The Weight of Seclusion
Step.
I stepped inside Wolryeonggwan.
The air inside was far more humid than outside. Feeling my skin instantly grow clammy, I scanned my surroundings.
At that moment—
Creeeeak! Slam!
The door behind me shut of its own accord.
Oh, shit.
I whipped around to find the heavy wooden door sealed shut.
"...Oh, boy."
A cold sweat broke out on my neck. I had been warned about this before coming here.
Once closed, the door could not be opened from the inside until the designated period had passed.
Which meant...
...I have to spend a whole month in this pitch-black darkness?
A door that would not budge unless opened from the outside.
Since I had declared I would enter closed-door training for a month, it wouldn't open a second before then.
"Phew."
I let out a long breath and steadied my breathing. There was no running away now.
"...So."
Hummmm.
I circulated my internal energy and focused it on my eyes. The Moon Eye activated, and the darkness began to recede.
I looked up into the empty air, meeting a pair of glowing blue eyes that were staring back at me.
"What should I do first?"
I was asking what my training here would entail. Yoo Chun-gil smirked at me.
"What else? Strap those on first."
Yoo Chun-gil pointed toward a corner. Following his gaze, I saw a pile of objects stacked against the wall.
Are those...
"...Are those all iron weights?"
They were bands of black cast iron, designed to be strapped onto limbs.
They even came in various sizes, presumably categorized by weight.
He wants me to wear those?
I walked over to the wall and reached for the smallest ones on the far right.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"Huh?"
Yoo Chun-gil scowled at me.
"Not those. Put those on."
His ghostly hand pointed toward the medium-sized iron bands.
I reached out and picked one up.
"Ugh!"
It was incredibly heavy—almost too much to lift with one hand.
He wants me to wear this...?
I looked back at Yoo Chun-gil in disbelief, but he merely gestured with his chin, urging me to hurry up.
Though every instinct told me this was a bad idea, I strapped them on without a word.
Once I had a band secured on each of my arms and legs, the sheer weight of them hit me.
"...Insane."
My arms hung limp, completely useless, and my feet felt glued to the floor.
I knew that without circulating my internal energy, I would collapse after taking only a few steps.
But just as I began to draw upon my energy—
"Halt!"
"...!"
Yoo Chun-gil's shout froze me in my tracks.
"What is it now...?"
Why was he suddenly yelling at me? I stared at him in surprise, only to find his expression dead serious.
"For the next month, you are forbidden from using your internal energy."
"...What? What kind of crazy talk is that?"
No internal energy?
It was absurd. He wanted me to move around with these heavy iron weights without using a single drop of internal energy?
"How is that even possible...?"
"How? You simply do it."
"Wow, what a helpful answer. Thank you so much, you old bastard..."
"And since you cannot use internal energy, that goes for the Moon Eye as well. Deactivate it."
"...Huh?"
"Hurry."
"..."
I did as I was told and cut off the flow of my internal energy. Instantly, the darkness rushed back in.
A suffocating, pitch-black void enveloped me.
My body felt incredibly heavy, and a claustrophobic weight seemed to squeeze my entire being.
He wanted me to train like this? For a whole month?
I couldn't fathom his reasoning. I could only stare in the direction of Yoo Chun-gil.
In this absolute darkness, his glowing blue eyes were the only things visible.
"Child."
"Yes."
"Do you know what your greatest flaw is?"
"...Well, I have so many that it's hard to pick just one."
"Correct. You are an absolute mess. That is the problem."
"..."
Was he mocking me? If so, it was working. My mood was officially ruined.
"Compared to the rapid growth of your cultivation realm, your physical body is pathetic. And because your body is so weak, your internal energy cannot properly settle within it. Furthermore, your understanding of martial arts is so shattered that you cannot even apply them correctly."
"..."
His words felt like a succession of daggers to my chest. His relentless criticism hurt like hell.
"And if one were to ask if you possess extraordinary talent, the answer would also be no. You are, quite frankly, a hopeless case."
"...Ugh."
I was reaching my limit. Just as I was about to raise my hand to beg him to stop—
"Therefore, if there is no answer, we must create one."
Yoo Chun-gil smirked as he added to his lecture.
"You do not know how to use your body properly, nor are you in a state to do so. As you are now, you are no different from someone using a legendary sword to slice radishes."
Yoo Chun-gil floated down gracefully. Being a ghost, he made no sound as he landed.
"So, temper your body first. The time given to you is short, but if time is short, you need only make every moment count."
"And these iron weights are supposed to help me do that...?"
"Why? Did you expect some sort of shortcut?"
"...I was hoping."
"Do not delude yourself. Martial arts, at their core, are about endurance."
Yoo Chun-gil sat cross-legged on the floor.
"It is simply a matter of how much you can endure. The fastest way to temper the body? It is to tear the muscles and let them regenerate. Do you know what the greatest benefit of reaching the Peak realm is?"
"What is it?"
"Your body heals much faster."
"..."
"Tear them, heal them, and tear them again. There is no other way. Now, begin."
It was a brutally simple, yet undeniably correct principle.
"Endure. You said that was what you were best at."
At his words, I bent my upper body forward.
Is this really the right way?
I had my doubts, but there was no turning back now that I was locked in here.
I just had to do what I always did.
Right, I had always told Yoo Chun-gil that endurance was my specialty.
Ah, I shouldn't have said that.
Regret washed over me instantly.
I hadn't expected to train in such a primitive, brutal manner.
Should I just tell him I quit?
The temptation to give up rose instinctively, but my body was already moving contrary to my thoughts.
A dry chuckle echoed in the dark.
Before long, my muscles began to scream in agony.
Yet, my mouth remained firmly shut.
"Gah!"
I collapsed onto the floor, my body trembling.
I had lost track of how long I had been training.
I had simply moved my body according to Yoo Chun-gil's instructions, dragging the heavy iron weights around as time slipped away.
My limbs refused to budge any longer.
"Pant... pant... ugh..."
I gasped for air, looking around.
It felt like a significant amount of time had passed, but without a single window, there was no way to tell.
Even though my eyes had adjusted to the dark, there was still absolutely nothing to see.
The darkness here was just that absolute.
"Phew... haaa..."
My throat was parched.
I turned my head to look for water. A jar was placed against the far wall.
There was water inside it.
I didn't know where the water flowed from, but it seemed to be connected to a mountain stream, as the supply was plentiful.
Next to the jar, a pile of fasting pills was faintly visible in the gloom.
"...Damn it..."
I was hungry and thirsty, but I didn't even have the strength to crawl over there.
I was exhausted to the bone. Not knowing how much time had passed only added to my frustration.
"Ugh..."
Did I really have to force myself to move? I debated it.
As my exhausted body lay flat on the cold floor, sleep began to wash over me.
Ah, whatever.
I'll just sleep first.
With that thought, I closed my eyes.
At that moment—
"...Huh?"
My eyes snapped open, and I sat up.
My fatigue had vanished instantly, and my vision was perfectly clear. I wondered what was happening, but—
"Oh, what the fuck...?"
A curse escaped my lips at the sight before me.
A vast, pure white space stretched out in all directions. There was no way I could mistake what this was.
"You've got to be kidding me...!"
I scrambled to my feet, cursing up a storm.
"Hehehe."
Hearing a chuckle, I whipped around.
Yoo Chun-gil was standing there.
"Old man...?"
I stared the old ghost with anxious eyes. He spoke to me.
"I assume you have memorized everything you did today. You do have a clever head on your shoulders, after all."
"...What is the meaning of this?"
"What else? You already know."
"No, you crazy old man... Are you telling me I have to train even while I'm sleeping?"
This place was the Spiritual Dream created by Yoo Chun-gil.
"Is it not wonderful? Moving by day, and training by night. For a martial artist, this is nothing short of a dream come true."
"...Wow."
He was truly relentless.
No wonder he had asked if I wanted to do this instead of just ordering me. This was his plan all along.
Tempering my body by day.
And training in the Spiritual Dream prepared by Yoo Chun-gil by night?
It was a schedule designed to drive a man insane.
But the real problem was...
"So... you're saying you're going to disappear for the next month?"
Once Yoo Chun-gil activated the Spiritual Dream, he would not show himself again until I achieved the goal he had set.
I didn't know if that was a hard rule of the technique, but that was how it had always been, so this time would be no different.
"Who knows? It might be sooner than that."
"Huh?"
"It all depends on how quickly you overcome it."
Yoo Chun-gil spoke as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"For your physical training, repeat what you did today. You may keep the weights at the same level. A mere month is hardly enough to progress beyond that anyway."
"...Wait, seriously? You're really leaving me like this?"
He was just going to leave me to my own devices?
As my eyes widened, wondering how he could trust me to do it without supervision, he spoke again.
"Surely you feel uncomfortable leaving what you failed to finish last time incomplete."
"What did I fail to finish?"
I wondered what he meant, but—
"A month should be more than enough time.
Show me what you can do. I shall be expecting great things."
Thud!
An iron sword fell to the ground before me.
It was exactly like last time. By the time I looked up to face Yoo Chun-gil—
He was already gone.
In his place stood a familiar boulder, and—
"...Ha."
Sitting atop it was a tall, slender young man.
Unlike the vibrant blue eyes of the ghost Yoo Chun-gil, this youth possessed a dull, lifeless Moon Eye.
His body was incredibly lean.
He was the young Yoo Chun-gil.
I had heard he was around twenty years old at this stage.
He was the very opponent I had faced to grasp the Gwangwolseomgyeong.
Back then, Yoo Chun-gil had told me I only needed to block a single strike.
...But now, does he mean...
Does he want me to actually defeat this monster?
A cold sweat ran down my back.
I had died too many times to count back then.
I had suffered countless deaths just to block a single blow.
And now I had to defeat him?
"...He really just says whatever he wants, doesn't he?"
It was easy for him to say since he wasn't the one doing it.
"...Whew..."
I took a deep breath and gripped the sword tightly.
At that, the youth's gaze shifted toward me.
Then—
Whoosh!
Clang!
The sound of clashing metal rang out as I raised my sword.
My sword, coated in sword qi, blocked from the side, intercepting Yoo Chun-gil's blade as it thrust inward.
"...!"
Yoo Chun-gil's eyes widened slightly as I successfully deflected the blow.
My arms trembled from the impact.
How many times had I died just to learn how to block this single strike?
Because I had repeated it so many times, my body had moved purely on instinct.
Damn it.
I grit my teeth.
This was only the beginning.
I tried to move my body to follow up, but—
Slash.
A flash of light sliced across my vision.
I saw the empty sky spinning.
My severed head was flying through the air.
As the darkness claimed me, I knew one thing for certain.
This was going to be the shittiest month of my entire life.
And so...
A hellish month began to pass.