RAINBOW WARRIOR, COLORS ABLAZE

The feeling was awesome.

It was like I had jumped from elementary school to university. That's how drastic the change in my body was.

I grew a few inches, my gi was more than some outer disciple, and my senses felt like they were on some video game shit.

It's like that one movie where the main character slows down time and dodges bullets (you know the one I'm talking about).

I no longer felt like a regular human.

For the first time in my isekai journey, I finally feel like a character who is actually powerful and not just another regular person but with extra memories of the future and whatnot.

It took me five hours to get here but only two to get back.

I even stopped on the way to deal with some bandits.

They were in the middle of robbing an old lady of her purse.

It was such a strange coincidence that this was happening at such a convenient time for me to try out my newly acquired strength but I guessed that since I was inserting myself into the canonical path, my life was starting to play out like a novel now.

"Please, I have to take care of my granddaughter. I need to buy her medicine. She's sick," said the grandma whose knees were shaking.

"We don't care old hag."

"That's right. Give us the money now or you and your granddaughter will be reuniting in the afterlife."

"Come on you two. Stop talking and let's just get this over there."

I didn't jump in front of them and tell them to stop. That was something for a righteous main character to do.

No. I'm a villain trying to ruin the canonical path and still the female lead.

I snuck up behind them and with a powerful jumping kick, I hit one in his temple and as his head wobbled, he fell to the floor with foam coming out of his mouth.

His two partners turned around in shock.

"Hey, you, what do you—"

Bink! I hit him with a right hook, using my hip to generate a lot of power, and struck him in his jaw.

He got dazed and stumbled to the ground.

"Are you crazy? What is—"

I kicked the other one in his knees, causing it to hyperextend. As he screamed in pain, I immediately struck his nose with my elbow and he also fell to the ground.

With a few solid kicks to the face, both of them were knocked out and joined the first guy.

"Go ahead," I told the old lady with a smile on my face. 

She thanked me with tears in her eyes and said that karma would bless me someday.

To that, I could only internally chuckle. If anything, karma would curse me with all the bad I've done in the past years.

That felt great.

Not saving the old lady. Of course not. Do I look like a righteous good guy to you?

No. The feeling of knocking people out with my super-powerful attacks.

Well, "super-powerful" in comparison to regular. On this planet, I was still near the bottom amongst the cultivators.

.

.

.

I continued observing both the female lead and Mae Jaesun. If you're wondering why I haven't told you the female lead's name yet, it's because I don't want to overwhelm you with all these new names.

It'd be easier for you to just know her as the female lead for the moment.

Speaking of names, all you know about Mae Jaesun is his name.

I forgot to tell you guys why he's important to my plans. Oops. My bad.

Mae Jaesun is one of the elders of the Mount Hua Sect.

Unlike most, he's extremely humble and down to earth despite being one of the strongest humans in the sect.

Occasionally, he takes walks around the sect but keeps himself hidden to get an authentic view of everything.

The purpose of doing this was as I said before, to keep himself grounded. It allows him to remain relatable to the struggles of everyone in the sect.

If he didn't do this, he feared that he was going to disassociate and begin to get tunneled into the idea that he was better than everyone else.

That's why I knew that as long as I showed him my talent, he'd be willing to take a chance on me.

On the off chance that I was wrong about my theory, I would have no choice but to go with Plan B.

You guys don't need to hear about Plan B yet because I was confident that Plan A was going to work.

Just know that Plan B was a lot more villainous and would require a lot of people to die in order to achieve.

It was slow but I could begin to feel my abilities growing the more I used them. It was a very small growth such as an extra minute of the clone existing or being able to influence someone's irrationality but an additional tenth of a percent.

Slow and steady wins the race though so I wasn't stressed about it.

"I guess today is the day," I said as I got up from the floor, taking off my shirt to reveal my bare torso.

I had just deactivated my stalking ability after seeing Mae Jaesun starting his secretive walk around the sect.

He was quite some distance away and there was a chance that he wouldn't come to where I was but I needed to treat it like he was already here.

Getting out of the wooden cube I call home, I walked to the front, and for the first time since I arrived in this world, I began showing off my techniques.

In the distance, I saw the old man approaching me with a hoe, ready to assign me my task for the day.

For someone who complains that he has to come to wake me up every morning, he sure never misses a day.

He's probably what they call a tsundere.

He cares for Son Youngho but doesn't want to say or show it.

He opened his mouth to say something but as he saw me kicking and punching, beads of sweat flying into the air, he was awestruck.

I understood why he was so baffled.

Firstly, a farmer boy who had never done martial arts before looked like he was a master at it.

Secondly, the style of martial arts he was using was different than anything he'd probably ever seen before.

Mount Hua Sect wasn't a peaceful sect by any means but they were soft in nature. The philosophy of their fists was forged by protection rather than invasion.

But my fists were different.

My fist was formed by different martial arts, merged into one, intended to be used for efficient killing on the battlefield.

My kicks were sharp, and harsh, and wanted to stab through people's chests.

My footwork was fluid but never walked backward, keeping pressure forward and continuing to push rather than pull back.

Every reader is probably imagining a different style of fighting in their head because not everyone has the same imagination but just know this, as long as you're imagining the most badass martial arts you're capable of imagining, it'll be close enough.

It was no longer the old man who was here watching me.

Other support staff such as myself had stopped on their way to work and had crowded around me.

They looked at me with awe as if seeing an exotic animal at the zoo. Some were jealous because even though we all had the same jobs, I had a talent that they didn't.

But the one thing everyone had in common was that nobody spoke.

They just watched in silence, taking everything in.

Twenty minutes later I finally stopped. I was drained of oxygen and desperately needed a sip of water but had no choice but to stand there.

The crowd had grown to over a hundred people and one by one, they began to clap until it turned into a loud roar.

"That was amazing, young man!"

"When did you learn how to do such a thing?"

"Wooo!"

The old man walked over to me, the hoe still in his hand. He handed it over to me and asked, "When did... when did you... learn... you know, all of that?"

I could see in his eyes a glimmer of pride.

"I taught myself," I answered truthfully (technically because no one taught me in this world. I taught myself using my memories).

"You taught yourself?" he asked me, not sure whether or not I was telling the truth.

"Yes," I nodded my head.

"Why?" 

"...Because I wanted to learn martial arts. I saw the outer discipline training and... I tried to copy what they did but I didn't get to see much so I just made up my own style."

He gave me a soft smack on the head. "Don't tell anyone that you tried to copy their martial arts without their permission. Okay?"

"Yes,." I nodded.

"Go on now. You're already late to work."

I bowed my head and ran with the hoe in hand.

During the lunch break, I answered a few questions from the people around me, entertaining them for a while before finally escaping to this giant tree.

I sat down with my back against it, allowing my body to get swallowed by the shadows.

Activating my ability, I used it to see if I had succeeded in grabbing Mae Jaesun's attention.

He was in his study room, writing a poem with ink.

He was humming to himself and occasionally, looking out of the window.

I zoomed in to see what the poem was about. The language was foreign to me but I was able to read it using Son Youngho's memories.

Because he wasn't rich though, his literacy level was very low and it took me a while to read everything.

[Amidst Mount Hua's peaks so high, An old man walks, beneath the sky, His eyes like ancient sapphires, wise, Observing life in myriad dyes.

In crimson robes, the temple's heart, Monks chant with passion, never depart, Their devotion, a fiery hue, Burning bright, a timeless view.

By azure streams, they find their peace, The waters' calm, their souls release, Reflecting skies so deep and clear, Where serenity, the heart draws near.

On mossy trails of emerald green, Seeking truth, the seekers convene, In the shade of age-old trees, They find solace, their hearts at ease.

Amidst the golden rays of the sun, they practice, each and every one. Their martial arts, a dance so true, Their strength and grace, a vibrant hue.

Yet in the crowd where farmers work, one young soul stands, With skills beyond what this old man understands, A rainbow warrior, colors ablaze, In his movements, the past and future's gaze.

With each strike and every twist, A kaleidoscope of colors, they enlist, The legacy of Mount Hua, In this young man, potential to be overturned.

For in the hues of life, he's found himself. A palette vast, a sacred ground, Where age and youth together blend, In colors of life, without an end.]

Apologies if the poem was extremely long but it was essentially a poem about Mae Jaesun's walk and the last few lines were about me.

"I did it," I said as I stood up from the tree and yawned.