Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Backlight
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When they were falling into fear toward Wi Sowol,
Wi Sowol calmly accepted that her physical body had reached its limit.
Her muscles no longer obeyed her.
Having slipped beyond control, the body that would not stop trembling looked perilously close to collapsing to the ground at any moment.
Yet no sense of crisis could be found on Wi Sowol’s complexion.
It was the same in her previous life.
Even if a man became a woman, how much difference could there be in a body at this age that had not even been properly nourished?
Moreover, considering that in early childhood a girl’s growth is faster than a boy’s, the conditions might have been even worse than now.
Even so.
Wi Sowol turned every enemy present here into ashes.
That was not because her body was extraordinary, but because of the boundless power of true qi obtained by submitting to a heavenly punishment.
‘I won’t be able to do it like that time.’
At the time, Wi Sowol had lost her reason and relied solely on instinct.
Endless rage detonated her true qi.
Where the desire for survival led was life and death,
and where vengeance pointed became her combat path.
She simply charged recklessly along that path, using the immense true qi of the Nine Yang Absolute Meridian as her driving force.
But this time, she could not do that.
Because the actions back then were acts of burning away both the present and the future entirely for that single purpose.
The balance of essence, energy, and spirit—which had already collapsed due to her weak body—completely disintegrated with her as the focal point, and from the moment qi dominated both body and mind, she was no different from a soul-lost madman fallen into frenzy.
When her consciousness returned,
it was only after a very long time had passed.
Only after exhausting the energy of the Nine Yang Absolute Meridian through endless battles,
and barely cooling the heat with the deathly baleful aura piled along that road.
That was truly nothing short of a miracle.
If she were to repeat that again, she doubted whether even she herself could survive and regain proper sanity.
Above all, there was no need to do that now.
Unlike back then, when she had been merely a boy of about ten,
although she was now a girl of roughly the same age, what dwelled within was the spirit of a martial artist tempered and honed by years and life itself.
‘Qi leads the body.’
Essence, energy, and spirit are three, yet one.
A healthy body houses a healthy mind.
Which means, conversely, that a healthy mind proves a healthy body.
Wi Sowol’s mind began to move her body, using qi as a tool.
It resembled a kind of puppet play performed by a puppeteer.
Just as one ties strings to a doll’s body and manipulates it to move as if alive,
Wi Sowol used the qi flowing through her body as those strings, forcibly moving her physical form.
There would certainly be backlash later for overexerting herself, but that was a matter for after the situation was resolved.
Slash—!
A chilling cutting sound rang out once more.
The blood soaking the ground was swallowed and erased by the deep sunset glow,
but the bodies strewn across the floor were not.
When the four who had rushed her were reduced by half, the rest fell into thoughts of fleeing.
Their fear—wanting to bolt at any moment—was plainly visible even in their hesitant footwork.
So they swagger about claiming to be martial artists, yet this is the reality.
Before those weaker than themselves, they act as if they are emperors,
but upon meeting someone even slightly stronger, all they think about is running away.
And Wi Sowol had absolutely no intention of letting them go easily.
‘Kill them all.’
Even if they fled, she would chase them down and kill them.
Even if they begged for their lives, she would cut them down without hesitation.
As a red light flickered across Wi Sowol’s eyes and her blade was about to turn once more into a slicing gale—
“Bastard!”
A fiercely swung sword blocked Wi Sowol’s sword path.
Claaang!
The heavy reverberation, more like colliding chunks of metal than blade against blade, testified to the qi power filling that sword.
A different weight altogether from the thugs, third-rate, and second-rate rabble who had never properly received even a single strike.
Wi Sowol immediately recognized that her opponent’s martial attainment had entered the first-rate realm.
After all.
No matter how remote this countryside was, there was no way the head of a sect would not even be first-rate.
As if morale had surged with the leader’s appearance, the men who had been trying to flee began stepping forward again with advancing footwork.
To Wi Sowol, it was laughable footwork, but perhaps keeping coordination in mind, they somehow managed to form linked movements.
The numbers reduced to two returned to four.
And on top of that, a first-rate leader.
In a situation that would trouble even a peak expert, Wi Sowol’s sword form shifted defensively.
Regaining courage, the men pressed her even more fiercely.
Yet Wi Sowol’s thoughts were not on them.
Even as she faced weapons trying to kill her, her consciousness gradually turned inward.
‘I need qi cultivation.’
No matter how outstanding her intent and control were, the energy within her body was ultimately the yin qi of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian.
Because it was not purely her own, efficiency and power were inevitably reduced.
‘Then I’ll make it.’
If it doesn’t exist, then make it exist.
If necessary, obtain it herself.
Wi Sowol’s consciousness became a ray of light, illuminating her inner self.
Intent turned into radiance, introspecting a body filled with qi.
Wi Sowol’s interior was filled with yin qi.
It was unfamiliar even to her.
In her previous life, her body had possessed the Nine Yang Absolute Meridian, not the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian.
That body was filled not with yin qi, but with yang qi that seemed ready to incinerate her entire form at any moment.
Yang qi and yin qi are handled in completely different ways.
Naturally so.
Yang qi points toward heaven, yin qi toward earth—their very directionality is utterly different.
Thus, for a martial artist who had handled blazing yang qi all her life to deal with cold yin qi overnight should have been virtually impossible…
Shshshsh—!
Yet Wi Sowol naturally manipulated the cold yin qi of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian filling her body.
One might argue she had already been using meridian energy rather than internal energy, but upon closer inspection, it was entirely different.
Until now, Wi Sowol had merely drawn out the energy residing in her body.
That alone was already absurd.
Not only did she forcibly suppress unrefined energy with peak-level intent to make it move, she guided it along desired paths with astonishing control.
It was no different from freely wielding the energy of an elixir not fully digested that very day, or the internal power absorbed from others through devouring techniques.
Even this alone would be worthy of being called a divine technique.
However, Wi Sowol did not stop there.
‘Discard yin corruption, take only pure yin.’
She advanced one step further.
Clash—!
Crack—!
The sounds of clashing blades echoed in Wi Sowol’s mind like a blacksmith’s hammer strikes.
Qi-laden blades collided with similarly empowered weapons, scattering qi light.
Like sparks flying when heated iron is struck.
And what Wi Sowol was actually doing mirrored a craftsman’s forging.
Thickly spreading icy mist began to rise not only from the sword’s trajectory but from Wi Sowol’s entire body.
The first to sense what she was doing was a martial artist who brushed against that icy mist while trying to avoid her blade.
“Poison…?”
The shock—Did she cultivate poison arts?—covered his face.
Unfortunately, that question would never be answered.
Because the head that needed to continue that thought was severed from his body by Wi Sowol’s sword.
If there was any consolation, it was that his dying mutter was fairly close to the truth.
What Wi Sowol was extracting now was the corrupted yin—classified as (malignant qi)—among the yin qi accumulated in her body.
The yin qi of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian is not purely refined.
A body afflicted with meridian disorder merely drags in external energy indiscriminately and stores it within.
It neither selects only the pure and beneficial energies of heaven and earth, nor refines what it gathers like an internal cultivation method.
How could the boundless energies of heaven and earth be only clear and beneficial to humans?
Among natural phenomena are countless things that cause the human body to decay merely by proximity.
And the secular air inhabited by humans—who distort surrounding energy with intent—needs no further explanation.
Thus, those suffering from meridian disorder are crushed not only by the sheer volume of energy but also by the massive turbidity accumulated in proportion to it, leading to violent deaths.
Worse still, turbid qi is heavy while clear qi is light; even if one learns internal cultivation, expelling turbidity is arduous and distant.
Therefore, those with meridian disorder who cannot borrow external power inevitably die young.
But Wi Sowol was different.
‘Clear qi is light—draw it in carefully and confine it.
Turbid qi is heavy—seize it forcefully and cast it out.’
Such miscellaneous death-yin or secluded-yin energies were unnecessary.
Craving such things was the foolishness of low-level practitioners obsessed with immediate gain.
What she sought was utterly pure yin energy.
Pure white internal power, clear beyond measure.
Like the bright white moon illuminating the world, filling the vacancy left by the setting sunset.
‘The mind’s intent is like the moon; as moonlight shines, illuminate with the law of radiance.’
In her previous life, afflicted with the Nine Yang Absolute Meridian, she had created martial arts solely for herself using only her insight and experience.
Walking the world alone, she was a seeker carving through worldly currents by her own power.
She herself was a grandmaster.
‘Thus awaken the eyes, and act thus. Begin from this moment.’
With six verses of mnemonic formed in an instant, Wi Sowol’s first martial art began to take shape.
The process was like hammering iron to remove impurities.
At this moment, the girl’s sword was not merely a weapon, but a tool of purification.
And the enemies’ weapons colliding with her blade became the anvil that endured the hammering to forge a new sword.
Using her own body as the anvil, her swinging sword as the hammer, she wielded qi, little by little removing unnecessary impurities.
She drove baleful energy into the darkness of night.
She left behind the toxic qi accumulated from the wrong things consumed to survive in the collapsing bodies of her enemies.
She scattered the dark, heavy turbidity accumulated within her body beyond the shadows.
Her sword continued to swing.
Tempering it in the blood of her enemies, the energy clinging to the girl’s blade gradually found a single color.
What had been opaque became vivid, and the energy on the blade finally transformed into pure white light.
The sword no longer held impurities.
All miscellaneous malignant energies vanished, leaving only clear and pure yin energy.
Forged into one great white light—
There was only one name by which it could be called.
‘Great White Light True Qi.’
The girl decided to call her newly born companion by that name.
When the pure white moon rose upon the earth,
only a single shadow remained upon the ground.