Mixed Origin Art
The power of the White Gold Token that Extreme Line possessed showed its worth even in a place like this.
Not a simple training hall, but a stone chamber—one that could be sealed off at the entrance for secluded training.
It was the sort of place that made me wonder why the Murim Alliance would build something like this when they weren’t even a sect or a martial family.
Normally, if you wanted to train in seclusion, wouldn’t you just go back to your own sect and do it there?
But when I thought about it, it wasn’t all that strange after all.
How should I put it? Right—kind of like a VIP lounge at an airport.
Important guests should be given every convenience, so if you’re the Murim Alliance, it only makes sense to keep facilities like this ready for use at any time.
Anyway, Extreme Line, Baek Jin-ah, and I were about to do a proper test.
Extreme Line looked at me with eager anticipation. Baek Jin-ah, as always, wore a face full of curiosity.
“Then I’ll start by increasing the force little by little.”
“Very well.”
I was curious too. And since the stage had been set like this, I should check it systematically.
First, I gathered about one star’s worth of internal energy in both hands.
Left hand, Purple Sunset Divine Art. Right hand, Ice Soul Divine Art.
Separated yang energy and yin energy. Two hands holding opposite forces.
Even calling it one star didn’t mean it was a small amount. With both hands held out before me, I slowly brought them together.
Clap!
Along with the smack of my palms, a boom of impact rolled outward in all directions.
Just that was enough to send my hair and collar whipping violently. Extreme Line and Baek Jin-ah, who had been standing a little farther back, reacted the same way.
The power was... not something I could ignore.
It was a completely different level from when I had merely gathered a little and tapped it with my finger.
“What level would you say that was?”
“Ah. That was one-star power.”
“You mean one star? Hmm...”
Extreme Line’s reaction was ambiguous. Was that less than expected? Or more than expected?
“This time it’ll be two stars.”
When I gathered two-star internal energy in both hands, the chill and heat became distinctly noticeable.
Violet energy gathered in my left hand, and a thin film of frost formed over my right.
“Here I go!?”
When our palms met with a sharp smack, the impact that erupted this time was on a completely different scale from before.
Extreme Line’s eyes widened. Baek Jin-ah’s did too.
“You mean this is two-star power?”
“Yes.”
“Hah...”
This time I could tell for sure. It meant more than expected.
So he had been surprised even earlier. He wasn’t disappointed.
“Then next is four stars. This is the maximum I can produce.”
As I said that, I gathered my internal energy.
Ice Soul Divine Art, four stars. Purple Sunset Divine Art, four stars.
At least it was a relief that the Purple Sunset Divine Art had reached four stars on its own. That way, I could finally keep things balanced.
Anyway, once I drew the energy together, the cold in my right hand and the violet radiance in my left became unmistakably clear.
But... was this really okay? I was a little worried.
I still hadn’t figured out why my body was fine, had I?
Still, I might as well try it. Surely I wasn’t going to die from this.
Ah, no. I shouldn’t think like that. Isn’t that the sort of thing men say right before they die?
Clap—my palms met, and then with a thunderous crash, the force exploded outward.
It was probably about the same as when I grabbed that man’s sword. More or less.
But now that I looked at it, it didn’t seem like the sort of impact that would send a master of the Transformation Realm rolling across the floor.
Was it because his body had already been in poor shape? Or because he’d been caught off guard?
It probably was something like that.
And this time, unlike before, there was something I could feel clearly.
A throbbing sensation in my body? A little strain, maybe?
Back then, I’d been too flustered to feel it properly. Come to think of it, my adrenaline had probably been off the charts.
The force of four-star power was several times stronger than when I had gathered two-star energy and struck it against itself.
Could it be... does the power scale by squares?
Two squared is four. But four squared is sixteen.
Comparing the force, it felt roughly like that. Maybe about four times stronger than before.
What was strange was that the floor was perfectly fine.
What was it made of? Now I was curious.
Then again, there were plenty of people stronger than me. They said that once someone reached the Profound Realm, they could split mountains and cleave rivers.
Take Extreme Line himself, for instance. He was absurdly powerful.
If you wanted to withstand the release of internal energy from people like that, ordinary stone slabs simply wouldn’t do. They were probably specially made slabs.
Which meant only those with White Gold Tokens could come here.
“Heh heh...”
In any case, Extreme Line let out a dry laugh as he looked at what I’d done.
It was the first time I’d ever seen him make a face like that. He’d always been unbending when it came to martial arts.
He walked over to me, hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
“Child.”
“Yes, senior.”
“That burst of energy just now—was that four-star power?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you did not pour out all of your power. Is that not so?”
That was true. I still had a lot of internal energy left.
So... this was the maximum output I could produce at once, but not my full strength.
“Would you like to compress your qi?”
“Compress my qi?”
“It is a little different from ordinary compression. Simply put, you would be condensing energy into your hands.”
From that alone, I roughly understood what he meant.
So he wanted me to gather my qi.
“I’ll try it. But I’m a little worried. Just now my body was already aching a little, you know? If the power gets even stronger than that here, I feel like I’ll be in danger too.”
Hearing that, Extreme Line covered his mouth with a hand and fell into serious thought.
Then he looked at me and said, “Would you like to try again? This time, only use one-star power.”
“Yes. Then... senior? You might want to step back a bit...”
“No need. Just do it.”
He was calm, almost indifferent.
Come to think of it, someone like Extreme Line could probably withstand one-star power without breaking a sweat. I’d be the one getting arrogant if I kept worrying like this.
“All right. I’ll give it a try.”
I tried again. My palms met, and the impact spread in all directions.
But Extreme Line was fine. This time not even his hair or collar moved.
It was as if a transparent wall had absorbed every bit of the force.
Was that his protective qi? It looked incredibly refined.
“Now that I’m seeing it up close, I understand at last, child. When you do this, you aren’t spreading internal energy through your body at all, are you?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean your protective qi. Even if protective qi naturally clings to the body, shouldn’t you still spread more of your inner energy when necessary to thicken it?”
At that, I went a little blank.
I wasn’t using protective qi separately at all, though?
Only then did I understand everything. I’d basically been playing with fire while carrying a bucket of oil.
Golden Dragon Body had been blocking all of this impact for me, so I hadn’t even considered wrapping myself in protective qi separately.
It was a miracle nothing had gone wrong. If things had gone differently, I might have ended up killing myself with my own attack.
It was also fortunate that Extreme Line wasn’t checking my body directly.
If he realized that I hadn’t used protective qi at all and that Golden Dragon Body had been taking the full brunt of the force, what would he think?
Anyway, I tried again immediately.
Fortunately, I had Hoboshin Gong, the light-footwork technique I’d learned in the library last time.
Using its principles as a reference, I wrapped my body in protective qi. Ah. It wasn’t really Ganggi, so should I call it protective aura instead?
Wait, so you could manually distribute internal energy into protective qi? I was learning that for the first time.
Wasn’t protective qi supposed to respond automatically when you got hit, like a rebound skill?
“Yes. That is how it should be done.”
Extreme Line nodded as I wrapped myself in protective qi.
Ah. Right. That was much more stable than before.
“So I need to gather energy in both hands while also thickening the internal energy around my body?”
“Is that not obvious?”
Come to think of it, an attack I used wouldn’t only harm others. This wasn’t a game.
In games, if I cast Hellfire, I don’t take damage from it.
It’s an area attack, too. And allies don’t get hurt at all either.
Of course, there are games that do implement that sort of thing. But it’s kind of a hassle.
In any case, this wasn’t a game. Or rather—the system might be game-like, but this was reality.
So the conclusion was that I’d only stayed fine thanks to Golden Dragon Body.
If I hadn’t had Golden Dragon Body, this stunt of mine would have been a very flashy suicide move.
“Then I’ll try it.”
“Very well.”
Extreme Line spoke as calmly as ever. Was this really okay? Even for Extreme Line, wasn’t he being a little too confident?
The power should be pretty substantial... I didn’t know. He told me to try, so I’d try.
I gathered internal energy into my hands.
Compression. Condensing qi.
It was a bit like building up meter in a fighting game.
Spending time to gather and compress energy so that, in one burst, I could unleash more than my maximum output.
And as I gathered my qi like that, Extreme Line’s brows twitched.
Then I saw him hurriedly reinforce his protective qi.
He even looked a little flustered.
Well, that was only natural. I was worried too.
The energy gathering in my hands felt... dangerous.
Could my body really survive this? Should I trust Golden Dragon Body?
I had protective qi now, too, so let’s try to endure it. It should be fine. Surely I wasn’t going to die from this, right?
Damn it? I thought that again!
Internal energy gathered in both hands.
Brightly surging violet heat and rippling blue-white cold.
Then I brought my hands together.
Clap—the two palms met, and the sound rang out sharply.
And then, following that, with a deafening roar, the impact flew in every direction.
The space bursting apart. The world spreading outward. Sound, sensation, everything vanishing for an instant.
“Kuh.”
I clearly heard Extreme Line suck in his breath.
It was like hearing it through a dream.
But why did he look so unshaken? He had made a sound, sure, but he still looked utterly fine. It was almost disappointing.
So this was Extreme Line, then? Being the greatest expert in the female branch wasn’t something he’d gotten by sheer trickery.
After that wave of impact passed, fortunately my body didn’t seem to have any serious issues.
Instead, after spending so much internal energy, my body felt heavy as soaked cotton. A little stiff, maybe?
And... the stone chamber floor had become a complete mess.
The area where Extreme Line and I stood remained perfectly intact in a neat circle, but everywhere else the slabs had split, shattered, and scattered in all directions.
“You’re telling me you destroyed a blue stone floor this badly...”
Extreme Line looked around with an expression of disbelief, then turned to me.
He seemed unable to believe what he was seeing. Like: what on earth is this?
But I was even more shocked.
Right now my Ice Soul Divine Art and Purple Sunset Divine Art were only at four stars. Four stars out of a full twelve-star completion.
If four stars was this much... then what on earth would it be like at full completion?
“Child.”
“Yes, senior.”
“Have you given this a separate name?”
“Um... how about Yin-Yang Union...?”
“Tsk. Don’t keep saying things like that out loud! How vulgar.”
Extreme Line shot me a sidelong glare, embarrassed.
No, but how was I supposed to avoid saying it when he reacted like that?
“Then how about Mixed Origin Art?”
When I dropped the joke and spoke seriously, Extreme Line thought for a moment, then nodded.
“That’s not bad. Then let Haecheng come quickly. That way your Mixed Origin Art will sound even more fitting.”
As he said that, Extreme Line’s eyes gleamed.
Honestly, that man really is a martial arts fanatic.
Yeah. You’d have to be at least that obsessed to reach a level like his.