The Dragon and Phoenix Gathering (1)
So this is the leader of the Wuxia Alliance.
I bowed my head and offered a proper fist salute to the middle-aged man who carried the air of a scholar.
“I’m William Marshall. Please call me Wi Mo.”
“William… Western names are difficult to pronounce.”
“Feel free to call me whatever is easiest.”
“Very well, Brother Wi. Ahem… Then, as the winner of the martial tournament, I shall present you with your prize.”
The leader drew a small box from his sleeve and handed it to me. I accepted it with both hands and bowed once more.
“Thank you.”
“No need for thanks. It is simply the reward every tournament champion deserves.”
This small case that looked like it could hold a wristwatch. The fact that it contained an elixir so potent that any martial artist would lose their mind over it felt strangely unreal.
After all, there was no reason for miraculous pills to be large.
“If you absorb it properly, it will greatly aid you in raising your internal energy.”
“I see.”
“And you… hmm. Have you considered working for the Wuxia Alliance?”
I raised my head. The leader was watching me with distinctly friendly eyes. Now that I looked closely, he was quite large himself. Our gazes were almost level.
“The offer is tempting, but I must decline.”
“Hmm. What do you plan to do instead? For someone like you, there is no better place to settle than the Alliance.”
“I have matters I must attend to.”
“Matters… May I ask what they are?”
“I intend to train.”
“Haha.”
The disappointed look in his eyes felt a little uncomfortable. This was the man famous for working his subordinates to the bone, after all. I had not come this far just to suffer from overwork.
“Achieving great power is no small thing. Indeed it isn’t. If you ever change your mind, come find me.”
“I will.”
I turned around and met the eyes of the spectators. Countless gazes pierced me, carrying every emotion imaginable.
Curiosity.
Goodwill.
Hostility.
Jealousy.
Rage.
Yet I kept my expression neutral and walked over to Mok-gyeong. She seemed exhausted from the previous fight; her breathing was a little rougher than usual as she looked at me.
“Congratulations, my lord.”
“You worked hard too.”
“Not at all. I was simply lucky to advance this far…”
“Don’t say that. Everything you accomplished with your own body is the result of your own skill.”
Just because one is blessed with talent doesn’t mean that talent is mere luck. She simply couldn’t wield it properly yet. Given time, she would adapt like any proper protagonist and learn to command her gift at will.
“You received a handsome sum as well. Why not visit the Yunnan Dan Family while you have the chance?”
“…No. For now, I want to focus on consolidating my foundation.”
“That’s not a bad choice.”
She had only recently broken through to the Peak realm. Taking time to refine and inspect her body would benefit her greatly. The gap between first-class and peak was enormous; even someone like Mok-gyeong would need time to adjust.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“…Safe travels.”
“Wow… So this is the miraculous pill?”
“It is.”
“The box is smaller than I expected! It looks like it would fit in my palm!”
It really was small. To think that something the size of a watch case contained a pill holding half a Jiazi’s worth of internal energy. Did wuxia simply ignore the law of conservation of mass? Or was it the laws of physics?
…I was a liberal arts major. I wasn’t sure what to call it.
Anyway, I slowly opened the box in front of Hye-ryeong, who was staring at it with rapt attention. The moment it opened, the energy of the Taecheng Pill spread clearly through the room.
“Just looking at it feels overwhelmingly powerful.”
“It has such a fascinating scent!”
“Smells like mint chocolate…”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind.”
I lifted the mint-chocolate-scented—no, the priceless elixir—from the box with extreme care.
The pill, roughly the size of a gyeongdan rice cake, radiated an auspicious energy that made one feel strange just by inhaling it.
So this was a medicinal pill.
The internal-energy-duplicating wonder drug that appeared constantly in wuxia novels. They said absorbing most of its power was the protagonist’s special privilege.
In any case, the prize I had received was the Taecheng Pill, a special Wudang Sect formula so famous that everyone would nod in recognition at its name alone.
It was an extraordinarily rare pill—so rare that few within the Wudang Sect itself had ever seen it—yet they had donated it as the grand prize for this tournament. Normally they would never casually offer one of their secret elixirs. What was their intention?
In the original story it would have been a convenient fortuitous encounter to accelerate the protagonist’s growth. But this was reality. There had to be a plausible reason. I wondered what it was.
…It might be worth visiting the Wudang Sect later. I could find out why they had released a pill that even their next sect leader rarely laid eyes on. I could tour the mountain while I was at it.
“Uncle, when will you begin your cultivation?”
“Right now.”
“What about dinner?”
“I’ll eat after I finish absorbing the Taecheng Pill. As you know, meditating on a full stomach causes interference.”
A full belly made one’s metabolism active. In the worst case, I might suddenly need to relieve myself in the middle of energy circulation. Normally I could adjust and ignore it, but while absorbing the violent energy of the Taecheng Pill, control would be difficult. Therefore, emptying the body first was the priority.
“I’ll prepare for cultivation, so spend today with your senior brothers and sisters.”
“I’ll stay here just in case!”
“There won’t be anything for you to do…”
“I can read a book!”
A book, huh…
“If you’re going to read anyway, could you look for some simple manuals on lightness skill?”
“Can’t I come with you?”
“As you know, I don’t have the patience to sit and wait with an elixir right in front of me. I’ll go with you later, so please do this for me now.”
“Hmph… Fine.”
Hye-ryeong turned on her heel and left the room. I watched the door close with more emotion than usual, then turned my gaze back to the Taecheng Pill.
“Will I be able to absorb it properly?”
It was essentially a mass of internal energy, so absorption itself should be straightforward. The question was whether my Western meditation method could handle it cleanly. I had absorbed the hundred-year polygonum without issue, but this was an even higher-grade treasure. Relying solely on Western methods might be dangerous.
Still, I had no other mental techniques available now. I would simply have to try. Even with some loss, it should greatly expand my insufficient mana core capacity.
I opened the door to the training room, entered, and sat in a lotus position. The moment I swallowed the Taecheng Pill and began meditating, the real battle with the elixir would begin.
Would I absorb as much as possible?
Or would I fail to digest it and expel the rest?
Either outcome held no real loss for me.
I took one steadying breath and placed the Taecheng Pill in my mouth.
…It melted gently, like cotton candy.
At first a refreshing, cool energy wrapped around my tongue. As it slowly traveled downward, my body began to heat up.
So it begins.
I closed my eyes and observed the single crane that had been released inside me.
The crane wandering through my internals darted about frantically before locking eyes with me as I began my introspection. Its gaze was defiant, as if it had no intention of being absorbed easily. I carefully tried to draw it in.
Yet the crane refused to approach. It simply circled me. Was it wary of my energy?
I slowly drew aura from my mana core and extended it toward the crane.
Slowly. Very slowly.
I had time. Even if absorption took a long while, it didn’t matter. I gently coaxed the mint-chocolate-like energy of the Taecheng Pill closer.
My fist-sized aura gradually guided the thread-thin strand of pill energy toward the mana core. The crane seemed intrigued and began drifting nearer.
I seized on that curiosity and carefully sent more of my aura toward it, attempting communication. Fortunately the crane no longer shied away. It drew closer.
The moment the crane touched my energy, my aura began to blend with the Taecheng Pill’s power.
Perhaps because it was an energy that pursued harmony, the pill’s qi merged into my body as easily as water diluting water.
I don’t know how much time passed.
My mana core slowly grew larger.
The process of expanding and refining the space where new energy would gather. Like a potter shaping clay, I carefully, meticulously formed the shape of my mana core.
“…Is it finished?”
I opened my eyes, murmuring to myself.
Along with a mana core that had grown nearly half again as large.