When I finished the breathing meditation of the Golden Nine Wandering Art, I felt muscle aches and a feverish heat throughout my body. However, I couldn't stop just because there was pain. That was because I was still submerged in the surging stream. Naturally, I calmly accepted the flow with the Moonshadow Emotionless Art.

On top of the muscle pain and heat, chills ran through my entire body.

More precisely, the heat and chills alternated repeatedly.

It was difficult to tell whether this pain was imagined or real. Before I knew it, the once-surging sea had frozen over, making my lower body feel cold, while the crown of my head felt hot. I had no choice but to enter the breathing meditation of the Hundred Battles Ten Layers Art. It felt like my body was being torn apart by hot and cold energies at the same time, which was thrilling, but soon my entire body was seized by spasms.

So this is why, if the body's level isn't ready...

Was there even a reason to accumulate deep internal energy?

As I continued the breathing meditation, a fear settled in that I might ascend into the heavens. Still, my mind remained clear. This level of pain was something to endure. Because nothing in this world is guaranteed.

If you're not prepared, can you not even receive the greatest gift?

After enduring the heat, chills, and spasms, I re-entered the breathing meditation of the Golden Nine Wandering Art. I resolved that if burning my own body could prevent a meaningless death, then I would continue the breathing meditation until I lost consciousness. I unknowingly frowned. It was because three kinds of pain were crashing in. Just as I believed the pain would pass, I heard someone's voice.

"...Is it hard?"

Though I didn't know whose voice it was, I replied anyway.

"It's not too bad."

"Why are you speaking informally?"

"Who are you?"

"Open your eyes."

I opened my eyes during the breathing meditation.

All around me was the sea.

"......."

I was standing atop the endlessly stretching water, and ahead of me stood the owner of the voice. Suddenly, a massive pillar dropped from the sky and landed between me and the voice, blocking the view.

From the look of it, what had fallen from the sky was a prison's iron bars. The fallen bars surrounded the man in a circle.

As I had expected, beyond the prison stood a man wearing the old martial robe, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at me. The man leaned his forehead against the prison bars as he looked at me.

"...I didn’t think you’d come visit so soon. You’re not dead, I hope?"

It was the senior who had sent me back to the past.

"I'm not dead yet. It's been a while."

The man touched his ear with his finger and tilted his head.

"I can't hear you well. Looks like your level hasn't fully formed yet."

From the man's expression and lip movements, I realized that our communication wasn’t entirely smooth.

The man continued staring at me with his forehead pressed to the bars, his expression strange. It felt like he was looking at me fondly, but also as if he was worn down from long imprisonment. But the energy behind his gaze remained as boundlessly confident as ever.

The man said, "...My powers have faded so much that I can't tell what you've accomplished. Come closer."

I splashed through the water, which reached my ankles, and approached the man.

As I got close, the man smiled.

"Zaha."

"Yes."

"When you haven't seen a person in a long time, just seeing one is a joy. Whether they're a good man or a villain."

I couldn’t immediately tell what kind of nonsense that was, but he was someone I was deeply grateful to, so I humored him.

"Is that so? Will I be able to visit often?"

The man tapped the bars with his finger.

"Impossible. Look at this. You were only granted a visit. Judging by the surroundings, it seems you’re standing at the boundary. When you wake from this dream, you’ll forget you even visited. You look pained—were you training?"

"Yes."

"Tell me. What were you cultivating?"

"Golden Nine Wandering Art, Moonshadow Emotionless Art, and Hundred Battles Ten Layers Art."

The man chuckled.

"That’s quite a lot of messy training."

Despite how things were, I found myself laughing.

"Indeed."

From behind the bars, the man looked at me.

"Zaha, combine them into one."

"How?"

The man tapped his temple with a finger.

"You really are a simpleton. How would I know that? It’s something happening in your body. You have to figure it out. Martial arts should always pursue All Streams Return to the Source. There are no exceptions."

"If I die trying, everything becomes meaningless."

The man nodded.

"You're right. It could all turn to nothing."

"Even so, should I try?"

"You know it, don’t you? At your level, you should. If you don’t try, nothing will happen. Sometimes, an answer only comes when you stake your life. The only thing left is for you to decide—whether what you're attempting is worth risking your life for or not."

"I’ll try."

"You should. I got a brief glimpse of your past life before. You're not the kind of guy to sit still. If you were, you'd be some tavern server somewhere. You wouldn’t be standing at the boundary visiting me like this. I’m proud. I have a lot more to say, but time is short. Live brightly. I don’t even regret being punished. I’m not the type to regret. You..."

Mid-sentence, the man and the bars disappeared without a trace. I called out to him once.

"Master?"

Just when I thought the visit had ended, his voice echoed back.

"Why am I your master? Just call me hyung."

"Hyung? How can I get you out of there? Hey, Martial God hyung?"

The man burst into a long laugh, and before I knew it, even that laughter had faded away.

Looking around, I muttered to myself.

"Talks big and then vanishes. How am I supposed to combine them? What, does he take me for some dumb tavern boy?"

Clearly, he hadn’t said it knowing my exact condition. How am I supposed to combine Golden Nine, Moonshadow, and Hundred Battles? Their paths and characteristics are completely different. I racked my tavern-boy brain trying to come up with something. If combining them was impossible, then perhaps they shouldn’t be combined. This phenomenon occurred because I couldn't fully absorb the power of Heavenly Jade through separate breathing meditations.

The only way forward is the Zaha Divine Art...

But I don’t know how to perform its breathing meditation. How did I even use it?

Honestly, I’m wondering that myself.

But if I used it, that means there was a path through which my internal energy moved. How could I identify the detailed path of a martial art performed in a Falling into Madness state?

Suddenly, this thought came to me.

Even if I don’t know, Heavenly Jade surely does...

Because the power of Heavenly Jade moved on its own, even without me directing its path. Therefore, All Streams Return to the Source is a fundamental law. From beginning to end, all I had to do was open my heart and accept it. Even if my body wasn’t ready and burst like a drum, as the Martial God said, it was worth staking my life on.

I once again sat cross-legged atop the surging sea, stopped the breathing meditations of Golden Nine, Moonshadow, and Hundred Battles, and accepted the rushing stream of Heavenly Jade with both body and mind.

If this was the tavern boy's trick...

There would be no martial art creation method more absurd than this.

I entrusted my life to the flow of the surging current. Before I knew it, the people I’d killed appeared all around me, swimming alongside me.

Did I look like an idiot?

I grabbed the head of a charging one and shoved it down underwater. Before long, I was swept up in the massive stream, memorizing, recording, and confirming the path Heavenly Jade took, all while slapping and kicking the ones who came at me.

Since I’m the type who never forgets, I slid through every meridian like a water slide alongside Heavenly Jade.

Strangely, it felt like the merged waters were flowing toward the sea.

I entrusted both body and mind to the Great Way.

This was the path that allowed me to perform the Zaha Divine Art at will. Only then did the torrent of Heavenly Jade begin to settle. It wasn’t that I had invented a new martial art—rather, I had discovered the Great Way of one I had already used, and that was incredible.

Though the current calmed, I figured pushing further would be greedy, so I set a limit in advance. So as soon as I conquered the first form of the Zaha Divine Art with the power of Heavenly Jade, I opened my eyes.

And with that...

The level of Golden Nine, Moonshadow, and Hundred Battles rose. And just as I hoped, I could now perform the Zaha Divine Art at will.

“Indeed...”

Eldest brother appeared in front of me and, reaching out, grabbed my face to examine it from various angles.

“What do you mean, indeed?”

“Indeed, I wonder if I even have any worthy opponents left.”

He spread open my eyelids with his fingers and checked my gaze.

“...Isn’t this Deviation of the Heart?”

“......”

“How much stronger could you have gotten overnight to say you have no rivals? Surely you must have some.”

“Is that so? Bring them to me. I’ll slap them first, then fight.”

Eldest brother burst into laughter and gripped my shoulder.

“You worked hard.”

Suddenly, I looked around and saw that dividers had been set up. The whole time I was doing breathing meditation, it felt like I was sitting on the sea, and in reality, sloshing water had soaked the area beneath my butt.

“What is this? If it’s piss, then that’s way too much.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Your whole body froze and thawed repeatedly, so it ended up a mess. If it was piss, seriously...”

I looked at eldest brother.

“Seriously, what?”

“Third brother’s a bed-wetter, and the disciple’s a pants-shitter. A symphony of piss and shit.”

“Hmm.”

It seemed I wasn’t the only one who’d had a revelation. I’d never seen eldest brother talk so much before. Had Deviation of the Heart come for him? Why’d he become so chatty?

“Eldest brother, are you okay? You don’t seem entirely sane.”

“Go wash up, you stink.”

As I got up, I felt muscle pain all over. While heading off to wash, a thought crossed my mind—maybe a piece of my madness had transferred to eldest brother. Was madness contagious like a plague? Honestly, even though it was certain my martial arts had improved, I didn’t feel completely recovered from that plague myself.

Because while I was washing alone at the well, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d gotten better looking than before. Sometimes, when martial skill strengthens, one’s appearance can shine more too—maybe that was happening to me?

“...Could it be?”

As I continued washing, I realized something—I had no clothes to change into. Using a voice imbued with internal energy, I called to the workers for help.

“Bring me a set of clothes. To change into... can you hear me?”

Since it was morning, one of the workers luckily brought me clothes. I wasn’t in a position to be picky about whether they were nice or not, so I put them on as they were. They fit snugly, but they were filthy enough to make my recent bath meaningless. It seemed the worker had worn them for a long time during construction until they were too dirty to wear anymore and had left them aside for reuse.

Anyway, for a man, clothes aren’t important.

But money is, so I took my coin pouch from my old clothes. When I went out to the construction site, eldest brother was lying diagonally on the bench with his eyes closed. Since he had likely stayed up all night, I left him be.

I set down my wooden sword behind the resting eldest brother.

Looking around at the workers, I slung the axe over my shoulder and walked out of the guesthouse construction site. It was still early morning. As I walked, I let my hair down a bit, untucked my filthy upper garment, and rolled up my sleeves. Taking the long way around, I entered the expanded construction site of the Demon Cult's tents and looked to see if there was any firewood left to chop. Luckily, someone had left chopped firewood from the previous day, so I found something to do.

From what I had observed over a few days, unlike the guesthouse workers, the tent workers worked until dawn and slept until noon. Moreover, the camp had already expanded with flags from various merchant groups. Since they hired workers from different places, it would be hard for anyone to know exactly who the firewood chopper was.

More importantly, my clothes were filthier than any of theirs.

Without much thought, I chopped firewood for a while at the Demon Cult’s construction site, counted the tents, and observed how they were being built. Walking in the opposite direction from the guesthouse, I saw that a truly enormous camp was under construction.

It looked like the military camp of a great general.

Opening one of the entrances to check, I saw workers sleeping inside.

Who in the world was coming that they needed to set up such a grand military camp? I was hungry and sleepy, so I slipped into a small unoccupied tent, cradled my axe, and tried to nap.

I had no intention of waking up until someone called me for a meal.

It seemed the Demon Cult had sent only workers ahead to claim the site, which made it easier for me to infiltrate as well.

I didn’t have any thoughts like “I’m going to kill someone right away.”

I just wanted to sleep.

As I drifted into morning sleep, a thought crossed my mind.

Unless the Three Calamities /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ themselves showed up, no one else could match me now. This wasn’t arrogance or even confidence.

It was simply my current state and reality.

Because I had completely obtained the Zaha Divine Art through All Streams Return to the Source and the power of Heavenly Jade while in the State of Deviation.