Absolute Regression
Chapter 10: You Lose If You Get Heated
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TL: FoodieMonster007
I walked slowly down the stone cave's passage.
The air circulated well inside. Light filtered in from outside through various spots, so the interior was not dark. The exquisite design and craftsmanship showed that a truly skilled artisan had built this place.
As I walked through the cave, I passed a certain point and felt a subtle shimmer around me.
SHHHHHHHH.
I knew instantly. A top-tier formation had activated. Only a master with keen senses could detect it.
It was only natural. Why else would the people who died here have been unable to escape? If a trial was too difficult, they could have just given up and left. They must have died because they could not get past this formation. One could walk in easily, but failing the trials transformed it into a hellish formation with no escape.
After walking for some time, I came upon a large plaza.
A stone monument stood at the plaza's entrance, explaining the first trial.
First, cut down all enemies without using sword qi or enhanced sword qi.
Second, if you don't succeed within the time limit, you'll get another chance after ten days.
Third, those who are prepared should stand in the red circle.
Ten days later? What am I supposed to eat until then?
I looked around and found a jar on the wall filled with nutrient balls.
I'll go crazy if I have to eat this tasteless stuff for ten days.
Without hesitation, I stood in the center of the red circle drawn in the plaza's middle.
A moment later, dozens of human-shaped wooden puppets shot up from the floor, clanking. The parts that needed to be cut were painted red. For some puppets it was the neck, for others an arm, and for some, a leg.
My body reacted reflexively. The moment they rose, I launched forward. My instincts decided which technique to use and what to cut first.
SWISH. SWISH. SWISH.
I sliced the wooden puppets apart.
The puppets were not fixed in place. Panels on the floor began moving and shifting their positions.
In the chaos, a few puppets started to descend.
No!
I knew that if I missed those descending puppets, they would never return. That would mean I had failed the challenge.
So I cut down the descending puppets first. As expected, the other puppets moved quickly to obstruct my path.
I leaped over them and swung my sword.
"……"
I cut down the puppet I had almost missed.
The puppets' movements grew faster. At first, I thought this was a trial of movement arts, but it was not. This trial tested one's judgment.
The question was what to cut first. Quick and accurate judgment was the priority, and movement arts came second.
The trial was complex and difficult, but not sophisticated enough to outmatch my instincts and skills.
I cut down all the puppets and safely passed the first trial.
One thing was certain. With my skills from before my regression, I would have never passed this first trial. I would have failed no matter how much I jumped, rolled, and flew around like a madman.
I understood why the test resumed after ten days. Many challengers must have failed their first attempt. They would have needed at least ten days of careful study and practice to succeed.
Only those who accurately remembered the puppets' movements and which ones descended could have formulated a plan. A dull-witted challenger would have had to try again and again.
Seeing the first trial, I understood why clearing Little Heaven Cave took an average of three years.
GRRRRUMBLE.
As soon as I passed the first trial, the stone gate to the second trial opened.
I walked slowly toward the second trial. Before leaving the first area, I noticed writing carved on the wall near the exit. They were the words of past masters who had come before.
Succeeded on the ninth try. Uhahahaha.
Took me sixteen.
This is insane!
Finally succeeded after thirty-seven long tries. Tears of hardship blind me.
Will I die in this place? I just can't solve it. I resent my father.
Damn it! I tried to go back, but there was no way out.
Success in six tries. I dare say I'm the best.
Among them, at the very bottom, I saw a familiar script.
Idiots.
It was my father. He must have passed this trial before me.
"Hahaha."
I could not hold back my laughter. It seemed my father had passed on his first try. He was bold enough to curse them out, even though they were technically his ancestors.
"Father, I passed on my first try too! Hahaha!"
I moved on and arrived in the second trial's space. As expected, another stone monument stood in this plaza.
First, use a sword from the wall to cut the stone in half within two hours. You can also use sword qi or enhanced sword qi.
Second, if you don't succeed within the time limit, you'll get another chance after twenty days.
Third, those who are prepared should stand in the red circle.
This time, the retry period was twenty days. A simple calculation meant this trial was twice as difficult as the first.
Survive for twenty days on nutrient balls? I'd rather die.
I steeled my resolve to succeed and stood in the red circle at the plaza's center.
"……"
A stone table rose from the floor. A metal sphere the size of a grown man's head sat on top of it.
So I have to cut this metal sphere.
The given time was two hours. That was far too long to cut a single metal sphere. Figuring there must be a reason, I examined it slowly.
Its surface was smooth. It was not ordinary iron but an artificially created stone. It had to be made of a material stronger than cast iron. When I tried to lift it, it was so heavy I could not budge it without using my inner arts.
Hundreds of test swords hung on the wall. There were various types. Long swords and short swords. Heavy swords and light swords. There were even flexible swords worn at the waist. There were truly all sorts of swords.
The message was clear. This was not an easy challenge, so I should choose wisely and try many times.
I walked over slowly and took a sword from the wall. It was a well-made, ordinary iron sword.
I stood before the sphere, calmed my mind, and swung the sword down with all my might.
CLANG. The sword broke with a sharp sound and flew away. The sphere, however, did not even have a scratch. It was an incredibly strong metal.
I examined the sphere again. To the naked eye, it was just an ordinary metal ball.
I brought another sword and swung it vertically. Once again, only the sword broke. The sphere remained perfectly fine.
"As I thought, it won't be that simple."
I took a new sword and infused it with qi.
WHOOOM.
A blue light immediately shimmered from the sword. I had manifested enhanced sword qi.
Before my regression, I could use sword qi at this age, but not enhanced sword qi. I only grasped the mysteries of enhanced sword qi in my thirties.
"My first enhanced sword qi since regressing."
The color of enhanced sword qi differed for every martial artist. Even if they learned the same heart technique, the color varied slightly. I always found that fascinating.
I liked the color of my enhanced sword qi. It was a pleasant blue that sometimes looked like the sea and at other times like the sky.
Just as I was about to cut the sphere with my enhanced sword qi, a sudden sense of wrongness washed over me. I quickly withdrew my qi, and the enhanced sword qi enveloping the sword vanished.
Isn't this too easy?
At a glance, I thought it was a test of enhanced sword qi, since an iron sword could not cut it. It would be difficult with just sword qi. So, it was a trial one could not escape until they mastered enhanced sword qi.
However, a prodigy who could use enhanced sword qi would just slice through it and pass.
Could a trial be this simple?
Conversely, reaching the state to manifest enhanced sword qi was an incredibly difficult task for someone who could not. One side was too easy, and the other was too hard. The balance felt off.
So, just in case, I went to look at the words the past masters had left on the wall.
Cut it in half in one strike with enhanced sword qi.
I tried eighty-nine times to cut it without enhanced sword qi, but failed every time and ended up using it.
I cut it without using enhanced sword qi.
How in the world? I can't believe it.
Damn it! My sword qi won't cut it. I can't manifest enhanced sword qi, what do I do?
Two hundredth day of researching enhanced sword qi. The smell of nutrient balls alone makes me want to vomit.
That comment above about cutting it without enhanced sword qi is a lie.
I'll add my vote that it's a lie.
I wanted to see the message my father had left. As expected, his words were at the end.
What a load of bullshit.
Hahaha. He called his ancestors' words bullshit. He must have a hard time pretending to be so dignified.
But this time, he had added another phrase next to it.
You lose if you get heated.
You lose if you get heated? Why did he add something like that? Father would have just left a curse like in the first trial and been done with it.
Get heated? Get heated? Could it be?
I hurried back to the first stone tablet.
First, cut the stone in half within two hours. You can also use sword qi or enhanced sword qi.
The words that caught my eye were 'You can also use sword qi or enhanced sword qi'.
It was not 'by using', but 'can also use'. In other words, it meant I should try cutting it normally and only use them if I really could not.
Come to think of it, the given time was also too long. Two hours was enough time to cut hundreds of such stones. Lastly, the number of swords on the wall was also excessive.
Ah! For this trial, I must cut it without using sword qi or enhanced sword qi.
Father's words about losing if you get heated were a warning not to use enhanced sword qi. When you manifest enhanced sword qi, the sword gives off intense heat.
Another fact supported this guess. The twenty-day retry period meant it was more intricate than the first trial.
I had to cut this normally.
Thank you, Father.
In any case, if I was not supposed to use enhanced sword qi, I did not have time to stand around.
I went back to the sphere. Now that I believed I had to cut it without enhanced sword qi, the sphere looked different.
How on earth can I cut this thing? Vertically? Horizontally? Sideways? Diagonally? Or with a fast sword? A heavy sword?
I tried various methods with the prepared swords. I only succeeded in breaking the poor swords. The sphere would not be cut.
After failing about thirty times, I sat against the wall, half-resigned.
There must be a way.
Time flowed mercilessly. Now, less than fifteen minutes remained.
Do I have to try again in twenty days?
I was nearly in despair.
Should I just cut it with enhanced sword qi and pass?
But my father had gone out of his way to leave a message. I could not choose the easy way out.
This is hard, so hard.
As I sat there in resignation, I absentmindedly projected my qi. It was the qi projection practice my father had taught me on the mountain.
A strand of energy extended from my body and touched the sphere.
I wish you were a wild boar. Then you'd be cut in a single stroke.
My energy enveloped the sphere, slowly feeling its surface.
Suddenly, my eyes flew open.
"……"
There was a minuscule line on the sphere's surface. I had not felt it when looking at the sphere or touching it with my hands.
I focused all my senses to feel it. My energy enveloped it like a bird incubating an egg, striving to become one with the sphere.
The line continued all the way around the sphere and met back at its starting point.
I got up and approached it slowly. My energy still connected me to the sphere.
I closed my eyes. I felt the sphere only with my qi and swung the sword down precisely on that line.
"……"
I did not strike it hard. I focused on hitting the line on the sphere with perfect accuracy, without a hair's breadth of error.
The next moment, something amazing happened.
"……"
The sphere split in half. That line had been a kind of vital point, the one place it could be cleanly split.
An even more surprising thing awaited me.
Roll…
A single pill rolled out from the hollow inside the severed sphere.
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