Chapter 95: Xi'an (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 95: Xi'an (7)
Following Elder Su Yanggeon into the Hundred Flowers Sect, I saw magnificent manors scattered about the grounds. My admiration for the movie-set-like scenery was short-lived.
-Faster!
-Arghhh!
-Is that all the voice you've got?!
-Aaarghhh!!
Fuck, my eyes!
The disgusting sight of dozens of shirtless men training together made killing intent surge within me before I even realized it.
...Calm down, calm down.
I immediately buried my face in the nape of Cheon Yeo-hwa’s neck and inhaled her scent. Thankfully, that was enough to suppress some of my killing intent.
Phew... Right. Over ninety percent of martial artists are probably men. I can't lose my cool like this every time.
I wanted nothing more than to blast them all away with an area-of-effect spell, but I’d rather not get branded a Public Enemy of Murim and deal with the hassle that would follow.
But I couldn't just ignore the way the men kept sneaking glances at Cheon Yeo-hwa.
Thrum—
My mana circle pulsed at my command, unleashing a wave of magic power. As it spread wide enough to encompass our surroundings, the faces of the men in the training yard who had been staring our way instantly turned pale.
“G-Great Hero Kang!”
Elder Su Yanggeon, who had been leading the way, rushed back in alarm.
“Elder, it seems the Hundred Flowers Sect does a terrible job educating its disciples. How dare mere trainees stare so filthily at a guest being personally escorted by an elder?”
Elder Su Yanggeon glanced back and forth between Cheon Yeo-hwa and the training yard. He seemed to have caught my meaning.
Even though she was bundled up in a veil and outer robes, it wasn't enough to hide Cheon Yeo-hwa’s beauty and voluptuous figure.
Like a famous celebrity, she exuded an aura that was a world apart from others, even from a distance. What man on earth wouldn't have his head turned by such a sight?
I could understand it, but I couldn't forgive it. Not when she was my woman.
“E-Elder, what is all this...?!”
The man who had been instructing the trainees in the yard hurried over. The moment his eyes met mine, he broke into a cold sweat and took a step back.
“How are you training these disciples? Instead of focusing on their practice, they’re disrespectfully staring at our honored guest!”
“W-What?!”
Startled by the elder’s roar, the man immediately turned his head toward the training yard and shot a fierce glare at the trainees.
Then, he bowed deeply to me.
“I apologize. I will discipline them thoroughly, so please, show your broad magnanimity just this once.”
I’ll never understand why these martial artists are so obsessed with ‘broad magnanimity.’
Of course, I had no intention of drawing my sword on a bunch of trainees over this, so I let out a sigh, pretended to think it over, and gave a slight nod.
“There won’t be a next time.”
“Thank you sincerely for your broad magnanimity, Great Hero!”
Leaving the man who was still bowing repeatedly, we followed Su Yanggeon again. Nothing like that happened again until we reached our destination.
Su Yanggeon was probably using something like a telepathic message to warn everyone we passed.
In any case, when we entered the manor that seemed to be our destination for the day, a group of men exuding a rather impressive aura were gathered there.
There were seven of them, and among them, three looked stronger than Su Yanggeon.
The men sitting on either side seemed to be elders like him, and the man in the center appeared to be the sect leader.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Jo Jawon, the leader of the Hundred Flowers Sect.”
“Kang Hyun-woo.”
The elders’ expressions soured at my unhesitatingly informal reply. Not that I cared; they already looked grim to begin with.
“...I heard my son caused you some trouble. On his behalf, I apologize.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Of course. He and his senior martial brother harassed your lover, did they not? Hah... I suppose that’s what happens when you spoil a late-born child you had in your old age.”
“And a man who knew that sent an elder to confront me?”
At my sarcastic remark, Jo Jawon quietly closed his eyes and bowed his head. The surrounding elders were aghast.
“I admit that in my haste, I made a rash and mistaken judgment.”
“With just words?”
Elder Su Yanggeon shot me a fed-up look, as if to say, You already squeezed dozens of silver coins out of me, and now you want more?
But that was then, and this was now. Besides, the money I took from Elder Su Yanggeon was payment for letting him save face. Without that settlement, he would have been crawling on the ground, beaten to a pulp in front of his disciples.
“As a matter of fact, I have prepared a gift.”
Jo Jawon pushed a long wooden box that was beside him toward me. The material looked high-quality at a glance.
I carefully opened the box.
Inside lay a single sword, boasting a jet-black blade.
“What’s this?”
“The Black Killing Mad Demon Sword. In my youth, I took it from a Mad Demon I defeated during my travels through the martial world. Please, accept it as an apology for my son’s disrespect.”
As if possessed, I picked up the sword.
Ting—
[Information on the newly acquired item is being collected.]
[Black Killing Mad Demon Sword (黑殺狂魔劍)]
[Grade: Epic]
[Greatly increases the power of swordsmanship.]
[Greatly increases cutting power.]
[Amplifies demonic energy.]
[??? - Unlocked]
[Continuously erodes the user's mind.]
My jaw dropped as I read the item description.
Although it was a shame it didn't have the functions of a wand like Gilenium, in terms of sheer performance as a sword, it was a better weapon.
The overall quality was excellent, and the design was badass.
But the final line of the description was jarring enough to overshadow all its merits.
[Continuously erodes the user's mind.]
“...This doesn’t seem like an ordinary sword.”
“Oh? So you noticed. That’s right. As its name implies, it is a demonic sword that drives its wielder mad. No one besides a member of the Demonic Cult could possibly handle it. I didn’t give you the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword with the expectation that you would use it.”
“Then?”
“As you can see, it is a masterpiece forged from Black Luminous Iron. If you can find a suitable buyer, it should easily fetch dozens of gold coins.”
So instead of cash, he was giving me an expensive item to sell for myself?
At first glance, it seemed disrespectful for an apology to come with strings attached, but if it was worth dozens of gold coins, that was a different story.
Still, to just hand over an item of such value to an outsider, even as an apology? It sounded too good to be true, which made me wary.
“So what’s the real reason?”
I let a faint trace of magic power leak out. I had no intention of disposing of some cursed, hot-potato item for them.
“...I want it out of my sight and out of the Hundred Flowers Sect.”
“I think you’re leaving out the most important part of that reason.”
“I had three sons. Now I have two... My eldest was a dependable boy with outstanding talent, destined to lead the Hundred Flowers Sect. But he became so infatuated with his own talent that he thought he could even master the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword. He trained with it secretly every night, and as a result, he was consumed by the sword’s demonic nature. He became a Demonic Human, murdered dozens of disciples, and then died after completely exhausting his true energy.”
It was a sad enough story to warrant maybe two teardrops, but that wasn't reason enough.
“The Hundred Flowers Sect is a secular branch of the Mount Hua Sect, with its roots firmly in Taoism. For a sect like ours to secretly dispose of a demonic sword is unthinkable. What’s more, destroying a demonic sword of this caliber would be the same as unleashing the resentment trapped within it upon the world. While it’s possible to release that resentment through a ritual, the cost would easily exceed dozens of gold coins. I decided it would be better to pass it on to a martial artist like yourself.”
“And what if I carry this demonic sword around, go mad, and start slaughtering people?”
After I finished speaking, Jo Jawon simply stared at me in silence. His gaze was similar to that of a monk I’d once met at a temple.
“Because I believe you would never do such a thing.”
“You’ve gone senile.”
“Perhaps I have.”
I let out a dry laugh and, holding the sword, channeled my magic power into it. I wanted to test if this demonic sword was truly capable of driving a person mad, as its name suggested.
For the record, thanks to the app’s buffs, my magic power was essentially a pure, unadulterated form of natural mana.
Unlike the magic of other mages, mine contained no impurities. Could this so-called demonic sword truly remain calm after being exposed to it?
SKREEEEEEE!!!
A scream like nails on a chalkboard echoed in my head. I instinctively knew it was the shriek of the demonic sword.
As if in a final, desperate struggle, the demonic sword tried to inject demonic energy into me through my arm.
The demonic energy shot up my arm in an instant and seeped into my mind. It was a malevolent force, more than enough to turn a person into a vegetable, but I felt completely fine.
Ting—
[Corruption by demonic energy has been detected.]
[???]
[Resisting corruption by demonic energy.]
[Resistance successful.]
[You have experienced Qi for the first time.]
[A Dantian has been created.]
...What?
Thud.
The incomprehensible message appeared, and I collapsed, losing consciousness.
*
In a darkness so complete I couldn't see an inch in front of me, the only thing I could feel was my own body.
My arms and legs, my beating heart, and the circles that produced magic power—everything felt the same as usual.
But there was one difference: a foreign presence had settled in my lower abdomen. It was faint, but it was generating power, much like a circle.
No, it was subtly different from magic power. Just as I tried to focus my mind and observe myself more closely...
“...Ah.”
“Hyun-woo!”
With a strange sensation, I awoke.
As I struggled to sit up, my eyes met Cheon Yeo-hwa’s. Her pupils, filled with worry, were trembling slightly. I caressed her cheek and gave her my usual smile.
Grumble—
Right on cue, my tactless stomach clock went off.
“I’m hungry.”
“Well, you’ve been asleep for over half a day. It makes sense that you’d be hungry.”
“...Half a day?”
I immediately pulled up the app screen.
[Time remaining until next match: 195:37:24]
After my match with Iris, the time had extended to ten days, and now about eight days were left. A quick calculation confirmed that I had indeed been asleep for about half a day.
The fact that the moon was hanging outside the window was proof enough.
“Are you hurt anywhere...?”
Still worried about me, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s voice trembled, which was unlike her. I gave her a light kiss.
“No, I just took a long nap.”
“Who on earth takes a nap by passing out cold!”
“Me, right here.”
I got out of bed.
I moved slowly, checking my body’s condition. Nothing hurt or felt uncomfortable, but there was a strange, foreign sensation.
Closing my eyes for a moment to observe my body, I understood why.
“Hah, just wait here. I’ll call a maidservant right away...”
“Yeo-hwa.”
An unidentifiable energy was stirring in my lower abdomen.
“I think I have a Dantian now.”