How to Activate the Imperial Traversal Heart Method
That was the name of the internal energy technique Se-ryeong had been curious about.
It was originally a secret form of bedroom arts passed down from the imperial palace.
The emperor would engage with pure and innocent palace maids, mixing his turbid energy with theirs to purify it, then absorb the refined version to boost his own health.
I refined it into a heart method that would change the nature of internal energy by using a woman's body.
The nature of the internal energy that accumulated in one's body depended entirely on which technique one cultivated.
It was even a famous story among those with just one finger in the Murim world.
For example, the Heavenly Path Demon Hero Heart Method that Se-ryeong had learned would stack extremely fierce and rogue internal energy.
Any crude move would create overwhelming power, making it the perfect inner energy for the Heavenly Demon Divine Art that crushed enemies with every technique.
In contrast, the Black Night Burn Trouble Heart Method I had cultivated stacked a quiet, colorless internal energy close to natural qi.
It made my martial arts less detectable by opponents' senses and caused the traces of energy left in my techniques to dissipate quickly, creating an excellent synergy with assassination arts.
The problem was that because of this trait, the power of attack techniques was lower compared to other heart methods' internal energy.
It wasn't a big issue when killing humans.
Stealthily approaching to slit the throat or puncture the vitals was easy.
Among flying and qi experts, there were plenty who were too tough for external energy or protective barriers, but I had plenty of means to supplement my lacking sword qi.
The situation changed when fighting with the Blood Cult bastards.
Most were almost perfectly transformed into monsters, and even if their necks were cut or their vitals were torn apart, they wouldn't fall easily.
Those bastards had their entire bodies hardened to the level of hard flesh, and you'd only be able to take them down after hacking off their necks.
To kill one of them, I'd need to spend as much time and effort as killing hundreds of peak masters, plus plenty of resources.
As the war with the Blood Cult dragged on, I felt the bone-deep inefficiency of my Heavenly Severing Kill Art against them.
That's why I tried to learn a new martial art, but it was even harder than I thought.
To cultivate a powerful technique, I first had to change my heart method, but after checking famous heart methods from both the righteous and demonic paths, I couldn't find one that suited my body as well as the Black Night Burn Trouble Heart Method.
Changing it casually would just lower my martial value for no reason.
Then, out of sheer curiosity, I looked into the Righteous Dao branch and found the original of the Imperial Traversal Heart Method—the Imperial Traversal Secret Code.
A superior woman with an internal energy heart method would accept my internal energy and circulate it.
My internal energy would naturally take on the same nature as hers.
With absorption techniques, the absorbed energy often disappeared during the process, making it hard to control.
With the Imperial Traversal Heart Method, I didn't have to worry about that because it was originally my own energy.
I could also handle multiple different energies at once by engaging with multiple women, and I could even fuse them to create brand-new internal energy.
With Se-ryeong and Ye-hwa's help, I refined the Imperial Traversal Heart Method, combined the two energies they created, and obtained the internal energy I wanted.
From that foundation, I created new martial arts that crushed the Blood Cult bastards and lived happily until the regression—such was the ending.
I explained everything except the part about the regression to Se-ryeong.
“Hmph, so the lord currently has internal energy of the same nature as this maiden’s?”
She looked at me with genuine interest as I lifted my right hand to show her directly.
I condensed the internal energy I had received from her yesterday at the tip of my finger and shot it out the window.
Taang-!
It was just a simple wind blade with no particular name.
Yet it punched a hole the size of a human head straight through a tree ten zhang away.
If I had used my original internal energy for the same thing, I would have only made a fist-sized hole.
She stared at the spot and gave me quite an interesting expression.
This was the nature of being a martial arts genius.
No matter the situation, once you saw a new martial art, you couldn't help but want to explore it.
“Indeed, it's very similar to this maiden’s internal energy. The martial skill is quite profound for an assassination technique. Thinking about the humiliation this maiden suffered because of it makes my teeth itch, but…”
She shivered at the memory of last night’s events.
“Having to endure that kind of thing for the rest of my life… what an unfortunate fate this maiden has drawn.”
“Don’t worry too much. Once you get used to it, you’ll be the one shaking your hips and begging me to tame you.”
It was just a straightforward statement based on experience, but she snarled at me like a wild beast.
“That will never happen. This maiden is not the type to submit from birth—I am the one who commands. Even if I get stained by filth for a moment, the essence will not change.”
“I see.”
“Yes. But I actually like this. The ones who abuse this maiden’s body and humiliate her honor right now aren’t just some madman consumed by lust—they walk the path of martial arts, even if it’s a crooked one.”
She gave me a cold smile.
“Work hard to perfect that martial art, my lord. In a year, I will destroy it with my own hands, and the taste of revenge will taste even sweeter.”
In moments like this, she radiated an overwhelming, heavenly-like dignity.
Her appearance was too domineering, too beautiful, too dashing…
I bit her cheek.
Chuuuuaap-
“Hiyaaaak!”
***
Since I had achieved my objective in the Heavenly Demon Palace, it was time to leave.
I placed the pot I had used for cooking, the blanket with traces of leeks, and the wooden bath she had used earlier into a small gourd bottle.
She showed curiosity at what I was carrying.
“My lord, what is this? It looks like something that would appear in a journey to the West.”
“The Five Carton Gourd. It’s better than what my late master left me.”
It was small enough to carry comfortably at my waist, yet it could hold the equivalent of five carts’ worth of goods.
“Oh? I heard that most assassination sects had bad master-disciple relationships, but the lord had a good relationship with his master?”
“My master wasn’t an assassin. He was a thief.”
I didn’t sound very eloquent, but my master wasn’t just some ordinary thief. He had been given the title of the greatest thief in the world, the Heavenly Shadow Conqueror.
“My martial arts are a modified version of what I learned from Master, made to fit closer to assassination arts. If he were still alive, he would probably be furious seeing me now.”
I stopped talking about my master and stepped out into the courtyard.
I took out eight dragon statue pieces carved from white jade from the Five Carton Gourd and arranged them in all directions.
I sprinkled diluted cyan quartz on the statues.
I drew the Eight Trigrams in front of the statues using a leather pouch filled with chicken and dog blood.
Se-ryeong’s eyes sparkled with curiosity again.
“My lord, what are you doing this time?”
“Since traveling a long distance is bothersome, I’m using a technique to cover it.”
When the Blood Cult had rampaged across the world, besides the evil people who sought immortality and power, many sorcerers who were persecuted by both the government and the Murim had joined them.
Most were worthless scammers, but some were genuine ones mixed in.
Those bastards, supported by the cult leader, had restored some mysterious techniques from the ancient era.
I killed them all and stole the techniques they had restored.
One of the things I was preparing now was the Eight Dragon Return Palace Array.
With this, I could instantly transport up to three people from any place I had prepared a “gate” for, even if it was more than a thousand li away from the gate.
The downside was that the material cost for each use was expensive, so I couldn’t use it often.
I stood at the center of the completed array and called out to Se-ryeong.
“Now we’re moving, come here.”
With a strangely excited face, she stuck close to my side.
“The Eight Dragon Return Palace Array… It must be a technique made for the ancient emperors. Hmm, that’s probably it. You’ve prepared a furnace that suits this maiden’s status. Thank you, my lord.”
I roughly nodded and wrapped my arm around her waist.
But it wasn’t satisfying enough, so I squeezed her butt hard instead.
“Ah?!”
“This is definitely more stable.”
She frowned and looked at me with utter disappointment.
“The lord has excellent looks and martial skills, and is talented in many areas, yet you do this kind of thing… Haa, fine. If I keep talking, only my mouth will hurt.”
Since she had now adapted to my kind of bastard, she stopped complaining and just let me grope her butt.
I felt a bit happy that the taming was going well.
I chanted the array’s activation chant.
“Kai Chen!”
Ka-jang-chang-!
The dragon statues around us all shattered at once, and a blinding light flashed like lightning had struck.
And just like the courtyard we had left, we arrived in a room with eight dragon statues arranged around it.
But the statues here were made of gold instead of white jade.
It was the gate of the Eight Dragon Return Palace Array prepared in my hidden residence near Luoyang.
I had arrived perfectly.
Now I just had to go pick up Ye-hwa.