Chapter 477
Chapter 477
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 477
Chapter Title: The Secret of the Inner Pill
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[Ugh…]
As Bu Eun-seol dodged the finger sword, the mysterious man let out a groan, his eyes beginning to glow with a crimson light.
*Swish.*
The man once again pointed his index and middle fingers at Bu Eun-seol.
His posture resembled the ready stance of a swordsman who had mastered an unparalleled sword art, preparing to face an enemy.
‘Perfect.’
Bu Eun-seol was in awe.
The man’s stance had no openings, and boundless power was gathered at his fingertips.
If he showed even the slightest vulnerability, it felt as though the man’s finger sword would instantly sever his neck.
‘Conversation can wait.’
Bu Eun-seol had originally come to speak with the man.
But in this state, he couldn’t even get close, let alone have a conversation.
“Forgive my impertinence.”
He, too, brought his index and middle fingers together, forming a finger sword.
Although he used no internal energy, his stance alone exuded a sharp aura, no less keen than a fine blade.
*Ch-chik!*
The finger sword extending from the mysterious man’s hand was already piercing toward his chest.
Even before the technique was fully unleashed, the fabric of his clothes around his chest was already tearing.
‘Fast.’
The man’s movements were quicker than the sound of tearing air.
Bu Eun-seol dared not face the attack head-on. He moved his fingers to deflect the flow of the attack diagonally to the right.
But in that instant, the technique changed, now aiming for his lower abdomen.
*Chik!*
The speed at which the technique shifted was like a flash of lightning.
Bu Eun-seol immediately used his movement technique to retreat, but the man had already closed the distance.
He was striking at the Jungbu point near his chest.
‘I can’t dodge it.’
Unable to break the technique, Bu Eun-seol had no choice but to meet the man’s incoming finger sword with his own.
*Fwoooosh!*
As their fingers collided, a whirlwind erupted in all directions, scattering the hair that had been covering the man’s face.
Only then could Bu Eun-seol see the man’s features clearly.
He was an old man with eyes as sharp as blades yet righteous, a high-bridged nose, and firmly set lips.
[Kugh.]
The old man, glaring at Bu Eun-seol with eyes dripping with killing intent, suddenly began to emanate a black madness.
*Woooong.*
A dark energy, like storm clouds, began to billow from the old man’s entire body, and suddenly, the form of his finger sword changed.
*Kiiiiiii!*
A piercing screech that seemed to tear at the eardrums echoed all around, and a jet-black force instantly blanketed the cave.
In that moment, Bu Eun-seol felt a pain as if his eardrums were bursting.
[Kaat!]
With the old man’s hoarse cry,
*Chwaaaak!*
A sound like tearing silk accompanied a torrent of storm-cloud-like energy.
That energy soon became a single, massive blade aura that rained down on Bu Eun-seol’s head.
‘The Seven Forms of Blood and Tears?’
In that instant, Bu Eun-seol’s eyes widened.
The blade technique the old man used was the blade halo, unleashed during the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears, but extended into the form of a blade aura.
‘The Seven-Fingered Demon Blade!’
Bu Eun-seol’s heart pounded.
‘I’ve finally found him.’
*Thump, thump.*
His heart raced wildly.
To be able to unleash such perfect and terrifying power without any internal energy…
It was proof that he had completely mastered the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears.
*Shwaek!*
In the brief moment Bu Eun-seol was lost in thought, the sharp blade aura was already splitting his head open.
‘I can’t avoid it.’
The old man’s blade aura had completely dominated time and space.
No matter what method Bu Eun-seol tried, he absolutely could not dodge it.
*Taaang!*
Just as the blade aura was about to split his skull, a clear sound rang out, and Bu Eun-seol was pushed back.
Unable to dodge the attack, he had used the Great Stillness Ice Body technique from the Glacial River Arts to freeze his head solid.
‘Thanks to the Divine Water Ki.’
Because the Divine Water Ki injected by Gongson Dan-a remained in his body, he suffered no ill effects even after using the Glacial River Arts to its maximum potential.
It seemed that the Divine Water Palace’s Ki and the Glacial River Arts were compatible, protecting his blood and energy flow.
*Ssk.*
Walking back to the old man, Bu Eun-seol furrowed his brow.
‘His internal energy is completely sealed. But how can he unleash a blade aura?’
Bu Eun-seol pondered for a moment before nodding in realization.
‘I see. He has mastered the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears to a divine level.’
That black blade aura contained no internal energy.
It was a trace of the blade’s path, flowing naturally from the techniques of the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears.
*Throb, throb.*
Even though he had been struck by a technique with no internal energy, Bu Eun-seol’s skull throbbed.
What if the old man hadn’t lost his internal energy? Even if he had used the Indestructible Body of the Vajra instead of the Great Stillness Ice Body, his head would have been split in two.
*Chwaaak!*
Just then, from within the storm-cloud-like force, a black blade aura poured out again.
*Shwaek!*
It curved gracefully like a whip, moving to slice Bu Eun-seol’s waist in half.
He was once again unleashing a blade aura using the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears.
‘Still can’t dodge it.’
*Taaang!*
Bu Eun-seol once again used the Great Stillness Ice Body to block the blade aura digging into his side.
Although the technique numbed his sense of pain, he felt an agony as if his ribs had been broken.
‘This is the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears.’
Even though the old man used the same technique repeatedly…
It transformed into an inescapable ultimate move that tore into Bu Eun-seol’s body.
The Way of the Blade.
This old man had ascended to a level in the Way of the Blade that even Bu Eun-seol dared not follow.
[Wooooo!]
The old man let out a tremendous roar that seemed to shake the Cave of Repentance.
He was raging madly that Bu Eun-seol had not died despite being struck by his finger sword repeatedly.
‘His mind is not sound.’
Looking at the old man’s crazed eyes, Bu Eun-seol could guess that his spirit was damaged beyond repair.
‘What should I do?’
Meanwhile, the old man formed another finger sword, preparing to unleash his blade aura on Bu Eun-seol again.
In this situation, his only option was to use his full internal energy and forcefully subdue him.
‘I’d rather offer my neck.’
Bu Eun-seol’s pride was wounded.
To think he would have to unleash all his internal energy to subdue a dying old man because he couldn't handle his techniques.
*Cheok.*
Retracting his finger sword, Bu Eun-seol brought his hands together and spoke.
“Old man!”
As Bu Eun-seol shouted, the old man unconsciously halted his attack.
“I cannot face you now. I will return for your teachings after I have had time to contemplate your techniques!”
Conversation could wait.
Bu Eun-seol wanted to comprehend and replicate the old man’s techniques, to subdue him without using internal energy.
“Please wait a moment.”
As he turned,
*Chwaak!*
Two streaks of black blade aura simultaneously blocked Bu Eun-seol’s path forward and his escape route.
It was a variation of the second form of the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears, Life in Death’s Grasp.
Just as the blade aura was about to tear into his body,
*Tzzzt!*
Bu Eun-seol’s body turned hazy, creating ninety-nine afterimages in the air.
*Chiiik!*
His body then became transparent, and the blade aura unleashed by the old man scraped against the cave wall and vanished.
“I used my internal energy to escape this time… but wait for me.”
Bu Eun-seol muttered in a low voice without turning his head, then calmly walked out of the cave.
After his figure had completely disappeared,
—Wuuuuuuuh!
The old man, bound in chains, howled in frustration from within his prison.
When Bu Eun-seol emerged, the demons who had been resting in the cave all came rushing out.
“What happened?”
At the very front was Tak Il-hon, his eyes wide.
“Don’t tell me you fought that man?”
“Well, we just had a brief physical conversation.”
“A physical conversation?”
Just then, a portly old man walked out from among the demons.
“I see. So your internal energy is intact.”
Perhaps because he had used Extreme Speed Shadowless Steps at full power, a faint shimmer of true qi was flowing from his body.
Not only that, but because he had used the Great Stillness Ice Body repeatedly, a white, cold mist was still emanating from him.
“That is correct.”
When Bu Eun-seol readily admitted it, the fat old man’s eyebrows shot up.
“How?”
“I hid my power beforehand.”
“Hid it beforehand?”
“Before entering Shaolin, I dispersed about half of my power throughout my eight extraordinary meridians and minor channels.”
Hearing this, the fat old man and the other demons looked at each other.
To evenly disperse and store the internal energy accumulated in the dantian throughout the meridians and channels was something that was only possible in theory.
To be capable of such a feat, one would have to possess an unimaginable level of internal energy.
“With that much power, you could have subdued that old man in the prison in an instant, couldn’t you?”
To the fat old man’s suspicious question, Bu Eun-seol muttered with a weary face as he walked past him.
“Wouldn’t that be a blow to my pride?”
“Huh?”
“Does it make sense for a young man in his prime to overpower an old man with brute force?”
Bu Eun-seol’s eyes flashed as he bit his lip.
“I intend to fight him without using my power until I can subdue him.”
“What in the world…”
The old man’s mouth gaped open like a fish.
The old man in the stone prison was someone they wouldn’t dare face even if their own internal energy was intact.
He was, in a word, the God of Death himself.
A terrifying figure who made even these demons, who had transcended life and death, tremble in fear.
Yet the young man before them wore a look of frustration, as if he had been unlucky enough to get hit during a sparring match.
“Well then, I will go rest.”
Bu Eun-seol walked away feebly, as if exhausted.
As he disappeared into a cave, the demons blinked, staring at each other.
The demons here had all been martial arts geniuses who had shaken the world in their youth.
And in their old age, they had become great demons who looked down upon the world.
But even they had never imagined reaching such a state at Bu Eun-seol’s age.
“What… what is he?”
At the fat old man’s words, Tak Il-hon replied nonchalantly.
“Just a thief.”
“A thief? Him?”
The old men shook their heads.
“If he’s a thief, then I’m an immortal who never ages.”
“That’s what he called himself.”
Tak Il-hon muttered, smacking his lips.
“Hmm.”
The old men each grunted and turned back toward their own caves.
“That kid.”
Tak Il-hon stared blankly at the spot where Bu Eun-seol had disappeared.
He had known from the start that he wasn't a thief, but a young grandmaster of martial arts.
But why?
Why was he engaging in a life-or-death struggle with the man in that prison, the one called ‘Death’?
—*Wouldn’t that be a blow to my pride?*
Suddenly recalling Bu Eun-seol’s stubborn eyes and voice,
“Hahaha. Ahahaha!”
A disbelieving laugh burst from Tak Il-hon.
*Stop.*
He stopped laughing.
“So he was a madman obsessed with martial arts.”
He muttered with an expression as if spitting out the words, then turned away.
Meanwhile, Bu Eun-seol, having entered his cave, began to review the fight.
‘He’s strong. Overwhelmingly so, even among all the masters I’ve seen.’
The old man in the prison had subdued him in an instant without using any internal energy.
It was because he had mastered the supreme art of the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears to a divine level.
‘If I can freely change and unleash the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears in any way… I could truly reach a state of invincibility.’
If he could master the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears to that extent, he would be able to counter even the ‘phenomena’ unleashed by a master of the Transcendent Realm.
‘But the Seven-Fingered Demon Blade must have reached the Transcendent Realm too.’
The Seven-Fingered Demon Blade had pacified the demonic path and risen to the pinnacle of the demonic martial world.
But the period he was active in the martial world was not very long.
However, martial artists speculated that he had at least reached the threshold of the Transcendent Realm.
Considering the battle records he had set while standing alone against the martial world… he was by no means inferior to the Twin Celestial Emperors of the Orthodox and Demonic Factions.
‘But…’
Shaking his head, Bu Eun-seol stroked his chin.
Seeing the old man’s execution of the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears, he had felt that something was off.
‘Could it be that the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears were created to fight masters several levels higher than oneself?’
The Seven Forms of Blood and Tears had no defensive techniques.
Bu Eun-seol had thought this was because the Seven-Fingered Demon Blade, Bu Jan-yang, longed for his own death.
But the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears displayed by the old man did not just yearn for his own death.
It was as if he sought mutual destruction with someone far stronger than himself.
The blade’s momentum was extremely narrow and directed inward, and every technique was imbued with a self-destructive variation.
It was as if he intended to bring death upon both himself and his enemy simultaneously.
‘That can’t be right.’
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
The old man’s mind was not sound.
It was possible that he wasn't executing the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears according to their original principles because of it.
What was stranger, however, was his appearance.
‘His face is too different.’
At the Shadowless Pavilion, Bu Eun-seol had seen a collection of portraits that included a depiction of the Seven-Fingered Demon Blade, Bu Jan-yang, in his middle age.
His features were not so much handsome as they were filled with a gallant spirit and a deep, wild charm.
But this old man, even with his face contorted in a frenzy, had rather refined features, didn't he?
‘I can’t be sure.’
Bu Eun-seol lay down in a corner of the cave.
There was nothing he could be certain of in this situation.
He couldn't have a leisurely chat with a terrifying old man who would unleash the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears at the slightest eye contact.
The only thing he could do now was to hone his martial arts until he could match him in a battle of techniques.
***
From that day on, Bu Eun-seol stayed in the cave, constantly fighting the old man in the prison.
But the old man’s Seven Forms of Blood and Tears were ever-changing, and far from a battle of techniques…
He couldn't even defend himself without internal energy.
‘Could it be because of the sense of security that I can use my internal energy unconsciously?’
Because he could use his internal energy, Bu Eun-seol could fight without fear or worry.
As long as the immense internal energy of five hundred years flowed within him, there was no chance he would die from the old man’s techniques.
‘Because of that safety net, there is no progress even in an extreme battle.’
His level of internal energy was too high and deep, and in dangerous situations, it would manifest on its own.
In effect, he couldn't truly risk his life in a fight.
‘It’s fine to give up mid-fight and return. But if I keep fighting with my internal energy like this, I won’t be able to win even after a year.’
Eventually, Bu Eun-seol stopped visiting the prison and secluded himself in his cave.
He entered a state of meditation, endlessly researching a secret to reduce his internal energy to its limit.
He did this to fight the old man, who used the Seven Forms of Blood and Tears without any power, on equal terms.
But it was not an easy task.
Humans are made to unconsciously use all their abilities when faced with a life-or-death situation.
Furthermore, temporarily suppressing or restraining five hundred years' worth of internal energy was practically impossible.
‘Is it impossible?’
Bu Eun-seol, who had been reviewing and studying his internal energy arts, struck the cave wall lightly in frustration.
*Thud.*
But because he had unconsciously used his internal energy, the entire cave ceiling rumbled.
*Tuk.*
At the same time, a piece of stone fell from the ceiling to the floor.
By chance, it was perfectly round, like a pill.
—*The Five-Animal Frolics of Hua Tuo, who was called the Divine Physician, and the Jeonjin Sect, which was the origin of Daoism…*
Suddenly, the Daoist secret that Gongson Dan-a had given him in the underground city of Mount Gugok came to Bu Eun-seol’s mind.
It had been filled with five thousand tiny characters, and out of respect for her sincerity, Bu Eun-seol had memorized it all before burning it.
But at the end of that text, there was a rather absurd section called the Secret Art of Pill Refinement.
—*The Dantian is empty, thus it can be filled. Even when full, it can be made deep and round like the abyss.*
*If you refine fierce energy and release viscous energy, you can finally become one with the universe…*
It was a secret art for condensing overflowing internal energy and then dispersing and storing it somewhere other than the sea of qi.
—*What fool would master such a secret art?*
At the time, Bu Eun-seol couldn't help but laugh while memorizing the text.
From a martial artist’s perspective, the deeper and thicker one’s internal energy, the better.
No one would practice a secret art that specifically condenses and then disperses internal energy to weaken one’s power.
‘But now, such a situation has arisen.’
Bu Eun-seol smiled faintly and recited the text of the Secret Art of Pill Refinement.
The first stage of the art was to think of the dantian as two separate spaces and temporarily store one’s internal energy in one of them.
Of course, one couldn't actually divide the dantian into two spaces, nor was it possible to condense formless internal energy.
But in internal arts, everything is a function of the mind (心), and the body responds accordingly.
The mind, unlike the body, has no clear limits; it can be infinitely expanded or contracted.
‘It’s working.’
In a single attempt, Bu Eun-seol divided his dantian into two spaces and condensed his internal energy into one of them.
‘Was it this easy?’
In truth, even for someone with deep internal energy, this secret art would take ten years of practice to use.
But Bu Eun-seol could already wield the energy of yin and yang freely, and his internal energy was the greatest of his generation.
Without realizing it, he had leaped over a decade of training.
‘This is…’
But something was strange.
As he condensed the internal energy into one side, it began to form a shape that was deep like an abyss and round without edges.
‘It’s like incubating an egg.’
To create a separate space within the body to condense internal energy through a spiritual art…
This secret was the very method a grandmaster of martial arts used to completely control their immense power, the secret to creating an Inner Pill…
But Bu Eun-seol, completely unaware of this, was single-mindedly focused on his desire to face the old man in a fair duel.
He created a new space and silently accumulated his internal energy within it.