The Price of Haste
Let’s do some martial training. Even accounting for the primitive steelmaking processes of the Central Plains, the tensile strength per unit area of steel ranges from roughly twenty geun to sixty geun. However, steel approaching sixty geun was so rare that even master blacksmiths had no idea how it was made and could only thank the heavens. Ordinary high-quality steel usually possessed around forty geun of strength. Calculating backward from the unit area of the steel restraints locked around each of Cheong’s finger joints, roughly ninety geun of force would be required to break them. Moreover, because the apparatus was designed to bend joints in the opposite direction, restraints were placed both above and below every joint. For the arms alone, there were restraints on each finger joint, across the back and palm of the hand, one above the wrist, one in the middle of the forearm, one below and one above the elbow, one in the middle of the upper arm, one just below the shoulder, and a pair that wrapped around the shoulders like backpack straps.
The iron sphere Cheong had lifted with one hand without any recoil weighed two hundred and fifty geun. That was already superhuman strength, yet it fell far short of what was needed to snap the restraints. Furthermore, her body was pressed so tightly against the apparatus that her swollen flesh ached, leaving her unable to exert her full power in any proper stance.
Ah. So brute force won’t work. Cheong reflected deeply on this. She had carelessly leaned into the restraints thinking she could just break out if things got annoying, and this was the result. Since there were limits to what raw strength could accomplish, she would have to be more careful from now on. It wasn’t as though the Central Plains were overflowing with steel restraints that wrapped around an entire body. Even so, the apparatus itself was creaking and groaning ominously. The restraints on her limbs were one thing, but the delicate mechanisms designed to bend outward were being subjected to tremendous strain. If this continued, she might end up looking like one of those steel-wrapped freaks from her homeland.
Cheon Yuhak hurriedly stopped her. “Aigoo, child. It was just a joke. What kind of girl has strength that could slap Xiang Yu across the face and knock all his teeth out?”
At his words, Cheong stopped struggling and blinked. Cheon Yuhak removed her gag again, grimacing as he wiped away the thick saliva that had stretched and clung to it while she foamed and thrashed.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts. It hurts so much I want to die. I’ve passed out and woken up several times already.”
“Hmm. Do you really have to go through with this?”
“Haa. Listen here. The Divine Thief isn’t some righteous sect that spends all day laughing and training martial arts toward perfection.”
A single-successor lineage sounded impressive, but in reality it was a critically endangered species that could have its lineage severed at any moment. Ordinary sects took in multiple talented disciples, and as those disciples achieved success they would refine existing techniques or create new ones (or steal them), gradually raising the sect’s overall level. But what about a single-successor lineage? If they failed to find a proper successor, there was no progress—only steady regression. On top of that, the Divine Thieves also had to maintain world peace as a side job. Since they already had their own professions, they barely had time to keep the peace, let alone advance their martial arts.
“So?”
“That’s why our training methods are like this. You could call them shortcuts. We use blades instead of hands, melt gold into medicinal baths to bend joints, and besides the Awakening Divine Art’s medicinal bath, there’s also the Hellfire Bath. We’re even assembling special shoes for your Lightness Skill training right now.”
The proper path was inherently time-consuming. But since they had no time, they had to take detours. If you wanted to travel quickly by legitimate means, you had to endure the pain yourself. If you wanted to travel quickly by wicked means, others had to endure the pain instead. That was called demonic arts or sinister techniques.
“……But that kind of pain is a bit……”
“Well. From what I’ve seen, you looked awfully impatient to get stronger fast. Am I wrong?”
“That’s… true, I guess.”
After all, wasn’t the reason Cheong had been rolling around in crises lately because of her impatience? At some point, whether it was the umpteenth crisis, fate’s prank, or the cycle of the game world, she felt like she would eventually be caught by some inevitable development.
“Besides, do you think you’re the only one in pain? Do you know how difficult this is? Do you think just squeezing out tears and snot by forcing power into you is enough?”
It had been said as a joke about the cycle of hatred, but in truth this was an extremely delicate operation that required bending joints, tendons, and muscles to their absolute limits with perfect precision. Too little force and it would only hurt without effect. Too much force and it would become an injury rather than training, requiring long periods of recovery. It was a task that demanded the Divine Thief’s transcendent senses, absolute concentration, and genuine care.
“I already used up all my strength performing True Qi Guiding, and now you’re complaining about being full. If you don’t want to do it, just say so. All that gold-medicine bath will have gone to waste. Tsk tsk.”
Cheon Yuhak’s displeasure was obvious as he began unfastening the restraints with metallic clicks. Cheong looked at him with a guilty expression.
“I-I’m sorry. I’m just really scared of pain……”
“Is there anyone who isn’t scared of pain? When other people train external arts, they endure twenty years of steady pain. We’re just compressing that into a little over a year, so of course it hurts all at once. Even without this method, you could achieve the same result by applying medicine and stretching your joints for about twenty years, so if you really can’t do it, there’s nothing we can do.”
“No. I’ll do it quickly then.”
“Hmph. If you do it quickly, does that mean everything’s fine? I’d rather just teach you internal energy and go play around. Having a disciple screaming while I train them is such a joyful experience for a master, isn’t it?”
Cheong’s expression grew even more apologetic. “I-I’m sorry……”
“Enough. The medicine is good for the body anyway, so the swelling will go down in about a week. Then we should probably start your Lightness Skill training.”
“Hehe, Master. Your disciple didn’t know better. I know you’re doing all this for me, so please do it the way you originally intended, okay?”
“Only acting cute when it suits you. How convenient. Tsk tsk.”
Cheon Yuhak grumbled as he clicked the restraints back into place. Cheong felt relieved at the sight. And Cheon Yuhak smiled inwardly. In any case, she was far too innocent. The Divine Thief was the greatest thief under heaven, and thieves were naturally skilled at swindling others as well.
“Now then. Say ah.”
“Ah.”
The gag was placed back in Cheong’s mouth. Cheon Yuhak put on a deliberately serious expression.
“Keep your eyes squeezed shut. You don’t have to if it’s uncomfortable, but if a blood vessel bursts, you might end up crying tears of blood.”
Cheong tightly closed her eyes. But even after being warned, he still said such terrifying things, so of course she was scared—ack!!
“Ugh!!!! Ubbuuh!!!!!!”
A sudden scream burst out as her elbow was forcibly bent outward. It was pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. My arm, my arm! My arm is breaking! My arm! As the outward pressure continued, she eventually heard a soft pop from inside her body, as if something had snapped. In that instant, her strength vanished like a lie. Cheong’s head, which had been raised without her realizing it, dropped limply against the headrest.
Three shichen later.
Cheong’s body had returned to its original proportions, with only her waist and limbs becoming noticeably slimmer. The rest had already been far above the Central Plains average—far above the average of any race under heaven. Her appearance was quite a sight. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes unfocused and glassy, her eyelids swollen with tear stains, and snot dripped from her nose with nostrils flaring intermittently. The moment the gag was removed, a bucket’s worth of thin saliva poured out. Even her usually moist lips had become dry and cracked, with white dead skin peeling away.
“You said… one shichen…… hk.” Cheong made a resentful sound while sobbing. Cheon Yuhak answered tiredly.
“You devoured all the medicinal effects of the Awakening Divine Art, didn’t you? Since the medicinal energy remains in your body, we couldn’t stop midway. Still, you finished three doses at once, so it’s actually better. Aigoo. I can’t even stand anymore.”
Cheon Yuhak flopped down on the bath floor as he spoke. His clothes were completely soaked with sweat, as if he had just climbed out of water.
“Originally it would have been once every five days for ten months, so about sixty sessions. But since you absorbed all the medicinal effects and we’re tripling the intensity, it’ll be twenty sessions. Even with some extra rest, we should finish the refinement part of Flowing Softness Softening Refinement in about half a year.”
“I have to do this… twenty more times……?”
“You choose. Either reduce the medicinal effects and do sixty sessions of one shichen each—now fifty-seven—or do nineteen sessions of three shichen like this.”
“Then if we increase the medicine even more, ten times……”
“We’ve already pushed every joint we can push. Increasing the medicine won’t help because you’ll still need recovery time. Originally we were supposed to do extremities, then lower body, then upper body, but tripling the intensity means we’ve just done everything at once.”
“Don’t say ‘push’……” Cheong replied weakly. If it weren’t for Daejeong Seongong, she might have caused a major incident. Every time murderous intent rose due to the pain, the supreme Buddhist technique had soothed her, allowing her to barely maintain her sanity. Even that had only been possible because Cheon Yuhak had visibly aged after one shichen, making the suffering bearable. Seeing how exhausted the torturer himself was, she couldn’t bring herself to get angry at someone who was doing this for her sake. There was no one to resent for the indescribable pain, so she had simply sobbed from misery and agony. When she remembered Cheon Yuhak saying he had also cried because he couldn’t hold it in, she thought there was no need to hold back either.
Tears streamed down Cheong’s cheeks. Crying itself required stamina, so she had completely collapsed and could only produce a flowing stream of tears.
“Aigoo. I’m really going to die. I did True Qi Guiding since morning and concentrated for three whole shichen. Aigoo, aigoo……”
Cheon Yuhak was also completely drained. He groaned for a while before beginning to snore loudly. Snoring volume was generally proportional to fatigue, and the way it echoed through the bath made it clear he had fallen into a deep sleep.
“Master……? If you’re going to sleep, at least finish unfastening these……”
Even when Cheong tried to shout, her voice was so hoarse that it was completely drowned out by the snoring.
“Ah……” Cheong gave up and let her head drop limply.