I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 17

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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 17
Admiral Lee’s detailed explanation continued.
“The Cloud Dragon Eight Forms focuses more on moving freely through the air, shifting with a leisurely and profound grace, much like a dragon sporting among the clouds.”
“What about the Zhuyu Tianxia Bu?”
“It emphasizes rapid advances and retreats to assess the battlefield, akin to how Jin Wengong deployed his armies. It places a much heavier weight on the principle of sheer speed than the Cloud Dragon Eight Forms does.”
“Speed, huh…”
Advancing and retreating in the blink of an eye.
‘Hmm. It sounds grand when put like that, but doesn’t it just mean it’s excellent for running away when things get hairy?’
Still, considering how Jin Wengong had endured a grueling life of wandering before making a spectacular, late-blooming comeback at the very end, it made perfect sense that his footwork technique would incorporate an excellent survival mechanism.
‘And it’s exactly the kind of ability I need.’
Of course, if one were truly the peerless, invincible Master who stood supreme as the Number One Under Heaven, there would be no need to flee.
But dreams were dreams, and reality was reality.
If a crisis arose while roaming the Jianghu, one needed to be able to back off and bide their time for another day.
In that regard, Jin Wengong’s Zhuyu Tianxia Bu was right up his alley.
‘I was narrow-minded to assume it would be the Overlord’s Monarch Footwork.’
This footwork practically seeped with the bitter, poignant history of a man who suffered for decades before finally becoming a hegemon in the twilight of his life.
Well.
It was undoubtedly magnificent.
Running away when the odds were stacked against him?
He felt no shame in that.
After all, he wasn’t the ultimate powerhouse of the world; he was merely an eight-year-old hopeful.
* * *
From that day forward, drawing upon his High-Ascending Realm inner energy, Seonwu raised the intensity of his training.
Moving past the absolute basics, he began to experiment with High-Ascending methods.
Though he couldn’t coat his weapon in Sword Gang yet, he channeled his Sword Qi to practice his Sword Technique.
Similarly, without Fist Astral, he unleashed Fist Qi while disciplining his Fist Technique.
He utilized his Lightness Technique to push his physical agility to new heights.
Furthermore, he finally began to cultivate a true Divine Art to shape his inner energy.
“Until now, our primary focus was ensuring Your Highness became intimately familiar with a basic Qi Circulation Method. However, from this point on, you will be operating according to a true Divine Art. You must maintain absolute concentration and caution.”
“Right, of course,” Seonwu murmured, tensing up as he looked at the manuals for the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art and the Peerless Prajna Divine Art.
When it came to a Divine Art, the power was immense and progress was swift, but a single misstep usually meant risking a Qi Deviation or worse. That was the standard hazard.
High risk, high reward.
‘It’s basically a tenfold leverage.’
“Still, these are orthodox internal cultivation methods from Shaolin, so there should be a baseline of stability, right? It won’t just trigger a Qi Deviation at the drop of a hat, will it?”
“That is correct, Your Highness. However, the difficulty of these two particular Divine Arts does not lie in the danger of Qi Deviation. In truth, even within Shaolin itself, though these two arts are treasured above all, those who have successfully mastered them are exceedingly rare.”
Seonwu blinked.
What did that mean?
The monks of Shaolin barely practiced these two incredible arts?
Why? For what reason?
Had the imperial court banned or sealed them?
Did the government limit the number of practitioners because the techniques were too overwhelmingly powerful?
“To begin with, the Peerless Prajna Divine Art is far too profound and intricate. Consequently, unless a practitioner possesses truly miraculous genius, achieving proper completion is nigh impossible.”
“Because it’s that difficult?”
“Indeed. For that reason, Shaolin strictly forbids anyone who has not reached the Peak Realm from even laying eyes upon it. Furthermore, even upon reaching the Peak Realm, most choose to cultivate the Beomcheon Hangma Singong rather than attempting the Peerless Prajna Divine Art.”
So it really was just down to raw difficulty.
He had encountered that trope a few times before, but still.
“Is it truly that brutal? Come to think of it, Father classified the Beomcheon Hangma Singong under the Second Grade of the Earth Pavilion.”
Even if it was only Second Grade, it still bore the prestigious title of a Divine Art.
In fact, many Divine Arts from the other Nine Great Sects were also assigned to the Second or Third Grade.
This implied that even a martial art from the Second or Third Grade was fully capable of elevating a practitioner to the Realm of Creation, granting them a spot among the Top Ten Masters.
“The Peerless Prajna Divine Art might have a higher ceiling, but since reaching that peak is so grueling, the Beomcheon Hangma Singong is more than enough to glimpse the Realm of Creation…”
“Precisely, Your Highness. Thus, Shaolin only permits one or two individuals—those deemed the absolute finest talents of their generation—to attempt it.”
An extremely high-difficulty martial art that offered a soaring ceiling, but risked leaving the practitioner stuck at a mediocre level if they failed to master it completely.
If that were the only technique available in the sect, one would have no choice but to cling to it, but here, highly attractive alternatives existed.
Even Seonwu, considering a choice that would define his entire lifespan, wouldn’t blindly charge toward the absolute peak out of pure romanticism.
A protagonist in a novel might boldly choose the hardest path, but in his past life, when searching for a job, he had avoided aiming solely for the highest bracket to ensure he didn’t end up unemployed.
‘Of course, it’s also a problem if the compromise you make sets the floor too low…’
But the Beomcheon Hangma Singong was classified as Second Grade in the Earth Pavilion, meaning it was anything but weak.
“Then what about the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art? Is that one also too difficult?”
“The cultivation process is agonizingly painful. However, if pain were the only obstacle, the monks of Shaolin would hardly shrink from it. The true obstacle is that it demands an immense quantity of Spiritual Medicine.”
“Spiritual… Medicine? You mean money?”
Seonwu blinked.
“It is not a matter that can be resolved by mere wealth alone. Spiritual Medicine is regulated by the state even more strictly than iron, salt, or gunpowder. Even a grand institution like Shaolin receives a strictly capped supply.”
Even with endless gold, there was a hard limit to what one could buy.
Spiritual Medicine was a finite resource.
“One could theoretically master the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art through decades of pure ascetic endurance without medicine, but that path takes far too long to be of any practical utility.”
Naturally.
What was the point of finally achieving the Diamond Indestructible Body when one was an old man on the verge of death?
From the perspective of a sect or a faction, a practitioner needed to reach the Peak Realm while they still had plenty of active years left to fight.
It was a common adage.
Unorthodox martial arts were fast but corrupted, causing the practitioner to hit a wall early on.
Orthodox martial arts were slow but pure, leading to a much higher ultimate ceiling.
That rule held entirely true in this world where Seonwu had been reborn.
But if that were the case, how did the prominent Rising Stars of the prestigious Orthodox Factions and Noble Clans make such an impact at such a young age?
Even if genius allowed them to master the forms quickly, inner energy required time to accumulate.
The answer lay in Spiritual Medicine.
They used rare medicines to bypass the weakness of slowness, propelling themselves straight toward that sky-high ceiling.
“It must require an absurd amount.”
“Because the process involves completely restructuring the physical body into a diamond-like state, it ultimately consumes three times more resources than any other Divine Art. Therefore, Shaolin cannot justify spending the medicine required to raise a single Vajra Indestructible Divine Art practitioner when they could cultivate three Masters of the Beomcheon Hangma Singong instead.”
Unless there was a truly monumental reason to justify such an investment, of course.
‘So even Shaolin cannot escape the limitations of finite resources.’
The invisible hand wins another round, even in this world.
Mr. Adam Smith.
You truly are a genius.
“There’s a very good reason why even Shaolin rarely boasts an esteemed monk who has mastered the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art.”
“That is correct.”
“But in my case, it’s entirely feasible, isn’t it?”
The resources used to grant the Prince this technique could easily train three members of the Golden Dragon Guard.
No minister would ever dare speak such a thought aloud.
If they wanted to die, they could simply go home and quietly end their own lives; why invite disaster by uttering treason?
“Yes. While the agonizing process is unavoidable, if dangerous factions attempt to harm Your Highness in the future, the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art stands unrivaled as a body-protection art to keep you safe.”
Simply put, out of all the Divine Arts housed within the Earth Pavilion, its defensive power was absolute number one.
And the position of an Imperial Prince was never that of a Dealer.
Nor was it a Tanker.
Failing to find a perfect match in the vocabulary of this world, Seonwu processed the concept using terms from his past life.
No matter how much he insisted on going out into the Wulin to roam the land, he was ultimately like the King in a game of chess—the one piece that could absolutely never be allowed to take damage.
Since he intended to venture into the martial world, combat was inevitable, but high defense mattered infinitely more than raw offense.
That way, even if he fell victim to a sudden ambush, he would survive.
‘When I think about it from the perspective of the people tasked with protecting me, this is the right call. If I’m a glass cannon, their lives will be a living hell.’
The status of a Prince was synonymous with being a high-value target for enemies.
“Should I focus on mastering the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art first, then?”
“Your Highness is still in your growing years. Forging the Vajra Body starting from this stage will be vastly easier than attempting it after your physical frame has fully matured.”
That settled it.
‘Ugh, looks like I’m locked into a regime of agonizing training at the ripe old age of eight.’
Naturally, if he threw a tantrum and refused, no one could actually force him.
If he declared he wouldn’t do it and demanded tighter security instead, they would comply.
Because of that freedom, Seonwu felt an even stronger urge not to back down.
‘It’s true grit when you choose to do something you don’t even have to do!’
It was about romance, about the dream.
It might be excruciating during the process, but how reassuring would it be once it was done?
To possess a body of diamond.
‘Though in stories, this technique almost always gets broken by some specific trick.’
Zhuge Jun used to mock him, asking if the art should just be renamed ‘The Inevitably Broken Body.’
‘That cynical bastard.’
He didn’t understand the romance of it at all.
Even so, Seonwu didn’t expect a literal, flawless invincibility just from practicing the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art.
Everything in the world was relative.
If he encountered an enemy with a vastly superior offensive power, his defense would eventually shatter.
Even the ultimate Imperial Sword Form could see its wielder decapitated like a king dethroned by revolution.
Even the Cloud Dragon Eight Forms degenerated into the Eight Minor Movements of the Earth Dragon when the practitioner was getting utterly thrashed by the Heavenly Demon.
However, if he mastered it properly, possessing something akin to absolute defense was an incredibly attractive prospect.
‘It feels like having a defense stat of nine hundred and ninety-nine.’
“The fact that tales constantly circulate about someone finding a loophole to shatter a diamond body conversely proves that the art is so legendary that breaking it is a historic event in itself.”
“Indeed, Your Highness. Even fortresses deemed utterly impregnable fall from time to time. Yet, who would ever claim such strongholds are useless?”
It was a flawless analogy.
“I will cultivate the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art alongside my physical growth.”
“His Majesty expects nothing less.”
With his father’s explicit endorsement, it was practically a guaranteed recommendation.
“Then what should we do about the Peerless Prajna Divine Art?”
“Cultivate them simultaneously. If the Vajra represents the ultimate indestructible defense, the Prajna embodies the absolute height of profound subtlety. Possessing both will allow Your Highness to deploy them interchangeably as the situation demands.”
“Isn’t there a saying about chasing two rabbits and catching neither?”
Seonwu felt the tug of ambition.
Yet, even though Shaolin possessed the Seventy-Two Supreme Arts, did any single monk ever master them all?
Wasn’t there a reason people said it was better to master a single technique perfectly than to dabble in a hundred mediocre ones?
Learning a variety of styles to use situationally sounded wonderful on paper, but it frequently devolved into a cluttered mess.
Of course, he understood that mastering a few distinct techniques with entirely different applications could be beneficial.
There was also the wisdom that a broad foundation was required to build a towering peak.
That was why he trained in a Sword Technique, a Fist Technique, and a Lightness Technique all at once.
But cultivating two entirely different internal cultivation methods?
‘Father did mention that mastering both and eventually unifying them could unlock the Heavenly Emperor Art… but still.’
To be precise, that had been the ultimate technique of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and his father had commanded him to add his own enlightenment to forge an entirely unique Divine Art.
The goal was so massive that it felt surreal.
A protagonist might aim to transcend the Number One Under Heaven to become the greatest master of all time.
But for now, it felt a bit too detached from his immediate, realistic goals.
Staring exclusively at the sky while walking was a surefire way to trip over a rock.
“Focusing on just one properly might be…”
“To be frank, if I were instructing anyone else, that is exactly what I would advise. I would tell them to choose one and master it completely. In fact, the warriors of the Golden Dragon Guard dedicate themselves solely to the Geumryong Hoguk Singong, never touching another internal energy law.”
By this point, Seonwu could easily read between the lines.
“But you believe it is better for me to pursue both concurrently?”
Two advanced Divine Arts that even Shaolin found too burdensome to touch, cultivated at the same time?
“His Majesty has issued a decree stating that if it is Your Highness, you will undoubtedly succeed.”
“If that is my father’s will…”
‘Does he really believe I possess that level of genius?’
Or was it the power of this hollow Cintamani within him?
Though one could easily argue that the Cintamani itself was part of his innate talent.
‘If I can pull it off, then great!’
If his vessel was vast enough to contain both, there was absolutely no reason to hold back his ambition.

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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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