Chapter 199
Chapter 199
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: Jade Qilin's Explosive Demise
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The sudden explosion reverberated through the training ground. Wi Seongcheon, enduring the White Flame Witch's brutal instruction with every fiber of his being, turned toward the forest with a dazed look on his face.
“Was that lightning striking?”
“No, this is…….”
Unlike her usual self, the White Flame Witch wore a deeply flustered expression. She could sense that the blast had violently shaken the qi in the atmosphere. She knew it wasn't just any ordinary explosion.
“Didn't you feel that?”
“……Feel what?”
“You idiot. No progress at all!”
With a sigh, the White Flame Witch kicked Wi Seongcheon's shin. He swallowed a bursting scream from the abrupt kick and hopped around on one foot.
“I've been drilling you for days on consciously invoking the Formless Intent, and you still……!”
“How am I supposed to consciously invoke something I can't even see?”
“You blockhead. You're already unconsciously mimicking the Formless Intent, imperfectly wielding the Intent Body, and your upper dantian isn't fully sealed off. All I'm telling you to do is use consciously what you're already doing. What's so damn hard about that?”
“You said there was no need to rush before.”
Wi Seongcheon muttered just loud enough to be heard as he slightly turned his head. The White Flame Witch clamped her lips shut. She couldn't argue with that. On the day Wi Seongcheon had been thoroughly thrashed by the Green Forest Demon Emperor, what had she told him? He was still young and green—don't be impatient. She'd scolded him for arrogantly trying to catch up to a genius's decades of cultivation in mere days.
“……That's…… different. I told you to polish what you already have first.”
“What's different about it…….”
“Sometimes you have to run even while you're still learning to walk.”
“You keep flip-flopping…….”
As Wi Seongcheon continued grumbling, twin flames ignited in the White Flame Witch's eyes. She moved to kick his shin again, but just then, Yeo Myeong emerged with Baek Rihyang in tow.
“Hm? Yin Mei, you still here?”
“You senile old coot—dementia setting in? This is my house. Where else would I be?”
The White Flame Witch vented sharply at Yeo Myeong, thinking the timing perfect. Yeo Myeong looked indignant at the unprovoked scolding but soon cleared his throat and composed his features.
“Well, that was a slip of the tongue. No need to get so heated. It's a fine day—how about a little outing for a look?”
“……An outing?”
“What are we supposed to be looking at?”
The White Flame Witch cocked her head, while Wi Seongcheon asked out of curiosity. Yeo Myeong flashed a pleased smile and pointed toward the forest.
“It'll be a good lesson for you too.”
“What kind of lesson out of nowhere?”
“I'll show you what you'd have ended up like if the world's greatest physician hadn't looked after you.”
Wi Seongcheon couldn't make sense of the words, but Yeo Myeong said no more and led Baek Rihyang out of the Blood Palace.
The forest at the explosion's source wasn't far from the city. Already, a crowd had gathered, startled by the sudden boom and buzzing with speculation.
“Urgh!”
In one corner, Woo Heera was retching violently.
She still wasn't accustomed to scenes like this. Beside the heaving Woo Heera, who had emptied her stomach entirely, Hwangbo Seongwoo patted her back with a furrowed brow. His grim expression had nothing to do with her vomiting.
“My god.”
Wi Seongcheon's face stiffened as he and the White Flame Witch pushed through the throng.
The epicenter was a gruesome sight. It wasn't lightning or a thunderclap bomb. The debris scattered across the crater made it abundantly clear what had detonated here.
“……Jade Qilin?”
Wi Seongcheon murmured in bewilderment. Chunks of flesh, shattered bone, and organ fragments littered the area. Amid it all, the only thing left mostly intact was the Jade Qilin's head.
Half-buried in the dirt, its tongue lolled out, eyes rolled back—but bizarrely, grotesquely, the corners of its mouth curved in a smile.
The instant he laid eyes on it, Wi Seongcheon felt a chill crawl down his spine. Yeo Myeong's words echoed in his mind.
A lesson.
Now he understood. Back when Yeo Myeong had first stepped in to treat his injuries, the man had drawn circles on the ground and called the skull a “lid.” Stuff too much into a vessel, he said, and either the vessel shatters or the lid blows off.
“It's both.”
Yeo Myeong sidled up, grinning toothily at Wi Seongcheon's rigid expression.
“The vessel shattered, and the lid flew clean off. What a moron.”
“……What the hell did you do to him?”
“Gave him exactly what he asked for.”
Yeo Myeong's voice dropped low.
“Said he wanted his crushed balls regrown more than he wanted new arms. So I obliged. Even made 'em better than before—routed his heart vessels straight down and hooked 'em up.”
“You mad bastard.”
“Of course, as a doctor, I gave him advice with his body in mind. Told him not to overdo it, to abstain for half a year at least and let his body adjust. But the fool wouldn't listen.”
Yeo Myeong clucked his tongue, though his eyes gleamed with delight. He'd issued the warning plain as day. But Yeo Myeong had been certain the Jade Qilin would ignore it. If he'd truly cared about his body, Yeo Myeong never would've slipped him that aphrodisiac in the first place.
In the end, the Jade Qilin died exactly as Yeo Myeong had hoped. Oblivious to his body's condition, lost in ecstasy, he'd thrown himself into yin-yang supplementation. The body, retooled solely for that purpose, had its blood flow and qi circulation supercharged, yielding massive gains in record time.
Thus had Yeo Myeong exacted his revenge on the Jade Qilin who'd summoned him to the Black Forest.
“What a pathetic way to go.”
The White Flame Witch spat, twisting her face in disgust.
“That's precisely why the Origin Fragrance Sect's Yin Absorption Great Law is so inferior. Unlike proper orthodox dual cultivation arts, theirs has devolved into a crude technique fixated on raw pleasure and hasty absorption. A true lesson indeed. You've trained in it yourself, so keep this idiot's death foremost in your mind.”
“Tsk tsk. Still a shame, though. The Origin Fragrance Sect originally sprang from the Quanzhen Sect, a legitimate Taoist lineage.”
Yeo Myeong muttered as he stroked his chin. The White Flame Witch shot him a look of utter exasperation.
“You're the one who did it, and now you're waxing sentimental?”
“Ahem. True, it descends from the Quanzhen Sect—but that's ancient history, centuries old, long before I was born. Sure, they introduced me to the Immortal Path in my youth, but that's over a hundred years past. By now, as you say, Yin Mei, it's fully degenerated into a debased pleasure sect with no remaining ties to Taoism or the Immortals.”
Yeo Myeong balled his fist.
“In other words, as a man who once walked the Immortal Path, I merely meted out fitting punishment to the Origin Fragrance Sect's degeneracy.”
“Bullshit pouring out like poetry.”
The White Flame Witch sneered and shook her head.
“……Hold on.”
Wi Seongcheon had been listening quietly but stepped forward, deciding he'd heard enough.
“What the hell happened?”
Dang Heeran and Yuk Jinil stood where he approached, caked in dirt and blood, looking utterly wrecked. Dang Heeran weakly raised a hand and waved at Wi Seongcheon.
“We nearly died.”
Yuk Jinil grimaced in reply.
Here's what had gone down.
The Jade Qilin, groping at Dang Heeran, had eventually dragged the fight out to the forest beyond the city. Shockingly, his skill far exceeded expectations—Dang Heeran couldn't subdue him quickly.
That tiny delay was all it took. Suddenly, the Mad Dog Monk Gujeok barged in. He'd seen the Jade Qilin head into the woods with Dang Heeran and Yuk Jinil and wasn't about to miss the opportunity. When Gujeok crashed the scene, Dang Heeran and Yuk Jinil fell back first. No sense ganging up on a foe like that.
That's where things went wrong. Wary of the Jade Qilin's Yin Absorption Great Law, Dang Heeran and Yuk Jinil had held back on true qi. But the late-arriving Gujeok, aiming for a swift kill, unleashed his full power.
And then.
“The Jade Qilin's body suddenly swelled up and—boom—exploded.”
Dang Heeran grimaced as she peeled clinging gobbets of his flesh from her hair.
“It happened in a flash. The Mad Dog hit him with true qi, and the Qilin countered with Extreme Flame Flash while channeling his absorption technique…… and suddenly he ballooned and burst.”
Heaven's own luck for Dang Heeran and Yuk Jinil. They'd been far enough back to escape injury. Had Gujeok not intruded, one of them would've gotten too close trying to take the Qilin down and been caught in the blast.
Luck for them.
“Hyungnim!”
But not for Gujeok.
The Jade Qilin had at least left his head. Gujeok hadn't even managed that. Swallowed whole by the explosion, he'd burned to nothing as the Qilin's bloated qi went up in a single conflagration. The only remnants of Gujeok were a handful of daggers he'd hurled at the Qilin.
Gujeok's sworn brother, the Earth Ghost Yang Jeon, clutched one half-melted dagger at the blast's heart, sobbing uncontrollably. Truth be told, the sight was almost comical to onlookers.
Yang Jeon had been at odds with Gujeok. He'd openly antagonized the man time and again, fostering bad blood between them.
Just during the treasure hunt, for instance. If anything, the sworn brother Gujeok had seemed the one bending, trying to smooth things over.
So what was this? The guy who'd snarled he wanted nothing to do with brotherhood was now bawling and wailing for his hyungnim. The abrupt turnaround left everyone dumbfounded, staring at Yang Jeon—until he suddenly shot to his feet. Tears streaming, he whipped his head around wildly before locking eyes on them and freezing.
“Why!”
Yang Jeon bellowed and stomped the ground. Wi Seongcheon hurriedly stepped in to block his sudden charge.
Crunch! Yang Jeon's punch was caught in Wi Seongcheon's hand.
“Why! Why'd it have to be hyungnim who died and not you lot?!”
“What the fuck are you on about all of a sudden?”
“You were right here too! Why'd hyungnim have to be the one to die?!”
Reasoning was pointless. Spittle flying amid tears, Yang Jeon cried out in anguish.
“Why do this to us? The one who barged in out of nowhere was your sworn brother.”
“Shut your mouth!”
“You goddamn bastard—is only your sworn bro's life precious? If he meant that much, quit your usual crap and look after him.”
“You! What do you know about our brotherhood?!”
Yang Jeon's eyes rolled back at Wi Seongcheon's barb. Blind with rage, he lunged again—but Hwangbo Seongwoo grabbed him from behind.
“Calm yourself.”
“Let go!”
“Enough. You're not in your right mind.”
“Let go! It's all—all your fault. You righteous pricks should've died in his place!”
“Who'd think we killed him, hearing you.”
Yang Jeon writhed and flailed at Wi Seongcheon's jab, but raw emotion couldn't overcome Hwangbo Seongwoo's strength. His tantrum ended only when an exasperated Hwangbo Seongwoo sealed his acupoints.
“Taking him away.”
Hwangbo Seongwoo dragged him off with a look of disgust. To the end, Yang Jeon clutched Gujeok's dagger in his grip.