A Dragon in the Pond! (3)
Chung Myung clicked his tongue and stared hard at the Miin-ru in his hand.
Sadly, Dang Bo was the sort of bastard who spouted nonsense for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but never once lied.
So if he said it, there was a good chance it was true.
"Ugh. Damn it, there’s nothing wrong with it in theory."
According to him, several experiments had already succeeded in increasing internal energy—at an absurd level, no less.
Of course, after that, they hadn’t been able to endure the poison and had all died.
The key is whether I can purify it while taking in the poison.
Normally, when a master dealt with poison, they either forced it out of the body or sealed it away in some corner until it could be removed later.
Even if they purified it, they only expelled it through that process; they never tried to absorb it into their inner energy.
Who in their right mind would know what kind of shitstorm that would cause?
But that lunatic Dang Bo had told him to purify this energy and take it into his body. Not expel it, not burn it away with Samadhi True Fire.
"...You really are a bastard. A total bastard."
Chung Myung shook his head wildly.
'I’m not joking. I honestly think it might work for someone like a Daoist senior brother. Isn’t the defining trait of Daoist internal energy that it has excellent purification power? The internal energy of the Tang Family is half-drowned in poison, so it won’t work there, but if it’s your internal energy, you might be able to purify it into your own power instead of expelling it. Then you could even beat that Heavenly Demon bastard over the head with it!'
'And if I die doing it?'
'That would be a shame. A real pity. I’ll make sure to hold a proper memorial for you.'
Of course, right after that, Dang Bo had nearly received one for himself.
Daoist internal energy, huh.
Chung Myung smacked his lips.
The conditions were in place.
In front of him was the Miin-ru, along with the finest spiritual elixir in the world to help suppress it, and another pill to raise his resistance to poison.
And then there was Chung Myung’s internal energy.
Hadn’t he already confirmed during the duel at the Tang Family that the new internal energy he had created was even more resistant to poison than the Plum Blossom Sword Saint’s power from his previous life?
This was a method even the Plum Blossom Sword Saint of the past had never dared attempt. In other words, nobody in the world could possibly try this.
Only one person could.
Only Chung Myung now—not only with a purer internal energy than the Plum Blossom Sword Saint of old, but also with qi control that could rival that same Plum Blossom Sword Saint—could possibly pull this off.
Anyone else who tried to imitate it would turn to poison the moment it touched their lips.
In the end, Chung Myung grabbed one Honwon Dan and one Thousand Poison Pill.
"I’m not gonna die from this, am I?"
If it didn’t work, he’d just force it out! Simple as that!
He was only eating it because of that snake bastard, but he’d been thinking about it for a long time anyway. That was why he’d taken the Miin-ru from the Tang Family in the first place.
He just hadn’t found the right moment until now.
"Better to suffer for a moment than die a slow death!"
Chung Myung boldly reached out, snatched up the Honwon Dan and Thousand Poison Pill, and without another second’s hesitation, shoved them into his mouth.
Sssshhhhh.
The moment both elixirs entered his mouth, they melted at once and slipped down his throat.
Whooosh.
His stomach turned hot. For a moment, he even had to pause at the sudden, satisfying warmth blossoming inside him.
Would this be enough?
Even Chung Myung had to hesitate a little.
He’d already taken the Thousand Poison Pill, and he still had several Honwon Dans left... Maybe he should just take the elixirs and fight it out again—
"No way!"
Chung Myung’s face twisted.
"When have I ever been this much of a coward?"
They say people get cowardly when they get old... Wait, I got younger. Then shouldn’t I be braver? Or does youth make you more cowardly?
Either way, the Honwon Dan alone had its limits.
When he first ate one and saw how effective it was, he’d nearly lost his mind, but an elixir was not the kind of thing whose effect multiplied just because you swallowed several in a row.
If that were possible, even Shaolin would have fed all their remaining Great Return Pills to one man and created the greatest expert in the world.
Besides, hadn’t Chung Myung become the kind of person who couldn’t properly absorb elixirs anymore after making his own energy too damn clean in the first place, then stuffing down pill after pill with no thought at all?
In the end, the Honwon Dan might save Mount Hua, but it would not save Chung Myung.
If he wasn’t planning to spend a thousand years doing nothing but sitting in meditation, he had to do something.
Having made up his mind, Chung Myung sat cross-legged and concentrated.
First, he had to use this internal energy to build the foundation.
Rumble—!
A sound like a waterfall crashing inside his body rang in his ears. The elixirs melting in his stomach became rivers of power, racing vigorously through his meridians.
This isn’t absorption.
The important thing right now was not that energy. These powers were only a medium to help him absorb the Miin-ru’s energy—and a barrier to protect his body from the poison in it.
Center it around the dantian.
Chung Myung slowly opened his eyes after wrapping the energies of the Honwon Dan and Thousand Poison Pill around his dantian.
For a man in meditation to open his eyes and move his body was unthinkable for a normal martial artist. Only Chung Myung, whose use of energy was beyond reason, could do such a thing.
"Tch."
Emitting an unhappy sound, Chung Myung clutched the nacre bottle of Miin-ru.
"...If this fails, Dang Bo, you’re really dead."
Dead already, but I’ll kill you again!
I’ll make that dead bastard see whether a corpse can die twice!
He decisively tipped the Miin-ru into his mouth.
Then he slowly closed his eyes.
So far, so good.
The Miin-ru that had flowed into his stomach didn’t seem to want to move. He could only feel something seeping out little by little...
Fwaaaaaaah!
There it is!
Chung Myung nearly jumped out of his skin and quickly hauled his energy up.
The poison was spreading like a madman. Even Chung Myung felt a jolt of fear.
Right!
It had been like this when he fought Tang Oe, and the same when he fought poison users in his previous life. So far, every poison that had ever afflicted him had either been scattered through a wide area or smeared onto weapons.
How much of that could there be?
At best, it was one-hundredth of the amount in this bottle, maybe even one-thousandth. That alone was enough to kill an expert, and he had swallowed that much poison in pure, undiluted form. Of course it was turning out like this.
Did I overdo it?
I should’ve just taken half.
Why was it that the moment alcohol or poison appeared, he always gulped it down in one shot?
Dammit, Sect Leader senior brother. You should’ve fixed this habit of mine ages ago!
Fwaaaaaaah!
The poison spread through his whole body in an instant. Chung Myung gritted his teeth and poured his energy into protecting his dantian.
Remember this.
Purify it and absorb it.
Not purify it and expel it!
He forced back the body’s instinct to cleanse and expel the poison on its own, then clenched his jaw and began circulating his power.
What the hell kind of poison is this?
It was overflowing.
It felt like someone had poured a whole jar of poison-tainted water down his throat. The poison swelled and swelled inside him.
It felt like his body was about to explode—
Thunk.
Huh?
Chung Myung slowly opened his eyes.
Hiiiiiit!
Then he gasped and slammed them shut again.
What the hell did I just see?
Unable to believe what he’d seen, Chung Myung carefully cracked his eyes open again.
But no, he hadn’t been mistaken.
His body, blackened so horribly it was almost painful to look at, was swelling grotesquely larger and larger.
I’m not a black pig!
Unable to contain his body as it bulged toward bursting, his clothes began tearing apart all over.
Chung Myung shut his eyes tight and focused again. At this rate, his body was going to burst and kill him before he could even reclaim the internal energy.
Fast!
The energy began to race violently.
The pure power unique to Chung Myung, surging outward from his dantian, swallowed the poison energy gathering around it and began purifying it.
It was such a tremendous force that it looked as though a sluice gate had burst open.
But the poison did not go down quietly.
Perhaps it had detected that pockets of poison still remained in his body, or perhaps the opening around the dantian had created a gap as energy flowed out, but all at once it rushed fiercely toward the dantian.
Block it!
Then the energy from the Thousand Poison Pill and the Honwon Dan surrounding the dantian stepped in to stop it.
Bang! Kwaaaaaang! Bang!
It felt like a massive explosion had erupted inside his body.
Each time his mind dimmed, Chung Myung barely managed to drag himself back. He circulated his power, purified the poison, and forced the newly cleaned energy back into the dantian.
Fwoooosh!
Unable to withstand the recoil of his bulging flesh, the blood vessels finally began bursting. Both his nose and mouth split and ran with blood. The blood that spilled to the floor sizzled as it melted the stone.
No matter how much he purified it, more poison kept coming.
Fine! Let’s see whether you win or I do!
Enduring the pain, Chung Myung kept his energy moving.
"...?"
"...?"
The disciples of Mount Hua, who had been waiting anxiously outside the door, began to look unsettled.
"Don’t you feel something?"
"I suddenly started feeling uneasy too... Something’s a little... uh..."
Jo Gul trailed off with a strange look on his face, then opened his mouth again.
"Should we take a peek?"
"Huh?"
"He said not to come in. He didn’t say not to look."
Baek Cheon smiled with obvious satisfaction and nodded.
"Excellent wordplay. You’ve grown, Jo Gul."
"Isn’t that all thanks to you, Sasuk?"
"Indeed. Since you’ll be the one dealing with the aftermath, I have no reason to stop you. Go on, then."
"...."
For a while, the two simply stared at each other in silence.
Eventually Jo Gul spoke first.
"...Sasuk. Are you aware that your personality has changed quite a bit?"
There was a hidden dagger in the words, but Baek Cheon brushed it aside as if it were nothing.
"As the saying goes, if you lie down with black ink, you’ll be stained black. If you stay beside Chung Myung, your humanity gets ruined."
"I’m glad at least you’re aware of it..."
"Stop wasting time and go check on him already."
"...Yes, sir."
Grumbling, Jo Gul trudged toward the room where Chung Myung was.
He didn’t notice, did he?
With Chung Myung’s senses, he should’ve noticed them by now. And yet there was no shouting—meaning he must be too busy to pay them any attention.
Then let’s see just what he’s doing...
Jo Gul punched a hole in the window with one finger.
It wasn’t a good thing to poke holes in the Beast Palace’s quarters, but this seemed far better than awkwardly opening the window and getting caught by Chung Myung.
He took a deep breath and brought his eye to the hole he’d made.
"...?"
After staring quietly into the room, Jo Gul quickly pulled away from the window and spun around.
Then he smiled faintly.
"Sasuk."
"Well? What is the brat doing?"
"I don’t really know what he’s doing."
"...Huh?"
"I think we need to run."
"...W-what?"
"N-now!"
"Huh?"
Jo Gul’s face turned white as paper, and he took off running. The others, confused, instinctively followed after him.
Baek Cheon, who had already overtaken Jo Gul, looked back while running.
"Wait, what exactly are you saying we should run from? From there? Or from the Beast Palace?"
"I-I don’t know! Just run like hell!"
"No! You have to tell us what to prep—"
That was when it happened.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble—!
Baek Cheon whipped his head around, his face drained of color.
"N-no way!"
The entire hall Chung Myung was in began to shake. The violent trembling, as though an earthquake had struck, left Baek Cheon’s face turning deathly pale.
"Y-you crazy bastard! This is the Beast—"
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
Before he could finish, a massive explosion erupted. The building shattered to pieces and sprayed debris in every direction.
"W-what the hell!"
"That!"
The disciples, who had forgotten even to run, froze in place and stared dumbly at the scene before them.
A black vortex.
A massive black whirlpool—so ominous it might as well have been called an evil dragon—rose endlessly into the sky.
Kwaaaaaaa! Kwaaaaaaa!
The qi tornado spun with such ferocity it seemed as if it would suck in the entire world.
"...What the hell do you do in a room to make something like that?"
"I’m going crazy, seriously..."
The black vortex that had blown apart the hall began changing color.
Like ink being diluted, the black slowly faded to gray, then to pure white, and finally became transparent.
Kwaaaaaaaaanng!
But the furious spinning force did not weaken in the slightest. No—it was even faster and stronger than before.
"Huh? W-whoa!"
Drawn by the vortex’s suction, Jo Gul, who had been nearest to it, suddenly lifted off the ground.
"Aaaagh!"
"Jo Gul!"
The Mount Hua disciples hurriedly grabbed his ankles and threw themselves flat to the ground.
"Waaaaaah!"
Jo Gul flapped in the air like a paper doll.
"You damn Chung Myung! For the love of god, could you at least try living like a sane person? Like a sane person! Waaaaaah!"
A fair criticism.
Whether Chung Myung could hear it or not was another matter.
Pwooooooooo!
Kaaaak!
Haaah! Haaahah!
The startled beastmen who rushed out were unable to withstand the suction generated by the vortex and were dragged inside.
Baek Cheon shouted with a face gone pale.
"Somebody stop that bastard!"
Who?
Just who the hell is supposed to stop him, Sasuk?
At last, Chung Myung’s figure became visible at the center of the vortex. Hovering more than ten jang above the ground, he sat in perfect lotus position with an utterly peaceful expression.
He looked so serene it made you want to run over and punch his jaw off his face on the spot.
Crack! Crack-crack-crack!
To make matters worse, now even the roofs of the nearby halls were beginning to tear away.
Just as they were thinking the Beast Palace itself might be destroyed, another explosion rang out.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
With a monstrous blast, terrifying energy burst in all directions.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
"You crazy bastardtttttt!"
Mount Hua’s disciples, caught in the storm of qi, were hurled through the air.
Thud! Thud-thud! Thud!
After being flung more than ten jang and smashed into the ground, the Mount Hua disciples groaned and struggled back to their feet.
Before they knew it, the vortex that had been devouring everything around them, along with the qi that had seemed ready to blow the whole world apart, had vanished cleanly.
Were it not for the shattered buildings and the terrified beasts fleeing in every direction, it would almost have looked as though nothing had happened at all...
"...As if! Are you insane!?"
Staring at the surrounding area, which had been reduced quite literally to ruins, the disciples of Mount Hua were all aghast.
That was when it happened.
Step. Step. Step.
Through the drifting dust, one figure slowly walked out.
Chung Myung looked ridiculously refreshed when he spotted the Mount Hua disciples, and the corners of his mouth curved upward.
"Let’s go catch the snake bastard now!"
"...?"
We’re the ones about to get caught, you bastard...
Could you please, just once, do things in moderation? Please!