Chapter 22
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: If You're Going to Do It, Do It Right
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If you're going to do it, do it right.
On the way home from work.
Lately, Ha Yuseong had been feeling an unidentifiable gaze on him.
He glanced back while walking down the street.
No one was there.
He started walking again, then glanced back once more.
Still no one.
“Hmm?”
Finding this strange, Namgung Yuya asked.
“Brother. Is something wrong?”
“It's nothing.”
If I told them it felt like a ghost was following me in broad daylight, they'd think I was crazy.
But Ha Yuseong's feeling was not mistaken.
As Ha Yuseong started walking again, the owner of the gaze resumed their pursuit.
“Hmph.”
It was the leader of the Murim Alliance, Neung Cheonhwi.
He had come to see Ha Yuseong himself for two main reasons.
The first was his connection to his son, Neung Baekdo, and the second was his association with the Ronin King.
Considering the relationship between the Ronin Association and the Murim Alliance, Ha Yuseong was unlikely to be an enemy, but Neung Cheonhwi thought it wouldn't hurt to make a clear judgment just once, which was why he had come in person.
If Ha Yuseong showed even the slightest hint of suspicion, he was prepared to exclude him from the Murim Alliance.
Neung Cheonhwi noticed immediately that Ha Yuseong possessed a rather interesting body.
Generally, when discussing a martial artist's prowess, the standards were the body, energy, and spirit.
The level of one's martial skill could be gauged by how well these three were harmonized.
In Neung Cheonhwi's eyes, the man named Ha Yuseong was second-rate at best. Yet his body was so unstable it wouldn't be surprising if it collapsed at any moment.
That was what made him so interesting.
Because such symptoms typically appeared only in those who had reached at least the Transcendent realm.
“How is that thing still alive?”
Of the body, energy, and spirit, his body and spirit were extremely developed, but his energy was endlessly feeble.
To exaggerate slightly, one could say the man's body and spirit were on par with the Realm of Transformation, but his energy was worse than a third-rate martial artist's.
A body so extremely skewed should have collapsed long ago from the imbalance, but paradoxically, its overwhelmingly developed physique was preventing that very collapse.
“Truly a pity.”
I don't know how he reached such a state, but if he had systematically learned martial arts from a young age, this man, Ha Yuseong…
“...might have one day reached the ranks of the Ten Grandmasters of the World.”
That's how coveted his body was, looking at it alone.
“I can understand why the Ronin King is interested. And why he sent him to the Murim Alliance.”
As a martial artist, it would have been a great shame to let such a talent simply die.
The Ronin King probably sent the boy to the Murim Alliance as a last resort, clutching at straws.
Moreover, considering the future, the existence of every single master was crucial.
Currently, the Orthodox Faction was in a state of being surrounded by the Demonic Cult to the north and the Unorthodox Faction to the south.
For now, the balance of power between the Ronin Association, the Murim Alliance, the Demonic Cult, and the Unorthodox Faction was being maintained, but Neung Cheonhwi knew.
That this peace would one day be shattered.
Therefore.
Talent was needed.
“That friend Myeongwon must have sent him thinking I could do something for the boy.”
But at this point, balancing his body was nearly impossible.
“If he were to consume about seven Great Rebirth Pill-grade elixirs, the balance between his body and energy might roughly align.”
As far as Neung Cheonhwi knew, the Orthodox Faction currently possessed only three Great Rebirth Pill-grade elixirs in total, including the Purple Cloud Pill recently acquired by the Strategist.
Above all, a Great Rebirth Pill was an unparalleled treasure to a martial artist.
If a common person consumed it, it would guarantee a long life free of illness, and if a martial artist consumed it, it could raise their realm by a full stage.
There was no fool in this martial world who would use such a treasure on someone so clearly destined for failure.
It was a pity, but Neung Cheonhwi came to a conclusion.
“This is as far as the boy goes.”
At the same time, Neung Cheonhwi thought of another boy, one who possessed talent comparable to Ha Yuseong's but had also achieved perfect harmony of body, energy, and spirit.
A boy he had already designated as his successor.
“The boy from the Moyong Family, unlike that half-baked one over there, will one day become a pillar of the Murim Alliance—no! A pillar that will support the entire Orthodox Faction.”
The Moyong boy had a Heavenly Martial Body, the optimal condition for learning martial arts.
***
The unpleasant gaze he had been feeling for a while had completely vanished.
Only then did Ha Yuseong walk on in comfort.
Just then, Hae Myo pointed in a direction.
“Senior. Someone's coming.”
Ha Yuseong smiled at Namgung Yuya and Hae Myo, who seemed to be getting along well lately, and shifted his gaze to where Hae Myo was pointing.
A welcome figure was running toward them from that direction.
“Big brother!”
It was the little boy he had been wondering about ever since the day they made a bet over the rock.
“It's Baekdo!”
Ha Yuseong greeted Neung Baekdo happily.
Neung Baekdo looked quite different from when they had last met.
The clothes he wore were clearly high-quality silk, and his face had become quite chubby.
So much so that his previously grubby appearance was completely forgotten.
Without needing to ask, Ha Yuseong could tell that Neung Baekdo had made it home safely.
“That's wonderful.”
“Yeah!”
“Where are you headed?”
“Yeah! I'm going to eat out with my dad today!”
Ha Yuseong gave him a warm smile. Thankfully, it seemed there was no need to worry too much about the boy's father.
Ha Yuseong ruffled Neung Baekdo's hair.
“Enjoy your meal.”
“Yeah! You too, big brother!”
Neung Baekdo walked for a while before turning back and shouting loudly to Ha Yuseong.
“I'm training really hard!”
Ha Yuseong didn't grasp the intention behind Neung Baekdo's words, but he waved back in response.
A short while later, they came to a fork in the road.
Namgung Yuya and Hae Myo spoke up.
“We'll be heading this way from here.”
Ha Yuseong could guess where the two were headed. And why they were going alone.
‘*Tsk.* I suppose I'm not good enough to train with them.’
Unlike him, the two of them were learning proper martial arts.
“Alright.”
Ha Yuseong wanted to train with them too, but he couldn't be a burden, so he accepted the situation.
However, after parting with Ha Yuseong, Namgung Yuya and Hae Myo had a conversation that was the complete opposite of what he had assumed.
“Junior.”
“Yes, Senior.”
“Let's train hard enough so that one day we can train alongside Brother.”
“Of course.”
The reason the two trained separately from Ha Yuseong was simple.
As they were now, they couldn't possibly keep up with the absurd intensity of Ha Yuseong's training.
Their determination not to be a burden to Ha Yuseong fueled their intense training.
Once again, Ha Yuseong was climbing his usual mountain to train alone.
Arriving at the training spot, which had now become very familiar, Ha Yuseong felt a sense of comfort.
It had reached the point where this place felt more comfortable than his own home.
“This is the place where I feel most at ease.”
Lately, Ha Yuseong had been training hard toward a new goal.
That was!
To become a 3rd-class martial artist!
However, Ha Yuseong's martial prowess had stagnated.
At first, he felt like he was improving with every training session, but recently, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was just running in place.
Ha Yuseong had a rough idea of the reason.
“Internal energy.”
In Ha Yuseong's opinion, his external arts seemed to have reached a fairly high level thanks to his Rebirth.
Looking at his external arts alone, he felt he wouldn't lose to Namgung Yuya and Hae Myo.
But his internal energy was going nowhere.
“*Tsk.* What can I do.”
The only thing Ha Yuseong could do right now was train.
But there were two pairs of eyes secretly watching him.
***
“He's here! See? Was I right or what?”
“How did something like that come to exist in this world?”
“I told you! The moment you saw him, you'd be interested!”
“*Ahem!*”
“This looks more fun than retiring and secretly drinking, doesn't it? Right?”
“Amitabha. I cannot deny it. But that boy carries a great problem.”
The identity of the shabby monk hiding gracelessly in the bushes with Dang Mandok, the Myriad Poison Eccentric, was none other than the former abbot of the Shaolin Temple and the former Fist King, Great Monk Cheonsu.
“That's right. You saw it precisely.”
As soon as Great Monk Cheonsu finished speaking, Dang Mandok's eyes turned purple.
This was a phenomenon that occurred when one operated the Tang Family's secret art, the Myriad Streams Converging Divine Art, at its peak.
“The human body has something called a threshold. You know that, right?”
“Of course.”
“And you also know that this threshold has certain stages, don't you?”
“Naturally.”
Great Monk Cheonsu listened to Dang Mandok's words with great seriousness.
To him, Dang Mandok was one of his closest friends, but right now, Dang Mandok was not speaking as a friend, but as one of the most brilliant physicians in the martial world.
Dang Mandok had two titles. One was the Myriad Poison Eccentric Physician, and the other was the Divine Doctor.
In other words, it was safe to say that no one in the martial world knew more about the human body than Dang Mandok.
“But that boy is ignoring the stages of the threshold.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Of course not.”
Even for a genius, skipping two or three stages at once was the absolute limit. Because surpassing that would cause either the body or the mind to break down.
Therefore, the body was always in a state of restriction to protect itself from such threats.
That mechanism was the Baihui point.
Some say that as one ages, impurities gather toward the Baihui point, naturally blocking it. But Dang Mandok defined this phenomenon as the Baihui point evolving into its optimal form for the sake of the body's balance.
In essence, the Baihui point was a crucial organ that prevented excessive strain on the body.
And the realm where one defied this very restriction to achieve a transcendence of the flesh was the Realm of Transformation.
“Everyone's Baihui point closes four months after birth.”
As I said, this is partly due to impurities gathering, but it's also because a child's weak body cannot withstand the energy if the Baihui point remains open.
“This is one of the body's perfectly normal life-sustaining activities.”
This much, Great Monk Cheonsu also knew.
“Occasionally, a child is born whose Baihui point doesn't completely close over time. We call such a child a natural-born talent—a genius.”
That is why geniuses can absorb energy faster, more easily, and in greater quantities than others.
“But I have never seen a case like this. That boy's Baihui point is completely open.”
Normally, as one takes in energy, the body grows to handle or adapt to that energy.
That was also the reason for teaching internal energy cultivation methods from a young age.
Because after the body has fully matured, it no longer changes, no matter how much one practices internal energy cultivation.
Threshold.
The minimum power required to achieve something.
“That boy's body is changing despite his growth period being over. However, the change is very slow.”
This was something Neung Cheonhwi had failed to see.
“If left like this, the boy will eventually become a cripple or die due to the excessive imbalance in his body.”
Great Monk Cheonsu knew the man named Dang Mandok better than anyone.
This man was a Divine Doctor, but also an Eccentric Physician.
“Amitabha. So, what is the reason you called for me?”
*Grin.*
“You have a Great Rebirth Pill, don't you?”
Dang Mandok had reached a conclusion that was the complete opposite of Neung Cheonhwi's.
“That boy... he could reach the pinnacle of martial arts.”