Chapter 228
Chapter 228
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 228
Chapter Title: Sword Gang Manifestation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Heavenly Realm
Paang!
Myeongryongja struck my back hard, causing my qi and blood to surge violently. Blood welled up in my mouth.
I spat out the saliva and stood up from my spot, assuming my stance once more. I summoned a thunderclap and executed the Six Harmonies Mountain Splitter technique from the Six Harmonies Swordsmanship forms.
Bwoong!
A tremendous amount of internal energy drained away. I gritted my teeth and endured the exhaustion and sense of emptiness that felt like it was shattering my brain. By now, my eyes were probably bloodshot. Painful delusions and fantasies overlapped in my mind about why I was putting myself through this madness.
'Endure, endure, endure!!'
I poured every ounce of my strength into completing the Six Harmonies Swordsmanship form. It was a simple technique, but while executing it, I genuinely wanted to die. My arms, legs, heart, and even ribs screamed, clinging to my reason. They pleaded with my brain that I would die like this, begging me to stop. But regardless of those thoughts, Myeongryongja's cold voice rang out.
"Fifty-one."
Barely one rep was done. Despair swirled in my head.
'Ugh, more! I can still do more!'
Swing!
I swing!
I pour my will into the tip of the sword!
"...Sixty."
Swing!
I swing!
I swung and collapsed! Stars burst before my eyes!
Huh? What was I thinking?
Slap!
"You fool, snap out of it!"
I barely regained my senses when Myeongryongja slapped my cheek. He infused me with the Infinite Divine Art to bring me back to consciousness, then spoke as if he was fed up.
"Your mental fortitude is truly incredible. How do you not even scream while on the verge of death?"
In my dazed state, I faintly replied. I was too exhausted to even use polite speech.
"...No strength... left..."
"Ah, of course. Sorry about that."
Myeongryongja patted my back casually as he replied.
"Let's call it a day."
Those words felt like heavenly bliss and grace. Tears of emotion threatened to spill for an entirely different reason. But the follow-up made my mind go blank.
"Kid! Tomorrow, aim for over sixty reps."
I ground my teeth. It pissed me off to no end.
"...Super... recovery..."
"That's right. Super recovery!"
Myeongryongja clenched his fist.
"What can you do? If your skill doesn't keep up, your body suffers!"
"......"
It was an irrefutable statement, but I'd never hated a truth so much!
'Ugh, damn it...'
That day, I fell asleep in the cave like I was dead. The next day, I was dragged out again and repeated exhaustion and revival with the Six Harmonies Swordsmanship. There was no end in sight to this terrifying stamina and internal energy drain.
I somehow understood what kind of master Myeongryongja was.
Unlike Lee Gwang, he truly cared for his disciple. However, his methods and approach were unmatched in their brutish madness and eccentricity. He even seemed remarkably indifferent and detached from his disciple's suffering. I could see why the Azure Dragon lineage Wudang experts feared Myeongryongja.
"Ughhhh..."
My face buried in the ground, only groans escaped.
I'd returned to the cave half-dead again.
'Ugh... my insides hurt...'
Piercing pain in my organs!
By the end of the second day, I felt like my internals were wrecked. No matter how amazing the Infinite Divine Art was, it couldn't fully protect a human body from this insane consumption. With no choice, I laboriously pulled out acupuncture needles from my neck pouch and stimulated my body's acupoints.
Using medical acupoints as a stopgap to recover internal energy, then the True Qi Rejuvenation Method to heal my organs. I groaned inwardly.
'Ugh... lungs slightly damaged... inflammation in spleen and pancreas... several meridians severed... heart weakened too.'
I hurriedly pressed acupoints with acupuncture to reduce inflammation and restore meridians. After about an hour of desperate self-healing, the pain eased somewhat. Finishing the treatment, I let out a sigh of relief.
'Really... if I hadn't learned medicine in Goryeo, I'd have died pointlessly here again...'
What kind of Wudang training method was this brutal?
Any normal person would have died five times over by now!
Medicine had seemed useless at the time, but it was saving my life here. Foreseeing that if training continued like this, I might drop dead one day without warning, I realized I needed countermeasures.
How could I survive?
Deep in thought, I recalled a perfect solution from the Hua Tuo Medical Secret Manual.
Hua Tuo Five Animals Frolic
Secret Technique
Art of Feigning Death!
Swoooo...
During my allotted rest time, I decided not to just sleep but maximize recovery. Among the body techniques passed down in the Hua Tuo lineage, there was a secret mimicking animal forms—the Art of Feigning Death.
I began regulating my breathing according to the prescribed secret method.
Gradually, consciousness faded.
When I awoke, exactly three hours had passed. Waking faster than training time, I checked my body and confirmed full recovery.
"Good!"
The Art of Feigning Death was entering a hibernation-like state, mimicking death like an animal!
Primarily a life-saving technique used by Hua Tuo healers to save lives, it also rapidly restored the body during rest. I'd used it to quickly heal physical damage. Its recovery effect far surpassed most internal arts.
After gaining immense internal energy, I'd wondered what use this trick had, but it proved invaluable here! I resolved to thank Hwa Seomyeong even more later.
Then I trained and trained again.
Swing!
I swing!
I pour my will into the tip of the sword!
Swing!
I swing!
I pour my will into the tip of the sword!
......
I pour my will into the tip of the sword!
Die and die again, repeatedly entering coma states.
Suddenly, irritation welled up.
Any normal human's brain would have snapped by now.
When will it end...?
Is what I'm doing even a proper technique...?
Why am I doing this?
I'd already half-died over five hundred times, and I had no sense of how many days had passed. What was clear was that far more time had elapsed than initially expected, and even Myeongryongja looked weary.
It was during this timeless, thoughtless flow.
"......?"
Reincarnation.
Also known as transmigration, rebirth, or samsara.
Buddhism speaks of six realms in the cycle: hell, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, and heavens.
Strangely—why did the six realms of reincarnation reflect in the sword tip of my Six Harmonies Swordsmanship swings?
Soon, I felt I had become emptiness.
Drifting in the origin of emptiness, seeing nothing but emptiness.
Body vanishes, efforts vanish, and finally life fades without trace. Only a faint consciousness remains. A spirit enduring hundreds of eons remains untouched by nature.
If this is death, it's the most certain kind. If life's end is entering nirvana, with body gone, nirvana is complete.
Yet, one problem: consciousness persists. No body, but mind exists. In this irrational state, I check for a body—none.
Consciousness moves anywhere thought goes. I directed it skyward. Per theory, soul goes to heaven, corpse to earth—I've become a soul.
Am I dead?
Dead without further regression?
Not shocking, but somehow, no. My death wouldn't be this grandiose. I'd be pondering why from a stable ceiling.
Ah.
Yes.
My mind is just watching over my body.
Shoooo...
In that instant, I fundamentally understood the phrase I'd screamed like a scream: [I pour my will into the tip of the sword!]. With all distractions gone, only the 'swing' action eternally lingered in a fleeting moment. Thus, forgetting all energy, focusing on one.
Kiiing!
Keener than a needle, focus coalesced intent threads at the sword tip. Threads became a glowing orb, flowing along the blade. The bluish glow thickened, solidified, turning transparently pure.
Shaaaa...
"Ah...!!"
Consciousness returned to body. I exhaled in the cave.
Sword gang!
My sword had formed true sword gang!
Not forcibly scraped with endless internal energy drain, but genuine gang qi with minimal burden.
Staring at the white light, I blinked in disbelief.
Sword Demon and Myeongryongja had approached unnoticed, speaking almost in unison.
"You did it!"
"Excellent!"
They exchanged awkward glances, then told me.
"Truly... an insane training method, and you succeeded."
The watching Sword Demon looked baffled yet overjoyed.
"Hah! I knew you'd succeed!"
Myeongryongja spoke confidently, but he knew without my separate medical arts and stubborn endurance, I'd have died long ago. His stunned expression confirmed he hadn't expected it either.
I just gave a wry smile. Thanks to the ordeal, my body withstood fatigue despite internal energy at limit. No—absolute internal energy quantity had greatly increased.
'Did the millennium snow ginseng's energy dissolve more deeply due to harsh super recovery...?'
Kwaching!
As I withdrew the sword gang, the white light vanished quickly. Unlike sword qi or sword flame, sword gang exuded otherworldly presence. With this, I'd escaped beginner in intent realm combat.
I noticed the foul stench and blood crusts covering my body. Grimacing at the smell worse than rancid rags soaked for months, I said.
"Ugh... how much time passed?"
"About three months."
"...What? That much?"
By rep count, I'd guessed at most half a month. Far more time had passed. Myeongryongja, listening, said.
"You must've miscounted half-deaths. At some point, you lost consciousness, became a machine swinging forms dryly. Then today, you suddenly comprehended sword gang."
"B-But I woke midway for medical treatment."
"Whatever you did, later it was pure survival instinct? Your time sense is definitely broken now."
"......"
Absurd.
So, soulless, I swung Six Harmonies Swordsmanship thousands of times, repeating super recovery?
Speechless, Sword Demon smiled.
"Three months is remarkably fast. Be proud."
"Is it...?"
"Of course. Surviving that mad method makes you superhuman."
Sword Demon patted my back.
"Now, rest well today. Tomorrow, resume training. Myeongryongja and I researched Heavenly Axis Sword and Turtle Shell Sword further, reaching a higher level. We'll soon impart those insights."
"Really?!"
Thrilled by the good news, Sword Demon assured me.
"Naturally. Now with sword gang, you'll absorb our insights easily."
"Relieved."
"Hahaha, relieved? More than that."
Sword Demon laughed heartily.
"Don't you grasp what sword gang means? You're now a martial famed one no one in the world can ignore!"
"......!!"
Famed one!
My heart raced at the word.
Many claim master, but true famed ones are rare in heaven and earth. My martial realm had reached at least mid-tier peak expert, overall arts elevated a stage.