Chapter 109- Mastering Shinwonryu and Façade 

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Liu Guanyi sat motionlessly in the dark Rice Pot as shinsu around him constantly surged and changed. He was immersed in his meditation as he tried to comprehend the essence behind Shinwonryu to eventually master and wield the technique.

Even after more than four months of constant training and meditation, he still couldn't come close to creating such shinsu.

From the explanation of the God of Guardians, it shouldn't have been that hard even if he wasn't that talented in shinsu control.

The essence behind Shinwonryu should be to harness his shinsu control beyond merely guiding the shinsu to his will like the usual shinsu control, but to forcefully control it to his will like he was its master.

Liu Guanyi had come to this understanding since he had remembered what the guardian of the 2nd floor said to him when he was about to form the Contract of Permission.

The guardian had warned him of two choices, taking the contract that would shackle him, or, not taking the contract and developing his own mastery at a slower pace, but he would be able to freely use shinsu as this was the case for irregulars.

This meant that Shinwonryu itself was a technique created to take advantage of the special privilege of the irregulars for being able to control shinsu freely, though Liu Guanyi assumed, still far worse compared to the mastery that the floor guardians had over shinsu.

But still, he couldn't be too greedy and dream of reaching the top very quickly.

Liu Guanyi understood that he should pave his way slowly and steadily. There was no reason to be hurry as he would be able to live thousands of years easily.

If those ancient monsters had lived and trained for dozens of thousand years, their powers were certainly not a joke. He knew not to underestimate them if he wanted to survive in this dangerous place.

Fortunately for Liu Guanyi, they had always been the sovereigns of the tower for more than thousands of years and combined with their immortality, they had long become complacent and aloof, thinking that their reign was eternal and uncontested even after the incident with the Red Tower as Liu Guanyi knew that nothing had changed even after the incident.

King Zahard didn't seem to be bothered at all that a mighty and mysterious irregular had come to the tower, killed what was seemingly an invincible guardian that gave him his immortality, and made some prophecy about his demise.

This knowledge wasn't even that kept well in secret as most people could find it if they did research on the 43rd floor, or what was more well-known as the floor of death.

Liu Guanyi was quite perplexed as to why the Red Tower didn't just straight up kill the king himself if he had a beef with Zahard and was much more powerful than the mighty king, even capable of killing what was regarded as an almighty being.

Rather than wasting time making some prophecy, it was much more efficient and easier to just directly kill the king, right?

However, Liu Guanyi could somewhat guess the reason. Whatever the reason the Red Tower had done it, he definitely had a deeper objective than merely killing the king.

Zahard was nothing compared to the guardians let alone him. Although he was a peak existence in the tower just below the guardians, he was definitely not a character that was worth the Red Tower's time to care as clearly shown with his immense power.

The Red Tower could certainly mask his objective and fool most of the people in the tower, but to Liu Guanyi, such a ploy was crystal clear in his eyes.

He didn't understand why… yet, but he was sure that there were many schemes underneath that façade, and he would definitely find them out… later.

What Liu Guanyi had to do now was first and foremost, to walk step by step to be powerful enough to uncover those schemes and arise to become one of the schemers himself.

And one of the steps was to master Shinwonryu itself.

Liu Guanyi went to feel more of the shinsu around him, feeling it deeper, from its density, particles, taste... everything. He gathered his knowledge of shinsu, the miraculous energy that seemingly had limitless possibilities it could do.

Shinsu was ever-present in the tower. No matter the place, whether it was secluded or even a separate space from the 134 floors, as long as it was inside the tower, shinsu would be present in that place, though shinsu could be expelled in an enclosed space through special means.

Unlike his previous world, there was no air in the tower.

However, because of shinsu, living beings could thrive in the tower as shinsu had replaced the functions of the air itself, making it the substance that supported all of the lives in the tower.

Without shinsu, no living beings would be able to live in the tower except maybe the guardians and some tiny creatures which didn't need to breathe to live.

Liu Guanyi knew that as an irregular, he had the ability to control shinsu beyond what the regulars could do with their contracts to the guardians. He only needed to realize that into action.

Focusing on every change of shinsu in his surroundings, Liu Guanyi forcefully tugged it as strongly as possible, trying to bend the shinsu to follow his desire, just like what he had been doing for these four months.

However, different from the previous times, though it was minuscule, Liu Guanyi could feel it, the changes, with his keen senses. He felt that some tiny bits of shinsu had actually pulled over from the surrounding, not flowing like the usual, but detaching apart toward him.

Liu Guanyi felt a bit thrilled as his efforts finally showed some results. However, it only lasted for a second before he became calm again. This was only the first step.

Liu Guanyi gathered those shinsu that he had pulled apart into one. Slowly but surely, those tiny bits of shinsu gathered and converged into a tiny-sized sphere ball.

The tiny-sized ball became smaller as Liu Guanyi exerted his control to condense it. His efforts were surprisingly successful as it began to shrink in size.

When it became one-tenth of its original size, it suddenly started to absorb shinsu from the surroundings without Liu Guanyi's deliberate control, giving him a pleasant surprise.

The shinsu sphere continued to absorb shinsu from the environment, yet only to become smaller and smaller despite the amount of shinsu it already sucked.

The process continued until its form almost reached a single point. However, the tiny sphere suddenly destabilized and shook.

The shinsu it had absorbed was released and returned to the surroundings, not resulting in an explosion of space.

Liu Guanyi opened his eyes and sighed, he had almost succeeded, yet, he failed at the crucial points in the end.

"Finally, you have made a significant progress. You are almost there, you only need to continue to exercise your shinsu control. Probably you will master it in a month or so, not bad." Said the God of Guardians with a little smile.