Chapter 106: The Old Temple (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 106: The Old Temple (2)
The investigation team heading to the old temple wasn't very large. This was because the number of people each sect could send had been decided by prior agreement.
Despite this, Mount Hua and Zhongnan Sect requesting personnel from their vassal sects, the Hundred Flowers Sect and the Great Tiger Sect, was a kind of power play.
The Hundred Flowers Sect, being somewhat aware of this fact, had spent more than necessary to send Cheon Yeo-hwa and me to the team.
Dozens of silver coins and a demonic sword. I had thought it wasn't a good deal, but looking at it now, it seemed to have balanced out.
'Even if it's a loss for now, it probably wasn't a huge one for the Hundred Flowers Sect, one of the top sects in Xi'an.'
Moreover, in the long run, it was reasonable to see it as a gain, since they had made a good impression on their backer, the Mount Hua Sect.
Anyway, as I said before, the investigation team wasn't very large. At most, it was around fifty people.
No other sect had martial artists from their vassal families join the investigation team. Only from the Mount Hua Sect's side did I, Cheon Yeo-hwa, and the investigation team leader join.
'Originally, the three of us were supposed to return with the other team members, but I heard the Mount Hua elder changed his mind because of my duel with the Sword Dragon yesterday.'
It was an unintentional gain. If I hadn't known anything and had been told to go back to the Hundred Flowers Sect, it would have been a real headache.
“Hyun-woo, focus.”
A finger poked my cheek.
I immediately cleared my mind of stray thoughts and focused again on observing myself.
If this were ordinary meditation, I would have done it while walking with magic detection active, but not this time. I was using the break to learn how to handle demonic energy from Cheon Yeo-hwa.
Thanks to the qi barrier Cheon Yeo-hwa had set up, there was no risk of being discovered.
When I closed my eyes, all visual information vanished. As a result, the amount of information coming through my hearing, smell, and touch increased. But that wasn't what I wanted. I intentionally blocked my senses, shutting out that information as well.
Only then was I able to peer into my inner self.
It wasn't the mana circle and magic circuits I had seen hundreds of times before. It was the place called the dantian.
Vroooom—
A faint but intense and volatile energy swirled within. It was demonic energy.
“Suppress it and bring it under control. An energy that defies its master's will is utterly useless.”
Magic power raced through my magic circuits. Amidst the strange sensation of my mental world expanding, I slowly tried to refine the demonic energy. But as Cheon Yeo-hwa said, suppressing it was no easy task. Every time I tried to crush it with my magic power, the demonic energy would instead swell in size and resist.
“You haven't even learned a proper internal energy cultivation method, yet your ability to control and command qi is at a master's level. It's quite exceptional. Normally, one must learn demonic arts to control demonic energy, but not you.”
The reason I, who had never learned any martial arts, let alone demonic arts, possessed demonic energy was that my mana circle had absorbed it on its own.
Normally, it would never have done such a thing.
Natural mana is everywhere, so there's absolutely no merit in accepting demonic energy with its wicked aura.
But when I lost consciousness, my mana circle absorbed the demonic energy on its own, and for some reason, it even created a dantian in the process.
I hadn't obtained all of the vast demonic energy contained within the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword. My mana circle had filtered out all the dirty, impure energies, extracting only the purest demonic energy.
“Focus.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa's finger pressed against my lower abdomen, where my dantian was located.
“Even when raising a dog, you train it from when it's a puppy. Now, while the demonic energy in your dantian is still weak, is the perfect time. Although you have to consciously control it for now, the demonic energy will eventually become a part of you. Do not doubt it. Soon enough, you will be able to command it as if it were your own limbs.”
Magic power seeped into the dantian, a place that should never have been connected to the magic circuits.
Saaaa—
A heavy pain followed. It was the price for forcibly connecting two roads that should never have met.
Blood trickled from my lips. But if I stopped now, all this effort would be for nothing. I continued to envelop and fill my dantian with magic power.
—!!!!
The demonic energy residing in my dantian thrashed about. The backlash was so violent it felt like the energy would burst out of my body. If not for Cheon Yeo-hwa's qi barrier, someone might have detected it.
“...This is more than I imagined.”
Kkigigigik!
Cheon Yeo-hwa's qi barrier trembled from the demonic energy's rampage. Tiny cracks even began to appear in places.
“The Demonic Cult operates under the law where the strong are revered because demonic energy submits to the powerful. An ordinary demonic energy wouldn't even dare to defy my Moon Spirit Demonic Energy...”
Ignoring Cheon Yeo-hwa's intrigued expression, I closed my eyes again and focused on the flow of my magic power.
No matter how fierce a sacred flame, it is bound to be extinguished by a relentless tide.
The thrashing demonic energy finally gave way and subsided under the sudden flood of magic power. I slowly drew the energy out of my dantian. Now completely docile, it moved through my meridians according to my will.
'This... is harder than I thought...'
It was a world of difference from wielding magic power.
“You seem to be struggling. Still, just being able to move it is a great achievement, so you don't need to be so impatient.”
With every breath, I could feel something accumulating in my dantian, but the amount was less than a fingernail's worth. This was because I wasn't practicing a proper internal energy cultivation method.
Even that small amount was often spat out by the demonic energy in my dantian, as if it were screaming that the new energy was unworthy of mixing with it.
Just five breaths, and I was already exhausted.
“Hah, hah...”
“Hehe, you've worked hard.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa placed my head on her lap and gently wiped the sweat from my forehead.
I closed my eyes for a moment and reviewed what I had just done. Meditation and qi circulation were definitely different.
Both involved taking in natural energy, but the difference was whether you converted it into magic power or accumulated it as qi.
To increase magic power, you meditate. To build up qi, you practice qi circulation.
'Tsk, I need to find an internal energy cultivation method soon. I feel like I'm losing out.'
It felt like everyone else was earning mileage points and coupons, while I was stuck being satisfied with the tiny credit card points that trickled in.
“By the way, is it okay to learn orthodox martial arts while having demonic energy?”
At first, I planned to get rid of the demonic energy, but now that the time was approaching, it felt like a bit of a waste. If it was strong enough to resist even Cheon Yeo-hwa's demonic energy, it would surely become a great asset in the future.
“Let's worry about that later.”
A strange smile played on Cheon Yeo-hwa's lips. She suddenly pressed her lips to mine and began to kiss me passionately.
“Hup, jjuup, jjop...”
It felt good, but I never expected her to jump me like this in the middle of a forest.
'Did the smell of my sweat turn her on or something?'
The Alpha Male skill is great and all, but the fact that it's a passive that activates at any given moment is a bit of a flaw. Is there an on/off switch for this thing?
I split my consciousness in two, responding to Cheon Yeo-hwa's kiss while simultaneously scanning the skill screen. Unfortunately, there was no such function.
Swish—
I sensed a presence nearby.
“Ah, Orabeoni! There you are...?”
The person who appeared from behind the bushes was none other than Yoo Sowol. It didn't even take ten seconds for the bright smile on her face to vanish.
The corners of her mouth, which had been turned up high, fell into a blank expression.
'So that's why she suddenly kissed me...'
The corners of Cheon Yeo-hwa's eyes curved gently. It was a clear sneer.
“Jjup... My apologies. As you can see, Hyun-woo is busy spending time with me, so he has no time to listen to you. If it's truly urgent, you can tell me. I'll pass the message to him later.”
“...They said we're departing soon.”
“Oh, what a shame. We were just getting started.”
I could see Yoo Sowol's small, soft hands clenching. Fortunately, she didn't seem angry enough for the veins to pop out on the back of her hands.
'...I'll have to comfort her later when Yeo-hwa isn't around.'
After quickly composing myself, I returned to the clearing where the investigation team was gathered. There wasn't much for me to do. I found a suitable spot and sat down, and my eyes met with a monk's.
“Greetings.”
“...Hello.”
He wasn't an ordinary monk, but an elder from Shaolin.
He gave me a slight nod with a benevolent expression. Outwardly, he didn't look much different from the monks I'd met when getting free meals at temples, but I felt a strange sense of aversion.
'It's probably because of the demonic energy.'
I tried my best to hide the hostility that threatened to surface and moved away.
“We're departing!”
Having finished their preparations, the investigation team began to move quickly again. Around noon, an old, dilapidated temple revealed itself through the dense trees.
*
I had thought the old temple would just be a few buildings, but that was merely my misconception.
The old temple was far, far too large.
Beyond the walls, dozens of buildings stretched out. They were all old and dilapidated, with not a single one in good condition, but their scale was too vast to ignore.
'Then again... if it were a reasonably small place, the investigation would have been finished long ago.'
Just looking at the massive scale gave off the vibe of a continent on Earth.
“Isn't it amazing? I heard that even an herb gatherer who has lived in Jinheung Village for decades only discovered this massive temple a few days ago.”
The investigation team leader set his baggage down on the ground, seemingly so overwhelmed by the temple's atmosphere that he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
“...Does that even make sense?”
“I thought it was nonsense when I first heard it too, but... isn't this the place where the great Vajra Divine Monk resided? Among the achievements he left behind, there were things even more unbelievable than this, so compared to those, I don't think this is so strange. It was probably hidden by something like a formation, don't you think?”
After he finished speaking, the team leader ran over to where the others were gathered. Unlike me, he had a lot to do. His duties were mostly menial tasks.
Considering his experience, it wasn't something the team leader should have been doing, but seniority is always relative.
“A formation...”
Is it possible to hide a structure of this enormous scale for hundreds of years with a formation? That seems difficult even with magic.
'...Though, if there was something that could act as a core, that would be a different story.'
It was just a hunch, but I felt that somewhere here, there had to be something that had maintained the formation for hundreds of years.
Though I had no idea where it was.
I stretched for a moment and looked around.
Cheon Yeo-hwa was away for a moment, and Yoo Sowol was in the middle of an emotional reunion.
“Master...!”
I saw Yoo Sowol embraced in the arms of a middle-aged woman.
“A grown young lady shouldn't be running around so carelessly.”
Despite her words, the corners of the middle-aged woman's mouth were turned up high. As she held Yoo Sowol for a while longer, her gaze swept over me for a brief moment.
Her disapproval was plain to see. It seemed she knew about my relationship with Yoo Sowol.
'She can't know everything. If she did, she would have drawn her sword on the spot.'
The aura flowing from her was that powerful. At her level, she wouldn't fall far behind even compared to the white-bearded old man.
'This place is full of monsters.'
Besides her, quite a few other gazes were fixed on me.
They were the elders from Zhongnan Sect and Shaolin. It seemed they had heard about my duel with the Sword Dragon. I didn't have time to spare for a bunch of old men.
I headed deeper into the old temple.
It's time for a treasure hunt.