As Jin was being carried away, he cursed Sang-Kyu and his ancestors. It was fine to beat him up to defeat him, a lot of people did that and it was what it meant to fight. It was fine to use principles and techniques beyond the understanding of a 9th stage too, there were many who did. But to go so far to inflict pain on him? This was seriously going overboard. There was no need to do this.

His broken fists were tightly clenched out of anger. It might not be tomorrow or the day after but there will be a time he would royally fuck this bastard and pay him back in full. But he calmed himself. Training was required first and anger wouldn't bring results. He had to comprehend the three states first. Then he would have the weapon to counter.

The problem was always the same, the elements. It was something that completely changed the way one fought once again. The first great change for a cultivator was the change from body refinement to spiritual accumulation. At that time, the way to fight changed entirely. Before, one relied solely on one's body to fight or use weapons. It was about the power behind one's body and one's techniques to make use of that. But after reaching the first stage of spiritual accumulation, there was spiritual energy.

Things changed.

One could now attack from a distance for one thing. But more than anything, it opened up many possibilities. There were just so many more ways to fight that using solely one's body became an obsolete idea. To fight, one had to use spiritual energy and everything began to revolve around that instead of the body.

The next big step was at the tenth stage. If one was considered a cultivator starting from the first stage of spiritual accumulation, the world itself only acknowledged it at the tenth stage. The tenth stage enabled one to understand the world and recreate all elements of it. How could someone contest a raging inferno with nothing but a sword slightly reinforced? It was nothing short of a dream. And even if one could, for how long?

Techniques changed once more starting from the tenth stage. It added this new elemental variable and that made everything before it obsolete once again. It was close to impossible to contend against someone who could use elements when you couldn't. At least, that's what billions upon billions of cultivators always believed and experienced. Jin was experiencing it too. And while he wasn't giving up, he could truly feel the gap.

But compared to the others, he had a way out. The three states! They were the mechanism one became familiar with at the 20th stage of spiritual accumulation.

Spiritual Energy, Elements and finally the Three States. They were the principles learnt throughout the early stages of cultivation, 1st to 29th stage. They expressed the meeting between one being and its world. But one thing remained true in that the higher cultivation required to learn it, the stronger the principle was.

If one could understand the three states, one could punch fire, lightning, water, wind...and so on. If Jin could learn that, piercing through a blazing inferno would no longer be a dream. It could be turned into a reality. Because he would be able to solidify the spiritual energy.

Spiritual Energy was truly a peculiar thing. It could always interact with everything and nothing at the same time. Spiritual energy could contact with everything. And yet, spiritual energy couldn't be contacted by anything but spiritual energy. It existed on a different plane, a different reality and only through the will of some beings could it interact with the elements of this reality.

If one could manifest the spiritual energy as a solidified and tangible energy, it would be possible to interact with elements being used by other cultivators. Why? Because those cultivators weren't using solely the elements but a mix of the elements and spiritual energy.

It was possible for spiritual energy to stop a mix of spiritual energy and elements as long as one could truly control the energy and materialize it in this world. Unfortunately, at the moment, Jin could only, like other cultivators of his stage, manifest the energy unconsciously and instinctively at certain times. He could feel that he was the one making it real yet couldn't grasp how he was doing it.

And this was the whole difficulty in learning the Three States.

Once he did though, it wouldn't be as simple as being capable of manipulating the spiritual energy to turn into liquid, solid or gaseous forms. It would also mean being able to use it to counter anything that was in those states. And this was what really appealed to him.

All that aside, he thought back upon the words of Sang-Kyu. The more he recalled, the more he felt inconsistencies.

Why was he even here? Only due to a little suspicion? To make sure he didn't go back and meet Soo-Hyun? This sounded fishy as well as stupid as hell. After considering the situation some more, he just gave up. There was something fishy but he lacked information to reach a conclusion. He could only be certain that the guy had lied here and there. But regardless, it didn't matter. The fact that Soo-Hyun was alive and well was without doubt true. And that's the only thing that matters to Jin.

His only wish was for her to live a happy and healthy life. Like a family member, he wished the best for her. But unlike one, he didn't mind not ever seeing her. Just being aware that she was doing good was enough. Because it meant that what he did back then brought the results he expected. His actions weren't for nothing and that was the only thing he cared about. That way, he would have no regrets.

Now healed, he picked up his spear and with a small smile, he walked back up onto the arena once again.