"What comes after?"

She answered Jin with a chuckle. His innocence and naivete was rather fresh. She teasingly asked him: "Why? Did you think that was all to this power?"

He shrugged and waited for her to continue. She cleared her throat and began to lecture him: "There are three basic levels which are the manifestation of will, the manifestation of shape and the manifestation of intent. Beyond those, there are four more. They are the Intra-extra-manifestation, the manifestation of domain, the manifestation of law and the manifestation of truth. I won't go into details, you don't need to know so much and we don't have time. What I will teach you is the intra-extra-manifestation"

Jin wondered: "So, does it mean that I will have to learn the manifestation of shape and intent first?"

She shook her head sideways and explained: "No. They are classified like this solely to the difficulty of learning but they are different from one another. You don't require anything to learn the Intra-extra-manifestation except the shape of will. That being said, it won't be easy. Cultivators generally take it slow and start with shape and intent...Neither of us have the time. That being said, since you have already received an attack of the extra type and defended as an intra, it shouldn't be too hard. This step might actually be easier for you to learn than the others since you experienced it. Twice now"

"Twice?"

"Yes. Twice. Am I not the second being entering your soul sea?"

"Right"

"Intra-extra-manifestation means to either manifest yourself and your will inside your soul sea or inside someone else's. Right now, you are instinctly already using it, the 'intra' part"

"How so?"

"Isn't there a difference compared to how you usually are when you enter your soul sea consciously?"

"... I have a body?"

"Exactly. This body is your 'existence' and the medium to use your will. What I will be teaching you from here on out is how to send this out and attack other people's soul seas. You better work hard, Jin~ Your life is on the line after all"

He didn't want it to be any other way. As long as she was willing to teach him, he would do his best to learn.

...

Meanwhile, outside the caverns and in front of the abyss, a being had arrived. It was neither alive nor dead. It looked down at the chasm and it could feel the pressure of the elements surrounding this place. The miasma was not going further. At least, it didn't go by itself, as if reflected by something. He couldn't cross if it didn't though. He got down from his elementally created steed and made it disappear. Then, he focused and sensed the death element of the miasma. He called it over. The miasma from the entire mountain range began to converge to him. It concentrated around him, condensing.

Then, he extended a hand forward and a ray of dark death energy escaped it. It pierced through the distance from his side to the abyss to the other. It destroyed the existence of the elements on its path. He felt it when it reached the other side and didn't push more energy into going forward. Instead, he made it extend in the form of a hollow circle. Little by little, it expanded until the hollow inside was big enough for a man his stature to walk through.

And he did.

He walked over through this bridge he made himself. As he arrived on the opposite side, he took back the death energy he used to come over and let everything out in the surroundings. He could sense that there were still living beings at this level. They were hiding inside the mountain. But they wouldn't escape death.

Moments later, all the champions who didn't go up the stairs died, leaving behind nothing but cold corpses. Satisfied with the result, the being recalled the death element and created himself a new steed. He climbed on top of it and hurried it forward. It didn't go inside the mountain though and began to use the concentrated death element to clear himself a path over the cliff side of the mountain. He would walk to the top and nothing could stop him from doing so.

...

In a different space, Min-Su long finished his battle. It had been easy. He didn't know how such a creature ended up here but he wouldn't complain about it either. Not only did it enable him an easy victory but he now had a powerful ally. He couldn't bring the other three tamed beasts as they would have only been dead weight, being too weak and/or too slow. He had been forced to leave them in his sister's care. But with this one, it made him having learnt taming worth it. While he was immune to its attacks, other champions would likely not be.

He had to wait for quite some time before there was a change in his surroundings though. He expected a stairway like the previous one but nope. Instead, the dome changed colors and became an opaque white. He couldn't see anything beyond it. Then, a giant statue entered. He put up his guard as the statue laughed and said: "You... You said you were a disciple of Hae-Hyuk, right?"

Min-Su nodded as he replied: "Yes, I am"

The statue chuckled and spoke to itself: "This child must have expanded a lot to find such a champion...He's definitely serious this time. As his Master, how could I not give him some help?"

Then, it went back to glance at Min-Su and said: "You broke the fifth taboo and your soul has fused with the distortion element. I fused with that very same element back in the days...Fate is quite interesting, isn't it? Anyways, I will be teaching you a secret technique that only those like us are able to use"

This was a lot of information to process but considering everything he learnt before by talking to the statues as he waited for things to move on, he could process it. Instead, he focused on one part and asked: "What technique?"

The statue grinned and said: "You do know that to use distortion, you must have a part of yourself still in this reality, used as coordinates, right?"

Min-Su nodded and the statue continued: "Well then, what I will teach you is how to refine your bones to create more of those coordinates to leave in this world. Good stuff, right?"

The smile of the statue frightened Min-Su as much as its words.