Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Holy Flame
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The Sword Emperor and Sword Dragon had said that the Elixir was a living spiritual medicine. When I first heard it, I thought it was utter nonsense, but after experiencing it myself, I could understand what they meant.
To be precise, I didn't really drink it myself. The Elixir slipped down Yuri's throat on its own and burrowed through his meridians before settling into his dantian.
The time it took for the Elixir to fully integrate into the body was at least four or five days, conservatively speaking.
A spiritual medicine could be called a mass of qi. Inner cores harvested from monsters or spirit beasts were the same. But the Elixir was no mere lump of qi.
The Ascard Family had risen to the pinnacle of alchemy, even earning the pride of the Cartel. If the Orsia Family were the overlords of western martial clans, then the Ascard Family were the overlords of western alchemical houses.
The Elixir was the ultimate artificial spiritual medicine created by that very Ascard Family. In other words, it was the pinnacle of alchemy itself. It wasn't just a lump of simple qi or mana—it was magic itself, meant to be ingested and fused into the body.
Possessors had a high affinity and understanding of mana. Even Yuri, back when he could barely scrape by at 1st Tier without properly building his internal energy, had absorbed the Namgung Clan's Azure Heaven Pill in an instant.
But the Elixir couldn't be absorbed that way. Once it settled into the dantian, it lived and moved on its own, adapting to the environment of Yuri's dantian and transforming itself to match the nature of the internal energy he had cultivated.
A martial artist had three dantians.
The lower dantian served as the foundation for accumulating internal energy. Once you became aware of qi and drew it in, earnestly building internal energy in the lower dantian and manifesting martial arts through it, you reached 2nd Tier.
From 4th Tier onward, when you could imbue your internal energy with attributes, the process of opening the middle dantian began. The middle dantian, located in the heart, didn't accumulate internal energy, but opening it fused your cultivated internal energy and martial arts into one.
Making qi sharper, faster, hotter, colder... Once you could forge battle aura through such transformations, it meant the middle dantian was fully opened.
From 6th Tier, you transcended the middle dantian and tapped the upper dantian in the head. It was the realm of entering intent beyond internal energy.
Yuri was currently at 5th Tier, but he had opened his middle dantian long ago and was now knocking on the door of the upper dantian. He couldn't wield intent like high-Tier experts, but he had reached a level where he could draw on it somewhat.
In the game, the Elixir was a spiritual medicine that grew stats even after reaching max level. Its effect wasn't just increasing internal energy—it transformed the dantian and meridians to suit one's martial arts. It could even be said to change one's very constitution.
Though he couldn't confirm it, his lifespan had likely extended. With his innate qi greatly strengthened, his body had become tougher. He wouldn't get injured easily, he'd recover quickly, he wouldn't catch illnesses, and he'd be highly resistant to most poisons.
‘...’
Of course, overrelying on that could lead to picking up and eating random things like the Sword Dragon and ending up in mortal danger.
‘I get why it takes time now.’
He felt the vigorous flow of internal energy surging through his meridians. Yuri's internal energy, cultivated through Autonomous Thunder Core Art and Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art, had always been fast and fierce, but with the Elixir added, it surpassed its previous limits. Meridians that were hard to temper had benefited from the Elixir.
The lower and middle dantians had strengthened as well. Could it be called a sense of unity in his internal energy?
It didn't apply to Yuri, but—if someone was clumsy at forming battle aura, drinking one Elixir would let them form it as effortlessly as breathing. In short, the Elixir granted even those with ordinary talent a mana affinity and comprehension rivaling a Possessor's.
That didn't mean Yuri had benefited any less. This artificial spiritual medicine that changed one's very constitution. Yuri looked around at the orbs of battle aura floating idly nearby.
Orbs of battle aura formed externally and condensed.
‘It's different.’
Watching the floating orbs of battle aura, Yuri thought. Independent orbs separated externally. They moved according to his will, but it wasn't entirely satisfactory. Yuri clicked his tongue and raised his hand.
Crackle.
Battle aura from the Autonomous Thunder Core Art enveloped his hand. The already-formed purple lightning shifted at his command into the non-fiery flames of Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art. As he continued manipulating the battle aura, he glanced at the orbs around him.
‘Detached battle aura doesn't change.’
That was disappointing too, but the most comparable was, of course, Ox God Head's Full Moon Flow battle aura art. That bastard's Full Moon Ox Slaughter Fate was the finest battle aura art Yuri had ever seen.
Hundreds of orbs freely manipulated and poured out like a storm of a thousand flowers and rain. Those hundreds of orbs were different from the ones Yuri had just made—not just in power, but in movement itself.
Yuri could move his orbs now too, but it was incomparable to moving his own body. The only advantage the orbs had over his fists or feet was that they could move without him swinging them. And their power was even less than Yuri striking directly.
Of course, that level of power could still massacre 4th Tier martial artists, but Yuri had no interest in merely massacring 4th Tiers.
‘Is it intent after all?’
Did he need to infuse intent directly into the battle aura itself to make it move as he wished? At his current level, that was impossible.
He focused his mind, consciously directing his intent at the battle aura orb. The sensation of adding more internal energy from the dantian. But no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't work. Once detached from the body, it was already independent.
‘Intent...’
Focusing beyond the middle dantian to the upper dantian. A fragment of split intent settled into the orb.
—Boom!
The orb couldn't withstand it and burst. Pop, pop, pop! The five orbs floating around Yuri exploded in succession.
“You're quite shameless, making a mess in someone else's home.”
Ha-ryeong, who had been sitting nearby in the lotus position, clicked her tongue and opened her eyes.
“It's a good thing this is the Orsia Family's training ground. Anywhere else, and you'd get noise complaints from the neighbors. Who the hell does fireworks in broad daylight when it's not even festival season?”
“Tch...”
Yuri sniffled and grimaced. His head throbbed from over-focusing on intent, and blood poured from his nose. Sighing deeply at the sight, Ha-ryeong stood up.
“How many times have you had nosebleeds now?”
“I can wipe it myself.”
“I'm not going to wipe it for you. I'm going to smack you one.”
Ha-ryeong approached and raised her fist, bonking Yuri on the head with a thud.
“Keep forcing your unopened upper dantian like that, and your brain will rot, turning you into an idiot.”
“First time I've heard that.”
“How many martial artists in this world have even opened their upper dantian? Stories like that don't become common knowledge. It's just talk among those in the know.”
“And how do you know, Ha-ryeong?”
“I'm a mysterious assassin, so I know things beyond common sense.”
Yuri wasn't the only one who benefited from the Elixir.
Ha-ryeong's most fatal flaw had been her lack of internal energy. Despite her innate talent and Tier, the environment for cultivating her martial arts hadn't been ideal.
Sent to the Killing Guard Sect at age 14 and raised as an assassin, Ha-ryeong hadn't even fully mastered the Tang Clan's hidden weapon art, Heartless Slaughter Style, and had rarely consumed good spiritual medicines. But with the Elixir, she overcame all those shortcomings in internal energy.
Over three days, Yuri and Ha-ryeong fully integrated the Elixir into their bodies, and now they were adapting to the changes it brought. With their bodies and internal energy moving far better than their past experiences and sensations allowed, fine adjustments were necessary.
Lost in that, a full month had nearly passed since they arrived at the Orsia Family.
“If you're really stuck, just ask the Sword Emperor for advice. Why suffer alone when there's at least an 8th Tier supreme expert right nearby?”
“He told me to ask freely if I had questions, but if I actually ask casually, he'll trap me here.”
The Sword Emperor had been subtly—no, blatantly—suggesting every time they met that Yuri become an Orsia knight. Things like taking the deputy commander position of an empty brigade, and just yesterday, he even proposed leading the Sword Dragon's personal guard.
To martial artists knocking on the Orsia Family's gates with puffed-up dreams, it was a heavenly offer, but to Yuri, who had no intention of settling here, it was nothing but burdensome.
“Just run away right after the spar.”
Yuri grumbled, releasing the hand pinching his nose. The nosebleed had stopped in the meantime.
“Where to, if you escape the Orsia Family?”
“Not decided. Maybe poke around the gaps in Ranalsa... Or go find Bakerd?”
“After getting dragged around in Logos, you want to head to the gaps?”
At her offhand remark, Yuri's eyes turned icy.
“Kidding.”
Ha-ryeong shrugged with an expressionless face.
“If you want a battlefield, how about Bernok?”
“That's just a polite way of saying 'go die.'”
Yuri retorted in disbelief.
One year ago, an etherium vein was discovered in a small mine called Bernok.
Etherium, called a miracle of nature unintended by the gods, was the world's rarest and most expensive material. In the game, the Sword Emperor's endgame sword, Atria, was made of etherium, and most other endgame gear had etherium options.
The etherium vein in Bernok was the largest ever found.
Oxibel, the city that claimed the mine as its territory, did everything to keep the news under wraps, but couldn't catch every rumor.
Once the etherium vein's discovery leaked, nearby cities immediately declared war on Oxibel, aiming to seize the city and the vein outright.
An ordinary city might have surrendered, but Oxibel housed the Lucianel Magic Tower.
Arsen Lucianel, the pinnacle mage in the game—higher level than any other mage, evaluated as the second-hardest boss after the Heavenly Demon, edging out even the Sword Emperor.
And so, the dispute over the etherium vein had raged for a year. The cities that declared war hired mercenaries to monopolize the etherium and now couldn't back down due to massive war reparations.
Currently, top powerhouses from across the continent were involved in the Bernok conflict.
Magic tower lords: Pinnacle Arsen Lucianel and Dark Night Rodias Kesward.
Free mages: Radiant Wheel Dharma King and Heaven Healer.
Martial lords: Sword Ghost of the Three Tyrants, Slaughter Frenzy Wave of the Four Guards, and Radiant Extreme Heaven.
Plus major clans.
Recently, even the War Church's Fighting Saint led priests and holy knights into the fray, turning the Bernok conflict into utter chaos.
No matter how elite Yuri was among 5th Tiers, stepping into Bernok—where at minimum 7th Tiers rampaged—could mean dying to a stray attack.
“Finding the hidden Fist Wolf won't be easy.”
“I've gotten pretty famous this time. Maybe he'll come see me out of pride.”
“What if he's secluded in some deep mountain valley where rumors don't reach?”
“Hmm...”
“If you really have nowhere to go, come with me to the Killing Guard Sect.”
“Why the Killing Guard Sect?”
“To make introductions.”
“What introductions?”
“I've never brought a friend home in my life, so if I bring you, the sect leader will be thrilled.”
Her face made it impossible to tell if she was joking or serious. Yuri blinked and stared at Ha-ryeong's face, but her expression didn't change.
“You're serious?”
“The sect leader's so dry, he might not be thrilled after all.”
“So you are serious about going to the Killing Guard Sect.”
“No plans to turn you into an assassin now, so don't worry. And going to the Killing Guard Sect is all for your benefit.”
“Why?”
“Assassin sects gather a lot of information. With info sects like the Hao Clan, you need to be at least a hall leader for high-grade intel. You've gained fame from this incident, so they won't treat you lightly, but it's still better to go with me to the Killing Guard Sect.”
It made sense upon hearing it, so he nodded without further questions.
He set aside his obsession with the uncooperative battle aura orbs for now.
In two days, he had a spar scheduled with the Sword Dragon. Just as the Sword Dragon was preparing something for the spar, so was Yuri.
It was refining the "Crimson Blood Thread Kick" that had felt lacking in his fight with the Old Tree Witch. He had no intention of using only kicks in the spar with the Sword Dragon—that would be too arrogant and rude—but he at least wanted to hone it to a level comparable to Southern Sky Cloud Fist.
“Wait, please hold on...!”
“This is troubling!”
He was alone, swinging his legs to refine his kicking technique, when he heard Orsia knights murmuring in the distance.
Wondering what it was, he turned to see a tall, gaunt man striding toward them.
“I just want to see his face—what's the big deal?”
“He's a guest of Young Master Estor!”
“I'm a guest of Sword Emperor brother!”
“The family head said to wait in the reception hall...!”
“My little brother came a long way, and big brother dares to neglect him like this!”
He wore a fancy long robe, but honestly, it looked like a corpse dressed in human clothes.
His appearance was truly corpse-like. Tall with elongated limbs, but so devoid of flesh that his body seemed shriveled and pale. Sunken cheeks and dark, shadowed eyes. Yet his gaze was piercing, as if his pupils alone had been dipped in thick ink.
From the wide sleeves adorned with ornate patterns, his arms swung loosely. They were thin and not thick, but strangely, they didn't look frail. His arms resembled dried white charcoal, exuding diamond-like solidity.
Below his protruding wrist bones, his fists bulged with veins and knuckles jutting out like weapons, proclaiming a lifetime of fist training.
“Yuri.”
Ha-ryeong quickly approached and whispered in his ear.
“That man is...”
Before Ha-ryeong could introduce him, the man—still approaching from afar—flashed his eyes toward them. When that dark, piercing gaze reached them from a distance, he was suddenly right in front of Yuri and Ha-ryeong.
“You should introduce yourself.”
Yuri wasn't short, but the man towered a full head taller. Standing with hands behind his back, he tilted only his gaze down at Yuri and Ha-ryeong.
“My name is Dokgo Gwi-jin.”
At that name, Yuri's face stiffened slightly.
He wasn't greatly surprised. From afar, he had sensed the man's aura was extraordinary. It couldn't possibly be 6th Tier—it had to be higher. Among 7th Tier or above, only one fist fighter came to mind with such fame.
“We greet Fist King senior.”
Yuri and Ha-ryeong quickly bowed their heads.
Fist King Dokgo Gwi-jin. One of the Four Absolutes among the Supreme Martial Lords, a gray martial artist neither of the white nor black paths.
The Fist King was infamous for his eccentric temper. If something didn't suit him, he beat people regardless of affiliation. At the same time, he despised evil demons, slaying cultists and demonic cultivators alike.
“You're Thunder Cloud, and you're Dark Flower, right?”
The Fist King waved his long, large hand dismissively as a greeting.
“I saw you diligently swinging your legs. I hurried over in my impatience and interrupted your training.”
“It's fine.”
“You might think it's fine, but I'm not. If you'd swung your legs just a bit more while immersed, you might have achieved a trance-like enlightenment. My impatience ruined what could have been your breakthrough.”
He hadn't been that immersed... As Yuri blinked, searching for words, the Fist King parted his thin lips and grinned.
“So, to make up for it, I'll teach you a move—and let you see how fierce your fists are.”
“Pardon?”
“What's with the questions? Get ready already!”
The moment Yuri questioned, a thunderous roar descended.
“I won't attack, so come on—hit me!”