There were two main reasons why this taboo was considered unbreakable:

1) It required deep understanding of both the elements and the soul. It wasn't something one that lived a maximum of a hundred years or a bit more should be able to get.

2) The soul wouldn't be strong enough. It wouldn't be able to fuse with the element and support it. The thirty to forty-nine stages did exist to build the foundation for this step. Without them, the soul wouldn't be solid enough to accept the element.

For other taboos, there had been precedents. Stages 10, 20, 30 and even 40 were stages that brought something special to cultivators yet those things could be earned by cultivators before reaching such stages in many ways. However, starting from the 50th stage, there were no cases of breakable taboos. That was why no one here expected to see something like that. It completely overturned the whole competition. It was no longer fair. It was if someone sent a tiger to compete with chickens. Of course, there had to be downsides and side effects to it that would even the field but the situation was that no one knew about them. How could they make use of it if they weren't aware of it? And the worst of it all was that it wasn't just any element. It was the distortion element.

The contestants had grim expressions as they saw him jump over the abyss seemingly effortlessly.

It wasn't effortlessly though. Distortion helped one enter a different space parallel to the reality but there was a need to keep a point of accroach to the reality, coordinates to come back. Min-Su had to constantly focus on adding a new point as the elements covering the abyss were destroying them one after another. Basically, he was sacrificing body parts at a continued rate in order to cross the abyss. And that was only the downside to crossing the abyss. As he reached the safe ground, his body returned to normal and reality.

He lost half his right arm in the process.

If one went to look down in the abyss, one would be able to see a bloody trail on the ground. This was the half-right-arm he had to sacrifice to cross. Everything had a price. This was the price to cross over.

But using this power also had a price and it left him panting. He was using his soul to activate this power, a soul supposedly too weak for that. The power of the soul came from the lifespan, what he consumed to use his power was his life itself. It wasn't obvious from a glance even to the experts though. Only Hae-Hyuk was aware of the true price being paid.

It was then that an expert got up and furiously screamed: "Hae-Hyuk! So, it was you! You motherfucker!"

Everyone turned towards the voice. It was Song-Min. His own champions were already out of the game but he couldn't care less about such things right now. Because he finally understood something.

Powerful energy waves began to expand from him, he was clearly readying himself for a fight. Then, Saint Patron Bôrakos appeared right in front of him and all energy evaporated as if it had never been there. Bôrakos looked at Song-Min with a cold glare and asked him: "Do you dare go on?"

Song-Min clenched his fists but didn't act further. Saint Patron Bôrakos nodded and returned to the stage instantly. However, this wasn't the end. Physical fights were forbidden but words could be used. Song-Min asked loudly: "Were you really the one to destroy my facility back then?!"

Hae-Hyuk didn't even turn towards him. It brought him even more anger. Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Hye-Ja's. She was glaring at him. He relaxed as he understood what she meant without them having to exchange words. The facility was not something they should be talking about publicly here. It wasn't a place that others should be made aware of.

In that place, they conducted experiments on taboos together. They picked orphans and tried to forcefully get them to break taboos. Lately, for the past century at least, they had tried to induce a breakthrough into the state of 'One with the Element' with all kinds of kids and all kinds of elements. To no avail.

They managed half the time to sync an element to the soul of a kid but they would always die soon after. The injuries to their souls being too heavy, the might of the element too potent. Either they died during the process of assimilation or a few days or weeks later due to depletion of their soul's lifespan. And they had been unable to find a solution to this. Yet, they kept researching. After all, having such taboo breakers would be enough to clinch victories in this trial. Or so they believed.

However, an incident happened two decades ago. Someone broke into the hidden secret facility and destroyed everything. They never expected that it could have been Hae-Hyuk but everything was easily deduced. Hae-Hyuk found a young kid abandoned from his own clan in the chaotic space wilderness and took him as a disciple? No. This wasn't what happened.

They were the ones who probably found young Min-Su and brought him to the facility like any other random kids they found in the streets. He must have been one of those experimented on and Hae-Hyuk took him away from there.

That being said, even if they know understood where Min-Su came from exactly, they had no idea how he was still alive. Was his experiment a success? Or did Hae-Hyuk find the solution himself? They wanted the answer to those questions but they also wanted Hae-Hyuk to take responsibility for their loss.

Hae-Hyuk, however, didn't care.

He had used the 60th stage power to find Min-Su and he paid a heavy cost to make use of it. Peeking through fate wasn't free.

And then, he had to pay another heavy cost to keep the kid alive so long.

This was why seeing Min-Su use this power so early did not bring him joy but sadness. Not because he was anxious for Min-Su's well-being but because he knew that this wasn't something that he could use however he wanted. Min-Su was like a burning candle. And there would be a time when there would be nothing left to burn.