Seeing beyond

Man possess five senses originally. One of them is sight. However, can he utilizes it fully? Can man grasp the full worth of his eyesight? What we see, is it really what it is? … This is the story of a man who cursed his eyesight for not seeing things as they were and, upon receiving a second chance, ask to see.

This man was named Martin. He was more than fifty years old and had seen many things throughout his life. Yet, something he never saw was the truth. When everything was right and his life was smooth sailing, he was surrounded by friendly people and a pleasant atmosphere. However, when he started to encounter difficulties, one after another, his friends, coworkers, family members, all of them left him one after another. The change of expression on their faces was something he would have never expected to see. After all that he did. He truly believed in those people, each one of them were precious and important, he cherished them. But they didn’t. and not once did he see the truth through their faces with his eyes. Their smiles, laughs, talks, looks were fake but he failed to see that. Now, he was alone and in a dire situation. The world is cruel. After losing one’s job, there aren’t many people one can turn to. He didn’t have one of such people and so, he was at his ends. He made a choice. Good or bad, he was too affected by what happened. He was mentally unstable and he couldn’t go on anymore. He just didn’t have the heart to try again from scratch alone at his age. It was better to give up. Rather than feeling this ever again. So, he jumped. From a building. But as he was facing death, it was not sorrow that he was feeling, nor regret. It was blame, self-blame to be precise. He was cursing himself for his inability to see.

Of course, the story doesn’t here. The end of something is merely the beginning of a another and his death was the same. It was but a beginning. He awoke in a white space, he was floating. He looked around and found out it was white just upon everywhere. The strangest part was that he was no more but a gust of smoke now. That was the horrible truth he was facing. He inadvertently screamed to the top of his lungs, though he didn’t have any anymore since he was mere smoke. He still managed to scream to his surprise and screamed once more due to that fact. He was shocked and panicked. Then, a bright light shone in front of him and a beautiful middle-aged woman in a white dress appeared. She had white skin purer than snow, golden hair more precious than gold and an atmosphere holier than any religion. She really gave the vibes of a goddess. And then she spoke with a voice more melodious than an orchestra:

“I am One. The only. I represent all and all is me. I am here to guide you to your next life.”

He was unable to answer her. Not because he was smoke but because he was speechless. Her beauty was too frightening, otherworldly, godly. He couldn’t recollect himself to speak a single word. the woman continued:

“However, since you were wronged, you will be given a blessing from us. We saw you and how you lived your life. Righteously, for others. Loving all and hating none. Yet, you stumbled upon misfortune once and others turned their backs on you, leaving you with but your grief. We heard your last thoughts. The pain and anger you felt. It was not even directed towards others but to yourself. Since this one life repaid your kindness with pain, we shall give you the tools to make your next one filled with true happiness. You can make a single demand out of us and we shall guarantee to comply to it for your next life. Speak. What do you desire?”

This was going too fast for him to collect himself and regain his composure. It was just too much to take in. So, he did the only thing he could do. If you can’t understand something, acknowledge it and go over. He pondered a few seconds before his pain forced his mind and he answered as such:

“I want to be able to see through everything and comprehend it.”

Surprised, she asked him:

“Are you sure about it? You could have asked us to make you be born rich, strong, famous or anything.”

He was so furious he couldn’t think straight so he shouted “Yes” to the goddess. And she answered with a “so be it” as if fed up with the man. That is how a righteous man who had been wronged was rewarded for his life deeds.

In a different world called Martea, in the continent of the five countries, there was a small village. It was in the southeast country, The Sea Walker Empire. The village didn’t have a name, it was too small for that. However, it was an important day to this village. It was because one couple was having their first born. And it ended up being a male. Strangely, his eyes were peculiar. They weren’t like others with a black ball and a circular color around it. It was a rectangular black pupil and a white diamond shaped iris. Because of this abnormality, he was named ‘MIR’. Nonetheless, he was born surrounded with love. Everything processed smoothly for a year, he was a normal baby. But then, the strange power sealed in his eyes awoke. The baby was screaming non-stop. He feared everything. It made people feared him as well and believe him to be the son of the devil. It was that difficult for his parents to control him. After a few days, they left the house to calm the other villagers. The baby, Mir, timidly walked around the house. He was extremely scared. And, he stumbled across the family’s mirror and saw his reflection for the first time since his eyes awoke. Something strange happened then. He was captivated by his reflection. His eyes were active and he was looking at himself. What he saw, however, was strange. To a one-year old even more so. It felt like memories were flooding his small brain. Soon after, a disgusting wide grin appeared on the baby’s face and he laughed out loud like a demon. It was truly a peculiar scene as if the child was possessed. And that wasn’t far from the truth. What the child had seen in his reflection wasn’t just his physical body. He had seen himself all the way to his past life, Martin’s life. And now, because of it, in the body of a one-year-old boy was the soul of a fifty or so year old man. The man who wished for his reincarnation to see through anything saw all the way to his previous life and enabled him to come back to life. This was truly a blessing from heaven. To Martin that is. The memories he had were fresh, as if everything happened a few days before. Even his own childhood was perfectly recorded in his mind. He tried a few more times to see through himself. He wanted to know if he could see through his own previous life as well and earn even more memories through the process but it failed. Strangely, he felt it wasn’t impossible but that he couldn’t do it now. Then, Mir’s parents entered the house. They saw the young boy in front of the mirror. Standing while pondering with a hand on his chin. He didn’t look like his age at all. That wasn’t something some young born would do. However, Mir was doing it. His parents were dumbstruck and had their mouths wide open in shock. They really thought for second their son was just too strange compared to others. And what happened next terrified them. The baby turned around, frowned upon seeing them and spoke: “What’s up? Seen a ghost or what?” The couple was so shocked, they both fell unconscious. That made Martin realize.

“Crap. I’m supposed to be one year old aren’t I? Ah…Seems like I will have to act like a child for a time.”

Time went on. When he was five-year-old, Martin had completely accepted his new life as Mir. Though he remembered his past life, he understood quickly he wasn’t in the same world. After all, where he came from, martial cultivation didn’t exist. At least, the practitioners of fighting sports couldn’t break boulders, fly through the sky and much more. This world was vast, boundless even and it was composed of many absurdities and incoherencies. But since he couldn’t change any of those facts, he could only accept them. As he was basking in the sunlight outside in the garden enjoying a life without cares, his father appeared in front of him. His father was called Boras. He was tall and muscular from his work in the farms. He had short black hair and brown eyes with a decent complexion. He was your average farmer. And right now, he was smiling towards his son and asked him:

“Mir, do you want to accompany us old folks to this year’s genius tournament?”

What is the genius tournament? As its name implies, it is a tournament where geniuses compete. It is organized by the Sea Walker Empire and existed to demonstrate the might of the younger generation of each martial school in the empire. There were three leagues in which one could compete during this event. The young seed battle, the young adult battle and the genius insight competition. Merely participating in a single contest was an honor for both the contestants and the martial school they came from. The reason for it is simple. While everyone could participate if they were from the empire, only those fitting special conditions could contest on the stage. Those conditions were so difficult to achieve that only a handful of youngsters could participate every time. And those people were geniuses amongst geniuses, the future of the empire might. Thus, it was considered an honor to participate. But more than that, to your average commoner, this was an occasion to witness the greatness of martial geniuses. It became a festival. But the territory of the Sea Walker Empire was vast and even though this tournament was held every five year, it wasn’t hold just everywhere. Only the most important and powerful martial schools had the privilege to hold such an event. That is because the imperials would be presiding the event. And this time, it would happen not far from this small village. Two weeks of walk from it. And was organized by the Imposing Thunder Mountain school. One of the biggest martial schools of the empire and one close to the village.

Obviously, Mir didn’t care much about anything. He had been enjoying four years of laziness as a child. However, in his previous world, martial cultivation and such didn’t exist and up until now, he had yet to see a single true martial cultivator. That’s why curiosity appeared inside of him. He looked to his father and answered him with a big smile. Did he want to go? Of course. It wasn’t something he could see many times. Even his father had only seen it once in thirty-six years. How could he miss such a show? What’s more, while it’s true he had been lazy all those years, he still managed to grasp the power behind his eyes. He was hoping he could use them to see what was the difference between a martial cultivator and a non-cultivator. And even more so, if there was a way for him to become one. After all, even to an old man, flying through the skies and diving to the depths was still attractive. He wanted to see for himself the true value of those cultivators.

Two weeks and a day later, they arrived in the territory of the Imposing Thunder Mountain School. While it was composed of many peaks, until the first ones would be open to the public during the tournament. This zone was called the outer court. It was the poorest yet the one with the most disciples. The reason being that it was where every ordinary disciple would be staying. There were three more zones to this school. The inner court was composed of the outstanding disciples and while they numbered less, they were all superior to the outer court ones. Their treatments in the school as well. And finally, the core court. That was the most spacious and luxurious zone yet were there were the least number of disciples. They were the cream of the cream, the best, the true geniuses and future hope of the school. The participants to the tournament would be coming from such places. Of course, there is one more court but it is a forbidden area to disciples. It is named as the ancestor court and only the elders with the highest statuses are allowed there. Mir would only be able to stroll in the outer court of course. He was with his father and a few others from the village. They were farmers so they were poor. They couldn’t just go for so long and sustain their needs alone, they didn’t have that kind of money. Only by forming a group, were they able to go. They ended up having to share a single bedroom together. Counting Mir and is father, they were nine. And it was obviously not the greatest of inns… In such a place at such a time, the prices were quite high and the number of clients was astonishing. Mir had never seen that many people in one place before even in his previous life. There were tens of thousands of peoples, maybe hundreds of thousands. It was that big of an event and this Imposing Thunder Mountain School was that great of a power to be able to host it. Of course, Mir had his sights somewhere else. He wanted to study those so-called martial cultivators. And sure enough, at such an event, it wasn’t hard to find one. It was full of such people.