Chapter 27: A Narrow Escape (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 27: A Narrow Escape (2)
"You bastard! Stop right there!"
The pain was so intense I felt like I might pass out, but paradoxically, my mind became even sharper.
"Dammit! Just kill me! Kill me! I said kill me!"
I howled and wailed at the top of my lungs.
The heat in the crown of my head was so searing it felt like my skull was about to burst.
You should have just knocked me out before you left, you old geezer.
Cold sweat poured down my entire body.
A moment later, Mok Gal-jin returned, unable to hide his fury.
"I lost him. I never imagined a hidden foe could infiltrate Ten Thousand Dragons Fortress so deeply."
Mok Gal-jin’s lightness skill was no joke, so for that masked man to escape him, the intruder must have been a master of movement as well.
After calming his anger, Mok Gal-jin looked at me and let out a long sigh.
"Because of that wretch, the ritual was interrupted before completion. I could only convert half of the elixir's energy into internal energy. If we had just a little more time, I could have fully refined the elixir's power into your neigong. Sigh, it is truly a pity. Still, it’s only because you endured the pain this far that we achieved even this much. Otherwise, everything would have gone to waste."
I’d rather live comfortably as a small fry than become a master through such agony, you old geezer.
Mok Gal-jin grabbed my wrist to check my pulse.
"I must check your condition. I am worried about whether the yin energy of the White Horse Ten Canes has been removed and if your Yongcheon acupoint has been destroyed."
Oh no, you don't!
My sole was burning with pain, but the agony in my internal organs caused by the yin energy had vanished. That meant the yin energy had been purged by the effects of the Solar Golden Pill.
If Mok Gal-jin inspected me with his true qi now, I would be completely exposed.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I couldn't bear to watch him look at me.
If he realizes I’ve been deceiving him, he might turn me into a blood-soaked pancake with a single palm strike.
In that moment, I realized that mental death could arrive far sooner than physical death.
"Phew!"
My heart sank at the sound of Mok Gal-jin’s sigh.
He knows! I’m dead meat.
"The Yongcheon acupoint took a hit, so the energy of the Solar Golden Pill hasn't become internal energy yet. Instead, it’s clogging your meridians. My true qi could force a path through the elixir's energy, but doing so might damage your meridians. Good grief! Whether the yin energy is there or not, your condition remains just as dire."
"Phew!"
I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that my true nature remained hidden. Mok Gal-jin, however, seemed to think I was sighing in despair and offered some consolation.
"Still, it is a relief that you absorbed half the elixir's power and drove out all of the White Horse Ten Canes' yin energy. Considering it saved my life in exchange, I suppose it isn't a bad trade."
Mok Gal-jin glanced at my blood-stained right foot.
"And earlier... I reflexively used your ankle to block the dagger. I am truly sorry for that. I had no other way to evade it."
So you do feel a bit guilty, you old geezer.
I suppressed the urge to scream at him: No matter the situation, is my foot a damn shield? You crazy old man!
It required the kind of patience one needs when trying to hold back a sudden bout of diarrhea.
I desperately recalled my Chivalrous Eight Iron Rules to calm my mind.
"What are you saying, Senior? Even if my ankle had been severed, I would never dream of blaming you. My foot—no, just the sole of my foot—saved your life. What could be more fortunate than that?"
As I spoke, tears pricked my eyes from the sheer pain, but Mok Gal-jin looked at me with an expression of pure admiration.
"Hahaha! In all my years, this is the first time I have been deeply moved by a junior's understanding of the code of the martial world. It makes me reflect on whether I have lived my life as a martial artist with a heart as noble as yours. Hahaha. I have grown old in vain."
Buying people's favor without spending a dime was simple. First, one had to be devious. Second, one must never put their own interests first.
Even if it didn't yield money right now, winning someone's heart often held a value that couldn't be measured in gold later on.
After looking at me with sentimental eyes for a moment, Mok Gal-jin spoke in a somber tone.
"That aside, your condition is dangerous. To turn the elixir's energy into internal energy, you must circulate it from the Baekhoe acupoint down to the Yongcheon acupoint in a full heavenly cycle to refine it. But since your Yongcheon point is blocked, the energy is trapped, which is perilous."
"Does that mean my life is at risk?"
I didn't mind failing to learn martial arts, but if my life was on the line, that was a different story.
"It could be. If the elixir's energy remains inside without being sublimated into neigong, your organs will eventually fail, unable to withstand the pressure."
In the end, nothing in life is free.
The better the prize, the higher the price.
Fear gripped me as I asked, "Then what should I do?"
My foot felt like it was being torn apart, but the fear of death helped me endure the pain.
"Once the wound heals, you must train by continuously sending true qi toward the Yongcheon acupoint. It will be painful, but you must do it. Otherwise, the Yongcheon point will completely atrophy and vanish."
"How do I train for that?"
Mok Gal-jin sighed several more times, still looking regretful.
"Continuous stamping—Jingak—will stimulate the Yongcheon area. Once the point is recovered, you must slowly refine the elixir's energy into neigong through the major heavenly cycle. But that is for later. For now, let us get you treated."
With that, he yanked the dagger out without warning.
"Aaaargh!"
You damn old geezer! How can you pull it out without a word? You should've at least let me prepare myself!
"First, let's get you to the Medical Hall for treatment."
Mok Gal-jin hoisted me onto his back and kicked off the ground.
In an instant, the scenery began to blur past.
I realized then that a lightness skill didn't just make the body fast; it literally shortened the distance.
After experiencing a true lightness skill firsthand, I felt a desire to learn it, even if I ignored all other martial arts.
If a journey of two hours could be reduced to fifteen minutes, who would ever need a horse?
I don't care about anything else, but I have to learn a lightness skill. Besides, if I ever run into those Blood Lamas again, I'll need it to run away.
Learning other martial arts just meant more fighting, and since I couldn't guarantee a win, running away was the best strategy for a small fry like me.
As the Medical Hall came into view in the blink of an eye, the greed for lightness skills—which I had abandoned ten years ago—began to stir again.
When I was around fifteen, I had briefly been interested in things like the Invincible Golden Vajra to toughen my body or lightness skills that would let me fly like a swallow.
I had little interest in swordsmanship, as it only seemed to create enemies.
But where could someone like me learn such advanced martial arts?
Eventually, realizing that such techniques couldn't be bought even with gold, my life as a "martial artist" drifted toward the path of a con artist.
Aside from the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword I had happened to scavenge from a dead warrior, I had no way to obtain anything else.
The world was designed so that those who had things became stronger, and the strong took even more.
Anyway, as we arrived at the Medical Hall with my right foot soaked in blood, I saw Chong Ae-hyeon’s shocked face.
"What on earth happened?"
Even in the urgency of the moment, Chong Ae-hyeon’s hands moved deftly as she applied medicinal herbs to the wound.
"It hurts so much I think I'm going to die! What is this...?"
As I blubbered through my tears from the pain, Chong Ae-hyeon looked at me with pity.
I used to be so good at fainting when it hurt, but this time, my mind remained stubbornly clear.
The situation was so miserable that I wailed inwardly.
I didn't ask for much. I'm just a small fry who would be satisfied with one warm meal a day and a room to sleep in. I'm just a low-level guy who'd be happy if the masters just stopped picking on me. But look at this. I'm struggling this hard just to become a bit of a master myself, so why is nothing going my way? Is my luck as third-rate as my martial arts?
Lamentations and tears flowed naturally.
Seeing this, Chong Ae-hyeon seemed to decide she had to do something. She leaned toward me, reaching for my Baekhoe acupoint as if to perform acupoint pressure treatment.
In that moment, despite the agony, I felt the soft pressure of Chong Ae-hyeon’s breasts against me.
Ah, if only all acupoint treatments were like this...
Lost in that absurd thought, I drifted into sleep.
*
"The Demon Subjugation Group of our Ten Thousand Dragons Fortress will delay its departure until you are fully recovered. The Head of the Medical Hall says a week should be enough, so rest well until then."
Wounds on the sole of the foot don't usually heal quickly, but perhaps because of the high-quality medicine, I could walk with very little pain after just two days.
As soon as the pain vanished, my resolve to learn a lightness skill evaporated completely.
How could it be easy for a small fry to maintain their initial resolve or follow through on a goal? If they could do that, they wouldn't be a small fry.
It wasn't unheard of in Murim history for a warrior to reach the level of a master simply by tirelessly practicing the basic Three Calamities Sword.
Looking at that, it wasn't that most low-level martial artists lacked the environment to learn advanced martial arts; it was more often that their resolve lasted only three days.
I had known fifteen years ago that lightness skills and footwork weren't things you just picked up for free.
Martial arts required training and cultivation until the movements became subconscious.
Thinking before moving in the middle of a fight was no different from asking to be killed.
To possess movements that could attack and defend unconsciously, one had to train until they reached perfection.
Whenever I practiced martial arts, I was always caught in a conflict between "I want to learn" and "I hate training," and I almost always sided with the latter.
However, this time, I was backed into a corner.
"Aaaargh!"
I bolted upright in the middle of the night.
It had been like this for several days now.
Just as I was about to fall asleep, that damn elixir energy would swirl through my body and slam into random spots, making sleep impossible.
One day it was back pain, the next a headache, then shoulder pain—it felt like being poked by hundreds of needles.
Right now, it was abdominal pain.
Mok Gal-jin had been right after all.
This was a level of pain that couldn't be endured with the "small fry mindset" of hoping things would just get better with time.
If you keep neglecting the Yongcheon point, you could die. You must diligently stimulate it to convert the elixir's energy into neigong. Otherwise, your organs will be damaged and you might die. Even if it's painful, you must break through the Yongcheon point.
That damn old geezer!
Mok Gal-jin’s words kept echoing in my head.
As the old man said, the only way for me to break through the Yongcheon point was through Jingak.
Stamping was the most effective treatment because it involved discharging internal force through the Yongcheon acupoint.
"Fine. It's do or die."
This was a remote pavilion within Ten Thousand Dragons Fortress, so there were few people passing by.
Since it was late at night, everyone seemed to be asleep, save for the torches illuminating the building.
I first tested the ground lightly with my left foot, the one that hadn't been stabbed.
Thud. Thud.
Okay, harder now.
Thump!
I stamped hard using physical strength without channeling any true qi. There was no problem with the flow of qi in my left foot.
Feeling a bit ambitious, I channeled true qi toward the Yongcheon point of my right foot and performed a Jingak stamp.
BOOM!
I felt a slight vibration from the ground.
But the pain that started from my sole shot up through my body, piercing all the way to my Baekhoe point in an instant.
"Urgh!"
A short scream escaped me.
It was a flash of pain so brief I could barely register it, but I felt the abdominal pain subside slightly.
In any case, it was proof that circulating my true qi through the small heavenly cycle had calmed the elixir's energy.
By the time I had stamped about ten times, the abdominal pain was gone.
However, after those ten stamps, the elixir energy that had settled suddenly flared up throughout my entire body like a wildfire.
Pain erupted everywhere at once.
The agony that had been localized to one spot now spread through my whole frame.
It seemed that as my internal force moved with the stamps, the dormant elixir energy moved along with it, stimulating my acupoints.
I should have taken it slow, but my greed had pushed me too far, and it had clearly backfired.
The simple truth that "excessive greed is a poison" hit me with absolute clarity in that moment.
"Aaaah!"
I collapsed and writhed for a moment, but the pain only intensified.
Since things had already come to this, a streak of stubbornness rose within me to suppress the elixir's energy by stamping even more.
You know that feeling, right?
When something is so itchy or painful that you just want to rip that part of your body off.
I gathered the boiling elixir energy into the Yongcheon point of my right foot.
The sole of my foot felt as hot as if it were resting on a furnace.
"Hah!"
I stamped my right foot down with a burst of irritation.
THUMP!
Huh? Uh... wait, wait!
My body lifted slightly into the air. I lost my balance and tumbled onto the ground.
"What was that?"
I was so bewildered I didn't even realize I was sitting on the dirt.
"This damn energy again..."
The elixir energy flared up again, making my right sole burn, so I stamped once more.
This time, I did it more carefully.
THUMP!
I definitely felt my body lift off the ground.
"This! This is definitely the power of neigong!"
I muttered to myself.
That damn old geezer Mok Gal-jin hadn't been lying.
He said the Solar Golden Pill and the Great Needle Gold Method would turn the elixir into internal energy, and he was telling the truth.
I pondered why internal force wasn't coming out of my left foot's Yongcheon point like it did from my right.
It seems that being stabbed by the dagger didn't destroy the Yongcheon point; instead, it expanded it, allowing a massive amount of internal force to erupt in an instant.
"I guess if this is a fortuitous encounter, it's a fortuitous encounter."
I wasn't worried about the state of my foot anymore; I could get an answer from the Head of the Medical Hall, Chong Ae-hyeon, tomorrow.