A day passed.

Morning.

More precisely, it was that point between the late pre-dawn dark and sunrise.

“Hoo.”

At the far left edge of Blue Moon Sect, there was a space set aside there. Calling it set aside was a stretch, really—it was more like an open patch of ground left for the Small Moon Unit members to train on their own.

As I came down the mountain, I wiped away my sweat.

This is rough.

Every time I finished training, my whole body felt stiff and sore. I had no idea when this damn muscle pain would ever disappear.

[That is a good thing.]

As I stood there groaning, Yoo Cheongil spoke to me.

[The higher your realm rises and the greater the intensity becomes, the less stimulation remains. That means external-body training begins to slow...]

Yoo Cheongil’s blue eyes ran over me.

[Your body has not yet reached that point, which means there is still plenty of room for it to grow.]

A body that had not yet reached its limit.

That meant there was still room for me to grow stronger through external-body training too.

When he puts it that way, it does sound pretty good.

I nodded at that.

CRACK.

I loosened my body a little.

At the same time, I removed the shackles locked around my arms and wrists.

KUUUUNG—!!!

A huge sound rang out, and the ground caved in.

“Ugh...”

How much longer did I have to keep doing this crap?

The weight really has gone up a lot.

At first I trained wearing sandbags, but now it was shackles wrapped in iron balls.

In other words, it was a weight that didn’t even compare to back then.

I can’t tell if my body’s gotten thicker, though...

Even if I’d gained muscle, there wasn’t much visible difference physically.

Maybe it was because I never really ate that well to begin with.

My strength had gone up, but my build looked the same.

Was I supposed to be happy about that or not?

Then again, even if my body did get bigger, it’s not like I’d ever turn into a giant like those monsters.

There had been no chance from the beginning that I was ever going to grow as huge as people like Yoo Cheongil or the Tyrant King.

My father had everything going for him physically, except he was on the shorter side.

If genetics were the problem, then thanks to that, I wasn’t tall either.

In fact, I was shorter than both my brother and my father.

It’s not like I ever went around feeling small because of my height, though.

My face looked good enough. I could let a thing like height slide and live with that.

That was how I’d always tried to see it.

But once you become a martial artist, it starts causing problems...

The length of my arms and legs.

That physical disadvantage had become a real problem in actual combat.

Tch.

I scratched my head.

It was a chronic issue I’d only come to understand after going through a number of real fights.

Of course—

Even so.

Just as I was about to brush it off as something I couldn’t solve anyway—

[Why have you decided it cannot be solved?]

Yoo Cheongil spoke to me.

“Huh?”

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Then how exactly am I supposed to solve being short?”

Did this era have lifts or something?

Even if it did, there was no way you could fight wearing those.

[If you are short, then you should grow.]

“...Old man.”

I immediately looked at Yoo Cheongil like he was ridiculous.

“If it were that easy, the entire population of the Central Plains would be eight feet tall.”

Even modern medicine in my previous life hadn’t been able to solve that.

I had seen things like cutting and lengthening the leg bones, sure, but—

That causes physical damage.

There was no way something like that existed in this era.

At least, there was nothing like it in Medical Immortal’s memories.

And if even Medical Immortal didn’t know it, that was basically the same thing as saying no one in the Central Plains knew it.

“If that was supposed to be a joke, then later—”

[Did that sound like a joke to you?]

“......”

I paused and looked at Yoo Cheongil.

Amazingly enough, he was serious.

[Keuh-keuh-keuh. I told you. You simply make yourself grow.]

“...There’s actually a way?”

A method even Medical Immortal didn’t know?

Really?

I stared at him as if asking how the hell that could possibly exist.

[You’ve heard the term before.]

In the gravest tone in the world, Yoo Cheongil said to me—

[Reforging the Body.]

“...!”

My eyes widened at those words.

*****

Reforging the Body.

Among martial artists, it was a very famous term.

A body that had reached a certain realm.

Outstanding internal energy to match it.

And then, an enlightenment that arrived all at once.

It referred to the enormous transformation that came over a martial artist when those three things converged.

Not only did the body itself change, but the vessel that held internal energy changed as well, bringing about a tremendous awakening.

Not that I’d ever experienced it myself.

I’d heard it was completely different from rejuvenation, which restored youth.

“...Reforging the Body...”

After hearing Yoo Cheongil’s words, I tilted my head.

I was talking about my arms and legs, and his answer is to go through Reforging the Body?

Was that the solution he had come up with?

It felt a little absurd.

“It’s not like that’s something you can just decide to do.”

Like I had thought earlier, Reforging the Body was a dream-realm to martial artists.

Realm and quantity of energy.

And on top of that, the enlightenment to match it.

You needed all of that before you could obtain it.

The idea that I could just want it and make it happen was ridiculous.

Still...

There was something strange about it.

Because if it was Yoo Cheongil, it actually felt like he might really pull it off.

“Mm.”

I tipped my head back and looked into empty air.

Yoo Cheongil wasn’t around right now. He had vanished, saying there was something he wanted to check on.

...Reforging the Body.

In the meantime, I was sorting through everything I knew about it.

From Medical Immortal’s memories.

It’s not a medical issue.

This was something even Medical Immortal had never properly grasped.

At minimum, one had to be at the Transcendent Peak Realm.

And in accordance with that, one needed a body strengthened through external-body training, plus the lower and middle dantians that existed within.

And then I had to determine exactly how much internal energy was filled inside them.

And the problem here is—

Even if all of that was satisfied—

...that damned enlightenment.

That enlightenment that had to arrive for a martial artist was not something medicine could prove or explain.

So even when people met every condition, plenty of them still couldn’t undergo Reforging the Body because the enlightenment part never came.

That was what Medical Immortal’s knowledge said.

And in that situation, Yoo Cheongil is trying to push me through Reforging the Body?

It made no sense.

What kind of method is he planning to use?

I was already scared.

It was worse because I had no idea what crazy thing he was planning to do.

And the real problem was—

...I don’t think it’ll fail.

I couldn’t bring myself to think it was impossible.

If it was that old bastard, it felt like he’d force it through somehow.

I can never get a read on him.

It was terrifying because I had no idea what kind of insane stunt he might pull, but if he decided he was going to do something, I trusted that he would succeed.

No matter what it took, he’d make it happen.

Definitely.

And that’s exactly why it’s scarier.

Hiss...

I wiped away a thin sheen of cold sweat.

Right. Yoo Cheongil is Yoo Cheongil.

Let that old man be for the moment and do what I had to do.

If I got hung up on that too, I’d really waste the entire day.

Then.

I got to my feet.

It was noon in broad daylight now.

Doesn’t look like the Small Moon Unit has any mission right now.

Which made this the perfect time to handle things.

Going into the vault is off the table since Yoo Cheongil isn’t here.

Heading into the vault without Yoo Cheongil around felt a little dangerous, so I set that aside.

In that case—

...Checking in on the Tang brat and the Small Moon Unit Leader would be better.

Handle the training I’d been doing, then receive the closing sword lesson from the Sword Emperor at night.

Then isn’t that just training all day?

Now that I thought about it, yeah, it was.

Well, that counted as work too.

Researching the sword marks matters too, but...

I couldn’t keep ignoring those people forever.

And there’s also the matter of Baek Yeon and Cheon Hyein...

That was something I needed to look into too.

Mm. Then priority goes—

I thought it over.

It didn’t take long to settle the order.

Cheon Hyein comes first.

Between Baek Yeon and Cheon Hyein, it was Cheon Hyein’s side I needed to investigate first.

And for that—

“I need to go to Cheon Eujin.”

I decided to go find the safest person who might actually know something.

*****

I went to find the quarters where Cheon Eujin was staying.

It was one of the common residences used by disciples, and Cheon Eujin himself was in the training hall within.

SHIIING—!!! SHIIING—!!

Sword paths flashed rapidly back and forth.

Blue sword force carved through the air.

It was swift and delicate.

Cheon Eujin, his blue eyes aglow, kept creating sword paths one after another.

I watched the orderly sword form closely.

That’s good...

He had improved a lot. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

It had only been a few days since I’d last seen him, but his rate of growth was steep.

Impressive.

That had always been true, but both Do Hyeong and Cheon Eujin worked unbelievably hard.

I stood there watching for a moment.

Then—

“Ah.”

I realized I probably shouldn’t just keep staring.

“Um, Young Master Cheon—”

He stopped instantly.

At my voice, Cheon Eujin froze mid-motion, then turned toward me while still breathing a little hard.

“Ah, Young Master Bang.”

“Sorry to interrupt. Do you have a moment?”

“Of course...!”

Cheon Eujin smiled brightly and slid the sword back into its sheath.

“What is it?”

“Ah, I came because there’s something I wanted to ask, but—”

Before I even got to the question, I grinned and said—

“You’ve gotten impressive, haven’t you?”

“Huh? Ahaha, not at all...”

Cheon Eujin awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“...Compared to you, Young Master Bang, I’m still very far off.”

“You say that, but what I just saw was pretty damn good.”

“Thank you...”

“When are you entering the Small Moon Unit?”

“Ah.”

At my question, Cheon Eujin flinched.

Cheon Eujin had awakened the Moon Eyes too.

That meant he now qualified to take the entrance test for the Small Moon Unit.

“...I am planning to take it before too long, but...”

“Oh...”

So he really was thinking of joining.

“I still think I’m lacking, so I intended to polish myself further first.”

The passion in his eyes was obvious.

It seemed to mean he still wasn’t satisfied with himself yet.

“That’s not a bad idea either.”

I understood the mindset.

It wasn’t my place to say otherwise.

“Thank you. Ah, then... what was it you wanted to ask?”

“Ah, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) yes. It’s just... there was something I wanted to ask about Young Lady Cheon.”

“...My sister?”

The moment I brought up Cheon Hyein, Cheon Eujin’s face stiffened rapidly.

So things between them were still bad.

“Yes. If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer.”

“...No. If it’s a question from you, Young Master Bang, I can answer anything.”

When he was steeling himself that much, it almost made me want to back off.

Still...

“Then, this is what I wanted to ask... Is there any senior figure Young Lady Cheon is particularly close to?”

“...A senior figure?”

“Yes. Ah, for example... one of the elders, or someone like that.”

“Ahh.”

Cheon Eujin sank into thought.

“As far as I know, she seems to have ties with the Small Moon Unit Leader.”

“Ah... I already know about that.”

I could set aside the Small Moon Unit Leader.

That man had already long since been pulled onto this side.

“...If not the Unit Leader... mm...”

Cheon Eujin fell briefly into thought again.

Then—

“Ah.”

His eyes widened like he had remembered something.

“Come to think of it—”

Right as he was about to continue—

Tap.

“...Hold on.”

I hurriedly covered his mouth.

“Hm? Young Master Bang, why—”

He looked puzzled, asking why I had stopped him.

But it wasn’t long before his eyes widened too.

“Oh.”

“Someone’s coming.”

I could sense an extremely fast presence nearby.

Its target was this place.

Something was rushing straight at us at incredible speed.

Only a moment passed.

KUUUUNG—!!!

A huge sound exploded through the empty training hall, and the doors flew wide open.

“Mm.”

Someone appeared in the doorway.

A young man with dark black hair and blue eyes.

...Who’s that?

What the hell?

I frowned at the guy who had suddenly shown up.

“...Huh?”

Cheon Eujin, on the other hand, reacted completely differently.

“...Senior... Brother?”

“Senior Brother?”

Senior Brother?

The instant I looked back at the young man after hearing that—

“I see.”

The young man suddenly nodded while looking at me.

SHIIING—! SHIIING—!!!

“...!!!”

Sword force suddenly came pouring right in front of my eyes.

Heavy with terrifying killing intent.