WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 33: Position Test (2)

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The Position Test to be held six months later was for all training cadets.

In my previous life, before my regression, I completed a year of training as a low-rank training cadet before taking the Position Test.

As a third-rate warrior among the low-rank training cadets, without even a trace of internal energy, I was naturally assigned the position of a low-rank warrior.

Very occasionally, some low-rank training cadets became mid-rank warriors, but such cases were exceedingly rare.

“Then we'll just become Squad leaders.”

“We can, can we?”

“That was a little too casual, JwaBaek.”

When I corrected him, he gritted his teeth, apparently annoyed.

“We will, senior brother.”

He spoke each word as though chewing it over.

It was obvious from his face that he was grumbling inwardly.

Seeing his reaction made me want to tease him even more.

Treating me as his senior martial brother must have been an enormous hardship for him.

“You're taking this too lightly, aren't you?”

To hold the position of Squad leader, one had to be a high-rank warrior, an Advanced master.

Even that was only the minimum requirement.

Song JwaBaek's lips twitched as he spoke to me.

“It isn't that it will be easy. We have Master, so we don't really need to worry... do we?”

“My older brother... is right.”

I snorted at the twins' words.

Perhaps because Evil Heaven had practically kidnapped them the moment they joined the Blood Cult, they seemed entirely unaware of how things worked here.

- Why? Isn't he right? This is when you use a powerful backer.

The SoDam Sword agreed with them as well.

I could understand why they thought that way.

If the Blood Cult had remained as prosperous and stable as before, the influence of someone powerful could have come into play.

But the Blood Cult was in the stage of rebuilding.

Because it needed to grow even stronger than before, it placed the utmost importance on skill and accomplishments when making appointments.

- So without the skill, becoming a Squad leader is nothing but a dream.

'You'd only make a complete fool of yourself.'

On the contrary, because people would expect more from a Venerable One's disciple, I might only earn the disgrace of being told that this was all I was capable of.

If that happened, Evil Heaven would go mad.

I could see it without even looking.

“You don't know what you're talking about. Being treated as Master's, no, Venerable One's disciple is a separate matter. Don't rely on your backer and make a fool of yourself.”

“How do you... Hah. How does senior brother know that?”

Of course I knew. I had experienced it myself.

This was my second life.

“Ahem. It wasn't me. Master said so.”

Of course, he had not.

Evil Heaven had merely given me the task of earning the position of Squad leader.

Still, I thought JwaBaek might come to his senses if I added something more.

“Ah, I nearly forgot. He also said to prepare yourselves if you fail to receive the Squad Leader position in six months. You know what that means, right?”

Song JwaBaek's face hardened at the words prepare yourselves.

Having experienced Evil Heaven until now, he understood better than anyone.

“Hey!”

“Huh?”

“If you don't want to be screwed, get up!”

The effect was incredible.

Perhaps motivated, the twins immediately began training.

Having delivered Evil Heaven's message to them, I also needed to train in earnest.

In my previous life, the position of Squad leader had been a wall I could not even dream of overcoming.

* * *

I went to the cave where the Southern Heavenly Swordmaster's skeletal remains had been.

The remains were no longer in the cave.

Still, he had been a master who once dominated his era, and to me, he had been like a teacher of sword art. I could not simply leave his remains unattended.

Wary of Evil Heaven, I made him a grave on a mountain peak even higher than this one.

When the opportunity arose, I planned to relocate his remains to a sunny place and erect a proper tombstone.

- But Un Hwi, where did that crazy old man rush off to?

'I don't know.'

Evil Heaven had told me to pass along the instruction for the twins to become Squad leaders, then hurriedly left, saying he had somewhere to go.

He said he would return within fifteen days, but I had no idea where he went.

Still, judging by Evil Heaven's impatient nature, it was probably related to building his power base.

His speed of action was astonishing.

'I don't know what will happen from now on.'

The Bizarre Oddity, Evil Heaven, that I knew had never established any force of his own.

- What do you even know?

It was not as though I knew every detail of Evil Heaven's life.

Still, there was one thing that was well known.

Contrary to the wishes of the upper leadership, Evil Heaven acted independently and lost his right arm to Jin Gyun, the Fierce King Tyrant's Road and one of the Eight Sword Masters of the Central Plains.

That would happen six years from now.

- Then things could change?

That seemed possible.

Even now, many things had already changed.

Originally, I should still have been a low-rank training cadet, yet I had become Evil Heaven's disciple, and somehow, I had even formed a small connection with a blood relative of the Blood Cult lord.

'...Things are changing.'

Thinking it over, things were certainly changing.

Every change in my actions altered even the future I had known.

Come to think of it, if I had not become Evil Heaven's disciple, he would never have met Lady Ha Yeon and changed his mind.

'...I'm influencing things.'

For now, the changes around me were small, but I did not know what they might become in the future.

They could lead to greater changes.

If so, I might have to account for variables like these from now on.

Only then could I properly use the future I knew.

'For now, I need to build my strength under Evil Heaven's protection.'

This might even be an opportunity.

Being unable to escape and getting caught had led to me becoming his disciple.

If Evil Heaven established a new force, remaining his disciple could become a stepping stone for me to rise higher.

To do that, I definitely had to become a Squad leader.

“Whew.”

The moment I had been waiting for had finally come.

I sat cross-legged and prepared to circulate my energy.

I was going to circulate the SoHyeon Cultivation Technique, the basic energy circulation method of the Yiyang So Clan that I had practiced since childhood.

The Southern Heavenly Steel Sword spoke to me.

- Be careful, Un Hwi. It might collide with your innate life energy.

Don't scare me from the start.

I knew it was concerned, but if it frightened me too much, I would become scared to circulate my energy.

I slowly inhaled and exhaled as I circulated the SoHyeon Cultivation Technique.

I focused on the essence below my navel.

But I could not sense it easily.

'This is difficult.'

It had been a long time, so my senses were not what they used to be.

Furthermore, I had grown accustomed to innate life energy recently, so this felt different from circulating internal energy.

Even so, I concentrated on my dantian.

Had about a gak passed?

My mind became tranquil, and the area below my navel gradually began to grow warm.

My dantian had responded.

'I can feel it.'

For a moment, I nearly lost focus from joy.

But I collected myself again, then circulated the energy in my dantian and attempted a Minor Heavenly Cycle.

This was where it became important.

If I performed a Minor Heavenly Cycle, the energy in my dantian would inevitably pass through the Central Dantian in my chest.

- Don't tense up. Just do it.

If the two energies could not coexist even slightly, I had to stop midway.

Otherwise, I might suffer Ki Rampage.

I slowly moved my energy through a Minor Heavenly Cycle.

'Carefully... Carefully...'

The faint energy within my dantian gradually rose upward toward the center of my chest.

I trembled despite trying not to feel tense.

Please work. Please!

Swoosh!

'Ah!'

- What's wrong?

- Did the energies collide?

The SoDam Sword and Southern Heavenly Steel Sword asked at the same time, their voices full of concern.

In response, the corners of my lips rose.

The internal energy in my dantian had passed through the center of my chest, where the Central Dantian was located, without any problem.

There was no collision, no reversal of energy, nothing at all.

After completing one Minor Heavenly Cycle, I stopped circulating my energy.

“Hahahahahahahaha!”

The moment I stopped, laughter burst from me.

- Stop laughing and tell us. Did it work?

I silently nodded at the SoDam Sword's question.

What I had feared did not happen.

- Oooooh!

This result meant only one thing.

Unlike other martial artists, I had come to possess two essences.

Perhaps I was not the first, but being able to use the Central Dantian and Lower Dantian at the same time was something even the Southern Heavenly Swordmaster had not achieved.

- Haa...

The Southern Heavenly Steel Sword, which had worried most, let out a sigh of relief.

Today was truly a lucky day.

It felt as though the life that had remained unresolved before my regression was finally beginning to fall into place.

'It's been a long time, dantian.'

The fellow who had left home had returned.

* * *

Three days passed.

While circulating my energy over those three days, I learned two things.

Fortunately, innate life energy and internal energy could coexist, but it was impossible to use both at the same time.

I could not mix innate life energy with internal energy.

The reverse was true as well.

This meant that while I possessed two kinds of energy, they were no different from being held separately.

It would have been nice if I could use both energies at once, but for now, I had no choice but to be satisfied with this.

Still, if my internal energy was exhausted, I would have innate life energy left as a trump card.

Depending on the situation, I could use it as a hidden move.

The second thing was that I needed a cultivation technique other than the SoHyeon Cultivation Technique.

'It's not enough.'

As befitted the Yiyang So Clan's basic cultivation technique, the SoHyeon Cultivation Technique was not bad. However, even after circulating it all day, I could not absorb the Yang ki and cold ki accumulated throughout my meridians.

At this rate, my internal energy would inevitably grow more slowly than my innate life energy.

What I needed most right now was a cultivation technique that could effectively absorb the energy accumulated in my meridians.

- How about learning that crazy old man's cultivation technique?

'What?'

- You said that old man's Golden Blood Body makes the blood in his body circulate faster, didn't you?

Hah. Look at this guy.

It made sense.

Meridians were paths through which blood and ki flowed.

If Evil Heaven's cultivation technique could circulate blood quickly and effectively move internal energy, it might be able to absorb the Yang ki and cold ki accumulated throughout my meridians.

'You're smart, aren't you?'

- Hehehe. Right? Right?

The SoDam Sword spoke excitedly.

Sometimes, it came up with things I had never even considered.

There was certainly a possibility.

But one thing bothered me. Evil Heaven had said that the Golden Blood Body was difficult to learn unless one possessed a special body like the twins.

Even though I was his disciple, I was not sure if he would teach me.

It was not because he did not want to teach me. He might decide it would harm me.

- It won't hurt to ask. Or you could tell him about the energies accumulated in your meridians...

'No. It's better to hide that for now.'

It was true that Evil Heaven seemed different from before.

But unless my relationship with him grew closer, it was better to keep it hidden.

- Or what about asking the twins?

The Southern Heavenly Steel Sword gently offered a suggestion.

- Oh, right. They must have learned it.

I knew that after becoming official disciples, the twins had received a proper divine art and the Golden Blood Body's energy circulation method.

Still, they could think for themselves. Would they teach me?

- Hey, that kid is more naive than he looks. Just dangle a little bait.

'What bait?'

- He hates treating you respectfully as his senior martial brother more than death. Use that. You never know, he might bite.

Hmm. Would that work?

Still, there was no harm in doing as it said.

Evil Heaven would not return for quite some time, and it would be a waste to spend that time without meaningfully training my internal energy.

Early the next morning, I woke Song JwaBaek.

Then I casually asked whether he could teach me the Golden Blood Body's energy circulation method.

Naturally, he immediately refused.

“Of course not... senior brother. Anyway, Master told us not to teach it to anyone.”

Then he lay back down as though intending to go back to sleep.

Well, he was not going to teach me so easily.

I did not know if it would work, but as the SoDam Sword said, I should try dangling some bait.

“Sigh. I suppose you're right. My dantian recovered, but I don't know when Master will return, so I asked in advance. We're fellow disciples, so you're not just anybody, but I suppose it is a little awkward. I thought that if I learned the Golden Blood Body's energy circulation method from my junior martial brother, we could treat each other as equals... Tsk. It can't be helped.”

- What a natural performance.

'I need to do this much to get him to bite.'

Still, I was not very confident.

The trick was too simple. I did not think he would fall for it.

But he could think too... Hm?

His expression was strange.

What was this? Was he really wavering over such a small piece of bait?

After hesitating while lying down, he glanced at me from the corner of his eye and quietly said,

“Equals?”

- Well, he took the bait.

The SoDam Sword snickered.

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