Both of them sat on the ground and she began her lecture. Jin was attentively watching her and listening. She said: "Compression is named the fifth principle but it is not quite one. It is an application of Fine Tuning outside the body. You apply that principle on the spiritual energy itself. After reaching a certain realm as a cultivator, spiritual energy becomes more than something you can control. It becomes a part of you and this technique was created based on that feeling. Unfortunately, you have yet to get there but I believe you should be able to learn it regardless. Since, in the end, the truth is that it doesn't have limitations on who can try to learn"

She moved both her palms up, facing upwards and balls of spiritual energy formed, hovering above them. They looked exactly the same and were no bigger than an apple in size. She asked Jin: "Do you see any differences?"

Jin activated his secret eye technique preemptively and checked both orbs. Through his sight, he identified that one had a deeper shine to it. According to his knowledge, that meant that this one had a bigger concentration on energy. He had rarely seen such things, even on top of the arena. He saw it a few times back then but hadn't thought much of it. He had only interpreted it as the opponent using a technique beyond his realm. If he didn't know there was something behind it, how could he even ask? If not for Sarina's slip up early on during their spars, he might have never learnt of it during this trial. Sarina told him in details about the risks before they began the lecture so he understood why Hae-Hyuk never mentioned it.

It was a powerful technique but it had heavy drawbacks. They were too heavy in fact for him to try to each his champions. He only had two of them and if one fucked himself up with his own technique... It would be too shameful. And too much of a loss. And the reality was that it was more likely for that horrible scenario to happen than for them to make good use of it. That technique had low requirements to learn but, in truth, required incredible mastery and knowledge to truly put into practice.

Because a single mistake was deadly.

But Jin believed he had what it took to learn and use the technique. Was it bravery? Was it arrogance? Was it foolishness? In his eyes, it was diligence and trust in his many years of training. In the eyes of Sarina, it was a hope and a trump card. In the eyes of someone else if there had been any, it would have been idiocy.

But then again, humans always attempted crazy things. No risks, no gains.

Jin's situation was bad and he didn't believe it could get worse. As long as it was something that might be of help and increase his chances, he wouldn't give it up. This was a technique that was powerful and learnable within the timeframe left. Of course, he made sure to first learn and master everything he needed when it came to what he already had before trying to attempt this.

He believed he had reached a wall when it came to advancing his spear techniques, his will and the corruption. With Compression, he was hoping for another breakthrough. No, he believed in one.

As so, he was diligent and pointed at the orb that he felt contained more spiritual energy. Sarina nodded at him and continued: "You're right. This one is made from compressed spiritual energy, making it many times stronger than the other and just as risky. What I will be teaching you in the next year is to make your spiritual spears with compressed energy. We won't try anything else. If that's fine with you, I will teach you. What do you think?"

Jin agreed. He had no complaints since he knew he was trying to chew more than he could eat from the very start. Sarina continued: "All along, while you used spiritual energy, you used a certain 'quantity' of it. From time to time, you added more quantity to a form to make it stronger. Like this"

She began to infuse more spiritual energy inside the first orb. Its image grew clearer but through his sight, the color itself hadn't changed. There was more spiritual energy but its quality remained the same.

Sarina spoke: "Compressing doesn't simply mean to add and reduce size. You can already do such things, just like I did there. Compressing is a different action. It means to fuse 'quantities' of spiritual energy together, bringing out a higher 'quality' out of it..."

And from there, Jin learnt how to make spears with this technique.

...

And the year went by. The white opaque barrier began to disappear as it returned to its original state. Jin could now see the giant statues beyond the dome. Sarina sighed as she spoke: "Time's up, I guess. We did all we could. I hope you won't disappoint me"

Jin chuckled as he retorted: "I don't want to die, that should make for a good enough insurance"

She laughed a little before she pointed behind him. A vortex had appeared. He looked at it and saw blue smoke circling upon itself continuously in a strange hypnotic way. Sarina pushed him forward as she expressed her goodwill one last time: "Best of luck, champion"

As he stepped through the vortex, he left behind a few words: "Thank you for everything, Sarina"

And he disappeared.

Then, she sighed and exited the dome. A few of her friends here welcomed her back and teased her a little. She noticed that four other statues exited the dome, meaning that there were four other champions who benefited from tuition. It was unexpected and made her frown. Depending on how much was taught, it could bring problems to Jin.

Her anxiousness forced her to ask around and she wasn't pleased with what she heard...

As for Jin, he arrived in a different white cavern in which there was nothing but an old man with a sword at his waist standing hundred meters away...