Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Evil Demons and Outlaws 3
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Before heading back, Baek Moo-jin happened to step into the main hall and pocketed a thick bundle of tally slips that the murderers had gathered.
The slips were worth a staggering several thousand nyang.
It was far too much money to leave behind in a place like this.
He couldn't help feeling uneasy about taking money from killers, but he figured there'd be a use for it somewhere, so he took it anyway.
A few steps out, Baek Moo-jin glanced back at the Red Bliss Hall.
How many people had met their end here? The thought weighed heavily on his heart.
Suddenly, he felt an urge to burn the whole place to the ground.
But lighting the scattered torches could risk engulfing the entire mountain in flames. He could always consume some internal energy to keep the fire contained, of course. Still, there was no need to go that far.
If So-hye were here, she'd handle it perfectly.
[Purify with fire.]
Baek Moo-jin nodded, recalling Elder Won's words. That would probably be the best way. But then he froze mid-step, his expression darkening. The usually composed Baek Moo-jin began scanning the surroundings with tense eyes.
Only an empty wind blew through the air.
There wasn't a sign of life anywhere.
So what was that voice echoing in his mind just now?
A hallucination?
Or maybe just Elder Won's words lingering in his thoughts.
Suddenly, Baek Moo-jin quietly recited the Flame Palace's doctrine.
"Purify with fire."
At that instant, something stirred in his dantian. He had no fear of external threats. But something happening inside his own body? That was cause for alarm.
And the one thing that absurdly came to mind was the Flame Emperor.
"No way?"
Trusting only his instincts and senses, Baek Moo-jin summoned White Flower Palm to his right hand without any real basis.
Cold energy erupted from his palm but clung tightly, refusing to leave, and took on the form of white flowers.
It was no challenge for him.
Yet something felt off. He remembered touching Jin So-hye to aid her Great Heavenly Circuit and clashing with the Flame Emperor. For a master of his caliber to misjudge his own body's state would be bizarre. He'd only felt lighter, not an amplification in his total internal energy.
The same held now.
Still, Baek Moo-jin focused intently on the faintest change. He concentrated his energy, unleashing bursts of extreme cold qi in succession. Even then, he kept the white flowers contained in his palm.
No change. So, instinctively, he murmured again.
"Purify with fire."
In that moment, a scorching energy surged wildly in his dantian.
"Wha...?"
The white flowers in Baek Moo-jin's hand had transformed into white flames.
White flames in this world? What madness was this?
Baek Moo-jin muttered in a daze.
"What is this...?"
Could there be a more bewildering moment?
If those white flames carried the power to incinerate objects, even the unflappable Baek Moo-jin might have panicked. Fortunately—or not—they still emanated cold qi.
But the purity of the cold radiating softly from the white flames was on another level entirely.
It was a chill even Baek Moo-jin hesitated to touch.
When human flesh meets extreme cold, it suffers frost damage akin to burns from fire.
That was exactly what flickered in Baek Moo-jin's palm. If he had to name it, frozen flames, perhaps. A paradoxical contradiction.
Baek Moo-jin sorted his thoughts.
Simple. When I helped So-hye, I must have taken a share of the Flame Emperor's power.
But how effective was it?
Baek Moo-jin hurled the white flames toward the hall he'd meant to burn, then swallowed hard as he watched.
His gut twisted oddly. The flames danced through the air like living things. Not fast, by any means. Speed could be refined later—what mattered was the result.
The moment the white flames touched the hall's roof.
It wasn't like the White Flower Divine Art he'd wielded before—the explosive power was different. The tiny flames, containable in a palm, detonated on impact like a massive thunderclap, a bizarre roar echoing as cold qi blanketed the roof.
"Haa..."
Only Baek Moo-jin's ragged, astonished breath filled the Red Bliss Hall. But it wasn't over. While his usual cold qi merely froze things, these white flames hissed and sizzled, melting the roof outright. The center where they'd struck collapsed with a thud, crashing into the hall's interior.
Though he was guilty of nothing, Baek Moo-jin glanced around. No one there, of course. Only then did he descend the mountain path, defining what had just happened.
My innate power now carries the energy of flames as well.
In that instant, a peerlessly bizarre martial art was born—unprecedented in martial history.
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2.
There are many masters in the world.
By swordsmanship alone, there were likely several swordsmen in the current martial forest superior to Baek Moo-jin. Sword or not, masters from famed houses passed down for a century or even a millennium had carved their own paths.
Some with palm strikes.
Some with weapons.
Some with profound inner arts.
But a master like Baek Moo-jin was singularly unique—even gauging a thousand years of martial history, no one quite like him existed. This was purely in terms of distinctiveness.
That was why Baek Moo-jin found his power puzzling. He'd just slain a band he saw as Evil Demons and Outlaws. Yet wasn't this new power he wielded even closer to their domain?
A stuffy orthodox elder calling Baek Moo-jin's arts Demonic Path wouldn't be surprising. Only now did he truly grasp the letter his father had left.
Baek Moo-jin closed his eyes briefly and shook his head.
Power is just a tool. If my heart is righteous, it doesn't matter if it's from Evil Demons and Outlaws. I'll use it for the right causes.
Opening his eyes, Baek Moo-jin smiled faintly and resumed his solitary walk.
He'd thought his martial arts perfected on Snow Garment Peak. But he'd underestimated fate. Had he never stepped into the martial world, he'd never have encountered chances to grow stronger.
Even I keep getting stronger. Then I suppose I should see how far this goes.
The Flame Emperor's power wasn't rooted in his own arts. He needed to refine it into something he could wield fluidly.
Above all, it's slower than launching White Flower.
And further...
Could I unleash cold qi and white flames together?
Descending the mountain path, Baek Moo-jin occasionally paused, lost in deep thought, oblivious to time.
This was why Baek Moo-jin was so fearsome.
From the smallest insights to grand enlightenments.
He constantly examined and grew himself.