Chapter 71: Divine Thief and the Mad Physician (6)
Chapter 71: Divine Thief and the Mad Physician (6)
Catching Divine Thief was easy. Thanks to the Formation I'd set up to keep him from escaping, I broke the waist of a man who was only fast and nothing more in a single strike—the Thunderclap Flash, a secret technique of the Thunder Heaven Divine Art.
The Mad Physician was even easier. He had another Vajra Corpse with him as his final guard, but as luck would have it, this one was the sort that hid itself like an assassin and launched surprise attacks.
Chi-chi sensed its killing intent with her Heavenly Killing Star constitution and thrust out her Demonic Spear. It flashed once, and a huge hole opened in the corpse's head. It lost control and fell over.
Like Divine Thief, the Mad Physician was no slouch when it came to scheming, so the moment we caught them, I used the Penetrating Force to crush their hearts and kill them.
Dokgo Ja-hwi's face was plastered all over the wanted posters, and even the Mad Physician, who changed his face every time, could be identified just by the laboratory beneath this medical house.
Divine Thief alone had a bounty of twenty gwan of gold on his head, while the Mad Physician was a wanted criminal with the Emperor's seal stamped on his warrant, carrying a bounty of sixty gwan of gold.
Thanks to them, you could say we'd become as rich as if we'd stumbled upon a Fortuitous Encounter.
'But that wasn't why we caught these bastards.'
What was Divine Thief good at? Obviously, stealing.
And because he was insecure about his own bone structure, he stole every Spirit Medicine in the martial world that could be considered a treasure, hoping to improve his constitution.
When Imperial Troops were involved, he stole quietly. When the Spirit Medicine belonged to someone in the Rivers and Lakes, he stole it openly, leaving his name behind.
There was a limit to how much internal energy a person's vessel could hold. In other words, even after he'd eaten his way up to that limit, Dokgo Ja-hwi kept stealing the higher-grade Spirit Medicines that people continued to talk about.
That was because the Mad Physician had hinted that they might be needed later, when he improved his own body.
The fact that he didn't stop was clear from the way he even stole the Muscle-Tendon Transformation Classic from Shaolin Temple to improve his constitution.
And the manuals for the secret arts and divine techniques of the various sects that he'd stolen were by no means limited to one or two. I suspected he hadn't stolen them to learn them himself, but rather to gather reference material so the Mad Physician could create a perfect body.
"Master! There's a box here, and some marvelous energy is leaking out of it. Is this that Fortuitous Encounter or whatever you were talking about?"
"If it's Dokgo Ja-hwi's box, then that's probably it. Hurry up and bring it over."
"Here."
What she brought over was a box so exquisite that it had spells inscribed into it. But what made no sense was that, despite all those precautions, energy was still leaking out of it, just as Chi-chi had said.
It was a top-grade box that should have kept even a Great Rebirth Pill or the core of a ten-thousand-year-old fire carp perfectly preserved, without letting a single bit of energy go to waste.
Seol Yu-ran, who had been searching for something as well, came back carrying a book. The fact that she said nothing meant she was curious about what was inside the box, too.
I carefully controlled my Lightning Qi to undo the spell-sealed lock, then opened the box.
"......"
"......"
"......"
Was this what it felt like to win the lottery? Seol Yu-ran—and even Chi-chi, who had brought over the sealed box—stood there with their mouths hanging open like fools.
Barely managing to be the only one of us to put a brief reaction into words, I said,
"This is huge."
It was huge.
***
We didn't call Shaolin Temple or the Imperial Troops right away.
There were far too many secret manuals Divine Thief had stolen. We planned to keep the Muscle-Tendon Transformation Classic, which could improve one's bone structure, as well as the Spirit Medicines inside the sealed box.
Of course, even if we kept all the Spirit Medicines, we had to return the manuals to the various sects as quickly as possible.
'Unless we're planning to make enemies of all of them, we'll have to return them. But seriously, Divine Thief, this bastard is insane.'
Was it because he regretted being unable to learn the Dokgo Nine Swords, despite the fact that the Dokgo Clan possessed such an outstanding sword art? He'd stolen every genuine advanced sword art there was.
The Mount Hua Sect's Violet Mist Divine Sword.
The Wudang Sect's Taiji Wisdom Sword.
The Mount Qingcheng Sect's Azure Cloud Crimson Mist Sword.
The Namgung Clan's Hegemon Sword Form.
Every one of them was a secret art belonging to a major sect or clan. Once word got out that we'd caught Divine Thief, all of those factions would send teams to reclaim their manuals.
Then they'd try to force the price down and take them from us.
After all, even if the Post-Nut Clarity Sect was a mysterious One-Person Inheritance sect, it was still only a minor sect.
They'd do it even knowing that I was a Peak Realm expert who had broken through the wall.
The Five Great Clans and the Nine Sects and One Gang each had close to ten Peak Realm experts.
"But, Master, though they may all be inferior to our martial arts, these are the secret arts of those standing at the pinnacle of each hypocritical faction. Can the Milk Girl really learn them all in such a short time?"
It was only natural that Chi-chi had singled out Seol Yu-ran. She was the only one in our party who used a sword.
And the reason Chi-chi asked whether she could learn them despite being a Peak Realm expert was that these manuals contained martial arts on a par with the Divine Martial Absolute Arts.
Even with annotations and an outstanding teacher, Divine Martial Absolute Arts were difficult to understand. So, hearing that Seol Yu-ran would have to learn four of them in a short time, Chi-chi was bound to have doubts.
"She probably can."
"Even if you devote yourself to one martial art, it's difficult to master. And you're saying she can learn all of these?"
"I think she has plenty of potential."
Seol Yu-ran faltered a little at my confident declaration.
"Um, my disciple? I'm grateful that you think so highly of me, but even I'm not particularly confident that I can master that many sword techniques..."
"No. Master, you can do it."
This wasn't baseless confidence. It had all happened in the original, Wind and Cloud Harem Record.
I knew how Seol Yu-ran, who became a vengeful spirit after losing her husband and little daughter, came to earn the epithet Sword Ghost.
Her talent was more focused on wielding a sword than on controlling yin energy. When the Mount Hua Sect first sent its Plum Blossom Swordsmen to stop her after she became consumed by vengeance, she turned every last one of them into a corpse that would never return home.
In the end, the Mount Hua Sect bowed its head and asked another sect for help. The Zhongnan Sect, puffing out its chest with pride, formed an expeditionary force to subdue her.
The result was yet another massacre of their own side.
And, absurdly enough, just a few days later, Seol Yu-ran had learned even part of the Zhongnan Sect's Thirty-Six Heavenly Swords and begun displaying even more formidable swordsmanship.
She hadn't been taught the technique. She had merely fought against it—and still managed to learn a portion of it. She was nothing short of a terrifying sword prodigy. Wasn't that exactly why a chapter had been written in which the original protagonist, Namgung Gang-o, personally went out to subdue her?
A sword prodigy who could express every principle through the sword. That was Sword Ghost Seol Yu-ran.
'She never had a chance to shine in the Central Plains, and since her husband was a dantian cripple, she probably thought her talent lay in Ice Art rather than the sword.'
Wasn't it obvious, from the fact that she had learned and used only the Ice White Divine Art as a child, then casually mastered the Plum Blossom Sword Technique she'd picked up as a disciple of a former elder of the Mount Hua Sect?
It wasn't as if I'd taken her as my wife for her breasts alone.
I didn't realize just how ludicrous a talent it was to absorb swordsmanship simply by watching a master fight someone weaker until I had taken up martial arts myself and become a Super Peak master.
That was when I resolved to corrupt Seol Yu-ran, no matter what.
"Master. Please answer honestly. Have you ever had difficulty learning a sword technique?"
"No."
"...Huh?"
Chi-chi reacted with bewilderment.
That was only natural. The more you learned, the more difficult martial arts became. Martial arts began with simple principles and extended to encompass all creation; that was their very foundation. And as the saying went, the more you knew, the more you could see. The more accomplished a master was, the more clearly they understood what a profound and vast world martial arts truly were.
A mathematician...
"Then what goes through your mind when you watch other people perform sword techniques?"
"I think they must be learning something easy, since their sect isn't a prestigious one."
If the sects that specialized in swordsmanship heard that, they'd probably get so furious they'd fall into Qi Deviation. They might even lose their minds and come after her.
"I think you have an incredible talent for swordsmanship, Master. You may be a sword prodigy who comes along once in a hundred years—or perhaps once in a thousand."
"...Do I really have that much talent?"
She looked as though she found it hard to believe.
"Yes. I'm certain of it. I've had my doubts until now, but after seeing the one strike you unleashed when you defeated the Vajra Corpse, I was sure. Master, you're a genius with the sword."
She had gone beyond the Union of Sword and Self, in which the practitioner unites with the sword, and united the sword with her internal energy.
It wasn't merely a matter of channeling or circulating power through the sword. It was a literal union. The strike of white night that she unleashed when she defeated the Vajra Corpse was an attack that even I had to brace myself for.
'The Super Peak master realm is where you unite yourself with your martial art and use it to open up your inner world.'
In my case, I spread electrical signals throughout the world with Lightning Qi, hacking it and manipulating the laws of nature.
In Chi-chi's case, she used her Demonic Qi as the foundation to form an Asura, a demonic being.
But before Seol Yu-ran had even united herself with her martial art, she had united the sword with it. It wouldn't be strange for her to become a Super Peak master at any moment. That was what it meant to be a sword prodigy capable of such a feat.
"If the principles of swordsmanship Master possesses are anything to go by, you may be able to combine these Ultimate Arts and create a new sword technique."
The fact that she had applied the Zhongnan Sect's Thirty-Six Heavenly Swords to the Mount Hua Sect's Plum Blossom Sword Technique and performed them together showed that she had more than enough talent to become a grandmaster.
"But these are secret sword techniques from other prestigious sects. Is it all right for me to learn them without permission?"
"Yes. If you combine the martial arts into one and create a new sword technique, they won't be able to complain that you stole theirs."
"...My disciple is certain that I'll create a new Ascending Sword Method."
"Yes. I'm certain you'll do it, Master."
I opened my eyes wide, pouring all my conviction into my gaze. Seol Yu-ran watched me intently, as if trying to judge how sincere that conviction was.
How long did she keep staring at me?
As I stood there facing her, I struggled to keep my eyes from drifting down and getting stuck on her Big Mommy Boobs. This was its own kind of torture.
It was much like how, when walking behind Chi-chi, I felt the urge to bury my face in her backside.
After watching me for a long while, Seol Yu-ran finally nodded, as though she had made up her mind. Her expression resolute, she spoke as if telling me to leave everything to her.
"Very well. As a master, I can't turn away from my disciple's trust in me. I'll give it a try."
Some time in the future.
"...So it really is possible."
She truly did create a new Ascending Sword Method.