Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The State of My Manners?! (2)
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Snapping to attention and gathering my energy as much as possible, just as Master instructed—follow me.
On the surface, it sounded utterly abstract.
'Jeez. This is exactly why they say even geniuses aren't always great at teaching.'
Can't do it?
Isn't this something everyone just does?
That's why they get abandoned.
'You have to explain the basic principles step by step. Ugh, skipping the fundamentals and jumping straight to advanced stuff.'
If the disciple he'd taken had been someone like Bum-jae instead of me, the Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect's doors would probably have closed by the end of the day.
But I understood what he meant by those simple words.
Having experienced everything in my previous life, my mind was as open as it could be.
And though the energy and its operation differed greatly from internal energy, I had handled both the Dark Wheel technique and mana.
Thus, I could immediately put Master's abstract instruction to gather and draw out the energy into practice.
'Here we go!'
It wasn't difficult.
I took the handful of internal energy—Eon Yong-un's legacy, so to speak—and spun it into countless fine threads, hurling them like a massive net toward the rampaging energy of the Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill.
'Now!'
And when that net of internal energy fully enveloped the energy wildly surging every which way from my dantian...
'Gotcha!'
I yanked the net tight like wringing a cloth, guiding the Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill's energy to the spot I wanted—to where Master's soul stood.
'!'
Of course, this came with excruciating pain.
It felt like swallowing lava, the extreme yang heat repeatedly scorching my dantian, and the moment I thought I could endure it, a whirlwind of extreme yin energy surged in, threatening to freeze and shatter my five viscera and six bowels.
But it was manageable.
Was the moment I'd taken Master into my body a sort of preventive inoculation?
'Compared to that bewilderment and heaviness I felt then, this is nothing.'
Still, I must have looked a mess.
"Gr... grrr."
Saliva was drooling from between my clenched teeth.
So what if I looked ridiculous?
No one was around to see.
But then.
There was one spectator—Master, who might or might not count as a person—watching the whole scene. He clicked his tongue and threw out a remark.
- You mad bastard.
No, Master.
Your disciple's barely hanging on here—shouldn't you be cheering me on instead of calling me a madman?!
- You fool! I said gather your energy as much as possible, not scoop it all up at once! Keep stoking a sealed pot without vents, and the lid will blow!
"Khk... What if that pot lid's the kind that never blows, no matter what?"
- The agony you're enduring now is mere pinprick compared to what's coming.
"...Grr. It was starting to feel iffy anyway... I was thinking of cranking it up a notch... Perfect timing, then?"
- You, drooling like that? Bullshit! If you pass out, you'll fall into qi deviation and never wake up. Disciple. Yong-un. Don't be greedy—let go where you should. The Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill holds a full sixty years of power. Even if you release what's needed and clear all the knotted meridians and moss-like blockages from your body, at least thirty years will remain.
I could understand Master's reaction.
From our first meeting, I'd been arrogant and greedy, so to him, this probably looked like more of the same reckless overreach.
'Plus, by his standards, this is a genuinely dangerous moment.'
Always trash-talking this fool and that one in words, but fretting over his one disciple like the heavens themselves—such is a master's grace.
But Master knew only the tip of the iceberg about me.
If he knew all my past days and circumstances, he wouldn't see this as mere greed.
'This is a situation where holding back would be the real waste!'
So the words I offered Master now couldn't differ from that first defiant encounter.
"...Kuh! When we first met, you warned me that excessive greed invites disaster. Remember what I said then?"
- ...You said that's a story for those with 'greed alone.' Meaning you can handle this just fine, right?
He might not know everything about me, but he had a rough sense of my temperament.
So my assertions as disciple ended here.
Now, not a single stray thought—I poured every ounce into controlling the rampaging power, following the path Master pointed out.
I focused my mind utterly and began honing the Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill's energy.
And when that honing reached its peak, preparations complete to shoot the sixty years of power toward my meridians...
- Fine! Let's see you handle it, then! Today, either the Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect shuts its doors, or the world's greatest prodigy emerges—one or the other!
Master's soul tossed out those words and began pressing my acupoints.
Circulating internal energy through the body's pathways once is called the Minor Heavenly Circulation.
Depending on the route, it's divided into Minor and Major, but such classifications weren't important right now.
- Don't just blindly follow—engrave this path into your bones and soul.
During the first circulation and the next few, Master's voice rang clear.
- Your knotted meridians are almost all unraveling. Once they do, a wave vastly greater than before will surge inside you—our conversation might cut off. Even if it does, don't panic. Keep operating the Heaven-Splitting Divine Art until the wave calms.
But at some point, just as Master said, his voice faded from clarity.
I hadn't lost focus.
A storm raged in my mind, constant thunder drowning him out.
And amid that, my organs and limbs alternated between boiling hell and icy hell, making it harder to concentrate.
From then on, it was truly a battle with myself.
But though grueling, it wasn't hard.
I'd memorized the Heaven-Splitting core techniques to the level engraved in bone and soul, as Master instructed, and my mind held as expected.
Thus, I continued the circulations alone per the Heaven-Splitting core, until suddenly the storm in my head and the alternating extreme heat and cold halted abruptly.
"!"
Having fully digested the Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill's energy, I could finally exhale the breath I'd been holding.
"Haa."
The refreshing release felt like exhaling years' worth of stale air—in that moment of bliss...
Master within Regret buzzed: ung-ung-
- H-Hey, you with us?
"Never lost it for a second, start to finish."
- Then why'd my words stop reaching you midway?
"Yeah, that happened. Something kept banging around in my head."
- So, how's the body?! Did all that greed pay off—did you digest the pill?!
My body?
Come to think of it, it felt light as a feather.
'Is this... me...?'
Then what I'd known before was...?
After possessing Eon Yong-un's body, I'd thought this frame was decently sturdy, but now I saw it had been stuffed full of sandbags.
'Light.'
My hunched joints felt realigned—sitting here, my eye level seemed higher?
And above all, the internal energy coiled tightly in my dantian welcomed me.
I immediately pulled a money pouch from my sleeve, fished out a copper coin, and crushed it with my fingers alone.
Crunch-
Sure enough, the coin crumpled like cheap taffy in midsummer.
My dantian, once barely a tail's length, had grown enormously.
Thirty years' worth immediately usable as combat power, and the remaining thirty years remained almost entirely intact within me—no waste.
'I can slowly assimilate the rest over time.'
I grinned and answered Master.
"Body feels like new down. Fully made mine? About thirty years. But including what's stockpiled, barely a drop lost."
- Kyahaha!! In life, no begging disciple ever caught my eye, but looks like I was waiting for you! You pulled off that arrogance after all! I surrender to your freakish grit!!
"Told you to trust your disciple."
- Yes! Yes! Today, I'll overlook any complaints you throw at me!
"Jeez, that thrilled, huh?"
- Hmph! Thrilled about what?! But seriously, with your monstrous spirit and stellar bones, what the hell were you doing all this time to let your body rot like that?!
Ah.
I'd planned to tease him since he was so elated, but he hit me with a terrible question.
I subtly tried to change the subject.
"Eh, what's the past matter? It's all about now."
- True enough.
"On that note, you said it'd take three days' rest after sorting the knots. But this clan's elixir matched my constitution perfectly—feels like I could go right now?"
- Looks that way. Maybe it fit your build, or digesting the whole thing did the trick.
"Yes. Best shape since opening my eyes. So, Master, next stage? Disciple's ready to run!"
- No, you're not ready for the next stage yet.
"Pardon? I've got the circulation path down, digested the pill, body's peak condition?"
- You're giving off a stench I can barely stomach.
Looking down at my training garb, the once pristine white was now black as sludge, like it'd been dunked in a sewer.
"?!"
Apparently, while digesting the pill's power and purging the mess inside, waste had seeped out and stained my clothes.
- No hands to pinch my nose, so it's tough holding out. Go clean up at your quarters. Have that maid fetch bathwater—and make sure it's a good bottle of liquor too.
"...You've really taken a liking to it."
- ?
"...Not planning to drink it?"
- You brat! I took you as disciple, but I just started teaching martial arts! You and I owe my master Manbak Mendicant Monk a drink as your ancestor! Who do you take me for, a drunk?!
"But yesterday, just the scent had you ranting a whole speech about what kind of liquor it was..."
- Go!!
"Going, going!"
It was then.
As I bantered with Master, opening the outer chamber's doors one and two...
A commotion erupted from outside, where Eun Jeong-gil stood guard.
"Step aside."
"Can't go in."
"Is there any place in my own home I can't enter?"
"Places under the Leader and Radiant Prosperity Hall Leader's control—no one enters without permission, not even Prosperity Hall Leader."
"...Ha, pulling rank with Father and Sister? Jeong-gil hyung. I call you hyung, so you think you really are? Hey, Eun Jeong-gil. Better pick the right side. How long do you think Sister's reign lasts? Soon. Real soon. When that 'soon' comes, you're a cut kite—you think I'll spare a collateral branch like you just 'cause we're both Euns?"
Hmm.
Radiant Prosperity Hall Leader—Yin Xia Lian. Calling her 'sister' and such...
'The bastard throwing a fit outside seems like Yin Xia Lian's brother.'
Then the cut kite's you, buddy?