Flash.

As soon as my eyes opened, I quickly lifted my upper body. I immediately circulated my qi to check the condition of my body.

Wooong—The qi swirled once around my body before settling, allowing me to exhale the breath I had been holding.

“Haa…”

‘Thankfully, no issues.’

There didn’t seem to be any problems with my body. If I had to nitpick, I’d say I had a bit of a headache, but that was nothing unusual, just the same old constant ache. After confirming that my condition was stable, I clicked my tongue as the previous situation came to mind.

‘Tch... All I did was light up the surroundings a bit.’

The previous situation—where I had used Jeokcheon to try to push back Amwang’s domain. Jeokcheon is a technique that expands a domain of heat, so I thought it was worth a try.

But in the end, I couldn’t push it back.

Though I could feel Amwang’s domain tremble slightly as if it was being blocked by the heat of Jeokcheon, that was all.

What a shame.

That thought crossed my mind, and I chuckled.

‘Shame, my foot.’

It wasn’t nearly at the level where I should feel disappointed. Why had I been so needlessly competitive? It was foolish to provoke Amwang. Who knew what would have happened if I had agitated him further?

Maybe I had temporarily lost my senses.

‘This temper of mine…’

Even as my strength increased and I grew older, some things never seemed to change—like my temper. As I was about to stand up, a voice came from the front.

“What are you smiling about like you’ve done something good?”

I lifted my head in the direction of the voice.

Amwang was standing nearby with his arms crossed, and the one who had spoken, looking at me with an exasperated expression, was Paejon.

With a calm tone, I replied.

“I did well. I followed your instructions to the letter.”

“…Hah.”

Paejon frowned at my answer. Though I felt a little nervous, I still needed to say my piece.

“I did what you told me—I reached Amwang. What’s the problem?”

With a helpless voice, Paejon finally responded.

“…I trained you to develop flexible thinking and response skills since you seem to live life constantly at risk of death. But instead, you’ve become more reckless.”

“Flexible thinking?”

Now it was my turn to be confused. How was one supposed to develop flexible responses when facing death every single day?

“I told you to look around and be aware of your surroundings.”

“Is this really how you teach someone that?”

“I didn’t expect you to break through like this either.”

I had been tormented by Amwang for an entire month. How could I have gained any flexibility of thought in that time? It was clear that Paejon had expected me to learn something from this training.

And, to be fair, I had gained something. But if I had to evaluate whether this training was worthwhile... it didn’t really seem like it.

“…I told you to stop acting recklessly, and you went and did something even more reckless…”

“Does it matter? As long as I got it done, that’s what counts, right?”

“Well… you’re not wrong about that. It seems I was the one mistaken.”

For a moment, I was surprised to hear Paejon admit he was wrong.

“Aye, boy, you’re far crazier than I imagined. This was an error in my judgment.”

“…”

Who’s calling who crazy here?

That was the most absurd thing I had heard all year. I couldn’t believe Paejon of all people was calling me insane. I suppressed my feelings of disbelief and asked him.

“…So, what do we do now? Should I try again since it wasn’t the way you wanted?”

“No, there’s no need for that. I think I’ll give up at this point.”

Give up—hearing Paejon say he was giving up on something related to martial arts felt strange.

“…Are you sure that’s okay?”

“At this stage, it’s clear. You have your own method that suits you better than mine.”

“…Hmm.”

“I won’t bother you about this anymore. Do it your way.”

With that, Paejon held back whatever else he had intended to say. Should I be pleased about this? Paejon saying he was giving up?

‘It’s not bad, I suppose.’

If Paejon thought it wasn’t necessary to change anything, then it probably wasn’t a bad thing. That meant I could do things my way, right? As I nodded to myself, Paejon asked me something else.

“By the way, how did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That the bat’s technique wasn’t real.”

“…Ah.”

Paejon was talking about Amwang’s power.

It appeared as though Amwang was creating a domain with his qi, but in truth, it was something different.

That night, during the battle with Amwang, my body had actually been asleep.

I didn’t fully understand how it worked, but the sensations I had experienced so far were like a dream.

‘Though, what kind of dream causes such vivid pain?’

I had concluded that it must have been a dream.

That was also why I had been able to die repeatedly and come back to life.

And how did I know this?

“…After over a month of suffering through it, I just figured it out.”

When you’ve died hundreds of times, you naturally start to realize certain things. It’s not exactly normal for a person to die and then come back to life.

‘Though I guess it’s possible to return from death into the past.’

That’s beside the point.

It wasn’t possible in reality to die and be revived like that over and over. And besides…

‘The lack of physical exhaustion was another clue.’

When I woke up after each night of training, I didn’t feel physically tired—only mentally drained.

At first, I had thought this training, where I died every night, was completely insane. But now I realized that, in a way, I had been resting.

But this only made things more confusing.

‘What kind of power is this, exactly?’

It didn’t seem like a martial art, nor did it feel like a formation technique.

The biggest mystery was…

When exactly had I been caught in Amwang’s power and put to sleep?

I must have been caught by something for this to have happened, but I had no memory of it at all. That meant it must have been incredibly subtle.

‘What could it be?’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out.

Whatever technique Amwang had used, it was beyond my understanding.

‘That’s probably why it’s so terrifying.’

Now that I had experienced it firsthand, I understood it better.

Amwang was on a level so far beyond me that I couldn’t even fathom reaching him right now.

I glanced at Amwang out of the corner of my eye.

If that man was this strong…

Then where did that place Paejon in his prime? Where were the Three Supremes?

And where was Cheonma, who had killed all the Supremes?

And what about Singeom, who had killed Cheonma?

‘…Hah.’

The path ahead was long.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how far I still had to go.

Carefully, I stood up. It was almost sunrise, and I needed to prepare for training.

Physically, I was fine.

Unlike the hell I had experienced in Amwang’s world, I had been sleeping soundly in reality.

‘…Though I can’t say the same for my mind.’

While my mental state was another story, at least my body felt refreshed.

Also…

‘Was it Paejon who eased my muscles every night?’

I had been noticing slight changes in my muscles every time I woke up.

It seemed that Paejon had been performing Chugunggwahyeol (Palace-Passing Acupressure) on me each night.

He was the only one here who would bother to do something like that for me.

I had even felt it during our sparring sessions.

No matter how ruthlessly he pushed me, I never complained because I knew he was intentionally using his qi to strike the acupoints, ensuring my muscles wouldn’t be harmed.

In that sense, it wasn’t me who had been unable to sleep—it was probably Paejon.

That’s why, despite all the cursing I did in my head, I followed his instructions with determination.

The old man was genuinely committed to raising a disciple.

‘Doing this every night must be taxing for him, too.’

Chugunggwahyeol wasn’t an easy technique.

It required delicate control of qi to make sure the acupoints weren’t damaged.

Even if he wasn’t at his peak, maintaining this level of precision with my body, which had reached Hwagyeong (Flower Blooming Stage), must have been exhausting for Paejon.

Yet he continued to pour his energy into me every night without showing any signs of fatigue.

Knowing that, how could I possibly slack off during training? I had to keep going until I reached the peak.

As I stood up, Paejon dusted off his clothes and rose as well.

“Your eyes don’t look too pleased. Were you cursing me in your head again?”

“This time, I was actually complimenting you.”

“So, ‘this time’ implies that you’ve cursed me in the past, then.”

“…”

Damn it.

I fell right into the old man’s wordplay.

Cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

My instincts kicked in, and I immediately started calculating where I could dodge if Paejon decided to throw a punch.

Habits were scary.

I’d been beaten so often that these thoughts now came to me naturally.

Bang!

“You crazy—!”

I dodged as Paejon threw a punch, twisting my head to the side just in time.

He looked at me, surprised.

“Oh… You dodged. It seems you’ve improved.”

“…What are you doing?”

“I could tell you were expecting me to hit you, so I just followed through.”

“…”

When he put it that way, I had no response.

I really had been expecting it.

“In any case.”

“You’re about to hit me, and now you say ‘in any case’?”

“Would you like me to continue?”

“Please go ahead with what you were saying. I’m all ears.”

“You brat…”

Paejon chuckled before quickly returning to a serious expression.

That quick shift in mood was terrifying. It was hard to tell when he was being sincere.

“In any case… though this wasn’t the method I wanted, you’ve completed the task, so as promised…”

Paejon tapped my chest lightly with his fist.

“I will teach you the first technique of Tua Pacheonmu.”

‘Finally.’

I let out a sigh of relief at his words.

So I could finally learn that damn technique properly.

“When do we start?”

Given the circumstances, I assumed we’d begin training in the afternoon.

It had been a long time since I’d learned martial arts from someone else, so it felt novel. In my past life, I had only learned the incantations and principles of Guyeom Hwalrun Gong.

Other than that, I had mostly trained on my own, with the occasional guidance from Elder Il.

As I awaited his response, Paejon tilted his head slightly.

“When?”

“Yes?”

“We’ll start right now. What do you mean, when?”

“Right now?”

Start training now? That was a bit sudden.

Just as I was feeling caught off guard by Paejon’s sudden decisiveness, I saw a strange smile forming on his lips.

“Don’t worry, the first technique isn’t all that difficult.”

“…Understood.”

I hadn’t been worried about the difficulty, just the abruptness of it all.

To make matters worse, Amwang was nowhere to be seen. He’d been standing nearby just moments ago, hadn’t he?

“If you’re that unhappy about it, we could do it later. If you want.”

I considered waiting until the afternoon, but then I decided that it was best to strike while the iron was hot and save time.

“No, I’ll do it now.”

“I like your answer.”

Paejon nodded in satisfaction at my response.

So, would he start teaching me the technique now?

But then…

‘Why isn’t he stepping back?’

Despite saying he would teach me the technique, Paejon remained standing right in front of me, even keeping his fist pressed against my chest.

Puzzled, I tried to ask him about it.

“Elder?”

“Learning the technique isn’t difficult. I’m sure of it. Out of all the techniques in the martial world, this one is the easiest.”

“…Is it?”

That sounded a bit strange.

Anyone who had seen Tua Pacheonmu in action would say that the technique was intricate and dazzlingly complex. In my past life, when I had nearly died to Paejon, I could tell his martial arts were beyond reason.

Yet here he was, claiming the first technique was simple?

As I pondered this, Paejon spoke again.

“It’s simple. Once you feel it with your body, you’ll understand quickly.”

“Huh?”

“If anyone can learn it, it’s you. You’ve got the guts for it.”

…What did I just hear?

“What do you—?”

As I tried to clarify, wondering if I’d misheard him, I felt something familiar.

Wooooong—!

“…!”

From the end of the fist still pressed against me, I felt a familiar qi.

It was the energy of Tua Pacheonmu.

As the eerie sensation crept over me, I looked at Paejon.

“Ah, by the way, stay alert. Unlike the bat’s training…”

Before he finished speaking, I instinctively tried to dodge.

I immediately cloaked my body in protective qi to defend myself.

“This training might actually kill you.”

As he finished his words, Paejon’s fist suddenly surged with power, sending a deep shockwave rippling through the area.

At that moment, I realized something.

Now that the nightmare was over…

Hell had begun.

   ******************
   

As Gu Yangcheon was rolling around somewhere deep in the forest...

Swoosh—Swish!

A white-haired woman was alone, silently swinging her sword in an open clearing.

She had been moving so intensely that a few strands of her hair were stuck to her sweat-soaked cheeks. However, she didn’t seem to care as she continued to wield her sword relentlessly.

Swish—!

The blade, charged with Noe-gi (Lightning Qi), left traces in the air. The sight was somewhat beautiful, given the early morning weather, but the movement and emotions imbued in the blade were anything but serene.

Papak—!

Her swift sword techniques and footwork would have drawn admiration from onlookers. However, the woman’s eyes were filled with dissatisfaction.

‘…No, it’s not enough.’

It felt slow.

That was how Namgung Bi-ah perceived her own swordsmanship.

Moreover...

‘It’s weak.’

It felt endlessly weak.

Even though her sword technique flowed without interruption, and her footwork was flawless, Namgung Bi-ah couldn’t find it within herself to be satisfied.

‘…With this…’

With swordsmanship like this, she couldn’t stay by his side. As this thought crossed her mind, Namgung Bi-ah bit her lip.

Eventually, even her sword stopped in midair.

“Haa… Haa…”

Her breath, heavy and ragged, escaped through her delicate lips.

How long had she been at it, moving her body like this from the start until now? She had forgotten all about sleep and spent the entire night gripping her sword.

Despite all this, the frustration that had built up within Namgung Bi-ah showed no signs of subsiding.

Once a woman who had loved the act of wielding her sword, she now found herself consumed by an unknown inner demon.

‘…’

She winced in pain and glanced down at her hand. Perhaps she had gripped her sword too tightly. Her palm had started to tear slightly.

What was she supposed to do?

How could she—

‘…How can I protect him…?’

Namgung Bi-ah frowned deeply as thoughts of Gu Yangcheon flooded her mind. He was the source of the inner turmoil she was currently experiencing.

Gu Yangcheon was endlessly pitiful and precarious.

Recently, that was how Namgung Bi-ah saw him.

The once proud and unhesitant Gu Yangcheon was slowly being crushed by something incomprehensible, growing more weary with each passing day.

Despite seeing this clearly, there was nothing she could do to help. This helplessness weighed heavily on Namgung Bi-ah.

‘I can’t protect anything…’

When the Lord of the Black Night Palace had attacked the Divine Dragon Pavilion, Namgung Bi-ah had been forced to confront her own weakness.

At the time, she had been able to do nothing.

Only after Tang So-yeol sacrificed herself had they been able to escape the crisis. And even then, she had to be saved again and again by Gu Yangcheon.

In such circumstances…

‘What am I even…?’

What had she become?

Once, she had wielded her sword to escape the stench of evil in the world, and now, standing beside him, she had managed to break free from that stench.

But now, Namgung Bi-ah found herself wondering what she was wielding her sword for.

‘…To be by his side…’

The answer came to her in self-reflection, but it still felt incomplete.

Yet, even though she couldn’t fully convince herself, it was enough for her. That answer would suffice.

‘I need to protect him…’

She wanted to shield the fragile and anxious Gu Yangcheon.

Though others might see him as brilliant and strong, Namgung Bi-ah didn’t see him that way.

She saw Gu Yangcheon as someone who, even though he seemed as if he wanted to collapse at any moment, held on desperately because he had too much to protect.

Recalling this, Namgung Bi-ah gripped her sword again with her injured hand.

‘…I…’

What would it take to protect him? In her current state, weak and fragile as she was, it seemed impossible.

She couldn’t even touch the hem of the Black Night Palace Lord’s clothes, nor had she been able to defeat the Dormant Dragon swordsman.

How could someone like her protect anyone?

Blood trickled from her lip as she bit down harder.

She couldn’t stand her own powerlessness.

“…I can’t go on like this…”

She had to find a way.

A way to become stronger.

A way to stand by him and protect him.

That was what she sought.

Crack.

She swung her sword again. Though her body was already exhausted, Namgung Bi-ah didn’t stop.

At the same time, a conversation she had with her father in Hanan just before the journey to Sichuan came to mind.

[Your great-grandfather has requested to see you.]

Before returning to Anhui, Namgung Jin had left her with that message.

Namgung Bi-ah’s great-grandfather, one of the Three Supremes of the martial world and known as Cheonjon, had asked to meet her.

[It just so happens that your journey coincides with his business in Sichuan, so he said it was fortunate.]

[…Why…?]

When she asked why Cheonjon saw her trip to Sichuan as fortunate, Namgung Jin had replied:

[He said he has business there as well. Go and meet him.]

[…]

As she recalled the conversation, Namgung Bi-ah pondered it.

Her brother, perhaps, but she herself had little connection with Cheonjon. She had seen him from afar a few times, but they had only ever met properly a handful of times.

Nevertheless, Namgung Bi-ah had already resolved to meet him.

‘I have to become stronger.’

As the head of the Namgung Family and a man who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, Cheonjon might show her a path to becoming stronger.

She needed to grow stronger.

Much stronger.

To protect him, she couldn’t remain at her current level.

With that thought, Namgung Bi-ah continued to swing her sword.