The End of Aggro is Obsession (2)
In my early childhood... I was an orphan.
In this godforsaken world, men were notoriously weak in constitution and required protection. Consequently, it was the norm for them to live off the strength of women, surviving without ever having to lift a finger or go hungry.
One day, driven by extreme hunger, I stole a bundle from a traveling merchant. Inside, I found a few gold coins and a book—items that would change my destiny forever.
After being swindled out of those stolen coins by a clerk at an inn, I ground my teeth in rage and headed straight for the local village school.
Fortunately, I must have had a natural aptitude for memorization, as I quickly rattled off the Chinese characters the teacher was reciting, allowing me to read the book I had stolen from the merchant's bundle.
To my surprise, the book was an introductory manual on internal energy, teaching the methods of cultivating Naegong.
The text described the simplest form of Tonabeop—the art of breathing while keeping one's eyes closed—as the beginning of internal energy cultivation, noting that the sensation of Naegong varied from person to person.
It claimed it could take years, or at the very least several months, but I felt the Naegong and successfully stored it in my body in just a single day.
I was, quite literally, a genius.
My Naegong moved exactly as I willed it, and by the time I reached thirty, through self-study, I had achieved Hwangoltaltae—the shedding of the mortal frame—and ascended to the realm of Hwagyeong.
The book had stated that once one reaches the realm of Hwagyeong, it becomes difficult to find a worthy opponent. Finally, I set out on my journey through the Murim to exact the revenge I had waited twenty years for.
After much searching, I tracked down the clerk who had swindled me in my youth. By then, he was using my gold coins as capital to run a usury business.
Satisfied, I gladly applied the Bungeunchakgol technique, crippling him for his past transgressions.
The world was shocked by the insane actions of this new Hwagyeong master, labeling me a devil born of the heavens and calling me the Cheonma.
However, they did not brand me a public enemy of the Murim. Most in the Central Plains preferred not to interfere in matters of personal grudges.
Lost and wandering without a purpose, I began a pilgrimage through the Murim to challenge those rumored to be strong, wanting to see just how powerful I truly was.
I participated in various martial arts tournaments, facing countless masters—third-rate, second-rate, first-rate, peak, and transcendent—and encountered a multitude of martial arts.
Just as I began to think there were no more opponents left to defeat, I was finally sought out by a master of the Hyeongyeong realm, produced by the Mount Hua Sect.
The Hyeongyeong master of Mount Hua, 'Hwaryeon'.
She was truly, terrifyingly strong.
While I freely wielded Geomgang (sword energy), she matched me with ease, and then she revealed the next level—the Simgeom, a sword manifested from a burning red mental image, which can only be used in the realm of Hyeongyeong.
The moment I saw that sword, manifested from a burning red mental image, I was filled with such awe that I lost my will to fight.
It wasn't that my spirit was broken, but rather that I had found a clue to reach a new realm, so I acknowledged my defeat and withdrew.
The duel with Hwaryeon was my first defeat.
Once again, a goal—a new realm—had been set for me, and it was undoubtedly time for training.
Just as I was about to go back to swinging my sword in a state of empty-mindedness, Hwaryeon advised me to try creating my own martial art, suggesting that using the know-how I had accumulated might reveal a new path.
My own martial art...
My own martial art...
Hwaryeon was clearly speaking of a unique, personal style.
Hwaryeon stayed at Mount Hua, saying she, too, wanted to find a clue to the next realm by my side.
And so, we began our training at Mount Hua, each searching for the key to our next level.
Hwaryeon recommended creating an internal energy cultivation method through pure and orthodox means, but I was stubborn and wanted to go the opposite way.
Hwaryeon tried to stop me, calling it madness, but I persisted, choosing to twist the orthodox method of storing Naegong and instead circulate my energy against the heavens—an Yeokcheon method.
And in the end, I was able to create my own unique martial art, the Cheonma Singong.
Perhaps because it was a method of circulating energy against the heavens, a black aura erupted from my body, visible to the naked eye.
Hwaryeon disapproved, calling it demonic energy, but she could not hide her astonishment at the incredible efficiency of the Cheonma Singong in accumulating and utilizing internal energy.
Based on the Cheonma Singong, I developed various unique techniques, and ten years later, at the age of forty, while in the midst of Ungijoshik (energy circulation), I finally mastered it. By merging my consciousness and subconsciousness into one, I reached the realm of Hyeongyeong.
Upon reaching Hyeongyeong, the black demonic energy that had been erupting from my body vanished, as if it had never existed in the first place.
I decided to call it the realm of Talma, as I had finally been liberated from the demonic energy.
Thinking I had finally reached a realm equal to Hwaryeon, I went to where she was staying to challenge her to a duel... but Hwaryeon was not there.
When I visited the Mount Hua Sect, they told me that due to the activities of the Blood Cult—a demonic force from outside the borders that used Jiangshi as their vanguard—Hwaryeon had urgently joined the Murim Alliance to stop a man called the Blood Demon.
Desperate to duel Hwaryeon as soon as possible, I set off for the place where the Blood Cult was active.
On my way to find her, I witnessed the Blood Cult indiscriminately slaughtering innocent civilians, but since it had nothing to do with me, I dismissed it and moved on.
After many twists and turns, when I finally met Hwaryeon... she smiled brightly and welcomed me, despite her visibly exhausted appearance.
And after hearing the full story from her, my blood boiled with rage.
At first, I was terrified because she explained that the Blood Demon was a man who had nearly reached the realm of Saengsagyeong.
To evade the surveillance of the Murim Alliance, the Blood Demon had committed heaven-defying atrocities, including extreme slaughter and human sacrifice. While trying to forcibly enter the Hyeongyeong realm, the collision between his consciousness and subconsciousness drove him completely insane. He killed all his own disciples, and one day before I arrived, Hwaryeon had clashed head-on with a monk named 'Judang' from the Shaolin Temple.
Hwaryeon expressed concern that he might have neared the Saengsagyeong realm, given his momentum in a 2-on-1 fight against two Hyeongyeong masters. The fact that he was nearing such a realm without even putting in the effort twisted my gut, so I immediately stepped forward to help Hwaryeon.
Thus, the Blood Demon, who had been fighting three Hyeongyeong masters in a 3-on-1 deathmatch, could no longer maintain the upper hand. He fought us on equal footing, but as time passed, he grew increasingly disadvantaged. He began to act defensively and started chanting spells we couldn't understand. Because the Blood Demon used such deviant martial arts, we deployed a formation to prevent his escape, and finally, we each unleashed our ultimate techniques at their peak to deliver the final blow to his body.
The Blood Demon's hands and feet trembled, and he continued to spew nonsense, clearly having lost his mind until the very end.
No sooner had he finished his rambling than his body began to glow, and soon it exploded with massive force, swallowing everything around us.
The last words I heard clearly while being engulfed in the light were these:
.
..
...
Explosion is art?
You crazy bastard...
When we came to our senses, a non-human entity that called itself an Archangel asked for our help, claiming they had saved us.
Even though the entity before us was undoubtedly stronger than we were, we gladly accepted the request because of their polite, non-coercive attitude. We joined the existing nine members, becoming a group of twelve heroes.
And those twelve heroes were helplessly defeated by a single existence.
While we were wallowing in the sense of defeat, a man who seemed to have no abilities whatsoever appeared late, and the way he clung to us, claiming to be a hero just to survive, was absolutely disgusting.
I took him to the battlefield with a reasonably valid justification, intending to deal with him once and for all.
Since he was obviously incompetent and had nothing to offer, I thought I might as well watch.
How would he beg for his life?
But...
'Cheonma... please make sure to apologize to me later.'
'Don't... don't abandon me... I'll be counting on you.'
Leaving behind those unsettling words... he raised both hands, assumed a strange posture of clawing at the air, and shouted.
"Tsunami! Red!"
No sooner had those bizarre words left his lips than a strange, grating sound that made me frown began to spread through the air of the battlefield.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeng-
Thirty seconds after the strange sound began, it suddenly vanished as if the world had gone deathly silent.
As the deathly silence hung in the air, the surrounding energy began to be sucked rapidly toward the man.
What is he trying to do...
Whoosh-
A moment later, a white current of energy erupted from the man's forearms, traveling up his arms to his fingertips.
The white energy gathered at his fingertips, coalesced into a sphere, turned red, and immediately began to expand upward and downward.
The energy expanding downward stopped the moment it touched the ground and spread left and right, while the energy expanding upward continued to soar without obstruction.
It was just as a barrier filled with red liquid, nearly 30 meters high and 50 meters wide, was rising.
"Puh-huff... ugh!"
Gurgle-
Gurgle-
!!!
A massive spray of bright red blood erupted from the man's mouth.
Merlin and I were so stunned we couldn't say a word, just staring at him.
Even so, the man kept his eyes squeezed shut, gritted his teeth, and displayed astonishing grit, sweating profusely as he maintained the same posture.
"Puh-huff... ugh!"
By the time the red barrier had surged to a height of 50 meters and a width of 100 meters, the man vomited blood once more and turned his head to look at Merlin and me.
!
He was so pale from the amount of blood he had lost.
Ignoring the blood flowing from his eyes, nose, and mouth, he bowed his head toward Merlin and me in that state.
As if... asking us to take care of him in the future.
The man then performed a motion of clawing downward with both hands, which had been in that strange position, and collapsed forward, seemingly having lost consciousness.
Vwooooooooom-
Along with a sound that seemed to urgently announce that something was departing, the red barrier—no, that *thing*—which was 50 meters high and 100 meters wide, turned into a wave and began to advance into the battlefield.
"Hey, are you okay!? Are you still alive!?"
Merlin's flustered voice brought me back to my senses.
....
It seemed I would have to revise my assessment of this man.
This man... he's different.
I want to... keep an eye on him for a while.
Ever since my obsession with martial arts... for the first time in a long while, that feeling of obsession was slowly creeping back up.