Demonic Qi (3)

'Danger.'

The instant their eyes met, a chill shot down his spine. He knew he had to look away at once — but his body refused to obey.

Kzzt. Kzzt. Kzztrrk.

Static hissed through his mind. A wavelength that should never have been allowed entry was forcing its way into his skull.

It stripped away the capacity for normal thought and dissolved reason itself. It would flood the soul with madness, twisting its bearer into something that walked a path entirely apart from the way of cultivation.

Kzztrk, kzztrk, kzztrrk. The static kept coming.

And then, inexplicably, he began to feel that it might be all right to simply let it happen. If he wanted his wish fulfilled, letting go like this would be far more efficient. Yield to the madness, and from that point on an eternity began — one with no need to fear death ever again.

'No. That's not it!'

Cheon Woo-jin clutched his head with both hands. Clashing extreme yang against extreme yin, he condensed brain qi and drove it into his own skull.

Crack! The brain qi countered the wavelength burrowing into his mind.

The static died away, and clarity returned. But it would only be temporary. The wavelength would surge back in and fill his head once more — and he had no means of blocking it for good.

In that case, he would have to swallow it.

'I'll devour it with the Body of the Dark True Abyss.'

What lay beyond that rift was the Sovereign of the Northern Darkness — Eokhae Majon. Both were of the nature of a northern sea whose end no one had ever found, but the difference in scale was beyond all comparison. Even so, what he faced was not the true body, only a shadow. A wavelength trickling out of a shadow was something he could endure.

Cheon Woo-jin plunged deep into his own interior. He entered the spiritual domain of the Body of the Dark True Abyss and became one with the endless black expanse — like a man diving into a pitch-dark sea with no bottom in sight.

And the static fell silent. The boundless dark sea swallowed the wavelength spilling from the rift.

I can hold out.

The moment he thought that, a tremendous force came rushing in this time.

"……!"

Baek Gang-ryeon had drawn on the Spirit-Summoning Banner to contact Eokhae Majon, pulling in the power needed to break through the wall between realms. But with Baek Gang-ryeon dead, that power had been left with nowhere to go.

Part of it had flowed into the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard — the body Baek Gang-ryeon had used as his vessel.

The snow leopard had lost its soul long ago, when Baek Gang-ryeon stole its body. Now that Baek Gang-ryeon's Nascent Soul had fled, it was nothing but an empty husk.

A colossal torrent of power poured into that husk. But with no soul to control it, the energy simply churned wild and unchecked through its innards.

Baek Gang-ryeon had said so himself: Baek Shin-yeong would never have withstood such an alien force. A body already bereft of a soul — the outcome was all but certain to be ruinous.

And everything that had not flowed into the snow leopard poured, in its entirety, into Cheon Woo-jin.

He tried to devour that power too with the Body of the Dark True Abyss — but this was different from before.

The Dark True Abyss was a pitch-black sea that swallowed everything. Now, however, it was as if a colossal tentacled monster had appeared inside that sea.

How am I supposed to swallow something like that?

'Change the way I think about it.'

There was no need to dissolve it into the sea. He only had to let it drift peacefully through the water. It would be a problem if it thrashed about and churned the sea upside down, but floating quietly, it harmed nothing. And in time, it might even swim out of the sea of its own accord.

"……"

Cheon Woo-jin sank down onto the ground. Crossing his legs into the lotus position, he began circulating his energy. This immense power had to be properly calmed.

By sheer fortune, his Spirit Meridians had widened tremendously upon reaching the late stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. In the past, every meridian in his body would have burst ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠apart — but now they had expanded ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough to withstand channeling all five elemental spirit qis at once, and that was what saved him.

'This is Demonic Qi.'

Cheon Woo-jin defined the alien force that had flooded into his body as Demonic Qi. It might have an official name of its own somewhere, but he had never once seen it in all his time playing Yeongro Suseonjeon. So he had settled on a temporary name. It was power that had flowed in from the Upper Realm, yet it carried nothing of the divine about it — if anything, it felt closer to the dark arts of the demonic cultivators.

'Well, Eokhae Majon himself is a being worshipped by the demonic path to begin with.'

In the cultivation world, offering rites to transcendent beings had always been treated as a matter of importance. Both the orthodox sects and the demonic sects performed sacrifices constantly. They were not directly connected to the Upper Realm, nor did they receive power from it, but a measure of blessing could still be granted. And the beings the demonic path chiefly worshipped were ones like Eokhae Majon — beings of potent demonic nature. That did not necessarily mean evil; their spiritual character was simply different.

'Right now, I'm connected to the very Eokhae Majon who grants the Blood World Mara Sect nothing but meager blessings no matter how many rites they offer.'

Granted, he was connected only to a shadow of a tentacle — but the power was coming to him from Eokhae Majon directly. That alone made this a rare experience by any measure. Whatever the outcome, Cheon Woo-jin would gain a new enlightenment from it.

'Thankfully, it isn't more than I can bear.'

If he had taken in all of the Demonic Qi alone, he would have gone mad under the strain. The power had originally been meant for a Nascent Soul cultivator — Baek Gang-ryeon — and for Cheon Woo-jin, it was far too much. But roughly half had flowed into the snow leopard, and only the remaining half had entered him. Thanks to that, his vessel had just barely managed to contain it.

'It doesn't seem inclined to leave on its own, so I have no choice but to store it within me.'

Cheon Woo-jin abandoned the idea of expelling the Demonic Qi. Instead, he set about circulating it properly through his Spirit Meridians — just as he had always circulated the spirit qi he absorbed from pills and from the natural world. Guiding it was the water-attribute spirit qi he had accumulated all this time. The spirit qi led the Demonic Qi along, letting it circle naturally through his meridians.

'I may not be able to assimilate it, but achieving harmony should be possible.'

The transcendent's Demonic Qi mingled with Cheon Woo-jin's spirit qi. It could not be called a perfect harmony — but it was an exquisite one.

So harmonized, the Demonic Qi and spirit qi raced through his entire body. The Twelve Main Meridians, the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the collateral channels — every pathway in him activated as it accepted the new energy. And the more his flesh grew accustomed to the Demonic Qi, the more the Demonic Qi, in turn, was tamed by his flesh.

"……"

How much time had passed? Cheon Woo-jin slowly opened his eyes.

The violent sensation that had shaken him from head to toe had long since settled. Even the tingling rush of Demonic Qi racing through his meridians could no longer be felt.

But he could feel that the Demonic Qi had taken proper root in his body.

'The Demonic Qi has condensed in my lower dantian.'

Strangely enough, the Demonic Qi had settled in the dantian of his lower abdomen. The dantian was where a Golden Core would form upon reaching the Core Formation Realm, but it had always been the place where martial artists stored their internal energy — for it held the Qi Sea acupoint, the "sea of qi," making it the most natural place in the body for energy to gather.

That the Demonic Qi had settled there like internal energy was a mysterious thing. And yet it brought no discomfort whatsoever. It lay so stable and unobtrusive that if he stopped paying attention, he suspected he would forget it existed at all.

As long as the Demonic Qi slumbered quietly in his dantian like this, it seemed unlikely to interfere with anything he did. He tested it by circulating his spirit qi, but the Demonic Qi in his dantian had no effect whatsoever.

Still, Cheon Woo-jin knew. This Demonic Qi would be able to harmonize with his spirit qi again at any time. If he willed it, he could draw it out and wield a new power.

'Ah. So that's it.'

Then it struck him. With his body now capable of storing a second kind of energy in his dantian, the vessel that was Cheon Woo-jin had grown into new territory. It also meant that, as a cultivator building his foundation in the Foundation Establishment Realm, he had advanced yet another step.

'Am I... at the Great Circle of the Foundation Establishment Realm now?'

Not even two hours ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had passed since he had reached the late stage. And already he had risen to the Great Circle. Climbing two stages in a single day had been impossible even in the game; the system itself had barred it. That impossible thing had actually happened. A miraculous achievement even Cheon Woo-jin had never anticipated.

'Demonic Qi, nesting in the very dantian where I will one day form my Golden Core...'

Cheon Woo-jin pressed a hand to the Qi Sea acupoint below his navel and felt the Demonic Qi stored within. How it would act when he eventually challenged the Core Formation Realm, he could not yet say.

Then a strange cry echoed out. He did not hear it with his ears — it reached him through divine sense. It was the cry of the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard.

The snow leopard could no longer maintain the form of a snow leopard. Its head was still that of a feline beast, but everything below had lost its original shape. Most disturbing of all, its front and hind legs had split into multiple branches and become something like the tentacles of a cephalopod — while the surface of those tentacles was packed thick with snow leopard fur, lending the whole an unbearable wrongness.

It seemed to be what happened when Demonic Qi took root in a body that had no soul.

[Grr oh oh oh oh oh oh...]

Hatred of life seethed in that cry. It was a denunciation, as if the beast were demanding — I can hardly be called a living being anymore, so why do you all still luxuriate in life, hale and whole?

That monster — no, that demon beast — hurled itself at Cheon Woo-jin. Its tentacles writhed as though it meant to tear him apart, limb from limb.

"……"

In that instant.

Demonic Qi suddenly spread outward from Cheon Woo-jin's dantian. Like a martial artist raising his internal energy, it flooded through the muscles and bones of his entire body. Had it reacted to the snow leopard's killing intent?

As the Demonic Qi deployed itself on its own, Cheon Woo-jin's body instinctively tensed with strength.

And then, unbidden, he remembered Na Chwi-ryang, whom he had met in Junggyeongjin. The lizard cultivator whose specialty was bare-handed combat. The memory of the man swinging his fists replayed in his mind.

'Could I reproduce that, too?'

Since coming to this world, Cheon Woo-jin had never studied martial arts or body techniques. Yeongro Suseonjeon had possessed martial attributes for sword, saber, spear, fist, and palm, but fate had never led him to any of them, and he had never trained them.

So what should someone who never learned proper techniques focus on?

Speed and weight. Extend the arm fast, strike heavy, and withdraw. Pursuing that alone would be enough.

Trusting his instincts, he set the muscles of his whole body in motion. The Demonic Qi in his dantian, like internal energy, tore down his meridians.

The three yin meridians of the hand — the Hand Taiyin Lung, the Hand Shaoyin Heart, the Hand Jueyin Pericardium. The three yang meridians of the hand — the Hand Yangming Large Intestine, the Hand Taiyang Small Intestine, the Hand Shaoyang Triple Burner. The six meridians of the upper body brimmed with Demonic Qi, lending Cheon Woo-jin a strength that was entirely new to him.

BOOM!

The outstretched right hand became a fist, and it buried itself in the snow leopard's brow. That alone was enough to send a shockwave rolling through the air — and the snow leopard's body crumbled to pieces where it stood.

"Whew..."

He thought he had a grasp of how to use the Demonic Qi now. Cheon Woo-jin exhaled long and slow, a sense of accomplishment settling over him.

Then, all at once, a chilling sensation crawled over him, and he turned his gaze back toward the rift ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in space.

The rift was nearly closed. The tentacles that had spilled out had already slipped back through. But beyond it, those golden eyes were still watching Cheon Woo-jin.

A single line of cold sweat ran down his back.