Chapter 27
Chapter: 27
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 027
>Chapter Title: The Black Prophets (2)
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>“Actually, I’ve been learning the basics of aura cultivation from Vice-Captain Dimros lately.”
Amelia said as she tore off a piece of bread before the meal.
She’d started studying all sorts of things at the Holy Emperor’s urging and had picked up aura training along the way.
Sir Dimros was the vice-captain of the Royal Guard’s 1st Knight Division. A veteran knight with extensive battlefield experience, he was renowned in the imperial palace as a master of spear arts and the Virose cultivation method.
If you asked who the strongest swordsman in Delcross was aside from the Holy Emperor, everyone would unhesitatingly name Balthazar, captain of the 1st Knight Division.
Tales of how, in his prime on the battlefield, he had single-handedly broken through an encirclement on the southern front and swept away a horde of heretics were still told like legends.
Yet even Balthazar had to concede a step to Dimros when it came to spear arts, which clearly marked him as being on a continental level in pure spear technique.
“But why Virose of all things? Sir Masaine said it’s a bit burdensome for beginners.”
Sungjin tilted his head, pausing mid-chew on his bread.
There was a reason most knights started with the Banahas cultivation method. Its sword techniques and aura flow were consistent and intuitive, without any conflicting elements.
Juggling aura control and proper swordplay was mentally taxing enough; if the aura flowed arbitrarily on top of that, the entry barrier would skyrocket exponentially.
Virose was different.
—Not that I should say this about the Holy Empire’s standard cultivation art, but Virose is a bit sneaky.
Masaine had given that assessment with a sour face.
Even in its most basic thrust, the aura split sequentially into two directions to maximize penetration.
The process of coating the weapon with aura also followed two directions by default. At the final form of spear arts, you had to coat the weapon with aura in four directions and make it rotate—truly a fiendish cultivation method.
That was why so few knights ever reached mastery in Virose.
Amelia replied in a dejected tone.
“How was I supposed to know that beforehand? I just answered Father’s question about what I wanted to learn with ‘spear arts.’”
Ah, so that’s why they assigned her the spear arts master.
For someone at his level, who circulated aura ‘as his heart desired,’ four directions or ten wouldn’t matter much. Did he even grasp the struggles of a beginner?
“But why spear arts out of nowhere? Isn’t the sword usually more familiar?”
“Um…….”
She looked at Sungjin with an odd gaze, then broke into a bright smile.
“Someone I know throws spears really well. It looked so cool that I wanted to try it myself.”
Just swing your arm once, and bam—the castle wall crumbles.
The enemy soldiers go screaming like that.
As Amelia flailed her hands in explanation, not only her guard knight behind her but even Edith, who was serving the meal, blushed and gazed at her adoringly, as if she were the cutest thing ever.
Hey, everyone. Your adorable princess is talking about blowing away an enemy castle with one strike from her own hand. You know that, right?
“So I started spear training, but even after practicing, I had no feel for what I was doing. I couldn’t understand Sir Dimros’s explanations at all.”
Sungjin knew well how a total novice with no martial foundation, just starting to sense aura, would find cultivation explanations sound like grasping at clouds.
Even he, a seasoned monster hunter despite his depleted aura, had struggled with Masaine’s instructions for a while.
“But watching you train today, it suddenly clicked. Like, ah, this is what aura practice is…….”
The girl’s pale cheeks flushed rose-pink, her clear eyes sparkling like stars.
“For some reason, it feels like cultivation will start getting fun.”
It was the face of someone utterly captivated. People like that always progressed quickly no matter what they threw themselves into.
Sungjin smiled warmly, thinking Amelia might soon make a breakthrough in aura cultivation.
That was before her next words.
“To think everything aimed at revenge could make life this enjoyable.”
Wait, sis. You’re learning spear arts for revenge?
To smash people with that castle-toppling power?
He could see the guard knight and Edith cheering her on from the bottom of their hearts, toward the enthusiastic, beautiful girl.
No need to ask—they were probably thinking, ‘Go for it, Your Highness! Whoever the target is, just obliterate them!’
Suddenly, Sungjin felt sorry for whoever was on the receiving end of that revenge.
* * *
Sir Masaine, who’d said he’d return for afternoon lessons, never showed up at the training grounds.
Whatever. Sungjin decided to review his sword forms alone, running through Forms 1 to 5 in sequence.
But something strange happened. As he swung his wooden sword vigorously, the movements felt choppy and disjointed, unlike before.
“…Hm?”
Sungjin cocked his head and redeployed Forms 1 and 2—the ones he’d practiced hardest and felt most confident in.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Thrust.
“…Hm?”
Same thing. The familiar rhythm was subtly off, disrupting the flow as he chained the forms. Why was this happening all of a sudden?
Hm? Huh? What?
Flustered, he kept repeating Form 1, when someone cautiously spoke up beside him.
“…Y-Your Highness Moreth. You can’t just weave aura like that. If you don’t follow the basic cultivation flow, the form connections will twist.”
Sungjin turned his head.
The speaker was a resident knight he’d seen around enough to be familiar with. Small build, slightly protruding front teeth—Sungjin recalled thinking he looked a bit cheeky.
Having pointed it out on impulse, the knight now looked more startled himself, hastily covering his mouth. The other knights had stopped training to stare over.
“Ah, forgive me! I spoke without thinking…. I didn’t mean to interrupt your training…….”
“No, not at all. And you are?”
“Yes, Your Highness! I’m Haven of the Royal Guard’s 3rd Knight Division!”
The knight quickly placed a hand over his heart and bowed. But Sungjin focused on something else.
“So, I… wove aura?”
Leaving him there, Sungjin slowly executed Form 1. He tilted his head and did it once more.
The knight who’d introduced himself as Haven flinched reflexively with every swing, as if expecting Sungjin to strike him down any second.
“…It’s real?”
After repeating Form 1 three times, Sungjin finally grasped what the knight meant.
During morning meditation, he’d accidentally formed four layers, and now his aura flow was strong enough to visibly affect his movements. That was why Masaine had said entry-level training started at three layers.
Unknowingly, he’d been channeling it through his muscles like he used to with monster essence. No wonder the movements felt awkward and the rhythm off.
Sungjin flashed a big smile at the still-tense, huddled knight.
“Haven, was it? Impressive. I didn’t even realize I was flowing aura—how’d you spot it?”
The training ground seemed to brighten instantly, making Haven blink in surprise.
The usually sullen 3rd Prince was a boy with a surprisingly radiant smile.
“Th-There are often people who skip basic cultivation and later get their movements tangled. It starts with messing up the weave between Form 1 and 2. You can tell just by looking. It’s a common squire mistake.”
Haven was explaining eagerly to Sungjin without realizing it. Gone was his earlier anxiety about getting hit.
“Ah, so that’s how you knew I was flowing it arbitrarily! I thought maybe aura was visible or something.”
“How could you see aura flowing through the body, unless it’s external? It’s just that proper aura flow changes the movement slightly, so we spot and correct it.”
“I see. So you can tell how the aura’s flowing just from the motion…….”
Sungjin nodded.
“That means a high level of understanding for each form, right? As expected of imperial knights.”
He was genuinely impressed.
Honestly, he’d inwardly dismissed the resident knights as mediocre until now. Once his stamina recovered a bit, he figured he could hold his own against them without aura.
But even this low-ranking knight had expert insight into aura cultivation and swordsmanship. The resident knights were earning his respect anew.
Hearing the quiet mutter of admiration, a flicker of pride crossed Haven’s face.
“So, how should I train from now? My layers jumped today, and I haven’t learned the proper weaving from Sir Masaine yet.”
He’d heard a couple form-weaving methods before sensing aura properly, but that wouldn’t let him execute forms correctly. Should he wait for Masaine…….
Haven flinched at the question, unsure how to answer, when another voice cut in from behind.
“Binding aura in your dantian is training in itself, Your Highness.”
“And you are……?”
She was a somewhat unfamiliar knight. Her wheat-blonde hair was tied up messily, stray strands poking out, but her expression was gravely stern, suggesting experience.
Her face stiffened at his casual question, so Sungjin quickly apologized.
“Sorry if we’ve met. My memory’s fuzzy after the illness, so…….”
“N-No, Your Highness! I’m Maria of the 1st Knight Division. I was just assigned to Pearl Palace recently. My greetings are late.”
She waved her hands frantically—not out of anger, but the type whose face stiffened when tense, it seemed.
“So, binding the aura?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Her voice cracked high with nerves. Despite her seasoned look, she got tense easily, Sungjin thought.
Of course, he didn’t realize most of that tension came from her notorious reputation as a hopeless case.
“Th-The entry to cultivation is best taught solidly by Sir Masaine. Our explanations might just ingrain bad habits, so why not practice binding aura in your dantian instead…….”
According to her, even skilled knights sometimes deliberately bound their aura in the dantian during training.
It reinforced the difference before and after weaving aura, reminded them of proper operation, and corrected basic swordsmanship prone to distortion from weaving habits.
Plus, restraining aura that wanted to circulate the whole body and making it rotate in the dantian was great practice for fluid control.
“That’s… a brilliant idea.”
Sungjin’s eyes lit up. If arbitrary flow was messing up his movements, deliberately not flowing it—like she suggested—should fix it naturally.
He stood still, observing his dantian. The aura swirled nicely there.
Maintaining it as-is, he swung the wooden sword a couple times. He pulled back the aura trying to flow habitually down his arms.
“This…….”
Tricky, but it seemed workable?
“Thanks, Sir Maria! I’ll give it a try!”
Sungjin waved brightly at her, then dove into the new practice.
Pull to dantian. Gather the aura that habitually flowed through his body.
The choppy movements began regaining their flow bit by bit.
Not just the dantian aura, but even what he absorbed through breathing—none went to his limbs. Exclude all aura that disrupted the movements from the swordplay.
It was a profoundly new experience. The energies he’d habitually used now approached in stark, clear forms.
Only after fully blocking the aura did he clearly recognize their shapes and sequences.
The gradually connecting forms finally linked completely, flowing smoothly from one to the next like water. Sungjin fell into a trance, riding the rhythm in his sword dance once more.
The resident knights had all stopped training, watching the 3rd Prince swing his wooden sword raptly.
“Senior, be honest. You panicked after throwing that out, didn’t you?”
A knight with a red nose teased Maria.
“I didn’t think he’d actually pull it off…….”
Maria shook her head. She’d spoken on impulse, but binding aura wasn’t beginner-level difficulty.
Many struggled for years just to flow aura clearly from dantian to limbs. That’s why cultivation entry was called a matter of talent.
Yet this young prince, right after stacking three-plus layers, had naturally circulated it to his limbs without even knowing.
And now, reversing that ingrained smooth flow to bind it fully in the dantian?
That was a whole level higher than forming and flowing it.
Prince Moreth really is a genius.
Amid the resident knights staring entranced, one young knight with a gloomy face turned and quietly left the training grounds.