Qi Condensation (2)
The duel began with the first stance of Danak Sword Art and Dammak Sword Art.
Wolak and Mearal clashed in their opening moves.
I crossed my stance horizontally and swept downward, but my opponent mirrored the move with a horizontal slash before immediately shifting to a low stance.
My will, however, crushed the low stance and transformed into a maneuver that sliced through Kim Young-hoon’s face once more.
We were still at the peak of the Extreme Realm level.
Red and blue lines of energy crossed in the void.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
Clear, crisp sword and blade sounds rang out together, shaking the unarmed arena.
Dozens of attacks slammed into each other in an instant.
Danak, Sansuhwa, Yongmaek, Yurung, Ipsan, Deungmaek…
I raised my blade, spun wildly, then slashed downward and thrust, followed by a low stance and another upward slash.
Yet Danak’s stance spun like a mountain guardian’s and repelled it, while Sansuhwa and Yongmaek flowed away like water from the hands of a mountain spirit.
Yurung was dodged with a mountain bird’s stance, then I closed in.
Ipsan and Deungmaek were repelled with a low stance that shook the ground beneath my feet and stirred the center of gravity.
Danak Sword, Forty-Nine Radiant Dawn Peaks!
Forty-nine sword qis hurtled toward Kim Young-hoon.
Dammak Sword, Mountain Heat Vibration!
Kim Young-hoon’s wild dance, fiercer than Sansuhwa’s, completely repelled my sword qis.
Our blades met in a clash, and dozens of red and blue wills crossed in the void.
Through that brief gap came an immense gap.
But we were still at the peak of the Extreme Realm level.
Our gazes met and held.
No words were needed.
We stepped into the world beyond the Purple as promised, letting our wills pass through each other.
Now we had reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown level!
So far it had been nothing more than a polite exchange of one move.
Now the real preliminary battle was about to begin.
We read each other’s wills and changed posture again and again with every step we took.
We shifted seven times while circling with the Three Postures, then eight more times while polishing our qi techniques, finally locking eyes with the single ultimate stance.
Kim Young-hoon pretended to take the Mountain Wind stance, then instantly switched to the Mountain Echo qi technique.
I changed from Mountain Song Response to Mountain Echo’s qi technique, then poured every ounce of Mountain Echo’s power into my blade and sent it back.
In the flow of our wills, the colors of the qi we emitted gradually multiplied.
Every time I drew a sword, I received a will.
Were you well?
Boom!
I repelled his attack with the Rock Block stance, feigned a low qi technique with Ipsan, then gently thrust upward with Yurung.
You were well. I hope you are unharmed.
The colors of our wills passed back and forth.
Unharmed. Seeing that you are well, my heart grows at ease.
Kim Young-hoon’s footwork became light and agile.
He vanished from my sight for a moment, then suddenly slipped into my embrace and raised his blade to slash.
Mountain Bird Stance!
By the way, shall we play properly now?
Good.
The preliminary battle ends.
We both stepped into the realm of Five Qi Consorting with the Origin as promised.
Our consciousness realms overlapped.
With the Overlapping Mountains stance, I scattered sword gangs in all directions and blocked Kim Young-hoon’s single strike.
Immediately after, I used the Mountain Hero stance to pour concentrated qi at him.
There was something I wanted to ask since long ago.
A dragon’s head rose through the clouds.
With the White Head stance, dozens of blade qis slashed upward, and the Riding Dragon stance tore apart the concentrated qi as if biting the Mountain Hero.
Dammak Sword taught me that you gained a connection from me, right?
Dammak Sword, Great Dry, followed White Head immediately.
All his blade qis merged into a single path and became a single slash capable of cleaving even a thousand-year-old pine, shooting toward me.
Is this martial art not a connection but one you created yourself?
Danak Sword, Mountain Valley Transformation, met it head-on.
I poured my sword qis into his blade qis and shook them as if an earthquake had struck, dispersing the energy.
Another gap opened between us.
The gap battle at Five Qi Consorting with the Origin had already surpassed the Extreme Realm by a dimension.
Predictions through simple will paths were replaced by vague, ever-present foreknowledge that felt like a dream.
Kim Young-hoon’s blade severed my sword.
My blade pierced his heart.
But it was all an illusion born of killing intent in each other’s consciousness realm.
It was also a clash at Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
A mere clash became reality as qi condensed into the air and sword and blade qis exploded outward in all directions.
It was only a gap battle, but at Five Qi Consorting with the Origin, qi covered the killing intent, turning the clash into raw reality and creating countless sword and blade scars.
The unarmed arena floor cracked with every impact.
The boundary array of the unarmed arena now activated to block attacks of Qi Condensation Layer 14 or higher, blocking our qis.
Even that array shook from the powerful qi collision.
A flash of light.
Now Kim Young-hoon and I were probably invisible to low-level Qi Condensation cultivators with weak consciousnesses.
We crossed the end of the unarmed arena multiple times.
The trajectory of our qis lingered in the void of the battle room without fading.
And between those traces, we collided again.
Why do you ask?
Sword light and blade light crossed in the void, each weaving the aura of dragon and tiger.
You know, don’t you? If you taught me this martial art, you must understand what will is embedded in it.
The will embedded in martial arts.
I know it too well.
No, I watched Kim Young-hoon create Dammak Sword when he made it in the second loop.
In the second loop, when we were making the Three Flowers Gathering, Kim Young-hoon spent months refining the twelve stances of my Danak Sword until they became the ultimate martial art.
From the Danak Sword created for dull aptitude, I removed every stance that raised aptitude, merged them all, and extracted only the essential part.
That was Dammak Sword.
Dammak Sword was a genius martial art created by Kim Young-hoon for himself.
At the same time, it was a martial art soaked in his thoughts when he made it.
It was still early in the loop.
He was studying martial arts while missing his parted comrades and the hometown he could never see again.
Just looking at the stance name told me.
Dammak Sword, Return to Hometown!
Beyond his blade, the same as Danak Sword’s Forty-Nine Radiant Dawn Peaks, but with far more ferocious variations.
The stances the genius Kim Young-hoon made for a man who wanted to return home poured down on me.
That was why Kim Young-hoon asked me now.
Because the will of a man who yearns for his house itself is carried in the martial art.
He is asking me now.
Why do you ask?
Because I wondered if you yearn for your home.
But in this loop, Kim Young-hoon thought Dammak Sword was one I created, so he is asking whether I yearn for my home.
Of course I do. Sometimes I cry holding my sword out of unbearable longing.
I spun dozens of times with the Nine Peaks Eight Seas stance and repelled Kim Young-hoon’s attacks.
Then I gathered dozens of attacks into a single point and pressed him.
Kwaang! Kwaaak!
The unarmed arena had already become nothing but mud from our fight.
Bang!
Our blades met again, and fragments of shattered blue stone flew between us.
The consciousness at Five Qi Consorting with the Origin had become even more extreme.
Not just one fragment, but countless fragments flying outward.
The trajectories of qi, eyes full of awe watching us through the dust cloud.
Every side of the space we stood in filled my mind.
I faced him in the state closest to the front line.
You know, don’t you? The secret of Dammak Sword. The meaning of the Blade Tomb.
Our wills passed back and forth.
Is that so…?
He smiled a little sadly and took a qi stance.
I sensed his meaning and took the stance properly.
The heart you left in this martial art was painfully empathetic at first.
In truth, it was not mine but the heart left behind by the Kim Young-hoon of the past life.
But I listened to his will and, at the same time, unleashed the stance.
Wolak, Ipsan, Deungmaek…
But when I mastered the martial art, raised my realm, and finally touched the Ever Ascend, Ever Ascend record, I swore.
Kim Young-hoon’s blade cut through the air.
Mearal, Mountain Guardian, Mountain Spirit…
Must… must raise my realm. Must surpass the cultivator and go beyond the limit of non-will…
A clash beyond the Extreme Realm opened between us.
I unleashed stances faster and faster.
Yurung, Rock Block, Rock Stone, Sansuhwa, Yongmaek, Danak, Forty-Nine Radiant Dawn Peaks…
Must… must find a way back home!
Mountain Wind, Mountain Heat Vibration, Mountain Bird, Mountain Echo, Mountain Sound, Mountain Waist…
The explosion between our blades was so fierce my eyes could not see.
In a battle that numbed my senses, I felt his will.
This is impossible…
His blade method kept coming relentlessly.
Dragon Tomb, White Head, Great Dry, Moon Mountain, Return to Hometown…
Our qi techniques merged, and finally the secret will of Danak Sword and Dammak Sword extended.
Danak Sword, Twenty-Second Stance.
“Cut Peak!”
Kim Young-hoon’s will flowed out and the stance name spilled into the void.
Dammak Sword, Fifteenth Stance.
“Blade Tomb!”
The extremes of a martial art for geniuses and one for dull aptitude blazed toward each other.
With Mearal’s spirit, I crossed mountains again and again.
Just as a dragon crosses its head, Dragon Tomb led me toward the White Head Great Dry of our hometown.
No matter which mountain I crossed, I wanted to return.
But it was impossible, so in this life I would make this blade my tomb.
Beyond the dazzling light of the blade, I seemed to hear Kim Young-hoon’s will flowing through Dammak Sword.
Qi collided, shock waves erupted, and the array covering the unarmed arena shattered.
At the same time, several Foundation Establishment cultivators rose and hurriedly added new barriers.
In principle, the secret of Danak Sword, Cut Peak, and the secret of Dammak Sword, Blade Tomb, were equal martial arts.
If they collided, it should have been a draw or mutual destruction.
But I saw.
Kim Young-hoon was unfolding Ever Ascend, Ever Ascend record.
The history of a new martial art created by a single genius who lived and passed it on!
From his hands, very slowly, like he was explaining it to me.
Ah, I see.
This was the next step beyond Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
Based on the unbearable longing for home, he would one day raise his realm and show the oath to return to his home.
This is impossible.
We had likely come to this world in relation to the Ascension Gate, and if we wanted to return, we had to enter it.
But the Ascension Gate was a door that opened once every thousand years. It had opened this time.
With the short lifespan of a martial artist, it was impossible to reach the Ascension Gate in this life.
My own goal was to become a cultivator, gain a long lifespan, and challenge the Ascension Gate with even greater strength.
He was saying he would overcome the same goal with nothing but his own talent and will.
‘The Kim Young-hoon who said he would bury bones beneath this blade… has surpassed it!’
Beyond the Blade Tomb stance, the Ever Ascend, Ever Ascend record.
Beyond that, the Astral Qi Compression Orb!
I watched the detailed explanation of the Ever Ascend, Ever Ascend record he unfolded and understood the conditions for surpassing Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
I will continue to open the realm of non-will without end and, someday with the help of the Jin family sect, go to the place called the Ascension Gate.
They say the place we are from is Deungsunhyang, a forest leading to the Ascension Gate. If I can only reach there…
This is impossible.
But I could not bear to trample his hope.
The Ascension Gate was already closed this time, so we would have to wait a thousand years.
What was I saying?
Instead of telling him that cruel truth, I asked something else.
Why are you telling me all this?
Because you had hope too.
I etched the Astral Qi Compression Orb he unfolded into my eyes and, as my blade was torn apart by the sword qi, I was repelled with tremendous rebound force.
Kwaaaang!
I was thrown harshly backward, slammed into the array, and spat out a mouthful of blood.
What is the name of that realm?
I stopped the will conversation and asked him with a grin.
In the history of martial arts, he was the first to reach that realm, so it was only right that he name it.
He had already reached that realm much faster.
Perhaps he could even evolve the Ever Ascend, Ever Ascend record within this life!
Kim Young-hoon answered with a calm face.
“Deungbongjogeuk.”
“Haha… that’s a name worthy of you.”
I, feeling the enlightenment of non-will, passed out.