Chapter 9
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Teach Me Magic
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It was a night when rain poured down unusually heavily.
Ha Cheol-hyeok, who had been wandering the mountains in search of food, discovered a cave deep within them.
Caves in the mountains were naturally dangerous.
If he ran into a bear by chance, he'd be dead in the blink of an eye.
But at the time, he had no other choice.
To avoid freezing to death, he had to find shelter from the rain.
Was it heavenly fortune?
Fortunately, the cave was empty.
It was quite spacious—a natural haven where he could even stretch out fully.
The only drawback was how pristine it was. Not a single patch of moss grew anywhere.
He searched every inch of the cave, but nothing edible turned up.
'First things first, I need to dry off.'
No one had taught him, but Ha Cheol-hyeok was instinctively grasping the art of survival.
He stripped off his soaked clothes, wrung out the water, spread them flat on the ground.
Then he leaned his back against the cave wall and hugged his knees tight.
He intended to stay perfectly still until the rain let up, hoarding every scrap of strength.
But right then, a miracle occurred.
Rumble...
The wall against his back cracked open, revealing a hidden passage.
He learned later that it was designed to open only after a person relinquished all their possessions.
For a boy who had nothing to discard—who'd never owned a thing to begin with—it hardly counted as a test.
At the passage's end lay the supreme secret art: the Return Heart Technique.
It was the moment the forsaken boy, ignored by the world, was reborn.
Strange fate.
Destiny, truly?
The bizarre encounter that befell a starving boy in the Central Plains stretched across to the Sobles Continent, now reaching Ruyan.
Return Heart Technique!
True to its name, it meant sending things back to their original state.
While other martial arts fixated solely on building internal energy, the Return Heart Technique worked in reverse.
Its core principle: expel the energy amassed in the dantian back into nature. What followed was astonishing.
'Nature's energy is like water, like wind.'
When a space empties, it draws from the full, refilling naturally. Water does it. Wind does it. Even air.
That's nature's law.
'To accumulate, first empty.'
An emptied dantian refills on principle—no effort required.
Store the influx, release it again, and the dantian expands as internal energy swells.
This "Emptiness"—the Return Heart Technique's secret—enabled accumulation at six times the normal speed.
So what happened when Ruyan, lacking a dantian, circulated it?
'Emptying the internal energy remains the same either way.'
His virtual dantian had hit a physical wall, but Ruyan reframed it.
Not scattered.
Released!
Nature's interlocking gears began to turn.
Whoooong...
Denser natural energy than before surged into his virtual dantian in waves.
Ruyan channeled the gathered power into another Lesser Heavenly Circuit attempt.
It collapsed every time, of course.
Energy dispersed repeatedly, only to refill just as fast.
Ten times. Twenty. Cycles of the Return Heart Technique looped endlessly.
The flow persisted until Ruyan halted his meditation.
Pang!
As his eyes opened, the circulation shattered, energy scattering in all directions.
The virtual dantian vanished in an instant. The power that had filled his body drained away.
'Perfect. One more month, and the dantian will be complete.'
The virtual one had crumbled, but its vivid traces lingered.
Deepened grooves would carve the final form. That moment birthed a true dantian.
Not a real one, perhaps, but identical as a vessel for gathering and cycling energy.
'It might even evolve beyond a natural dantian.'
Real dantians had structural limits. Ruyan's? None.
A true vessel of nature, capable of holding thirty cycles with ease—not three.
'Heh. New realms unfolding in this body.'
Ruyan quelled his unknowingly soaring spirits.
He'd thought one brush with Heart Demon Deviation had purged his greed. But at his core, he was a warrior.
On the path home after training, Ruyan's expression darkened abruptly.
He'd just heard Blanc stirring restlessly inside the house.
'Even with a dantian formed, internal energy's the issue... No solution yet, even for me.'
The Return Heart Technique offered sixfold accumulation speed, but flaws existed.
The biggest: no aid from spirit herbs.
Pure energy cycled from nature rejected all artificial infusions.
'Dad needs one cycle's worth to heal... How can I wait ten years?'
It wasn't a fresh worry.
Ruyan had agonized over faster accumulation methods nonstop.
He couldn't leave Blanc in agony for a decade.
Yet even in his profound realm of pure inaction, he felt powerless here.
'Return Heart Technique alone won't cut it?'
Other paths deserved consideration.
That's when he realized he'd dismissed entirely new martial arts.
'Ah! Arrogance blinded me.'
He who'd scrutinized even the Demonic Cult's corpse puppet arts had grown narrow after arriving here.
'Magic! What of it?'
The energy he called internal power? Here, it was mana.
Not just a name difference—the texture felt heavier.
Similar vibe, worlds apart in handling.
'Everyone here erects walls around the heart to trap mana.'
Mages, knights alike confined it via bizarre mana circles.
The antithesis of martial arts.
No pursuit of nature through meditative breathing—just walls carving out space.
Fill one layer? Stack another atop for fresh capacity.
'Dad's a 4th Circle Mage, so four walls over his heart.'
Pure growth speed outpaced Central Plains arts.
Each circle skyrocketed realms—efficient as hell.
'Drawbacks must bite just as hard.'
Stagnant water festers. Forcibly confined mana stayed impure.
Worse, no meditative breathing meant glacial recovery post-expenditure.
Blanc slaving as a laborer despite 4th Circle status? Mana conservation.
'I need that speed regardless. Can I claim both martial and magic strengths?'
Fusing alien arts wasn't child's play.
Even for realm-transcended Ruyan, tailoring it to magic posed fresh challenges.
It'd forge an entirely new path—neither martial nor magic.
'Overcomplicate it, and there's no end. Simplify...'
After deep rumination, Ruyan shifted his very approach.
'Mana circles in the dantian, not the heart?'
Uncharted territory. Reckless, even. But Ruyan was dead serious.
What was impossible?
He was already forging a dantian from nothing—why balk at mana circles?
'A Heavenly Martial Body holds anything.'
Heart-bound circles? Off-limits. But Ruyan was a blank canvas.
Feasible for him.
Yet another snag tripped him up.
'How exactly do you form a mana circle?'
Memories gave rough outlines, but no specifics.
He needed mages' deeper theories.
Thud.
Fatefully, a thick sheaf of papers snagged his foot.
Blanc's research journal, strewn across the yard after dozing off mid-study.
Unassuming litter, yet the fruit of a genius mage's life.
As Ruyan descended the mountain post-dawn training, he spotted Blanc pacing the front yard.
Blanc looked downright jittery.
He belatedly noticed Ruyan and bolted over.
"Ruyan! What's all this?"
In his hands: the magic supplies Ruyan had fetched last night.
"Picked 'em up in Mason Village yesterday. Weren't they what you needed?"
"With our finances, how could you afford these... You didn't do anything shady, right?"
"No way. Been busting my hump at the forge lately?"
"Th-then... really okay if I use them?"
Blanc's worry evaporated; his face lit up like a kid's in seconds.
Pure, beaming innocence.
Just as Ruyan predicted.
"Yeah. Money's coming in steady—use 'em freely. Next time, just say the word."
Ruyan chuckled. Blanc practically jigged with glee.
'Hiding this joy all along? Why bother.'
Watching him, Ruyan felt his labors rewarded.
"No game today. Dug up some mushrooms—stew sound good?"
He proffered the leaf-wrapped haul, but Blanc was already checked out.
Glassy-eyed at the reagents, nodding like a fiend.
'Tch. Mushrooms for nothing.'
He'd combed the slopes for the potent stuff, near-elixir grade.
Useless to him sans herbs, but gold for Blanc.
Quality shone through—no spices needed for the stew's mouthwatering aroma.
"Dad, quit grinning. Eat already."
"Ooh! Right, meal time."
Blanc gulped it like water, one fist clenched around his reagents.
'Mushrooms that could've yielded a full year's energy with breathing exercises...'
Felt like stringing pearls on a swine.
"Ruyan, why just stare? Dig in."
"Not into mushrooms. Bread's fine."
Ruyan shoved the pot Blanc's way, unable to stomach wasting it on himself.
Oblivious, Blanc grumped in mock sternness.
"Big talk about being grown, still picky?"
"So? Three meals a day—might as well love 'em all."
Solid logic.
"Hahaha! Damn right. Live for what you love."
Blanc roared with laughter, nodding vigorously.
Less convinced by logic, more doting on his boy.
A heartwarming morning, same as ever.
Until an unexpected topic intruded.
As Blanc rose to tidy, Ruyan gently restrained him.
"Dad, got a favor."
"Huh? Favor? Why the buildup?"
Poised to bolt for his study, Blanc whirled, eyes wide.
"Teach me magic."
Past life, this—first time Ruyan ever sought instruction.
The supreme martial lord vowing rebirth as the world's apex.