Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng
"Hah… hah…!"
I collapsed to the ground, clutching my chest as if it might burst.
"Why the hell does this training never get any easier no matter how many times I do it?!"
My throat felt ready to tear open. Steam rose in thick white plumes from my bare back. The ragged sound of my own breathing filled my ears.
I was at the summit of the cliff. Cold rain hammered relentlessly against my stripped back as I lay sprawled, gasping for air. It had been pure misery at first, but by this point the foul weather felt almost like a blessing—cooling my body temperature in real time and providing a constant supply of drinking water.
My entire body was in agony. I couldn't stay still for even a moment, thrashing about as if someone had sprinkled salt on a worm.
You could at least have undone the seals this time. I understand not using your internal energy for the sake of the training, but getting used to two-tenths Reverse Hand on flat ground is one thing. Applying that state to a cliff this sheer was pushing it a little far.
I rolled back and forth across the cliff top, tumbling through the rainwater.
"You know how it always goes in those storytellers' and idle gossips' tales. At first it's so hard you want to die, but later on you're humming a tune while you do it, easy as anything. Something like that… So I figured it'd be the same this time."
Mumyeong was silent for a moment before answering.
When the body develops enough that it becomes easy enough to hum a tune, you raise the difficulty of the training. You don't just keep smiling and doing the easy version. There would be no progress then—no meaning to the training at all.
"I was about to say the climb just now was still doable. Good thing I didn't."
…Doable?
My thrashing body froze solid.
"Wait, Mumyeong. The conversation—"
Reverse Hand, three-tenths. Commence.
Self-Strengthening Reverse Hand engaged
—Kuuung!
Every muscle in my body clenched tight along with my veins, cramping as if seized by a full-body charley horse.
"Khuh…!"
Mumyeong had named this training method the Self-Strengthening Reverse Hand. For any action—even something as simple as extending a single finger—it demanded several times the usual force. It felt as though the opposing muscles were fighting with everything they had to block the ones trying to move, cramping against them in total opposition.
The advantage of this training was that the intensity of the resistance threshold could be raised indefinitely as the body developed. Ever since I had once dragged the Heavenly Demon Emperor up from the abyss, my body had undergone another massive mutation, taking the Heavenly Demon Emperor's physique at the height of his prime as its template. In other words, the load imposed by Self-Strengthening Reverse Hand had grown beyond anything I could have imagined.
If you applied the real-time tension currently crushing and wringing my body like a cramp to an ordinary person, they would burst apart on the spot like a wet lump of meat tied up in thread.
A short while passed. I finally managed to grow accustomed enough to the increased resistance of my body to pull myself together.
Breathing all right?
I dragged in scorching breaths.
"I'll live. No problem."
Good.
—Uduudduk.
Three-tenths Reverse Hand still wasn't familiar to my bones and joints; every movement I made sent my joints screaming.
Honestly, I expected you to stay face-down for another three gak or so.
"Even if my growth rate is fast, the second you raise it another one-tenth I'll be gasping the same as before."
True enough.
I let out a deep sigh and swept my rain-soaked bangs back, fully exposing my forehead. Then I looked down.
Rainwater washed down the sheer face of the cliff far below. Between those channels of runoff, the traces of my ascent were still visible. Thousands of years must have passed over this place, yet the only artificial marks that remained were the ones I myself had left.
I raised my head and surveyed the surroundings, where no sound existed beyond the wind and rain. Countless events drifted through my mind. Many thoughts flashed past. At the end of them all, I spoke briefly.
"I always thought I was just spinning my wheels in place… but I really have grown."
You still have a long way to go.
In the wind, rain, and darkness, crimson eyes gleamed.
"Coming up here right around sunset was worth it. With darkness this deep, even if there were a witness, black would be more than covered."
I lifted a hand and pressed my index finger and thumb together, gathering force.
—Ttaak.
I snapped my fingers.
—Jjeoeoeong!!!
With a thunderous roar, a single streak of deep blue-black lightning raced along my body. I found the traces I had left a year ago. Two dug-out pits appeared before my eyes. Settled between them was the largest of all—a ginseng radiating a frosty light.
"Long time no see. Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng."
I approached without hesitation and dug it up without restraint.
A year ago, I had stumbled upon three roots of Heavenly Hundred Ginseng in this very place. They were called the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng, the Thousand Fire Hundred Ginseng, and the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng—three roots bearing the attributes of ice, fire, and thunder respectively. Of those, the only ones I could handle, the ones whose natures I could even begin to match, had been the fire- and thunder-aspected ones: the Thousand Fire Hundred Ginseng and the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng.
The largest of them, the one that had radiated the most powerful spiritual energy—the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng—I had been forced to leave behind here if only to avoid exploding on the spot.
"It's a lot bigger than I expected."
The Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng in my hand was nearly larger than my forearm. I had guessed as much from the size of the leaves and stem, but the actual root that emerged was almost double the smallest of them—the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng—falling only a little short.
Location for circulation and absorption.
A massive wild dog emerged from my shadow and surveyed the surroundings. Even holding it for a moment made my hand feel as though it were freezing solid, so I wound my black martial robe around my hand and set the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng on top of it.
We do it right here.
"…Are you out of your mind?"
—Flash!
Lightning split the heavens along with the thunder. I didn't know what it was like at the base of the cliff, but every time I came to this high ground, a torrential downpour was always raging.
"I may be a pure field-combat type who only ever rolls around on actual battlefields and is weak on theory when it comes to basic martial arts, but even I know at least this much—when you're absorbing a spiritual medicine and circulating your energy, you do it in a quiet place free of any stimulation whatsoever, somewhere you can be protected."
I gestured wildly at the surroundings in the wind and rain, shouting at the nightmare of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult standing before me.
"And you're telling me to absorb it on this summit where a gale strong enough to blow me away the second I let my mind slip is howling, along with a downpour and a thunderstorm on top of it? You're joking, right?"
The rain was at least beginning to let up, which was something. But the gale and the harsh weather remained unchanged.
Host, I do not joke—
"Ah, right. Of course you wouldn't. Naturally. Who am I talking to here? I know you better than anyone. Damn it all."
I bit down on my lip. The black wild dog answered my grumbling with perfect composure.
The absolute pinnacle of demonic qi—Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong. No matter how remote and deserted the place, no matter that you do it under cover of darkness that conceals demonic qi… performing it in the very heart of the orthodox factions, at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, and on open, wide-visibility flat ground at that…. Bold of you.
"Hoo."
There was no choice left.
"Fine."
I brought a hand to my waist.
—Peolleok.
I spread the black martial robe out on the ground like a straw mat. As I began laying out the preparations I had brought, one by one, I spoke.
"But is there actually any chance this works? You know my main internal energy is still the Thousand Fire Hundred Ginseng and the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng. Meaning if this doesn't go the way we planned…"
You'll explode. Do you have Immortal Fire Grass as well?
I pulled a handful of Immortal Fire Grass from my robes.
"Of course. I've got golden needles here too, and the inner cores I got from Lee Jasuo… here they are."
I set down in order the three wooden boxes containing the Ice Jade Lotus Pills I had received as compensation after completing Lee Jasuo's disciplinary trials. Beside them I placed the handful of Immortal Fire Grass. Then the case of golden needles.
The black wild dog examined them carefully, then spoke, crimson eyes gleaming.
In theory, it is possible. The demonic qi that forms the foundation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's demonic arts largely carries the attribute of ice. You have felt it yourself through countless sessions of training—Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong has the property of converting every form of qi it absorbs into demonic qi of the highest purity and storing it in the dantian. All the more so when it comes to ice, whose nature is closest to demonic qi.
"…"
Host, exploding is not the issue. As I told you beforehand—if we are to survive, we need demonic qi now.
Mumyeong cut in sharply.
If we sit on our hands and run into someone like Ilmanhyeolje again, we die without question. And next time there will be no absolute powerhouse like So Yeomgyo to lend a hand. You know that better than anyone, Host.
At the sudden sound of that name, I flinched.
"…"
I briefly recalled a person dying against a tree stump in the twilight, then erased it from my mind. Quietly, I repeated to myself,
"Yeah. You're right."
Through the battle with Ilmanhyeolje, Mumyeong had identified my greatest weakness: internal energy that depleted far too quickly.
The efficiency is terrible.
At first, the Eighth Elder of the Moyong Family, Moyong Taese, had said my body possessed the Heavenly Martial Body—but strictly speaking, that was not accurate. From the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, everything was slowly, piece by piece, mutating and molting toward the original owner of the Heavenly Demon Jade: the Heavenly Demon Emperor.
I already possessed four gapja of internal energy, yet I was burning through it at a rate that made those four gapja almost meaningless. Once in the process of copying and applying others' martial arts, and again when using internal energy rooted in righteous qi through a body that was being reconstructed toward the Heavenly Demon's prime physique—the efficiency plummeted, and my four gapja of internal energy couldn't even manage half the output their size should have allowed.
Copying martial arts was unavoidable. But if I could at least replace the nature of the internal energy I used with demonic arts rooted in demonic qi optimized for my body, the efficiency would rise dramatically.
And the power will become incomparably stronger as well. The greatest characteristic of demonic arts is their tyrannical force, after all.
That was why I had come to feel the necessity of building my internal energy from demonic qi going forward.
But where the hell am I supposed to get demonic qi?
And then, in that moment, I had sensed the faint demonic qi flowing through my body—hidden beneath the four gapja of righteous qi. I had run through every place I had ever been, but nowhere was there a site of demonic qi like the seat of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. All of them were orthodox territories overflowing with righteous qi.
In that situation, there was only one thing left to suspect.
Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong.
And based on all of this, the new hypothesis Mumyeong had formed was as follows:
No matter the nature of the energy absorbed, Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong converts it into demonic qi and accumulates it within the body.
Therefore, in the lands of the Central Plains where demonic qi could not be obtained, the goal this time was to consume a spiritual medicine bearing the ice attribute—whose nature was as close as possible to demonic qi—while circulating Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong, converting it into demonic qi and storing it.
—Pabat.
I swiftly settled into a lotus position. I brought my hands together. Straightened my back. Swallowed.
The last time I had eaten the Thousand Fire Hundred Ginseng and the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng, my whole body had burned and I had nearly died. The memory of that pain sent a chill through me.
"…There's one thing I'm curious about."
Go on.
"Has the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult ever practiced a form of energy circulation where they convert ice attribute into demonic qi and accumulate it?"
Mumyeong answered.
The place in the Central Plains most saturated with demonic qi is the Ten Thousand Mountains. There is no reason they would do something so inefficient. This is a first for me as well.
I picked up a wooden box of Ice Jade Lotus Pills and muttered,
"Shouldn't have asked."
The sequence is this: eat the Ice Jade Lotus Pills one by one from the first through the third while circulating Patcheon-hyeol-ma-mu-geuk-gong. Actually feel whether the energy of the Ice Jade Lotus Pills is being converted into demonic qi, and confirm the pathways. If you sense any side effects, immediately consume the Immortal Fire Grass beside you. And once it is confirmed that conversion to demonic qi proceeds without issue through the third—
I looked at the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng, which radiated a cold so intense the Ice Jade Lotus Pills couldn't even begin to compare.
"Once the warm-up is over, the real thing begins."
Furthermore, once you start, you cannot stop. No one knows what comes after this. What kind of reaction it will show. How the Host will change…. If you refuse, I will respect that decision as well.
Mumyeong spoke in a cautious voice.
In a way, four gapja of internal energy—no matter how poor the efficiency—is sufficient so long as it is not a worst-case scenario like Ilmanhyeolje. And even in the worst case, I will not let you die. I will assist. However, if you fail midway, your dantian may be damaged and half of your four gapja of internal energy could be lost. Know that going in. The choice is yours, Host.
I looked at the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng lying at the end, beside the boxes of Ice Jade Lotus Pills.
"Do you remember what I said when I ate the Thousand Fire Hundred Ginseng and the Thousand Thunder Hundred Ginseng? What I called the most useless and harmful words in this world, the ones I learned through a life at the very bottom."
I remember perfectly well.
After a brief silence, Mumyeong said,
'This much is enough.' Wasn't that it?
I smiled with a pale face. And nodded.
Starting with the Ice Jade Lotus Pill in my hand, I looked at the two remaining pills on the ground, and finally at the Thousand Snow Hundred Ginseng.
Hesitation lasted only an instant.
—Dalkak.
I tipped the Ice Jade Lotus Pill into my mouth.
—Kugung…!
—Kkudeuk, kkudeudeuk!
Blood vessels stood out across my entire body as if about to burst.
—Kung! Kung! Kukukung!
The fire attribute and thunder attribute that had enveloped my body slammed into the ice attribute that had just entered me, twisting and battling each other.
There was no retreat now.
I clenched my teeth hard enough to crack them.
"It begins. Mumyeong—assist me!"