Moments before the van rolled over, observing the silence, Daniel floated into the air, taking his disciple with him. William, caught by surprise, was momentarily startled to see the ground receding, but he calmed down quickly; for a former astronaut, the lack of gravity was an old acquaintance.
The master's black hair billowed in the wind as he gazed at the horizon, as if peering miles into the distance.
"I will be taking you there, William. But tell me... have you thought about how you are going to save your wife?" Daniel questioned in a solemn tone.
The question, though simple, hit William like a punch. He had assumed his master would solve everything, but now Daniel was handing the responsibility back to him. He didn't understand. Daniel didn't even bother to look away from the horizon as he continued:
"If it were something beyond your capability, I would save her myself. But since it is something you can do, naturally, you shall do it."
William opened his mouth to retort, but the words died in his throat. He had read webnovels where the disciple's life was nothing but training, eating, and sleeping while the master resolved every crisis. But Daniel was an outlier. For the master, saving Juliane would be as easy as breathing; for the disciple, it would be the test of his life.
"He knows she's suffering... he knows I'm anxious, and yet he throws this into my hands. Why can't it be easier?" William thought. He understood then that strength was the price for the right to protect those he loved, but accepting that was still bitter.
Ignoring the frustration written across his pupil's face, Daniel gave the final command:
"Hold your breath for the next ten seconds."
Without waiting for a response, reality shattered. Enwrapped in Daniel's True Ki, William was hurled into an acceleration that defied biology. The world didn't just slow down; sound ceased to exist. At Mach 16, sound died, replaced by a blinding white heat and the sensation that his own mass was trying to escape through the pores of his skin.
Behind them, the sky didn't just roar; it seemed to be torn in half by an invisible blade. William tried to expand his lungs, but the air had been left behind, leaving only an absolute vacuum where atmosphere once resided. Ahead, the compressed air turned into incandescent plasma, transforming them into a bluish fireball that streaked across the firmament like a divine projectile.
Below, the trail of ionized air remained like a glowing scar. Residents of the region looked up, mistaking the phenomenon for a comet, only to be knocked down moments later by the brutal impact of the sonic boom. Windows that didn't shatter flew whole out of their frames under the atmospheric pressure.
It was only ten seconds, but for William, every millisecond was an eternity of sensory terror.
When Daniel stopped instantaneously, miles above the van escorted by the police convoy, space seemed to "clap." A deafening, dry, metallic crack reverberated through the fabric of reality, threatening to burst William's eardrums. While the police were still accelerating out of Schenectady onto the I-90, Daniel and William were already hovering, like sovereigns, over the skies of Amsterdam.
The silence that followed was almost as painful as the roar, broken only by the hiss of residual heat emanating from Daniel's aura.
°°°
William looked down after recovering from the shock. Approaching a kilometer away, he saw a police car and, right behind it, a black van. His eyes sparked, and he let out a sigh of relief at finally reaching his wife's kidnappers.
"So, how will you save her?" The master's question was like a bucket of cold water.
"Master... couldn't you, just this once?" he asked hopefully.
But Daniel simply shook his head in denial.
"Even if she were struck by a missile, she would suffer no harm. As your master, this is the most I will do for her."
William sighed in relief. At least he didn't have to worry about Juliane being hurt or worse.
"But master, how can I stop a van?" William felt lost. His master was akin to the Superman of comic books, but in contrast, he still saw himself as an ordinary man.
Daniel didn't bother to suggest an idea, only clarifying what his disciple hadn't yet processed:
"You have formed your Ki core; you are no longer an ordinary human. Your strength can reach three tons—and that's if you were just a common martial artist—and bullets will be like rubber against your flesh."
William's eyes widened. Knowing he could exert three tons of force and was immune to bullets left him stunned.
"You possess the Extreme Yang Martial Physique," Daniel explained. "All your Ki channels are open, and you use purified Ki—True Ki. This makes you twice as strong as someone at your level!"
Hearing this, William closed his eyes for a moment. After five seconds, a layer of golden energy covered his body. With a grin from ear to ear, he exclaimed:
"Master, look! I managed to use that Ki you talked about!"
Daniel looked at him with satisfaction. Teaching William in martial matters, compared to his other disciples, was like playing on easy mode. Ignoring his pupil's euphoria, he asked once more:
"So, what are you going to do?"
William looked radiant now that he realized the power he possessed.
"Master, can you drop me on the back of the police car leading the van?"
Daniel observed him. William couldn't fly yet; at his current level, he was only at the entrance of a Third Class Martial Artist.
"Are you sure you don't want to observe the surroundings first?" Daniel asked.
William was stunned, not understanding, but now that he realized his own strength, he was increasingly anxious to save his wife.
"Master, why would I do that? There's no need, just drop me on the car! Juliane must be so scared, she's already suffered enough... I can't waste any more time!" William expressed with an anxious gaze.
Daniel shook his head slightly but offered no explanation. Mentally calculating the wind displacement and the exact point from which to drop William so he would land on target, he took his position.
After reaching the right spot, he let William go.
As he fell, William, who was quickly mastering how to conduct energy through his body, concentrated most of his Ki into his legs.
BOOM!
A deafening noise thundered as William struck the roof of the vehicle like a golden meteor. The front of the car arched upward while the rear sank into the asphalt, crushed. The vehicle looked as if it would snap in half.
Inside the car, officers Tom and Jim felt as if they were in a whirlwind. If not for their seatbelts, they would have been launched through the windshield; the impact was enough to knock them unconscious.
Romeo, driving the van six meters behind the police car, panicked.
"Holy shit!" Romeo screamed, but his voice was drowned out by the thunderous crash ahead.
He was following the police car into a curve where the road bordered a steep decline. In a desperate attempt to dodge the wreckage in front of him, the van he was driving tilted dangerously and rolled over three times down the steep embankment.
William, still atop the crumpled metal of the police car, widened his eyes. Even remembering his master's words about Juliane being protected and that she wouldn't suffer any harm, his sense of urgency still made him leap and run toward the overturned van.
Above, Daniel watched it all. He had already checked Juliane: she was fine. Aside from the injuries she already had, she hadn't suffered a single extra scratch in the accident, and she hadn't even fainted from the shock. Despite this, Daniel seemed a bit disappointed. His gaze betrayed the disciple's recklessness.
"With great power comes great responsibility, young William... you still don't understand the weight of your choices," Daniel reflected.
He could solve everything in the blink of an eye, but what if one day he disappeared? His disciples needed to be independent, capable of making decisions under pressure, for he was not omnipresent.
Daniel knew that Earth's calm was an illusion. Currently, while the planet had not yet been strengthened by the original energy essence—the will everyone would call "The System"—he was like a god, capable of tearing through space. But he knew what was coming.
In the future, when the fusion was complete, the fabric of reality would not be so fragile. Daniel remembered the Murim World: where the very density of space was hundreds of thousands of times more resistant. There, where the ground did not shatter so easily and the air vibrated with the presence of beings whose power surpassed his own, William's recklessness would be fatal.
"Perhaps I was expecting too much from a disciple with only one hour of training? It could be, but ignorance is a poison."