Chapter 993

Open System window.

The moment I muttered that short command in my mind—

Ding. Ding. Diiiing!

A familiar, clear chime rang out, and countless holographic windows poured from the air as if a dam had burst.

System Sudden Quest, Transmitting Internal Energy Across the Body, completed successfully!

Quest rewards have been issued!

Your internal energy has increased dramatically!

You have gained a large amount of EXP!

You have received 20 bonus stat points!

Level up!

Transmitting Internal Energy Across the Body is a technique with such a low chance of success that no martial artist dares attempt it anymore. We commend your patience and audacity in succeeding at the process twice.

You have earned the rare achievement You Did That Twice. You Did That Twice.

Achievement rewards have been issued!

You have gained a large amount of EXP!

Your Endurance has increased dramatically!

The first things that caught my eye were the System messages announcing the completed Quest and earned achievement.

I’d only leveled up once, but the stat increase from successfully completing Transmitting Internal Energy Across the Body was enormous.

I skimmed the messages, then erased a dozen or so with a single wave of my hand. There were still more holographic windows I needed to check.

System Successfully absorbed the internal energy of the Heavenly Power Demon!

Successfully absorbed the internal energy of the Thunderbolt Saber King!

The nature of Scorching Yang Qi is changing. The new flame born deep within your body will burn fiercer and hotter than ever!

He who conquers the great sea will look down upon the world, but he who climbs the peak closest to heaven will look down even upon the great sea.

Congratulations! Your Middle Dantian has been fully opened!

You have reached the Supreme Peak realm!

Sudden Quest, Bone Transformation, has begun. You cannot refuse this Quest!

Sudden Quest, Bone Transformation, completed successfully!

You can now draw in and release qi with great freedom. Your Muscles and Bones, now perfect in themselves, even reject impure qi!

You have earned the great achievement Full-Body Plastic Surgery!

Quest and achievement rewards have been issued!

All attributes have increased significantly! Open the Status Window to check the details.

You have received 30 bonus stat points!

You have gained a large amount of EXP and Fame!

Level up!

As I read through the holographic windows pouring out one after another, only one thought came to mind.

This is insane.

Of course, I’d expected massive rewards.

The Thunderbolt Saber King, Peng Cheolhu.

The power that giant, who’d defined an entire era, had passed on to me at the cost of what little life he had left was just as pure as it was immense.

Even so, the rewards listed by the System went far beyond what I’d expected.

Two level-ups, a huge number of bonus points on top of that, and a boost to all my attributes.

I’ll have to check the details to see just how much my attributes increased, but even so, if I add all this together…

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’d gained more than ten levels in one go.

No, in practice, it was even better than that.

The stronger I got, the farther away my next level-up seemed. The EXP required rose exponentially with each level, but the huge number of stat points I’d just received as a reward was pure bonus.

I’m in debt. Deep in debt.

Even with all those incredible rewards, I felt conflicted.

Caught between joy and bitterness, I remembered the Thunderbolt Saber King smiling brightly as he said he would pass everything he had on to me.

And with him, I remembered all the victims who’d fallen at Eight Spring Gorge that day, when the chrysanthemums covering the mountain had turned red and the bodies of people and horses had piled up like mountains.

I etched one thing deep in my heart: these enormous rewards had been paid for with the lives of the dead.

I’ll repay this debt… no matter what.

I’d never been well-off, and debt had always been a miserable thing to me. But not this time.

I was looking toward the same place they were.

The day I finally paid it all back, the peace everyone wanted would arrive.

And to make that happen, I had to endure and overcome whatever hardships came my way.

I couldn’t collapse under my grief or settle for where I was. I had to keep moving higher, with no thought of giving up.

Toward the place I’d glimpsed while completing Transmitting Internal Energy Across the Body, hidden behind thick, billowing clouds.

Toward the sky above the summit.

Right. The upper dantian.

Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

I couldn’t even be sure whether the Three Saints, the greatest masters in the Central Plains, or Jeok Cheongang, who stood shoulder to shoulder with them, had opened their upper dantian.

No, even if they’ve already reached that stage, there must still be differences between them.

Everything had its proper order.

I’d widened a narrow stream into a vast sea. Now I had to climb a mountain peak that rose as if it would pierce the clouds.

Until now, I’d grown at a terrifying pace thanks to the System I’d gained by chance and countless fortuitous encounters. But even I had been stopped by the clouds.

I still couldn’t reach the absolute beings who looked down on the lower world from above them.

What if I’d ridden that momentum and kept pushing forward back then?

A pang of regret struck me.

But I already knew the answer.

I would’ve failed. And the odds would’ve been very high.

Trying to break through to the upper dantian in those circumstances wouldn’t have been a challenge. It would’ve been a gamble.

Even I, despite having fully opened my Middle Dantian and feeling an intense surge of elation, had instinctively understood the difference between courage and recklessness—and pulled back.

The more I thought about it, the more indescribably frustrating it felt. But looking at it objectively, it had been a very good decision…

Wait.

What was this feeling?

I furrowed my brow and thought back to the excruciating process of Transmitting Internal Energy Across the Body, then to the strange dream born of memories that weren’t mine.

But that wasn’t all.

The inexplicable déjà vu sweeping through me pointed to the trace of a memory worn away somewhere between the two.

“Decision. A good decision… I’m sure I heard that somewhere.”

My lips moved on their own. The voice that came out sounded unfamiliar, as though it belonged to someone else.

How much time passed?

I stared blankly into empty air, muttering the same words over and over like a man in a trance. At last, I recovered part of the memory I’d forgotten.

Someone definitely said something like that. Not in reality, but inside my consciousness.

My eyes stung. I’d forgotten even to blink.

After turning the thought over for so long, my head felt hot.

No—an invisible little awl was slowly burrowing into my mind.

A headache slowly spread through me.

But even as the pain made me wince, I kept searching my memory. I groped through the darkness for a tiny fragment hidden behind larger memories.

And finally—

I remembered.

I remembered realizing it wasn’t time yet and turning away from the upper dantian beyond the clouds.

Then, as I slipped into the world of No-self, someone’s words echoed faintly in my ear.

That was a good decision. Just like back then.

“……!”

My eyes flew wide open.

Because I’d realized who the voice belonged to?

No.

Because an immense pain had suddenly struck me.

Hk.

I sucked in a breath on instinct. Clenching my teeth wasn’t enough; I squeezed my eyes shut, too.

The headache that had been slowly burrowing into my mind like an invisible awl had grown as huge as the long acupuncture needle the Medicine King Hall Master carried around like a prized weapon. Now it was tearing through my head.

What the hell is this…!

With my vision gone white, I flailed my limbs like someone on the verge of drowning.

Even then, I couldn’t let go of the one question still unanswered in my mind.

Who did that voice, which had rung out like a hallucination at the last moment, belong to?

Who could speak to me in a space inside my mind rather than in the real world?

How? How could they do that?

There was one thing I could be sure of.

The voice I’d heard belonged neither to Jeok Cheongang nor, least of all, to the Thunderbolt Saber King.

And aside from those two old martial-world veterans, no one else could have communicated with me then.

Then who was it?

I genuinely wanted to know. Even as it felt like my head was splitting open, I wanted to know.

Who owned that voice, and how had they approached me and whispered without any of us noticing?

At the same time, I wanted to ask:

How did you know me?

Just like back then… That’s what they said. I’m sure of it.

There was no doubt.

I didn’t know them, but they knew me.

I couldn’t say when or where we’d met, but today wasn’t the first time we’d encountered each other.

But…

Why can’t I remember anything? Why?

I remembered only what they’d said. I couldn’t distinguish the pitch or depth of their voice, or even their gender.

I couldn’t guess whether they were a woman or a man—or, if they were a man, how old they might be.

All I could vaguely recall was the sensation of that moment, dredged up at the cost of enduring that terrible headache.

A strange familiarity.

The voice seemed as unfamiliar as something I’d never heard before, yet faintly, peculiarly familiar.

And that was all I could recover.

Whoosh!

A flash of light exploded. The whiteness in my vision slowly receded, and my blurred sight began to come back into focus.

“……Ah.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding and realized that the pain, which had seemed as though it would go on forever, had finally ended.

And with it, the memory I’d been allowed to recover had reached its limit.

Damn it.

I stared silently at my fingertips, still trembling from the pain, then curled them into a tight fist.

Crunch.

The skin of my palm, now almost like iron after Bone Transformation, pressed taut against my sharp fingernails.

Perhaps it was the strange turmoil of my emotions.

At that very moment, the vast qi sleeping inside my body began to boil—

Ding.

System A new Quest, Unknown Voice, has been created.

You cannot choose whether to accept this Quest.

The Quest will proceed by force.

Would you like to check the newly updated Quest information?

Unknown Voice.

I stared at the Quest title on the holographic window, then parted my tightly shut lips.

“Yes.”