...…

"As long as you bring this rock boulder on the mountain top, then you already finished the task," said Grandmaster Benn while tapping the huge rock boulder beside him.

"No other rules required? Just bringing it on top of the mountain without using any physical strength?" asked Shin almost instantly.

Reading what was in Shin's mind, Old Benn suddenly started grinning widely before nodding his head. "Anything is fine, as long as you don't use any Martial-Arts or directly use your brute strength to push it up."

"So, I can turn it into pieces before bringing it up on the mountaintop?" asked Shin immediately.

Hearing this, Grandmaster Benn grinned even widely before answering. "You can also try that."

Then he started walking towards the mountaintop. And while he was brushing past Shin, he suddenly added. "Just remember, you need to bring it up within three days if you don't want another one to be added."

Shin slightly nodded his head before walking towards the rocked boulder while releasing his Mental Energy. He stopped a few meters away from that huge boulder before squatting his hips to take his battle stance.

With a deep breath, he controlled all of the Mental Energy that he summoned and gathered them on both of his hands. And when the accumulation of energies reached their peak, he quickly threw a barrage of consecutive punches in the air and sent a succeeding Mental Energy Wave at the boulder.

'Four Symbol Scripture: Savage Tiger Cannon'

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A cloud of dust started to form around the rock boulder as Shin bombarding it with his energy waves. And from the looks of it, this set of Mental Energy Waves were much stronger than how it was used before.

Sitting on a three branch few meters away, Grandmaster Benn watched Shin do all of that with great amusement. "Not bad. He is getting better at building up his Mental Energy before throwing an attack. I guess doing that control training really gives him some good benefits."

"But-… you are still relying on your 'brute strength'. Mentalism is different from Martial-Arts where you can win with either overwhelming strength or unrivaled power; Mentalism is all about control and skills."

As he said those words, Shin finally stopped attacking. And when the dust that was formed due to his attacks started to settle down, he immediately frowned his eyebrows before muttering to himself. "Of course, it is not that simple. So, I still need to do some puzzles in the end."

At first look, there was nothing wrong with this rock boulder; it was just an ordinary rock with a very huge size. So, Shin tried attacking it using one of his Mentalism Techniques to test the waters. And after seeing that the boulder was still standing without having any scratch on it, it was quite obvious that it was not an ordinary boulder that could easily be destroyed.

While he was attacking earlier, Shin's Mentalism sense could feel an invisible barrier surrounding the rock boulder. And from the looks of it, that barrier was not an ordinary one either.

"Tsk! A 'Defensive Formation' perhaps?" Shin clicked his tongue realizing it.

After that, he walked towards the rock boulder before placing his hand on its surface. Then he closed his eyes before gently releasing his Mental Energy and slowly pouring them at the barrier surrounding the boulder.

Not long after, his Mental Energy covered the entire boulder. And due to that, Shin started 'seeing' a bunch of runes on the surface of that invisible barrier.

Shin observed them one by one before memorizing everything. After a few more moments, he finally took off his hand from the surface of the boulder before falling into a deep thought.

'Breaking the formation is one thing, but bringing it on top of the mountain is another thing. Smashing it into pieces may be the easiest way, but I feel that bringing it there whole and intact is going to give me more benefits. Though, I am still not sure what it is.'

After contemplating on it for a moment, Shin immediately forgot about the second matter and decided to only focus on the first problem. "Breaking this Defensive Formation is going to be my main problem as I still haven't learned much about the Mentalism Formations – I only read quite a few of them on the 'Four Symbol Scripture' and 'Jade Kirin Scripture'."

"By going to common knowledge, only Mentalists who reached the 'Venerable Realm' were the ones who could set a Mentalism Formation. But that doesn't mean they were the only ones who could unseal it."

"As long as someone is skilled and knowledgeable enough, even someone who is at the 'Grandmaster Realm' can figure out how to break it. But 'knowing how to break it' and 'breaking it personally' are two entirely different things. Because the difference between the quality and quantity of Mental Energies is going to be vast – and knowledge will not be able to fill it alone."

"So, how am I going to break this? I am sure that Teacher is not unreasonable enough to give me a task that is impossible to be done."

Shin turned completely silent when he was thinking about this. And when Grandmaster Benn saw that, his lips suddenly started curving upwards and formed a satisfied smile. "So, that Old Monster is right. This kid is mostly using his 'instincts' to solve his problems. But sometimes, he is forced to use his head when he encounters a 'problem' that can't be solved by his 'instincts' alone."

"Now, this is quite a problem for us too. He possessed the 'Immediate Response' talent, so it is quite normal for him to move according to his instincts since it is an optimal path for him to grow his talent and transform it into its ultimate form, the 'Ultra Instincts'."

"But this kid also has a bright head on his shoulders too – which is a good trait too. Unfortunately, it is going to conflict with his 'instincts' which will block the path of his talent."

He paused for a moment to think about something before muttering. "Based on the records, to achieve the 'Ultra Instincts', someone needs to separate their consciousness from their bodies so that their bodies could move and fight free from being tied with their own thoughts and emotions."

After that, he turned his head to the side and looked at David who just arrived. "So, if this kid possessed both that 'instincts' and 'bright head', those two are just going to be in conflict and will hold back each other's progress."

"And there are only two ways to fix it – which is to either separate them from each other or combine them altogether."

Then, Grandmaster Benn paused for a moment and waited for David to arrive. And when the latter finally stood right beside him, he continued. "Is what 'you' said."

Hearing that, David just shrugged his shoulders before replying. "I just delivered what they instructed me to do."

He took a brief pause to turn his head at Shin while saying. "But it seems like you, 'Old Monsters', are still thinking differently."

"One is trying to combine 'them' while the other one is trying to separate 'them' which pretty much confuses me and makes me worried at the same time."

Then he turned his head back at Grandmaster Benn before adding. "With all due respect, Sir. I don't want to die yet. If something goes wrong, I am surely going to be in trouble."

Hearing that, Old Benn suddenly smirked before saying. "Kid, as you said, we are already 'Old Monsters'. So, isn't it better to trust us a little more? After all, we have already accumulated a lot of experience given our age."

David pursed his lips a little when he heard that before asking. "If that is the case, isn't it better to do it the other way around?"

"If Shin started practicing to separate his consciousness from his body, then achieving the 'Ultra instincts' is going to be much faster. And if he combined the two together, then he will achieve that perfect state of Kaleidoscope Mentalism, especially that he possesses the 'Spiritual Embryo' special body," he added while pointing at Shin.

Grandmaster Benn started grinning mysteriously while saying. "I told you, just trust us. All you needed to do is to wait for its results."

And after a brief moment of silence, he suddenly added with a mystifying tone. "And don't take us for a fool. In this world, there are few people who could see the truth behind everything."

"Maybe we do not fall in that category entirely, but we still have our own means to see something that most of the other experts can't."

David knitted his eyebrows a little the moment he heard that. But he immediately eased them a second later before slightly nodding his head. And with that, the two of them suddenly turned silent as they observed Shin from a distance.

...…