Moon Soul Pill (3)
Ha-wol spoke.
This lady guided you herself, but those members of yours—you'll have to guide them with your own hands.
Honestly, the situation felt hopeless.
Just managing his own body while circulating qi was already more than enough. And now he was supposed to reach into someone else's body and personally guide the flow of their energy?
Is that even possible?
Another person's body was uncharted territory.
Everyone's meridian structure and the nature of their qi were different. One wrong move and a meridian could twist; in the worst case, they could fall into qi deviation and become a cripple.
This lady knows full well how absurd it is for someone of your level to lead another person's qi circulation. Even in the history of the murim, those who reached such a realm could be counted on one hand.
By comparison, Hyun Si-woon had only just crossed the threshold of sensing qi.
What he was being asked to do now?
It felt like telling a newborn who couldn't even walk to perform a tap dance.
So all you need do is become this lady's hands and feet. Every measure of control will be mine. You need only feel the sensation of how the qi is worked, and how another's meridians are governed.
Si-woon swallowed hard.
He felt it instinctively.
This was an extraordinary opportunity.
As if she had caught the flicker of that realization, the corner of Ha-wol's mouth curved up.
The experience of directly governing another's qi is more precious than any training. By feeling the flow of different meridians and handling energies of every nature, your qi sense will grow by leaps and bounds. This is as good as a practical lesson this lady is granting you specially—so be grateful.
Every member sat cross-legged, the Moon Soul Pill in hand.
Hyun Si-woon quietly took his place first behind Baek Yeon-ho.
"Yeon-ho hyung, swallow it first. Then breathe the way I taught you and focus your awareness on your dantian."
"Got it."
Without hesitation, Baek Yeon-ho tossed the Moon Soul Pill into his mouth.
The elixir's energy burned down his esophagus and swept toward his stomach.
Tsk. I expected as much, but it's a mess from the start. Swallow it like that and a precious elixir gets digested like ordinary food—most of its efficacy scatters into thin air. Now place both palms over the Dazhui and Mingmen points.
Okay.
Dazhui was the point at the base of the neck; Mingmen sat on the spine, midway between the second and third lumbar vertebrae.
Gently, he set his hands in place.
"Nngh."
A low groan escaped Baek Yeon-ho's lips.
Guided by Ha-wol, Hyun Si-woon's energy had begun to enter Baek Yeon-ho's vessels.
Good, boy. Ease your energy back a little. This lady said she would handle it—why do you keep forcing power into it? There! Watch carefully. This is the process of slowly raising it along the Governing Vessel, resting a moment at the Baihui point, then descending along the Conception Vessel.
Beads of sweat began to form on Hyun Si-woon's forehead.
Ha-wol might be the one moving, but the qi being spent was his own.
Of course it was exhausting.
So this is what it's like.
Honestly, he couldn't properly understand what he was doing.
His mind was blank white.
The names of the acupoints Ha-wol called out, the methods of circulating qi—to him they were nothing more than ciphers.
Jianjing, Shenshu, Yuzhen, Danzhong, Yintang…
He didn't even have the leisure to dwell on what the words meant.
He simply closed his eyes and poured every sense he had into the work.
Inside another person's body.
It was like two vast river systems running through a range of mountains.
The Conception Vessel is a deep, still river of yin; the Governing Vessel is a rough, surging river of yang.
And between the tributaries that linked those two great streams lay countless acupoints.
Like springs and lakes.
From those places, streams flowed in and joined the rivers.
And at the end of it all, they converged into a vast ocean.
The dantian.
The beginning and end of every energy—that deep, unfathomable sea of the abyss.
Do you see? You must never force the flow to a stop. Dam a waterway and the embankment only bursts. You merely nudge the direction a little, showing the path it is meant to take.
Ah.
Hyun Si-woon marveled inwardly.
He was only just beginning to grasp how absurd Ha-wol's control and intervention truly were.
This is…
It was like a boatman facing a violent current, turning a few strokes of the oar and changing the course of the river itself.
This is using the barbarian to control the barbarian. Do not try to overpower everything with your own strength—turn the opponent's force against them and let them collapse on their own. That is the essence of high-level martial arts.
Ah…
Hyun Si-woon was left speechless.
This was not the domain of technique.
It was nearly art—or a realm of the Dao itself.
Not a contest of force against force, but a wondrous stage of reading flow and principle, drawing the greatest result from the least power!
Right. That one's done well enough. Let's start on the next.
Hyun Si-woon did as Ha-wol said.
Baek Do-hee, Kang Si-a, Jang Cha-yul, Hwang Dae-un…
One by one they swallowed the Moon Soul Pill and began to absorb it.
Every time he set his hands on a new back, Hyun Si-woon met an entirely different world.
If Baek Yeon-ho's meridians were rivers running between hard, thick bedrock, Baek Do-hee's were a quiet brook seeping gently through soft earth.
When Ha-wol worked her meridians, she guided the energy far more softly, far more delicately.
This woman's qi has fine receptivity. Rather than forcing a path open, let it soak in gradually, as if wetting dry ground around it. That is the principle of mutual generation.
Kang Si-a's meridians were astonishingly straight and unobstructed. Energy raced through them without resistance, as if along a well-paved highway.
Look at this. This is what they call a martial bone. The road is already built, so there's no need to force a path. All you need do is add the elixir's energy to quicken the current and widen the channel.
Hwang Dae-un was different again.
His meridians roared like a waterfall, rough and overflowing with force.
This fellow's blood-qi is far too vigorous—his energy runs wild on its own. You must control it strictly, as if raising a dam to hold the water and opening the sluice gates a little at a time. This is the domain of restraint!
Sweat poured from Hyun Si-woon's brow like rain.
It wasn't simply the drain on his qi that made it hard.
It demanded an extreme concentration, as if he were governing four separate rivers at once.
Even with his eyes closed, his head spun.
Open your senses. Feel the energy flowing through their bodies as if it were your own. Do not try to see with your eyes. Do not try to hear with your ears. Read qi only through qi.
Hwaaa…
Even in the confusion, Hyun Si-woon fought to hold his focus.
Meanwhile, his teammates were living through an experience of their own wonder.
What is this?
Baek Yeon-ho shuddered at the changes unfolding inside his body.
A cool energy flowed in from his back and punched cleanly through blocked blood channels—a rush of pure relief!
This is actually possible?
Baek Yeon-ho's mind reeled with confusion.
It had been barely half a year since the world changed like this.
He was only just adapting to things like the Tower and Climbers.
And yet someone set a single palm against his back and was assisting qi circulation like something out of a wuxia novel?
By any common sense, it was impossible.
Just what the hell is he…?
He had already half-guessed that Hyun Si-woon was more than a mere veteran stuffed with Tower knowledge.
But this was another dimension entirely.
It went past wondrous—it felt as if every piece of common sense he had built about the world was being denied at the root.
Nngh.
It was much the same for Kang Si-a.
With her innate focus and talent, she had sensed the flow of qi faster than anyone else.
But that was only raw ore.
She had no idea how to refine it or where to send it, and the uncertainty left her stranded.
The energy Hyun Si-woon sent from behind her back was different.
It was like the precise hand of a master craftsman, cutting and polishing raw stone into a jewel.
Then, suddenly—
Drip. Drip.
She felt liquid fall onto her shoulder.
…Sweat?
With her keen qi sense, Kang Si-a read Hyun Si-woon's condition.
Beads of sweat gathering and sliding from his brow and the tip of his chin.
Eyelashes trembling faintly.
Hot.
The palm against her back burned like a lump of fire, and it shook, ever so slightly.
His breathing, too, was thin and ragged.
Ah…
Only then did she understand.
Hyun Si-woon was not at ease in the least.
If anything, he was shouldering more pain and burden than any of them.
"…"
Something hot surged up in Kang Si-a's chest.
When she first met him, she had simply thought of him as a strong person.
An object of awe, a goal she wanted to chase.
But the Hyun Si-woon at her back now was different.
He was not merely a strong leader.
He was a leader who knew how to sacrifice himself and pour everything out for the sake of standing together.
And he has no greed, either.
She remembered the moment he had trusted her and pressed the unique bow into her hands.
He could have sold it on the community boards and made a fortune… and he had handed it over without a second's hesitation.
The overwhelming emotion she had felt then struck her heart hard once more.
This oppa is the real thing.
Kang Si-a did not doubt him.
There was only one way to repay his devotion.
To trust the path he had opened, accept it completely, and become far stronger than she was now.
I will.
She vowed it.
She would pierce anything that threatened this man's back—and this team—with her arrows.
That was her only answer to his goodwill and trust.
Time passed.
By the time dawn broke and the sun climbed to midheaven, everyone's qi circulation finally came to an end.
"Hooo…"
Hyun Si-woon let out a long breath.
His clothes were already soaked through with sweat and clung to his skin; the world spun around him.
So this was what total exhaustion felt like.
Tsk tsk. So frail. Still—you did well. At this level, everyone absorbed a meaningful amount.
Then it happened.
Woooom!
A pale white aura rose from the party members' bodies, then sank back into them.
At the same time, system messages floated up before their eyes.
"Whoa!"
"…M-my stats increased permanently!"
"This much?"
"Hyeong-nim, my Strength only went up by two, but the others each gained four!"
Everyone checked their status with expressions of pure awe.
Baek Yeon-ho in particular stood with his mouth hanging open, unable to believe it.
If this had been a game, those were numbers you could grind days and nights of hunting without raising—and they had exploded upward in just a few hours.
Most of their stats now sat at roughly the same level as Hyun Si-woon's.
An average of about fifteen.
A highly meaningful figure for challenging the fourth floor.
"Everyone did great."
Thud.
Hyun Si-woon dropped to the floor and smiled.
The members' gazes turned to him of their own accord.
The sweat-drenched mess of him.
"Si-woon…"
"Are you okay?"
Kang Si-a rushed over to support his shoulder, but Hyun Si-woon shook his head.
"Okay? Nothing about this is okay. I feel like I'm dying, so I'm resting today."
It wasn't a lie.
He had truly hit his limit.
"Thank you."
"…Hyeong-nim, thank you!"
"I'm grateful. This debt…"
To the members, this was more than a simple stat increase.
It was a token of hope that they could survive in this brutal world—and proof of the boundless trust their leader had placed in them.
Listening to their thanks, Hyun Si-woon closed his eyes.
Crushing fatigue crashed over him.
Still, it was definitely a profitable deal.
By directly governing others' meridians, he had felt his own qi sense grow sharper and more refined than anything he had known before.
He had gone beyond merely sensing qi—he could now read its nature, its flow, even its finest shifts.
It was a precious experience and growth that would never appear on a status window, and nothing could replace it.
Time to rest a bit…
Whatever the next plan was, for now he just wanted a nap.