Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Beginning 1
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"Why am I like this?"
*Zap!*
Then, the lush green trees and leaves came into view again, and his mind soon calmed, feeling at ease.
The sudden confusion in his heart subsided, his doubts vanished, and the sense of déjà vu faded away.
*'No, I felt something was strange, didn't I?'*
*Zap!*
He sensed the strangeness and tried to steady his mind, but...
Suddenly, his suspicion dwindled, and the déjà vu disappeared...
Mu-heun felt the illusion of his past self meeting his present self. His memories became jumbled, and he couldn't tell what was what.
However, Mu-heun desperately clung to his consciousness and continued to think.
The people of this village seem overly happy. There isn't even a single beggar or sick person, let alone a ruffian.
A perfect village...
Could such a place truly exist?
Of course not. Wherever there is light, there must also be darkness.
It's only natural for any village with a bright side to have a dark side as well.
However, as his past memories and present reality blended, the sense of déjà vu about the village kept blurring.
The tingling sensation persisted, constantly compelling him to stop doubting the village.
Mu-heun was vaguely aware that something had been invading his mind ever since he entered this village. But how?
*'It feels like I'm caught in some kind of snare... Is there no way out...?'*
Mu-heun entered a pavilion in the village that overlooked a lake and sat down. He took a deep breath as he gazed at the calm ripples.
Reflected on the water's surface, Mu-heun's image seemed to be a blend of the boy from the past and the martial artist of the present.
Suddenly, Mu-heun felt that this newly started village was a good place. He then decided not to doubt it anymore.
No, no, no, wait... that's not right, is it?
I'm supposed to investigate this village, aren't I?
Why am I suddenly thinking the village is nice and contemplating changing my life? Why am I thinking I shouldn't doubt it? Why am I just thinking about moving forward?
I decided to examine everything one by one!
A shiver ran down his spine.
*'Something is definitely eroding my mind.'*
"At this rate, I'll be completely consumed."
Think of Baek Jung-hyeok in his past life! He believed that if he simply did what he purely thought was right for the world, the world would become a better place!
But the world was overflowing with malice, killing intent, pain, jealousy, envy, and wickedness!
When I turned a blind eye to those things and left them be, what was the result?
When I lost my village because of martial arts and turned away from them... what was my end then?
*'Turning away and avoiding things solves nothing.'*
I must cling to it until the end, uncover it, dig it up, and reveal the truth. Only then can I purify this filthy world, even if just a little.
Yes, if I felt déjà vu, I should naturally investigate.
*Zap!*
Mu-heun could feel a shiver run down his entire body.
Why do my doubts about this village keep stopping?
Why am I unable to recognize this déjà vu for what it is?
Why do I keep thinking this is a normal village and trying to just pass through?
Why have I started to think positively about myself being in this village?
Since when?
Since when...
Think. Think. Think. Think.
However, his thoughts kept blurring, he couldn't feel the déjà vu, and his suspicions subsided.
"Damn it... Right, I knew something was strange. I must have been caught in some kind of technique the moment I entered this village..."
Cognitive decline?
Mind control?
What do I do about this?
Mu-heun tried not to forget the strangeness he was feeling. But the flow of his thoughts continued to degrade. The more he tried to be suspicious, the more his mind felt like a field of flowers, contrary to his intentions.
However, Mu-heun struggled relentlessly.
He desperately tried to maintain his sanity by repeating the sentence in his head: *'Right now, this village is not normal, and my thoughts are being controlled by something.'*
But there was a limit to resisting with willpower alone within an already established formation.
*'This won't do. My mental fortitude is reaching its limit. I need to come up with a fundamental solution to escape this situation.'*
Mu-heun struggled to hold onto his thoughts.
He tore at his hair as he descended from the pavilion, desperately clinging to the thread of his thoughts as he went straight to a tree beside it.
Then... *Thud!*
He slammed his head hard against the tree.
He would do anything to clear his head, without hesitation. Mu-heun slammed his head again, hard.
*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!*
After hitting his head about five more times, he thought.
*'The pain is clearing my head a little... Get a grip. I'm caught up in something.'*
Mu-heun immediately began to draw a small-scale formation using the Myriad Fragrances.
He created a protective aura with the internal energy filling his lower and middle dantians. He also drew upon the spiritual internal energy in his upper dantian to block his eyes, nose, and mouth.
He began to disrupt the technique that was flowing in naturally by circulating his own ki.
However, this too was difficult to sustain. Resisting from within a systematically constructed formation required several times more power than the energy used by the technique itself.
Moreover, a single moment of carelessness would mean getting caught in the technique again, so the mental toll was also significant.
In the end, Mu-heun came up with one solution.
*'This phenomenon that has been interfering with my train of thought since I entered the village... The only way to escape is to either leave the village or inscribe another formation on my body.'*
Mu-heun immediately began to think of a defensive formation. However, he had too little information.
In the end, he had to analyze it first.
First, he began to scatter his ominous Heavenly Demonic Ki around himself and his vicinity.
This was to disrupt the technique affecting the entire village, but limited to his immediate surroundings.
Techniques also have a flow of ki. A black dragon woven from the Heavenly Demonic Ki in his dantian burst out of his body and began to rage fiercely around Mu-heun.
The black dragon disrupted the surrounding flow of ki, and Mu-heun felt his mind clearing.
While fiercely circulating his Heavenly Demonic Ki to interfere with the technique, Mu-heun tried to grasp the flow of ki it used. At the same time, he began to construct a diagram in his mind for a formation that was the exact opposite of the one affecting the village.
*'Analysis complete.'*
Mu-heun immediately began to paint ink in the air using fragrances. It was not like drawing a formation on paper, but a divine skill close to engraving characters in the void to construct a formation.
Stroke by stroke, he engraved the characters, reinforcing them with his powerful will. Then, he infused them with the Heavenly Demonic Ki and the energy of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements swimming in his dantian.
Then, the formation drawn in the void began to emit light, and soon the characters formed a single line. The line was composed of countless Chinese characters, and as they lined up in a single row, it looked like a snake.
Mu-heun knew this was still not enough to completely break the formation. So, he thought of a medicinal herb that clears the mind and helps one escape from inner demons.
Cnidium, a herb that awakens the mind.
Mu-heun began to replicate the spicy, warm properties of Cnidium with the Myriad Fragrances. Then, hundreds of scents, embodying everything about Cnidium, floated in the air.
It was truly a skill akin to one bestowed by the gods.
An ordinary person, even if they had mastered the Myriad Fragrances and knew the effects of the herb Cnidium, could never replicate the herb perfectly by combining countless scents.
But Mu-heun was no ordinary person. He was a physician known as the Divine Doctor.
The snake of characters, now infused with the scent of Cnidium, began to coil around Mu-heun's body.
Mu-heun wrapped his body in the formation to protect his thoughts and senses, and after about a quarter of an hour, he succeeded in manifesting the formation to protect his entire body.
He then fully infused it with the ki of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements to sustain it, and recited an incantation to escape his current predicament.
Hoping to be able to view all things plainly, fairly, and with clear eyes, and to be able to doubt.
"Under heaven, all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil."
At that, a multi-colored light burst brilliantly from Mu-heun's body.
*Piiing!*
The light gradually subsided, and Mu-heun began to break free from the formation that had been acting on him ever since he entered the village.
The black dragon that had been raging fiercely around Mu-heun calmed down and returned to his dantian.
*'My mind is clear now, even without emitting ki.'*
Mu-heun was completely in his right mind.
After reciting the incantation, he opened his eyes again, and...
A completely different scene from before captured his attention.
***
The children who had seemed full of life, the street vendors bustling with energy, the women fetching water from the lake... they were all laughing and chatting just as before.
But the faces reflected in Mu-heun's eyes were different.
Their complexions were several times paler than before, their eyes were hazy, and dark, hollow shadows lay beneath them.
Mu-heun erupted his internal energy to enhance his physical abilities. First, he heightened his vision and carefully observed the villagers.
With his enhanced eyesight, he could now count the eyelashes of villagers who were about one li away.
And so, Mu-heun began to diagnose the villagers from a distance.
As a physician, his assessment of the villagers' health was... strange.
It was bad... and yet good?
Contrary to his expectations, there were surprisingly no major issues.
He expanded his ki sense to examine the strength of their pulses, the contraction of their irises, and the movement of their pupils when they grasped objects.
There were also no abnormalities when he checked the flow of air through their noses as they breathed or looked for problems in their airways.
No, not only were they unimpeded in their daily lives—eating, drinking, sleeping, and working—but they were also strangely overflowing with life force.
The only thing that bothered him was that the paleness, the haziness of their pupils, and the shadows under their eyes were clear signs of a health problem. Furthermore, these symptoms mostly seemed to be caused by overwork.
However, neither the merchants, the women, nor the young men building houses seemed to be overworking at the moment.
He couldn't be sure. They might have their own kind of fatigue, but...
What kind of fatigue could that little boy and girl playing over there possibly have?
If it's not overwork... are they having their energy drained by something?
*'It seems I'll need to conduct a more thorough examination.'*
Mu-heun tried to examine the people again. This time, he expanded his ki sense to see inside their bodies.
*Tiiing!*
"...!?"
Suddenly, a pain shot through his eyes, and he felt a powerful repulsive reaction.
*'This is...'*