Chapter 343
Chapter 343
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 343
Chapter Title: Hearing the Tale of the Monster Thief Woman
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After hearing the story called "Monster Thief Woman," Dang Mujin pondered for a moment what it could mean before clapping his hands.
"Thief woman? Baek Hyang-a?"
"Yeah."
In truth, Dang Mujin had half-forgotten why Seolhwa had joined their group.
For over the past half-year, Seolhwa hadn't brought up Baek Hyang-a again.
But Seolhwa had originally joined the group while wandering in search of Baek Hyang-a's whereabouts. To be precise, it wasn't voluntary—she'd been coaxed by Hyeon-gong—but anyway.
"Baek Hyang-a stole that... manual! The manual, right?"
"She stole the manual, and the Millennium Ice Crystal too."
He didn't know what a Millennium Ice Crystal was exactly. But judging by the name, he could tell it was a spirit medicine imbued with yin energy.
Dang Mujin asked as if he'd been curious about the Millennium Ice Crystal for a long time.
"I've always wondered—how potent is the Millennium Ice Crystal? If it drove you to leave your home and search for Baek Hyang-a, it must be something extraordinary, right?"
"Extraordinary? No."
Seolhwa shook her head, her long yellow hair swaying left and right.
"Then mid-tier?"
To Dang Mujin's question, Seolhwa answered firmly.
"No. The world's finest among spirit medicines with yin energy."
"Come on, that's exaggerating..."
Dang Mujin laughed in response, but Seolhwa's expression was utterly serious.
Hyeon-gong quickly interjected, scolding Dang Mujin.
"Dang Mujin. Seolhwa isn't some random wanderer—she's the successor to the North Sea Ice Palace, rulers of the northern frontier. If she's getting personally involved, it's no ordinary matter. Take it seriously."
Hyeon-gong's attitude toward Seolhwa even felt a bit deferential.
This was a change that had developed while training with her in the central plains. Over the recent period, he'd heard quite a bit about her homeland in detail.
Seolhwa wasn't just an ordinary brown-skinned woman from the north—she was the successor to a massive sect called the North Sea Ice Palace. More precisely, the eldest daughter of the North Sea Ice Palace Lord.
There were no gender restrictions for the palace lord position, so her chances of succeeding were high.
It didn't matter how many rivals there were. Once those issues were resolved, the next palace lord seat would be hers for the taking.
The day he heard about the North Sea Ice Palace, Hyeon-gong's evaluation of Seolhwa soared endlessly.
Even when he didn't know her background, Seolhwa had captured his heart. Now that a brilliant lineage was added to her, it was only natural for him to fall even deeper.
Of course, there was the risk that Seolhwa's higher status might overshadow him and leave him without dominance in their relationship, but Hyeon-gong didn't care about that at all.
Prostrating himself before someone superior was utterly natural for Hyeon-gong, and even if that person was his wife—though no marriage talks had happened yet—it was no exception.
Unlike Hyeon-gong, Dang Mujin didn't know much about the North Sea Ice Palace, but he figured the claim that the Millennium Ice Crystal was an incredible spirit medicine held some truth.
Just as yang spirit medicines flourished in the warm southern lands, yin spirit medicines thrived in the cold north—it was common knowledge.
Qinghai Province was already chilly, so how frigid must the northern lands be, reachable only after months of travel beyond it? And how abundant would yin spirit medicines be there?
If it was claimed the world's finest from those distant northern reaches, it must possess an immense amount of yin energy.
Dang Mujin asked Seolhwa,
"Where did you hear that Baek Hyang-a had appeared?"
"A cart driver working with Westerners said so. He mentioned corpses freezing to death keep showing up in the north."
The cart driver was surely a Haomen member. As far as Dang Mujin knew, after shop boys and courtesans, cart drivers or porters made up the largest numbers in Haomen.
It was natural for such tales among cart drivers to reach Baek Hyang-a's ears near Fairy Huayeon.
"The north is cold, so people freezing to death happens all the time. Plus, no one can tell if they froze to death or froze after dying, right?"
"They were martial artists who froze to death. And it wasn't sword wounds or anything."
Martial artists were more resistant to heat and cold than ordinary folk, so freezing deaths were rare. But that didn't necessarily support Seolhwa's story.
"Maybe they died some other way and the bodies froze afterward. Just because someone cultivates Yin Chill Internal Art doesn't mean they can actually freeze people to death."
People who cultivated Yin Chill Internal Art were rare, but those with Blazing Yang Internal Art could occasionally be found.
And as far as Dang Mujin knew, no one had ever burned to death from someone using Blazing Yang Internal Art.
It was just an internal art overflowing with yang energy—tricky to defend against, and clashing swords built up yang in the body, causing intense heat, thirst, and rapid fatigue.
Dang Mujin assumed Yin Chill Internal Art worked much the same.
Seolhwa seemed to think likewise, as her confidence faded a bit from her voice.
"But if she took the Millennium Ice Crystal, it's not impossible..."
Hyeon-gong looked at Dang Mujin with some displeasure.
But finding no real flaw to point out, he couldn't interject.
Dang Mujin raised another dubious point.
"And I know Baek Hyang-a's physical condition. Her life was in peril from the yin energy of her Absolute Meridian Blockage, only forcibly suppressed with yang spirit medicines. You know what happens if she takes an extreme yin spirit medicine like the Millennium Ice Crystal in that state?"
"...Who knows."
"It's different from an ordinary martial artist taking spirit medicine. The suppressed yin from her Absolute Meridian Blockage would erupt again. No, worse—the massive yin from the spirit medicine would surge too, shredding her meridians to pieces. Nine out of ten? No. Ninety-nine out of a hundred would die."
Seolhwa's eyes sparkled as she listened to Dang Mujin.
"So one in a hundred survives? If she's lucky—"
"That's not why I said it. I put it at ninety-nine out of a hundred because someone might know a way around it. If you're banking on luck, all hundred die. It's not something a person can control."
Feeling the conviction in Dang Mujin's voice, Seolhwa looked dejected. Her hard-earned lead had gone up in smoke, it seemed.
But now, doubt began to bloom in Dang Mujin's mind instead.
What if, just maybe, Baek Hyang-a had found a way? If the immense yin from her Absolute Meridian Blockage combined with the Millennium Ice Crystal's vast yin? And she unleashed a yin-based martial art in that state?
Could she really freeze people to death with her arts?
A thought surfaced in Dang Mujin's mind.
There were tales of martial artists who luckily cured their Absolute Meridian Blockage and became masters.
Take the legendary grandmaster Oryong, who cured multiple women with Absolute Meridian Blockage via dual cultivation and became the world's greatest.
But Dang Mujin was more interested in the stories of the women Oryong had cured, not Oryong himself.
Among the women who suffered Absolute Meridian Blockage and were healed by Oryong, those who practiced martial arts achieved remarkable feats.
Even without Oryong's treatment, the rare few who cured their Absolute Meridian Blockage became extraordinary masters.
But those were ancient tales.
As far as Dang Mujin knew, in the current generation, only two people had cured their Absolute Meridian Blockage and cultivated martial arts.
One was Baek Hyang-a, and the other was Wang Jin-cheong, Hong Gyeon's disciple—the boy Dang Mujin had saved from near-death at Sima Family.
Dang Mujin asked Hong Gyeon,
"Hong Gyeon. How's Jin-cheong's progress lately?"
Hong Gyeon replied proudly.
"Immense. I guarantee even if you diligently trained a disciple from now, you couldn't catch up to him."
"Could I check his condition?"
"You'd have to ask Jin-cheong. But he sees you as his benefactor, so he'll agree. Wait a moment."
Soon after, Hong Gyeon returned with Wang Jin-cheong.
When Dang Mujin first met Wang Jin-cheong, he was a little kid. But time had passed, and Wang Jin-cheong had grown beyond recognition. His face was still boyish, but he was slightly taller than Hong Gyeon.
Wang Jin-cheong immediately bowed with clasped hands upon seeing Dang Mujin, showing proper respect. He was Hong Gyeon's disciple but also a guest of the Dang family head. Moreover, Dang Mujin was his lifesaver.
"Family Head Dang. You summoned me?"
"You used to call me 'brother' and follow me around, but now you're all formal. Just treat me casually."
"Yes. Anyway, what did you need...?"
"I'd like to check your physical condition and internal energy. Is that alright?"
Wang Jin-cheong nodded without hesitation.
The weather was fine, so Dang Mujin had him lie on the veranda and took his pulse.
And realized.
'This...'
As Dang Mujin's expression changed, people approached and subtly asked Wang Jin-cheong.
"Jin-cheong. Mind if I check too, just for a bit?"
"Yes."
Hyeon-gong, Hong Gyeon, even Three-Eyed Buddha and Jang Il-nam sent energy into Wang Jin-cheong's body. Seolhwa even lightly gripped his wrist.
Several people groping a grown man's body wasn't a pretty sight.
But that didn't matter. Everyone who checked Wang Jin-cheong's achievements grew grave.
Long after the treatment, Wang Jin-cheong's yang energy was gradually surging, suppressing the yin. But it wasn't severely imbalanced yet.
The imbalance wasn't the issue. It was the sheer amount of internal energy Wang Jin-cheong possessed.
No ordinary person could accumulate that much through cultivation.
'So this is what it means for someone with Absolute Meridian Blockage to survive and practice martial arts.'
Dang Mujin recalled something the Eccentric Physician had once said.
Plants with vast energy are spirit herbs, animals with vast energy are spirit beasts, and people with vast energy are called Absolute Meridian sufferers.
Three-Eyed Buddha's expression also turned serious.
Three-Eyed Buddha had reached the transcendent realm by endlessly refining Shaolin Temple's basic arts. The only advanced techniques he knew were a few forms glimpsed secretly.
Thus, he placed little stock in advanced arts or vast internal energy quantities.
His creed was that the essence of martial arts lay in relentless effort, bone-grinding training, and insights blooming from repetition.
Yet the volume of internal energy in Wang Jin-cheong's body was enough to slightly shake Three-Eyed Buddha's convictions.
Of course, vast internal energy didn't guarantee easy insights.
But with that much internal energy, could he stand against someone with higher insights? The thought arose.
Furthermore, what if someone with such vast internal energy also gained insight?
Dang Mujin asked Three-Eyed Buddha.
"Elder. If Wang Jin-cheong took an inner core from a spirit beast like the Sun Fire Carp, what would happen?"
"He'd die."
Dang Mujin agreed.
Dang Mujin added one more clue.
"What if, through some method, he survived without losing his internal energy?"
Three-Eyed Buddha pondered briefly before giving a vague yet simple answer.
"He'd become a monster."
*
Dang Mujin still believed there was no connection between the northern corpses and Baek Hyang-a. Linking martial artists' bodies to her required too many assumptions.
So what if there were no sword wounds on the martial artists' corpses? They could have been struck by fist-palm methods.
Many cultivated fist-palm methods. Or it could be someone skilled in heavy-hand arts like Crane Immortal or Thousand-Power Monk.
Of course, with the background of Baek Hyang-a learning North Sea Ice Palace arts and stealing the Millennium Ice Crystal, it was somewhat coincidental.
But Baek Hyang-a surviving the crystal and killing martial artists? The odds were too low.
Seolhwa's situation differed from Dang Mujin's.
She couldn't dismiss it as unlikely. She'd come to the central plains to eliminate Baek Hyang-a and recover the manual and crystal. She had to cling even to slim chances.
Hyeon-gong clearly leaned toward Seolhwa's side.
Dang Mujin observed their relationship with the eye of a relationship expert. There had been significant progress between Hyeon-gong and Seolhwa over the past winter.
Before, Hyeon-gong steadfastly showed affection toward Seolhwa, but that was it.
It remained the same now. Hyeon-gong consistently displayed his fondness for her.
But Seolhwa's attitude had changed. She went beyond accepting his affection, occasionally showing her own.
Smiling to herself while gazing at his back, or subtly offering her hand while walking at a proper distance.
Anyone could see Hyeon-gong and Seolhwa were lovers. Or perhaps more. They might be nearing a marital bond.
Hyeon-gong came to Dang Mujin.
"Dang Mujin."
"Yeah?"
"I'm going north with Seolhwa. Wanna come?"
Dang Mujin thought for a moment.
He hadn't been back long as Dang family head after wandering the central plains.
He didn't want to head north knowing it'd be a waste of time. His children were young and adorable, and
"...No."
"Alright."
Hyeon-gong wasn't greatly disappointed. Truth be told, he didn't think the northern corpses were Baek Hyang-a's trail either. He was just following because Seolhwa was going.
Nor was he afraid. Neither he nor Seolhwa were foolish or weak enough to fall to riffraff.
The north was vast, possibly harboring formidable masters, but unlike most martial artists, Hyeon-gong didn't stir trouble recklessly. The odds of hostility upon encounter were low.
Dang Mujin asked Hyeon-gong,
"Leaving today?"
Hyeon-gong shook his head.
"No. We'll head out tomorrow or so."
"Yeah?"
"It'll take time to go and come back. Can you at least give us some travel funds?"
Dang Mujin let out a hollow laugh. The funds were the real point, it seemed.
"Sure. I'll prepare a money pouch tomorrow morning, so come by before you leave."
"Got it."
*
That night, Dang Mujin held Dan Seol-yeong in his arms as he tried to sleep.
Dan Seol-yeong was already asleep, breathing in steady, soft rhythms.
Dang Mujin's body felt languid all over. Sleepiness washed over him.
But just before drifting off, Three-Eyed Buddha's words echoed in his ears.
'He'd become a monster.'
In his half-sleep, Dang Mujin thought.
What makes a monster a monster? It doesn't exist, so it's a monster.
Things that truly exist always have names.
With that, Dang Mujin slowly fell asleep and dreamed.
A familiar face appeared. It was the day Qingcheng Sect's transcendent master Wi Hwan visited the Dang family head.
In the dream, Dang Mujin asked,
"What brings you here?"
"I urgently need your help. Would you come north with me? We must find the missing Yu Jin-gwang."
A vivid dream. But Dang Mujin knew it was a dream and knew Wi Hwan's future.
Wi Hwan would head north with Hong Gyeon, search for Yu Jin-gwang, and die.
Dream Dang Mujin and Wi Hwan continued a conversation much like that past day.
"I'll go with you."
In hindsight, he'd said the same that day.
Waaah—but this time too, Dang Yeong's cry rang out. Wi Hwan pondered briefly before replying.
"No, pretend you didn't hear. Stay by your family's side."
The current Dang Mujin differed from the past one. He knew the future and was far stronger then. He was confident he could ensure Wi Hwan's safe return if he went.
But before Dang Mujin could grab him, Wi Hwan vanished like smoke.
Hong Gyeon grinned as he departed north with Wi Hwan.
As expected, Hong Gyeon returned alone.
Dang Mujin recalled the day he hadn't followed Wi Hwan, just as he remembered Hong Gyeon's solo return.
Dream Hong Gyeon didn't wait for Dang Mujin's question.
"Master Wi is dead."
"I see."
"You knew?"
"Yes."
Dang Mujin nodded. The past him hadn't known, but the current him did.
The dream ended there.
Huuu—Dang Mujin woke with a deep breath, sitting up.
Hyeon-gong and Seolhwa departing. Which of them would be this dream's Wi Hwan?
Who would end up as white bones buried under northern winds and snow?
He couldn't know. It could be Hyeon-gong as Wi Hwan, or Seolhwa.
Maybe no one dies. Or both could.
Thus, Dang Mujin carefully slipped from bed without waking Dan Seol-yeong.
He wiped his member with a cloth. Slowly, meticulously, without haste.
Finally, Dang Mujin prepared a money pouch and tucked it securely into his robe's inner pocket.