The light inside the aperture grew brighter and brighter.
Primeval Essence swirled in a spiral around the small being.
No...
It was no longer accurate to call it a sphere.
Its surface slowly began to sink inward in some places.
Then it stretched outward.
One curve appeared.
Then another.
Like a sculptor patiently removing everything that was unnecessary.
And alive...
Like a crawling creature twisting around itself.
Weed watched in silence.
His heart remained strangely calm.
He no longer tried to control the refinement.
He merely fed it.
One Primeval Stone shattered.
Then another.
His Primeval Essence diminished rapidly.
Yet the transformation continued.
...
Little by little...
The metal folded in upon itself.
Its body became long.
Flexible.
Elegant.
Like a tiny serpent forged from liquid silver.
It continued to spin.
Turning.
Turning.
Until...
It slowly bit its own tail.
Click.
The circle closed.
In the next instant...
Hundreds of microscopic blades emerged along its body.
They were neither fangs...
Nor spikes.
They were edges.
Cutting edges.
So impossibly thin...
That they seemed to vanish whenever one tried to look at them directly.
The little Gu slowly began to rotate inside the aperture.
It resembled a serpent.
Yet it also resembled a chakram.
A cycle without beginning.
Without end.
As though it never wished to leave that circle.
...
All the Primeval Essence fell silent once more.
The refinement...
Was complete.
Weed remained motionless for several long seconds.
He could clearly feel the existence of the new Gu.
It was different.
Very different.
It did not feel like a Gu that had been refined.
It felt...
As though it had been born.
As though it had always existed.
Simply waiting for someone capable of revealing it.
At that moment...
A translucent blue window appeared before his eyes.
[Unnamed Gu]
[Rank: 1]
[Primary Path: Blade Path]
[Secondary Path: Sculpting Path]
[Status: Healthy]
[Abilities:]
The longer it remains outside the user's aperture, the sharper and more powerful it becomes. It can be thrown as a projectile, ricocheting off surfaces to strike and cut its intended target before returning to its user.
[Weaknesses:]
The Gu can remain outside the user's aperture for no longer than five consecutive minutes. After that, it must return to its "home"—the user's aperture—and rest there uninterrupted for fifteen seconds. The stronger it becomes, the more difficult it is to control.
Weed stared quietly at the window.
"..."
"So I ended up with a flying blade..."
"...basically Captain America's shield."
A memory from his previous life surfaced.
"Or..."
"More like a larger version of Xena the Warrior Princess's chakram."
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Blade Path..."
He let out a quiet laugh.
"So..."
"In the end..."
"The Dao still considers the Blade to be its true nature."
The Sculpting Path appeared only as a subsidiary path.
It was... somewhat disappointing.
For days...
He had imagined creating the very first Gu that truly belonged to the Sculpting Path.
So many resources.
So much time.
Sleepless nights.
Primeval Stones.
And yet...
He had not succeeded.
Still...
He could not call it a failure.
For the first time...
He had created an entirely original Gu.
For the first time...
Perhaps for the first time in history...
A Gu had been deliberately created using a brand-new Path.
Even if another Path still remained dominant.
Weed looked once more at the little Gu.
Then...
Something felt wrong.
"No..."
He slowly frowned.
"Determination..."
"It's not here."
Or rather...
It was.
But...
Not as part of the Gu itself.
Determination had sustained the entire refinement.
It had kept the process alive.
Just as Determination Gu had walked beside Ren Zu.
Yet it had never become part of the final product.
It had merely allowed him to reach this point.
The true concept engraved into this Gu...
Was something else.
...
Weed slowly closed his eyes.
Fifteen years.
Fifteen years away from home.
Fifteen years remembering Seoyoon.
Fifteen years thinking about his grandmother.
His little sister.
That small dinner table.
Those ordinary days that would never return.
The Dao...
Had never lied.
It had simply returned what truly existed within his heart.
Not determination.
But what he had nourished throughout those fifteen years.
Melancholy.
Longing.
Loss.
...
Then...
A faint smile appeared on his face.
This time...
Without bitterness.
"I understand..."
"I wanted to harvest determination..."
"But for fifteen years..."
"The only thing I watered..."
"...was longing."
He looked once again at the little Gu.
The silver serpent continued biting its own tail.
Resembling an ouroboros.
Holding itself together.
As though separating from itself...
Went against its very nature.
At that moment...
Weed finally understood its ability as well.
Once it left his aperture...
That Gu would do everything in its power to return.
The farther it traveled from its "home"...
The more desperately it would seek to come back.
And on that return...
Nothing would be able to remain in its path.
Its true strength...
"Is born from loss itself."
"Then perhaps..."
"Its true potential still lies ahead."
"To gain something in this world..."
"You must first lose something."
"To go farther..."
"You must keep moving forward with determination."
"But before that..."
"You must first endure pain and loss."
"Perhaps..."
"The true power of this Gu lies in that very potential."
...
The first rays of dawn slipped through the narrow crack in the workshop wall.
A thin beam of golden light settled upon the table.
Weed slowly raised his head.
Morning.
Without realizing it...
He had spent the entire night refining.
The clan's morning lessons would begin soon.
He stood up.
Carefully put away the refinement vessel.
Then looked once more at the little Gu spinning peacefully inside his aperture.
It still wasn't perfect.
It still wasn't the Gu he had envisioned.
But...
It was his first step.
The first Gu born from a Path that had never existed before.
A faint smile crossed his lips.
"So..."
"Your name shall be..."
He remained silent for a few moments.
Then softly whispered:
"Melancholy Blade Gu."
The little Gu seemed to tremble gently.
As though accepting its name.
Weed opened the workshop door.
The cool morning air rushed inside.
The sun was just beginning to rise above Qing Mao Mountain.
He took a deep breath.
Smiled.
And hurried toward the clan's morning classes.
Behind him...
The workshop fell silent once more.
But for the first time...
The world now contained a Gu that, until the previous night...
Simply had not existed.
----
Author: This mini-saga has finally come to an end; I kept my promise—all 6 days completed.
This part had to be somewhat long and full of trial and error because I needed to show that—as they say in my country, "life is not a strawberry," or as Americans say, "life isn't a piece of cake." I had to show that it wasn't easy; otherwise, it would lose its meaning. Art must express something—if you don't have something to put into it, to say, to express, etc., then it is empty.
Brazil, you better win this game.