Back to the Imperial Palace (6)
Inhale… exhale…
Even, measured breaths drifted from Jin Myeong, who lay wreathed in a misty, fog-like aura of inner energy. Having broken through to the Peak Realm without even realizing it, he was sprawled out asleep with the most peaceful expression in the world — utterly unaware that Noh Jinpyeong and the family of Yuwol Pavilion were tearing the city apart looking for him.
"Damn you, Jin Gu. She Ping, you bastard."
Arms and legs stretched out comfortably between Zhao Gu and Li Xin — who had departed for the underworld stripped of their inner energy, nursing an eternal grudge — he mumbled on in his sleep.
"You pathetic eunuch bastards…! This Gonggong is no eunuch, I'll have you know. Mmmph…"
The catastrophe of encountering the Twin Seductress Fiends had, against all odds, become a blessing. Having overcome a brush with death, Jin Myeong had obtained a once-in-a-millennium stroke of fortune.
"Whoa!"
I had come within a hair's breadth of qi deviation. The moment my mind returned, Zhao Gu and Li Xin's faces were right there on either side of me.
"Ah — my heart."
Only after realizing both of them had stopped breathing did I finally press a hand to my startled chest. Zhao Gu's one cheek was caved in, his mouth twisted sideways, and Li Xin's once-beautiful face was a mass of wrinkles. The faces of the two, restored to their original appearances after losing their inner energy, were… well. Ugly as sin.
"I got lucky."
Heaven's fortune, all of it. The heavens had been on my side. Before I'd lost consciousness, I had been certain the Twin Seductress Fiends' inner energy would tear my body to shreds. I had braced myself for qi deviation at the very least, or for being left a cripple. I had never imagined I would survive with my body intact.
"Let's have a look."
I sat up, folded into the lotus position, and began circulating the Isin True Qi, observing the flow of energy through my body. The result: my dantian was several times larger than before the regression, and true qi ran unobstructed through meridians as wide as the Yangtze itself.
Except for the Baihui point.
The true qi racing along the Conception and Governing Vessels stopped cold at the Baihui acupoint at the crown of my head.
"Stubborn bastard. To think it withstood six Jiazi of inner energy forcing its way in."
I had been a little hopeful, but of course. The Baihui point stood firm, holding its ground. Disgusting little thing. Then again, the Transformation Realm was never going to be that simple. Before the regression, I hadn't achieved it even after twenty-nine years of training.
"Still, at least I don't have to worry about getting beaten up by people my own age anymore."
The true qi settled in my dantian amounted to a full Jiazi — half the inner energy I had accumulated before the regression — and my realm had become Peak. Peak Realm before the age of twenty. How many people in this vast world could claim that? Even counting the disciples of reclusive masters and the like, you could count them on one hand.
Because I had returned to my childhood, my meridian tempering and total true qi had been insufficient, that was all. The enlightenment that had pioneered the Peak Realm - Late Stage hadn't gone anywhere, so the moment that insufficient quantity of true qi was filled, I reached the Initial Peak Realm at once.
When I lost consciousness, the phenomenon of the Five Qi Returning to Origin must have occurred. Thanks to that, my inner cultivation technique had leapt to the fifth star in a single bound, and from now on I wouldn't need to fuss over specific postures — sitting meditation, lying meditation, and the rest — when accumulating true qi or treating internal injuries.
And one more decisive achievement: I could now form blade energy with my true qi. Compressing it further to create energy orbs, or firing them off, was still a long way off — but even just blade energy was more than I could ask for. Sword qi, sword silk, whatever they threw at me — I would shatter them all the moment they clashed.
"Fifth star and Initial Peak Realm. Terrifying. Don't tell me seventh star would be the Transformation Realm."
Initial Peak Realm — three stages below the Transformation Realm. In other words, in half a year after regressing, I had drawn close to my pre-regression martial prowess. Transcendence wouldn't be far off. Before the regression it had been a counterfeit Sunflower Manual. Now I had the authentic original.
"I'll have to train diligently."
That said, this realm was limited to the operation of inner energy. I would need to continuously train the Bright Sky Hand, the Extreme Heaven Palm, and my other techniques to bring everything into balance.
"You two should have lived decent, honest lives. Like me."
At any rate, I gazed down at Zhao Gu and Li Xin, who had bestowed this unexpected fortune upon me. After a moment I looked toward the shrine's entrance. Outside, the night already seemed deep. I would have to wait for the bell to know the exact hour, but Old Noh would be worrying, so I needed to hurry back.
"Given all the evil you've committed, even feeding you to the dogs would be too good for you. But the fact remains that, in the end, I received your help."
I couldn't just leave the Twin Seductress Fiends in a shrine dedicated to Guan Yu and walk away.
"Come here."
Having decided to bury the lust-demon couple, I tested my newly obtained realm by lifting the two of them into the air.
A Jiazi of true qi made the corpses of two grown adults rise as lightly as falling leaves.
"This works a little too well. Two whole people."
And not teacups or a single sword — I easily lifted the corpses of two adults. The Sunflower Manual exceeded imagination the more I experienced it. In truth, pulling two grown people with only one Jiazi of inner energy was a near-impossible feat, which meant this was only possible because of the Sunflower Manual.
"In your next life, don't get seduced by demonic arts like the Star-Absorbing Great Method."
Maintaining the Object Manipulation, I moved to a suitable spot some distance from the shrine. It was a pitch-black night, but with my formidable true qi, seeing through the darkness was no trouble at all. I could even talk while performing Object Manipulation. That was how vast the gap was between First-Rate and Peak.
"Cultivate some anti-demonic power. Or be born with the aptitude of a Mad Demon and look down on the whole world."
Thud! Thud!
Two palm strikes in a suitable spot dug deep pits, and then I moved the Twin Seductress Fiends, still floating in the air, into their respective holes.
"Handing over your true qi in the next life would be even better. Guanyin Bodhisattva is going to take a proper interest in your next lives, so just f— off…!"
Just as I was about to cover the pits where the lust-demon couple lay with earth—
Plop.
A yellowish object fell from Zhao Gu's robes, and I paused involuntarily. At the same time, something I had completely forgotten came back to me.
They were carrying something that precious around that irresponsibly?
It didn't make any sense. Maybe if it were a tale from the mouths of inn gossips. Or a wuxia chapbook sold at a marketplace stall. It was obvious. What else would tumble out of a lust-demon's robes but a bedroom-arts commentary or a collection of erotic prints?
Even as I dismissed it, I couldn't help the expectation that slowly crept up. As if to prove that expectation, I picked it up carefully, worried it might be damaged. The identity of the object that had me half-suspicious, half-excited…
"Holy shit. This isn't a fake, is it?"
Without a doubt.
"They were carrying it around like this? The Huanxu?"
To think they had been carrying a world-shaking martial art like the Huanxu in their robes all this time. Then again, no one in their right mind would try to steal it from a lust-demon couple with such formidable inner energy — but what if they had lost it?
"Have you ever seen people whose guts have fled right out of their bellies."
With trembling hands, I carefully turned the pages of the Huanxu. Characters so lovely they were almost precious. It was rapture itself.
"Is life even allowed to go this well?"
Saying the heavens had smiled on me wasn't enough. The Huanxu! The Huanxu, of all things. One more divine art that I alone in the world knew of had been added. Above all, the Huanxu had cleanly solved the problem that had been tormenting me for the past half year.
"Buddha. Jade Emperor. Aren't you being a little too generous here?"
The fatal problem that becoming a eunuch required castration had been solved. I would become a eunuch again. Not a castrated eunuch — a virile eunuch. I would obtain the supreme yin spiritual treasure, and that would be that.
A short while later, at dawn, Yuwol Pavilion.
The family and Old Noh had gathered in the Grand Matriarch's room. Because of me, they hadn't been able to rest, and there was no way they could concentrate on business that had started late in the afternoon. They had wrapped up a half-hearted day's trade and were preparing to go out looking for me again when the one they had been desperately searching for appeared with a poof. Yuwol Pavilion erupted in a commotion.
"You little brat! At this rate, me, the Grand Matriarch, and the Great Lady are all going to die before our time because of you! You — what's it called? The Great Return Pill? You need to go get one of those for the two of them. When it gets light, at least go decoct some tonic, you hear me?"
Old Noh had been startled when I vanished without a word while we were getting ready to go fishing. The Twin Seductress Fiends, whose very appearance had been extraordinary, had disappeared without even paying their bill, so he had figured something must have happened between me and the lust-demon couple. He had gone straight to Yuwol Pavilion to report it, and the family, who had been sleeping soundly, had all gotten up and torn through Yingtianfu looking for me.
"Heh-heh-heh! He's come back safe and sound, so that's what matters. Myeong-ah, your mother was worried sick."
"I'm sorry. Forgive me, Yumo."
As always, the Grand Matriarch's warmly smiling, gently tossed words made me tightly grasp the hand of my Yumo sitting beside me. Yumo had clearly suffered greatly; her eyes were swollen.
"No. You met those Seven Evil Masters, and you came back unharmed — your mother couldn't ask for more. But how did you get away?"
"Heh. Well, what happened was…"
I explained everything, step by step, from the first time I had seen the Twin Seductress Fiends at Old Noh's noodle shop to the events before I had come home. Roars of laughter erupted at the parts where I had acted to deceive the perverted lust-demon couple, and where they had fallen for the performance.
"Heh-heh-heh! We nearly had one of the Thirteen Flowers beating the ground in outrage. Almost lost our Myeong to a senile old man. Isn't that right, Shanghua?"
"Pardon? Ah…! Y-yes, all the sisters would have felt that way. Myeong is a little brother to all of us, after all."
Shanghua, who had been staring blankly at me from across the way, startled and flushed red. The Grand Matriarch had a mischievous streak too. That aside — Shanghua, as expected. Shanghua was a hundred times, a thousand times more beautiful than that old hag, the Sensual Concubine.
"So you're saying your inner energy amounts to a full Jiazi? Heavens… Our Martial Chancellor will be surpassing this old woman before long, won't he?"
"I still have a long way to go, Grand Matriarch. Seeing as the Twin Seductress Fiends died, it means I absorbed all of their inner energy — but I can't figure out why only one Jiazi remains."
"The vessel wasn't ready."
"The vessel?"
"How can the ocean fit in a vessel that can only hold a lake? This old woman's thinking is that it was either expended while filtering out the turbid energy, or some of it remains somewhere in the lesser meridians."
As expected, the Grand Matriarch proved she was a master several dimensions above, without the slightest hesitation. I had only thought of it as the result of filtering out the dregs and keeping the essence, but she even foresaw the possibility that true qi not accommodated by the dantian was hidden in the lesser meridians.
"I shouldn't rush, but if I train without rest and achieve the Grand Circulation, I should find the answer."
"That's right! Heh-heh-heh! How did little Myeong, who was just a child, become such a master in half a year? It's like looking at a seasoned Peak Realm expert."
Apparently satisfied with my answer, the Grand Matriarch slapped her knee in delight.
"Grand Matriarch, speaking of which."
"Hmm? Go on."
"H-huh…?"
"Jin Myeong, you little—!"
"Myeong-ah? What are you talking about…?"
At my declaration out of nowhere, the Grand Matriarch, Old Noh, and Yumo all swayed in their seats. I might have been a bit too mischievous.
"I don't mean I'll actually become a eunuch…"
I explained once more, carefully, step by step. What restrictions the Sunflower Manual had. What was needed to lift those restrictions. Why the Imperial Palace was the optimal place to obtain it, and why entering the palace required becoming a eunuch. I laid it all out, point by point, in detail.
"Ah…! So now you're teasing your elders. Tease away. Lady Zheng Hui, are you all right?"
"Hah…! Indeed, Old Noh. At this rate, this humble one won't even live out her natural lifespan."
"Heh-heh-heh! Now that I hear it, it makes sense. Sounds like something Myeong's been thinking about for a long time. You brat! You should have explained it that way from the start! Look at your mother's face — look at Shanghua's face!"
After hearing the explanation, the three of them finally looked relieved. But why did the Grand Matriarch keep dragging Shanghua into this? I was so grateful it almost hurt. Perhaps because she had nearly lost her first love, Shanghua felt even more precious than before.
"I'm sorry! Grand Matriarch. And speaking of which…"
Bowing my head playfully, still in high spirits, I meant to shift the mood and bring up one more problem connected to becoming a eunuch.
It was an important matter.