I slowly followed the passage into the cave. The interior was well ventilated, and light entering through openings in the ceiling kept it from being dark. Its intricate design and construction told me that a truly skilled craftsman had built this place.

As I continued slowly through the cave, I passed a certain point and felt my surroundings ripple ever so slightly.

SSSSSH.

I knew at once. A formation of the highest order had activated—one only a master with exceptionally keen senses could detect.

On reflection, it made perfect sense. Why had those who died here been unable to escape? If the trials were too difficult, they could simply have given up and left. They had died because they couldn't escape this formation. You could walk in easily enough, but unless you passed the trials, it became a hellish formation that would never let you leave.

How long had I walked like that?

I came to a fairly large chamber. At its entrance stood a stone tablet explaining the first trial.

1. Cut down every enemy without using sword qi or sword force.

2. If you fail within the allotted time, you will be given another opportunity ten days later.

3. When ready, stand in the red circle.

'Ten days later? What am I supposed to eat until then?'

Looking around, I found a jar by the wall filled with fasting pills.

'Ten days eating that tasteless stuff would drive me mad.'

Without hesitation, I stood in the middle of the red circle drawn at the center of the chamber.

A moment later, with a metallic clank, dozens of wooden human figures rose from the floor all around me. The parts I had to cut were painted red: the neck on some, an arm on others, and a leg on still others.

My body reacted reflexively. The instant they rose, I leaped into motion, instinctively deciding which move to use and what to cut first.

SWISH. SWISH. SWISH.

The wooden figures fell apart under my blade.

They weren't fixed in place. Panels in the floor began moving, changing their positions. Amid the chaos, some of the figures began sinking back down.

'No!'

I knew that if I missed one of those descending figures, it would never rise again. The instant that happened, I would fail the challenge.

So I went after the sinking figures first.

Sure enough, the others moved swiftly to block my path as I tried to cut them. I vaulted over them and swung my sword.

SLICE!

The figure I had nearly missed was severed.

The figures moved faster and faster. At first, I had thought this was a test of footwork, but I was wrong. It was a test of judgment.

What should I cut first?

Quick, accurate judgment came first; footwork came second. The trial was complicated and difficult, but not sophisticated enough to outmatch my instincts and skill.

I cut down every figure and safely passed the first trial.

One thing was certain. With the skill I'd possessed before returning to the past, I could never have passed this first trial. I could have jumped, rolled, and flown about in a frantic frenzy, and I still would have failed.

Now I understood why the test resumed only after ten days. Many challengers must have failed on their first attempt, and they would have needed at least ten days of careful study and practice to succeed.

Even then, only those who remembered exactly how the figures moved and which ones sank into the floor when could have devised a plan. Slower-witted challengers would have had to try over and over.

Having seen the first trial, I could understand why clearing Lesser Heaven Cave took an average of three years.

RUMBLE.

The moment I passed the first trial, the stone door leading to the second opened.

I slowly headed toward the second trial. Before leaving the first chamber, however, I noticed writing carved into the wall. Those who had come before me had left messages near the exit.

—Succeeded on my ninth attempt. Hahahahaha!

—Sixteen for me.

—This is madness!

—Succeeded after a staggering thirty-seven attempts. After all that suffering, tears blur my vision.

—Am I going to die here? I simply cannot solve it. I resent my father.

—Damn it! I tried to go back, but there was no way back.

—Success in just six attempts. I dare say I am the best.

At the very bottom, I spotted familiar handwriting.

—Fucking idiots.

It was Father's. He had passed this trial before me.

"Hahaha."

I couldn't hold back my laughter. Apparently, Father had passed on his first attempt.

Even so, strictly speaking, these were his ancestors—and he had boldly gone straight to insulting them.

"Father, I passed on my first try too! Hahaha!"

I continued on and reached the chamber housing the second trial. As expected, another stone tablet stood there.

1. Using a sword hanging on the wall, cut the stone in two within one double-hour. You may also use sword qi or sword force.

2. If you fail within the allotted time, you will be given another opportunity twenty days later.

3. When ready, stand in the red circle.

This time, the next attempt would be twenty days later. By simple arithmetic, that meant it was twice as difficult as the first trial.

'Survive twenty days on fasting pills? I'd rather die.'

Resolving to succeed, I stepped into the red circle in the center of the chamber.

CLANK.

A stone table rose from the floor. On it sat an iron ball the size of an adult's head.

'So I'm supposed to cut this iron ball.'

I had one double-hour. That was far too long to cut a single iron ball. Certain there must be a reason, I examined it carefully.

Its smooth surface wasn't ordinary iron, but an artificially made stone. Naturally, it would be harder than cast iron, wouldn't it? When I tried lifting it, I found it so heavy that I couldn't raise it without using internal energy.

Hundreds of swords hung on the walls for use in the test, in many different varieties. There were long swords and short swords, heavy swords and light swords. There were even flexible swords worn around the waist. Every kind of sword imaginable was there.

The message was clear: this wasn't an easy challenge, so choose carefully and try repeatedly.

I walked over slowly and took a sword from the wall. It was a well-made, ordinary iron sword.

Standing before the sphere, I steadied my mind and brought the sword down hard.

CLANG!

With a bright ringing sound, the sword snapped and flew away. The sphere, meanwhile, didn't have so much as a scratch. It was an incredibly hard metal.

I examined the sphere again. To the eye, it was an unremarkable iron ball.

I fetched another sword and swung vertically this time. Once again, only the sword broke; the sphere remained intact.

"As expected, brute force won't do it."

I fetched a new sword and infused it with internal energy.

HUMMM.

Blue light immediately shimmered around the blade. I had manifested sword force.

At this age before my regression, I had been able to use sword qi, but not sword force. I hadn't grasped its principles until my thirties.

"My first sword force since returning to the past."

The color of sword force varied from martial artist to martial artist. Even people who practiced the same mental cultivation method had slightly different colors. I had always found that fascinating.

I liked the color of my sword force. That pleasing blue sometimes resembled the sea, and at other times the sky.

Just as I was about to slowly cut the sphere with sword force, a sudden sense that something was wrong made me swiftly withdraw my internal energy. The sword force surrounding the blade vanished.

'Isn't this too easy?'

At first glance, I had assumed this was a test of whether challengers could use sword force, since an iron sword couldn't cut the sphere. Sword qi probably wouldn't suffice. In other words, a test they couldn't escape until they mastered sword force.

But any rising young martial artist who could use sword force would simply slice through it and move on. Could this trial really be so simple?

Conversely, reaching the level necessary to manifest sword force would be enormously difficult for someone who couldn't already do it.

Too easy for one group, too difficult for the other. Something didn't balance.

With that possibility in mind, I went to read the messages my predecessors had left on the wall.

—Cut it in two with a single stroke of sword force.

—Tried eighty-nine times to cut it without sword force. Failed every time and finally cut it with sword force.

—I cut it without sword force.

—How in the world? I can't believe it.

—Damn it! My sword qi can't cut it. I can't manifest sword force. What am I to do?

—My two hundredth day studying sword force. Just the smell of fasting pills makes me want to vomit.

—That claim above about cutting it without sword force is a lie.

—Another vote for a lie.

What I wanted to see was the message Father had left. Sure enough, his words were at the end.

—What a load of bullshit.

Hahaha. Calling his ancestors' words bullshit? A man like this must have a hard time pretending to be solemn.

But this time, he had added another remark beside it.

—Lose your cool, and you lose.

'Lose your cool, and you lose? Why add that? Normally, Father would have left a single insult, like he did at the first trial.'

Lose your cool? Give off heat? Could it be?

I hurried back to the original stone tablet.

1. Cut the stone in two within one double-hour. You may also use sword qi or sword force.

One phrase caught my eye.

You may also use sword qi or sword force?

It didn't say "using," but "may also use." In other words, didn't that mean I should try cutting it normally, then use them only if I really couldn't manage it?

Come to think of it, the allotted time was far too long. A double-hour was more than enough to cut hundreds of stones like this. And there were far too many swords hanging on the walls.

'Ah! I have to clear this trial without using sword qi or sword force.'

Father's remark about losing my cool was a warning of sorts not to use sword force. Manifesting sword force made the blade give off intense heat.

Another fact supported that guess. Didn't a twenty-day wait between attempts mean this trial was more difficult than the first?

I had to cut it with the blade alone.

'Thank you, Father.'

In any case, if I couldn't use sword force, there was no time to waste. I returned to the sphere.

Now that I was thinking I had to cut it without sword force, it looked different.

'How on earth can I cut this? Vertically? Horizontally? Crosswise? At an angle? With a swift sword strike? A heavy sword strike?'

I tried various approaches with the swords provided. But the innocent swords only broke; the sphere refused to be cut.

After thirty-odd failures, I sat down against the wall, halfway to giving up.

'There has to be a way.'

Time mercilessly kept passing. Now less than a quarter-hour remained.

'Will I have to try again in twenty days?'

I was halfway to despair.

'Should I just cut it with sword force and move on?'

But Father had gone out of his way to leave that message. I couldn't choose the easy way.

'This is hard. So hard.'

As I sat there in resignation, I absentmindedly emitted some qi, practicing the qi emission Father had taught me in the mountains.

A strand of qi extended from my body and touched the sphere.

'I wish you were a wild boar. Then I could cut you with one stroke.'

The qi enveloped the sphere, slowly feeling its surface.

My eyes snapped open.

"Huh?"

There was a faint line on the sphere's surface. I hadn't been able to detect it by sight or touch.

I concentrated all my attention on sensing it. My qi began cradling the sphere like a bird brooding over an egg as I tried to become one with it.

The line ran all the way around the sphere, meeting its starting point again.

I stood and slowly approached it. My qi still connected me to the sphere.

With my eyes closed, sensing the sphere only through my qi, I brought my sword down precisely along that line.

SWISH.

I didn't strike hard. I focused on hitting the line on the sphere with absolute precision, without the slightest deviation.

The next moment, something astonishing happened.

CRACK.

The sphere split in half. That line had been a kind of weak point, allowing the sphere to be cleaved cleanly in two.

And something even more astonishing awaited me.

Rrrr. A single medicinal pill rolled out of the hollow inside the severed sphere.