Chun Yeowun walked into the empty room with the panel that said ‘Vacant’. He flipped it around to ‘Occupied’ on his way in. The room was lit by the small candles on the wall. Overall, the room was too small to practice footstep formations.
Chun Yeowun then rapped on the wall and realized that it was pretty thick.
‘It’s enough.’
This was enough space for Chun Yeowun. At least this would allow him to transfer the information without any disruption.
‘Nano, activate the Augmented Reality.’
[Activating Augmented Reality.]
Nano’s voice rang inside his head and his eyes shook as lines appeared in his sight.
‘Nano, simulate the formation scanned on the second floor of the library in 3D.’
[I will activate it beginning from the very first mark.]
A human figure appeared and began showing the sword movements that had been left on the stone.
‘It’s faster and more complicated!’
Yeowun thought of using his last Butterfly Blade Dance formation, but he couldn’t even defend against one of those movements. This second formation looked like it was much more powerful than the one on the first floor.
‘This... is terrifying. How many people out there can counter this?’
[Now activating the marks of the sword formation from a different entity.]
Now, the human figure started emulating a different sword formation. It was awkward at first glance, but as it began to repeat itself, it also began to perfect itself. When it reached the last fifty-sixth formation, Chun Yeowun couldn’t help but shiver.
‘...This is crazy. This is mad!’
There was no way to complete such a sword formation unless one was mad about the sword.
‘Oh...!’
He then thought of an idea of having the two entities fight against each other but by using all fifty-six formations starting from the very first one each time.
‘Nano, use all formations in chronological order to do a simulation battle.’
Two human avatars appeared again and began fighting against each other. The first battle ended up with the second entity not even defending against the first movement of the original. As it progressed further and reached the thirty-sixth formation, it was now blocking a total of fifteen out of the twenty-four movements.
‘This is crazy.’
Chun Yeowun was beyond astonished. He focused on watching the formation countering the already-powerful sword formation that was left prior to it. And soon, it was the last formation.
Many lines were drawn, and like before, just by the difference of one movement, the original sword formation was countered completely.
‘Oh-oh...’
[Simulation complete.]
Yeowun couldn’t forget what he had seen. Nano said that the simulation was completed, but Yeowun couldn’t stop concentrating on the battle. In his head, the two warriors were still fighting against each other. In that imaginary space, Yeowun was now one with the second entity and he was using his Butterfly Blade Dance to fight the original sword formation.
[User’s brain neurons have been activated. The energy within the blood points are replicating and circulating throughout the body.]
However, Yeowun was too deep into his thoughts to notice. Nano then stopped alarming the master and began recording the change in the body as data since it knew that this change was not harmful toward the master.
After a long while, Chun Yeowun woke up from his hundreds of fights against the perfect swordsman. His focus came back and he became confused.
‘W...what was this?’
He remembered seeing the simulation, but when he woke up, it felt like everything had been an illusion.
‘It feels weird... oh!’
Chun Yeowun then felt the difference in his body. He felt that his internal energy had increased. It wasn’t just a small amount either. It was hard to believe, but his internal energy had now increased to about forty years worth of energy.
‘Oh! I came to a realization then!’
What Chun Yeowun thought to be an illusion was the breakthrough of martial arts. And this didn’t only increase his internal energy.
‘Maybe I can do it!’
He got up and tried using the first formation of the Butterfly Blade Dance. The sound of his hand slashing through the air sounded different. His movement now left a faint trace wherever he moved his hand.
“Wow!” Yeowun gasped. There was a faint silver glow on his right hand.
‘Am I... shaping qi?’
The feeling in his hand was the shaping of the qi. He wasn’t used to it yet so it couldn’t take the shape of a blade, but it definitely was qi.
‘It’s not perfect yet.’
Although it wasn’t perfect, when he achieved sixty years worth of internal energy, he would acquire blade qi like Yuchan.
“Whoaaa!” Chun Yeowun shouted in joy.
‘If I absorb the next Black Dragon Ball, it will get me up to sixty years worth of energy!’
Chun Yeowun then asked, ‘Nano, how long have I been doing this?’
[You were in a trance for two hours, Master.]
‘Two hours? That long?’
He thought it was only for a brief moment, but it took him two hours. If that was the case, he had to return to the dorm.
‘I guess I have to do the rest tomorrow.’
He then thought to send sword formation into his brain for now. It didn’t seem like he’d have the time to transfer it into his body.
‘Nano, send all the formations into my brain.’
[Understood. Transferring.]
Yeowun felt a sting in his head, but that was it. He focused to check and he saw the sword movements coming up naturally in his mind.
‘How long does it take to reshape my body to use these?’
[It will take about ten hours to complete the transfer.]
‘What?!’
That was too long. He knew this martial arts skill was beyond that of any other, but it required a lot more time.
‘I guess I will have to start early tomorrow then.’
At least it was fortunate that he had a break. Yeowun then happily returned to his dorm. When he returned, there were still a lot of cadets missing.
‘They are running late.’
There was still some time left, but most of the cadets returned much earlier. Chun Yeowun soon saw the reason why. Cadets who started returning had papers of the copied books that they wrote down after leaving the library.
‘Oh, so that’s why they weren’t here.’
It seemed that they had been training privately to study the books they copied.
“Master, you’re here already.”
Hu Bong bowed as he walked in later. He too had a book in his hand.
“Did you get something good?” Yeowun asked.
Hu Bong smiled, “No, it’s not much. My sword skill is too weak, so I copied a footstep skill to help.”
Hu Bong’s clan used swords. Hu Bong thought using the only sword would not work as they progressed so he copied a book on something else to help him further. Yeowun nodded.
‘I guess everyone is going to get better now.’
This three-day vacation wasn’t just time to rest. It was time to help the cadets advance.
Early the next morning, Chun Yeowun went to the private training room.
‘They are up fast.’
The dorm was open starting at 5:00 AM, but when Yeowun woke up, two cadets were already off their beds. When he got to the building, many cadets had already gathered there.
‘Only the ones who put in the effort will survive.’
Chun Yeowun then went up to the second floor and took his spot in the empty room. The room could only be locked from the inside, so Yeowun locked it and ordered Nano.
‘Nano, go through the body shaping with the sword formation. Oh, and don’t forget anesthesia.’
[Yes, Master. Proceeding with the anesthesia...]
Soon, Yeowun was blacked out. After ten hours, Yeowun woke up after hearing Nano say that the procedure was complete. He panted roughly and vomited onto the floor. The long hours of body transformation made him sick. This was much worse than before.
[Stabilizing adverse reaction to the transformation.]
It was only after Nano worked on it that his pain stopped.
‘Ugh, I can’t get used to this.’
Yeowun then got up and clenched his fist. This was much more different than when he learned the Butterfly Blade Dance. He then took off his top.
“Whoa.”
It was astonishing. His upper torso was tightly packed with muscles that it looked like he had trained for years.
‘It’s not like my body.’
He felt like he could punch a hole through the sturdy wall.
“Should I give it a try?”
He didn’t think it would make a hole anyway and he wanted to try to see how strong he had gotten. He then took a deep breath and threw his fist at the floor. It exploded.
“Argh!”
Dust and rock particles exploded out and Yeowun heard screaming from below.
“Uh...”
Yeowun waved his hands to brush the dust away from his sight and he saw the hole in the floor. He then looked down below and saw a private training room below. There was rock debris and a cadet on the ground with blood seeping out from his head.
“Ugh...”
Chun Yeowun groaned.