One Change Thousand Changes, one change, and 10,000 flowers bloom.
’I like it.’
Yoon-seok moved on to the next part of finding a suitable shape to match the name.
’…But I’m stuck again.’
For some reason, he felt like he was wasting his time, but Yoon-seok received help from the Heavenly Sword technique again this time. Just as Heavenly Reign pursued perfect harmony between strongness and gentleness, what should this tactic pursue?
’One change. And the endless possibility that it emanates.’
He tried summarizing it, but it was still vague.
‘Let’s fix this first.’
One change. It wasn’t appropriate to call this illusion, but that was the first step forward. The courage to open the closed door. Rather, the core of One Change Thousand Changes was closer to strength. To break the hard shell and face the change, a sturdy heart was required.
’Illusion backed by strongness.’
The difference from the Heavenly Sword was distinct. Strongness and gentleness. Dominance and bluntness. Illusion and speediness. Heaviness and lightness. While most of the Heavenly Sword emphasized the principle of harmony, One Change Thousand Changes was slightly different. The two principles coexisted but wouldn’t become one.
’The chain effect that occurs because they exist as separate concepts.’
Yoon-seok opened his eyes and stood, then slowly took out his sword. He felt like he had a hunch on how he was supposed to move now. However, Yoon-seok wasn’t impatient and embodied it in his head step by step first.
’The start should be wind.’
Of course, it shouldn’t be just wind, but to the point where everything was blown away around him. A storm. And like the saying that a butterflies’ wings can cause a storm, the beginning must be him.
Whoosh-!
Slicing through the air, Yoon-seok’s blade kicked up air across the arena. But Yoon-seok looked a little dissatisfied.
‘…I don’t like it for some reason.’
Although it was an accurate result… rather than feeling like ‘this is it,’ it felt something was wrong. Why?
‘Let’s try it again.’
Whoosh-!
Yoon-seok swung again. And again.
In just three days, he reached the answer.
‘…It doesn’t have to be too strong.’
What he wanted from the beginning was one change. However, it didn’t have to be a big change. Even a slight one would do. Just to that extent was enough to find new possibilities and change everything.
’A little gentler…’
Yoon-seok relaxed his grip on the sword; that was all. But he clearly felt it.
Whoosh!
A cool wind brushed past his cheek, wrapping around the sword blade, then gently swirled and hovered across it.
’Now.’
Yoon-seok wielded the air by moving his blade. And at that moment, the soft wind grew and surged forward.
‘I know what to do now.’
He collected the pieces in his head, but they weren’t properly organized. Now, Yoon-seok knew what to do to bring theory to reality.
Whooooosh-!
Yoon-seok instilled magic into the sword’s movement. At that moment, the wind split into tens of thousands of branches of sharp blades, as Yoon-seok imagined. It didn’t look like a sword, and in fact, it would be closer to a dagger in terms of classification…
But it was a sword in Yoon-seok’s eyes.
Swaaaaaaaaaa-!
Just as the wind had the nature to go through tens of thousands of changes, the swords carried by the wind differed. Some were bent, some were short, and some were divided into several branches. But, Yoon-seok liked it.
“…”
It didn’t have to be fast. It could be heavy or light. Even if it didn’t seem to be flexible, or as if it would break at any moment or look too soft and weak. In the end, that was only how it looked right now.
Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!
If it was looked at from an angle, slight differences could be noticed. Some slowed or grew faster. Or strayed off the path and flew freely. Albeit slight at times, everything went through changes.
“…”
Yoon-seok continued to watch. Thousands of petals, sent dancing by the wind, hit the arena’s outer wall and disappeared.
Shaaaaaaaaaa.
There was no loud noise, and the wall hit was fine. But after a few minutes-
Booooooooooooom-!
Yoon-seok smiled.
‘This isn’t bad for a first try.’
Although narcissism isn’t good, Yoon-seok was satisfied with the power of his newly created technique. Of course, it was still incomplete, but he was looking forward to polishing it.
Whoosh-!
Following that, Yoon-seok devoted himself to One Change Thousand Changes. He swung his sword like crazy, filled in the missing parts, and sometimes tried different methods. The Natural Energy of Middle Qigong, Skywrath Energy of Lower Qigong, and b Transcendental Muscles}. However…
’The ever-changing nature of One Change Thousand Changes suits Skywrath Energy best.’
Skywrath Energy turned out to be the best of the three.
’But that doesn’t mean other techniques have to stick to Skywrath Energy.’
Yoon-seok decided not to set the form in advance when he made his next technique. Well, if it continued like this, it would be a sword technique that no one else but him could use.
’It doesn’t matter. I’m not from Moorim anyway.’
No, that was even better. He didn’t have the ambition to be a martial arts founder anyway. Yoon-seok needed a new style to achieve one purpose.
Whoosh-!
Yoon-seok retraced his memory while refining his first technique, and at the same time, started on the basic form of the martial arts that would be completed later. He didn’t have a name for it nor any ideas of where he would take it. He just thought about it.
—If I could kill the Queen, I think I could prove it that you can achieve anything without magic.
Like Lavan, he was saved by the sword. What did he want to prove with it, and what else did he achieve?
‘This is fun.’
The process was hard, but it wasn’t boring at all.
Whoosh-! Whoosh-!
One day, two, three, four. Time whirled past.
Finally, the first technique was completed.
Boooooooooooom-!
Of course, it was still too early to talk about perfection. However, he couldn’t find more parts to fix in their current form.
’…Let’s finish up here. Let’s move on to the next technique.’
He abandoned his lingering feelings and moved on to the second. Since he worked on a name while completing the first, it proceeded smoothly.
’It’ll take about half a year like the first.’
Yoon-seok estimated that was how long he took to finish the first. And the moment he tried to close his eyes again.
「Victory.」
The duel was over.
“…”
He would need a little more time to complete the second technique.
Six months? Seven? That felt like the time Yoon-seok spent in the duel, so he tried hard to abandon his disappointment.
‘What a shame, but it can’t be helped.’
Rankers could survive without a drop of water. But if the mind collapsed, the body would follow. The exact reason was unknown, but Yoon-seok guessed it was related to the power the Tower granted.
In that sense, Carpbenny held out much better than expected. The longest record before him was four months.
’I’ll try making the remaining techniques with b Predation} however I can.’
Yoon-seok thought. Perhaps the biggest advantage of {Predation}’s ability was not to acquire skills or loot equipment… he would be able to enter this arena once a month to train.
’How many times can I use it?’
Returning to the waiting room, Yoon-seok checked the timer.
「Until the next duel: 2,159 hours」
Exactly ninety days later.
’I can only use it twice.’
b Predation}’s cooldown for applying for a duel was thirty days. Therefore, even if he could catch someone right now and drag them to the arena, it was impossible to do it three times before the next duel.
’They could’ve given me one more day.’
Yoon-seok clicked his tongue and swiped the tablet. It would be nice to check the trophies he got in the duel, but first of all, there was something he had to check.
He had to check everyone finished their duels safely.
*1st Place, Cheonmazl Zone (SSS+) – Moorim
Cheon-ma was safe. Well, he couldn’t imagine her losing…
“…Huh?”
Yoon-seok suddenly froze.
*12th place, Steel Warrior (SSS) – Seheranbad.
*12th place, Heartsword (SSS) – Seheranbad.
Both King of Steel and Lavan reached the 24th floor. However, the ranking had changed.
’Why is it not 14th but 12th…?’
He already knew the only answer. Yoon-seok’s expression changed as he scrolled up the ranking board. The number of first-place players decreased by two from thirteen to eleven.
’Did the first place rankers match with each other…?’
Rare but not impossible. Yoon-seok tried hard to shake off that iffy feeling and scrolled down the ranking board.
Yoon-seok let out the breath he was holding.
*212th place, Grape Jam (SS+) – Earth.
Lee Su-yeon, whom he was most worried about, was also safe. There was still one obstacle ahead, but all his fellow candidates survived.
’Is it because of the increased strength? Her ratings went up.’
Yoon-seok scanned through the ranking board and froze again.
*12th place, Predator (SSS) – Earth.
He couldn’t find it for a long time, so he wondered why. Suddenly, his nickname was recorded at 12th place.
’No message from achievements?’
Yoon-seok checked his performance status.
「List of Achievements」
Exploiter (Achieved overall evaluation of SSS grade) + 1,500 LP.
Although he didn’t receive the message, he did complete a new achievement and was rewarded with LP. It looked like he didn’t see the message because he was focused on training.
’As expected, training is the answer.’
There was only one step left before he reached first place, but Yoon-seok tried to come down from his high horse.
He shouldn’t be satisfied here. There was a way to go before he could celebrate.
’Nothing changed. Let’s do our best.’
Leaving his excitement behind, Yoon-seok calmly organized what needed to be done.
‘…I’ll be very busy again this time.’
First of all, he needed to check the loot he got from this duel. He also needed to use his WP, plus the 18 million AP he kept from last time added to the 35 million he received from this duel. There was also recruiting more colleagues and training his swordsmanship…
’Should I make a clone or something?’
Even ten bodies couldn’t achieve that schedule. However, there was one thing he wanted to check before starting in earnest. It might be personal curiosity, but…
「Cheonmazl Zone invites you to the waiting room.」
「Would you like to accept?」
Would his sword work on her?
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