Soon, there were both in Soo-Hyun's room, sitting cross-legged. Jin was grasping her hands tightly to give her courage. She was calming her breathing and focusing on her soul sea. To Jin, it was an important matter too. In order to be able to exit this place, one had to be a spiritual warrior if he didn't want to be labelled a traitor and killed.

If she broke through now, she would be able to leave anytime. The weight on Jin's shoulders would disappear alongside this. That's why he had tried to be so nice previously. In order to face the inner demons, it was a must to be in a serene state of mind. If she had tried it while scared...She would have failed. And failure meant losing all the fluctuating energy inside her core. She would have to fill it again before a second attempt.

Jin didn't have much interactions with kids after becoming an adult himself. That being said, he had been a kid once too. And his Master back in the day was very good at reassuring him before fights. He tried to apply the same method and it worked rather well. Knowing that someone had your back, regardless of what would happen, truly did provide help.

And now, the girl could safely try to break through.

Jin was grinning at his smarts. He was truly content with his act. As he was holding her hands, he knew there was nothing more to do. However, he was unaware that he was in danger himself. He forgot one important thing. During the passage from the body refinement realm to the spiritual realm, which separated mortals and immortals, something peculiar would happen.

The laws of the world would react themselves and spiritual energy would fluctuate around the cultivator. This was the world's defensive mechanism to prevent mortals from going beyond. And one of the reasons the inner demons trial did exist. It did require its own energy to manifest after all.

And as Soo-Hyun entered a trial, a small maelstrom of spiritual energy erupted around her. Needless to say, Jin was right in the middle of it. He could only curse as he began to be assaulted by frienzied spiritual energy. And the worst of it? He knew that if he let go of her hands, the girl would be aware of it. She would be aware of it and thus react to it. Worst case scenario, she would lose control and fail the trial.He could only endure...

It took close to an hour for the storm to subside. At that time, a golden radiance began to encase Soo-Hyun for seconds until she opened her eyes. Her entire temperament had changed. She seemed like a newborn. But a celestial newborn with a serenity to her being unlike anything else. This was the final moment of the birth of a new spiritual warrior, the world's blessing.

In a way unique to all cultivators, it would bring them a benefit, some kind of reward for successfully shedding their original identities and ascending in their existence. That's right, ascending. The evolution from a refinement stage to a spiritual warrior stage was called the ascension. An ascension to the level of existence.

Soo-Hyun was now a true cultivator, a spiritual warrior, who would now be able to use her spiritual energy willingly and accumulate much more of it. No longer would her battles be reliant on her body strength, it was finally time for her to enter the big league.

And as she opened her eyes with the brightest smile she had ever made, she noticed Jin...Her smile froze and disappeared at once.

Jin was bloodied all over with gas wafting off his wounds due to the spiritual energy scorching his skin in places. However, he himself was smiling brightly. Before passing out, he said loudly and cheerfully: "Congratulations Soo-Hyun!"

Then, it was the loud cry of distress of Soo-Hyun that was heard.

Jin awoke only five days later. He was not in his room. But he did recognize the room. It was Soo-Hyun's. And she was there, as the bedside, dozing off on a chair close-by. He looked at himself and noticed a lot of bandages. As he recalled what happened, he couldn't help but laugh, waking Soo-Hyun.

As she saw him awake, she jumped to embrace him as she began to cry. He patted her head as he kept laughing. He couldn't help it. It had been such a dumb move from him. How could he forget about the spiritual energy mealstrom?

The noise quickly attracted Min-Su. As he entered and saw the peculiar scene of a bandaged dude laughing heartily and a girl crying in his arms, he couldn't help but sigh. When he came back with a grin thinking that he had been such a good mate, he found Soo-Hyun crying over a bloody Jin. It had taken him a mere moment to understand that the idiot had taken on the mealstrom...and he hurriedly picked him up and brought him to the infirmary. Fortunately, they healed him for free there...

It took a few days for things to go back to normal but there was a very big difference now. Soo-Hyun had gotten very close to Jin, or rather she became slightly overprotective of him... It seemed like seeing him bloody after helping her did impact her a lot. Jin noticed it but he didn't quite know how to react. He was glad to see her cheerful though so he left it that way.

He would create a situation where she could repay him and things would likely return to how they were. Unfortunately for him, it was unlikely as what he did truly impacted the little girl. It was not love yet but it wasn't far off. Jin, as an old man, would never accept her feelings and never saw her as a romantic interest. She was a little sister to take care of to him and a future rival slash comrade. To her however, Jin was now much more...

And the days kept going by, time flowed and whether it be Jin or Soo-Hyun, they enjoyed life in the castle city. Unaware of the happenings of the border war...