Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Unraveling the Secret of Yin and Yang Essence
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Clang! Thwack!
“Ugh!”
The Fire Dragon Sword shattered his sword in two and lightly struck the shoulder of Gyeon Beon, the Fierce Dragon's Single Sword.
“Grrr...”
The sharp impact on his right shoulder, the one holding the sword, forced Gyeon Beon to drop his weapon. He staggered, clutching his shoulder.
But his shoulder wasn't broken. A broken right shoulder is a severe handicap for a warrior, especially a swordsman, so I had shown him mercy.
I slung the Fire Dragon Sword over my shoulder and continued on my way.
Gyeon Beon was a first-rate master of intermediate level, but he seemed to have overestimated his own abilities, which is why he challenged me.
Or perhaps he didn't believe the rumors about me until he experienced it for himself.
I didn't need to draw the Fire Dragon Sword to deal with Gyeon Beon, but it felt discourteous to someone who had traveled all the way from Hubei seeking a duel, so I struck his shoulder with it.
Gyeon Beon cupped his fist in salute toward my retreating back.
“The Fire Dragon Sword truly lives up to its name! Thank you for your leniency!”
“Be careful on your way.”
“I will join the Martial Alliance!”
“Do as you please.”
Defeated in a single move, Gyeon Beon must have realized the extent of his own skills and just how powerful I was.
Whatever path he chose from then on was his own business.
* * *
Go Un-hyo said, walking beside me.
“From now on, I will deal with anyone who challenges you, Brother.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think that's right.”
“What do you mean?”
“They are guests who have come to see me. It would be discourteous for you to receive them.”
I used to be ignorant of such martial world etiquette, but I'm learning, one thing at a time.
My favorite spot no longer looked the same.
Dozens of large and small boulders used to be clustered by the riverbank, but now, not a single one was intact. I had destroyed them all.
Still, it was the quietest and most secluded place around here.
I went inside and sat down in a suitable spot, crossing my legs in a meditative posture.
Go Un-hyo waited outside, perhaps thinking I was about to do something private.
I didn't think it would work, but I tried to draw out my internal energy anyway.
Fwoosh!
‘Huh? It's working?’
I flinched in surprise. I hadn't recalled Cheol Ryu-yeop, nor was I burning with anger and fighting spirit, yet my internal energy rose at once, and with great ease.
At that moment, I reflexively realized something.
‘My body is cultivating energy. This shouldn't be happening...’
I normally can't even draw out my internal energy, so there's no way I could be cultivating it.
Then, a thought flashed through my mind, and I lifted my head to look up.
A large, radiant full moon hung in the night sky, looking close enough to touch.
‘It's the night of the full moon!’
My life wasn't even that busy, yet I hadn't realized today was the full moon.
It was on the first full moon after I came to the Dong-ro Branch, in this very spot, that I discovered the Azure-White Ice Flower.
And I had realized that something cold existed within my body, and that energy cultivation was proceeding even without my conscious effort.
But right now, my body was cultivating energy.
I couldn't tell if the cultivation had started the moment the full moon rose, or if it was something that was always happening.
I had to find that out now.
‘I see!’
Suddenly, I realized something. I had succeeded in drawing out my internal energy a moment ago, but it wasn't for no reason.
It was possible because I was cultivating energy on the night of the full moon.
‘No, that's not it!’
Another realization. It was a series of epiphanies.
Normally, one cannot utilize internal energy while cultivating it. You either have to finish cultivating or not be doing it at all to draw out your power.
‘What's going on?’
A hypothesis immediately came to mind.
‘It's clear that my body is constantly cultivating energy, no matter the situation.’
Whether I was living my daily life or activating my martial arts to fight, my body was constantly cultivating energy.
For now, that was the only conclusion I could draw. Because I had just drawn out my internal energy while it was being cultivated. That was the only way to make sense of this situation.
As a rule, a martial artist's internal energy increases, albeit slightly, only through dedicated cultivation.
But ever since I entered the martial world, I had been constantly cultivating energy.
‘No! That's not it either!’
Could it be that the constant cultivation started ten years ago, when I fell into the Yin Essence Abyss?
Ten years ago, when the Yin Essence from the abyss was absorbed into my body, it must have started some kind of reaction.
In any case, I would think about that later. For now, I needed to investigate the ‘thump!’ sensation I felt when I drew out an additional twenty years of energy on top of the eighty.
So, I drew the Fire Dragon Sword, extended it forward, and infused eighty years' worth of internal energy into it.
Fwoosh!
Infused with eighty years of energy, the Fire Dragon Sword twitched and let out a low cry.
Just as I did when fighting Geum Cheong-san, I would now draw out another twenty years of energy.
To reiterate, that was the first time I had ever drawn out more than eighty years of internal energy.
But when I drew out a hundred years of energy earlier, it worked, but I was curious about that ‘thump!’
Focusing my mind, I drew another twenty years of energy from my dantian.
Swoosh...
A small amount of internal energy flowed out smoothly from my dantian.
‘It's not the dantian!’
But the place the energy had just flowed from felt like the dantian, yet not quite.
‘Hmm!’
I sent the twenty years of energy back to where it came from, then slowly drew it out again.
Thump!
It still felt like the dantian, but not the dantian.
‘Again!’
Swoosh...
Thuuump...
‘Found it!’
I pinpointed it the very moment the twenty years of energy flowed out.
‘It's the Stone Gate acupoint!’
I checked three more times; it was definitely the Stone Gate acupoint.
They say the dantian is located three cun below the navel, but those three cun are not a universal measure.
The dantian's location varies from person to person; using the length of one's own middle finger joint as one cun, three cun below the navel is the Qihai acupoint, the dantian also known as the 'Sea of Qi'.
But the twenty years of energy just now clearly came not from the Qihai acupoint, but from the Stone Gate acupoint, one cun below it.
In medicine, the Qihai, Stone Gate, and Guanyuan acupoints are all considered dantians.
For most people, internal energy accumulates in the Qihai, but for some, depending on their unique physiology, it is believed to accumulate in the Stone Gate and Guanyuan as well.
Furthermore, medicine doesn't consider it strange for energy to accumulate in any of these three locations, as all three are dantians.
For women in particular, the Stone Gate often serves as the dantian, because that is where the uterus is located.
‘In that case!’
I decided to examine the three dantians one by one, starting with the uppermost one, the Qihai.
First, I confirmed that eighty years of internal energy was stored in the Qihai, the Qihai dantian.
A question arose here.
‘Before I went into seclusion at Mount Gwalchang over thirteen years ago, I had just over twenty years of internal energy. Does this mean I generated sixty years of energy from just over three years of cultivation?’
Right now, with my internal energy and martial arts activated, my memory of the one hundred eighty-six martial arts I've mastered and the three external books I've only memorized is crystal clear.
‘The Heavenly Elixir Heart Art I learned is said to be a peerless technique from five hundred years ago, but it's impossible to generate a full cycle of sixty years of energy in just over three years.’
Even with the Heavenly Elixir Heart Art, generating twenty or thirty years of energy in three years would be normal at best.
Then, my mind lit up.
‘Constant energy cultivation!’
If my body was constantly and tirelessly cultivating energy for the ten years I lay dormant in the Yin Essence Abyss, then creating sixty years of internal energy is entirely possible.
‘Then what about the Yin Essence? Where is it?’
As one question was resolved, another arose, and I immediately delved into it.
‘Ah!’
I confirmed that the Yin Essence was lurking in the Stone Gate acupoint, just below the Qihai where my normal internal energy was stored.
But I discovered not just one, but four new, astonishing facts.
First, the total amount of Yin Essence condensed in the Stone Gate acupoint was so immense that I couldn't possibly measure it right now.
Second, the outermost layer of the Yin Essence in the Stone Gate was soft, growing harder toward the inside, with a very densely compressed mass of Yin Essence at its core.
Third, after observing for quite some time, I realized that the Yin Essence was dissolving, albeit very slowly and minutely.
Fourth, the constant energy cultivation was for the purpose of dissolving the Yin Essence. The dissolved essence softened as it moved outward, eventually flowing into the Qihai to merge with my internal energy.
‘Incredible!’
The revelation was so incredible that it took me a long time to process and accept it.
Sheathing the Fire Dragon Sword, I decided to examine the Guanyuan acupoint, below the Stone Gate.
‘If my guess is correct, the Yang Essence should be in the Guanyuan!’
My reasoning was that since my normal internal energy was stored in the Qihai and the Yin Essence was in the Stone Gate, the Yang Essence ought to be in the Guanyuan.
A few days ago, I had absorbed lightning from the Fire Dragon Sword ten times to create Yang Essence.
I thought it would be in the Stone Gate, but it wasn't. If the Yang Essence hadn't dissipated, the only place it could be was the Guanyuan.
‘That's it!’
As expected, a small amount of Yang Essence was sitting quietly in the Guanyuan, occupying a single small chamber.
Since one small chamber in the dantian typically represents ten years of internal energy, this meant I had just over ten years' worth of Yang Essence.
Furthermore, a small amount of Yin Essence was enveloping the surface of the Yang Essence. I had initially wrapped it with Yin Essence because it was too hot, and it had remained that way.
I drew the Fire Dragon Sword, extended it straight out, and infused it with thirty years of internal energy.
Then, I drew out Yin Essence from the Stone Gate and infused it into the sword.
Bzzzt!
Instantly, the Azure-White Ice Flower shot out from the Fire Dragon Sword in a straight line.
Craaaack!
The night air froze solid as the Azure-White Ice Flower shot out over ten zhang.
I hastily withdrew the Yin Essence, stuffed it back into the Stone Gate, and this time, carefully drew out only a small amount.
Fwoosh...
As an immeasurably small amount of Yin Essence was infused, the Fire Dragon Sword hummed.
‘There's no resistance.’
When I fought Geum Cheong-san, there was that ‘thump!’ of resistance.
‘Let's reenact the situation from back then.’
Instead of drawing the Yin Essence directly from the Stone Gate, I would try to draw it as if it were coming from the Qihai—the dantian.
First, I infused all eighty years of my internal energy from the Qihai into the Fire Dragon Sword. Then, very slowly, I added another twenty years of energy, carefully observing the process.
The Yin Essence didn't come directly from the Stone Gate; it first went to the Qihai and then flowed out.
Thump!
‘There it is!’
This made one thing clear. The Yin Essence coming from the Stone Gate was pure Yin Essence, but when it passed through the Qihai, it became somewhat converted into internal energy.
In other words, I could use the Yin Essence from the Stone Gate as internal energy. However, it wasn't complete internal energy. And it had to pass through the Qihai, but it seemed only a small amount could do so.
Hummm!
Infused with a hundred years of internal energy, the Fire Dragon Sword let out a dragon's cry.
I withdrew the energy and stood up.
‘A great gain.’
Greatly satisfied with tonight's discoveries, my steps were light as I headed back to the Dong-ro Branch.