A day and a half had passed since that fight. The youth was on one of the deserted peaks, bare-chested, swinging his sword. He performed only the basic swings.
Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, thrust.
He continued like this for a long time; half an hour passed, an hour.
Two hours.
Five.
Five hundred swings.
Eight hundred.
One thousand five hundred!
He did not stop! Distress was visible on his face; he continued to swing and swing, sweat pouring from his body as if it were a kitchen sponge being squeezed, and not a body perspiring.
He was talking to himself out loud: "What is this nonsense? Only one move?
Are you joking with me? What is the use of those instincts? I cannot sleep because of them, yet I lose an ordinary fight?"
He reinforced his sword with energy and unleashed a horizontal swing; it sliced a giant rock before him.
He did not stop; he took the thrusting stance and launched a momentum thrust.
A beam of mana shot out for dozens of meters, burning everything in its path; it was truly a majestic scene.
And he continued performing the basic swings again.
Four thousand.
Five.
Six.
Ten!
The youth stood for a moment, panting heavily, then resumed again!
A full day passed, and the evening of the fourth day arrived, yet the youth had not stopped!
The Great Guardian came, watched him for a bit before asking: "Why do you not stop? Three days have passed."
Jin stood and gripped his sword tightly, tilting his head back slightly.
"Stop? Would you have stopped if you were in my place?"
The Guardian sighed slightly: "I would not have been in that state if I were in your place."
Jin looked with suspicion: "What do you mean?"
The Guardian went silent for a moment, then looked at his right hand: "It is simple; impose your experience over your instinct.
Not just experience; you must become so strong that it grants a person senses with the same sharpness."
Jin thrust the sword into the ground and looked at it: "Strength? Why does everyone want me to increase in strength?"
He went silent for a bit, then spoke sharply: "What does the Sect Leader truly want?
He has Bai Ryong, the head of the Elders' Council; he has Seo Rin, who is a transcendent demon; and now he has Yuan, a psychopath who finds pleasure only in fighting and a talent no less than mine—no, he is even better than me with the sword.
You are his right hand as well."
The youth went silent for a moment: "A 9-star rank swordsman, a genius in shadow and wind styles.
A tactical genius who can fight the Justice Alliance Council alone.
Why is he manipulating me after all this?"
The Guardian went silent for a moment, eyeing the youth with a look of clear pity.
Then he spoke quietly: "I also wish I knew the reason.
Even I find it strange; since your arrival at the sect, he allowed you to skip the academy, let you move as you please within the sect, pardoned your killing of one of his sons, made me monitor you personally, and after that… prevented your death more than once and made you the youngest Elder in the history of the entire Eastern Continent.
Do you truly think I know the reason behind all this?"
The youth looked on, and a loss of passion manifested on his facial expressions.
The Guardian continued: "Sometimes it is better for a person to stop asking when they find no answers.
Even the Sect Leader himself was like this in the past; he was like you, asking about everything, but he realized this was a mistake too late. You still have the opportunity."
Silence prevailed for a while, then the youth asked while looking at the ground, asking with a broken voice: "When… when does he intend to send me to my home?"
The Guardian was slightly stunned by this question; he sighed and smiled, a smile that could be felt even from under his mask which he never removes: "Soon, very soon."
The youth looked the other way and gripped his sword, tilting his head back slightly.
"Then… does he intend to force me to fight in the North Sea?"
The Guardian wondered as he looked at the youth: "I did not expect you to ask this question."
Jin: "And why would I not ask? I know you both know about the matter well."
The Guardian asked: "And what will you do then?"
The youth went silent for a bit, extinction controlling his face: "Then?… I will choose my wife."
The Guardian laughed a little: "You have become truly bold, young man. Anyway…
Before that day, you will go to meet him yourself; you can ask about everything you want then."
Jin replied coldly: "That is good."
The youth raised the sword and began swinging again; he remained in that state for a full hour.
Silence prevailed throughout that hour; nevertheless, the Guardian watched him and did not move from his place.
Jin put some energy into a vertical swing, and in that moment…
The Guardian arrived before him in the blink of an eye, stopping the swing with only two fingers.
The ground shattered and debris flew into the air from the intensity of the impact.
The Guardian spoke quietly: "Do not release too much mana in your attacks when you are this exhausted; your energy veins or even blood veins might explode."
The youth went silent for a bit: "It no longer matters; I deserve the pain."
The Guardian looked for a moment, feeling pity toward the youth.
The Guardian: "What have you learned about your homeland?" The youth answered: "In the Western Continent."
The Guardian: "Attack me with all your speed." Jin executed the command directly; he continued attacking from all directions and in all positions, but… the Guardian did not move from his place, blocking everything with his hand.
The youth was not slow at all; the movement of his sword and the movement of the Guardian's hands resembled specters due to their speed.
But the difference in power was truly crushing; the youth felt as if he stood before a solid dam.
The youth thought: Is the difference between us humiliating to this degree? Four minutes have passed and he has not moved from his place, has not even changed his body position.
The situation continued like this for another quarter of an hour; the youth stopped, panting heavily from exhaustion.
The Guardian looked at him for a bit: "Do you know any figure from Westron?"
The youth was bent over, placing his hands on his knees and panting heavily; he raised his head, dripping with sweat.
"So, its name is Westron? I do not know who placed the names of the continents, but he is truly creative. East, West, Asta… how can he have such creativity?" It was a vulgar sarcasm; well… the youth was actually right in his sarcasm.
The Guardian: "They had other names in the past, and these were symbolic names relative to the directions, but the true names were forgotten a very long time ago."
The youth went silent for a bit after catching his breath: "I do not know any figure in that continent except for one person.
I expect him to be a friend of the Sect Leader; it is the Fourth Throne, Valerion."
The Guardian thought for a bit: He knows nothing but his name? This is good.
The Guardian looked at the sky, a strange look reflected in his eyes; happiness? Perhaps he remembered something.
The Guardian: "Forty years ago, I was still about your age; that was the first time I served the Sect Leader. After a period of time, I discovered that he was not alone as I had imagined."
The Guardian continued: "At that time, for the first time, I saw the miracles of this era.
I accompanied the Sword Thrones during that period; I saw their illogical talents, and a long time passed.
At that time, the distance between me and them increased greatly; sadness struck me and I lost my passion almost completely."
Jin asked: "Then, how did you reach your current level?"
Jin felt the Guardian's smile from under the mask: "After a long time, a new person came to that team.
He was also from the Vermillion family, and by chance… he resembled me a lot.
His hair was gray; he liked to wear a scarf over his mouth always; he liked infiltration and speed styles as well.
He was like me; he did not have a talent that matched them, yet I never saw him care at all.
Were it not for this man, I would have stopped practicing martial arts long ago.
I continued training then, and today I have reached my current state, the second strongest man in the entire Murim."
Jin smiled sarcastically: "Why are you telling me all this?"
The Guardian laughed a little: "Why? It is simple; so that you do not lose hope. Even if you do not want strength, do not lose the ability to try… and also…"
The Guardian went silent for a bit, hesitating before saying this.
"You are no less talented than them."
The youth looked at him in wonder; it was a meeting full of amazing information.
The youth asked: "To what degree are the Sword Thrones strong?"
The Guardian went silent for a long time, then answered with an eerie calmness: "To what degree? Do you see the peaks around us? Estimate some of their size.
Jin looked for a bit: "There are eight peaks; the distance from the far right to the far left is perhaps more than a kilometer.
But… there is a big difference in location; measuring this or measuring the thickness of each peak is truly difficult."
After a bit of silence, the Guardian answered with a serious tone that could not be said to be a lie at all.
"A single horizontal swing from the Sect Leader… might cut them all."
That was the last of the shocks of this day for the youth; it was truly an eventful day.
He witnessed the terrifying difference in power, learned of a team that contained the strongest men in the world, and in the end, someone who accompanied them told him that he was no less than them!
After that, the youth continued trying to touch the Guardian; he continued for hours. He thought much during that time—a little about his personal questions, a little about the size of this strange world, and a little about what he had just heard.
And the situation continued like this until the youth lost the ability to stand up again.