Chapter 396: Our World (1)

Chapter 396: Our World (1)

“Yes, I expected as much. You’ve already made several odd remarks about the ninety-ninth floor—”

“

Ah

, you talk a lot, Zombie! Eat this!” the Sword Emperor shouted.

The clouds in the sky split in two, and the sky itself cracked. The cracks grew toward me, thickening fast. I—

“Freaking he—!”

The moment I raised my dagger, a blast erupted.

Boom!

The aura I had infused into the dagger died like a fire struck by sand. I pumped more aura through the hilt but soon saw it was pointless.

“

Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

”

It was like trying to raise a shield against a rushing tsunami. Perhaps I was just another Don Quixote instead of a hero. Since I was once called a hero, the most basic requirement of a hero was to do something that yielded actual results. To do that, I changed the grip on my dagger as I deflected the attack, gritting my teeth.

“Enouuuuuuuuugh!”

As the angle of attack shifted, the Sword Emperor’s strike lost some of its momentum, but given its great force, deflecting it like that didn’t change the fact that it was unstoppable. Still, it gave me a moment to take a breather, and that was enough.

“Enough alreeeadyyyyyyyy!” I yelled.

The ground tilted and shook. The roots under and the plants above—sunflowers, anemones, daylilies, daffodils, hepaticas, birdsfoot deervetch, snowball bushes, marigolds, and morning glories—swayed in unison. Their pollen scattered, spreading their vitality and will.

Despite all this, I stood my ground, even as it shook under my feet. Instead of a pillar, I imagined a tree as great as a World Tree. The roots were my feet, and they extended endlessly deep. Even if the ground shook, I didn’t waver because my roots reached to the other end of this world. Not only did I stand firm, but the ground’s trembling was caused by the vibrations of my roots.

The grain stored in termite nests, the breath of nameless insects fallen into hibernation... I drew in the vitality and nutrients that spread across the earth. Energy poured into me like a reversed waterfall, but I didn’t store that energy. I sent it all to my left hand, where my dagger was. I was now a waterway. Boundless energy flowed through me, pouring toward the dagger, and exploded.

Booooom...!

My attack burst out from the ground, knocking back the Sword Emperor’s strike that had come down from the sky. Like a spring butterfly, the Sword Emperor spun in the air and landed on the grass.

He grinned. “Yes. You’ve learned how to use outer aura.”

“What was that for?” I shouted, huffing and puffing.

“Well done,” he said, without losing his smile.

“

Huh?

Umm

, if you praise me like you just did, it feels a bit embarrassing. I’ve just been practicing what you taught me in the Truth Heaven Realm and on the ninety-first floor. I mean, your hint was obvious. Wait, wait, that’s not it. Why did you suddenly attack me?”

“Knowing and using are two things. Since it’s you, I thought you might not know how to use it in real combat yet.”

“

Oh

, please...” I scratched the back of my head. “If I think about it, there were many clues even before you told me. The usual way to manifest reinforced aura is to accumulate aura. And the common way to build that amount of aura is to get into the lotus position and meditate in a place with clean water and air.”

This was called aura cultivation.

“Basically, most of the aura that martial artists accumulate comes from the outside. Only after digesting, refining, and melting it into oneself does it become what we call internal aura.”

Melting the aura that existed outside oneself into one’s own was called aura cultivation. That was how things like Eternal Snow Ginseng, Thousand-Year Tuber Fleeceflower, Azure Life Essence, the Chemist’s medicines, the giant aura turtle, and others could work as elixirs.

“But I’m not separate from the world.”

In the Demonic Path, I was the rope binding this world, but I was separate from each element in the world in the Righteous Path. Still, because of that, I was also part of the world. Subjectivization and objectivization. Their strengths and weaknesses were shown in each path’s martial arts.

The Demonic Path was seen as easy to reach a certain level, yet was difficult to go beyond. Meanwhile, following the Righteous Path was believed to be more difficult to reach a higher level, but the path was considered to have more martial artists who had reached the peak and gone beyond.

“Therefore, there’s no need to obsess over increasing the amount of aura within me,” I said, withdrawing my mental image of the roots spreading under my feet. “No matter how much the aura within me increases, even if it’s enough to go through metamorphosis, I’ll still have limits as a vessel.”

As the image of the roots retracted, the channel receiving outer aura closed.

“Turning myself into one pathway is more efficient.”

Naturally, the world’s aura that had flowed through me and reached my dagger also dispersed. I took a deep breath.

“Of course, to solidify that pathway, I need to become somewhat more durable as well.”

The remainder of my inner aura, part of which had been carried away by the outer aura as it dispersed, joined my vital energy.

“Even that isn’t a requirement. That’s why Teacher could split the snow mountain without any qi left within her.”

The Sword Emperor nodded. “Yes. The two main parts of aura cultivation are meditation and circulation. Whether it’s the Nine Yang Divine Art, the Purple Mist Heart Method, or the Valkenheim Mana Cultivation Style, it’s just the difference in their depth of meditation and the paths they use for channeling aura. They all should still have two parts. Meditation is about drawing outer aura into oneself. By deeply understanding the world, one breaks down the barrier between oneself and the world, channeling the entire world’s aura. Circulation then guides that aura into their dantian. As you said, it’s about drawing and blending a new aura into one’s old aura, making it part of themselves.”

After summoning a piece of the broken cloud, the Sword Emperor sat on it and raised one finger.

“But if you gain true understanding, you can sink into deep meditation in any situation, break down the boundary between yourself and the world, and can deliver the world’s aura you absorb to wherever you wish. Then, your own internal aura is unnecessary.

That

is the Mind Sword.”

The process held no grand concepts, abstract ideas, or indecipherable mysteries. Once one understood the process, it all became logically possible. That was likely the secret of all magic.

“Have you always been here?”

The Sword Emperor crossed his arms and smiled. “Yes. The spirits by your side and Gramps’ are...

Hmmm.

I control them, but that’s even harder to explain than the Mind Sword.”

“Try it.”

“I’ll show you.”

He snapped his fingers.

Sword Constellation—Origin

Class: A+

Effect: You can create living spirit(s)[1] and advise others climbing the Tower. You have arrived on the ninety-ninth floor. Whisper your experiences into their ears. Those who hear your advice will be amazed by your deep knowledge.

※A person must possess the matching skill. Those who don’t have it will not be able to perceive you.

※Synchronization between you and your living spirit(s) occurs at a set interval. This interval is usually about one day, but it can be shorter or longer based on the floor the recipient of your advice is on.

※The knowledge given to your living spirit(s) may become distorted or censored during your recipient’s journey up the Tower. The guideline details will be set in the Pillars’ meetings.

I understood now.

“Chattting apps don’t send messages directly to the recipient. They go through a server first, so the messages you send through the Guardian are censored while passing through the Tower server.”

“It’s similar to that.

Uhh

, how should I explain it? Rather than a chat app, it’s more like—”

“Ah, so it’s closer to the

Puppet Master’s Parade.

No, rather than sharing memories...”

“Yes, the Guardians are made by copy-pasting my memories. When the Guardians make their own memories, I regularly synchronize with them and absorb their memories. After that, I paste my new memories onto them again to update them, but the Tower censors the updated memories. The synchronization, updates, and censoring aren’t happening in real time, so...”

I recalled the look of pure confusion on the Guardian’s face when I first copied him from the Sword Star. It would have been as strange as waking up to find oneself in another world.

“When my fox god was toying with me...”

“Yup, since the sync is periodic, I saw something was off quite early on.”

Still, in addition to the time lag, the Sword Emperor had been under the manipulation of my fox god’s abilities and the Tower’s censorship, so he had to find an indirect way to help me.

“

Oh,

then I guess others may also have you by their side. It’s not just me and Mr. Sword Star.”

“Do you want to know?”

“No. Although I’m curious, I’m not going to ask.” I pulled out a new roll of duct tape and wrapped it around the handle of my dagger, which had been torn apart during the earlier fight. “The fact that you’re here means I came first, after all.”

The Sword Emperor’s smile widened. That was enough of an answer, so I asked my next question.

“What is the ninety-ninth floor’s quest?”

“What do you think?”

“I’m not sure.”

I rested my chin on my hand and looked around. The bright flower field still welcomed me. Despite the Sword Emperor and me having drawn and used the world’s aura and reinforced aura during our recent clash, nothing had changed, as if we had scooped a cup of water from the sea. That wasn’t the case because the outer aura we drew and used wasn’t exhausted but returned to the world.

Having seen such a world, my gaze naturally fell on the Sword Emperor. I smiled. “Do we settle this by going for a round?”

The Sword Emperor smiled, too. “You’ve grown a lot, my Zombie.”

“I’m in my growth spurt.”

“Aren’t you technically older than I am now?”

“Call me Mr. Gong-Ja.”

“Old man.”

“Your childishness does make me feel like I’m the adult here.”

The Sword Emperor smirked. “Come at me, old man.”

“Gosh.”

I had finished wrapping duct tape around the dagger’s handle and cut the leftover tape with my teeth.

“So, what is it? What is this ninth key that has kept someone like you stuck to this ninety-ninth floor for over a hundred years?"

As if waiting for my question, a quest window appeared.

The Ninth Key

Do you remember when you first entered the Tower?

The Sword Emperor had surely seen that quest window many times before, but it was the first time for me.

How did you feel when you first entered the Tower? What was the first Skill you gained? What did you seek to prove?

The Sword Emperor stood with his arms crossed.

Here stands a man. He said that everyone can be like him, so his last key should be the one who has become like him.

There is another man. He asked if he could become someone else, so his last key should be someone he wants to become.

And so, the two men finally stand before each other.

I looked at the Sword Emperor, who looked back at me.

Your keys are each other.

The next moment, the world roared.

1. The raw is 생령. It's the soul of a living person, not the deceased's. ☜