Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Subduing Demon Hall
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My eighth life had begun.
In truth, since the previous life had ended far too abruptly, no particular emotions stirred within me. It was simply that the pain from the self-immolation permeated my entire body like muscle soreness, leaving me lying there and groaning for a time.
Last time, the mental shock, surprise, and sense of self-reproach had been so overwhelming that I had not noticed it well, but severing the heart meridian was not a particularly comfortable method of suicide. In terms of the pain of death, it was only slightly less severe than beheading. It was the sort of choice an ordinary person would not easily make.
"Urk... damn it."
Even so, I grumbled as I rose to my feet. One merit of the self-immolation technique was that, since I chose death myself, the ensuing mental shock was lessened. I felt the need to research a method of dying that was quicker, painless, and more comfortable.
'Anyway, let us summarize the situation. At the bottom of the pond where the black and white lotuses bloom, there likely exists a relic that is the secret treasure of the Seven Luminaries. The spiritual energy emanating from that shining sword is on an extraordinary level. However, to obtain it, I must slay the guardian giant spider.'
Swiftly reviewing the circumstances in my mind, the remaining question was now one of "how" to proceed.
Just how was I to obtain that treasure?
I believed there was no avoiding combat with the guardian. It was worth considering dashing across the log bridge before it lunged out, seizing the sword, and retreating, but that carried far too much risk. Moreover, judging by the spider's reaction speed, there was a high chance I would simply be subdued and die pointlessly. Unless my lightness skill speed was at least twice as fast as it currently was, victory through speed alone seemed impossible.
'Doubling my speed here...? If I push the Thunder Spirit to its utmost limits, it might be possible, but hmm.'
I let out a groan.
My lightness skill speed was hardly slow at present. Rather, I could confidently claim it was in the absolute upper echelons even among all murim martial artists. For instance, the Imperial Guards of the Gold Garrison had struggled to react when I attacked using Thunder Shadow Step, so it was safe to say that anyone below first-class expert level was slower than me. Furthermore, with internal energy strongly enhancing my physical capabilities, it could be considered reasonably swift even against peak experts.
Thus, becoming even faster from here demanded progress that would shatter my current martial realm by one or two levels. Fighting the giant spider to seize the treasure went without saying. After much contemplation, I arrived at a single conclusion.
I must become stronger than I am now!
The simple and clear goal I had set last time struck me with even greater urgency. I stepped out of the stable and, to dull the pain, circulated my internal energy as I assumed a horse stance. The posture was quite demanding, so focusing on it seemed likely to make the pain fade swiftly.
"......"
I realized that rather than mindlessly training at the Azure Dragon Martial Hall, I needed to probe more deeply into the subtleties of martial principles. Until now, I had been too occupied just mastering what Triple Excellence Lee Gwang or Jin So-cheong taught me to catch my breath, but things were different now. I had years of experience studying under them, and considerable practical combat experience utilizing the Thunder God Style to boot.
'Now, I must actively inquire about the higher realms of martial principles that I do not yet know.'
There was something I had come to realize while studying alongside geniuses. They did not bother mocking or comparing themselves to the dull-witted or the ordinary. Such petty behavior was the domain of fools lacking confidence in their own abilities. Geniuses simply strode forward, the next stage always in view, with no need to glance back.
If I wished to grow even a little stronger, I had to compel them to turn back and explain. Only then could I extract the maximum gain. And for that, nothing was more essential than effort and diligence.
Training at the Azure Dragon Martial Hall!
And growing strong enough to claim the treasure from the Seven Luminaries relic!
"Let's go!"
With this as my goal for this life, half a shichen later, I departed the stable. Having obtained the Heavenly Dark Secret Book without issue, my journey toward Yellow Mountain began.
It took roughly the same amount of time to reach Yellow Mountain as before. Since I now had a vague sense of the Yellow Mountain Sect elder's patrol routes, I was able to arrive at the location of the Millennium Snow Ginseng without needing to hide much.
In the cavern of the snowfield, I gazed absently at the Millennium Snow Ginseng and the black and white lotuses as I fell into thought.
'Perhaps I no longer need to consume it?'
It was not without basis—my fine meridians felt nearly all cleared. Even without deliberately circulating my internal energy through the grand heavenly circuit, simply breathing caused the pathways to continue opening. The qi meridians within my body had already transformed into something akin to living dragon veins, writhing with vitality.
If I consumed this now, there would truly be no one in the world with greater internal energy than mine. Who else in existence had eaten Millennium Snow Ginseng six times?
To put it simply, what had once been a small vessel had been expanded many times over, now filling slowly from the bottom. However, the vastness was incomparable, so the water level in this container thousands of times larger rose only gradually. Absorbing the energy of the Millennium Snow Ginseng and black and white lotuses here would inevitably yield diminishing returns.
'Hmm. What to do... how should I handle this...'
I sat pondering, but in the end, I decided simply to consume it. If I were to sell it in the outside world, I could obtain staggering wealth and power in an instant, but that was not the goal of this life. Even if the gains were modest, it was far more profitable for me to devour it myself.
Flash!
As the gathering and refining of qi concluded, I felt something inside crunch and shatter. Yet this was not a negative sensation; rather, it was as if the elixir's energy, which had hitherto been bumping against obstacles, now swept them aside and propelled through my meridians entirely. Sensing my internal energy truly accelerating, I shivered.
'Whoa...!! It's like a storm surging through my body.'
However, I could not claim to have grown stronger from this alone. It felt like a precursor before advancing to the next stage. Satisfied with this life's harvest, I rose to my feet. As I did, my eyes fell upon the pond where the black and white lotuses bloomed.
The relic of the Seven Luminaries lay within.
"...Just in case, should I go one more time?"
Once I entered the Azure Dragon Martial Hall this time, I had no intention of emerging for decades. With no telling when I might return, going inside once more was not only harmless but could even be seen as a necessary step. Firming my resolve, I submerged into the pond once again.
Splash!
I turned the bead to open the door and entered the relic via the underwater passage. Then I stepped into the cavern where the altar was installed. Wondering if I had overlooked anything last time, I searched more meticulously around the altar this time.
"...Ah! This!"
I discovered that a certain box was hidden far behind one of the pillars. Last time, my attention had been fixed on the altar, so I had failed to notice it in that extremely remote spot. The box was a wooden case of indeterminate material—firmer and heavier than stone despite being wood.
I pondered how to open the wooden case but soon gripped my dagger and simply slashed it.
Slash!
The sealed wooden case was severed in a single stroke. With my internal energy infused, the dagger was effectively a peerless famed sword, even bearing faint sword qi, making it possible. Cautiously, I flipped open the lid of the wooden case.
Flash!
"Ooh...!!"
I let out a sound mingled with a groan and an exclamation.
Gold ingots!
Though I lacked any expert discernment, the pure and clear luster left no room for doubt. I had seen silver ingots at the village chief's house before, but the standard value of a gold ingot was twenty times that of silver. Selling just one among the more than ten ingots contained within this wooden case would make me instantly wealthy enough to live in luxury.
Pleased by this unexpected windfall yet amazed, I felt a stroke of fortunate serendipity born of thoroughness. I had only reentered the relic on a whim, and yet this had happened!
'Wait, just maybe?'
I picked up two or three of the gold ingots and stood.
Then I approached the altar and dripped blood into it.
Rumble.
The stone wall parted.
Once more, a door leading toward the treasured sword far in the distance opened. The log bridge appeared faintly in the darkness beyond. I considered how long it might take to dash to the end of the log bridge, but I concluded that swiftly going there and back before the guardian appeared was still far too dangerous.
"......"
Instead, I walked up to the stone wall and, at the entrance to the log bridge, hefted a gold ingot. Then I hurled it forcefully into the abyss below.
Clang!
[KRAAAAAARRR!!!]
Suddenly, a roar like that of a demon from hell echoed from within the abyss, followed by the sound of something thumping as it rapidly crawled upward. It seemed the guardian giant spider had been struck by the gold ingot I had infused with internal energy and was enraged. As a bonus, I tossed the torch I held into the depths below while shouting.
"Eat this too!"
Fwoosh!
I saw the torch catch onto a faint silhouette. The guardian appeared to thrash about greatly in confusion, and the cavern shook with intense vibrations. Fortunately, it seemed the torch had seared one of its eyes.
'Slowed down? In that case...'
Seizing this as an opportunity, I swiftly activated the Thunder Spirit and crossed the log bridge. My lightness skill accelerated temporarily.
Flash!
I quickly snatched the treasured sword in its primordial form, gauged the presence below, and began leaping back across the bridge to my original position. After covering about a dozen zhang, a colossal shadow abruptly surged from beneath.
Boom!!
"......!!"
A single leg of the creature rose, and that alone shattered the log bridge massively. Splinters of wood rained downward, flinging my body into the air. Considering this the boundary between life and death, I gritted my teeth and struggled to fall even slightly toward the exit.
Clang!
"Urk!"
A ball of silk shot up from below, which I urgently deflected with my dagger. Unlike last time, the rebound did not work favorably, sending me veering slightly to the side. Twisting my body in midair like a cat, I momentarily adhered my feet to the ceiling. In that instant, my eyes met those of the guardian giant spider climbing upward at a mad speed while flailing wildly.
In the midst of its dozens of eyes, a gold ingot was embedded in the central one, with the torch burning its eyeball. By sheer coincidence, the internal energy-infused gold ingot had pierced the spider's vital eye, and even more fortunately, the torch had fallen precisely to fan that agony. Seeing it ascend while emanating an aura of berserk fury, chills prickled across my skin.
To think such a massive spider existed!
Last time, I had not fully grasped it, but this thing was a true monster in size. Whether sword strikes would even inflict damage on such a creature was questionable. I realized that the very notion of engaging it head-on was absurd—even siege weapons slammed directly into it might leave no mark.
'Ugh... I can't let it capture and devour me!'
Even if I die, I want to die by my own will! That intense conviction abruptly mobilized my internal energy. Lightning flickered across my feet and muscles in that instant, and I ejected Thunder Spirit from my entire body as I leaped toward the exit.
Boom!
Rumble...
As I leaped toward the exit, the spider's colossal body surged upward simultaneously, kicking up a cloud of dust. Realizing I had dramatically saved my life by a hair's breadth, I bolted without so much as glancing back. Sure enough, from beyond the stone wall, the spider spat steel-like silk balls, each carrying force enough to pulverize a human body.
Boom boom
Boom
"Uwaaaah..."
While batting away the silk balls with my dagger, I felt my body forcibly spun in midair like a swallow. I had succeeded in blocking and rebounding them somehow, but the power carried by the silk balls was overwhelming, flinging my body despite my internal energy. If even I could barely handle it, ordinary murim martial artists would find defense impossible.
Crash
After spinning three full turns in the air, I tumbled and rolled while desperately climbing the stairs. After ascending for a good while, no further sounds of collapse or pursuit came from below. Even so, I ran without pause and finally emerged from the exit of the underwater passage.
Splash
The moment I pulled my drenched body from the pond, I heaved great breaths.
"Huff! Ha! Huff..."
I realized that I had done something utterly insane this time.
'W... what luck.'
I had merely tested whether hurling a gold ingot could injure the guardian, and somehow it had succeeded. However, that was only because the ingot had coincidentally embedded in the spider's vital eye by chance, with the additionally thrown torch fanning that damage. If I tried it again, there was a 99% chance of failure. Had the ingot struck anywhere other than the eye, the creature would have taken no damage at all.
Moreover, I now understood that swiftly grabbing the gold ingot—no, the sword—and escaping without fighting the guardian was impossible. The guardian giant spider was far more nimble and powerful than I had imagined. Even with the time bought by the lucky ingot and torch, I had nearly been caught, so it was absolutely unfeasible. A direct confrontation with it could not be avoided.
I lay down in the snowy field outside the pond and laughed loudly.
"But I obtained the treasured sword!! Haha."
Gazing at the sword clutched in my left hand filled me with satisfaction.
The treasured sword in its primordial form!
This was undoubtedly one of the secret treasures of the Seven Luminaries.
In this life, while desperately training my martial arts, I now had the opportunity to investigate the sword's origins and value.
'Unfortunately, there was no leeway to bring the gold-filled wooden case, but no matter.'
Even the value of the gold ingots was surely not worth a fraction of this sword. As Monk Mangnyang had said, the secret treasures of the Seven Luminaries were heirlooms passed down from ancient times without doubt.
On a whim, I infused qi into the treasured sword as a test.
Hummm....
"...Letters?"
Unknown characters surfaced on the blade's surface. However, unlike the completely indecipherable script of the Heavenly Dark Secret Book or the altar inscriptions, this was not some utterly alien tongue. After staring intently for a long while, I recognized what they were.
"It's the proto-oracle bone script. Ancient script."
During my studies of Manja script and the Qi Men Dun Jia manual, I had learned many languages no longer in use, dead tongues included. Among them was the basic oracle bone script from the Shang dynasty era; though the forms differed slightly, I realized these were similar.
This treasured sword had likely been forged by ancients from thousands of years ago. Fortunately, deciphering Shang dynasty oracle bone script was not impossible like some怪語. With a bit more erudition, I could probably manage it.
'Hmm... what to do? Would it be better to decipher the engraved text on the sword before heading to the Azure Dragon Martial Hall?'
After some deliberation, I made my decision.
"Let us go find Mangnyang."
Mangnyang would not only confirm whether this was a secret treasure of the Seven Luminaries but also assist in interpreting the oracle bone script.