Chapter 37
Chapter 37.
"It's been a while."
[Seeing you speak, I'm relieved you're in your right mind.]
Lee Ganghan nodded at the Divine Maiden ghost's words.
"Yes. Actually, due to an unexpected incident, I came a bit earlier than the two weeks it would have taken."
[An unexpected incident... What happened?]
Lee Ganghan answered her question.
He told her about what had happened earlier.
When he said that touching the drawer had opened a portal.
[A portal opened just from touching a drawer... That's really strange. Heavenly Demon, by any chance are you from the Cheon clan?]
"Cheon clan?"
[Yes.]
"No, I'm Lee? But what does the Cheon clan have to do with anything?"
[The Cheon clan is the surname of the family that once ruled as Heavenly Demons in the former Heavenly Demon Divine Sect. I wondered if a descendant of the Cheon clan had figured out how to enter Heavenly Demon Valley.]
So all the Heavenly Demon's clan used the surname Cheon.
Taking Heaven as their surname, how interesting.
"I'm Lee, and Lee is the second most common surname in Korea after Kim. I don't think I'm from the Heavenly Demon's clan or anything like that. Well, the drawer is suspicious to me too."
[I see...]
In the end, they couldn't figure out how he had come here.
Lee Ganghan decided to thoroughly search his room first when he returned.
"So, will you teach me the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?"
[Heavenly Demon Divine Art? Of course. Shall I recite the incantation again?]
"Incantation? I've memorized all the incantations."
[What? That long one?]
"Huh? Wasn't that something you did for me?"
[No!? If there was such a method, I wouldn't have read this incantation hundreds and thousands of times when I was alive...]
What.
I naturally thought the Divine Maiden ghost had put it in my head through some special method to make me remember it.
Seems like she doesn't know either?
[Um... Then would you like to try reciting it? Starting from the Heavenly Demon Divine Fist part.]
"Alright."
The authentic incantation of Heavenly Demon Divine Art that he had already recited several times at home.
When Lee Ganghan skillfully recited the Heavenly Demon Divine Fist part, the Divine Maiden ghost was startled.
[Wow... You really memorized it all?]
"Yeah. I recite it whenever I'm bored at home."
[I got beaten so much with a rod by the previous Divine Maiden for not being able to memorize this... Heavenly Demon must be smart too. I'm envious...]
"No, I'm ordinary? It's just that strangely, only Heavenly Demon Divine Art is easy to memorize."
[Really? Then you were completely born with a body to become a Heavenly Demon.]
Does it work that way?
Lee Ganghan tilted his head.
Then he asked about something he had been curious about while reciting Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
"But I can't get a feel for how to cultivate internal energy. Can you teach me about this?"
[Of course! Ah. Since we're talking about it, shall we go to the Mana Training Hall? That's a good place to cultivate internal energy methods.]
"Yeah. Let's go."
Lee Ganghan went with the Divine Maiden ghost to the portal located in the south of Heavenly Demon Valley.
Then.
[Would you like to train in the Mana Training Hall?]
[This is a training hall you have never entered.]
[Player death count: 0 times]
The message he had seen before appeared before his eyes.
"Hmm. I guess you can die in the Mana Training Hall too?"
[Of course. Um... If the difficulty is high, probably unbearable energy will pour out and pressure your body. But if you endure it there, your mana will grow significantly too.]
"Really? High risk, high return."
[Would you like to try challenging the difficult difficulty once? If you want to cultivate internal energy with Heavenly Demon Divine Art, that would be more efficient.]
"Good."
As soon as the Divine Maiden ghost finished speaking.
[Would you like to set the difficulty for 'Mana Training Hall'?]
Along with the message asking if he wanted to set the difficulty.
From Very Easy to Impossible.
Six levels of difficulty settings appeared in a row.
'Since I'm doing this anyway, should I go with Impossible.'
Since I'm going high risk anyway, I should push it to the maximum.
Click.
When Lee Ganghan selected the bottommost 'Impossible' difficulty.
The Divine Maiden ghost stopped him.
[Ah, no, Impossible difficulty from the start is a bit... isn't it?]
"I'll try it and lower the difficulty if it doesn't work."
[I warned you, okay?]
"Got it."
When Lee Ganghan entered the portal.
Paaaaat...!
A pure white light flashed.
Lee Ganghan stood in a new space.
The floor, the ceiling.
No walls were visible.
A world made only of pure white light.
[Wow. Pure crystallized energy... is gathered so densely like this!]
In this world of light, the only foreign substances were Lee Ganghan and the Divine Maiden ghost.
And.
['Mana' will be trained.]
[Difficulty setting - Impossible]
When such a message appeared.
Flash...!
Pure white light from all directions.
Began gathering toward Lee Ganghan's body.
[This energy, if you can contain it stably in your body, will greatly increase your mana... but if you can't, your body will be torn apart from the inside!]
[Recite the internal energy part of Heavenly Demon Divine Art while being conscious of accepting the energy!]
[First, while being conscious of your lower dantian, gradually with the feeling of expanding your vessel!]
[It will be painful, but you must endure it!]
Then the Divine Maiden ghost poured out words like rapid fire to Lee Ganghan.
Telling him to somehow endure and accept the energy.
She shouted desperately.
But.
"...Hmm."
The person who actually accepted the light energy.
"I'm fine though?"
To the extent that it was embarrassing for the Divine Maiden ghost making a fuss.
He was completely fine.
***
[You, you're fine?]
"Yeah."
[No, that can't be? You said you knew nothing about mental cultivation methods?]
"Yeah. I don't know."
He just recited Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
But the light energy being absorbed into his entire body right now.
Unlike the Divine Maiden ghost's warning, it settled well in his body.
[Mana increases by 1.]
[Mana increases by 1.]
It was continuously increasing his mana.
"My mana is already 9? Is this right?"
[No, even if you ask me that... Ah. Can you feel where the energy that entered your body is staying?]
"It seems to be evenly distributed throughout my entire body? It's not gathering in one place."
[Throughout your entire body? That's a process that far surpasses the energy accumulation process of the lower dantian... It's the state of Heaven-Earth Correspondence, No-Dantian!]
"What is No-Dantian?"
[It's when your entire physical body can gather energy, serving as a dantian. Originally, it's a state pursued after extremely training the energy of the upper, middle, and lower three dantians and then integrating them all.]
"I don't understand what you're saying. Explain it more simply."
[...It's just a stage where you can gather and emit energy with your entire body without a dantian. It's a state that all martial artists yearn for.]
While the Divine Maiden ghost continued with various additional explanations.
But Lee Ganghan let this go in one ear and out the other.
He was conscious of the light energy stirring inside his body.
'So this is how energy moves. When I use Heavenly Demon Divine Art and my power suddenly increases, it was probably this kind of sensation.'
I just wasn't conscious of it until now.
It seems I was using internal energy.
As Lee Ganghan was training his mana and newly feeling how he had been exerting his power.
[Mana increases by 0.1.]
Before he knew it, his mana had reached 10.
After that, it was increasing by 0.1 at a time.
[Wow!!! This is really unbelievable! How hard it was for me to reach the state of No-Dantian... What is this, this Heavenly Demon doesn't even know but is absorbing all this energy like this! Moreover, the energy here is so pure it makes ten-thousand-year snow ginseng look like nothing!]
While watching Lee Ganghan steadily accumulate energy.
The Divine Maiden ghost was more upset than ever.
From what I heard, it seemed like she had also reached the state of No-Dantian when she was alive.
"You've eaten ten-thousand-year snow ginseng too?"
[Yes! Do you know how tasteless that is? I really ate it while crying, forcing myself to swallow it, but someone else is just accepting light and finishing energy accumulation... Wow, really...]
"But if you ate ten-thousand-year snow ginseng, you must have been a tremendous expert too?"
When he asked the upset Divine Maiden ghost like that.
[Of, of course! I was a Divine Maiden! The second-in-command of Heavenly Demon Divine Sect! Na, naturally I could eat ten-thousand-year snow ginseng!]
"Really? But you said you weren't in terms of martial power. Weren't you a religious symbol who couldn't reach the Four Great Guardians?"
[Ba, back then ten-thousand-year snow ginseng was abundant! My turn came too!]
Somehow she showed signs of being flustered.
Is there a reason why a Divine Maiden shouldn't be an expert?
[No, you said your head was ordinary! You have good memory!?]
"Well, just. It's more interesting that you're flustered like this. You could have eaten some, couldn't you?"
[Ri, right! I could eat it! I'm a Divine Maiden!]
The Divine Maiden ghost still showing signs of being flustered.
Lee Ganghan was curious why she was like that, but.
'Let's focus on mana for now.'
He decided to concentrate on accepting the light energy.
The growth was gradually slowing down anyway.
The world that had been dyed pure white was also losing its light.
And when the light disappeared.
The true form of the Mana Training Hall appeared.
When it was full of light, the space seemed endless.
In reality, it was a space about the size of a studio apartment, blocked by earthen walls on all sides.
'This looks similar to the Strength Training Hall.'
The Strength Training Hall where huge rocks fell from the ceiling.
When the light disappeared, it somehow looked similar to that place.
And when the last flickering light was also absorbed into Lee Ganghan's body and disappeared.
[You have succeeded in 'Mana' training.]
With that message as the end.
He returned to the original Heavenly Demon Valley.
Just standing still, mana training that ended with mana shooting up.
When he opened his status window.
His mana, which had been 7, had already entered the ranks of 10+.
"Wow... I've sucked a lot of honey so far, but this kind of super honey is also a first for me."
Since becoming a Heavenly Demon, he had taken quite a lot of one-sided benefits.
But Lee Ganghan had never experienced this level before.
"What's my mana? Can you give me a precise measurement?"
[Yes.]
The Divine Maiden ghost's precise measurement, possible because she's a guide.
The measurement result.
Mana: 10.9
His mana had surpassed 10 and was up by 0.9 more.
In the training hall, I stood still at Impossible difficulty and raised it by 3.9.
"This is too much of a super honey? Can I challenge again?"
[You should be able to.]
"Let's go. I need to keep raising my mana."
[Yes.]
So he entered Impossible difficulty again.
Standing still in the middle of the light.
[Mana increases by 0.1.]
This message began to appear.
Pure energy steadily accumulates in Lee Ganghan's body.
Seeing this.
[Wow. I never lacked in martial arts, but I'm really envious... Why did I cultivate internal energy, me... Why did I go through all that hardship...]
The Divine Maiden ghost began muttering more frequently.
Is she that envious of Lee Ganghan taking one-sided benefits?
'But seeing that she never lacked in martial arts, wasn't she a super expert?'
In the martial world, Heavenly Demon Divine Sect was originally the strongest among individual forces, wasn't it?
If she never lacked there, she must have been a tremendous expert.
'The Divine Maiden doesn't seem ordinary either.'
Lee Ganghan thought so.
While unilaterally sucking up mana.
"Only 1 went up this time."
[Wow. 1 is a lot! You were just standing there!]
"Let's go one more time."
[Really too envious. So so envious, accumulating internal energy like that, wow really...]
So how many times did he go in and out of the Mana Training Hall, earning the Divine Maiden's envy?
'It's rising a bit slowly now.'
When Lee Ganghan felt his growth had stagnated.
Paaaaat!
"Huh?"
Suddenly his body seemed to be submerged in light.
And began to swell up wildly.
'What's this. It's... painful?'
The mana that had been well-accepted until now.
Suddenly began to go berserk inside his body.
Why is this happening?
[Heavenly Demon! Concentrate! Concentrate and use the mental cultivation method...!]
The Divine Maiden's words echoed in his ears.
But before he could follow them.
Puff, puff, pung...!
Lee Ganghan's body instantly swelled up.
And exploded just like that.
Then.
Sssss...
The center of Heavenly Demon Valley.
Lee Ganghan revived at the revival point.
"Wow... this hurts. So this is how you die and come back to life."
After becoming a player.
For the first time while conscious, Lee Ganghan touched his body after experiencing 'death'.
Ding.
['Mana' training has failed.]
[You have qualified to challenge the 'First Tower'. Stop training and challenge the tower.]
[All training halls will be closed.]
With this message.
Paaaaat...!
The portals that had been floating in the four directions disappeared.
Then.
Kurrrrr!
The ground split open.
From there, black stairs revealed themselves.