Chapter 80: Peak (True) Master Peng Hyeon-hwi (1)
Chapter 80: Peak (True) Master Peng Hyeon-hwi (1)
Late at night in the waning autumn, inside the Purple Tiger Hall of the Peng Family Estate.
"U-Um, hello...?"
I offered a greeting very cautiously, softly, almost fearing I might startle the other party.
My fingertips trembled with a tension so delicate it felt like I was handling fine glasswork...
"When were you born...?"
I spoke to this tiny, precious child nestled near my heart.
"My dear Middle Dantian."
Let’s stay together forever.
I knew living a good life would pay off.
From now on, I shall stand at the center of the Central Plains.
30. Peak (True) Master Peng Hyeon-hwi
Martial artists go through periods of puberty. We use a more dignified term for this puberty: "Realms."
It starts after the childhood phase of a martial artist—when forming the initial Dantian is nothing but pure excitement and happiness—and moves into the confusion that begins when you're told to load internal energy into a sword or saber and swing it.
—I mean, how on earth am I supposed to transfer the energy inside my body into an object?
If you can answer that question, you enter the stage of forming Sword Qi. At that point, a martial artist reaches the Second-Rate level.
Then it starts all over again. The intoxication of a sudden power-up is brief. Next, you're told you must be able to tear objects apart with Sword Qi alone, without even using the physical blade—
—No, really. How am I supposed to do that with just energy?
In elegant terms, this is called the "Wall"—the limit of common sense.
To leap over it, you research, you train, and you spend every waking moment—excluding eating and shitting—clinging to your blade, swinging it, and refining your forms over and over.
After days, months, and years of this, finally...
Just by bringing the edge of your blade to a falling leaf and letting it rest there, you see the leaf split perfectly in half.
Sword Qi Hurt Humans. This is the realm where one is officially called a "Master." In other words, First-Rate.
This is the final track for those born with average talent or ordinary potential; even a lifetime of study might not be enough to cross it.
From that point on, a type of talent not permitted to "humans" is required.
Unlike the Lower Dantian, which is like a vestigial organ humans are born with, the Middle Dantian must be "formed" by oneself.
"No, I'm asking how the hell you're supposed to make a Middle Dantian!"
Whenever I asked that, Elder Peng Jeon-gun or Elder Peng Ik-cheon would invariably wear an inhumanly annoying expression and say:
"Ah, so you still do not know..."
"In that case, it is a tale far too early for you."
"Hehe..."
Hearing that kind of crap was enough to make me go ballistic.
In the midst of that shame and humiliation, the only thing I could do was memorize medieval Chinese acupoint anatomy textbooks or practice my martial arts.
I’ve been nauseatingly busy since the Hegemonic Blade Style, but still.
I can confidently say that from the moment I completed the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art, I swung my saber in every spare moment, unseen and working myself to the bone.
Maybe I was a genius of effort after all.
And now, the fruit of that labor was right here.
"I shall stand at the center of the Central Plains."
A cool autumn breeze brushed past my sweat-drenched body.
Looking up at the clear, high night sky, I felt a grand ambition soaring as if to pierce the heavens. I had acquired the gaze of an absolute being looking down upon the world.
"Am I a year later than Hwa-yeong?"
Hwa-yeong is a year younger than me, and she was already in the Peak Realm.
If I roughly assume she reached the Peak Realm this year, then I’m about a year behind.
Still, there’s no denying this is an absurd speed.
Hwa-yeong, who handled Demonic Energy like kneading dough from the moment she could crawl, and I, who only awakened my Lower Dantian at age seven, were on different starting lines from the beginning.
If I’ve narrowed that gap to one year, I’m by no means late.
And let’s not forget—I’m the fastest among my brothers.
"Heh, heh..."
Visualizing the small, cute Middle Dantian I could feel bit by bit near my chest, I immediately took the stance for the Hunyuan Art.
Sss— Haa.
I drew internal energy in with the inhale and circulated True Qi through the body's fine vessels with the exhale.
The basics of the Hunyuan Art. Along the Conception Vessel: Qihai, Juque, Qihai, Shanzhong, Yutang.
As the constellations starting from the Dantian drew a long, continuous line, I pulled the final point up toward the Middle Dantian. The true beginning of the Astral Energy Skill.
—Zap.
A short spark of electricity jumped from my body. Guiding the True Qi along the meridians of the Thunderbolt Art... Zap, zap, zap.
Fragmented bits of True Qi began to leak from the pores across my body, taking the form of lightning and crackling. So far, so good.
I had embodied the true essence of the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art.
'The Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art is an Astral Energy Skill.'
From the start, it was a martial art whose true value couldn't be drawn out unless one could use Astral Energy.
At the mere level of Sword Qi Hurt Humans, one couldn't merge the Thunderbolt Art and the Hunyuan Art.
The martial art I had been forced to use until now by relying on the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear...
The martial art whose theory and understanding I had already mastered years ago...
An untrodden realm. But now, possessing the full map, I finally stand at the starting line and crank the engine.
—Whoosh.
The faint touch of True Qi awakened the Middle Dantian.
With a thump of a pulse, True Qi surged out again along the bloodstream from the heart.
If the operation of internal energy through the Lower Dantian involves drawing along the acupoints of various body parts...
The operation of internal energy through the Middle Dantian is different; it follows the blood flow originating from the heart.
In other words, it strengthens the entire body along the blood vessels.
This was something I had seen and learned before.
The sense of omnipotence I felt when I took the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear.
The sensation of True Qi pulsing through the blood vessels of the entire body, projecting internal energy along the skeleton and nerves.
Time slowed down and blurred, and my vision wavered into darkness.
This was the perspective of a Peak Realm martial artist. Amidst that, I sharpened my ocular techniques and steadied my posture. I could do it now.
—Creeeak!!
I pressed my strength into the hand gripping the saber hilt, visualizing the fastest, shortest, and greatest strike I could unleash.
Divide one breath into a bun, and divide that again into a mo.
Split that to reach sa.
Faster than that, hol.
Penetrating the instant, mi.
And—
—Crack!!
I heard something twist in my elbow where I had concentrated my internal energy.
And in that split second as I tried to extend the blade with that momentum—
—Cr-cr-cr-crack!!
"...?"
My body froze stiff.
"Huh...?"
My entire body was still burning as if I had a raging fever.
Under the cold autumn wind, my breath misted, and my overheated nerves throbbed, sucking in information from the surroundings.
In a world of slowed time where I could count every movement of the branches swaying in the wind and the leaves hanging from their tips...
My veins began to boil as if a gas stove had been turned on, and then something surged up my throat.
"Cough... ack!"
In an instant, a glob of blood sprayed from my mouth.
Before I could feel anything else, a thought suddenly occurred: Oh, this is bad.
I glanced down at my unmoving arms and my frozen legs.
—Thump!!
"Gah... cough!!"
I vomited blood again and collapsed. My feverish nerves were still surveying my condition with such agonizing detail that it felt like I was watching someone else—
No, it was more like my brain had blocked out the unbearable pain. Even as my body writhed and thrashed on the ground, I felt like I was watching from a distance.
"Haa... gasp!! Urgh!!"
I could feel every single blood vessel branching out like roots into my limbs.
Every single one of them was pulsing with a searing heat as if they were boiling!
At the intersections of the vessels, on the acupoints embedded like dots...
'This... this is...!!'
The thought that flashed through my mind just before I almost passed out from the violent pain inside my acupoints was:
'Qi Deviation (Juhwa)...'
The fire runs. Literally, a searing pain as if a ball of fire were racing through my veins, charring my insides.
'Entering the Demon (Imma)!!'
The demon enters and runs wild.
My body, having lost control, began to twitch as if possessed by an evil spirit.
Feeling the blood flowing from the corners of my mouth, I felt my vision fade and my eyes close.
*
Nang-rang was a seasoned maid who had served the direct lineage of the Peng Family for over twenty years. She was the person who had taken on the role of nanny for the two-year-old Peng Hyeon-hwi when she was only fifteen.
Even if he was the youngest of the direct line, he was still direct lineage. The nanny of such a child could not be unskilled.
Furthermore, she was someone who had spent fifteen years watching the domineering life of Peng Hyeon-hwi, who had mastered the Thousand Character Classic by age three.
Therefore, from the moment Peng Hyeon-hwi returned to the Purple Tiger Hall after his long trip, Nang-rang had not left his side.
Knowing the Young Master's temperament, she felt it was about time for him to cause some trouble.
And so it happened.
"Aaaaaaaagh!?"
A scream rang out in the deep night. Nang-rang immediately stood up and rushed to the inner courtyard. Peng Hyeon-hwi had been warming up at the small training ground.
Desperate screams erupted from his mouth. His face was flushed bright red, and his veins and muscles were undulating wildly.
As a long-time servant of a martial family, Nang-rang could grasp the situation instantly.
"Is anyone there?! Go fetch the Master immediately!"
"W-Which one...?"
"Any of the Elders who are here! Hurry!!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The servant of the Purple Tiger Hall ran off in a panic. Without even looking back, Nang-rang slowly approached Peng Hyeon-hwi.
"Gurgle...!!"
She bit her lip as she watched Peng Hyeon-hwi foaming at the mouth.
Early symptoms of Qi Deviation. Seizures caused by intense pain.
As someone who didn't know martial arts, she must not touch the Young Master's body right now.
An Elder had to come and stabilize his True Qi.
Just as she thought that, the gate of the Purple Tiger Hall slammed open with a gust of wind.
"This foolish boy."
"Elder Peng Jeon-gun...!"
"Stand back."
There was no need to ask how he could have arrived so quickly.
This old man had also been the instructor teaching the Young Master since he was seven, so he likely expected the boy to pull something eventually.
Peng Jeon-gun unhesitatingly placed his hand on Peng Hyeon-hwi's back.
"...?"
He tried to suppress the rampaging True Qi with a look of dismay.
"...!!!"
His face filled with shock, and he tried to pull his hand away.
"...What on earth is this...!?"
He saw his palm, which wouldn't detach from Peng Hyeon-hwi's back.
And he felt his internal energy being sucked out through that palm.
And also...
He felt the storm created by the True Qi inside Peng Hyeon-hwi's body, which his own internal energy was scanning, gradually subsiding.
No, rather than subsiding, it was more like...
'Like broken pottery shards reattaching themselves...?'
As if a shattered ceramic vase were rewinding time to return to its original form.
From the extremities of the body destroyed by the uncontrolled Astral Energy, to the broken and damaged Dantian and Origin Qi, down to the torn and frayed internal organs.
Piece by piece.
Yet at a speed that was by no means slow, he watched as they were reassembled.
"Nang-rang."
"Yes, Elder."
"Fetch Elder Peng Ik-cheon from the Mountain King Hall. Immediately."
"Yes, yes!"
Even after Nang-rang left and returned, Peng Jeon-gun's hand did not leave Peng Hyeon-hwi's back.
At that time, the events occurring within Peng Hyeon-hwi's Dantian could be simplified as follows:
First, the Lower Dantian received an order to refine the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art as usual.
"Huh? Me? An Astral Energy Skill? How?"
It checked with the stomach and gallbladder to see if the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear had been consumed, but the only answer from that side was "Dunno."
Regardless, it felt it had to do its job. It guided the True Qi and flowed the internal energy along the acupoints, but halfway through the Conception Vessel, the "guests" suddenly suggested turning off the original path to go somewhere else.
What could it do? The customer is king. The acupoints moved the tour route toward the heart—the Middle Dantian—as the guests desired.
At that time, the Middle Dantian, receiving the swarming guests...
"Goo-goo ga-ga?"
Due to the repeated administration of the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear and drug abuse that had never been discussed with history, its acupoints had been forcibly forced open.
It couldn't function as a Dantian yet, and in any normal case, it should have exploded the heart immediately.
By chance. By heavenly luck.
Perhaps due to his constitution.
Or perhaps due to some genetic trait passed down through the bloodline of the Hebei Peng Family.
Or maybe, the very first year of his possession.
At that moment when a new soul was being forced in before the Baihui acupoint had even closed.
By "some powerful will" that intervened at that moment, the Middle Dantian had been formed at a stage that absolutely did not match his realm—a stage that was far too early.
Therefore, even though it wasn't ripe enough to function yet...
"Hey, I told you I've used this before!"
When the malicious customers, based on their experience with illegal doping (Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear), clamored to use the Middle Dantian...
The Middle Dantian cried out, "Impossible, impossible! Wait, it's not impossible?" and erupted with Astral Energy.
"Aaaaaaaagh—?!!"
A situation where an 8-cylinder engine had been installed before he could even crawl.
At the very moment when Qi Deviation violently exploded and was about to thoroughly wreck his entire body...
—.
The stars in the sky shine.
The Baihui acupoint resonates.
A certain will.
Good or evil. Orthodox or Unorthodox. Black or white. Whatever it may be.
Something that cannot be interpreted by human will, something that can never understand one another, a completely different presence from the far-off heavens cast its shadow.
—Click.
A gaze from above the night sky smiled contentedly.
The overheated acupoints cooled down chillingly.
Sss—
Huuu—
Peng Hyeon-hwi's twisted body gradually regained its stability.
"..."
Peng Jeon-gun and Peng Ik-cheon were looking down at that sight.
"The 36 Heavenly Stars...? Am I... am I seeing this correctly?"
"Do not mention this to anyone, anywhere."
Peng Ik-cheon gave the instruction, took one last look at Peng Hyeon-hwi's body, and stood up.
"I must report this to the Family Head."
"I will stand guard. Please, go ahead."
The Hebei Peng Family had become aware of Peng Hyeon-hwi's constitution.