“They’re crazy.”
Zombies and skeletons as numerous as grains of sand on a beach stretched out before him.
“Why?”
The sheer number was overwhelming, a sight to behold.
‘How many are there?’
‘The number of confirmed entities is approximately 5.42 million.’
“Hah... ha-ha.”
Sin Hyeok grabbed his head and staggered to his feet.
“This is no time to be sitting around.”
Pressing his head tightly, he looked at the rampart, which still had a long way to go.
“I’ll finish it as fast as possible.”
‘There’s a lot more to prepare besides this.’
[Beginning transmutation.]
Blood vessels in his eyes burst, and blood trickled down.
Wiping away the flowing blood, he continued the transmutation.
‘Just a little more…’
[Beginning transmutation.]
‘I can still do a bit more.’
The headache subsided.
His vision was blurry, but he could detect everything thoroughly through mapping.
‘Just a bit more.’
There was still a long way to go.
‘I can’t rest. Just a little more.’
His consciousness gradually faded.
Furthermore, his vision blurred so much he couldn’t see.
‘I can’t.’
His body slowly tilted.
At some point, the sloshing mixture of rock and iron ore scattered across the floor.
[Transmutation failed.]
“Ah, damn it...!”
His body drew closer and closer to the ground.
In the end, Sin Hyeok collapsed right then and there.
Through the collapsed Sin Hyeok’s eyes, he saw someone running from afar.
‘...Ichan. As expected, you’re the only one.’
* * *
“Unni, is this the right place?”
Baek Arin held Namgung Sohye’s hand and arrived at the recorded location.
“I think this is it.”
A tunnel blocked at its entrance was visible.
Sohye tapped it with her hand.
“Squeak, it’s blocked.”
She knocked on it with both fists, thud-thud.
Baek Arin also pressed hard against it with her palm, whoosh!
Tink-tink.
Only a few small stones fell; the entrance didn’t open.
“What to do.”
Baek Arin stood at the entrance and checked using the scanner Shin Hyeok had shared.
[Scanning surrounding area based on current location.]
[Limestone]
[Granite]
[Detected resources are as listed above.]
“Unni, isn’t there another place?”
Baek Arin took out the booklet Malakai had given her and handed it to Sohye.
“The rest aren’t here; only this entrance remains.”
It was blocking the entrance. Sohye glared at the booklet and said,
“This is the only one.”
“Right?”
Baek Arin drew her sword and loosened her shoulders.
‘Minimize the use of holy power.’
She channeled holy power very faintly.
As a faint sunlight-like glow circulated, Sohye’s eyes sparkled.
“It’s internal energy like sunlight.”
Baek Arin snickered at those words and prepared to thrust her sword.
“Haaah!”
She pushed it in hard.
Stab.
She thrust precisely.
It went deep, but the entrance didn’t open.
“Ah.”
She struggled to pull out the sword and sheathed it again.
“Seriously, why did they block it so well?”
She tapped it with her hand.
‘Should I put in more energy?’
But there was one problem.
‘My holy power isn’t replenishing well.’
The recovery of her holy power, which usually ticked up like clockwork, was considerably slow.
‘I can’t use more. A battle is coming soon.’
She knocked on the entrance with a disappointed face.
“This won’t work. Sohye, let’s go back. Unni doesn’t have enough strength.”
Baek Arin scooped Sohye up in a flash.
Sohye put her hands on her unni’s cheeks and offered a solution.
“Then just replenish your strength!”
She snickered at Sohye’s cute expression and tone.
“What to do. Unni’s strength is sent from that faraway tall mister over there, so she can’t fill it up by herself.”
“Heeing.”
She moved to take Sohye, who was making a disappointed face, back.
Sohye whispered softly into her ear.
“Then should I teach you a heart method?”
Sohye glanced around cautiously and whispered again.
“Because unni is pretty and kind, I want to teach you.”
At the sight of the whispering child, Baek Arin was completely disarmed.
So Baek Arin also whispered along.
“Then shall unni hear it from Sohye?”
Sohye smiled and nodded.
At that cute appearance, Baek Arin stealthily set her down.
“What is it?”
Sohye skillfully sat in a lotus position on the floor and joined her hands.
“Unni, hurry up and do this too.”
She pat-patted the floor with her small palm.
Baek Arin smiled and followed.
“Alright, I did.”
“Then circulate your energy like this. Here, here, and here.”
For her, who wouldn’t know the meridian points, Sohye pointed at them with her fingers.
“Hrmm. There, there?”
She memorized the locations well.
“Unni, did you see?”
With a proud expression, Sohye asked if she remembered well.
Baek Arin nodded.
“Hehe! Then try it quickly!”
Baek Arin snickered and asked the name of this heart method.
“What’s this called?”
“Hrmm, Samjaegong.”
“Thanks, unni will do her best.”
“Yeah!”
Hearing the name, she laughed inwardly.
‘This is something every dog and cow learns in martial arts novels.’
She was someone who read martial arts novels, after all.
Though it was a very long time ago.
“Huuu.”
Arin focused her breathing and tried it according to the meridian points Sohye had taught.
‘Like this?’
She guided it rather well.
Just as Sohye had taught.
‘Hmm, the energy is being drawn.’
But it didn’t mean much.
The energy entering her body couldn’t harmonize with her holy power.
“Unni, you have to absorb enough energy from heaven and earth with this. Okay?”
Sohye told her something that sounded like a mnemonic formula.
Since Baek Arin had her eyes closed, she quietly nodded.
[Operating Internal Energy Heart Method: Samjaegong.]
[Internal energy is generated.]
[Conflicts with holy power; a dantian is not formed within the body.]
[Internal Energy Heart Method operation failed.]
Sohye saw that and beamed, looking pleased.
“Hehehe.”
Soon after, Namgung Jincheon appeared to fetch his granddaughter.
“Sohye. You need to eat.”
Namgung Jincheon discovered Sohye sitting facing Baek Arin, watching over her.
“Shhh.”
She put her finger to her lips upon seeing her grandfather.
“Unni’s concentrating.”
Namgung Jincheon snickered and put his finger to his lips.
“I see. Let’s be quiet.”
He whispered lowly, quietly embraced Sohye, and sat her on his knee.
“But what did you teach her?”
Sohye whispered into her grandfather’s ear.
“Samjaegong.”
‘That’s a relief.’
Namgung Jincheon checked her condition.
‘They can’t harmonize. It won’t mean much.’
He grasped her condition in an instant.
‘Her internal energy possesses demon-subduing properties, extremely pure and gentle. One could only see such internal energy in spiritual creatures. I suppose the Jade Maiden Scripture is similar.’
When there was no major change, Baek Arin stopped the meaningless act and opened her eyes.
When unni opened her eyes, Sohye looked at her with a face full of expectation.
“Unni, unni. How is it?”
Seeing Sohye’s expression full of expectation, Baek Arin pinched her cheeks and said,
“It’s so good! Unni, I think my strength is coming back.”
Sohye smiled bashfully.
“Hehehe.”
Namgung Jincheon lifted Sohye and pointed far away.
“Sohye, go eat. That grandfather over there prepared it.”
“Yes! What about unni?”
Sohye looked at Baek Arin.
Jincheon shook his head.
“Unni has work to finish.”
“Heeing, okay. See you later, unni!”
“Yeah.”
Baek Arin waved her hand and smiled endlessly.
Namgung Jincheon watched Sohye’s back and spoke quietly.
“Did it harmonize?”
“Not a chance. I was just going through the motions.”
Namgung Jincheon cautiously brought up the Jade Maiden Scripture he had thought of earlier.
“Then what about another martial art? There is one that might be suitable.”
Baek Arin snickered and refused.
“It’s fine. I’ll look for another way.”
“It will probably suit you. The Jade Maiden Scripture pursues pure and gentle energy just like you, young lady.”
She turned around at the words Jade Maiden Scripture.
“If I learn that, would I become prettier too?”
Suddenly life returned to Arin’s eyes.
Namgung Jincheon took a step back to avoid the young lady approaching him so aggressively.
“Hrmm, they say your skin just gets a bit better......”
“Great! Teach me right now!”
‘To hell with holy power!’
It would be a rather sorrowful thought if some tall mister were to hear it.
However, since she couldn’t replenish her holy power right now, she needed another alternative.
She memorized the meridian points that Namgung Jincheon taught.
“This is the path. The key is yin energy. Only by traversing this complex and long path can you gather the purest and most gentle energy. Take heed.”
Baek Arin was memorizing such complex mnemonic formulas and energy circulation methods that her head hurt, making it hard to even speak.
“I’ll help you once. Put my hand on your back for a moment.”
“Yes, yes.”
She began circulating energy following Namgung Jincheon’s guidance.
After circulating one lap along the meridian points, the system recognized it.
[Operating Internal Energy Heart Method: Jade Maiden Scripture.]
‘Will it work...?’
She entered the second lap.
[Pure yin internal energy is generated.]
[Incompatible with the nature of holy power; a dantian is not formed within the body.]
‘Ah...... This doesn’t work either?’
The words saying she had failed hovered in her mind.
‘This is wrong too.’
Baek Arin opened her eyes with a disappointed face.
“Ah, it doesn’t work for you either, young lady?”
Namgung Jincheon asked with a regretful face.
“Yes. It doesn’t fit.”
[Internal Energy Heart Method operation failed.]
[Not registered as a skill.]
She dusted off her hands, placed them on the ground behind her, and leaned back.
“The weather is really nice. The sunlight is shining down from up there like this. Why, I wonder, isn’t my holy power regenerating?”
‘Where is that sun even floating?’
Namgung Jincheon looked at the warm sunlight and spoke.
“Even sunlight might have a mate.”
“Tch.”
She looked straight at the sunlight with an annoyed face.
“Master, I’m here. Please send me some holy power.”
No response came.
‘Sunlight. Can’t I absorb that sunlight?’
She recalled the energy circulation of the Jade Maiden Scripture she had heard.
‘It’s a method to extract yin energy from the earth’s energy. What if I reverse it?’
“Elder?”
Namgung Jincheon stopped his steps to leave and looked at Baek Arin.
“What is it?”
Baek Arin asked with an expression full of curiosity.
“If I circulate the energy the same way but receive energy from up there, what would happen?”
“Uh, hrmm. You might grow a beard or something?”
“.......”
Her pupils dilated in an instant.
It was absolutely horrifying.
Baek Arin stealthily touched her chin.
Namgung Jincheon spoke again with a smile.
“You’ll probably just become sturdier than you are now, and your body will grow a bit. Not much of a change. However, you won’t be able to use other sword techniques or martial arts of the Jade Maiden Scripture.”
‘If it’s just that much...... it doesn’t matter.’
Baek Arin nodded and tried it immediately.
“Hehe. So you intend to walk a different path.”
Namgung Jincheon watched over her as she tried a new path.
Baek Arin immediately began circulating energy by receiving it from the sky.
[Operating Internal Energy Heart Method: Jade Maiden Scripture.]
[Attempting operation of a modified, non-standard version.]
[Accepting yang energy from the warm sunlight.]
‘It’s coming in.’
Soon, the sunlight carrying warmth flowed entirely into her body.
‘Please work.’
[Warm and pure yang internal energy is generated.]
[Holy power shrinks back.]
‘They’re not conflicting!’
The entering internal energy and holy power did not conflict with each other.
The yang internal energy slowly circled around the holy power.
The two energies sized each other up, and the holy power yielded a corner of its place.
[Holy power does not resist. A new form of heart method is created.]
[Main Martial Art Skill: Holy Jade Scripture is created.]
[Holy power is replenished.]
[Holy power replenished by 0.0001%.]
[Owned Skills]
=====================
[Main]
Reinforced Body Technique (LV.36)
Aura (Light) (LV.25)
Healing (LV.14)
[Sub]
Holy Jade Scripture (LV.1)
=====================
Seeing her holy power rise, Baek Arin opened her eyes and clicked her tongue.
“Tch. Not even a drop in the bucket.”
Namgung Jincheon removed his hand and smiled.
“At least it’s filling up.”
“I think I really need to conserve it.”
Baek Arin couldn’t help but feel frustrated at the truly meager amount of energy filling up.
‘It’s good, but it’s a shame. I need to find a way to utilize it more effectively.’
She placed her hand on the tunnel entrance.
And took a stance.
Inhaling, exhaling.
She focused for a moment.
“Huuu. Just a tiny bit.”
She infused her fist with only the amount of holy power that had risen, merely a speck.
“Hup!”
Namgung Jincheon quietly nodded at the perfect angle of her straight punch.
“You are an amazing young lady.”
Bang!
The straight punch shot out and precisely broke through the entrance.
She looked inside and spoke to Namgung Jincheon standing behind her.
“I’ll just find the Demon Essence Stones and return. Please go first.”
“Yes, yes, I shall.”
Baek Arin continued to circulate energy even as she moved.
“For heaven’s sake, I’ll have to do this even in my sleep.”
Namgung Jincheon flinched seeing the young lady circulate energy while moving.
“If she keeps doing that...”
He debated whether to say something, then just left her alone.
* * *
Baek Arin, who had gone inside the tunnel, soon let out a cheer.
“Found them! There’s a lot here!”
Baek Arin hurriedly ran outside.
She held a Demon Essence Stone the size of a human head and looked for the mister.
“Mister! The Demon Essence Stone here is really big!”
The place she found Sin Hyeok was in front of the World Tree.
She saw him collapsed with a face that looked like he was dying.
“Oh my. Mister, are you dead?”