Chapter 10: Acquisition
Just moments earlier, the martial manuals had looked like nothing more than discarded trash.
Now...
they looked completely different.
They were lights illuminating my hopeful new life after regression.
Seeds of heavenly fortune.
This is it.
This is what regression is supposed to look like.
While I was still enjoying the excitement...
something familiar entered the corner of my vision.
The Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture lying on the floor.
I bent down and picked it up again.
Then, almost without thinking, I opened the cover.
"..."
My mind went blank.
I had clearly watched every character inside the book leave the pages and enter my head.
Yet...
What's going on?
The writing was still there.
Not a single brushstroke was missing.
So they didn't actually disappear....
Then...
I slowly calmed my breathing and began turning through the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture one page at a time.
I read each densely written passage.
Strangely...
everything inside the book was incredibly easy to understand.
The intended meridian circulation.
The principles of breathing.
The reasoning behind the cultivation method.
All of it appeared clearly inside my mind.
I could even immediately identify exactly where the flaws were.
So this was the problem.
The internal-energy circulation was designed to break midway through the meridians.
If someone circulated qi like this, the pathways would tangle and true qi would inevitably flow backward.
That's why practitioners fell into qi deviation.
A faint laugh escaped me.
The flaw within the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture...
something nobody had identified for hundreds of years...
had become obvious after only one glance.
I even understand the flaws.
I really did completely acquire the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture.
I closed the book and smiled.
The physical manual hasn't changed.
But I'm the only one who knows its true meaning.
Nothing about the book itself was different.
Like every other martial manual in the Abandoned Martial Hall, the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture remained an incomplete failure.
Only one thing had changed.
There was now one person in this entire world who perfectly understood it.
That person...
was me.
Han Mujin.
I raised my head.
Rows of bookshelves filled my vision.
Let's see what other treasures I have.
I walked toward the nearest shelf.
Reaching through the spiderwebs, I pulled out several manuals.
Void Dao Scripture.
Reverse Blood Heart Fist.
Soul-Breaking Returning Step....
Even their names sounded unusual.
Reverse Blood.
Soul-Breaking.
They didn't exactly sound like martial arts belonging to a Taoist sect such as Kunlun.
But after thinking about it...
it made sense.
For generations, Kunlun's past experts had been forced to fight the Demonic Cult.
The survival and prosperity of the sect had probably been their greatest concern.
Naturally...
their desire for greater power must have been intense.
The manuals inside the Abandoned Martial Hall were probably the result of that desperate desire.
But excessive obsession with power inevitably created instability.
And so...
only failed legacies remained.
Martial arts that drove their users into qi deviation.
Of course, that's not my problem.
I possessed something nobody else in the world had.
A unique martial comprehension ability capable of understanding and correcting even incomplete martial manuals.
Excited, I was about to open one of the books when...
I sensed someone behind me.
"What are you doing?"
"Why are you holding martial manuals instead of cleaning like I told you?"
I turned around.
A familiar face appeared.
Jin Gwangung.
I had no idea how long he had been standing there.
His arms were crossed.
And he was staring directly at me.
There was something strange in his gaze.
As if he were trying to see through me.
I calmly answered.
"Before cleaning, I was checking the condition of the books."
"They're extremely old, so I was worried I might accidentally damage them while cleaning."
"Hmm."
Jin Gwangung continued staring suspiciously.
"Checking their condition...."
After a moment...
he slowly nodded.
"...Fine."
"Being careful in advance isn't a bad thing."
Fortunately, he seemed to accept my explanation.
Jin Gwangung glanced around the Abandoned Martial Hall.
Then he asked again.
"Did anything happen while this old man was away?"
"Anything?"
"Nothing happened."
"Really?"
He frowned.
"I thought I heard someone screaming earlier."
"Screaming?"
I blinked innocently.
"There are only abandoned martial manuals and me here."
"What could possibly happen?"
"Strange."
Jin Gwangung rubbed his chin.
"I was half asleep, but I'm certain it sounded like your scream."
Apparently he had heard the short cries I accidentally made while the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture was being automatically acquired.
Damn old man.
Why is his hearing so good?
Before he could investigate further...
I quickly changed the subject.
"Master, didn't you say you were entering wall-facing cultivation earlier?"
"But now you're saying you heard a scream while half asleep."
"Don't tell me you were actually sleeping instead of cultivating..."
"S-Sleeping?!"
Jin Gwangung immediately became flustered.
"What kind of disrespectful nonsense are you saying?!"
"This old man was definitely performing wall-facing cultivation!"
"Naturally."
I nodded seriously.
"Surely someone as noble as Master wouldn't leave his disciple alone and comfortably sleep in his room."
"The scream you heard was probably just the cry of some animal wandering nearby."
"Y-Yes."
Jin Gwangung coughed.
"You're probably right."
"This old man must have heard incorrectly."
"Ahem."
"Then I'll return to cultivation."
He turned to leave.
But suddenly...
he stopped.
Then he looked back as though remembering something.
"Just in case..."
"don't do anything foolish."
"Foolish?"
"Don't even dream of practicing the martial manuals inside the Abandoned Martial Hall."
I immediately nodded.
"Yes, Master."
"Don't worry. I absolutely won't."
"Of course, someone at your level probably couldn't even imitate one proper form from these manuals."
Jin Gwangung snorted.
"But if you ignore your limits and insist on practicing them anyway..."
"you'll spend the rest of your life crippled and screaming in pain."
"Remember that."
"I'll remember, Master."
After leaving that final warning...
Jin Gwangung walked away.
Once he completely disappeared from sight...
I quietly muttered.
"Too difficult, my ass."
"I've already swallowed one of them whole."
The Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture had already settled perfectly inside me.
No qi deviation.
No instability.
I slowly looked down at the manuals in my hands.
Now...
it was time to continue what I had postponed.
Reviving the martial arts that had been dead inside the Abandoned Martial Hall for countless years.
More precisely...
recreating them into secret martial arts meant exclusively for Han Mujin.
All right.
Let's really begin.
The discarded trash that had been abandoned for generations...
would begin breathing again in my hands.
Early dawn.
The darkness of night hadn't completely disappeared.
A faint gray light softly filled the Abandoned Martial Hall.
I shook off the thin blanket beneath me and stood up.
Taking a deep breath of cold morning air, I stretched widely.
"Yawn."
"Another day already."
A full week had passed since Jin Gwangung had half-forcibly dragged me here.
At first...
I had been fairly nervous.
When he declared that I would represent him at the Elders' Lecture Gathering, I wondered if that insane old man might force some bizarre training method on me.
But life in the Abandoned Martial Hall had been surprisingly peaceful.
And extremely free.
"Looks like that old monster already left again."
I muttered while walking toward a nearby bookshelf.
I had no idea what kept him so busy.
But every morning before sunrise, Jin Gwangung left.
Then he didn't return until late at night.
As a result...
he practically left me to live however I wanted.
Since the first day I arrived here, he hadn't spoken a single word to me.
More accurately...
it felt as though he had completely forgotten I even existed.
Thanks to that...
I had absolute freedom in the Abandoned Martial Hall.
And I devoted all of it to martial training.
I pulled a manual from a nearby shelf.
"Soul-Origin Destruction Fist."
"The name isn't bad."
"Let's see whether this one has anything useful."
I casually opened the cover and began reading.
[New martial-art information has been transmitted to the Awakened One.]
[Martial Art: Soul-Origin Destruction Fist]
[Analyzing contents.]
[...]
[Final Analysis: This martial art has been determined to be an irreparable "Trash-Tier Martial Art."]
[Forcibly acquiring it may cause severe damage to the Awakened One's body.]
"Damn it."
"Another failure."
I sighed and closed the book.
Among the hundreds of martial manuals in the Abandoned Martial Hall...
only a very small number were genuine treasures.
Most truly were trash beyond repair.
I had already inspected more than half of all the manuals inside.
Yet among them...
the number I had successfully restored could be counted on one hand.
Including the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture...
I had only acquired three martial arts.
It's a little disappointing...
But this is already more than enough.
Although I had acquired far fewer martial arts than I initially imagined...
I wasn't disappointed.
Rather...
I was extremely satisfied.
Looks like nobody's nearby.
Should I test it again?
I returned the useless Soul-Origin Destruction Fist to the bookshelf and looked around.
The shadows cast by the old pillars and shelves overlapped throughout the Hall.
I quietly stepped into one of those shadows.
At the same moment...
my body slowly merged into the darkness.
Soon...
I completely disappeared inside the shadow.
Void Night Phantom Step.
The second treasure I discovered inside the Abandoned Martial Hall.
It was a movement art that allowed the user to completely blend into shadows and hide.
And it wasn't merely concealment.
It specialized in stealth and covert movement by allowing its user to travel between shadows.
I faced the mirror hanging on the nearby wall.
Even though I stood directly in front of it...
my reflection didn't appear at all.
A smile formed naturally.
"No matter how many times I see it, this is incredible."
I was clearly standing there...
yet I couldn't be seen.
Before regression, I had personally witnessed many movement arts used by elite assassins trained by the Shadow Corps.
But I had never seen a stealth or concealment art capable of producing anything even remotely similar to the Void Night Phantom Step.
It was that extraordinary.
A unique secret movement art.
More accurately...
my ability is the extraordinary part.
Even Kunlun's countless masters of previous generations had failed to complete the unstable movement art known as the Void Night Phantom Step.
But I had corrected its flaws.
Reconstructed it into a perfect martial art.
Then made it mine.
The entire process took less than two sichen.
Even I was amazed by the power of the martial comprehension ability that awakened after regression.
Acquiring the Void Night Phantom Step was an enormous opportunity.
On the path of revenge ahead...
there would certainly be many situations where it would become useful.
But...
the true opportunity I found inside the Abandoned Martial Hall was something else.
I picked up an old broom leaning against a corner.
Of course...
I wasn't about to clean.
"All right."
"Let's start today's practice."
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Within the quiet dawn atmosphere surrounding the Hall...
I calmed my mind and focused.
As my breathing settled...
the flow of energy inside me began moving slightly.
I slowly corrected my posture.
All I held in my right hand was an old broom.
But within my mind...
it became a sword.
I surrendered my body to the flow of consciousness.
"Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword, First Form."
"Clear Stream Flowing Water."
I lightly raised the sword in my hand.
The sword and my consciousness became one.
Following that connection...
my body moved.
A graceful curve unfolded from the end of my arm.
Whoosh.
The sword's path cut through the air, producing a faint sound.
Gray dust scattered along the line created by the blade.
Matching the silence of dawn...
my body and sword became a single current flowing quietly through the Abandoned Martial Hall.
Not a single movement was wasted.
Neither heavy nor light.
Within a perfectly balanced flow...
my sword created countless lines.
Straight lines.
Curves.
Countless sword paths filled the entire Hall.
Yet every one of them slipped through the narrow spaces between bookshelves and pillars like flowing water.
I continued riding those endless waves of sword movement.
I completely lost track of time.
Only the sensation of becoming one with the sword remained.
After fully enjoying the feeling of those flowing sword waves...
I gradually withdrew them.
Only when I felt every trace of sword intent completely stop...
did I finally open my eyes.
"..."
The sharp sword in my hand had returned to being an old broom.
And the inside of the Abandoned Martial Hall looked completely different from when I closed my eyes.
The red glow of dawn was gone.
Bright morning sunlight now entered through the gaps in the windows.
I hadn't even realized that dawn had ended.
That was how deeply my consciousness had sunk into the sword's flow.
The final traces of wind created by the sword faded.
Peaceful silence returned.
I lowered the broom and smiled with satisfaction.
"Now I can finally feel the flow of the sword."
My martial comprehension ability allowed me to understand the principles behind martial arts.
But understanding a martial art...
didn't mean I had completely made it mine.
The Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword I had just practiced was the perfect example.
The Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.
The third martial art I obtained from the Abandoned Martial Hall.
As its name suggested...
its sword flow was gentle like a flower blooming in darkness.
Yet the sword force hidden within it was fierce and dignified like the spirit of Kunlun.
It consisted of five sword forms.
When its principles and flow were first engraved into my mind...
I had been ecstatic.
I had finally obtained the proper high-level martial art I had always wanted.
But it didn't take long for me to understand the problem.
I was still far too lacking to properly display the true Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.
Simply understanding it intellectually wasn't enough.
There was one more process necessary to truly make it mine.
Training.
Ultimately...
I had to engrave it into my body.
Make it instinctive.
That was the true path of martial arts.
The ultimate realm of the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword still lay far beyond my current level.
Of its five forms...
I could properly reproduce only the first three.
To understand its true essence...
I needed harder training.
And much more time.
But I wasn't disappointed.
If anything...
I was more satisfied than ever.
The process of gradually mastering a profound martial art with enough depth that I couldn't learn it instantly...
felt thrilling.
Yes.
I've finally reached the road I always wanted.
The Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture allowed my body to contain refined, clear internal energy.
The Void Night Phantom Step taught me how to disappear into shadows while awakening my senses and agility.
And the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword showed me something I had never experienced before.
The true flow of a sword.
Each of the three possessed a different nature.
Yet inside me...
they formed a perfect harmony.
They constantly changed me.
And that change had a name.
Growth.
The me of today...
was completely different from the me of yesterday.
I was growing stronger at a speed that even I found difficult to believe.
Something I could never have imagined while living as an experiment subject with a predetermined end.
Now...
I stood in the middle of a life where I could dream of growth.
Of tomorrow.
Of becoming stronger.
A life where I was truly human.
Just as I fully enjoyed that overwhelming feeling...
an unfamiliar voice came from outside the Abandoned Martial Hall.
"...You're saying that brat really is here?"
