Chapter 224

The illumination of the campfires drifted low.

Three blazes.

Over half of the twenty fresh recruits had already succumbed to slumber.

The remainder sat unmoving with their lids shut.

Dong Bongsu remained seated at a distance from the warmth.

The shadow at his back was profound.

The moon cast a slender glow across the open field, and constellations drifted over the faraway peaks.

His focus initially landed on Seok Gyeong.

Reclined, he was gradually shifting his lower limbs.

His lips twitched with minuscule movements.

Was he mentally reciting the stanzas?

‘He is gaining momentum as he begins to sustain himself.’

The baggage was positioned right beside his skull.

A allowance meant for two individuals.

He had chosen not to abandon it in the end.

It had to be a routine born of bottom-tier efficiency.

It appeared immensely burdensome.

Yet.

When a wasteful action is sustained, it transforms from a mere routine into a conviction.

A person driven by conviction is difficult to break.

For him, that sufficed.

Dong Bongsu’s attention transitioned.

Hoae.

She crouched near the blaze, rubbing the feet of two youngsters in turn.

The youngsters had already drifted off, yet Hoae’s fingers did not halt.

She had spent nearly half the day sprinting, reciting the stanzas, monitoring all twenty souls, and pulling collapsed recruits back to their feet.

Even in her brief moments of rest, she rubbed another’s feet.

Noticing the faint tremor in Hoae’s fingertips, it was obvious she was spent.

Her respiration had not yet turned steady.

Because she was teaching the footwork, she could not utilize her own correctly, meaning her vitality and inner strength depletion must have been far greater than the other recruits.

This sort of human is the most aggravating.

A human driven by efficiency is simple to anticipate.

They pursue the route of gain.

A human driven by sentiment is likewise not complex.

One merely needs to understand the nature of that sentiment.

But.

The sort that tends to others even past their own boundaries is unpredictable.

Because their drive is neither gain nor sentiment, but rather something closer to ‘instinct’.

Comparable to Seok Gyeong, yet a very delicately different variety.

And… An individual who does not halt is perilous because the mere reality that they do not halt taints their environment.

The fountainhead of the spread does not realize it is a pathogen.

That is the essence of this variety.

This sort of person possesses the capability to transform at any moment, if given a single spark.

Dong Bongsu got to his feet.

Thud.

One pace.

He had intended to advance silently, but purposely created a sound.

Hoae lifted her gaze.

“Mister?”

Hah, Kim Rae-won offered a smile.

The guise smiled effortlessly, just as it was designed to.

“Not asleep yet?”

“The youngsters’ feet are a bit…”

“How is it going?”

Hoae wavered.

She dipped her head briefly, then softly pulled back her hands.

Kim Rae-won took a seat across from her.

The blaze illuminated half of each of their countenances.

“What is?”

“Do you think you’re pulling your weight?”

“I cannot tell yet.”

“You are performing adequately.”

“If you claim so, then I suppose I am?”

Kim Rae-won softly ruffled her locks.

“Yes. But.”

Hoae glanced up at him.

“From this point onward, you will require a different sort of determination.”

“What sort of determination?”

“Because this is the Jianghu.”

“In the Jianghu… how does one pull their weight properly?”

Kim Rae-won gazed at Hoae for a beat, then redirected his sight to the horizon and spoke.

“You must slaughter effectively.”

Despite receiving such words, Hoae gazed in the same direction as Kim Rae-won, undisturbed, and replied placidly.

“That… I am braced for it.”

“I see.”

“Yes. You mentioned it previously, did you not?”

“What did I mention?”

“Tsk. You fail to even recall your own words?”

“It is because I am a simpleton.”

“A simpleton can be that powerful?”

“Simpletons are invariably powerful. You silly girl.”

“Then that is fine, being a simpleton. That detail.”

“…”

“Regardless, back then… You declared that as long as we avoid a corrupt path, it is acceptable for us to advance in any manner we please. You declared that, Mister.”

“Well, that is accurate. As long as you are not corrupt, as long as you do not abandon righteousness, in a cruel world like this, you can be a wandering champion, a genuine champion.”

“I am ignorant of such magnificent concepts. For me, it is adequate not to abandon the people present here… my kin.”

Dong Bongsu smiled.

“That furthermore is a champion. You do not need to be a champion to everyone.”

“Even so, you stated it back then. You stated it once more, Mister.”

“What did I state?”

“That if we tread a corrupt path… it would serve as an exceptional experience for you.”

“…”

“That, in proportion to how painstakingly you cultivated us, as much as we advanced, it would turn into an exceptional experience for you.”

“Did I state that?”

“Yes. I reflected upon it for a long duration, and though I failed to grasp its significance, it caused me to firmly determine one thing.”

“What?”

“To avoid becoming corrupt.”

“…”

“And to turn into a champion while I am at it. Hehet.”

Kim Rae-won observed Hoae, who was chuckling brightly like a youngster for the first time in a while, and smiled.

“Yes. Let us definitely turn into that. If…”

shadow passing.

“…?”

“If, by any frequency, a period arrives when you resolve to turn corrupt, resolve to be cataclysmic enough to shatter the entire realm. You must turn that corrupt at the minimum-”

Kim Rae-won smiled even more radiantly than Hoae.

It was an expression so pristine, without a solitary speck of grime.

“To manage to survive.”

“Nah, I shall not do that.”

Kim Rae-won ruffled Hoae’s locks once more and remarked.

“One can never anticipate what can occur in an individual’s existence.”

“…”

“Turn strong. Strong enough to convert the entire realm into your experience.”

A stretch of stillness.

The fire popped.

A fragment of ash drifted upward and instantly vanished.

Hoae bit her lip, then freed it.

Her pulse accelerated for a beat before leveling out.

Determination.

That singular word was what Dong Bongsu perceived.

“Yep!”

Her face slowly ascended.

“Excellent.”

Dong Bongsu got to his feet.

Further words were redundant.

Click.

[Guild Quest — Threshold of Growth]

[Progress: 15% → 16%]

[Remaining: 6 days 15 hours]

‘1%.’

It remained microscopic.

But from this point onward, it would shift more swiftly.

On the morrow, it will be twice as rapid as today.

● ● ●

Day 2.

The velocity multiplied.

Individuals began to give out one after another, but Hoae sprinted at the vanguard, exhibiting the stance of the Spirit Step herself, while the youngsters relentlessly assisted the fallen recruits back to their feet from the rear.

Seok Gyeong, even while hoisting the baggage of two individuals, maintained his position in the center of the tier.

The entire time, his whispering of the stanzas never halted.

Two absolute failures.

The remainder endured.

Click.

[Progress: 24%]

Day 3.

Striking and thrusting were joined to the sprinting.

Prior to the dawn advance, Kim Rae-won aligned the tier and offered a brief manifestation.

One stance.

He drove his left fist into the atmosphere.

That was the entirety of it.

“Impact like this. While sprinting.”

At that single directive, the twenty of them commenced sprinting while striking the air.

Striking while sprinting was more challenging than respiring while sprinting.

The instant a fist was thrust out, the respiration was interrupted, and when the respiration was interrupted, the footwork fractured.

Hoae immediately deciphered.

“Impact when you empty your lungs! At the precise instant Qi is about to pass through your Qihae acupoint, stamp your left foot onto the terrain simultaneously!”

To bind respiration, limb motion, and impact into a single entity.

A design that superimposed the fist upon the flow of the Spirit Step.

‘She bound something I never demonstrated to her on her own.’

Dong Bongsu’s gaze narrowed a fraction.

Hoae had instantly deduced that the instance of the emptying of lungs in the Spirit Step stanzas was the perfect instance for an impact, without once disrupting her footwork.

The grain was planted effectively.

However, it had drifted slightly from the anticipated path, and the foreseen velocity was also off by a minor margin.

I have never favored matters like this… yet it was an unexpectedly fascinating factor.

Click.

[Progress: 45%]

Midday of Day 4.

In place of a skyline, a basin of water came into view.

Colorful Lake.

A location formerly designated the Bandit Lake.

A lawless territory where forty-six strongholds of alpine outlaws, aquatic outlaws, and mounted outlaws multiplied.

It lay vacant now.

Because, naturally, I had eradicated it.

‘Are we roughly half a day swifter than calculated?’

It was the consequence of the recruits’ advancement rate multiplying the advancing velocity.

Three days past, those who would give out after sprinting properly for a mere two hours could now persist for four to six hours.

The flow of the Spirit Step had radically altered their vitality efficiency.

They established a headquarters out of an vacant mountain stronghold on the northern bank of Colorful Lake.

The bulwarks were solid, and the roofing endured.

The prior occupant must have been a conscientious alpine outlaw.

The basin of water was immense.

The descending sun fractured on its surface, validating its designation.

Colorful.

The pigments were literally distributed.

The recruits gazed blankly at the basin of water.

With lower limbs that had sprinted for three and a half days, they should have lacked the comfort to admire the vista, yet still, their vision lingered.

“From this point forward, matters shift.”

Kim Rae-won stood before the tier.

“Until this moment, you sprinted. From the morrow, you combat.”

Stress distributed among the recruits.

Hoae gestured assent without a utterance.

Seok Gyeong deposited his baggage and squeezed his fists.

● ● ●

From the 5th day, the severity of the cultivation shifted in nature.

Immediately following awakening, a maximum-velocity Spirit Step dash.

A route circling Colorful Lake.

Thirty li.

In the dawn, rudimentary striking and thrusting.

A thousand strikes, a thousand thrusts.

In harmony with the Spirit Step’s respiration.

In the midday, combat practice.

They coupled up and exchanged impacts.

Hoae engaged the recruit who lacked a counterpart, and Seok Gyeong, who was coupled with a recruit smaller than himself, dropped every instance.

It was an predictable consequence, as he possessed no groundwork in combat forms.

But Seok Gyeong gathered knowledge by enduring impacts.

An assault he had sustained once, he would partially evade the second instance, and retaliate the third.

It appeared he had now advanced past the baggage-bearing phase.

‘A brute.’

It matches him.

Dong Bongsu monitored the combat practice and recorded observations.

An advancement curve that could not be tracked by system attributes.

Seok Gyeong’s frame was the variety where his flesh recollected a blow once sustained.

Nightfall.

The Super True Qi Field detected a minor disturbance from far to the north.

A trace of Qi.

It was obscured, so its orientation and magnitude were indistinct.

It remained unfeasible to discern if it was merely the breeze or otherwise.

Day 6.

Yan Bilyeong made her choice.

The female, who had until this moment been resting with her lids shut in the cover of a branch, suddenly manifested in the cultivation terrain and stood before Hoae.

Instantly, the atmosphere of the cultivation terrain shifted.

Before the sound of the recruits’ exchanging fists could even fade, the entire terrain was dominated by the aura of a single stride.

“Desire an exchange with me?”

Hoae glanced up.

Yan Bilyeong.

A Trigram Master of the Formation Tower.

A pinnacle master.

“…Yes.”

The consequence was, naturally, Hoae’s absolute subdual.

She was propelled backward three instances in the initial clash.

But Yan Bilyeong demanded a fourth.

And a fifth.

Only after being propelled backward ten instances did Yan Bilyeong sheathe her blade.

“Adequate.”

She departed with that single remark and withdrew.

Myo Jinheo was monitoring the event from behind his implement.

The point of his compressed implement was vibrating minorly.

‘They are beginning to be affected.’

The borders of Dong Bongsu’s lips ascended.

His estimation that he could attract them merely by presenting it to them was proving accurate.

Click.

[Progress: 85%]

Day 7.

The concluding day.

During the dawn dash, Seok Gyeong sprinted without his baggage for the initial instance.

The youngster, Ho, persisted on hoisting it for him.

Seok Gyeong declined, but Ho had already slung it.

Seok Gyeong’s lower limbs without the encumbrance were distinct.

The shape of his footwork was coarse, but the flow was vital.

As a consequence of replicating the Spirit Step stanzas for seven days, a microscopic quantity of inner strength, the dimensions of a gnat’s vision, had finally commenced to flow along the corridor forged by his intent.

He had hoisted the baggage.

He had sprinted.

He had sustained impacts.

Those three matters were the entirety of what he performed, but after seven days, something other than baggage had commenced to be placed upon him.

‘If the intent commands, the Qi will ultimately trace.’

The grain from seven days past had germinated.

Dawn combat practice.

All sixteen recruits, omitting the four absolute failures, engaged.

The path of their fists bore the respiration of the Spirit Step, and the instance of their thrusts was overlaid with the cadence of the stanzas.

They had turned into entirely distinct souls from seven days past.

Click.

[Progress: 97%]

‘It will conclude by midday.’

Two hours remaining.

The assignment’s fulfillment was in proximity.

However… The Super True Qi Field responded.

In the orientation of the northern bank of Colorful Lake.

A span of 600 to 700 meters.

It was individuals.

And…

‘Hundreds of souls.’

They were not advancing on foot.

They were being hauled.

The erratic tremors exclusive to those shifting by intent rather than by step.

‘Numerous wounded. Their inner strength is a shambles… and furthermore.’

Dong Bongsu’s vision narrowed.

A recognizable composition was blended into the nature of their Qi.

A pristine white, transparent, yet piercing Qi.

‘Is that Vast Heaven Qi?’

Qi of the identical precise variety as that of the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect he had clashed with previously was discovered.

And not champions, but something like pulverized shards.

The Qi was asymmetrical, shifting violently.

Approximately between two to three hundred souls.

It appeared a significant number of visitors had arrived without a solicitation.

Dong Bongsu arose from his position.

Just then, the breeze surged, brushing his locks northward.

Concurrently, the borders of his mouth twitched subtly, unperceived by anyone, by anyone in the realm.

“Has it commenced?”

A fraction earlier than anticipated, yet.

Such estimations are always more delightful when they are erroneous.

The quicker a crimson gathering commences, the superior.