Chapter 199
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: Focus
Early dawn.
Dan Mok Un-roe was already out on the training ground.
No one else had shown up yet.
The first light of dawn was just breaking, slowly pushing back the darkness.
Even so, Dan Mok Un-roe silently went through his warm-up stretches.
Slowly.
Thoroughly.
Not missing a single spot as he prepared for training.
"Yawn."
That's when Ha Mu-baek appeared, letting out a big yawn.
"Don't you ever sleep? You."
Despite Ha Mu-baek's scolding, Dan Mok Un-roe just smiled brightly.
His eyes were bloodshot.
Red from lack of sleep.
"Looks like you really didn't sleep a wink."
"I just couldn't fall asleep, no matter what."
Dan Mok Un-roe replied with an awkward expression.
It made sense.
He was finally going to learn his own family's martial art.
The lost ultimate technique of his clan, no less.
"Should I go step by step from the basics? Or just cram the whole thing into your head quick?"
"Even if it takes longer, I want to learn it properly from the principles first."
Dan Mok Un-roe answered without hesitation, as if it was a no-brainer.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Let's start with the heart method. I went through the manual yesterday—it's got three stages. We'll skip the beginner and intermediate ones."
At that explanation, Dan Mok Un-roe worked to calm his pounding heart.
He knew exactly which heart method the instructor was talking about.
Yesterday.
The manual he'd read over and over, determined to learn somehow.
It had to be that one.
'So that really was the strongest technique...'
Dan Mok Un-roe wondered if his greed had been too much.
There had been beginner and intermediate heart methods, but he'd chosen to skip them entirely.
"Well, at your level now, learning the first two would just be a waste of time."
Dan Mok Un-roe's eyes widened at Ha Mu-baek's words.
What did that mean?
The only heart methods he knew were barely up to the Three Talents Heart Method.
"You've got a ton of internal energy already, and your control is beyond intermediate level. Otherwise, how could you have handled the Taiji Beneficent Sword and Heavenly Nature Galaxy Sword Method?"
Ha Mu-baek paused midway through.
Come to think of it, the Dan Mok clan's sword techniques also had "galaxy" in the name.
Heavenly Nature and Illusion.
"Hmm. Similar."
"Pardon?"
Dan Mok Un-roe asked at Ha Mu-baek's mutter.
"Nothing."
Ha Mu-baek brushed it off casually.
Digging deeper would just reveal they were completely different sword arts.
Just a slight similarity.
Merely a coincidence that both sects' founders had drawn inspiration from the Milky Way in the night sky.
"Sit."
At Ha Mu-baek's command, Dan Mok Un-roe sat cross-legged.
They were starting with the heart method.
"Heart Decree of the Vast Empty Flames. An excellent internal energy heart method. It doesn't fall short compared to the secret arts of the Nine Great Sects, Five Great Clans, or Eight New Schools. It's that profound. So keep your wits about you and listen carefully."
Ha Mu-baek set up a barrier of energy around them and slowly explained the incantation in detail.
The manual no longer existed in the world.
It lived only in Ha Mu-baek's mind now.
Dan Mok Un-roe focused every ounce of his concentration, afraid to miss even a single word.
In the meantime, students began trickling into the training ground one by one.
Spotting the two, they quietly took positions nearby where they wouldn't disturb and started their own training.
They realized a transmission was underway from the fact that Ha Mu-baek's lips were moving, yet no sound came out.
Time passed like that.
Nearly two hours.
Ha Mu-baek had explained the entire manual in full.
"Got it?"
"...It's tough."
Dan Mok Un-roe grimaced as he replied.
It was only natural.
This was a supreme heart method.
Ha Mu-baek placed his palm on Dan Mok Un-roe's back.
"Focus."
Ha Mu-baek channeled his internal energy, guiding it along the circulation paths of the Heart Decree of the Vast Empty Flames.
"Remember this well. This is the basic circulation route."
He'd roughly guessed it from the detailed explanation of the incantation.
But feeling it move directly through his body made it crystal clear.
Parts that had been unclear while listening to the incantation clicked into place as the energy actually circulated inside him.
Ha Mu-baek withdrew his palm and stepped back.
Dan Mok Un-roe had already closed his eyes and entered a trance of circulation.
As Ha Mu-baek moved away from Dan Mok Un-roe toward his usual spot on the rock, the students' gazes converged on him at once.
"What was that? A new technique?"
Dang Jin-san approached and asked.
"Un-roe's family martial art."
The students nodded and backed off at the brief explanation.
Because it was a family art.
It wasn't proper etiquette in the martial world to pry into another sect's techniques.
"But... how come the instructor's the one teaching it?"
Dang Jin-san asked again, struck by sudden curiosity.
"There's a reason. What, want me to teach you some Tang Clan techniques too?"
Dang Jin-san vigorously shook his head at Ha Mu-baek's question.
He sensed something ominous in that expression.
"No need for you to owe you one. I'll teach him myself."
When had she arrived?
Dang Jin-san's eyes widened in shock at his sister's voice suddenly coming from behind.
To him, Dang Ji-yeon—whip coiled around her waist—looked like the grim reaper himself.
"S-Sis? What are you doing here?"
"Stretching a bit. Sitting around messing with poisons has made my body all stiff."
She'd been helping Dang Ja-cheong.
"Doesn't seem to be working out, huh."
Dang Jin-san muttered, well aware of his sister's habits, and she smiled faintly.
"Exactly. It's been a while—I'll spar with you."
Dang Jin-san pointed at himself with a dumbfounded look as she stared at him.
Dang Ji-yeon nodded.
"They say you've improved a lot. Gotta check for myself."
What the hell was this out of nowhere?
He backed away frantically, signaling his refusal loud and clear.
But it was too late.
The other students who'd overheard swarmed around them in a circle.
Everyone except Dan Mok Un-roe watched the siblings with keen interest.
Shhrrk.
The whip uncoiled from her waist into Dang Ji-yeon's hand.
Whoosh.
Ignoring Dang Jin-san's reactions, her assault began.
Spirit Snake Nine Whip.
The whip art Dang Chu had used before.
But in her hands, the Spirit Snake Nine Whip was on another level entirely from Dang Chu's.
Dang Ji-yeon was renowned for her poisons, but her martial prowess was no slouch either.
"Wh-What the hell!"
Dang Jin-san swiftly dodged out of the whip's attack range.
Her eyes lit up at the sight.
In the past, that first strike would have ended it.
The whip lashed out again.
Like a serpent slithering with eerie grace.
Dang Jin-san drew his sword to counter.
He held his own quite admirably.
Over a hundred exchanges flew by in a flash.
A faint smile played on Dang Ji-yeon's lips.
Hearing about it was one thing; seeing it firsthand was another.
Since arriving in Wuchang, she hadn't had a chance to gauge his skill due to the Blood Cult's Soul Confusion Poison.
She'd dropped by the training ground today on a whim to kill two birds with one stone, and her brother was exceeding expectations.
Dang Ji-yeon withdrew her whip.
She looked refreshed.
"Phew. Not bad at all. Thanks—I feel loosened up now."
Her face beamed with amusement.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Dang Jin-san could only gasp for breath.
He knew all the forms of Spirit Snake Nine Whip, so he'd lasted a hundred exchanges.
No—he could use it himself now.
That's why he'd blocked her Spirit Snake Nine Whip with the Three Talents Sword Method.
"D-Damn... witch..."
He grumbled in frustration.
Dang Jin-san's hand released his sword and gripped the whip at his waist.
After the Summer Combat Festival ended and he'd mastered the whip art freely, he'd kept training it.
That's why he always carried one coiled at his waist.
Shrrk.
His whip uncoiled.
And the Spirit Snake Nine Whip unfurled toward his smirking sister.
Moments later.
Dang Ji-yeon left the training ground.
What remained was Dang Jin-san, his clothes shredded to rags all over his body.
A miserable defeat.
The students turned away and returned to their own training.
"Your whip work's still pretty rough."
Ha Mu-baek's muttered critique stabbed like a dagger.
"Urk."
Dang Jin-san swallowed a groan.
"Want revenge?"
Ha Mu-baek asked.
Dang Jin-san turned to him.
"How about it? Shall I teach you some Tang Clan techniques?"
To Dang Jin-san's ears, it sounded like the temptation of a devil.
"Please do."
And he fell for it.
After that utter thrashing from his sister, resistance was futile.
"Making something resistant to Soul Confusion Poison isn't easy at all."
Dang Ja-cheong grimaced.
"It's not impossible."
Wi Ji-gun said.
After repeatedly examining the Soul Confusion Poison based on Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong's advice, they'd found a lead.
Demonic arts.
Traces of it in the Soul Confusion Poison led them straight to the clue.
"There's demonic energy mixed in like a foreign substance between the blood poison art and the toxin. Target that demonic energy, and you can easily sever the bond between the blood poison art and the toxin. Much simpler than your antidote."
Dang Ja-cheong nodded at Wi Ji-gun's words.
"Then we should target that demonic art."
Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong muttered.
He might get called "old man" by Ha Mu-baek, but here, he was the youngest by age.
"The question is how. And for ordinary folk without any martial arts."
That was the current problem.
Soul Confusion Poison was deadlier to civilians without internal energy than to martial artists.
Martial artists had latent periods, so they could carry antidotes and take them the moment they inhaled it.
Not so for civilians.
Infection turned them into walking corpses instantly.
The fact that only one person in Wuchang had become a walking corpse was because only that one had ingested a lethal dose that triggered the toxin.
Even he, a lowly thug from the unorthodox paths with a scrap of internal energy, had delayed the manifestation slightly.
"If we can make an energy that's the natural counter to demonic arts react to it, there might be a way..."
Gong Son Mu-oe muttered.
The demonic art in the Soul Confusion Poison was minuscule.
So even civilians without internal energy could counter it if they had the right energy working.
Their eyes met in midair as the thought struck them all.
They all knew of one such energy.
"...Innate True Energy."
The cry burst out simultaneously.
Just make innate true energy react to the specific demonic art.
Wi Ji-gun had already identified the demonic art in question.
"We can brew a poison that mimics the demonic energy's nature."
Dang Ja-cheong said.
"And mix in herbs that stimulate innate true energy. Otherwise, it'll just be another poison."
Normal innate true energy was the bane of demonic arts.
Demonic arts were heaven-defying forces that went against the natural order.
Innate true energy, the natural force everyone was born with, was pure heavenly power.
They were natural opposites.
With the lead in hand, progress accelerated.
The air buzzed with energy.
That's when Dang Ji-yeon returned.
"Wh-What's going on, Grandpa?"
The dark, heavy atmosphere from before she'd left was gone.
It was filled with vibrant, hopeful air.
"We found a lead. Time for you to get busy too."
Dang Ja-cheong's voice was bright.
"Let's see. Three-Eyed Heavenly Poison Extract, Demon View Blood Spirit Temple, Dark Blood Dew, Corrupt Flesh Water, Soul-Severing Demonic Poison. This should mimic the energy pretty well..."
Dang Ji-yeon's expression turned peculiar as she listened to her grandfather's mutterings.
They were all poisons and toxins that carried an aura similar to demonic energy.
"Some of these are hard to get here."
"We'll send a messenger pigeon to the main clan."
"Got it."
Dang Ji-yeon moved quickly.
"Guess I need to send one to my main house too. Some herbs aren't available here."
Gong Son Mu-oe moved as well.
"I'll rest a bit now."
He hadn't slept a wink pondering all night.
His eyes were bloodshot.
Even Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong had his limits.
And so they dispersed.
Leaving only Wi Ji-gun.
"Hm?"
His gaze turned toward the Fierce Dragon Corps' seventh squad's training ground.
He'd sensed a faint, familiar yet unfamiliar energy.
"Hmm. Quite the peculiar energy."
It was Dan Mok Un-roe's presence.
Seemed like the kid was learning a new internal energy heart method.
A profoundly deep energy.