Episode 45
Neighhhh—
I poked my head out at the sound of the horses and realized we’d already arrived in front of the academy.
“...I’ll go report to Master Raeji. I’ll take responsibility for this mission. The two of you should go rest first.”
After getting out of the carriage, Jong Jinwon turned to look at us and spoke.
The faint shadow on his face said more than his words did.
“……”
“……”
Namgung Hye let out a small, uncertain sound, her expression odd.
When I turned my head, my eyes met hers, and a trace of embarrassment was flickering deep in those blue pupils.
Seeing that reaction, she was probably thinking the same thing I was.
Come to think of it, that wasn’t strange at all, given Jong Jinwon’s personality.
Thanks to Master Raeji’s guarantee, I’d been able to join the mission alone, so there was no team member for me to account for. In other words, I was basically a one-man unit.
But the two of them, as squad leaders, had to bear responsibility for the deaths of the members who’d died on this mission.
“Unlike the two of you, I’m the next leader of the Kunlun Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects. Even if I mess up, at worst I’ll be denounced over this incident—no one can really pin serious responsibility on me.”
That was why he was saying it.
The guy really did live a tiring life.
“So I’ll take responsibility.”
Since I had to go get the elixirs anyway, I brushed it off with a convenient excuse.
“Jong So-hyeop, come with us. We can’t let you suffer by yourself, can we? We’ll stay with you until the end.”
And I didn’t have anything to be responsible for anyway.
I nodded and looked at Jong Jinwon. Maybe he was moved, because the corners of his eyes had already gone red.
Hey, wait—were you seriously about to cry?
“As expected… you’re a true heavenly hero, Cheon Dae-hyeop.”
“I-I’ll come too.”
While Jong Jinwon wore a deeply touched expression, Namgung Hye hurriedly spoke up as well.
We were right on the brink of Ten Flowers; there was no reason to drag this out any longer.
If they could just give a few statements on the side, that would be enough.
I should head straight to the training chamber.
He clasped his hands and offered his thanks.
“The two of you are a great blessing to the martial world.”
Just as we were about to start walking, I felt a strange gaze from behind my head.
Or rather, a presence.
A horrid stench was drifting on the wind.
“Wait here a moment.”
“Why?”
Namgung Hye looked up at me, confused.
Without answering, I turned my head back—and saw a girl hiding behind the academy wall, glaring at us.
That’s supposed to be hiding?
Why was she spying instead of going inside?
Step, step.
Our eyes met from a short distance away.
When the girl recognized my face, she involuntarily parted her lips and flinched.
Her filthy pink hair, dull with grime, fluttered in the wind, and each time it moved, that faintly disgusting smell spread farther.
I pulled a small piece of cloth from inside my robes and held it to my nose.
Better.
“W-what do you want? If you’re planning to say something ridiculous, then go back right now.”
Wei Shiyun had gone in without even looking at her, which made her lingering here by herself feel suspicious.
“……”
Guyang Jihee narrowed her eyes at me.
But unlike usual, those eyes weren’t haughty and looking down at me anymore. There was a strange heat in them now.
She fidgeted with her fingers and tapped the ground, looking restless.
“Um, maybe you have a little time…?”
Just as she was clearing her throat and starting to speak again, I cut her off a beat faster, lowering my voice.
“Don’t forget the elixirs.”
“What? ...Ah, yes, I know.”
Guyang Jihee trembled all over.
“And stop sneaking around.”
“Who’s sneaking? I was just walking by and happened to see you!”
She’d gotten off the carriage before us, so sure.
But I didn’t say that aloud and went on.
“That’s a relief. It’d give me the creeps if someone were watching me.”
“……”
“Especially if it was some stinky, unpleasant person sneaking around to spy. How’s that sound? Pretty awful, right?”
She wasn’t stupid enough not to know who I was talking about.
Guyang Jihee’s eyes turned vicious.
“Ugh...!!! U-unpleasant? Seriously! Are you talking about me?”
“Who knows. Could be anyone.”
“Hmph! I finally go out of my way to talk to you, and you throw away the chance? Don’t come crying and regretting it later. By then it’ll be too late!”
As if she didn’t want to keep staring at my face any longer, Guyang Jihee tossed out the words and turned on her heel in a huff.
That attitude suited her.
“...Regret, huh.”
We’ll see.
Not much time was left.
“Finished?”
“Cheon Dae-hyeop, is something wrong?”
The moment Guyang Jihee left, the two of them approached me.
“Nothing serious. I kept you waiting. Let’s go see Master.”
Rustle, rustle.
Just after Cheon Sojin’s group disappeared through the front gate, a cute girl with green hair that reached her waist dropped down from the trees on the opposite side.
Her green martial robes looked just like leaves.
“W-what do I do...!? Sneaking around is awful… What if I get caught?”
She rambled to herself and started searching the ground where Cheon Sojin had stood.
Her long hair, slightly wavy at the ends, fluttered beautifully each time the wind blew.
After pacing around anxiously for a while, she carefully took a folded dark crimson robe from inside her clothes and rubbed her face against it with all her might.
“Sss—haa—”
The drug-like scent stabbed into her nose, and only then did she regain her composure and steady her breathing.
“N-no, that’s not it. I don’t smell bad at all, and I’m not unpleasant either... More importantly, what was with that woman? She was really gross...”
At that moment, her clear, deep blue-green eyes sparkled like stars.
“Ah!!!! T-this is!!”
What had caught her eye was the cloth fragment that Sojin-nim had used.
Before anyone else could take it, she hurriedly stuffed it into her pocket.
Today was truly a happy day.
She had obtained Treasure Number 10.
A beautiful smile blossomed on her face like a flower in May.
*
*
*
Locked away in the training chamber, I devoted myself to the Ilwol Eumyang Singong without a moment’s rest.
“Hah.”
Blue energy shimmered around my body, then faded away.
After three days of forgetting even sleep and meals in order to focus on training, I still hadn’t reached Ten Flowers through ordinary mid-grade elixirs like Ojidan or Hyeolgoedan, but pure Ilwol energy had been steadily gathering in my dantian.
I never expected anything else.
After coming to this world, I had never slackened in gathering elixirs.
Other martial artists spent most of their time building insight or combat experience, but I had no need for that.
Aside from martial training, I focused on one thing only: accumulating inner power.
Some martial artists who reached high realms grew bored and stopped training, but I thought that was foolish.
Learning has no end.
Just as learning never ends, neither does the practice of martial arts.
“...Hm.”
In the innermost chamber of the training room, made entirely of blue jade stone, I took a wooden case from my bundle and set it on the floor.
The fruit of all my efforts—this was the real thing.
...It had taken a long time.
Because Ilwol Eumyang Singong was a technique in which realm and inner power accumulated slowly, drinking good elixirs could drastically shorten the time needed.
That was the fastest and most effective method, which was why I’d focused so heavily on collecting elixirs.
Slowly, I opened the wooden case. Inside, a thumb-sized elixir radiated a red glow like a danhwa flower, revealing its brilliant form.
Botian Pill.
Beside it was an elixir that sparkled like blue crystal, a medicine on par with the Shaolin Xiaohuan Pill.
Kunlun Pill.
These were top-grade elixirs, the kind people recognized at a glance just by hearing the names.
Even just looking at them made a faint thrill rise in my face.
It had been worth all the trouble.
“...Huu.”
Gulp—
Without hesitation, I swallowed the Botian Pill in one shot.
Woooooo—
“Ghk!”
The sun-like force of yang spread through my entire body along my meridians.
The middle dantian responded as well, and before long, the tenth seed had taken root inside my dantian.
Good start.
As the tenth seed sprouted in my dantian, dark red turbid energy began to seep out from the pores all over my body like smoke.
“……”
Because the mind was free, I held the moon in my right hand and the sun in my left.
Drip—
So I can’t balance it all at once after all.
Blood seeped gradually from my nose and eyes. The yang energy was simply too strong.
Too much was worse than too little.
As cold sweat poured off me like rain, I made the bold choice to disperse most of the inner power.
Ilwol Eumyang Singong granted tremendous strength, but if the balance of the technique wasn’t maintained, horrific side effects would follow.
Blue light scattered in the wind like dandelion seeds, disappearing pointlessly.
As if it had never existed at all.
“……”
I’d endured all kinds of hardship to gain this power, but I didn’t regret a single bit of it.
Raising my realm was the highest priority right now.
There was no such thing as a perfect divine technique without any flaws.
Just as light always cast a shadow.
No matter how outstanding a martial art was, it had defects or weaknesses. If there were a flawless, immaculate technique, then that only existed in a child’s fantasy.
Gulp—
I put the Kunlun Pill in my mouth and continued operating the divine art.
The powerful yin energy swirled together with the Ilwol energy, violently beginning to force a balance.
Since Ilwol Eumyang Singong was a martial art that achieved harmony and balance through mutually opposing energies,
the purer the energy, the more explosively it responded under pressure.
“...Ugh.”
So I endured it for ten days and nights, then endured it again.
Clenching my teeth, I held out against the pain stabbing through my entire body like knives.
I was trying to gain, in a few elixirs, the inner power that others needed more than a decade of training to obtain.
Pain like this could hardly even be called the price.
The energy remained unstable, changing shape from moment to moment.
All day long, the yin energy on one side and the yang energy on the other kept moving as though they would devour each other—
Swish—
The tenth flower bloomed in my dantian.
It’s done.
Blue light spread softly through the space around me.
Ten Flowers.
The ten flowers divided into yin and yang had finally achieved perfect balance.
“……”
Gathering my qi, I rose to my feet and slowly opened my eyes.
Blue vitality flowed through Cheon Sojin’s gaze, and a gentle current of air filled the training chamber.
It had been a long haul.