9 Wind

Jin's eyes felt much better when he woke up in the morning. He knew that Luca had already left from the lack of sounds within their house.

His father would often practice early up in the morning before proceeding to his duties during the day and Jin often woke up to the sounds of his practices.

Jin followed his daily wake up routine did a quick wash up in the bathroom. But today, something was different.

He had taken a look into the mirror subconsciously to check his eyes and had realized his pupils were completely white. His iris was still black as the night but maybe it was due to this but his pupils stood out even more.

'It looks just like ancestor's eyes...' Jin continued to stare into his own eyes in the mirror for a moment before quickly heading outside.

He had noticed last night that his eyesight had improved in a strange way but he would finally be able to test it now.

As he walked into the yard, he looked up at the giant tree he often sat under and realized he could see the lines upon the bark from meters away. He could even see the finer details of the bark.

He then shifted his gaze into the distance and realized he could distinguish individual trees that were almost a dozen kilometres away with ease.

'I can see at least three to four times further at least and can tell the details apart more as well...'

!?

At that moment he realized something.

Something was flowing around.

Like literally everywhere, it was a strange flow of greenish blue tint that flowed to and from every location he could see. Some parts were more concentrated than others and some parts were more chaotic than the rest.

"What-". Jin noticed it was swirling around even himself.

"I-Is this... The wind?" Jin was at a loss.

He soon realized that the 'swirl' that was flowing at was the wind before understanding another part of his vision's improvement was being able to see...wind itself.

"To be more accurate, it's the essence of wind." A voice rang out from beside him.

!?

A man was standing beside him. He was wearing a yellow robe and had a strange tiger's mask upon his face.

Jin quickly got into a defensive stance upon this intruder and unknowing to him, his pupils had turned into slits.

The man stood still and gazed into his eyes for a moment before continuing. "Ah, forgive me. I am one of the elite guards of her holiness. She had suddenly left a few days ago and we were tracking her when I noticed she had stopped in this village for quite a while where we found her."

"Her...Do you mean Lady White?" Jin asked in caution, slowly dropping his guard.

"Yes." The man took off his mask as a young man's appearance surfaced. "You can call me Ahn."

"Hello...I'm-"

"Jin, I know." Ahn quickly cut off Jin. "Sorry but I don't have a lot of time given by her holiness. I was given the orders to guide you about your new eyes. You should really be thankful, those eyes are something that has to be personally bestowed upon by her holiness and it drains her quite a lot every time she performs the act."

Jin noticed Ahn's eyes were very normal and realized he hadn't received such luxury. "I see... Please thank her in my stead."

"Don't worry about that." Ahn responded. "We'll probably meet each other again if you ever come to the main branch."

"Oh... My father just left for the main branch last night." Jin responded.

"Ah, I know. Luca, yes." Ahn sighed out.

"You've heard of my father?" Though Luca wasn't his 'original' father, after almost a decade of spending time together, he had developed quite a bond with him. Also he hadn't heard much about his father's history as he had never told Jin in detail.

"It seems Luca hadn't told you anything. I guess that's for the better... Just know that he's a greater man than you think he is. When the time is right, he should tell you." Ahn patted Jin's shoulder as he spoke.

"Anyways, I'm here to guide you in the basics of your new pair of eyes. Though they won't be of much use other than better eyesight until you hit the qi condensation stage, the more you know the better it is." Ahn quickly picked up a small stick before starting to lecture Jin.

-----

Jin sat upon a boulder beneath the tree, at one of his usual spots, as he gazed into the distance.

But there was a difference this time.

Instead of gazing into the distance in a daze or watching the villagers, Jin's eyes were actually moving around constantly.

He watched the essence of the wind move around all about him as he retraced back to what Ahn had taught him before quickly disappearing again, telling Jin that he had to report back to her holiness.

His new eyes actually had a name, and they were simply called white eyes but their actual name was the Eyes of Time. As Ahn had explained before, it was a special gift that Lady White bestowed upon certain talented individuals or ones that had made a large contribution to the family and its main effect was being able to track the essence of wind.

Though apparently even Ahn had only seen it a few times at most even within the main branch.

The ability of being able to see the essence of wind would further help those of the wind element by aiding their control since they would be able to 'see' what they were controlling unlike others who had to 'sense' it.

According to Ahn, this would drastically cut down the 'wind up' time someone would need for an elemental skill or attack since a lot of the initial steps could be omitted.

Also apart from simply having much better vision, apparently his thought process would hasten alongside his ability to track things being drastically improved. And these abilities would grow the stronger the owner became.

This was why the eyes had the name Eyes of Time. Because once it reached a certain threshold, a user can experience something similar to time having slowed down. This wasn't because time itself had actually slowed down but rather that the person with these eyes had a much faster thought process.

Alongside the fact that the users of the wind element naturally being the fastest in terms of movement once they achieved a certain mastery with the wind element.

And according to Ahn, each of the other three 'Guardians', as he described them, had a special talent that boosted their abilities as well. Unfortunately he only knew Vermilion Bird's talent which was something called 'Immolation'. It basically allowed the user's entire body to be covered in flames, its temperature and size increasing with the strength of the user.

Ahn knew this mainly because the dynasty's ruling emperor enjoyed showcasing this power every year during the yearly festival at the capital. He would use this power to done himself with a flaming emperor's garb as he lit up the first paper lantern with his own fingers before letting it float into the air, only to be then followed by thousands of others. One of the many traditions that this continent followed.

'Fitting for the most offensive element, fire...' Jin thought.

Still, this ability was more along the lines of what Jin wanted. At least in comparison to Immolation.

'Imagine an archer in the back line being able to set themselves on fire... They would just become an open target to the enemy archers.' Jin continued. 'But still, it would be hard for others to come into melee range as well once the temperature goes up a lot... It's likely that the majority of the users of Immolation are melee range warriors.'

But unlike Immolation, Eyes of Time could be used in many more areas since its ability was more passive than active.

First of all, being able to see further and track a target better meant that he could possibly hit the target with more accuracy. Also, being able to see the flow of wind from the essence of wind would allow him to make better shots as well.

This was probably why Lady White had given him this this gift after hearing his wishes of learning the bow.

'Oh right, bows.'

Jin quickly snapped out of his daze as he hurriedly ran towards the weapons shed by his yard.