Chapter 300: The Jegal Family (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 300: The Jegal Family (2)
Qi Circulation and Breathing is one of the most important training methods for a martial artist.
It's a practice that aims not just to accumulate internal energy, but to polish one's Essence (精), Qi (氣), and Spirit (神) to advance to a higher realm.
Third-rate, Second-rate, First-rate, Peak, Transcendent Realm, Flower Realm.
One must never be deceived by the realms named by others.
Especially now, as I aimed for the Flower Realm.
The same went for the 6th Circle.
A martial artist's Mind's Image (心象) and a mage's Astral.
To paint what you wish upon the canvas of the world, you must know how to hold the brush yourself.
Of course, the Mind's Image and the Astral are different concepts.
But ironically, the foundations of my Mind's Image and Astral shared the same root.
Harmony (調和).
I will weave all things in creation into harmony.
Just like myself, who wields both magic and the sword.
Vwoooom-
Vajra (金剛), Asura (修羅), and Rolling Thunder (翻雷).
The energies in my dantian, each with its own nature and size, gathered as one.
Without any resistance, they flowed serenely, like a peacefully flowing stream.
If anyone else saw this, they would warn me of the precarious balance, but that wouldn't happen until the day I died.
The only moment the balance of my Essence, Qi, and Spirit—made even more solid upon reaching the Transcendent Realm—would shatter was the moment my life ended.
“Hooo...”
I slowly evened my breathing and opened my eyes.
Out of habit, the first thing I did was check how much time had passed.
‘A little less than an hour.’
It ended sooner than I expected for a session focused on Qi circulation. I stood up, took a bottle of water from my inventory, and gulped it down.
After quenching my thirst, the lavishly decorated room naturally came into view.
Even a special suite in a high-class gisaeng house, where a night of drinking costs dozens of silver coins, wasn't this extravagant.
Needless to say, this was an annex of the Jegal Family estate.
I massaged the back of my neck and stretched lightly.
‘...This was the right move, wasn't it?’
It was a departure from my original plan to pass through Xiangyang without getting involved with any particular faction, but the situation wasn't necessarily bad.
After all, that guideline was set just to be cautious, in case something happened.
In that sense, staying a night at the Jegal Family estate was a pretty good choice.
For one, since I didn't voluntarily enter as a guest, I wasn't indebted to them. More importantly, I no longer had to camp outdoors with Cheon Yeo-hwa.
And since I'd be leaving tomorrow morning, the chance of getting caught up in any trouble was extremely low.
Anyway, feeling much refreshed after the Qi circulation, I sat on a chair and deployed a barrier.
Not to protect myself, but to protect the room.
Fwoosh.
A black flame ignited over my palm.
It was the Black Flame (黑炎).
It was only a Rare-grade skill, but I had gotten incredible use out of it. It was handy for burning away the faint impurities in my meridians, for combining with the fire element to boost the power of my magic, and even in my fight against Wang Chwiong.
Despite its hefty price of 10,000 points, I had already gotten more than my money's worth.
But I planned to squeeze even more out of it.
[The proficiency of the skill 'Black Flame (黑炎)' has reached its limit.]
[A special mission, 'Master of the Raging Flame,' is now available.]
[Master of the Raging Flame
Grade: Special
Ignite a flame of a higher tier.
Reward: Grade increase for the 'Black Flame (黑炎)' skill]
Create a flame of a higher tier on my own, without the app's help.
The description itself seemed simple and clear, but it was an incredibly difficult mission.
Of course, that didn't apply to me, who had already experienced handling a flame of an unfathomably higher tier in the Tower's underground.
The reason I hadn't been able to create a higher-tier flame until now was simple.
The dating app wouldn't allow it.
Registering a skill with the app has several benefits, like being able to use the ability without a separate calculation process, but it also has a clear downside.
No matter how much proficiency you build, you can never surpass the limits of the skill's grade.
Skills have grades, and from what I've confirmed so far, they go in the order of Rare, Epic, and Unique.
No matter how deep my understanding of Black Flame was, as long as it was a Rare-grade skill, I couldn't overcome that limit.
But now, things were different.
Fwoooosh!!
The Black Flame began to surge within my palm.
Even though I was pouring in magic power unstintingly to raise its output, the flame remained smaller than my fist.
No, it was actually getting smaller.
This was similar to Qi circulation.
It was a selection process, so to speak—discarding unnecessary parts and leaving only the purest energy.
I can still see it clearly.
The pure, black flame I obtained through my contract with Lucifer when I fought the Serpent of Eden in the Tower's underground.
Crackle, crackle-
The Black Flame, once smaller than a fist, was now smaller than a knuckle.
A faint, insignificant flame.
It looked so precarious, as if a single gust of wind could snuff it out.
But there wasn't a single speck of impurity to be seen.
A crystal of infinitely pure flame was burning in my hand.
WHOOSH!!
In that moment, I realized the flame within me had begun to burn hotter and more intensely.
Ting-
[You have successfully cleared the special mission, 'Master of the Raging Flame.']
[The skill 'Black Flame (黑炎)' is evolving.]
[Black Flame (黑炎)
Grade: Epic (Growth-type)
A celestial flame imbued with divine power.
It burns away the opponent's divine power and blazes on endlessly.]
The name hadn't changed, but I could instinctively feel that it was several times more powerful than before.
Just as I was looking at the screen before me with a satisfied expression...
Knock, knock.
—Senior.
Jegal Hyang's voice came from beyond the door.
“You may come in.”
Slide.
Jegal Hyang, who slid the door open and entered, seemed to have changed into lighter attire.
She bowed her head respectfully in greeting.
“What brings you here?”
“My father wishes to see you for a moment before the banquet. Would you be able to spare some time?”
“Your father... you mean the head of the Jegal Family?”
“Yes.”
I'd heard a little about the head of the Jegal Family.
Jegal Hyeon, the Divine Strategist (神奇子) and current Chief Strategist of the Murim Alliance.
His martial prowess was at the entry-level of the Transcendent Realm, which was on the lower side compared to the heads of the other Five Great Families, but he was such a brilliant strategist that it was said the Murim Alliance would fall into chaos without him.
It seemed it wasn't just a rumor, as a combat unit dispatched from the Murim Alliance was said to be guarding him at all times.
‘Well, if my daughter brought a man home, I'd want to at least see his face too.’
I nodded and put on my outer robe.
It was a gift from the Jegal Family, a black long robe with a golden pattern. It was quite to my taste, so I figured I'd be wearing it for a while.
Guided by Jegal Hyang, I left the annex.
Apparently, Cheon Yeo-hwa had already headed to the Family Head's Hall, guided by another servant.
‘Damn, this place is huge.’
Perhaps because the grounds were so vast, the Jegal estate seemed even larger than the Seongbuk Choi family's mansion.
With dozens of buildings, it looked like a small village had been formed.
As I was admiring the Jegal Family's interior while walking through the garden...
“Um, Senior?”
“Yes?”
Jegal Hyang spoke to me.
She looked at me with her characteristically languid eyes.
“I appreciate the respect you're showing me, but you don't have to speak so formally.”
Respect?
The moment I heard her words, a question popped into my head.
Actually, it was a question I'd had since I first met her.
“Um, I know this is rude, but may I ask how old you are?”
Whether on Earth or in this world, I knew it was rude to ask a woman her age shortly after meeting her, but this was an issue I had to clear up.
“I turned twenty-three this year.”
“...Twenty-three?”
For reference, Cheon Yeo-hwa is twenty, and I'll be turning twenty-two soon.
In other words, Jegal Hyang was older than me.
“Um... I'm twenty-one.”
“...What?”
A question mark appeared on Jegal Hyang's face as she looked at me.
“I'm not sure what misunderstanding you may have, Lady Jegal, but I am younger than you, and I also started my martial arts training late. So the title 'Senior' doesn't seem quite appropriate.”
“...”
My words made Jegal Hyang's eyes tremble faintly.
Her pale skin flushed red, betraying her emotions.
“...Are you truly that young?”
“Do I look that old?”
I said it jokingly, but it wasn't unreasonable for Jegal Hyang to misunderstand my age.
My current realm was the pinnacle of the Transcendent Realm.
It wouldn't be easy for her to believe that a man her age had reached a higher realm than her own father, the head of the Jegal Family.
It was entirely possible she mistook me for an old monster who had undergone rejuvenation.
“It's alright. It's an easy mistake to make. I was often told I look older because of my sharp eyes since I was a kid.”
Of course, it probably wasn't just my face.
I was also unusually big for my age, so that was likely part of it.
Just as I was about to start walking again without much thought...
“...I don't think so.”
“Pardon?”
“I-I mean... I don't think they're sharp, I think you're handsome!”
?
At Jegal Hyang's completely unexpected remark, not only I, but also the passing servants and maids, froze on the spot.
For a moment, my brain couldn't process her words. The others were just as stunned.
Someone dropped what they were holding; another collapsed to the ground.
I instinctively sensed that I had just gotten myself into a troublesome situation.
The eldest daughter of the Jegal Family head, who wasn't even married yet, shouting that a man she just met today is handsome, right to his face?
It was the perfect recipe for a juicy scandal, the kind commoners in the market would eat up.
“Oh...? N-No...! That's not what I meant...! I sincerely...! No, not sincerely... Huh?”
Realizing her remark had been rather inappropriate, Jegal Hyang started stammering, her face beet red.
Listening to her completely unhelpful excuses, I sighed inwardly.
*
About fifteen minutes had passed since Jegal Hyang's bombshell.
She still walked through the garden in silence.
Then, as the Family Head's Hall came into view in the distance, she stopped and bowed her head toward me.
“...I sincerely apologize for the trouble my rash words have caused.”
Looking at Jegal Hyang, whose ears were bright red, a thousand thoughts ran through my mind.
Objectively speaking, this wasn't something she needed to apologize for. A woman had simply complimented a man on his looks.
The problem was that she'd blurted it out without considering who was watching.
‘The family head has probably heard about it by now.’
There were two things I had to do here.
One was to hope that the family head wasn't such a stuffy person.
“...I'm fine, so please don't worry about it.”
The other was to soothe Jegal Hyang, who, contrary to my first impression, seemed inexperienced with men.
Besides, if she went into the Family Head's Hall with that face, I was liable to get stabbed by her father for 'doing something to his daughter'.
“B-But...”
“Besides, what man in this world would be upset to hear he's handsome from you, Lady Jegal? I only pretended to be unfazed because of the onlookers. Inwardly, I was quite pleased.”
“...”
I offered Jegal Hyang a handkerchief.
She gently took it, turned away, and wiped the sweat from her face.
“...Thank you. I will have the handkerchief cleaned and returned to you.”
“You can speak casually with me.”
No reply came.
It seemed I wouldn't be hearing her speak informally to me, not even by the time I left the Jegal estate.
We walked toward the Family Head's Hall in silence once more.
Before long, a large sign came into view.
Sleeping Dragon Hall (臥龍殿).
According to a maid's explanation, this was where the successive heads of the Jegal Family conducted their affairs, and its name was derived from the nickname of Zhuge Liang, the Sleeping Dragon (臥龍).
To me, though, it sounded like they named it that because they wanted to quit work and lie down.
Or maybe not.
Just as I was lost in such silly thoughts, Jegal Hyang, who had been glancing at me nervously, spoke up cautiously.
“Um, Young Master Kang...?”
“Young Hero is sufficient.”
It felt a bit much to be called 'Young Master' by a direct descendant of the Jegal Family, one of the Five Great Families.
“...It's just that, there is one thing I'd like to ask, if that's alright?”
“Oh? Yes, well... I don't mind, as long as it's something I can answer.”
“Well... about the young lady you are traveling with...?”
Seeing Jegal Hyang fidgeting with her fingers and watching my reaction, I started to feel uneasy.
Hearing about Cheon Yeo-hwa from her—a member of the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes, hailed as the future of the Orthodox Faction, and an active strategist for the Murim Alliance—was by no means a good sign.
‘...Don't tell me she can sense demonic energy?’
Just in case, I had given Cheon Yeo-hwa Malvator's Talisman, which could hide demonic energy. As for me, I just had to suppress it with my Vajra Qi.
My palms grew slick with sweat.
“What is your relationship with her...”
“Hyun-woo?”
A familiar voice called out.
I turned my head to see Cheon Yeo-hwa, dressed in new clothes, standing with a maid. As expected of clothes provided by a prestigious Orthodox family, they weren't revealing at all, but they exuded an air of elegance.
Cheon Yeo-hwa wasn't wearing her veil, and perhaps because of that, the maid's face was completely flushed.
“Yeo-hwa?”
Cheon Yeo-hwa glanced back and forth between me and Jegal Hyang, then approached leisurely with a smile.
She then hugged my arm tightly, as she always did.
“It's good to see you after so long.”
“? It hasn't even been an hour since we last saw each other.”
“Did you not miss me, Hyun-woo?”
“No, well... it's not that.”
At my words, Cheon Yeo-hwa smiled with her eyes and snuggled against me.
I didn't dislike this kind of physical affection, but we were in front of the Family Head's Hall, and there were people watching.
Just as I gently tried to push Cheon Yeo-hwa away while glancing at Jegal Hyang...
“Young Master Kang?”
Jegal Hyang called to me with a smile.
The problem was, her eyes weren't smiling at all.
In fact, they felt somewhat chilly.
“My father is waiting. Perhaps you could postpone your reunion for a little while?”
