Chapter 18: The Return
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 18: The Return
Seo-un fumbled over his body, checking himself with frantic hands. Unconsciously, he let out a loud cry of relief, causing passersby to cast strange looks and steer clear of him.
Flushing with embarrassment, he began walking briskly down the street, only to come to a sudden halt a short distance away.
As he toyed with the ring on his index finger, a second, familiar ring shimmered into existence on his left hand. To any close observer, it would have looked like a clever magic trick.
The moment he slipped the newly appeared ring onto his middle finger, his body felt significantly lighter.
"Ah!"
Only then did the realization truly hit him. This wasn't a dream; this was reality.
The initial shock was brief. Soon, tears began to stream uncontrollably from Seo-un’s eyes. A profound sense of emptiness washed over him. Just moments ago, his Dantian had been overflowing, surging with a powerful energy that filled his entire being. Now, he couldn't feel a single trace of it.
Regardless of the stares from people passing by, his tears showed no sign of stopping.
"Oh my! I think he just got dumped."
"How pathetic. A grown man crying in the middle of the street... Tsk, tsk."
Ignoring the whispers, Seo-un sat huddled on the ground for a long while, soothing his hollow heart before finally forcing himself to stand.
It won't take long. I can fill my Dantian again in no time.
Seo-un’s pace quickened as he headed home.
As soon as he stepped into his tiny six-pyeong studio apartment, he sat on the edge of his bed and pulled an item from his Subspace. The first thing to appear in his hand was the Boundless Fist Secret Manual.
[Ding! Would you like to learn this?]
"I knew it!"
Seo-un clenched his fist. The system remained active even back in reality.
The moment he pressed the 'O' button, the Boundless Fist manual turned into dust and scattered from his palm.
"Ah..."
As the techniques of the Boundless Fist flooded back into his mind, Seo-un felt a weight lift from his chest. It was a martial art he had mastered with his own body, yet having that knowledge wiped away as if someone had erased his memory was more frustrating than words could describe. Unless one had experienced it personally, it was impossible to understand; it was enough to drive a person mad.
Having felt that suffocating mental block throughout his walk home, Seo-un let out a long sigh of relief.
"Now I feel like I can breathe."
Though it wasn't everything, recovering even a portion of his lost knowledge eased his frustration. With a much brighter expression, Seo-un pulled out the next item.
A gold necklace sat in his palm.
"I wonder how many don this is? They definitely said it was pure gold..."
Judging by the weight, it was clearly well over twenty don. In cash, he could probably get nearly four million won for it, yet it had cost him only a single Coin. This was an incredibly profitable trade.
"Next time I go, I should look for gold bars."
For some reason, items that didn't directly affect the game—excluding enhancement materials—were strangely cheap.
"This one, too."
Next, a glass bottle filled with a green liquid appeared in his hand: Refined Troll Blood. It was a miraculous item that could grant a year of healthy life to someone suffering from a terminal illness, yet it had cost a mere two Coins.
He couldn't even imagine how much a wealthy, sick man would pay for this. In terms of economic value, this Refined Troll Blood was likely the most expensive item Seo-un had brought back. Of course, that was only if he could actually find a way to sell it.
"You never know what might happen."
Somewhere out there, a desperate soul might believe his claims, so there was no harm in keeping it.
"I'll set the Elixirs aside until I achieve Small Circulation."
As soon as he finished speaking, Seo-un sat cross-legged in the center of his cramped studio. The reason he hadn't purchased a mental method was simple: he already possessed the mental art taught to him by Jang Do-cheon. Instead of a manual, he had purchased only Cheong-un Pills.
After nearly an hour of reciting the mental formula and struggling to sense his Qi, Seo-un opened his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Sigh. I can't feel a damn thing."
Despite his experience of not only sensing Qi but drawing in the very vitality of nature, he couldn't grasp even a flicker of energy now.
Grumble—
As if on cue, his stomach let out a loud growl. Seo-un stood up and headed for the door.
"Let's eat something first and try again."
His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as he walked toward a small baekban restaurant near his house.
I still have the vivid sensation of handling an immense amount of internal power... so why can't I feel even a speck of it now?
"Welcome!"
The restaurant owner's sharp, clear voice snapped him out of his reverie.
"The baekban set, right?"
"Yes, please."
He had discovered this place on the day he moved in while hauling his few belongings. The food was decent for the price, so he visited often. It wasn't easy to find a place where five thousand won got you fish, various side dishes, and a stew.
Even with the food set before him, his mind was so preoccupied with why he couldn't sense Qi that he barely noticed what he was eating.
After paying and stepping back outside, he spent the short walk home trying to organize his thoughts. As he unconsciously stroked his Subspace Ring, he suddenly shouted.
"That's it! I forgot about that!"
He shouted with such excitement that neighbors passing by gave him odd looks. Belatedly embarrassed, Seo-un ducked his head and ran, his face flushed with anticipation.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
He punched in his door code, dashed inside, and hurriedly pulled a necklace from his Subspace. It was an intricately crafted piece, shimmering with shades of blue and green. Seo-un’s eyes sparkled as he gazed at Cameron's Necklace, a genuine named item.
"There's no way that guy would carry around trash. Besides, every item named after a person has been high-quality... and if it aids communication with nature..."
After muttering to himself, he put the necklace on with a look of conviction and settled back into a cross-legged position.
Ten minutes later, the corners of his closed eyes curled upward into a wide grin.
I feel it! The energy filling this room!
*
Seo-un lost track of how many hours passed as he attempted Qi Condensation. When he finally opened his eyes, a curse immediately escaped his lips.
"Dammit!"
Drenched in sweat, Seo-un realized that focusing on his breathing while performing Qi Condensation was far harder than he had anticipated. Simply maintaining the specific breathing pattern was uncomfortable enough, but when he tried to manipulate the sensed energy to store it in his Dantian, the Qi refused to cooperate.
The moment he focused a bit more on the energy, his breathing would falter, and the Qi he had worked so hard to gather would escape with his exhaled breath. Just as he started to get the hang of it, stray thoughts would clutter his mind. Like choking on a sip of water, the meager amount of energy he had gathered would run wild and reject him, stalling his progress entirely.
"I didn't realize there would be such a massive difference between learning through the system and doing it manually..."
It was a natural result, but that only made him angrier. The feeling of having his hard-earned abilities stolen away was something that couldn't be explained to anyone who hadn't lived it.
"Whew. If it could be done overnight, everyone would be a master."
If not for Cameron's Necklace around his neck, he might have wasted months or even years just trying to sense Qi.
"Sigh. If I had known, I would have brought the Naehaseong Mental Method manual. I underestimated martial arts too much."
Regret washed over him—if he had brought the manual, he could have learned it through the system just like the Boundless Fist. But there was nothing he could do about it now.
Slap!
He struck both cheeks hard with his palms, shook his head, and returned to his meditative posture.
Other masters must have gone through this same process before they could even begin Qi Condensation.
In truth, Seo-un’s martial talent wasn't bad at all. In fact, he was quite gifted. While the time it takes to sense Qi varies, anyone can achieve it with enough effort. Seo-un had drastically shortened that time using Cameron's Necklace. However, even among those who could sense Qi, very few could begin Qi Condensation immediately.
No matter how much one controlled their breathing, the energy of the atmosphere didn't just easily enter a human's Dantian. Capturing that free-floating energy and making it one's own required steady, persistent effort.
Yet, Seo-un was already managing a clumsy form of Qi Condensation almost as soon as he sensed the energy. Though it wasn't perfect, his talent for gradually accumulating energy in his Dantian was quite remarkable. Even though they were from different worlds, the main reason Jang Do-cheon had passed on his true martial arts was that he had recognized this very talent in Seo-un.
As he relaxed his mind, recited the mental formula, and focused on his breathing, Seo-un’s concentration began to sharpen to a razor edge.
Stray thoughts vanished. He became entirely focused on the formula and his breath. Instead of trying to forcibly seize the free-floating energy, he began to guide it naturally with his inhalations. Just like in the other world, Qi Condensation began to take place.
With a stinging sensation, his Qi Channels began to open toward his Dantian. The channels throughout his body, which were heavily clogged with impurities, began to circulate the small amount of gathered energy.
The power of the Baekmu Juyeongong lay in its solidity. It harmonized the five elements to strengthen the blood vessels and the Qi Channels that ran alongside them. It fortified the physical body and built a sturdy foundation to store the energy of Great Nature.
While every mental method sought this to some degree, the result of Baekmu Juyeongong’s absolute devotion to these basics had elevated it to the rank of a divine art. Had Seo-un learned any other mental method, the impurities clogging his channels would have made energy circulation impossible. But it was the unique property of the Baekmu Juyeongong—protecting the channels while stubbornly pushing the gathered energy through to clear them—that made the circulation possible.
Light and darkness passed outside Seo-un’s window more than three times as he focused on his breathing, striving to achieve Small Circulation without the system's help. Slowly opening his eyes, Seo-un let out a long breath and uncrossed his legs.
"This isn't easy."
Even after gathering energy in his Dantian and attempting to circulate it, clearing all the blocked channels was too much. No matter how divine the art was, trying to complete Small Circulation with only a handful of internal power gathered through breathing was hindered by the stubborn impurities in his body.
Vrrr—!
"Huh?"
Lost in thought while staring at his Subspace Ring, he looked at his vibrating phone and saw a familiar nickname.
[Hyung! No word from you for three days. Aren't you logging in? You must be studying hard.]
It was a KakaoTalk message from a younger guy he had met while playing the game.
"Three days?"
But what caught Seo-un’s attention was that specific phrase: "three days." He picked up his phone to check the date and realized that three days had indeed flown by.
"Whoa..."
He had heard stories of this happening in martial arts novels, but he never imagined he would actually spend three days in meditation without realizing it. The moment his mind registered the passage of time, he felt a sudden wave of hunger and a dull ache in his lower back.
"First... I need to eat something and get some sleep."
He grabbed a quick meal from a convenience store and collapsed onto his bed.
"Haaaaah!"
He let out a long yawn, stretched, and checked his phone. Only nine hours had passed. He tilted his head in confusion and sat up abruptly.
"I feel way too refreshed for someone who stayed up for three days."
Waking up without a trace of fatigue, he finished the rest of his convenience store meal and pulled a wooden box from his Subspace.
"Whew."
He had thought about it long and hard, but achieving Small Circulation was going to be a long journey. There were several channels that felt like they would never open, and he couldn't create a perfect Dantian until Small Circulation was complete.
"It's a divine art passed down by that old man... surely I can absorb an Elixir of this level..."
Despite his words, Seo-un couldn't bring himself to easily open the box and swallow the Cheong-un Pill. As a fan of martial arts novels, he knew better than anyone the horrors that could occur if an Elixir was consumed incorrectly.
And yet, he couldn't suppress his growing impatience. The sensation of that fierce energy filling his Dantian and surging through his body, empowering him, was not something he could easily forget. Even now, the memory of it left him feeling hollow because of his lost internal power. It was only natural that he felt a burning desire to rebuild his Dantian and accumulate internal power as quickly as possible.
"Whew."
Taking a deep breath, Seo-un finally reached out and picked up the Cheong-un Pill from the wooden box.