As soon as the rain stopped, Baek Yoonjun wandered around the valley.

After wandering for a long time, Baek Yoonjun came to a conclusion.

'There's no exit?'

It wasn't that there was none at all.

The top was open, so he could get out that way.

'In the end, the only way out is through lightness skill.'

However, he wondered if he could really get out now that he couldn't use his internal energy, unlike if he could.

It wasn't a huge crisis as usual.

Because Baek Yoonjun's body had been fine for some time without eating, drinking, or sleeping.

But a problem arose.

'I'm hungry.'

A sensation he had forgotten for a while was, for some reason, starting to return now.

He was hungry and thirsty.

'Don't tell me I'm going to starve to death now that I've finally reached the second-rate?'

First of all, he thought it would be better to solve his thirst, even if he didn't know about his hunger.

Although there was water here and there because it had just rained, he had a psychological resistance to drinking rainwater, so he headed back into the cave for now.

'That's?'

And so, as Baek Yoonjun entered the cave, a familiar sight came into his eyes.

From a stalactite hanging from the ceiling deep in the cave, water was forming very slowly and then dripped down.

That water droplet collected in a hollowed-out stone below.

However, that water was not the color of water, but a clear white light.

At first glance, it was a color close to milky white.

'It was collected behind my house, so I drank a lot of it. When I drank it, my thirst was quenched quickly, and I felt full, and it seemed my internal energy also increased a little.'

Since he had experience drinking it, Baek Yoonjun drank the milky white water.

Although it was a small amount, less than a handful, after swallowing it, his thirst and hunger were gone in an instant.

'My internal energy disappeared as soon as it was created. Was it added to the heart sword?'

Baek Yoonjun immediately observed his mental image.

Although it was very minute, it seemed to have had an effect on the heart sword.

'Although it doesn't accumulate, it seems to affect the heart sword, so I'll have to work hard to accumulate it.'

Having solved his immediate worry about food, Baek Yoonjun fell into thought again.

'What now?'

He couldn't think of a way to escape the valley, and he couldn't see anything to do.

'Should I practice handling the heart sword?'

Baek Yoonjun came out of the cave and grabbed the heart sword again.

Grabbing the heart sword does not affect the outside.

There is no sign at all.

He could grab it without grabbing a sword.

He could grab the heart sword in his mental image just by standing still.

'Wouldn't it be possible to swing it without moving?'

Baek Yoonjun immediately put the thought that came to his mind into practice.

As he thought, the heart sword immediately stretched out and made a very small hole in the wall.

'It works.'

Baek Yoonjun was amazed at the phenomenon he had caused.

Although he had been able to do similar things before, that was only possible by moving his body and internal energy.

But handling the heart sword was possible with just an internal movement close to his will.

'It seems it can't be seen or blocked.'

Having continued to handle the heart sword, Baek Yoonjun came to a conclusion about the heart sword.

'Isn't this a hidden weapon rather than a sword?'

The formless sword looked like a hidden weapon by Baek Yoonjun's standards.

And that was understandable, because it could be swung with just his will without needing to be swung by hand like a sword, and it could pierce or cut an enemy without form or sound.

'Hmm... actually, it's not just this.'

Baek Yoonjun recalled the time he had first used the heart sword.

Cheon Suhye, who had completely deviated from being human.

He had defined the part of her that was not human as evil and had cut it out, returning her to being human.

If he remembered the feeling of that time.

'It means I can even cut what cannot be seen. What should I call this? A concept? Can I cut something like this?'

As his thoughts reached that point, Baek Yoonjun felt that the heart sword was a truly absurd power.

'As expected, it's a sword worth consuming all the internal energy I've accumulated over a lifetime.'

Baek Yoonjun once again felt a thrill at the realm he had stepped into.

"This is the second-rate!!"

Since there was no one around, he went crazy and roared so loudly that it seemed the heavens and the earth would shake.

And so, Baek Yoonjun, who had been roaring for a long time.

'But how do I get out of here?'

He became depressed again.

It was good that he had obtained the absurd power of the heart sword.

But by doing so, he was stuck in a valley like this that he could have easily escaped from before.

'No, does this make sense? My realm has risen, so why can't I do what I used to do?!'

Baek Yoonjun glared up for a long time.

It didn't seem like a path would appear just by doing that.

'In the end, I have to climb up...'

Baek Yoonjun continued to worry.

And the conclusion that came from that worry was.

'No matter how I think about it, it's strange that I can't do what I used to do even though my realm has risen.'

Baek Yoonjun approached the wall.

'It's just that I can't do it because I haven't properly grasped the realm of the second-rate yet. Wouldn't it be possible if I researched it a little more?'

Perhaps because of the feeling that he had risen to the second-rate, for once, Baek Yoonjun's thoughts turned to the positive side.

'For now, let's just climb up.'

Baek Yoonjun began to climb the cliff.

Although he had no internal energy, his head remembered the process of the training he had done so far, and his body remembered.

The traces of the training he had accumulated so far remained in his body.

Baek Yoonjun clung to the cliff, stepped on the protruding stones, and grabbed them with his hands, climbing up little by little.

Unlike the appearance he had shown so far, that appearance was very shabby.

The appearance of an ordinary person who knew nothing of martial arts struggling to climb a wall.

'It's been a while.'

Baek Yoonjun was also aware of that.

In his mind, the time when he had climbed a mountain when he knew nothing of martial arts came to mind.

He had run away like crazy, afraid of martial artists, and had climbed a mountain.

The mountain was rough, and for that reason, he was relieved.

'I thought no one would be able to find me if I stayed there.'

Baek Yoonjun had also climbed a mountain like this back then.

Thinking about it now, it seemed to have been a kind of training.

'Does a new realm mean starting from the basics again?'

Unlike that time, thanks to his well-trained body, it was not as difficult as that time, but climbing a mountain without internal energy was a difficult task in itself.

"Phew, phew."

For the first time in a long time, Baek Yoonjun felt his breath running out.

Thump.

At the same time, he felt his heart beating fast.

His white robe was covered in dirt and was a mess, and it was torn from being caught here and there.

Small wounds also continued to appear on his body.

'It's hard.'

For the first time in a long time, Baek Yoonjun felt that his body, not his mind, was tired.

And.

'I'm alive.'

For some reason, under the feeling of being tired, he recalled that he was alive.

Drip.

"Keuk!!"

When he missed his footing and was about to fall, he felt a familiar death.

Since he had already died once. And had starved to death at that, he was not particularly afraid.

Rather, he was more afraid of a higher-level martial artist chasing him.

'Before, I was afraid of a second-rate martial artist, so now is it a first-rate?'

Thinking like that, Baek Yoonjun felt the futility of life.

'When I rise to the second-rate, there is a first-rate above it, and above that is the peak, and above that is the transcendent... there's really no end.'

An endless top.

He felt it was like the cliff he was climbing.

Although he was climbing the wall that seemed the most manageable, it didn't seem like it would end.

'Should I go down now?'

At that thought, Baek Yoonjun's heart was broken for a moment, and he worried about giving up on climbing.

'No, I can't do anything if I'm cooped up below.'

As Baek Yoonjun gave up the thought of going down, for some reason, a different environment unfolded before his eyes.

It was similar to the pitch-black path he had seen before rising to the second-rate.

But it was more shabby than that.

'This is!'

In the dark place, Baek Yoonjun could not take a single step.

This was a familiar space.

The corner of the room where Baek Yoonjun had been cooped up in his past life.

The place where he had let go of everything, not eating or drinking, and had met his end.

Baek Yoonjun could not take a single step out of that place.

Even now, as he was climbing the cliff, he could not go out.

'Damn it.'

Baek Yoonjun gritted his teeth.

Although his body was hanging on the cliff, his heart was cooped up in a corner of his room.

'I thought I had shaken it off after rising to the third-rate.'

It was a misunderstanding.

The Baek Yoonjun in his heart was still just cooped up in a corner of his room. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

'Do I have to stay cooped up here forever?'

Baek Yoonjun could not take a single step out of the corner of his room.

His body also could not climb the cliff any further.

Rather, the strength in his hands and feet began to drain.

'I have to move forward!'

Although Baek Yoonjun desperately tried to move forward, his weakened hand let go of the wall he was holding.

Whoosh.

Baek Yoonjun's body began to fall.

The Baek Yoonjun of his past life, who had been trying to take a step forward from the corner of his room, also could not take a single step and collapsed.

'Why, why can't I move forward?!'

Baek Yoonjun's body was falling endlessly.

Since the place he had climbed was not that high, his body should have fallen to the ground long ago, but as if time were flowing slowly, his body was falling slowly.

'I've finally risen to the second-rate, is this the end?!'

Baek Yoonjun screamed in his heart.

At that moment.

'Second-rate!'

Baek Yoonjun's eyes, who had thought of the second-rate, flashed.

'The corner of the room is a landscape spread out in my heart! Then where is the heart sword?'

As Baek Yoonjun's thoughts reached that point, the heart sword appeared in front of Baek Yoonjun who was cooped up in the corner of his room.

Baek Yoonjun in the corner of the room reached out his hand towards the heart sword.

Then he took a step forward.

And the real Baek Yoonjun.

"Ha?"

He was standing in the air.

He was standing in the empty air as if there were something.

Although he had done it himself, Baek Yoonjun stood blankly and looked down at the incomprehensible sight.

In no time, the landscape of the corner of the room had disappeared as if washed away, and only Baek Yoonjun, who was standing in the empty air, remained.

Baek Yoonjun, who had been standing blankly, came to his senses a moment later.

'I'm standing in the empty air?'

There was no feeling of using internal energy or anything.

Nevertheless, Baek Yoonjun was standing in the empty air.

'Isn't this the Void Step?'

Baek Yoonjun thought that the phenomenon he was causing now was the Void Step.

He had been able to do similar things before.

However, that was just because he had run out quickly by performing his lightness skill to its fullest, so he had not fallen from the empty air, not standing like this.

Although Baek Yoonjun was about to define the current phenomenon as the Void Step, he immediately shook his head.

'No. In the end, wasn't the Void Step walking in the empty air?'

Baek Yoonjun carefully put his foot forward.

And he stepped.

'It works!'

Amazed as much as when he had used the heart sword, Baek Yoonjun slowly walked in the empty air.

'It's really the Void Step!'

Of course, Baek Yoonjun did not know what the Void Step was.

He just remembered from the stories his friend from his past life had told him that it was a wondrous skill that only an absolute master could use, walking in the empty air.

'Could the Void Step be used from the second-rate?'

Although the word 'absolute master' was on his mind, since it was a quite plausible inference, Baek Yoonjun leisurely took a step.

This time, he took a step not forward, but up.

Although it was a high and difficult cliff, now, as if he were taking a walk, Baek Yoonjun leisurely walked in the empty air and went up.

Thud.

A moment later, Baek Yoonjun came out of the valley and set foot on the ground.

Then he quietly looked at the valley he had fallen into.

'Although I couldn't get out of the corner of my room...'

He had safely come out of the valley.

Feeling a slight sense of elation for some reason, Baek Yoonjun left the valley behind and moved his feet.

'I wonder if Sister Suhye is okay? I don't know the way to go and find her again...'

Baek Yoonjun recalled the appearance of Cheon Suhye he had seen before falling into the valley.

'She looked fine, so she's probably okay. I also gave her some money, so it doesn't seem like she'll starve.'

Baek Yoonjun put aside his worries about Cheon Suhye for a moment.

'I'm more worried about Yuhwa. I couldn't get any proper information...'

He had heard quite a lot of stories.

But most of them were difficult to find right away.

Above all.

'I haven't fully confirmed the abilities of the second-rate yet.'

It seemed impossible to set out to find her with his current abilities.

What he had confirmed so far was the heart sword and the Void Step.

Although he had confirmed that the heart sword was a formless sword that could cut what could not be cut and could be moved with just his will, it seemed there was something more.

And the Void Step.

'I can't get a feel for it.'

He couldn't get a feel for how he had been able to do it at all.

Although he could do it right now if he just put his mind to it, since he didn't know why it was possible, it was extremely frustrating.

'There was no movement of internal energy or anything? And it doesn't seem like I did it with the heart sword either.'

Baek Yoonjun's worries only deepened.

And so, Baek Yoonjun, who had been walking continuously, found a village.

And.

"Amitabha. Amitabha."

Thwack! Thwack!

The sound of chanting a Buddhist prayer and the sound of hitting a person were heard at the same time.

'Is a monk hitting a person while chanting a Buddhist prayer?'

At the contradictory sounds, even Baek Yoonjun, who would normally be startled and avoid a person, couldn't help but be curious and stealthily looked at the scene.

As expected, a monk was hitting a person while chanting a Buddhist prayer.

"A monk is hitting a person!!"

The person who was being hit was screaming like crazy while being hit by the monk.

"Why do you say that I am hitting you, benefactor? Do you not think that your body is hitting my fist?"

That monk was hitting a person, spouting strange sophistry with a very benevolent face.

"S-save me!!"

The person who was being hit screamed and then begged the monk for forgiveness, but the monk did not stop his hitting hand.

"If you say weak things, don't I want to open the killing gate? So, benefactor, please quietly hit my fist with your body."

"Uwaaaaah!!"

Seeing that scene, Baek Yoonjun was about to stealthily leave.

But before that, he met the monk's eyes.

(End of Chapter)