Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: I Shouldn't Have Come
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"Young Master, how should we plan our route?"
At Hwaok's question, Byeok Taesan looked at her.
She continued calmly.
"I've already prepared a boat. We also have horses and a carriage ready, so you can choose whichever you prefer."
Byeok Taesan finally stopped and looked back.
Come to think of it, this was a serious problem.
He hadn't considered their inexperience.
Byeok Taesan had intended to travel as quickly as possible. But there was no way they could keep up with his pace.
"Young Master?"
Hwaok looked at Byeok Taesan with a puzzled expression.
Without answering, Byeok Taesan swept his gaze over the people following him.
The one with the highest martial skill among them was the One-Needle Eccentric, followed by Cheon Gyeongwan and Yu Seoyeon.
The rest, aside from the Divine Doctor of the Ages and Cho Seoran, were all about the same, with Hwaok being slightly more skilled. It was only natural, as she had learned the Moon Shadow Demonic Arts.
Byeok Taesan looked at Cheon Gyeongwan and Yu Seoyeon and asked.
"Are you any good at lightness arts?"
It was a simple question, but the moment they heard it, everyone present understood its intent.
Byeok Taesan was planning to run all the way to Yichang.
"I'm neither fast nor slow."
At Cheon Gyeongwan's answer, Byeok Taesan frowned.
"How long would it take you to run to Yichang alone?"
The distance from Wuhan to Yichang was nearly a thousand li.
Cheon Gyeongwan's mind was instantly thrown into a tangle.
Assuming he didn't rest or sleep, and his internal energy never ran out no matter how hard he pushed himself, he could probably arrive in a day.
But how could any person do that?
No matter how vast one's internal energy, no one could maintain their top speed with lightness arts for an entire day.
So, one had to pace themselves properly.
Even if he controlled his speed, he couldn't run without a single break.
As these thoughts continued, his mind became a mess.
"You haven't changed. You think too much."
At Byeok Taesan's words, Cheon Gyeongwan snapped to his senses.
"I..."
As if he had no intention of hearing Cheon Gyeongwan's answer, Byeok Taesan turned his head to look at Yu Seoyeon.
"You?"
"If my internal energy were limitless, a day would be enough."
"And can you endure it?"
Yu Seoyeon replied with venomous eyes.
"I can."
Even with abundant internal energy, running for a full day without rest was no easy task.
Yet she said she would do it.
In truth, what Yu Seoyeon said was meaningless. The very premise of having limitless internal energy was absurd.
So, everyone watched their meaningless conversation with puzzled eyes.
Byeok Taesan finished his conversation with Yu Seoyeon and glanced around the group. Then he slowly opened his mouth.
"I will now teach you a very simple lightness art. It's not very efficient, but it offers decent speed and stability."
As he spoke, Byeok Taesan recited the mnemonic chant for the lightness art.
Everyone here had a fair amount of talent in martial arts and was sharp-witted, so after hearing the chant twice, they had all memorized it.
Of course, the chant alone wasn't enough to perform the art. Byeok Taesan explained the chant in detail and helped them practice by watching each of them perform it once.
It was such a simple lightness art that it didn't even take thirty minutes for everyone to learn it.
However, they all tilted their heads in confusion.
It didn't seem as efficient or stable as Byeok Taesan had claimed.
In any case, once the instruction was over, Byeok Taesan spoke to the group again.
"From now on, we run to Yichang without stopping. Go as fast as you can. Don't conserve your internal energy. You must use the lightness art I just taught you."
Bewilderment was evident on everyone's faces. How could they possibly run to Yichang without stopping if they were to use their maximum speed and not conserve their internal energy?
They had heard a contradiction, but no one dared to talk back.
Byeok Taesan continued.
"I trust you can all endure it. I'll be walking, so it shouldn't be too difficult."
The moment he finished speaking, Byeok Taesan turned and started walking.
Everyone hurriedly followed.
But Byeok Taesan's pace was incredibly fast. He was walking, but it didn't feel like walking.
With one light step, he surged forward, and it was impossible to keep up with him by just walking.
From the very start, everyone had to use their lightness arts.
And from that moment, they had to run with all their might.
They had no choice. Otherwise, they would lose sight of Byeok Taesan.
"Fuck, if that's him *walking*, what's he like when he runs?"
The One-Needle Eccentric muttered with a dumbfounded expression.
Half an hour passed since they started running.
Everyone had different levels of martial skill and amounts of internal energy. So, it was only natural that they would run out of energy at different times.
The first to run out of internal energy was Soso.
Wiping the sweat beading on her forehead, Soso looked at Byeok Taesan with a regretful expression.
She thought that since her internal energy was depleted, she wouldn't be able to follow any longer.
But in that moment, something amazing happened.
"Huh?"
The internal energy she thought was depleted was now sloshing around in her dantian.
Of course, her dantian wasn't completely full, but it was enough to use for the lightness art.
Soso gathered her strength and performed the lightness art again. For some reason, it felt faster and more stable than before.
After her, the maids' internal energy depleted one by one.
And they, too, had the same experience as Soso.
They all stared at Byeok Taesan's back with wondrous eyes.
The next person to run out of internal energy after the maids was Cho Seoran.
And Cho Seoran's reaction was a bit different from the maids'.
She was aghast. She stared at Byeok Taesan with eyes that couldn't comprehend what was happening.
How could this be possible?
She guessed that the lightness art Byeok Taesan had taught them earlier was what made this possible.
But she couldn't understand how it was possible at all.
It was only natural that the reaction of the maids, who had been exposed to martial arts for less than a year, would be different from someone who had trained diligently for a long time and accumulated a wide range of related knowledge.
One by one, the number of astonished people grew.
Once everyone had experienced this incredible miracle, their pace quickened.
As if he knew all along, Byeok Taesan increased his speed slightly at that exact moment.
And so, the hell began.
***
'Fuck... he's really not stopping.'
The One-Needle Eccentric was on the verge of collapsing. Of course, not literally, but that's how he felt.
But it was damn hard. He had long since passed his limit, and the venomous spirit that had sustained him was completely drained.
The only thing keeping the One-Needle Eccentric going now was his pride.
'I can't collapse before *that* one.'
The One-Needle Eccentric glanced to his side.
The Divine Doctor of the Ages was running with what was surely the same expression as his own.
The One-Needle Eccentric focused on his lightness art again. This was not the time to be having such thoughts.
His gaze was fixed on Byeok Taesan's back.
The distance from where he was to Byeok Taesan was a mere ten steps.
But no matter how much he ran, that ten-step gap never closed.
And what was truly strange was that the pace of the group following Byeok Taesan remained relatively consistent.
Everyone had different skills and stamina, so their speeds should have varied. Naturally, a gap should have formed between the front and the back.
They should have been stretched out in a long line, but that wasn't the case at all.
They were running almost as a single cluster.
He had already lost track of how long they had been running. It was certainly more than two hours, but he couldn't tell how much time had passed since then.
All he knew was that they had started early in the morning, and the sun was now past its zenith.
'Fuck, I shouldn't have come. I should've just stayed and made medicine.'
The One-Needle Eccentric regretted it the entire time he was running. But regret, as they say, is always too late, no matter how early it comes.
And he started to think that maybe, just maybe, they could actually reach Yichang in a single day.
That thought was not only in the One-Needle Eccentric's mind but in the minds of everyone running with him.
How much longer did they run like that?
Slowly, everyone was experiencing their limits once again.
And this time, they all acknowledged that this limit was absolutely insurmountable.
If they crossed this line, they would surely die.
This was especially true for the One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages.
The two were older than the others. So naturally, they lacked the stamina and strength.
"Brother, I think I'm about to collapse."
"Don't talk to me. Me too."
"If I fall, you carry me, brother."
"I'll be the first to fall. So you'll have to carry me."
"I'll be first."
"Wanna bet?"
"Ah, for fuck's sake."
"Did you just say 'fuck'?"
"It's an exclamation. An exclamation."
"Fuck."
The two exchanged words aimlessly. It was a final, desperate struggle to hold on.
After a few more words, the two fell silent as if by agreement.
And slowly, their eyes started to roll upwards.
Their vision blurred, and the world swayed like a heat haze.
Just as they were about to collapse, Byeok Taesan's voice came like a miracle.
"That's enough. We'll rest for a bit."
The moment he finished speaking, everyone collapsed to the ground. And just like that, they lost consciousness.
***
Cho Seoran slowly blinked her eyes.
With each blink, her vision grew a little clearer.
Her surroundings were shrouded in pitch-black darkness. It seemed to be night.
As her vision cleared, the night sky came into view. It was studded with glittering stars.
"Ah... I passed out."
Only then did she remember the moment she lost consciousness. Her body trembled involuntarily.
A moment ago, it had truly felt like she had one foot in hell.
It was the first time she realized someone could push others so relentlessly.
Cho Seoran had to learn both medicine and martial arts, so she had worked much harder than any ordinary martial artist or physician.
It was difficult enough to achieve one, let alone both simultaneously.
Yet, what she had experienced today made all her past efforts feel like child's play.
Honestly, she hadn't even thought it was possible.
'By the way, how far have we come?'
With that thought, Cho Seoran sat up. It seemed she was the first among the group to regain consciousness.
Looking around, she saw people lying in a row. They were all from the group that had left Wuhan together.
Near her were Byeok Taesan's maids, and a little farther away were Cheon Gyeongwan and Yu Seoyeon.
And even farther off lay the Divine Doctor of the Ages and the One-Needle Eccentric.
They were all sleeping as if dead.
'Where is Young Master Byeok?'
Cho Seoran searched for Byeok Taesan. Since everyone had collapsed as soon as he told them to rest, he must have been the one to lay them out like this.
It was highly likely that Byeok Taesan had been watching over them all this time.
But no matter where she looked, she couldn't see him.
A sense of unease crept up on her. But Cho Seoran shook her head, brushing away the trivial emotions.
'First, my body's condition...'
After such a forced march, her body couldn't possibly be normal. She first needed to assess how much it would affect their future plans.
Cho Seoran calmly closed her eyes and observed her own body.
And then her eyes shot open in surprise.
"What, what is this? Does this make any sense?"
Her common sense had been shattered once on the run here, and now, what was left of it was shattered again.
Her body felt perfect, as if she had recovered after several days of rest following intense training.
No, perfect wasn't enough to describe it.
She had grown stronger.
Cho Seoran was confused.
'Could that torturous run have been a form of training? But is something like this possible in less than a day? It makes no sense.'
Her dantian had grown larger, and her internal energy had increased. The bones and muscles of her body were also much stronger and more flexible.
Cho Seoran's thoughts gradually converged on the lightness art Byeok Taesan had taught them back in Wuhan.
There was definitely some secret to that art.
She recalled the mnemonic chant and Byeok Taesan's explanation.
And she began to analyze it step by step.
Of course, she made no progress at all.
In the meantime, the others began to wake up one by one.
Watching them, Cho Seoran let out a hollow laugh.
Their way of accepting the situation was completely different from hers.
It was as if they took everything for granted.
The One-Needle Eccentric approached Cho Seoran.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes. I'm so all right that it's a problem."
The One-Needle Eccentric chuckled. He understood why Cho Seoran said that.
"Just accept it. It's easier that way."
"But...!"
"You've lost nothing and only gained. What's the problem?"
Cho Seoran fell silent. The One-Needle Eccentric was right.
"Anyway... where has our Young Master gone off to again..."
The One-Needle Eccentric muttered, looking around.
They were at the entrance of a small mountain, a short distance from the main road.
There seemed to be no houses or villages nearby, nor were there any wild animals.
It wasn't a dangerous place.
But even so, it didn't seem likely that Byeok Taesan would leave them unattended and go far.
Sure enough, Byeok Taesan suddenly appeared from within the mountain.
And with a flick of his hand.
A giant wild boar flew through the air and landed among the group.
Thud!
It was so massive that the ground seemed to shake.
"Let's eat. I'm hungry."
Everyone stared blankly at the scene, but at Byeok Taesan's following words, they snapped to their senses and scrambled to move.
"If you don't want to, we can leave now."
Seeing the group move faster and more swiftly than they had during the entire run, a faint smile formed on Byeok Taesan's lips.
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