Form Refinement (2)
Ha-wol clicked her tongue as she watched Hyun Si-woon standing there, utterly dazed after taking the full force of being outclassed by a superior talent.
From the look of him, his dantian was one step away from twisting itself into knots from pure self-loathing.
"Tch. Snap out of it, you brat."
Her voice carried a rare warmth of comfort instead of its usual brusqueness.
She understood Si-woon's pain.
That feeling of watching the gap only widen no matter how much sleep you cut, no matter how hard you drove yourself...
"Did this lady not tell you? The Heavenly Yin Body is a monster. It is not a level that can be caught up to through effort alone."
"I know. I just know, and it still leaves a bitter taste. Is this how ordinary people feel?"
Ha-wol had called Si-woon ordinary.
That assessment cut all the way to the bone.
"No."
It was then that Ha-wol shook her head.
"This lady was wrong."
"Huh?"
"I retract calling you ordinary."
Ha-wol's gaze pierced through Si-woon with rare seriousness.
"Even by the standards of our world, you are a genius. A prodigy that appears maybe once in several centuries. You may not reach the absolute greatest of all time, but you would have been the greatest under heaven dominating an entire generation."
Si-woon's eyes went wide.
He could hardly believe these words were coming from Ha-wol, who until now had always seemed one breath away from devouring him alive.
"Originally, to reach the Moonlight stage from the Heart Lake, even the talented need a full decade or more of training. Yet you crossed that wall in a mere half year. This is a realm that cannot be explained by mere grit and obsession alone. Even mixing in the heretical path of spirit arts, you did not lose the essence of Moon Spirit and pioneered your own path as well."
Moonlight.
Ha-wol called that stage First-rate in the murim.
"You are already no different from a grandmaster in martial arts. You could easily take the position of elder or hall master in the Nine Great Sects, or even sect leader in any mid-sized school. The threshold of First-rate is something countless martial artists only glimpse in old age after all manner of fortuitous encounters, yet you shattered that common sense and stood there in just half a year. If you are ordinary, then nine-tenths of the world are no better than pebbles."
Her words were no empty flattery.
The achievement Si-woon had shown was truly earth-shaking talent.
At Ha-wol's sincere encouragement, the self-loathing that had weighed so heavily on Si-woon's heart melted away like snow.
Right. He wasn't weak.
It was simply that Yoon Seo-a was too strong.
"Thanks."
"Hmph. Unnecessary words."
Ha-wol cleared her throat.
"Have you cast off those idle thoughts now? Then continue your training. The road ahead is long."
"Yeah. Since I've decided to write this round off as a loss anyway."
The reason he had built walls against the world.
Why he hadn't even read the few mails from Yoo Jin-hyeok, and focused only on training despite the members' questions.
It was to use this entire life for training, with the next regression in mind.
It didn't match the original goal, but...
He decided to make an exception until he broke through Moonlight.
That was how desperate he was.
Besides.
From Form Refinement onward—where one could forge qi into the sword—practical combat was necessary.
Beating straw dummies a hundred times would never break through to the next stage.
Because Si-woon was not Yoon Seo-a.
From then on, I'll fill my combat sense with those wraith bastards.
Yoon Seo-a was a genius, but her time was limited.
But Si-woon's time?
It could be called infinite.
Time continued to flow.
The scenery of Eden Camp changed day by day, but Si-woon's world remained confined to the narrow space of the training ground.
He swung his sword like a madman, circulated his qi, and breathed in rhythm with the spirits.
In the meantime, Yoon Seo-a began climbing the Tower.
Si-woon assigned Baek Yeon-ho, who was thoroughly versed in Tower strategies, as her temporary mentor.
"Seo-a. On the third-floor Kobold Desert, there's the Moonlight Tribe, right? They're stronger than the boss... you might be able to take them."
"Yes, Uncle Yeon-ho."
Having grown strong enough to overwhelm the remaining members with martial arts alone, Yoon Seo-a broke through the Tower without hesitation using the information Baek Yeon-ho provided.
She was no longer a child.
To her, who had reached the ranks of peak masters, the low-floor monsters were mere obstacles to brush past.
When another month had passed—
"Master! I cleared the seventh floor this time!"
She caught up to the foremost position Si-woon had once held.
And she had done it alone.
"Insane."
Ha-wol clapped.
"Even if one made a name in the murim, climbing the Tower is another matter entirely. Yet when your information and talent combine, even such a monster is born. Even this lady didn't have the guts to climb alone."
Hearing the news, Baek Yeon-ho cautiously approached Si-woon.
"Si-woon, shouldn't we head to the eighth floor soon too?"
His voice mixed with impatience.
The other members were the same. They were itching to climb the eighth floor.
Si-woon swept back his sweat-soaked hair and faced them.
"From now on, Seo-a will take my place."
"...What, hyung?"
"Huh?"
The members' eyes went wide.
"Seo-a will climb from the eighth floor with you. Yeon-ho hyung, take the leader role. I'll provide strategies whenever needed."
"Wait, Si-woon. What do you mean..."
Baek Do-hee asked with worried eyes, but Si-woon averted his gaze.
"Master..."
Even Yoon Seo-a looked clearly flustered.
Now the members were definitely starting to feel it.
That Si-woon was somehow off.
After the Atla raid, he had become like a different person, obsessed only with training.
Guilt dug into a corner of his heart, but Si-woon forcibly suppressed his emotions.
"It's my decision. Follow it."
At his firm voice, no one questioned further.
Thus a new climbing party was formed.
And their progress was truly destructive.
They broke through the tenth floor in less than ten days.
The Tower of Despair of the Republic of Korea server has been cleared to the 10th floor.
Judgment Day: The first server to prove the qualifications to survive.
Survival Qualification Acquisition Status: (1/8)
At the same time, every Climber's vision filled with the same messages.
The Republic of Korea server community exploded.
Climbers poured out speculation and arguments without end.
Si-woon thought to himself.
So we've bought more time until that 8 fills up?
That was actually good.
Slash!
His sword cleaved through a straw dummy.
He simply kept swinging.
And so more time passed.
The world convulsed.
Filling all eight servers took quite a long while.
Roughly nine months.
The surviving servers were the Republic of Korea, the United States, India, China, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, and Japan.
Judgment Day: Selection of the eight (8) servers that will survive has been completed.
Towers of Despair belonging to unselected servers will now vanish immediately.
With that announcement, screams erupted across the world.
Nations whose Towers had vanished became pure chaos.
Climbers found their path of growth sealed, while monsters still swarmed without end.
The international community was nothing short of pandemonium.
And the more horrific truth?
It was a post uploaded by a Canadian Climber.
He had crossed the border to reach the surviving American Tower of Despair, only to be refused entry.
The reason was singular.
You are a Climber belonging to the Canadian server. That server's Tower has been extinguished.
That message was no different from a death sentence.
Nationality did not change.
The moment one became a Climber, their birth nation became an eternal shackle.
No system of naturalization existed.
However, the community systems were integrated.
It was not a complete merger.
A function was added allowing users to switch server tags for entry, and at the same time a new space called the Other Server Board was created.
Climbers of the eight surviving servers could freely cross into other servers' main boards and exchange information.
But Climbers whose Towers had vanished could only post on that Other Server Board even if they accessed another server's community.
It was like being allowed into the city, yet only permitted to raise one's voice inside a designated quarantine zone.
In an instant, every server's Other Server Board filled with screams and pleas.
And about a day later—
In celebration of the eight servers' survival! A Server War will be held.
Please check the community notices of each server for details.
Massive rewards will be differentially distributed according to ranking.
Just as Yoo Jin-hyeok had said, the Server War began.
And even at that hour—
Whoosh!
Si-woon simply kept swinging his sword.
He only kept his ears open.
It'll be useful to reference for the next round.
Before long, the points of contact between Si-woon and the members had almost vanished.
The members were busy preparing for the Server War, and only Yoon Seo-a occasionally stopped by the training ground to watch his practice.
"Master."
"You're here."
"Yes. Are you really not going to participate in the Server War?"
"You all are enough on your own."
"That's true, but..."
Yoon Seo-a couldn't finish her words and simply watched his profile as he swung the sword.
In her eyes, her master looked as if he were standing frustrated before a massive wall.
Reaching the Moonlight stage had been remarkable, but growth after that had slowed noticeably.
"Master, is advancing to the Form Refinement stage difficult?"
"It is."
"Would it be all right if I offered some help?"
"Go ahead."
"Master's sword qi keeps losing its shape. When you forge the qi, you shouldn't think of pushing the qi inside your body outward."
"Then?"
"You have to think of connecting the qi outside your body with the qi inside. Like a spiderweb. A single thread of qi stretching from the dantian goes outside the body and settles at the tip of the sword, and through that thread you continuously supply and control the qi. Not pushing—connecting."
Sssssht!
When she extended her hand, Heavenly Yin energy was drawn out from her dantian as thin as a thread.
Si-woon shuddered.
Not pushing, but connecting.
It felt like discovering a single ray of light while wandering through fog.
He immediately gripped the wooden sword and worked to unfold the thought he had just grasped.
Whoosh, whooosh!
Watching her master swing the sword, Yoon Seo-a smiled softly.
Thanks to Master I saved my life, and I was able to grow this far. I'm happy that I can finally be of help to him.
If Yoon Seo-a had a second father, it was her master.
That was how grateful she was.
Two more years passed.
Si-woon closed even the ears he had kept open and devoted himself entirely to training.
By now the members were on the verge of forgetting him.
Then the body of Si-woon, mid-swing, suddenly stopped.
Swaaaaah.
The silver-white sword qi blooming from the tip of his blade no longer scattered.
Like a living creature, it flowed and coiled along the edge, forging a perfect form.
"Oh... ohhhh?"
Ha-wol reacted.
"...Did it work?"
Si-woon murmured quietly.
In that instant, his eyes snapped open.
The world looked different.
The energy of the atmosphere, which before had only been a vague sensation, now approached him as clearly as visible particles.
The grain of the wind, the pulse of the earth, even the distant breathing of the members—everything felt vivid enough to grasp in his hand.
So this was the stage of Form Refinement.
The qi inside the body and the qi outside the body.
The sensation of that boundary crumbling.
Only now did he understand with his entire being the meaning of connection that Yoon Seo-a had spoken of.
Qi was not something to be pushed out.
It was simply linking the small universe within him to the vast universe without.
Srrrk.
Si-woon raised his sword.
The sword qi settled at the tip no longer wavered unsteadily.
Like glasswork crafted by a master artisan, it held a quiet and perfect form.
He swung the sword slowly.
The sword qi followed his will and drew lines through the empty air. Straight lines, curves, circles.
As if writing characters in the void with a brush, the qi moved with the precision of his own fingertips.
"Ahh. It worked."
Si-woon was moved.
The presence pouring from his body had become incomparably deeper and more majestic than before.
It was not simply that the quantity of internal energy had increased.
The very grade of his existence was rising one step higher.
It was a fundamental metamorphosis, like a caterpillar tearing free of its cocoon and emerging as a butterfly.
Right then—
Your Grade rises.
Some of the items you possess resonate with your growth and evolve together.
"...!"
Si-woon's eyes went round.