Chapter 198
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 198
Chapter Title: You've Grown
Three old men were huddled together, heads close.
Gong Son Mu-oe, Tang Ja-cheong, and Wi Ji-gun.
These three wore faces full of worry as they stared at the Soul-Mixing Poison right before their eyes.
They had made the antidote.
It wasn't impossible, though difficult.
But what they were trying to do now showed no progress, even with the three elders pooling their wisdom.
"An antidote that prevents poisoning by a specific toxin..."
Tang Ja-cheong murmured softly.
Such medicines did exist, of course. Their principle involved prior exposure to the poison, recovery from it, and building resistance that way.
They had tested if the same method worked on Soul-Mixing Poison, but it didn't.
Using ample amounts of the poison, they had deliberately poisoned themselves multiple times, yet the symptoms were always the same.
No resistance to Soul-Mixing Poison developed.
"It's probably due to the Blood Poison Art infused into the toxin."
Tang Ja-cheong shared his analysis.
His face showed clear frustration.
He had thought it possible, but it proved far more challenging than expected.
Gong Son Mu-oe and Wi Ji-gun nodded at his words.
They thought the same.
They too had endured Soul-Mixing Poison several times already.
It was a truly vicious poison.
To create such a toxin in this world.
The Blood Cult was a group that should not exist.
Human gluttony.
Amplifying it to the extreme, turning people into mindless jiangshi.
Wi Ji-gun, who had tested the poison on himself multiple times, frowned as he spoke.
"That Blood Poison Art thing. It's a type of blood art, but that's not all. There are impurities, or foreign elements, you might say. Some other internal energy mixed in subtly."
Dark expressions crossed Tang Ja-cheong and Gong Son Mu-oe's faces at Wi Ji-gun's words.
The three elders had grown comfortable enough to speak casually with one another.
They were of similar age, and sharing their troubles had brought them closer.
Mutual respect for each other's abilities played a part too.
"That's probably a demonic art."
At that moment, Gong Son Dan-gyeong appeared and spoke up.
"You've worked hard into the late night."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong's face was filled with fatigue as well.
He too had handled countless tasks before coming here.
The workload was enough to exhaust even him.
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul of the Dragon Training Pavilion, Yeon Baek-jin, and the Righteous Heaven Alliance's Wu Chang branch chief had long since collapsed.
Ki Yu-chan, who had assisted them with the mountain of duties, had witnessed heavens beyond heaven and was trembling in awe, nose bleeding profusely.
The three men's gazes turned to Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
"I'm Gong Son Dan-gyeong, chief strategist of the Righteous Heaven Alliance."
A belated self-introduction.
Tang Ja-cheong and Gong Son Mu-oe already knew him, so this was for Wi Ji-gun.
"Ah, that troublesome old geezer..."
Wi Ji-gun muttered something Ha Mu-baek had once said about him, drawing a wry smile from Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
"Seems I've thoroughly gotten under Ha Corps Leader's—er, Instructor Ha's—skin."
Everyone chuckled at that.
"It's been a while, Uncle."
Gong Son Mu-oe smiled faintly and nodded.
Uncle, but a distant relation.
They had split off before even Select Valley existed, so calling them relatives was ambiguous.
Just the same surname and generation marker.
By generational standing, Gong Son Mu-oe was Gong Son Dan-gyeong's uncle, hence the address.
"More importantly, a demonic art?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong answered Gong Son Mu-oe's question.
"Yes. From what Ha Corps Leader—no, Instructor Ha—told me, that Gwang Hoe-cheon was under the Demonic Cult's Grand Spell. So perhaps a demonic art was mixed into the Soul-Mixing Poison."
He had come to relay this information.
Ha Mu-baek hadn't fully briefed the three on the Demonic Cult's Grand Spell.
"Demonic art. Demonic art. Demonic art..."
Wi Ji-gun murmured softly.
Then he immediately inhaled some Soul-Mixing Poison and entered a meditative state.
To observe the poison's movements once more.
"What's with the serious face? Get up. Come on."
Ha Mu-baek used Void Grasping to pull Dan Mok Un-roe to his feet.
Dan Mok Un-roe simply stood there, bowing his head with desperate earnestness.
"I said it wouldn't be free, right?"
Dan Mok Un-roe nodded vigorously at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Any price is fine. Even if you demand everything in the secret vault."
The words burst from Dan Mok Un-roe instantly.
Ha Mu-baek gave him a sidelong glance.
"You think I'm some thug?"
Dan Mok Un-roe clamped his mouth shut in surprise.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled at the sight.
"Let's go. Let's see just how profound and amazing this martial art is."
At Ha Mu-baek's words, Dan Mok Un-roe took the lead.
Ha Mu-baek headed to the Ancestral Shrine with Dan Mok Un-roe.
Though it was late at night, beggars sat or lay in small groups here and there.
No, that was only natural.
This was the Open Faction beggars' base.
Thunderclap Beggar was absent.
He had set up near Dan Mok Un-roe's home.
Even after Gwang Hoe-cheon was eliminated.
Last time.
He had let Gwang Hoe-cheon escape amid the collapsing buildings, and the man had gone after Yeo Hwa, making it worse.
If not for Ha Mu-baek...
Thunderclap Beggar shuddered at the mere thought.
But had Thunderclap Beggar given some indication?
As soon as Dan Mok Un-roe appeared, the beggars brushed themselves off and filed out of the Ancestral Shrine.
"Looks like the elder made arrangements."
Dan Mok Un-roe looked stunned at the sudden turn of events.
"Let's go in."
At Ha Mu-baek's urging, Dan Mok Un-roe's gaze dropped to the altar base.
Ha Mu-baek's eyes followed.
"This is..."
Dan Mok Un-roe knew nothing, but Ha Mu-baek recognized it at once.
"Indeed... This spot must be where the key fits. So the key is that bracelet?"
Ha Mu-baek saw through it immediately.
Dan Mok Un-roe stared in bewilderment.
"How did you know?"
"The depressions in this floor aren't random. Galaxy Illusion Sword Method—one of your clan's sword arts. This hollow matches the start and end stance of its forms."
That's how Ha Mu-baek figured it out instantly.
He knew this was the Dan Mok Clan's secret vault and the forms of the Galaxy Illusion Sword Method.
'Gwang Hoe-cheon would've known right away if he came here.'
He hadn't properly deployed the Galaxy Illusion Sword Method in their fight.
But as the Dan Mok Clan's once-in-a-generation genius, he surely knew it.
Dan Mok Un-roe inserted the key into place, and the door opened.
Thus, Dan Mok Un-roe and Ha Mu-baek reached the innermost stone chamber of the secret vault.
Ha Mu-baek strode forward and picked up two manuals.
He could tell at a glance.
These were the manuals that had plunged Dan Mok Un-roe into despair.
No, any manual here would've been incomprehensible to him.
Just one year into martial arts basics.
A novice who had never learned from a manual.
It was only natural he couldn't.
Ha Mu-baek first examined the Eighty-One Forms Galaxy Illusion Sword Method.
The Dan Mok Clan's supreme sword art.
Even Ha Mu-baek hadn't seen this in the last war.
What he knew was just the Galaxy Illusion Sword Method.
The Galaxy Illusion Sword Method consisted of nine forms total.
Ha Mu-baek nodded as he carefully read through the manual.
Just reading it painted the sword art vividly in his mind.
"Hoo..."
Ha Mu-baek let out a low exclamation, immersed in the sword method.
Dan Mok Un-roe simply watched tensely.
How much time passed?
Ha Mu-baek set the manual down.
He had scanned it in an instant.
Next, he picked up the Void Vast Heart Technique.
The Dan Mok Clan's known internal art was the Vast Clear Heart Method.
The Void Vast Heart Technique was new even to Ha Mu-baek.
His hands slowed as he turned the pages.
Occasionally, he tilted his head.
"Hmm."
A thoughtful hum.
Dan Mok Un-roe's tension peaked.
Ha Mu-baek looked perplexed.
What if even the instructor couldn't do it?
An hour passed like that.
Ha Mu-baek closed the Void Vast Heart Technique manual.
"W-What do you think?"
Dan Mok Un-roe asked in a voice thick with anxiety.
"Eh, nothing much. Don't worry. Let's head out. And this manual..."
Ha Mu-baek gazed steadily at the Void Vast Heart Technique.
"I said it wouldn't be free, right?"
"Yes."
Dan Mok Un-roe answered curtly.
"Then this one."
Ha Mu-baek picked up the Void Vast Heart Technique as he spoke.
"Understood."
Dan Mok Un-roe replied without hesitation.
Hadn't he discussed it with his mother?
Saving his sister Hye-a's life alone made offering everything in the vault worthwhile.
And now, the instructor would teach him the clan martial arts on top.
No matter how precious, it wasn't a loss.
Ha Mu-baek smiled, pleased.
"You've grown."
With those words.
Whoosh!
The Three Flames True Fire Ha Mu-baek ignited consumed the Void Vast Heart Technique manual.
Dan Mok Un-roe flinched in shock at the sight.
How could he not?
He never imagined the manual would be burned.
Afterward, Ha Mu-baek examined the other manuals.
Glancing through the rest took mere moments.
Dan Mok Un-roe watched silently.
Assuming there was a reason.
"Training starts tomorrow. Let's go."
"Yes."
Dan Mok Un-roe answered shortly.
His composure restored before he knew it.
The two parted, one to his home, the other to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
Back at his dormitory in the Dragon Training Pavilion, Ha Mu-baek looked up at the night sky.
A huge full moon shone brightly overhead.
'Void Vast Heart Technique...'
Ha Mu-baek recalled the manual he had burned.
Its contents were already fully memorized.
He could memorize most manuals after one read.
Yet he had read this one five times over before committing it.
Then burned it.
The moment he first read the Void Vast Heart Technique manual, he knew intuitively.
Seok Mu-won's reason for casting the Grand Spell on Gwang Hoe-cheon.
He didn't know the sequence.
Whether he learned of the manual after the spell, or cast it knowing of it.
What mattered.
Seok Mu-won knew of that manual's existence and was likely after it.
'Complete, yet incomplete.'
A complete martial art as a single heart method.
The Void Vast Heart Technique.
True to the Dan Mok Clan's famed orthodox heart method, it was pure and majestic.
One couldn't fathom why "void" was in the name.
But amid that majesty lurked a tremendous power.
An incomplete power.
Was such a thing possible?
He pondered briefly.
Thus, he checked all the other manuals too.
And reached a conclusion.
Void Vast Heart Technique.
This was the origin of the Dan Mok Clan's martial arts.
All others derived from it.
They created arts harnessing that vast power, then refined them by removing it bit by bit.
The Vast Clear Heart Method was such.
The Galaxy Illusion Sword Method was such.
All their martial arts were.
The origin and foundation: Void Vast Heart Technique.
The Dan Mok Clan's arts were made by stripping the essence from it.
Only the Void Vast Heart Technique retained that essence.
'The Eighty-One Forms Galaxy Illusion Sword Method was the sword art to maximize that essence.'
A sword method to wield that vast power fully: the Eighty-One Forms Galaxy Illusion Sword Method.
But since it lacked the power itself, he left that manual intact.
'A dangerous manual.'
Ha Mu-baek thought so, and the Void Vast Heart Technique held tremendous power.
'Seok Mu-won—no, the Demonic Cult bastards are after that manual probably because of me...'
Ha Mu-baek accurately guessed their intent.
He had to.
Just examining it revealed its might.
The Demonic Cult's Heavenly Demon Divine Art he had faced directly.
This surpassed even that.
Lost in such thoughts, Ha Mu-baek tilted his head.
'But this energy... it's not entirely unfamiliar.'
The thought struck him suddenly.
Different, yet similar.
To the profound subtleties of the Infinite Freedom Heart Method.