Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Yellow Dragon Divine Pill
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Hwa-ryeon shook her head at Ja-seong's apology.
“It's fine, young hero. Those words were true, after all.”
“You proved your words were true by killing Cheonchu Shin Je-gon in a single exchange. So there's no need to apologize to us.”
It was a fair point, and with her saying she'd gladly accept the blame for it, Ja-seong awkwardly scratched his cheek.
“No, still. It was a bit too direct...”
Seeing Ja-seong still hesitating, Hwa-ryeon raised one hand to stop him.
“Let's drop it. That's not important right now. More importantly, can we get back to the main topic?”
“…Yes.”
With her firm attitude that brooked no argument, Ja-seong meekly nodded.
Seeing that, Hwa-ryeon cleared her throat once and returned to the main subject.
“Anyway, that haze you created when you killed Cheonchu Shin Je-gon... the method to use it...”
“Sword qi.”
“…Pardon?”
“The haze. It's sword qi.”
Ja-seong calmly replied that it was sword qi in response to Hwa-ryeon's question.
Thinking she might have misheard, she asked again.
“…Sword qi? You don't mean the sword qi from those storybooks, do you?”
As Ja-seong silently nodded, Hwa-ryeon and Dae-un wore strange expressions.
Come to think of it, ever since Ja-seong had entered the martial hall as a child, he'd been talking about lightness skills and sword qi and such.
Running faster than a person could on foot, overlaying tangible qi onto a weapon—techniques straight out of legends.
Fictions that belonged only in tales.
And now Ja-seong was saying he'd turned that fiction, that illusion, into reality.
The problem was, it seemed like he really had.
Hwa-ryeon herself had read a novel or two like that when she was young.
The descriptions in them were surely...
-Concentrating his spirit, haze rose from the tip of his sword.
Yes, haze.
It was the haze blooming from Ja-seong's sword tip that had killed Shin Je-gon.
“So, that was sword qi?”
“Exactly. Sword qi, which every martial artist in the world calls fiction or nonsense. I've proven it's not nonsense.”
A bright smile lit up Ja-seong's face as he answered.
*
Unable to hide their astonishment at my response, I couldn't hold back my laughter as I looked at Hwa-ryeon and my master.
-Lightness skill? What nonsense is that?
-Sword qi? Sword aura? Puhahaha! To think someone actually believes that crap for real!
I recalled the senior disciple who had mocked me, clutching my pounding chest as I asked about martial arts.
He'd said lightness skills, sword qi, and sword aura were all nonsense, that nothing like that existed in this world.
Back then, I couldn't refute him.
Because to me, they were still just illusions.
Products of imagination from countless wuxia novels penned by countless authors.
I'd heard talk of martial arts, martial artists, and the jianghu, but I hadn't experienced any of it myself.
So I couldn't argue back.
But now it's different.
I've learned martial arts myself and even created new ones.
After ten long years of trial and error, I've finally manifested sword qi with my own hands.
If I ever meet that senior disciple again, I can tell him for sure now.
My words aren't nonsense.
Through my efforts, the illusion has taken solid form.
“…Amazing.”
Hwa-ryeon, who had been at a loss for words for a moment, finally spoke.
And I'd already figured out what her proposal was.
“You want me to teach you sword qi?”
“…Yes.”
Hwa-ryeon rolled her eyes this way and that for a bit before slowly nodding.
“Of course, I know full well how shameless it is for a martial artist to ask for someone else's signature technique. That's why I've offered my most precious possession in exchange.”
“…….”
“If that's not enough, I'll offer my own martial art, the Responding Dragon Swordsmanship as well. It's the peerless sword art that elevated my father, Tyrant Sword Ju Cheon-mu, to the ranks of the world's top ten masters, so surely...”
“Wait, hold on.”
I stopped Hwa-ryeon just as she started pouring it out.
She shut her mouth and stared at me intently.
It looked like she was just staring on the surface, but catching the subtle changes across her face, I could tell she was desperately eager right now.
“Hmm.”
I took a moment to sort out the situation.
Hwa-ryeon wanted to learn the internal energy circulation method that allowed me to use sword qi.
To that end, she'd offered the tremendous elixir known as the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill.
Conclusion.
“Jackpot?”
“Pardon? What does that...?”
“Oh, no, nothing. Ahem, ahem!”
It had slipped out before I knew it.
I cleared my throat awkwardly, changing the subject while desperately suppressing my twitching lips.
Teaching sword qi.
For just that, she was giving me 100 years' worth of internal energy? What a steal!
I'd planned to teach my master, Hwa-ryeon, and Seol the sword qi method anyway, for the sake of 'my goal.'
But to get this unexpected windfall on top of it.
She'd said something more after that, but it probably wasn't important.
More importantly, the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill.
An elixir that granted a full 100 years of internal energy.
Taking it would multiply my internal energy sevenfold.
There was no reason to refuse. Refusing would make me an idiot.
I nodded readily.
“Alright. I'll teach you how to use sword qi.”
“Ah...!”
At my acceptance, Hwa-ryeon and my master's faces lit up.
Though probably not as much as my heart was.
Just for teaching sword qi usage, a full 100 years of internal energy!
Ha, so this is how I escape being an internal energy pauper.
Farewell, my pitiful days.
I'm casting off all the world's shackles and bonds to seek my happiness... wait, no, that's not it?
My mind raced with elation at the sudden stroke of luck, random thoughts popping up everywhere.
As I tried not to show it, Hwa-ryeon held out the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill.
“No need to delay taking it. Master Yeo and I will stand guard, so please consume it without worry.”
“Oh, then I'll take you up on that?”
Unable to hide my excitement in the end, I grinned and picked up the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill for a closer look.
This thing is even more amazing up close.
How on earth do you refine it so qi pulses visibly from the pill?
“Well, that's not important.”
I brushed off the idle curiosity and popped the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill into my mouth.
True to countless wuxia novel descriptions, it melted smoothly in my mouth, then began coursing through my entire body along my meridians.
I immediately sat cross-legged and circulated my internal art, the revised Three Talents Internal Art.
Internal energy rising from my dantian plunged into the eight extraordinary meridians and twelve principal meridians to devour the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill's qi.
It wrapped around the energy flowing through the acupoints and absorbed it, tore into the energy hidden in the blood and consumed it.
With each one, my internal energy grew stronger and faster as it raced through the channels.
The intense energy I felt for the first time in my life.
If I wanted, I felt like I could blast open every meridian in my body, conception vessel, governing vessel, all of it.
But I pulled back on the reins of my racing internal energy.
I stopped devouring the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill's energy as well.
Not yet.
There's a saying: overdoing it is worse than falling short.
It fit my current situation perfectly.
My dantian, which had only held ten years' worth of internal energy, couldn't possibly withstand 100 years all at once.
If I tried to absorb all the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill's energy right now, my dantian wouldn't endure and would shatter.
That would be the end.
My dream of recreating countless martial arts from wuxia novels would fly away forever.
That's enough for today.
I sent the energy back to my dantian.
What I'd absorbed right away was about twenty years' worth.
Even that alone tripled my internal energy.
If I continued circulating to temper my channels and dantian, gradually absorbing the remaining energy scattered through my meridians, the forty years' worth still left would become mine too.
Yes, no need to rush.
My dream starts now.
Finishing the circulation, I snapped my eyes open.
*
The priceless treasure, the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill, vanished into Ja-seong's mouth.
Watching it, Dae-un and Hwa-ryeon widened their eyes at the qi suddenly swirling around Ja-seong.
“Huh...!”
“Wow...”
As expected of the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill, crafted over ten years by the imperial refiners, the continent's greatest.
Qi so vivid you could sense it clearly.
But it was too early to be surprised.
Something even more astonishing happened next.
Fierce energy surged from Ja-seong's dantian and began devouring the Yellow Dragon Divine Pill's qi indiscriminately.
Calling it his internal energy 'devouring' the pill's qi might sound a bit off, but from what Dae-un sensed directly, no expression fit better.
Like an imugi slumbering in the dantian greedily tearing into prey, it swallowed the energy wholesale.
And the momentum grew fiercer with every moment.
“Th-that...!”
Seeing it, Dae-un's face stiffened.
He instinctively sensed that endlessly absorbing like that could lead to Ja-seong's self-destruction.
He wanted to stop it right away, but interfering carelessly during circulation could cause qi deviation.
So he couldn't stop it even if he wanted to.
'Come to think of it, it's his first time taking an elixir. I should have warned him beforehand...!'
Worried something might happen to Ja-seong, Dae-un forgot his age and dignity, stamping his feet.
“…..”
But Hwa-ryeon silently watched Ja-seong without a word.
From her experience with him so far, he was full of pranks and odd speech that grated on people usually, but at his core, he was calm and composed.
So he wouldn't get carried away absorbing the energy and make an irreparable mistake.
Hwa-ryeon had that conviction and trust.