Even the World Can Be Stolen

Mok Geom-in planted a hand on the ground and shoved himself up, shouting through his rage.

"You struck a woman. And you still dare call yourself a man?"

"There's a way to prove that, actually... though this is hardly the place."

Mok Geom-in ground his teeth. A fierce surge of blood-spirit qi erupted from his body, but Yi Yeok only watched, perfectly calm.

In the instant before ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mok Geom-in could summon his blood spirit, Yi Yeok's own — Heavenly Dragon Flying Sand — manifested first.

In the same breath Yi Yeok invoked the Treading Snow Without Trace Technique, slipping into motion that was swift, soundless, and all but impossible to follow. Mok Geom-in never found a gap in which to defend. He was caught in the Hidden Soul Divine Spirit Art, and a force fierce enough to shake the soul itself closed around his body. A moment later he coughed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blood and dropped to his knees. Terror clouded his eyes.

"H-how is this..."

"Yi Yeok, enough!"

Vice Sect Master Baengni Hae tore across the sky and shouted as he came.

Yi Yeok's brow tightened, but he chose to withdraw the Hidden Soul Divine Spirit Art and yield a step.

Mok Geom-in, his face twisted with fury, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tried to charge again. Baengni Hae was faster. A single palm sent the disciple tumbling across the ground.

"You fool! Do you still not grasp the difference in strength?"

Mok Geom-in stared at him in disbelief.

"Vice Sect Master, how could you..."

"Hold your tongue!"

Baengni Hae cut him off, his rebuke absolute.

"I warned you. Fail to learn humility, and one day you will pay a heavy price. Today is that day. Had Yi Yeok not held back, do you imagine you would still be breathing?"

Beneath the weight of that stern voice, Mok Geom-in finally bowed his head.

Jam Yun appealed through her tears, her voice climbing.

"Master, look at me! Look at what this man did to me!"

Yi Yeok's glare cut straight through her.

"One more word. I'll make you understand I only went easy because you're a woman."

Jam Yun flinched, swallowed whatever she had meant to say, and hunched her neck. Fear filled her eyes. She had always overwhelmed people with her beauty, and she had never met anything like this. Even the inner disciples flushed when she spared them a single sentence. Yi Yeok did not so much as waver.

Baengni Hae sighed, ready to put an end to it.

"The three of you, go back. Let this be finished."

Yi Yeok answered with a slick, shameless smile.

"Vice Sect Master, you're being rather partial."

Baengni Hae's brow furrowed.

"And what, exactly, is the problem?"

"Those men just tried to kill my junior brother, Bang Cheon. If we simply let that pass, what becomes of my face?"

Yi Yeok cupped his fist in a courteous salute. His voice oozed even as it fawned.

"I held back out of respect for the Supreme Elder and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other elders of the sect. And yet here you are, Vice Sect Master, trying to chip away at my dignity?"

A hard mountain wind ripped through the clearing, and a keen pressure closed in around them until the air itself felt too tight to breathe.

At last Baengni Hae spoke.

"Very well. We'll do as you say."

He drew a single low-grade spirit pill from his robes and held it out.

"Will this suffice?"

Yi Yeok closed his hand around the pill and gave a light nod.

"Vice Sect Master, with this I can keep my face."

Baengni Hae nodded and turned away. Mok Geom-in, Jam Yun, and the others choked down their killing intent and followed without another word.

Yi Yeok watched their retreating backs and smiled quietly to himself. Then he tossed the spirit pill to Bang Cheon.

"You worked for it. Take your reward."

Bang Cheon caught the pill and looked up at him, eyes bright with gratitude.

Yi Yeok grinned, then spoke as if it hardly mattered.

"By the way — wasn't someone calling me a rotten bastard a little while ago?"

Bang Cheon's breath caught in his throat. The color drained from his face, and his mouth went dry. He hesitated, then barely managed to get the words out.

"That was me, Senior Brother. Things were... so desperate that I just—"

Yi Yeok nodded and shrugged.

"Eh. It happens. And you weren't wrong."

He flicked a hand as if it were nothing and turned back toward his quarters.

Bang Cheon stood there in a daze for a long while. At last he let out a heavy breath and pressed a hand to his chest. Thank heaven I didn't lie. Watching Yi Yeok's back, he understood all over again just how frightening the man truly was.

The moment he returned to his room, Yi Yeok threw himself into cultivation with a spirit stone.

The room was spotless, not a mote of dust anywhere — Bang Cheon's diligent cleaning. Yi Yeok sat cross-legged on the bed and brought his hands together. Resting on his palms was a spirit stone no larger than a thumbnail. Its purity was exceptional. Small as it was, the power sealed inside was tremendous.

The moment he circulated the Hidden Soul Divine Spirit Art, the force within the stone thinned into threads and began to stream into his body. Before long it had run through every limb and vessel and fused perfectly with his blood qi. The blood qi grew clearer, and its strength surged.

Stirred by the spirit stone, Heavenly Dragon Flying Sand slowly woke within him. What had slept in his blood drank the stone's power with naked greed. As it answered in earnest, blood qi rose to the surface of his skin and sheathed him like a new armor. The vessels crossed and recrossed in patterns as intricate as a finely carved seal.

Yi Yeok closed his eyes and felt every change within. He knew, instinctively, that he could step into the Harmonizing Qi-Blood Realm before the day was out.

Focusing his awareness inward, he found a dark, foreign space within his heart, as if a deep shadow were hiding in one corner of it. He soon understood what it was: the vacant seat of his Hidden Blood.

Near the heart, three drops of blood rested in stillness. That was the Heart-Dwelling Blood. It was the root of life itself, the root of the heart meridian, and it stood guard over the Hidden Blood. As one begets two, and two begets three, and from three the ten thousand things begin, these three drops were the core that upheld life and power.

Then a sudden doubt took him. He saw a fourth drop of Heart-Dwelling Blood — one he did not know. It was plainly not his. It circled the empty place of the Hidden Blood as if seeking to claim it, watching for a gap. His own three drops refused the stranger's blood and held it back.

"How did something like this get in here?"

His expression turned grave. There was only one person he could suspect: the old man who had raised him. The Old Thief.

"This has to be the old man's doing..."

Yi Yeok slowly closed his eyes and called up his memories of him. The fellow always slouched about with a loose, careless air, and yet instinct had always told Yi Yeok he was anything but ordinary. The old man's depths could not be measured. His realm lay somewhere Yi Yeok could never reach.

"Where is he now, and what is he doing?"

An uneasy thought crossed his mind. Until Yi Yeok turned fifteen, the old man had always stayed at his side, protecting him and teaching him. His presence had been a comfort large enough to stand in for the parents Yi Yeok had never had. But from the year he turned fifteen, the old man began to leave now and then, and each time he was gone longer than the last.

"Don't tell me he's vanished for good..."

Yi Yeok had never understood why the old man had started leaving so often.

"Once I finish what the Supreme Elder ordered, I'll go looking for him."

Two hours later, his heart began to hammer wildly. The blood in his body roared, and the medicinal power of the Heavenly Origin Immortal Soul Pill spread through him. It passed through the heart into the five viscera and six bowels, lashing his vessels awake.

In that instant his eyes flew open. A fierce light cut across his pupils.

He had reached the Harmonizing Qi-Blood Realm at last!

As the true qi within him condensed, its flow began to change in nature — true qi turning to spiritual qi, the power in his body leaping onto another plane. Once roughly three-tenths of that true qi had been converted, the flow began to slow. Yi Yeok felt that no more spiritual qi would form. He looked down at his hands. The spirit stone was gone without a trace.

"So this is as far as today goes."

He ended the session and stretched, unhurried. Cultivation was not something impatience could force. Knowing when to stop mattered just as much.

"The Harmonizing Qi-Blood Realm. I must be about three times stronger."

He drew a slow breath and felt, once more, the fierce power moving through his body. His speed, though, would not have risen by that much. Thanks to the Treading Snow Without Trace Technique he could already move at a pace others could not even imagine, but raw bodily strength alone did not improve it.

He remembered the old man's teaching.

Ultimate Speed. Five times the speed of sound was a velocity beyond imagination. But to control it, one needed reflexes of extreme swiftness. React too slowly, and that very speed became poison — you would slam into a wall, or tear yourself apart.

What was required was mental power. The strength of the soul. Soul and body had to become one. Only upon reaching the Unity of Heaven and Man could that speed be perfectly controlled.

"Right now, my speed ought to be about the speed of sound."

Yi Yeok smiled, as if the thought amused him.

"And when I reach Ultimate Speed? Maybe then I could even try robbing a place like the Seongdo Immortal Sect."

He shook his head and murmured to himself.