The Regressed Young Master’s Guide to Living on Easy Mode

Chapter 116 : Learning the Correct Way to Use the Profound Other (3)

From a certain point, the Sword Empress had been feeling a limit to her martial arts.

She tried to hide this, but she herself knew.

No matter how much she tried to hide it, the impatience that occasionally popped out.

If someone else saw this Sword Empress, they would say she was being greedy.

She had reached the Profound Realm, realized the Profound Will, and on top of that, had even reached the second stage.

This was a realm that only a very few had achieved throughout the history of the Sword Pavilion, no! Throughout the history of the martial world. Honestly, she too had sometimes thought that this was enough.

But the desire for improvement in martial arts.

The desire to become stronger.

The competitive spirit against the strong.

The emotions that naturally arise as a martial artist.

She was envious when she saw the enlightenment that the Divine Monk had achieved.

She was simply in awe when she faced the distant realm of the Heavenly Demon that she could not dare to covet.

She wanted to be like them.

She wanted to resemble them.

What about other top masters like the Blood Demon and the Asura Cult Leader?

The world was still full of numerous strong people, and she was very lacking compared to them.

Just a short while ago, she had met a strong person named Sa Cho-hon, a law enforcement officer of the Black Heaven.

While she had been cooped up in Hainan, the world had changed greatly.

If she hadn't known, she would have pretended not to know. But now that she knew. She couldn't pretend not to know forever.

Putting that aside, the being who held the answer to the question that had not been solved was now right in front of her.

A living, precious experimental subject that might allow her to advance in the realm that had been blocked for so long.

Her master, the previous Sword Empress, had said that the first Sword Empress who founded the Sword Pavilion had the Blue Dragon Saintly Bones.

And her master had said that the clue to advancing to the third stage of the Profound Will lay in those Blue Dragon Saintly Bones.

"Now! Quickly, show me!"

The Sword Empress, with bloodshot eyes, was stroking the body of the experimental subject with more excitement than ever before.

* * *

Calm down, Yoo Jae-ha!

The being in front of you, although her appearance is only that of someone between the age of majority and thirty, her actual age is that of a mother.

I could feel the Sword Empress's breath on my skin.

Every time her hand brushed against my body, I felt a strange sensation along with a tickle.

Composure! Phew!

A mind like a clear mirror! Phew!

I pushed the physical and mental enlightenment I had accumulated so far to the limit.

The Sword Empress finally took her hand off and moved away.

And then she immediately sat in the lotus position and closed her eyes.

She must have realized something. Although I don't understand how that's possible just by touching my body.

Anyway, I regained my peace of mind.

So this is the physical attack I've only heard about.

It was truly terrifying.

Seriously, if I hadn't regressed, I might have fallen for it.

And there was something I learned while performing the Three Thousand Worlds just now: my body is almost completely healed.

Even better, the movement of my energy has become much smoother than before.

Even now, I'm not consciously doing it, but the reversed world and the natural world are resonating with each other and rapidly healing my body.

But this couldn't be called a normal situation either.

Originally, they are two worlds that cannot meet.

Reversal and natural order.

Opposing worlds were now slightly influencing each other's domains due to the unprecedented two words, resonance.

'For now, there's nothing seriously wrong with my body, so it should be fine, right?'

The Sword Empress had personally examined my body, and if there had been a problem, she would have told me.

I got up from my seat. Perhaps thanks to circulating my internal energy throughout my body while performing the Three Thousand Worlds, my arms moved well even though I had no strength.

From the Sword Empress's body, not a sound like 'ting-a-ling' but waves were being emitted.

In the past, I wouldn't have known, but now I could easily tell that this was a resonance phenomenon caused by the waves of internal energy.

A moment later, the Sword Empress opened her eyes. A light that seemed to flash shot out from the Sword Empress's pupils and then subsided. Then, the character engraved in her pupils was slightly visible.

Layer (裌).

At that moment, the shape of the character changed from Layer (裌) to Wave (波). So it can change. I learned that for the first time. When the Sword Empress closed and opened her eyes, the character engraved in her pupils had disappeared. Such a Sword Empress was now looking up at me.

Looking at those eyes, I felt an unknown anxiety.

I took a step away from the Sword Empress.

The Sword Empress opened her mouth.

"May I stroke your body one more time?"

As expected, my intuition was not wrong. And now I could see the Sword Empress's true nature. If I had known this fact before, I would never have made the offer to recruit her.

To think that the Sword Empress was a perverted old hag!

I answered.

"No!"

At my refusal, the Sword Empress was genuinely disappointed. She swallowed her saliva and licked her lips. She quickly regained her composure and returned to the Sword Empress I knew, but after having already faced her true nature. I won't be fooled anymore.

On the other hand, the Sword Empress quickly shook off her disappointment. She was no longer impatient. Because she had finally found the clue to becoming stronger.

There was still plenty of time.

'Someday, I will conquer that body!'

And thus, she would reach the realm that the first Sword Empress had reached, the realm where she had split the tidal wave with her sword qi!

"Hehehe."

I quickly ran away from the perverted old hag.

* * *

Hainan was rapidly recovering from its past wounds.

The same was true for the Hainan Sect.

In the open space of Hainan now, the surviving people were sitting in a circle around a single child.

At first glance, it looked like a group of grown adults bullying a child, but the sounds coming from them were completely different.

"Do you perhaps remember this?"

"Is this how you swing it?"

The way he tilted his head to one side and lightly swung the sword in the air was exactly the movement of someone who had held a sword for the first time. But the sword qi emanating from it was undeniably the sword art of the Hainan Sect.

"Oh!"

"God! It seems you haven't abandoned us yet."

"His achievement is still weak, so there are some shortcomings, but if he is polished a little, he will be able to surpass the Sect Leader!"

"Fool! With him, the number one sword of Hainan will surely be revived in the future!"

"Huh?"

The child, Nam Ji-hyuk, tilted his head to the other side at the adults' fuss, then threw the sword he was holding and left the place.

"Young Master! Where are you going?"

"To play!"

"Of course! At that age, you have to play!"

"The spirit when he threw the sword just now! Truly the makings of a general!"

What Nam Ji-hyuk wanted to perform was not something like this. The movement that the man had performed at that time kept replaying in his mind. No! As time passed, those movements became more and more vivid and materialized.

He was imitating it in his imagination.

And that was currently in progress in reality as well. Nam Ji-hyuk's movements as he climbed the mountain were somewhat strange, but it was clear at a glance that they were not ordinary.

Thump, his foot pressed into the ground. The ground caved in, and Nam Ji-hyuk kicked off the ground. As if a cannonball had been fired, his body shot up the slope of the mountain. The wind, the leaves, quickly brushed past. He kicked off a protruding rock. He kicked off a protruding tree trunk. After repeating this action a few times, Nam Ji-hyuk was able to reach the summit in an instant. A mountain that would have taken an ordinary person at least half a shichen to climb. For a child not even ten years old, Nam Ji-hyuk's expression now looked somewhat dissatisfied.

"This isn't it."

The man had moved more powerfully, faster, and more gracefully.

Sometimes with the explosive power of an animal.

Sometimes relentlessly like the waves of Hainan.

Sometimes as fast as the lightning in the sky.

He couldn't imitate it no matter how hard he tried alone.

"I guess this is the only way!"

The man who had woken up a while ago had told him to stay in Hainan and get along with the adults. He didn't remember, but he could instinctively tell that the grandfathers just now had a rather deep bond with him.

He guessed that he must have followed them well before he lost his memory.

Every time he called them grandfather, he would feel a pricking pain in a corner of his heart when he saw them shed tears.

He must have cherished them as well.

But that was that, and this was this.

He was happy when he was with his grandfathers, but it was more thrilling, exciting, and fun when he was with the man.

Above all, the Reverse Sea Wave Sword that the man had taught him was much more fun than what his grandfathers had taught him.

-Especially, the advantage of this Reverse Sea Wave Sword is the resonance that occurs in the reversal and natural order when it returns to its original state. Look. It's easy, right?

The man had performed it lightly in the air, but it was fucking difficult.

Anyway, he had a feeling that it was something amazing.

"Ugh! What should I do?"

The brother who called himself the Crown Prince had said that the man would soon leave the Hainan Sect.

The brother and sister who had come with the man also said that the man would probably leave after he had fully recovered.

"I guess that's the only way!"

Nam Ji-hyuk made up his mind.

* * *

A lot of time had passed since I had been in Hainan.

My body was now fully recovered.

"Tsk. It's clean."

The quack doctor looked at me with pity.

Don't ordinary doctors feel proud when the patient they are caring for recovers? Why do I only meet such quacks? Sigh, this is all because I lived too kindly in my previous life.

"Well then, I'll be going."

"Ah! You. I have something to tell you."

"Is there a place that hasn't healed yet?"

"Not that, but your body is somewhat strange right now."

"Strange?"

This quack is trying to deceive me with some sophistry again! He'll probably say I need to have my stomach cut open. It's so obvious now.

"I don't know much about martial arts, but medically, the Profound Will and the Profound Manifestation cannot be operated together. Because they are completely opposite concepts. But in your body, the phenomenon of energy amplification from the Profound Will and the phenomenon of physical amplification from the Profound Manifestation are being discovered at the same time."

Seeing him use only difficult words, it seems he came with a purpose.

"So?"

So what? You want me to cut my stomach open?

"Originally, when only one is manifested, the power scatters to the opposite side to achieve a balance in the body. The excess power of the energy that has arisen from the Profound Will is amplified and scattered to the body, and the excess power of the physical energy that has arisen from the Profound Manifestation is reduced and scattered to achieve a balance. In this way, the body is maintained by amplification and reduction, but your body is in a situation where both domains are only amplifying. Right now, the size of the two domains is not that large, so it's not a big problem, but if time passes, your body will eventually be torn to shreds by the two endlessly expanding domains."

Why are you lying with such sincerity? It's making me nervous for no reason.

"W-Why are you being so scary?"

"Of course, it's not that there's no way."

"Cut my stomach open?"

"I'm not some crazy guy obsessed with cutting stomachs open, I'm talking seriously right now. Listen carefully!"

He was the one who was a stomach-cutting parrot every time he met me!

I am definitely the victim. It's unfair.

"Go and find someone who has reached the Profound Other like you. Then you will be able to find a solution to the strange phenomenon happening in your body. Be sure to remember! You must go and find them as soon as possible! Otherwise, you will die!"

"Yes, yes."

I left the doctor for now.

He must have said that to scare me. Even now, my body is fine, no! It's much better than before, and he's saying I'll explode and die.

He should say something that makes sense. Haha!

A moment later, I met the Sword Empress.

The Sword Empress no longer strokes my body. Because we agreed to spar instead.

During the spar, the Sword Empress suddenly stopped. And she stared at me intently, then frowned.

"The movement of your energy is strange."

"What? It's fine."

"Try to imitate me."

The Sword Empress showed me the scene of drawing out the energy thinly and stacking it layer by layer, which she had shown before. That always felt beautiful to me.

I imitated the Sword Empress. It wasn't as good as the Sword Empress, but I stacked the energy roughly similarly. Moreover, my proficiency had been increasing recently through sparring.

It was when I had stacked about 50 layers.

Suddenly, it became difficult to control the energy, and the load on my body increased at once. Ugh! In the end, my energy completely scattered at the 70th layer.

After that, the Sword Empress's expression hardened seriously, and she opened her mouth.

"For the time being, refrain from using martial arts. It seems you haven't fully recovered yet. It's dangerous to continue using martial arts like this."

The Sword Empress said something similar to the quack doctor.

* * *

After finishing the spar, I was walking through the capital of Hainan. Then, I saw a familiar person over there. Namgung Mu-gwang was coming out of a building with a rather drained expression. In front of the door of that building, a woman with her chest exposed was looking at Namgung Mu-gwang with an ecstatic expression, but as Namgung Mu-gwang moved away, she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and then went inside.

What on earth did the two of them do to be like that? Did they fight, seeing that she cried? I acted familiar with Namgung Mu-gwang.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Captain? Are you feeling better now?"

"It's already been a week since I've been walking around fine. Where have you been that I haven't seen you at all?"

"Haha! I've been busy in my own way."

"You frozen-to-death bastard. Are you training well?"

"Yes, yes?"

His answer was not confident, so it was clear that he had been slacking off on his training. Tsk, tsk. To be lazy just because I'm not here. As expected, my presence is revealed like this even if I'm away for a little while.

I should tell the Rakshasa Divine Maiden to be tougher on him.

Then Namgung Mu-gwang said.

"Brother. Are you sure you're all better?"

"Yeah. Why? You want to get hit?"

"N-No! But, hmm, I have a bad feeling. You know? My good intuition?"

"Bullshit."

Since he was talking nonsense, I quickly parted with Namgung Mu-gwang.

After that, I met the Rakshasa Divine Maiden.

"Your energy is unnatural, Sword Emperor. Should I have killed the quack doctor after all?"

"Don't kill him."

"Understood."

On the way, I met the Sword Demoness.

"Seryeong! It's been a long...?"

Thud.

My foot got tangled for a moment, and I fell. The cause was a small protruding stone on the ground. Murong Seryeong ran over and helped me up.

"Is it okay for you to be moving around like this already?"

"Yeah... I'm fine."

"By the way, Jae-ha. I have something to ask you about that woman."

"Seryeong, I have something I need to find out urgently. Can I hear it later?"

"Oh, oh. It's not urgent."

"Yes, that's a relief. By the way, you've already heard everything from the Demonic Brain, right?"

"Yeah. I know."

"The Sword Empress will probably join us too. If that happens, you'll have to leave Hainan with me and go together, is that okay?"

"Yeah. If it's with you, Jae-ha, it's okay."

"Then that's a relief. Let's continue the conversation we couldn't have today later. Sorry. I really have something I need to check right now."

"I'm fine, so take care of your urgent business first."

"I'm really sorry."

After parting with the Sword Demoness, I quickly entered my room.

Until now, I had just dismissed it as nonsense, but just now, something was definitely strange.

A master of the Profound Realm falling while walking on a flat surface?

Is that even possible?

I circulated my energy as slowly as possible, examining every corner of my body.

"Huh?"

The flow of energy was unnatural to the point where it was hard to notice if I wasn't conscious of it.

I went outside and performed all the moves I had learned so far, one by one.

"Huh?"

The movements were also not smooth, so subtly that I wouldn't have known if I wasn't conscious of it.

These are still small anomalies.

The Sword Empress said that the Profound Realm is largely divided into three.

The Profound Will, which focuses on internal energy.

The Profound Manifestation, which focuses on the body.

The Profound Other, which understands and uses enlightenment itself.

There is currently only one known master of the Profound Other.

The Divine Monk of Shaolin Temple.

There's no harm in being careful.

It seemed I had to return to the Central Plains as soon as possible.

The incidents that had occurred in Hainan were almost wrapped up.

Those who tried to sell salt illegally were caught by the inspectors sent by the Crown Prince, and the pirates were to be guarded by the government troops until Hainan stabilized.

The next day, although it was a bit sudden, I boarded a ship heading to the Central Plains. The Sword Empress, the Sword Demoness, the Rakshasa Divine Maiden, and Namgung Mu-gwang were with me.

* * *

At that time, in the Hainan Sect.

"Young Master?"

Nam Ji-hyuk was nowhere to be seen.

(End of Chapter)