Chapter 362
Chapter 362
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 362
Chapter Title: The Artificial Core
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Click-clack.
The eight-horse carriage carrying Bu Eun-seol had already entered Hunan.
To take a short break, Won Se-mun stopped the carriage in front of an inn.
But as he stepped out of the carriage, a young man in yellow robes sent a telepathic message to Bu Eun-seol.
“A message from Master Cheol. He requests that you visit the Pavilion before heading to the Demonic Palace.”
He was a young member of the Wind and Cloud Brigade.
‘Master Cheol?’
Bu Eun-seol found it strange but nodded.
He then spoke to Won Se-mun.
“Return ahead of me. Tell them I’m making a quick stop at Sword Brow Mountain.”
Won Se-mun, whose internal energy had been enhanced with Bu Eun-seol's help, had also developed extremely keen senses.
Thus, he intuited that Bu Eun-seol had been conversing with someone and clasped his hands together.
“Understood. Please travel safely.”
Bu Eun-seol used his lightness technique and immediately ascended Sword Brow Mountain.
Thanks to the well-paved path at the entrance, he no longer had to weave his way up with his lightness technique as he would have on the treacherous mountain trails of the past.
When he finally entered the Wolf Fang Pavilion, the resounding shouts of martial artists echoed, and the interior, with its large halls, came into view.
“You’ve come.”
Master Cheol Wang Geol, who was standing at the entrance, spotted Bu Eun-seol and nodded.
He had clearly been waiting for him after hearing news of his arrival.
“Is something the matter?”
“You’ll know if you follow me.”
Wang Geol’s expression was grave.
The two walked side by side toward the outskirts of the Wolf Fang Pavilion’s west gate.
As they walked along a path paved with blue stones, a magnificent building surrounded by whitewashed walls came into view.
Upon reaching the area, the scent of medicinal herbs from somewhere assailed his nose.
“This place is…”
“Among all the disciples of our Pavilion, you are likely the only one who has never been here before.”
Wang Geol said calmly.
“To the Pavilion’s recovery room, that is.”
The Wolf Fang Pavilion, where martial arts were learned through real combat, inevitably had a high number of injuries.
Therefore, a large building had been constructed on the outskirts of the west gate to serve as a recovery room where injured disciples could rest and receive treatment.
However, Bu Eun-seol, who had mastered every martial art with ease, had never had a reason to come here.
Inside, the spacious interior contained several doorless rooms.
And in one of them, a large room with several beds lined up, a young boy lay in a deep sleep.
Standing before him was a middle-aged man in blue robes, his hands clasped behind his back.
It was the Vice-Pavilion Master, Dan Cheong.
“Vice-Pavilion Master.”
“You’re here.”
As Bu Eun-seol clasped his hands, Dan Cheong nodded.
“I hear stories about you every day through the Wind and Cloud Brigade… you’ve changed beyond recognition.”
He continued with a smile.
“Baek-yeon and So-jeon are out in the martial world. They wanted to see you so badly, but the timing was unfortunate.”
“They are busy, so it cannot be helped.”
“Hahaha. Of course, could they be busier than you?”
Though he smiled, Dan Cheong’s brow was slightly furrowed.
Seeing this, Bu Eun-seol’s heart grew a little heavy.
‘Something is wrong.’
Dan Cheong always smiled, no matter what happened. The only time he couldn't smile was when he stood before the Pavilion Master of Wolf Fang, Ak Mu-ryeong.
“What has happened?”
“Jeong Hyeon. Take a close look at the boy.”
Bu Eun-seol had once rescued thirty children who had been abducted in the underground caves of Sacheon.
Of the rescued children, he had sent fifteen who had nowhere to go to the Wolf Fang Pavilion. Ten of them became official disciples.
Among the ten disciples, the one with the most outstanding talent, Agwi, was given the name Jeong Hyeon at the Wolf Fang Pavilion.
And the boy lying on the bed was him.
‘Why?’
Bu Eun-seol furrowed his brow.
He had heard that Jeong Hyeon was not only the fastest to learn martial arts but had also implicitly become the leader of the young disciples.
So why was he suddenly lying here with such severe injuries?
“Hmm.”
Bu Eun-seol stared intently at the face of Jeong Hyeon, who lay on the bed.
He had grown into a handsome young man with thick, sword-like eyebrows and a high-bridged nose.
During his time training at the Wolf Fang Pavilion, his ragged appearance had vanished, replaced by the air of a young hero.
‘This is…’
A flash went through Bu Eun-seol’s eyes as he carefully examined Jeong Hyeon’s condition.
Weren’t all the scars on his body inflicted by the martial arts of the Wolf Fang Pavilion?
“What happened here?”
Master Cheol was the one who answered.
“The ten disciples you brought here have always lived and trained together. But one day, during a sparring session, they reportedly became ferocious and attacked each other as if to kill.”
He continued with a look of incomprehension.
“In the end, Jeong Hyeon knocked down all the other children and was about to strike their necks with a weapon. An instructor who witnessed this rushed over and immediately stopped him.”
“You call this stopping him?”
Bu Eun-seol looked incredulous.
The marks on Jeong Hyeon’s body were from three or four masters of the Wolf Fang Pavilion unleashing their skills on him simultaneously.
“It was the best we could do.”
Master Cheol said with a bitter expression.
“Jeong Hyeon’s personality had suddenly turned savage, and his internal energy had surged several times over. It took all three instructors who were teaching the disciples to finally subdue him.”
“Three instructors, you say?”
The Wolf Fang Pavilion, which once taught martial arts haphazardly, had now begun to select instructors and teach its disciples systematically.
And those selected as instructors were masters with abundant combat experience even within the Wolf Fang Pavilion.
Masters who could become hegemons of a region if they went out into the martial world had to join forces to subdue a single boy who had just begun his training?
Was Jeong Hyeon a prodigy whose talent surpassed even Bu Eun-seol’s?
“Are you saying Jeong Hyeon possessed that level of skill?”
Master Cheol shook his head at Bu Eun-seol’s question.
“It was because of this.”
He pointed to a wooden box placed beside the bed.
When Bu Eun-seol opened it, he found a single red bead mixed with blood.
“This is…”
Bu Eun-seol’s eyes widened.
It was an internal core.
Internal cores don't just form in spiritual beasts.
If a human accumulates five hundred years’ worth of powerful internal energy, an internal core will slowly form in their body.
But these boys had just begun learning internal energy cultivation methods, let alone forming a core. How could they have produced one?
“The power within this core is what infused Jeong Hyeon and the other children with internal energy and demonic energy.”
*Woong.*
Bu Eun-seol used Telekinesis to levitate the core before his eyes.
As the core, shimmering with an ominous red light, drew closer to his face, he detected a faint yet familiar scent of blood.
It was the scent of the Human Flower.
‘So that was it.’
Bu Eun-seol finally understood.
The reason why that secret faction had been cultivating Human Flowers in the underground city of Sacheon.
They were using Human Flowers, forcibly created from the vital blood of human bodies, to create artificial internal cores.
‘So this was their goal from the beginning.’
The Demonic Purgatory Puppets and the Soul-Lost Puppets were likely byproducts of creating these cores.
The fact that no improved versions of the Demonic Purgatory Puppets or Soul-Lost Puppets had appeared seemed to prove it.
“I heard that you’ve been destroying the organizations that create Human Flowers while roaming the martial world.”
Dan Cheong said calmly.
“That’s why I called you. Your business is the Pavilion’s business.”
In truth, the Wolf Fang Pavilion cared little for the affairs of the martial world, be it Human Flowers or internal cores.
As long as no one provoked the Pavilion, all its disciples focused solely on the path of martial arts.
But since Bu Eun-seol had shown his will to deal with the organizations creating Human Flowers, they had informed him of this fact.
In order to help him.
“I’ve had the Pavilion’s Wind and Cloud Brigade search for the people who created these cores.”
“Thank you. However, this is my personal matter, unrelated to the Pavilion’s affairs.”
Bu Eun-seol said with a grave expression.
“Doesn’t the Wind and Cloud Brigade have much to do? I will handle this matter personally.”
“Bu Eun-seol.”
Dan Cheong spoke in a kind yet solemn voice.
“Every disciple is one with the Pavilion. In other words, a disciple’s business is the business of the entire Pavilion.”
The Wolf Fang Pavilion, to Bu Eun-seol when he was a young disciple, and even now, to Bu Eun-seol, the successor to the Demonic Palace.
Still intended to be his sanctuary.
“I understand.”
Suppressing the emotion welling up in his chest, Bu Eun-seol spoke respectfully.
“However, I also have a useful intelligence network, so please have the Wind and Cloud Brigade investigate only to the extent that they are not put in danger.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, did you extract the core, Vice-Pavilion Master?”
At Bu Eun-seol’s words, Dan Cheong shook his head bitterly.
“It was merely expelled by chance while the boy was fighting the instructors.”
“By chance?”
“As it was an artificially made core, it wasn't stored in his dantian. This small core was lodged in his Amun acupoint.”
The Amun acupoint is the first point on the Governor Vessel meridian, located in the hollow at the back of the neck when one bows their head.
It’s a place dense with cranial nerves, and tampering with it can lead to paralysis or muteness.
Dan Cheong said with a bitter expression.
“I checked the Amun acupoints of the other children, but there was no trace of a core. This means they were arbitrarily injected into fatal pressure points.”
Even for someone like Dan Cheong, he couldn't recklessly tamper with a core whose location was unknown.
“Wouldn’t you be able to find it by tracing the flow of their true energy?”
“The internal energy cultivation method these children learned was created by the Pavilion Master. It’s so complex that I can’t discern the flow of true energy, no matter how closely I look.”
“The Pavilion Master, who is in seclusion?”
“When these children arrived at the Wolf Fang Pavilion, he had briefly emerged from his seclusion. When I told him you sent them, he personally examined their constitutions and bestowed an internal energy cultivation method upon them.”
Dan Cheong gave a faint smile.
“He said that without the Blood Diamond, there was no one else qualified to teach such children an internal energy cultivation method.”
Pavilion Master Ak Mu-ryeong, realizing the children's talents were exceptional, had passed down a powerful internal energy cultivation method comparable to the Reverse-Polarity Divine Art.
“Then where are the other children?”
Dan Cheong began to speak in response to Bu Eun-seol’s question.
“Their demonic nature was triggered by the artificial cores, so they are temporarily confined in the Wall-Gazing Cave. We are waiting, as the Pavilion Master is in seclusion.”
“I see.”
After a moment of thought, Bu Eun-seol nodded.
“There’s no need to wait.”
“Hmm?”
“I will locate the cores and take care of them.”
Dan Cheong and Master Cheol looked at each other and tilted their heads in confusion.
No matter how great a martial talent Bu Eun-seol was, it was impossible for him to comprehend a cultivation method bestowed by Pavilion Master Ak Mu-ryeong.
“Well, alright.”
Just then, Dan Cheong readily nodded and said.
“With you, who knows what kind of wondrous method you might have.”
Bu Eun-seol had always accomplished the impossible.
Knowing this well, Dan Cheong had developed a firm faith in Bu Eun-seol.
Bu Eun-seol, along with Dan Cheong and Master Cheol, went to the Wall-Gazing Cave at the edge of Sword Brow Mountain.
Bu Eun-seol had initially expected to find the nine children there, meditating and chanting mantras.
To suppress the demonic nature triggered by the evil energy, one would need to chant mantras continuously.
But surprisingly, the children were looking at martial arts manuals with calm faces.
“Those cores don’t seem to emit any particular energy in normal circumstances, unless they see blood or the host becomes agitated.”
Bu Eun-seol nodded at Wang Geol’s words.
“So their demonic nature was triggered by the power of the cores during sparring.”
“That’s right.”
As Bu Eun-seol approached, the children put down their books and all bowed their heads.
Not just Jeong Hyeon, but all the children had shed their ragged appearances and now exuded the dignified air of a martial family's scions.
‘I wonder if it’s possible.’
Bu Eun-seol approached the boy standing at the very front and asked.
“What is your name?”
“It is Kang Un.”
“That is a good name.”
Bu Eun-seol placed a hand on his Daechu acupoint and said.
“There’s no need to be nervous. I’m just going to examine your body.”
Then, he slowly circulated the Heavenly Will Divine Art.
As he did, the pattern of true energy circulation occurring in Kang Un’s body began to manifest in Bu Eun-seol’s own body.
‘So the Pavilion Master also created an internal energy technique similar to the Reverse-Polarity Divine Art.’
Bu Eun-seol, having synchronized their energy flows with the Heavenly Will Divine Art, wore a surprised expression.
The internal energy cultivation method they had learned, much like the Reverse-Polarity Divine Art, could utilize both yin and yang energy and exhibited an outstanding flow of true energy.
Because of this, Bu Eun-seol felt no discomfort even after synchronizing their energy flows.
‘It’s so similar that I can’t tell the difference.’
After a moment of thought, Bu Eun-seol spoke to Kang Un and the other children.
“All of you, get up and attack me.”
Instantly, the children’s eyes widened in unison with shocked expressions.
Bu Eun-seol looked at the children in the cave and said.
“You can unleash your killing intent. Don’t hold back; attack me with all your might.”
At that, Wang Geol shook his head.
“After we’ve finally stabilized them, you want to trigger their demonic nature again?”
“I believe I can only find the location of the cores if they use their true energy violently.”
“How?”
Bu Eun-seol answered honestly.
“Because I have mastered a secret art that allows me to find it by synchronizing our internal energy techniques.”
“What? What kind of absurd…”
As Wang Geol’s eyes widened, Dan Cheong, who had been lost in thought, waved his hand.
“Let’s watch first.”
With Dan Cheong’s permission, Bu Eun-seol once again addressed the children.
“Attack without worry. Even if your demonic nature erupts, I will deal with it immediately.”
Bu Eun-seol’s words carried a sense of reassurance and an irresistible power.
Seeing the hesitant children, Bu Eun-seol spoke again.
“In any case, those cores will slowly dissolve into your bodies and annihilate your humanity.”
He then slowly extended his hand.
“You can let it erupt. No, make it erupt. That’s the only way I can confirm it quickly.”
*Shwaat!*
Just then, a sharp energy surged toward Bu Eun-seol’s face.
A boy to Bu Eun-seol’s side had instantly used a strange claw technique, aiming to slice his carotid artery.
It was not only unbelievably fast but also contained astonishing internal energy.
‘So this is its power.’
Bu Eun-seol wore a look of surprise.
To think they could exert this much internal energy with the power of these artificial cores alone.
*Cheok.*
Bu Eun-seol instantly used a grappling technique to seize the boy’s wrist pulse.
Simultaneously, he unleashed the Heavenly Will Divine Art to synchronize their energy flows, and felt a sharp sting near his temple.
He had felt a sensation as if a powerful energy was surging from the temple area.
‘They’ve all been placed in dangerous acupoints.’
The places where those small artificial cores resided within the body.
They were all acupoints that were difficult for an enemy to attack, places that were constantly defended, or fatal points that would cause a critical injury the moment they were struck.
*Jiiing!*
Bu Eun-seol unleashed the True Will Art, forming an extremely sharp and precise blade.
*Pat!* The sharp blade plunged into the boy’s temple. It slipped past dangerous blood vessels and then transformed into the shape of forceps.
*Shwook.*
As he withdrew the manifested True Will Art, a tiny red bead fell from the temple to the floor.
It was the artificial core.
“Haaaap!”
Seeing blood, the children became agitated and all charged at Bu Eun-seol.
*Pat! Piiing!*
The moment the children’s attacks reached him, Bu Eun-seol unleashed the Heavenly Will Divine Art to synchronize their energy flows and immediately used the True Will Art.
Soyo acupoint, Bongmi acupoint, Gimun acupoint, Noehae acupoint…
The places where the cores were hidden were all fatal points, difficult to attack and deadly if struck.
But even while dodging their attacks, Bu Eun-seol precisely wielded the True Will Art, navigating past dangerous nerves and blood vessels to begin extracting the cores.
“Truly divine skill.”
Dan Cheong, who was watching, exclaimed in admiration.
To manipulate true energy with such precision while evading an enemy’s attacks.
Wasn’t this proof that Bu Eun-seol had smoothly reached the state of perfect tranquility, where clarity is born from emptiness?
*Dududuk.*
The red cores rolling on the floor soon numbered over nine.
And all the boys were trembling, bleeding from their acupoints. The true energy they had accumulated was draining away along with the cores.
“Master Cheol.”
Bu Eun-seol took out a porcelain bottle containing five pills from his robes and offered it to Master Cheol.
“Have them take half of one of these pills each. It will quickly restore their exhausted minds and bodies.”
Master Cheol sniffed the fragrance wafting from the porcelain bottle and nodded.
“The Purple Cloud Pill from the Mount Hua Sect.”
“That’s right. I happened to acquire them during my travels in the martial world.”
Just then, Dan Cheong approached and let out a cry of admiration.
“Incredible.”
He couldn’t hide his astonishment as he spoke.
“That technique of manifesting true energy… I saw it at Seokgwang Plains when you fought the Heavenly Sword. But how on earth did you locate the acupoints where those cores were embedded?”
Bu Eun-seol answered honestly.
“As I said, I learned a secret art that allows me to temporarily synchronize with another person’s flow of true energy.”
“You have a good sense of humor.”
Dan Cheong said with a smirk.
“Surely you don’t mean you met *him* during your travels and learned his martial arts?”
Bu Eun-seol’s eyes gleamed at the unexpected words.
Could it be that Dan Cheong had met his grandfather, Bu Jan-yang, and knew he had mastered such a secret art?
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t there only one person in the world who possesses a secret art capable of stealing another’s method of energy circulation?”
‘So it is the Seven-Fingered Demonic Blade.’
His grandfather was a master from Shaolin, but he was unknown to the martial world.
If it was someone whose skills Dan Cheong could recognize, it must be the Seven-Fingered Demonic Blade, which meant the two were the same person.
But unexpected words came from Dan Cheong’s mouth.
“The Righteous Heavenly Emperor.”
Dan Cheong looked at Bu Eun-seol and said calmly.
“In the history of the martial world, the only one to ever use such a technique was the Righteous Heavenly Emperor, Shintu Mubi. Was it not?”