Don’t Say It Yet. (3)
“Did everyone receive it?”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s no time to waste. Take it right here, right now, and begin circulating your qi!”
“Yes!”
The Mount Hua disciples spread out a little and sat down in lotus positions where they stood.
Compared to Mount Hua in its heyday, this was barely a quarter of a quarter of what it had once been, but even so, seeing so many people filling the training ground made Hyun Jong’s chest swell until he could hardly contain it.
And on top of that, every single one of them was holding a Jaso-dan.
Mount Hua will grow stronger still.
Hyun Jong clenched his fist slightly.
They’re handing out spiritual medicine to this many people?
Meanwhile, Dang Soso stared at the elixir in her hand with a faintly dazed look.
What in the world kind of sect is this?
She had some knowledge of medicine herself and had participated in quite a few pill refinements, so even without tasting it she could tell just how precious this elixir was.
The fragrance pouring off it was so clear and pure it made her chest feel hollowed out, which meant it was at least on the level of a Thousand Poison Pill.
And the Thousand Poison Pill was one of the Tang Family’s most highly prized elixirs.
Yet there was a sect that scattered something of that caliber around like snacks?
She had never even heard of such a thing.
For one, no sect capable of doing that should even exist. And even if they had the ability to produce such elixirs, something like this simply would not happen.
What sect would give such a precious elixir to even its third-generation disciples?
Even within the Sichuan Tang Family, known as the tyrant of Sichuan, only the direct line of the clan—and even among them, only those at the very core—could so much as catch the scent of an elixir.
Anyone else could forget about ever laying a hand on one, even if they were lying around unused.
Why?
The answer was simple.
Because in a sect, an elixir was the greatest reward that could be bestowed upon a subordinate.
That was why sect leaders used elixirs and secret martial arts as carrots to win their disciples’ loyalty.
And yet they had learned how to manufacture elixirs and were handing them out by headcount? Even to Dang Soso, who had been in Mount Hua for less than a month?
Are they idiots? Or are they incredible?
The longer she stayed, the less she understood this sect called Mount Hua.
She had come here hearing clearly that it had fallen, yet money seemed to overflow in the sect.
She had been told they had grown weak after losing their martial arts, and then a monster like Chung Myung had simply popped up.
Dang Soso had no idea how far this Mount Hua would go.
Was coming here the right choice?
She still didn’t know.
But one thing was certain: this place was nothing like the Tang Family. The Tang Family always emphasized unity in the name of family, but to Dang Soso, it was Mount Hua’s disciples who actually felt like a family.
They treated one another without reserve, and even the casual words they tossed at each other carried trust.
This was the vague image of family Dang Soso had always carried in her heart.
Could I become one of them too?
One of this family?
Dang Soso pressed her lips together and stared forward.
“Take it!”
“Yes!”
At Hyun Jong’s command, the disciples answered in ringing voices and all at once shoved the Jaso-dan into their mouths.
Baek Cheon gazed at the Jaso-dan with a strangely sentimental expression.
This is…
The Purple Wood Grass they had gone to such great pains to obtain, all the way past Sichuan and into Yunnan, had finally borne fruit like this.
He nodded slightly at the faintly violet elixir before slipping it into his mouth.
It melted instantly.
A liquid at once, it released a fragrance he could hardly describe.
It felt as though his mouth had been filled entirely with scent.
Before he could even do anything, the dissolved elixir slid smoothly down his throat.
Baek Cheon immediately closed his eyes and began circulating his qi.
He had already taken the Honwon Dan once and absorbed it before, so there was nothing to worry about…
Hm?
His body suddenly twitched.
Different!
He couldn’t put it into words exactly, but the elixir that had just entered his stomach was clearly different from the one he had taken before.
The Honwon Dan had also been wonderfully pure, of course, but this Jaso-dan was so untainted and clear that even the Honwon Dan would have seemed murky by comparison.
It was like taking a mouthful of pristine spring water deep in the mountains.
That crystal-clear energy slowly began to course through Baek Cheon’s entire body.
Don’t rush it…. Slowly.
Elixirs were basically made to replenish a person’s energy. Even if one did nothing at all, the energy would naturally flow along the body’s channels and dissolve into place.
Hadn’t he already experienced that once with the Honwon Dan?
Up to this point, nothing was different from before. The energy moved and flowed of its own accord, as if Baek Cheon’s body had become land and the energy a river running across it.
And then the difference began there.
Hm?
Startled, Baek Cheon focused his mind on the energy moving through his body.
It’s not moving?
He tried to guide it through the Twelve Heavenly Circulations and lead it toward his dantian, but the Jaso-dan’s energy inside him refused to obey his will.
He tried again and again to coax it gently into place, but no matter how hard he tried, it simply would not budge.
Damn it! This thing was made by that Chung Myung bastard, wasn’t it?!
Indeed, as with its owner, so with its elixir.
It absolutely refused to listen.
Could, could this be qi deviation?
The very instant Baek Cheon began to panic—
WOOOOOOOONG!
The Jaso-dan’s energy suddenly spread through his entire body.
Huh?
How should he even describe this feeling?
It was as though the pure water of deep mountain valleys was pouring through his body in a roaring torrent. The energy spread in all directions, slamming and kicking away every trace of turbid qi inside him.
Baek Cheon trembled.
This really is…
Turbid qi was the energy people inevitably accumulated as they lived entangled in the world. In the end, it became refuse inside the body, obstructing the flow and use of qi.
Removing that turbid qi was a very good thing—but the way it was being done was so violent it almost made someone come to mind.
There’s no way an elixir would have a will of its own…
Why did it feel exactly like something Chung Myung would do?
While that thought crossed his mind, the Jaso-dan’s energy ferreted out every trace of turbid qi in the Twelve Meridians and dragged it out.
So pure.
Too pure.
This purity refused to coexist with impurity. If even a little filthy energy remained, it would swarm over it and drive it out.
Ah!
Then it gathered again into a single mass, surging upward as though a dragon were ascending to the heavens.
Knowing what waited there, Baek Cheon shuddered.
Don’t tell me?
The energy was racing toward the Im and Du meridians.
Im and Du Meridians. In other words, the Heavenly Gate!
This was the gate that had to be opened to enter the Peak Realm.
But the Heavenly Gate, sealed since birth, did not open so easily. Only after steady effort and proper preparation could one even attempt to force a breakthrough through the Im and Du meridians. To try carelessly was to risk severe internal injury—and even permanent disability.
But the Jaso-dan’s energy acted as if none of that had anything to do with it, racing toward the Im and Du meridians with violent momentum.
Please, just go easy!
Fear suddenly gripped him.
This insane energy, like its creator, had no idea how to look back once it had set its sights on something. As though only cowards worried about the future, it rolled its eyes and rammed the Im and Du meridians with ferocious force.
BOOOOOOOM!
A huge explosion rang out inside his head, and for an instant his mind went blank.
Baek Cheon forced his fading consciousness back into place.
N-no…
He had already lost control, but if he blacked out now, he had no idea what would happen.
Just look.
The energy that had gone half-mad in the likeness of its owner was battering his Im and Du meridians. With pain like a giant bell clanging over and over inside his skull, Baek Cheon shuddered violently and groaned.
What in the world did he make?
The Honwon Dan had been harmonious qi itself. It embraced gently, surrounded warmly. No one could possibly clash with the Honwon Dan’s energy.
But this one was somehow strange.
It felt incredibly pure and familiar, and yet it absolutely refused to listen, moving however it pleased—as though the energy itself possessed intent.
And right now, that intent was smashing into Baek Cheon again and again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
This crazy thing!
The blocked energy in the Im and Du meridians struggled madly, hammering at the sealed points again and again like a lunatic.
Bang! Bang!
But Baek Cheon’s Im and Du meridians remained stubbornly shut.
Alright, alright. Chung Myung—no, energy. Everything has its proper time. Not yet. So stop it now and come back quietly to the dantian.
It had somehow turned into something very much like talking Chung Myung down, but Baek Cheon was desperately sincere at the moment. At this rate, he might genuinely fall into qi deviation.
The chances were low, given how pure the energy was, but he still couldn’t relax.
And then it happened.
After slamming into the Im and Du meridians several times without breaking through, the energy suddenly tucked its tail and sneaked back downward.
Yes! That’s it! Go there—yeah, you idiot! Into the dantian!
The energy descended from his head along his spine, then passed over his abdomen and finally approached the vicinity of his dantian.
Go in!
But it stopped right at the dantian’s doorstep. Then it trembled lightly.
Huh?
No way.
It wouldn’t, right? It wouldn’t.
After shaking once or twice more, the energy began gathering strength.
Rumble…
A sound like a colossal typhoon sweeping through his body echoed in his ears.
No, don’t…
And before he could think another thought, the energy surged upward at terrifying speed. Then it threw itself straight at the Im and Du meridians again.
You insane bastard!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The world seemed to burst apart with the thunderous impact, and indescribable pain flooded through him.
His vision swam, and his mind drifted far away. It felt as though a bomb had gone off inside his body.
With pain like the top of his skull was being torn off, Baek Cheon clenched his teeth and convulsed.
But at that very moment—
The pain vanished in an instant, and something he had never experienced before began to unfold.
T-this is?
He could feel the world.
Vividly.
What in the…?
He was clearly sitting in lotus position with his eyes closed. He was in the middle of circulating his qi, so even sound should have been dulled and touch reduced to something distant and faint.
And yet he could feel everything with complete clarity.
The sky looking down on him. The earth supporting him. The movement of the air brushing past him—and even the flow of qi itself—were all so vivid he could almost reach out and touch them.
Heavenly Perception.
A body that had opened the Heavenly Gate could take in the world directly, without relying on the five senses.
T-this is the world a Peak expert sees…!
An indescribable rush of ecstasy flooded him.
While Baek Cheon shivered at that sensation, the Jaso-dan’s energy, which had finally accomplished its task, cleared away every last bit of turbid qi remaining in the meridians before swaggering into the dantian.
Then, at last, it slowly melted away and merged with the internal power already residing in Baek Cheon.
WOOOOOOOONG.
The greatly expanded internal power surged through Baek Cheon’s body with brisk momentum, completed a full circulation, and then settled back into his dantian.
Baek Cheon’s eyes flew open.
“Huuu…”
A different world now lay before him.
It felt as though everything had become several times sharper. As though he had been looking at the world with a cloth over his eyes, and someone had finally torn that cloth away.
And it wasn’t only sight.
He could even hear, from far away, the sound of someone breathing.
His sharpened sense of touch accurately caught even the faintest current of air brushing past his body.
So much was coming in all at once that his head was beginning to spin.
But even that dizziness filled him with joy.
I crossed the wall.
If he were to describe it as a level, it was the wall between first-class and Peak Realm. He had finally leapt over it. From now on, even if only at the lowest rank, Baek Cheon had entered the world where the Tang Family head and the Beast Palace Lord lived.
What an outrageous elixir!
His chest filled with overwhelming emotion.
It was nothing like the Honwon Dan, and yet if one looked only at the result, it had produced something even greater.
“Are you finished?”
“Huh?”
Baek Cheon jerked his head up.
Hyun Jong and the elders were looking down at him.
“Ah.”
Only then did Baek Cheon realize he had been the last one to finish circulating his qi, and he hurriedly looked around.
The Mount Hua disciples were lined up before him.
Ah…
They had changed.
They had definitely changed. Just from the light in their eyes and the faint pressure radiating from them, he could tell how much benefit they had gained.
Baek Cheon looked ahead and sprang to his feet.
“Sect Lead—!”
But the instant he rose, the three people standing in front of him all flinched back in a hurry.
“……”
Huh?
Looking at the dumbfounded Baek Cheon, Hyun Jong wore an awkward expression.
“I-it seems the results were quite good. Given that all the waste in your body was expelled.”
Huh?
Waste?
Slowly, Baek Cheon lowered his gaze.
“W-what is this?”
His once-spotless robes had been stained nearly black. And an indescribably foul smell was rising from him.
Only then did Baek Cheon register the stench stabbing at his nose, and he gagged.
“Ugh. This is… hurk!”
With tears gathering in his eyes from the retching, he looked around and found several others in much the same state.
That included Yu I-seol, Jo Gul, and Yoon Jong.
They all looked as though they had been hauled out of a pit of black sludge, and the sight was something to behold.
“Ugh…”
“I think I’m going to die from the smell.”
“Bath. Bath! Damn it! Bath!”
Huh?
Did Yu Sago just swear?
And wasn’t her voice twice as high as usual?
Watching Baek Cheon’s bewilderment, Hyun Young pinched his nose and barked out angrily, “Go wash yourselves, now! The smell is unbearable!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Those whose robes had turned pitch black bolted out of the training ground without a word.
As the elders watched them go, they exchanged glances.
Then all those gazes turned to one person.
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
Chung Myung tilted his head while chewing on dried meat.
Hyun Young asked, “Did they undergo a complete transformation?”
“Eh. What transformation? It’s just… well, they emptied themselves out, that’s all.”
“……Hmm. Is that so?”
“But I guess the effect’s about the same.”
“Oh? Then!”
Hope bloomed in the eyes of the three men.
But Chung Myung’s next words were a little different from what they expected.
“They’ve only just finished getting ready.”
“……Huh?”
Hyun Jong shot him a questioning look, but Chung Myung silently kept chewing his dried meat.
Only now.
Only now had they truly finished preparing to learn the sword properly.
Chung Myung’s lips curled into a grin.
Now then, let’s see you all die properly.
Would they still be able to keep those happy expressions once they realized how much they’d been taking it easy until now?
He was curious.
Very curious.