Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Black Dragon Water True Qi
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On the way back to the Nine Dragons Branch Family with Ilno.
I rented a separate carriage and rode in it.
It was because of the growing internal injuries as time passed.
“Ugh, this is killing me.”
Leaning my back against the carriage wall, the lingering tension finally eased away.
「Are you alright? You look extremely fatigued.」
Ilno was acting as the coachman, so inside the carriage, it was just me and Onma.
「Did you push yourself too hard while neutralizing the Heartchill Ice Venom? You took a whopping five Ghost Spirit Pills, causing your internal energy to reflux—」
「Internal energy that hasn’t been properly fused can cause problems later—」
「And you achieved enlightenment without properly organizing it, then even triggered an outburst of internal energy—」
「At this rate, there’s a risk of qi deviation—」
“Ah! Shut up, all of you!”
As expected from demon lords who had reached the Super Peak realm in life, they were full of nagging advice.
The ones who couldn’t utter a peep when I performed sorcery were now acting like know-it-all old sages from the neighborhood, chiming in on their area of expertise.
It was embarrassing and made me want to rebel, but the problem was that their advice was worth a fortune that others couldn’t buy.
I might be far superior to them in sorcery, but not in martial arts.
In truth, it was as if I was forcibly dragging around a dozen highly skilled masters as teachers.
So I absolutely couldn’t ignore them. No, I needed to keep my ears open.
But I just really didn’t want to.
I think someone once called this kind of thing adolescent rebellion.
Anyway, cramming an adult mind into a young body wasn’t all good.
「Others would think you’re bragging if they heard that.」
‘So what? Got a problem with it?’
「Ha, hahaha. Of course not—」
Bang!
At that moment, the small window connecting to the coachman’s seat flew open, and Ilno peered inside with an urgent expression.
“What’s wrong, young—?”
“Milord.”
“…Milord.”
It seemed my shout had startled him.
“That title’s suffix is too embarrassing. Shorten it.”
“Is there really nothing… wrong?”
“Nothing, so focus on driving.”
“Understood.”
Ilno looked worried but didn’t show it, closing the coachman’s window again.
He probably had something he wanted to ask but couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Lest he seem disrespectful.
「A truly devoted believer.」
‘Yeah. If all believers were like him, the Mythic Cult wouldn’t have been driven to this state.’
Onma and the spirits averted their gazes.
‘Onma.’
「Yes, Little Hierarch.」
‘Do I look that dangerous?’
Onma hesitated for a very brief moment.
His expression showing on a new topic was intriguing.
「…May I speak frankly?」
‘I’m telling you to.’
「If you push yourself any further, your body will collapse.」
I turned toward Number Fifteen.
Number Fifteen slammed his head down.
「This demon shares Senior Onma’s thoughts!! Even with all the transfers so far, the unity of spirit and flesh is still unstable!」
‘Is that so?’
I quietly closed my eyes.
Curing poison with poison was never as easy as it sounded.
If the ratio of the poisons was even slightly off, or if there was the tiniest miscalculation, it would only damage the body further.
Even if the mixture was perfectly calculated, if the body lacked the stamina to endure it, it could harm one’s health instead.
Or damage the liver or kidneys that detoxify the poison.
That was exactly my current state.
The ratio to suppress the Heartchill Ice Venom had been perfect.
The Heartchill Ice Venom was the crystallization of yin energy to begin with, and by steadily consuming Ghost Spirit Pills, my body had developed an exceptional constitution for yin energy.
On top of that, performing ghost spirit sorcery had unknowingly accelerated the accumulation of yin energy.
—Heavenly Yin Severed Meridians.
I had artificially acquired the heavenly punishment that those born with immense yin energy naturally received.
At this level, it was about Four Yins out of the Nine Yins.
In any case, breaking down the Heartchill Ice Venom’s toxicity made absorbing the remnants not all that difficult.
But the problem was the step before that.
As the spirits said, I had been deep in a trance of enlightenment at the time.
As I disassembled White Mountain’s Ice White Swordsmanship piece by piece and grasped the concepts of fire and ice, my conscious world began to change.
I had awakened not just to sorcery, but to the intent of martial arts.
And naturally, my body changed as well.
Mind and body are inseparable. A major change in the mind inevitably affects the body greatly.
Thus, after such a massive transformation, an absolute period of stabilization was needed.
I needed time to organize the fragmented insights and for the changed mind and body to synchronize.
The overheated muscles and bones needed to relax.
Like iron tempered in heat becoming stronger upon cooling, the body required this process.
But I had shoved in the Heartchill Ice Venom and Ghost Spirit Pills without that chance.
It was like pouring oil on an already overheating, creaking body.
Fortunately, the detoxification succeeded, and the yin energy was safely absorbed into the body.
However, the overheated body exceeded its limits, leading to internal injuries.
In fact, from the moment White Mountain died, I had been in a state where collapsing on the spot wouldn’t have been strange.
I had forced myself to hold on partly due to the crisis sense that Gu Min-chae or the North Sea Cult’s demons might appear anytime, and also because I didn’t want to show weakness to the believers I’d met after so long.
「You couldn’t show weakness to believers after six years. As the new Hierarch, you wanted to appear dignified.」
I had to become a beacon of hope, a savior, to the despairing believers psychologically.
Just as my master had, I too had to always show the believers the majesty of a divine being.
‘Succeeding me doesn’t mean simply becoming a ruler or authority figure. To the believers, you must become a god itself.’
‘What does becoming a god mean?’
‘A god is a being worshiped and revered by believers. Do you know what that implies??’
‘Not… really.’
‘Reverence means looking up at a being in the highest position. If that being descends even slightly, the believers’ gaze descends too. When you should be climbing higher, descending? Then you lose the qualifications as a god.’
‘…Then worship is—’
‘Worship means believing and following. They walk the path lit by the god like a lantern. In this harsh, dark samsara world, that lantern is the only thing to believe in and rely on. But if that lantern illuminates the wrong path, many will get hurt.’
‘…….’
‘Remember this well. A god must be in such a high and leading place. And alone. Placing two or more scatters the gaze.’
My master’s old admonition still burned deeply in my heart like a brand.
‘That path is so lonely and desolate that you can lean on no one. Yet you must always understand and comfort those who follow you. Do you have the confidence to endure this solitude?’
Gazing at my master’s lonely profile tinged with desolation, the foolish disciple couldn’t utter a word.
And now, I felt I could finally understand that loneliness a little.
Invincibility.
Undefeatability.
These were missions among missions that one must acquire to become a divine being.
Even if not truly invincible or undefeatable, they had to appear so in the believers’ eyes.
How lonely you must have been with no one to understand your heart all this time.
A corner of my heart grew heavy.
‘Then what should I do?’
「Put out the immediate fire first.」
‘The immediate fire.’
「Shouldn’t you stabilize the body first? Rest is crucial right now.」
‘You’re saying to recuperate, but that’ll take too much time.’
I was certain.
Once I returned to the Nine Dragons Branch Family like this, there would be no more time to rest.
Namgung San-yeong would thrash about desperately to survive somehow, and the Demonic North Sea Cult would notice White Bone Net Demon’s death and start preparing countermeasures.
Even if not, Gu Min-chae had probably realized by now that there might be some connection between ‘Dang Un-hwi’ and Onma.
There wasn’t a moment to rest.
The instant I tried to catch my breath even slightly was when my nape would be exposed.
「In that case, as expected—」
‘Refining the yin energy that’s severely injuring me and fully integrating it into my enlightenment seems most important, don’t you think?’
「A valid opinion, but it will still require time.」
I organized my thoughts and assumed the cross-legged position.
Circulating energy in a shaking carriage.
It could be dangerous, but to me, nothing was more important than getting through this time well.
I sank into a trance.
.
.
Contemplation.
A detailed map of my body’s interior formed like a picture in my mind.
The abnormally wide-open upper dantian was visible, and the lower dantian writhing vigorously like a volcano were visible.
The energies flowing from both had gathered near the solar plexus to form the middle dantian, but compared to the other two, it was still feeble.
Essence.
A tiny crystallized seed of energy lay there.
But its nature was yin-attributed.
‘So that’s it. That’s why the balance was disrupted.’
Having a yin nature was fine. Naturally, given the type of internal energy I’d built up.
But while the overall attribute was yin, upon closer inspection, the balance was completely off.
The chill of the Heartchill Ice Venom, the chill of the Ghost Spirit Pills, the poison qi from various toxins swallowed so far, and so on.
During the process of absorbing all the yin energy wholesale, it seemed to have been compressed without proper refinement.
With various attributes jumbled inside this small dantian, problems were inevitable.
Moreover, the middle dantian greatly affects physical enhancement and cognitive abilities. The negative impact was bound to be even greater.
Tzzzz—
Like decomposing fire and ice, I disassembled the essence step by step.
Releasing the compression unleashed energy in all directions.
I painstakingly untangled the complexly entangled energies strand by strand, melting them into the Poison Dragon Heart Formula.
The process was utterly grueling and exhausting.
A single slip could cause the disassembled energies to remix, worsening the situation.
Qi deviation would be the least of my worries.
It truly felt like walking on thin ice.
「Heh… How is he maintaining such concentration for hours on this difficult task without faltering—」
「Isn’t this routine in sorcery? It’s like offering sacrifices or prayers. Just an extension of that.」
「Even so, what tremendous mental fortitude. If it were me, I’d have failed and collapsed multiple times.」
「Usually, people try to fuse them all at once. They don’t think of disassembling. It’s reversing the mindset. Not something we, bound by preconceptions, could choose.」
「A method only possible for the Little Hierarch—」
I could hear the spirits’ admiration continuing, but it reached my ears only as faint whispers.
At some point, the outside world felt like a distant realm, nothing perceptible.
I was locked in my own prison, immersed solely in this task.
After completing it all.
「Heh!」
「To think you’d actually pull it off—」
Circulation began immediately.
「Wait, hold on!? You’re not resting here and pushing straight through?」
「The detoxification is already done—」
「If you just rest now, some of the disassembled energy might dissipate, so you’re avoiding any loss, right?」
「Truly stingy to the bone, like a miser—」
One heavenly circuit, two, three….
As the internal energy coursed through the governing and conception vessels, traversing the body, impurities filtered out naturally.
The toxicity gradually weakened.
The distinct attributes and traits of each internal energy faded.
By the fifth heavenly circuit, only pure yin energy remained.
‘Triggering the Heartchill Ice Venom and Ghost Spirit Pills didn’t just harm the body. Opening numerous fine meridians greatly increased circulation speed and efficiency.’
It was more efficient than running on a single narrow, bumpy road—running on multiple wide, paved roads.
Before, completing one heavenly circuit took half a day; now, it seemed to take less than half a quarter-hour.
After several more circulations, only the clearest yin energy remained.
‘The attainment of the Poison Dragon Heart Formula has deepened. About eighty percent now?’
A smile tugged at my lips as I guided the pure yin energy to the middle dantian, where it naturally coalesced once more.
In yin-yang theory, yang is light and rises, while yin is heavy and sinks.
The resulting yin essence was as solid as rock.
It might be smaller than before, but it was superior essence beyond comparison.
‘Done.’
A smile spread across my face.
「I never dreamed you’d succeed!」
「Congratulations on your achievement!!」
Onma and the spirits beamed, bowing their heads.
「Hm?」
「Huh?」
Suddenly, energy from the implanted yin essence in the middle dantian slid along the meridians and settled into the kidneys.
“???”
What’s this now?
Bewilderment flooded my face and those of the spirits.