Merin closed his clinic as night settled over the city. The world was extraordinary—monsters, spirit energy, cultivators—but its civilisation remained firmly in medieval times. That contrast never bothered him when he was a tree.

Back then, his thoughts were different, slower, detached. Human emotions had faded as the years passed, and his mind aged with bark and roots.

But now, as a human again, he missed the simple conveniences of Earth. Only a month had passed since he regained his memories, and he still found himself reaching instinctively for a light switch every time he entered a dark room. It wasn’t there, of course.

Just a wall. In those first days, he missed his phone the most. So many idle hours in this world, so much silence. At first, it made him restless. Later, he began training during that time, and with it came the quiet thrill of growth and the addictive pull of personal strength.

Now, after wiping down the floor and locking the clinic, he climbed upstairs and cleaned himself off with a bucket of lukewarm water. It was his free time, but there was little to do. No lights, no screens, no internet. The city had bars, playhouses, and gambling halls, but they held no appeal for him.

What did interest him was the feeling that his body—his power—was growing. Each training session brought that sensation, however slight. And so, instead of chasing distractions, Merin stepped out again under the darkening sky to train, the scent of damp earth still lingering in the air.

After some hours, Merin stops as he starts feeling tired. Before, when he was a low-ranking Samurai, he would feel the pain coming from the muscles in his entire body.

But now, after advancing to a middle-ranking Samurai, he stopped feeling pain doing the same training.

And the improvement of his body after each training session is abysmal or even non-existent.

After some time, again cleaned himself of the sweat and cooked for himself. Then, after eating his cooked food, he lay on his bed, eyes wide open. Thinking of the previous training, the improvement of his body was abysmal, and he would gather after some time, the improvement of his body’s strength would be non-existent.

” To improve, I need a high-level technique.” He says, staring at his ceiling. He chose the healer route to get a high-level technique. He knows only a day has passed, and the news of the healing of Mori Mei wouldn’t have spread so quickly.

For the news to spread, he thinks,” A week should be enough. Then, I would see the result.”

—-

The next day, in the meeting room of the Viper gang. Every leader of the Viper Gang is present, and their eyes are on the leader of the Viper Gang, Su Min.

One of the captains, Daiki impatient, as now is the time when he starts counting the profit he earns. He is in charge of all the gambling halls in the gang.” Boss, why call all of us at this time?”

Another captain, Shun,” What can you do at this time except count money?” Shaking his head. Shun is in charge of guarding the streets that the gang controls.

Daiki angrily says,” Without the money, your men wouldn’t be fed.”

Shun says.” Without my men guarding, you wouldn’t be able to protect your money.”

Asahi, captain of the inner guard protecting the gang’s headquarters.” Can’t you two not quarrel every time we meet?”

Daiki looks at their Boss, Osamu, who is still sitting with a serious expression. Daiki raised his eyebrows because every time he would quarrel with Shun. A small smile would appear on the boss’s face when hearing their quarrel, but today he is still similar.

Daiki whispers to Asahi,” What happened?” As Asahi is the inner guard of the headquater but his main job is to provide protection to their Boss and follow wherever the boss goes. The Boss’s realm has reached the peak of Middle-ranking Samurai and can advance to High-ranking Samurai.

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But he is missing a high-level technique.

Asahi whispers back,” I do not know.” He really didn’t, and the boss didn’t tell him when he asked yesterday, and the boss’s mood became worse after he met Seiko Hiro. Also after meeting Seiko Hiro, the boss called for the meeting taking place now.

At that moment, Ryota says,” Looks like I have to introduce the reason for this meeting.”

When all the captains’ eyes fall on him, he continues,” Someone created an antidote for one of our poisons.”

A silence falls on the room, then Boyo, in charge of their attack team,” Is that someone’s death?”

Osamu speaks at that moment,” That is the reason I called for this meeting.”

Boyo says with confusion.” Why? Is there any difficulty in killing the healer?” He is confuse because most healer’s he met are weakling and for them, their wouldn’t any difficulty of killing the healer.

Osamu says,” It is easy to kill the healer, but the problem comes after that.”

Daiko says,” What problem?”

Osamu,” The healer healed the only daughter of the Mori family, and now he’s opened a clinic on Summer Street.”

Daiko leans forward, brow narrowing,” Does the healer have any other background? How did he manage to buy or rent a building on Summer Street?”

Everyone in the room grew silent. There are four streets with the names of the four seasons, and every building, even if it is only for rent, costs no less than 1 purple star coin and at first, at least a deposit of 10 purple star coins.

Osamu says,” The head of the Mori family let the healer rent that place at a cheap price.”

Boyo understand Osamu’s concern,” So, you are concerned about the Mori family. Of how they will react after we kill the healer?”

Osamu gives a slow nod.

Shuu, the captain in charge of the assassination and blackmail team, says calmly,” Then, let me do the job without evidence; the Mori family cannot truly act against us.”

Ryoto, who had been silent until now as he stop speaking after he started the meeting,” He stays here for a month. There would be plenty of time for killing him. I am going to meet him first.”

Osamu frowns,” Why did you want to meet him?”

Ryoto’s lips curled into an evil grin, his eyes gleaming with fervour” He is a genius. I developed the Viper kiss, but it took me two years to develop the antidote, but that boy did it in two days.”

He looks at everyone with his evil grin,” I want all the knowledge in his brain before killing him.”

—

Merin again steps into the open space beside his house under the night sky. But this time, he didn’t start training right away. The Bear Body refining technique is useless for him, the improvement in daily grind has now turned abysmal.

He stands still, looking at the moonless sky littered with stars.

If he can’t raise his cultivation realm, then he has to raise his strength.

The strength can be raised by honing his fighting skills, but the only two fighting skills – Stone fist and Wind leg he has already mastered. They are also low-level techniques and not suitable for a Middle-ranking Samurai.

Because the fighting techniques don’t have the application of inner energy in their moves.

A Middle-ranking Samurai’s strength not only comes from their body but also from their inner energy. If they don’t know use inner energy while fighting, then they are fighting with half the strength.

For him, now without any techniques, the only way to increase his strength become proficient in his control over his inner energy.

He looks at his palm, and a shiny energy gathers, humming and floating over his palm. It doesn’t stop gathering after at least he gathers 10% of his inner energy in his body.

Then he begins shaping it. He first starts with geometrical shapes- the first A Cube. A Pyramid. A Flat Disc. Each transforms easily with his will. Even though his soul remains partially sealed, it still doesn’t stop his willpower that his refined as he lived 147 years as a tree.

And most of the time, he was training his soul with the power of the moon and sun.

After that, he begins to transform the energy into threads. Thin bright strands stretch from his palm like silk drawn from a cocoon. He wills the threads to weave layering over his hand, then his fingers.

In a few breaths, a translucent glove of inner energies. It fits perfectly and is light, as if he is not wearing anything.

He decides to test its defence and enters his house and takes the stairs upstairs and takes a knife from the kitchen. With his other hand, he strikes with the knife on the inner energy glove-covered palm, slowly.

He slowly increases the force; in his mind, he calculates the increase of force he applies. And stops when the energy glove parts, and he feels the knife’s edge touching his palm. It took 60% of his strength to cut the energy glove.

It is adequate for now, as he now, without a high-level technique, cannot increase his inner energy, and so, his defensive power also cannot increase. So, he can only train his control over his inner energy.

The energy glove disappears as he takes the inner energy back inside his body. Then, he tries to form the energy glove again. But with a thought, the energy glove didn’t appear, he had to form threads of inner energy first, and then weaves them into the energy gloves.

It takes too long, not appropriate during combat, where even a second matters. So, he has to train his control over his inner energy that he can form the energy glove at a thought.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep