7 Hours Earlier...
Darkness.
An endless sea of stars stretched before me as my consciousness slowly surfaced inside my Soul Sea. The familiar silence welcomed me like an old friend, untouched by time or the outside world.
I let out a slow breath.
"...Still as peaceful as ever."
No matter how chaotic the world outside became, this place never changed. There was no wind, no sound, only the faint glow of countless stars reflecting across the endless black water beneath my feet.
[UNIQUE ARTS - UNLOCKED]
My eyes paused.
"...Unique Arts?"
That wasn't there before.
I frowned slightly.
No notification.
It had simply... appeared.
I reached out and tapped it.
The instant my fingertip made contact, the Soul Sea trembled.
The stars above began moving.
No...They weren't moving.
The entire sky itself was changing.
The endless darkness dissolved into rolling golden clouds as a deafening silence swallowed everything around me.
I instinctively looked up.
"..."
Nine figures.
Standing high above the clouds.
Each one looked identical.
Each one...
Was Him.
Sun Wukong.
No divine aura.
No overwhelming pressure.
Just nine silent silhouettes, each standing in a different posture.
Yet despite remaining perfectly motionless...
Every single stance felt alive.
One looked as heavy as an unmoving mountain.
Another resembled flowing water.
One stood with empty hands, yet gave me the illusion that the surrounding space itself was collapsing toward him.
I didn't know why...
But simply looking at them caused my heartbeat to unconsciously speed up.
"...These..."
They weren't techniques.
They were...
Realizations.
Then, for the first time since entering this strange vision, words appeared before me.
---
The Nine Echoes of the Great Sage {Great Sage Ninefold Resonance Canon}
"The body remembers what the mind cannot."
"Observe."
"Understand."
"Become."
---
"...That's it?"
I blinked.
"That's all the explanation you're giving me?"
Silence.
No response.
I sighed helplessly.
"Right..."
This is definitely something Wukong would do.
I rubbed my forehead before looking back toward the first silhouette.
The monkey stood with one fist lowered by his waist.
His posture looked...
Ordinary.
Almost disappointingly ordinary.
No dramatic stance.
No floating rocks.
No blazing aura.
Just...
Standing.
"...This is the First Echo?"
Curiosity quickly replaced my confusion.
If this was truly left behind by the Great Sage himself, then there had to be something hidden beneath its simplicity.
I stepped forward.
The moment I mirrored his posture...!!!
OH MY GOD!!
...
Nothing happened.
"..."
"eh?"
I adjusted my footing.
Still nothing.
Maybe my shoulders?
No.
Again.
Nothing.
For the next several minutes, I continuously copied every tiny detail I could notice.
The angle of the feet.
The bend in the knees.
The position of the spine.
The shoulders.
The breathing.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Nothing.
My brows slowly knitted together.
"No..."
"I'm doing something wrong."
If this inheritance could be mastered simply by copying a pose, it wouldn't deserve to be called the Great Sage's legacy.
There had to be something deeper.
I stopped moving.
Closed my eyes.
Then slowly replayed the silhouette inside my mind.
Not the posture.
The feeling.
...
Mountain.
The strange impression surfaced naturally.
Not strength.
Not hardness.
A mountain.
Unmoving.
Ancient.
Everything else seemed insignificant before it.
My eyes slowly opened.
"...Mountain..."
I adjusted my stance once more.
This time...
I didn't try to imitate Wukong.
I tried to become the mountain.
My breathing slowed.
Shoulders relaxed.
The unnecessary tension disappeared from my arms.
The force beneath my feet quietly settled into the ground.
For a brief instant,
Something clicked.
Every muscle throughout my body suddenly moved together.
My spine and waist.
Legs and shoulders.
Even the tiny muscles in my fingers...
They all aligned into one complete whole.
Not stronger,
rather Unified.
Before I could even understand what was happening,
The sensation vanished.
I stumbled backward, nearly falling onto the stone platform.
"Haa..."
"Haa..."
I blinked in surprise.
"..."
Sweat.
When did I start sweating?
My breathing had become uneven, and every muscle throughout my body trembled slightly, as though I had just completed an intense battle.
"...I didn't even throw a punch."
The only thing I had done...
Was stand.
The clouds shifted once again.
The first silhouette slowly raised its fist.
Not quickly.
Not forcefully.
Simply...
Naturally.
Yet the moment the fist moved, I finally understood.
It wasn't the fist that struck first.
It was the body.
The feet rooted.
The waist turned.
The spine coiled.
The shoulders followed.
Only after everything else had moved...
Did the fist arrive.
Like a boulder finally breaking free from a mountain.
HUMM~~
Words quietly appeared before me.
----------------------------------
First Echo
Mountain - Body Resonance
Make the body the mountain
Unshakable, Immovable. '
' Let the fist be the falling boulder
Unstoppable, Unblockable. '
' The fist is merely an instrument that delivers the blow. '
' The body is where the punch truly arrives. '
----------------------------------
"..."
I stared silently at those words.
Then...
I laughed.
A quiet, helpless laugh.
"So that's what it means..."
"I wasn't learning how to punch."
"I was learning how to move,
And punch is the end result "
No...
Even that wasn't entirely correct.
I looked back toward the silent figure of the Great Sage.
"...I'm learning how to control my own body."
The First Echo wasn't teaching strength.
It wasn't teaching technique.
It was teaching ownership.
Absolute ownership over every muscle...
Every tendon...
Every breath...
Every ounce of force within one's body.
Only then...
Could the mountain finally fall.
I slowly stood back up.
A grin spread across my face.
"...Alright."