu Ssang's eyes welled up with gushing tears.

"Look at you. You are old enough to be the parent of a few children. Stop acting like a child."

Priest Dae Woo remained nonchalant and aloof as though Mu Ssang had just come back from a stroll around the town. Mu Ssang knelt down to the ground and bowed in respect.

"Teacher, the Buddha's grace, anointing has protected me. How have you been?"

Mu Ssang bowed three times and knelt down to pay respects.

"Don't speak using flowery language. I am tired of people who throw around fancy words and people who always try to rationalize everything in a reductive manner. It's not the Buddha's anointing or blessing at all. You are independently strong, so you were unharmed even though you often enjoy bashing people up wherever you go."

"Your student does pull off very powerful fist blows."

"You are wandering off from the teachings of the Buddha and familiarizing yourself in the ways of fist combat battle. That is why you are chalking up both good and evil karma."

Priest Dae Woo softly stroked his student's hair tresses with his limp, spidery, slender hand. Fortunately, at this point, the stench of blood wasn't as pungent, strong. When he came back for the first time, the stench of blood was so nauseating that Priest Dae Woo thought he was beholding a blood demon before him.

"The more I look around at the world, the more I feel the need for fists rather than palms. If I have to go to hell, I go willingly."

Mu Ssang's great resolve made an impression on the mind of Priest Dae Woo. The eyes of Priest Dae Woo lit up with wonder. His student's interference, disruptive force field had advanced further to the next level.

At this rate, he was going to be able to telepathically influence or direct the thoughts of a sentient human. Compassion forms the ground reserves of spiritual powers. Greed serves as the source reserves of demonic powers. His greed might have come across as well-meaning, but it remained excessively controlling, manipulative. His students no longer heeded his advice out of frustration."

"Your path was forged as such from the beginning. You won't listen to me. It's a real pity. Tsk, tsk."

Priest Dae Woo grumbled, complained. Mu Ssang had been closer to his son than his student. Any parent would desire for their offspring to start a family and live comfortably. rather than train to be a war hero.

"I am truly sorry."

Mu Ssang's heart was touched. His old teacher expressed concern about his student's safety. The said student was gallivanting across the world, obsessed with his wielding his power. He wanted to relieve himself from all human conditions and serve his teacher in full dedication, but his ambitious heart did not truly desire to do so.

"To each their own destiny! By the way, that is quite a massive ornate object there. Is that the ancient artifact you mentioned before?"

"Yes. I retrieved it from the depths of the nether world. That world is where that character, Kamdoong, used to inhabit."

Mu Ssang directed Balsara to Priest Dae Woo's palm. Priest Dae Woo scrutinized it closely and shook his head in disapproval.

"It is a mysterious, unknown object. The world may soon be in plunged into turmoil. When mysterious beings and objects turn up, it must be to cleanse the chaotic universe. If you came into possession of a mysterious object, it must mean you will encounter something to resolve it with. Make sure you don't use it in unethical, illegitimate ways."

Vajra threw the object right into Mu Ssang's open palms.

"I will bear that in mind. Kamdoong must be grouped in the same class as Vajra. He may not be a human but after usurping a human identity, he is not fully inhuman either. It is out of your character to impulsively zap him into oblivion like this. What shall we do? Do you have any idea?"

Mu Ssang, sensing an opportunity at hand, seized the chance.

"You foolish child. I don't know where you found this object. but that thing shouldn't be allowed to live on, exist in the human world. It is neither an animal nor a plant. It is neither living nor dead yet feigns, passes itself off as a life form. It has even obtained a sentient form. Its whole existence works to transcend. make a mockery of the laws of heaven and earth. It defies the laws of life to even be living. Yet it went advanced further and made a mockery of my home, by likening it to a mere nostril. So I had to mete out punishment to him."

"Yes indeed, Teacher. When did "discipline" become synonymous with "butcher"? Did you pawn your heart for some sugar-coated candy? You used to advocate that mercy was composed of both humanity and mercy. A student is acting out in compassion and his teacher wreaked destruction upon him. That's a chilling irony. Revive him, either by reversing time or bringing his body back to life."

Mu Ssang insisted stubbornly. The teacher clearly didn't intend to kill Kamdoong and even if he was dead, there must be some way to bring him back to life.

"Slaughter? What do you mean?"

Priest Dae Woo beamed.

"He was wiped out, annihilated by your psychokinesis… What?"

Mu Ssang's gaze was thunderstruck. The rock that had crashed down on Kamdoong was no longer there. Mu Ssang's head looked up to check the top of the mountain. The rock was now back in its original place. It was deflecting the afternoon sun rays and stood silently still. The shriveled old pine tree lodged between the cracks of the rock stood intact as well.

"What has just taken place?"

Mu Ssang's eyes rolled towards both the left and right. He gained spiritual awakening to epidium at 11 and mastered Chui Do Shik at 18. He didn't expect to be as shocked for latter outbursts but this was actually the third time.

"I have reduced him into mere smithereens."

"Smithereens? My goodness!"

Mu Ssang ran back to the site. Smithereens of flesh and blood, which he assumed was Kamdoong, was splattered across the rock but there was no indication of the mountaintop's strike. No crater, no collapsed trees, or floating dust clouds.

Kamdoong's form was ghastly. The roadkill at night melted into a puddle of animal hide and blood in the morning after hundreds of cars ran over it during the night. Kamdoong looked like a roadkilled carcass of a raccoon. As a matter of fact, there were no life signs. Kamdoong was dead, without a doubt.

Was all of the shattering strike impact a mere mirage? It wasn't so. The rock returned to the mountaintop but Kamdoong remained in smithereens. How could this happen? Mu Ssang looked back at the Teacher.

"Was this a mere illusion?"

"You may need to face disciplinary action as well! How dare you try to compare my great martial prowess to mere trickery, vain illusion, sleight of hand?"

Priest Dae Woo glared at Mu Ssang to pretend to be offended.

"You are indeed the greatest monk. Perhaps you will enlighten me spiritually today."

Mu Ssang had shifted his tactics to flattery. The teacher had a naive, childlike character. A compliment could make truly cheer him up, placate him. He needed to assuage the Teacher's fragile ego to rescue Kamdoong's life.

"Isn't that the reality! I stand as the true archetype of all monks. You have recognized your teacher's true nobility, spiritual mastery finally. This requires authentic discernment. I didn't even name the spiritual gift."

'Ugh!'

Mu Ssang was stunned into dumbstruck silence. If the Teacher could uproot an entire mountaintop with the mere activation of a mysterious, unknown skill, the full spectrum of his spiritual powers remained mere child's play. In reality, compared to Teacher's supernatural mastery, his spiritual powers vastly paled in comparison, appeared to be a motley repertoire.

"How about the Five-Phasic Illusion Strike?"

"You remain truly abysmal at coming up with names. Sure, why not, let's call it just that."

"Could I learn the strike moves too?"

"Cease all pursuit. You have already strayed off far from the true path. You ought to serve the country by having a brood of offspring, not knocking on a woodblock for decades, hidden away in a monastery. That would truly turn out to be a great loss for this country. That kind of indulgence should be left for an idle old man like myself to mull over."

"I am very busy, indeed so. Still, you need to clarify the concept, for a slow, unintelligent student like myself."

"You are fully aware of your dull, slow wits. People who cannot get even the dimmest of monks to interpret the principle of 'existence and emptiness are the same thing' with a string of inscrutable, unfathomable words, taking it for true philosophical musings or spiritual doctrine. Truth is lived in reality, not perceived, grasped mentally. My aged lips are struggling with ardent toil because my dim student has not truly grasped this axiom, rule. The fundamental building blocks of all life in the universe, atoms, are not tangible, material particles but tiny nanoparticles adrift in a vast, empty void. An atom itself is an empty particle. Something that is inherently empty manifests outwardly as emptiness. Emptiness draws its capacities to exist from the underlying, indwelling composition, construction of matter. This is the nature of existence. I left transcendental form untouched and moved physical matter only. This is a cosmic principle that you can only truly grasp after advancing to a level where you can distinguish emptiness and existence through applying the principles of the five phases. Does your head hurt from these profound musings yet?"

"Yes. The student is experiencing a profound pang termed a migraine."

Mu Ssang shook his head in disappointment. It was not a difficult concept to grasp but he pretended to be ignorant to please the Teacher's whims. If he let on that he had some measure of understanding, the Teacher would ramble on for days.

"That's certainly the case. It would be no fun for me if you grasped all principles immediately"

"Does this run upon the same principle as that which implies that potent autosuggestion may inflict a burn on someone through the use of ice?"

"Ssshhhh. Autosuggestion refers to a crude hypnotic method shunned even by the lowly, marginalized shamans. A willful, rebellious person remains immune to hypnotism. Even if someone is hypnotized, they don't lose their sentience or awareness. It's not an apt analogy."

Mu Ssang nodded in affirmation. Hypnotism was not even deemed as spiritual gifting.

"It is so. Kamdoong could transform but he did not opt to. Why didn't he?"

Let's assume that the Teacher, as he claimed, crushed Kamdoong to death by leveraging just the composition of the rock positioned at the mountain apex. Kamdoong could flatten his body just like a sheet of paper or crumple it together like a solid marble. Mu Ssang was curious why he had been fatally defeated.

"True transformation involves the process of not just dividing the molecules but dissolving their molecular structure. Then you will then be able to reorganize, reassemble them. That object cannot alter its essence but it can rearrange its molecules. It deflected the attack through activating a protective force field."

'Poor Kamdoong. You shouldn't have thrown a tantrum!'

"I am suspicious of the relationship between you and that object. Is the object of the same nature as the black magic stone that was brought here the last time?"

"Yes. He lived underground without a sense of ego for hundreds of millions of years and this time, he became friends with me and gained a sense of identity. He has seen the daylight for only two days. Show some compassion."

Mu Ssang had just referred to Kamdoong in the most pejorative manner possible.

"It is a monstrosity that shouldn't be allowed to exist in the world but if he is already your friend, it can't be helped. Will he obey the rules now? If not, I can discipline him again."

Kamdoong, if he could hear the audible claims, would have passed out, appalled by the offense. Priest Dae Woo waved his sleeves. Dust surged up around Kamdoong's corpse. decayed remains. The energy that had restrained Kamdoong and flowed between his cells to prevent shape-shifting was dissolved. Kamdoong morphed back from the flattened smithereens on a rock back into his rapidly regained original human physical frame.

"Ugh!"

Less than five minutes had passed when Kamdoong stood back up on all fours. The air around Kamdoong rapidly altered. The sunshine radiated down in gentle rays upon his body. Kamdoong's body emanated, emitted blue-hued sparks. The midsummer day unfolded with cool breezes unfurling, resembling late autumn weather.

"He is quite a character!"

Priest Dae Woo's eyes widened in shock and awe. He knew that Kamdoong was a strange mutant who wasn't supposed to be able to survive in the world but he still didn't expect him to restore his form with such ease and rejuvenate himself by drawing on warm sun rays to revive himself.

"Kwagh!"

Kamdoong had gravitated toward the sun-kissed sky for an extended period. His eyes contained distinct pupils and whites, looking upwards. He had spent 150,000,000 meaningless years living underground in the nether world. A single year has passed since he began living a meaningful life after getting hold of his human identity.

Before he had time to truly savor the life above the ground-level surface, a cruel being had turned him into bloody smithereens. His friend had also bashed him up when he first came to his abode. His teacher was just the same.

On top of beating him without any remorse, he channeled viral force flows between his cells to impede regeneration of cell growth. He was on the verge of death. He was resentful and bitter but now did not dare to retaliate in defense.