Struggling for Balance

The death energy within him was far stronger than the life energy, always taking the upper hand and constantly wearing away at the already fragile life energy.

He had to push himself to his limits just to preserve some of it.

Trying to make both energies flow smoothly through his meridians—especially along completely opposite paths—was an even greater challenge.

Perhaps his previous success had been due to the small glowing light's guidance.

Even though it had stopped correcting his circulation path later on, it must have still been assisting him in some way, making the process feel smoother.

Tonight, with no external help, Bok Taejin immediately felt the full difficulty of cultivation.

After persisting for a while, not only did he fail to make progress, but he also sensed that his already scarce life energy was diminishing even further.

If this continued, his very survival would be in danger.

The inheritance he had received from the Ancestor was limited—he only knew how to cultivate the first level of the Life and Death Technique.

Everything else was sealed within the small glowing light.

Yet the small glowing light was not something he could control.

It only reacted on its own when he encountered certain situations and it would deciding whether or not to provide guidance.

The only clue Bok Taejin had was what the Ancestor had told him in the beginning.

He was unique—his body contained an abundance of death energy but also possessed life energy, which allowed him to cultivate the Life and Death Technique.

But what if his life energy were to be completely extinguished?

Would that also mean the end of his own life?

Bok Taejin tried conveying his doubts to the small glowing light at his brow, but it remained unresponsive.

He attempted to cultivate again, but the process was still rough.

He hadn't even completed a single circulation of energy before realizing that his life energy had decreased by another tenth.

At that point, he decided to stop worrying about controlling the balance between life and death energy within his meridians.

Instead, he focused most of his attention on his dantian.

This time, the small glowing light reacted—but only slightly.

Bok Taejin concentrated fully on his dantian, attempting to shape the two energies into a Taiji symbol.

At first, it didn't go well.

But he wasn't discouraged.

He had already tried the conventional cultivation method and found it ineffective, so this was an alternative attempt.

Failure was only natural.

Besides, with the small glowing light observing him, he wasn't too worried about making a major mistake.

If what he was doing was truly wrong, the light would likely intervene.

Since it didn't, that meant he wasn't on the wrong path—or at least, if a problem arose, it would be within the light's ability to handle.

He had no idea how many times he failed or how much time had passed.

But gradually, he noticed that the previously incompatible life and death energies seemed to calm down once they entered his dantian.