Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon
How many times had I recited the incantation?
Have you gotten the hang of it yet?
“More or less.”
I had a decent idea now.
Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon was a form of Seon magic similar to internal energy cultivation methods. The sensation of guiding Seon energy, circulating it through bones instead of acupoints—there were quite a few detailed differences, but the core felt familiar.
Then I shall assist with the control. Go on, try using Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon.
I rotated my Seon energy in a single smooth cycle, the way a seasoned veteran might.
Multiple ability properties recognized by the user.
Seon energy flowed with noble grace, refusing to clash with my internal energy, mana, or the power of Polar Night. Breathing suddenly felt much easier.
Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon effect has activated.
No energy clashes occur when using any abilities.
All ability effects increased by 10%.
“Whoa.”
A flat ten-percent boost to every single ability without any conditions? And this insane skill was only rated three-star? Calling a three-star skill “only” felt ridiculous, yet here we were.
Do not misunderstand. The effect is especially strong because of your unique constitution.
Mana, Seon energy, internal energy, divine power, Polar Night, dark mana. Six different attributes in total. My remodeled body also carried the traits of a demon dragon, a primordial species, and the dragon race. No wonder the effects of Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon had been maximized.
You must be the only one walking the path of Seon who is such a chaotic mix.
“Taste is what matters.”
If he ever tried Korean army stew, he might change his tune.
Now try it on your own.
“I’m almost there. Let me practice a little more.”
Bypassing a dimension’s suppression is not omnipotent. Even now the balance is precarious.
He was whining again. Still, thanks to Sun Wukong personally guiding the do-in, I had grasped the sensation far quicker than expected. I used the power of the True Ruyi Staff to rapidly expand the path I had opened. The circulating Seon energy grew stronger with each revolution until eventually it spun on its own without any conscious effort from me.
At last, the moment I could fully manifest Seon magic without Sun Wukong’s help arrived.
Seon Magic — Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon has been learned.
***
The familiar message hovered before my eyes.
Shit. You learned it in one go again?
“Be happy about it. There’s a saying about the student surpassing the master, you know.”
Hey! Do you have any idea how much that old man nagged me when I learned Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon?!
It had been the same when he taught me the Thunder God technique. This guy was surprisingly stingy when it came to teaching Seon magic.
Couldn’t be helped. Might as well throw him a bone.
“It is all thanks to an excellent master’s guidance, is it not?”
Master? Me?
“Yes. Is there any teacher greater than the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong?”
Are you serious?
“Why would I bother currying favor with you?”
Kha ha ha! Kha ha! That’s right! It’s because I taught it better than that old man!
What a simple monkey. The elated Sun Wukong scattered exclamation marks wildly across the white page.
Time’s up.
“I’ll be counting on you next time as well.”
Don’t overdo it and get yourself killed. It would be a waste of my investment.
With that final sentence the book no longer projected any letters. Don’t worry, I won’t disappoint you, so don’t forget to bring the popcorn and just watch the show.
* * *
“You appear to have received fine instruction from that monkey.”
The moment I opened the door, Nyx greeted me. There were few beings in existence who could casually call the Great Sage Equal to Heaven a monkey. He was a Constellation that even the Jade Emperor, ruler of the heavenly realm, could not handle—a powerful existence comparable to the Heavenly Demon, a mortal who had risen to a level rivaling the God-Kings. To a conceptual deity like Nyx, none of that mattered.
Even so, she had noticed the change in my aura instantly. The insight of a conceptual god was truly impressive.
“Heh. While it is true that We are magnificent, this is a different matter entirely.”
“How so?”
“It means We have taken a special interest in you.”
I was still searching for a response to Nyx’s direct pitch when something I had forgotten suddenly came to mind.
“Who won between the two of them?”
“Listen without surprise. The victor was…”
“Ta-da!”
Jiyoung suddenly poked her head in, flashing a V-sign with her fingers.
“For real?”
“Wow, what’s with that reaction?”
“Stop answering a question with another question.”
“I don’t lose every time, you know. I win occasionally.”
Ping Lei, the guy who specialized in overwhelming numbers and tricky fights using clones and Seon magic.
***
By nature, it was a matchup where Jiyoung was at a disadvantage. The two of them clashed constantly and sparred often, so unless she had incredible luck, losing was the expected outcome. Yet her reaction suggested it wasn’t simply a matter of luck or Ping Lei being off his game.
“In the end, all I have to do is not get pierced, right?”
“Well… yeah, that’s true.”
“When I focused solely on defense, he exhausted himself and collapsed.”
What? She only just realized that now?
When I gave her a lukewarm look, Jiyoung’s eyebrows shot up in an inverted V.
“What’s with that look!”
“Defense is literally your specialty. Hearing you say something as obvious as the sun rising in the east is just surprising, that’s all.”
“Want to taste thirty clones using Seon magic?”
“I already did earlier.”
“Oh. Right.”
Jiyoung tacked on a belated “That’s not what I meant” and countered.
“My barrier isn’t an all-around defense—it’s single-surface only.”
“It’s hard to completely seal off every gap.”
The defining trait of the Vibration Barrier was rejection. Since it even pushed away barriers of the same nature, covering every direction was difficult. The true way to use it was to layer barriers and shove or crush targets by exploiting that property.
Taking on coordinated attacks from thirty clones had been a bad matchup for her.
“I just made the wall bigger.”
The method Jiyoung had come up with was to massively increase the size of the barrier itself. By enlarging a single barrier, the clones apparently couldn’t penetrate it easily.
“Controlling something that large can’t be easy, though?”
“Well, it just worked out when I tried.”
She had already grown this much. I couldn’t hide my astonishment at Jiyoung’s development speed, which far exceeded expectations. The wide-area barrier once called the Wall of Lamentation in my previous life had outstanding mana efficiency, but the mental strain couldn’t be ignored. To think she had already reached that realm.
That didn’t mean she could display the same skill she had as a High Ranker. If Jiyoung had truly exerted power on the level of the Wall of Lamentation, Ping Lei wouldn’t have been able to touch even a hair on her head, and even I at full strength would have been unable to cross that wall.
“You’ve been working hard.”
“Hehe. It’s all because Master paved the way for me.”
“If you can bring your record against Ping Lei up to fifty-fifty, I’ll give you a prize.”
“Ehh? I’ve lost so many times already. No way.”
“Starting from today, one month.”
“Really?”
“Have you ever seen me lie about something like this?”
“Hiyaaaah!”
Jiyoung let out a strange battle cry and dashed down to the training ground.
“Was that a feasible proposal?”
“It’ll be difficult.”
Matchups could not be ignored. Ping Lei and Karla were Jiyoung’s natural counters!
***
Conversely, while Enrique could defeat Ping Lei or Karla, he could not break through Jiyoung’s shield.
“What a limited ability.”
“It’s not necessarily so.”
Ping Lei was the owner of the powerful clone ability. I had intervened and taught him Seon magic he never learned in his previous life, making him even stronger. And how rare was Karla’s Space ability? It was simply bad luck for Jiyoung.
The number of Platinum-rank players capable of beating Jiyoung could be counted on one hand.
“Then let Us ask. Why did you make a proposal with such slim odds?”
“Because the best way to internalize a newly gained realization is to clash with it repeatedly.”
If she really could fight Ping Lei on even terms, I could dig through my memories of the previous timeline and find an opportunity suited for her. If not? Then there was nothing to be done. Still, the act of working hard to digest a fresh realization was what mattered.
“Your tongue is as smooth as ever.”
“Where else would you find a guild master who cares about his members like I do?”
Indeed. Absolutely.
“Enough of your nonsense. Our ears hurt.”
Harsh words.
“Let’s stop playing around and head to the Tower.”
“Is your body itching now that you have obtained new power?”
“Half right, half wrong.”
Tower of Babel, 62nd floor. A fated opportunity that I absolutely had to obtain was hidden there. Just as I had stolen the Shadow Orb—the fated opportunity of the Brazilian High Ranker Antonio from my previous life—the opportunity on the 62nd floor was first-come, first-served. I had to snatch it first.
Well, in the previous timeline the secret wasn’t revealed until five years from now, so there was no need to rush… but the original timeline had already diverged greatly. There was nothing to lose by hurrying.
“Understood.”
Nyx obediently returned to her spirit form.
Dark Realm Fishing Tournament
📍 Location: Silence Lake
The lake is home to many fish. Prove your skill by catching them with a fishing rod.
Entering the lake to catch fish directly is forbidden.
Only fishing skill is required.
🎁 Objective: Fish residing in the Silence Lake
This 62nd-floor mission was one of the few permanent open missions in the entire Tower. It meant challengers could remain inside the Tower and continue the trial for as long as they wished. There was a penalty for giving up, but as long as you kept holding the fishing rod without surrendering, you could continue indefinitely without penalty.
“Then there is no reason to give up, is there?”
“The problem is the competition. A single field holds up to a hundred people. Matching is random, but the moment someone submits a fish, immediate comparative evaluation occurs.”
“Who becomes the standard?”
“The player who submitted the fish.”
“So the fish submitted by players who completed the trial become the benchmark.”
If your record was worse than the fish submitted by a player who finished the trial, you lost Rating Points. Getting a higher score didn’t let you steal the opponent’s points.
“The correct choice is to either camp for a high score or move on quickly.”
“Then there is no reason to endure for long, is there?”
“First-time challengers get an advantage on the rewards. If you’re confident, you endure. Or perhaps your skill is lacking but you can’t let go because of the penalty. Either way, it’s a relatively peaceful trial.”
“Let us begin at once. It would be troublesome if someone submits something before we catch anything.”
“Right.”
Empty fishing spots were scattered all over the lakeside. I sat at the nearest one and grabbed a rod.
“Is there no bait?”
“You can buy it with Contribution Points, or use mana.”
As expected of a Tower trial, this was no ordinary fishing. The fish in the lake reacted only to players’ mana, so you had to infuse the rod with mana and send it down the line all the way to the hook. It was a floor that tested both mana control and reserves. Low risk did not mean it was easy.
“Then let’s get started.”
I sat down and slowly took hold of the fishing rod.
Vrrrrrr—
The mana-infused rod began glowing blue. If you pushed in too much at once, the durability would drop and it would explode with a bang. Moderation in all things. The trick was to infuse mana slowly and in consistent amounts.
“How long must we wait?”
“Since it’s the beginning, let’s catch something decent first.”
After infusing enough mana, I sent the energy downward. A very thin thread. Sending the energy down the line was even harder than infusing the rod itself. The energy that traveled down the line settled into the hook.
Flutter!
It trembled lightly beneath the lake and spread vibrations.
“It seemed like it would work immediately, yet this trial takes quite some time.”
“Fishing is originally about enjoying the passage of time.”
“It does not suit you at all.”
Attacking with facts so shamelessly.
***
At that moment, a powerful force shook the fishing rod.