Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 39. Galaxy Martial God Tower – Entrance Exam (3)

Time flew as I learned martial arts from Siu.
It didn’t take long to grow accustomed to the newly learned breathing technique.
After mastering the breathing method called Wind Resonance, my inner energy—which had been blocked at the 30 threshold—surged upward as if it had never been stagnant, now approaching 40.
Both Siu and Cheon So-yeon marveled that my inner energy had reached nearly first-rate levels.
However, they warned that while abundant inner energy might seem beneficial in the short term, such a severe imbalance between inner energy and physical body would hinder my advancement to higher realms later, so they forbade me from continuing my breathing cultivation entirely.
I was dissatisfied.
The breathing technique was the only aspect of martial arts training where I was making rapid progress, and they wanted to ban it!
And not because I was failing at it, but because I was succeeding too well!
Still, since my master Siu had spoken, I decided to obey.
As my displeasure became apparent, Cheon So-yeon spoke to me in hushed tones.
“From what I can see, you should stop cultivating inner energy.”
“Isn’t more inner energy always better?”
“That would be true in ordinary circumstances.”
So I wasn’t an ordinary case?
As I looked at Cheon So-yeon with confusion, she hesitated, gauged my reaction, then spoke as if steeling herself.
“Ji-woo, you’re rather extreme.”
Extreme?
“To be honest, when I first saw you, I thought your master was being overly cautious. I believed you had more than enough capacity to advance to the next stage and raise your realm.”
Ah, she had said the same thing when we first met at the Amusement Park—that I could advance to the next stage.
“So you thought that way at first, but not anymore?”
Cheon So-yeon nodded at my question.
“That’s right. Your talent for inner energy cultivation is so exceptional that even I, who possess the Heavenly Martial Body, am sometimes astounded. Your innate talent in manipulating energy surpasses even the Heavenly Martial Body.”
“…Isn’t that good?”
“It is good. But as I said, you’re extreme. Martial arts ultimately involves training the body. Yet compared to your genius-level talent for inner energy cultivation, your physical abilities are… close to mediocre.”
Mediocre—that was harsh.
Was she hesitant because she worried our relationship might fracture after such blunt criticism?
“Inner energy and the body have a mutually complementary relationship. If that balance breaks, the higher your realm, the harder it becomes to break through the barriers of that realm.”
“Are you saying I’m missing one of the two legs needed to learn martial arts—that one is completely shattered?”
“That’s…! No, well, not quite to that extent….”
Cheon So-yeon, about to agree with my words, averted her eyes.
“A-anyway! You need to stop your innate inner energy cultivation and focus on strengthening your body more than others.”
“But it was Siu who taught me Wind Resonance.”
“Your master probably didn’t realize you possessed this level of talent for inner energy cultivation. Normally, even with exceptional talent for inner energy cultivation, if the body can’t support it, inner energy growth becomes bottlenecked. That’s true even for me with the Heavenly Martial Body.”
I hadn’t felt that limitation at all.
“Green Wood Energy is supreme as a foundational technique, but precisely because of that, its limitations are clear. Had your master known your true talent, she likely wouldn’t have taught you Wind Resonance.”
At Cheon So-yeon’s words, I let out a small sigh.
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Just follow your master’s training well. Your master understands your condition better than anyone else—better even than you do, Ji-woo. So trust your master, train diligently, play, eat, and sleep.”
In other words, keep living as I am now.
Well, I’m still a preschooler anyway. Since I have time to spare, I’ll cultivate at a leisurely pace.
“Oh, but I’ve been wondering for a while now—why are you so wary of Siu?”
At my question, Cheon So-yeon hesitated before answering.
“…It’s because your master dislikes me.”
Dislikes? Siu? That didn’t seem to be the case at all.

* * *

As time passed, the intensity of my training grew stronger.
Still, it never reached the point of overworking my young body.
As I grew physically, Siu pushed me to my limits in tandem, then had me take just one more step beyond that threshold.
The increase in training intensity didn’t mean an increase in training hours.
At some point, the gradually lengthening training sessions came to an abrupt halt.
Siu seemed to believe that if training hours increased further, my body would burst like a punctured tire, so she forcibly stopped me whenever I tried to sneak in additional practice.
Internal energy cultivation was satisfying because the growth was visible, but physical training lacked that tangible feedback.
Even when I built muscle, the Chukgeun Bone Art prevented it from growing beyond a certain size, so it remained invisible.
Still, I trained diligently according to Siu’s wishes.
I practiced the recorder earnestly before Siu and Cheon So-yeon.
“Hmm, what do you think? It’s quite listenable now, isn’t it?”
Even my fatal lack of rhythm finally yielded to effort.
Siu and Cheon So-yeon applauded my performance.
“You really worked hard! You’re truly amazing!”
“You’ve labored greatly, Young Master.”
No, don’t praise me that much—it’s embarrassing.
Sure, my first performance was terrible! But now that I’ve merely achieved a listenable level, don’t look at me like I’m someone who successfully stood and walked alone after rehabilitation!
As soon as I became capable of normal recorder playing, my lightness technique began to show results.
Siu forbade me from increasing my internal energy, but she didn’t mind if I used it for technique. She even said that practicing fine control of internal energy was beneficial.
She encouraged such delicate manipulation of my power.
Around the time Cheon So-yeon and I turned five, her younger sibling was born.
Since both parents had become Hwagyeong practitioners and underwent complete transformation into bodies in their twenties, it was natural enough for a younger sibling to arrive.
I thought Cheon So-yeon, who had no friends besides me, would be delighted about gaining a sibling, but instead she wore a complicated expression.
I wondered if she was anxious about losing her parents’ love, but it didn’t seem to be that.
After mulling something over for a day or two, waiting for her sibling to come home from the Postpartum Care Center, Cheon So-yeon spoke to me as if making a vow.
“I won’t hate my sibling. I’ll love them very much.”
“Uh… yes, do your best.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to her declaration that she wouldn’t hate her sibling and would love them.
I wouldn’t hate my sibling, but I certainly wouldn’t love them either.
Honestly, I wished that gorilla-faced brat with makeup would just disappear from the house.
When Cheon So-yeon’s younger sister Cheon Ho-yeon was born, I could see that Cheon So-yeon’s Parents were struggling tremendously, both physically and mentally, despite being from Hwagyeong.
Apparently, Cheon So-yeon had been an incredibly demanding baby, but Cheon Ho-yeon required such constant care that the two of them took turns keeping vigil without sleep.
But wasn’t that just how child-rearing was supposed to be?
Because Cheon So-yeon’s Parents were struggling so much, Siu often helped care for the newborn Cheon Ho-yeon.
Siu nodded while helping to care for Cheon Ho-yeon.
“Yes, this is a baby according to the parenting manual.”
Apparently, I had been quite different from the parenting manual.
Still, didn’t I manage to stay quiet and act like a normal baby until I was one year old?
Back then, I accelerated time so much that I don’t remember it well.
Cheon Ho-yeon’s aptitude seemed ordinary compared to Cheon So-yeon’s aptitude as a Heavenly Martial Body.
When compared to a Heavenly Martial Body, what aptitude wouldn’t seem ordinary?
The Cheon Family Clan had high expectations since Cheon So-yeon was a Heavenly Martial Body, but they seemed somewhat disappointed.
Time passed, and I reached six years old.
I was swinging my sword as usual when I felt something.
Should I say the sword became sharper when I swung it?
Should I say there was less resistance when I swung it?
There was clearly nothing particularly different, yet a strange sensation tickled at me.
I was certain I had felt this sensation before, at some point.
But I couldn’t quite remember when.
Did I really have such poor memory?
That’s strange. Apart from my luck, my memory was what I was most proud of.
I asked Siu while swinging my sword.
“Isn’t this a bit odd?”
Siu smiled as she watched me swing the sword.
“That’s normal. We should increase your physical training time a bit more.”
One wrong sword swing, and my training time increased.
Ugh…! I was already thinking the training intensity was getting too harsh, but I never expected them to extend the training time.
When I didn’t get an answer from Siu, I asked Cheon So-yeon, and she just smiled brightly while saying it was a natural phenomenon.
While I spent my days training as a martial artist and playing and eating as a child, a letter arrived for me.
Actually, the letter didn’t just come for me—it also came for Cheon So-yeon.
The sender was the ‘Martial God Academy Foundation,’ an educational foundation operated by the Cheon Family Clan.
The letter was both a school enrollment notice based on mandatory education and an admission guide.
In short, it was an order to enroll in Elementary School starting next year.
Though Cheon So-yeon and I were of different generational ranks, we were direct descendants of the Cheon Family Clan of the same age, so we would attend the Elementary School where direct descendants enrolled.
Upon seeing the admission guide, I became puzzled.
“An entrance exam? Wasn’t Elementary School supposed to be something you just enter? Why a test?”
Siu answered my question.
“Even though they’re all direct descendants, there are cases like yours where you’re only a third-generation descendant, and cases like Cheon So-yeon where you’re a seventeenth-generation descendant. The clan has so many descendants, and since the family doesn’t get involved in the rise and fall of each descendant, there’s a significant difference in level even among direct descendants.”
Once registered in the family register as a direct descendant, the clan would provide spiritual stones and foundational martial arts, but it was uncertain whether all of that would actually go to each direct descendant child.
To put it bluntly, if parents had no formula to feed their infant immediately, they had no choice but to sell the spiritual medicine allocated to the child just to scrape together living expenses.
What did spiritual medicine matter when they and their child would starve to death?
Of course, periodic audits were conducted in proportion to the spiritual medicine distributed.
The Cheon Family Clan acknowledged that they would sell some of the spiritual medicine to maintain minimum subsistence, so turning a small amount of spiritual medicine into cash was overlooked.
However, if parents sold all of the spiritual medicine allocated to their child, the Cheon Family Clan would confiscate all the money and completely strip them from the family register.
Even if all the spiritual medicine was consumed by the child, without a skilled master in the household like me or Cheon So-yeon to guide their bloodline cultivation, it would still affect their growth.
Martial arts training was no different.
There were children like me who received steady training from a master since they could walk, while there were also children who whined and cried, refusing to endure the difficult and tedious training.
Children who properly entered martial arts.
Children whose parents merely established their dantian without actual martial arts training.
Children whose bodies developed well from consuming only spiritual medicine.
Children who couldn’t even properly consume spiritual medicine—the differences were inevitable.
Since they couldn’t place all these children in one classroom and teach them identically, it seemed they conducted entrance exams before admission to assess each child’s level.
“Then it’s not an entrance exam—it’s a placement test.”
“The reason it’s called an entrance exam is because it also filters out children who cannot keep up with the school curriculum, such as those for whom learning martial arts is impossible or those who cannot digest spiritual medicine. That’s why it’s called an entrance exam.”
Ah! Setting aside household circumstances, there could indeed be children who were congenitally or acquired incapable of learning martial arts.
Children born so sickly they couldn’t learn martial arts, those with severe allergic reactions to spiritual medicine, or those who became disabled from accidents or illness—cases like that.
The school I was scheduled to attend was a martial arts specialty school.
Children unable to learn martial arts would advance to other regular schools instead.
It might sound somewhat cruel, but perhaps a life without martial arts could be a better existence.
The Orthodox Faction territories were well-maintained for public safety, and one could seek out other talented fields according to their hopes and develop them.
Conversely, children forced to enter a martial arts specialty school regardless of their own wishes could be unhappy.
Of course, the opposite could certainly happen as well.
“Everything happens because of adults’ circumstances.”
I felt somewhat bitter about it.

(Continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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