Chapter 200
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: Sanwol
Ten days had passed.
The internal energy that began in his dantian swirled through his limbs and hundreds of veins.
Even through the thinnest meridians.
'So this is what it feels like?'
Dan Mok Un-roe felt ecstasy at this new sensation.
It was different from the solid, profound feel of the Three Talents Heart Method.
Whenever the energy of the Void Vast Roaming Heart Technique passed through, it felt like his blood vessels were growing even tougher.
"Hoo. Incredible. Such a majestic, grand flow."
Dan Mok Un-roe muttered as he rose from his cross-legged position.
His Void Vast Roaming Heart Technique was finally taking root. Enough that he could sense and marvel at the flow of his own energy.
The foundation he'd built with the Three Talents Heart Method had been a huge help.
The most basic, yet the most stable heart method.
It had great efficacy even as a base for learning other heart methods.
Ha Mu-baek, who had been silently watching, spoke up.
"Good. Now, let's move on to swordsmanship."
At those words, Dan Mok Un-roe's eyes filled with anticipation.
Finally, a new sword technique.
"It'll be tough."
Ha Mu-baek's words read his expectations perfectly.
And they were true.
Wasn't it obvious from the name of the sword technique?
Eighty-One Forms.
A sword technique made up of a whopping eighty-one forms.
It couldn't even be compared to the Three Talents Sword Method, which had only three or four forms at most.
"Yes!"
Dan Mok Un-roe replied with a voice full of determination.
"Ideally, you'd learn the Galaxy Illusion Sword Method first before moving on..."
Ha Mu-baek gazed steadily at Dan Mok Un-roe.
"Well, you can probably pull it off even jumping straight in."
Dan Mok Un-roe had exceptional talent.
Talent enough to grasp the connections between forms, the gaps between them.
And on top of that, his tenacity and effort.
He had a clear goal: to grow stronger.
Ha Mu-baek thought starting straight with the Eighty-One Forms Galaxy Illusion Sword Method would be fine.
He even had experience clashing it against the Ascending Sword Method of the Three Talents Sword Technique.
"Then, nine forms a day. I'll teach you over the next ten days."
A murderous schedule.
Could he even master one form a day properly?
For a supreme sword technique like the Eighty-One Forms Galaxy Illusion Sword Method, mastering even one form a day would earn praise as tremendous talent.
Nine forms a day in such a technique?
Yet Dan Mok Un-roe's eyes just sparkled brighter.
"It's done."
The three exhausted old men lit up with excitement in their eyes.
Dang Ji-yeon and Gong Son Bi-yeon were equally weary, their eyes gleaming.
Gong Son Bi-yeon had personally rushed over from Seon Yu Valley with the requested herbs.
The poisons from the Tang Clan had arrived yesterday.
Since then, the five of them had experimented endlessly with countless combinations without rest.
And the result.
Three antidotes.
Dang Ja-cheong and Gong Son Mu-oe's gazes turned to Wi Ji-gun.
It was only natural.
Among them, he was the only one who could test these on his own body and come out unscathed.
Eating the antidotes for the poisons they'd made and testing them himself.
It was recklessly foolish.
But without this, they couldn't verify the effects.
Wi Ji-gun swallowed the first antidote.
Being a powder, it dissolved quickly and slid down his throat.
He closed his eyes and observed his internals calmly.
Dang Ja-cheong and Gong Son Mu-oe watched him intently, eyes shining.
A step behind them.
Dang Ji-yeon and Gong Son Bi-yeon stared at him, tense and weary.
The antidote dissolved and absorbed, manifesting as an energy that immediately coursed through his meridians.
It was demonic energy.
To be precise, not an antidote but a poison.
It flowed through Wi Ji-gun's meridians.
Wi Ji-gun suppressed his internal energy as much as possible.
This would be taken by those without internal energy.
He had to observe its reaction without any internal energy.
About fifteen minutes later.
The innate true energy deep in Wi Ji-gun's body twitched in response.
It couldn't ignore the faint demonic energy swirling through his body.
The innate true energy surged instantly and devoured the demonic energy.
Wi Ji-gun opened his eyes and nodded.
"Well, the innate true energy reacted, at least."
Joy bloomed on the faces of Dang Ja-cheong, Gong Son Mu-oe, Dang Ji-yeon, and Gong Son Bi-yeon.
"Not yet."
But Dang Ja-cheong quickly regained his composure and spoke.
"Right. Now we need to check if the innate true energy reacts to the Soul Mixing Poison."
Gong Son Mu-oe chimed in.
Wi Ji-gun immediately ingested the Soul Mixing Poison.
A moment later, he shook his head.
He'd waited about seven or eight minutes, but there was no reaction.
By this point, anyone poisoned by the Soul Mixing Poison would have long turned into a corpse puppet.
Wi Ji-gun circulated his internal energy to burn away the Soul Mixing Poison.
He took the second antidote.
The result was the same.
The innate true energy reacted to the antidote but not to the Soul Mixing Poison.
"The last one."
The five of them stared tensely at the remaining antidote.
If this one failed too?
They'd have to start mixing again from scratch.
Truth be told, they hadn't expected an antidote to come so easily.
They had hopes since they'd made some, but they were prepared to remake them as many times as needed.
Wi Ji-gun swallowed the antidote.
Again, the innate true energy reacted.
But the reaction was a bit different. Maybe because it was the third one.
The innate true energy's response was sharper.
"Hmm."
Wi Ji-gun tilted his head and took the Soul Mixing Poison.
Then his eyes widened.
The moment the Soul Mixing Poison entered his body, the innate true energy surged and attacked it.
More precisely, it targeted the demonic energy within the Soul Mixing Poison. Once the demonic energy vanished, the Soul Mixing Poison dispersed into blood poison technique residue and regular poison, then faded away.
"It worked."
A short phrase.
But it carried a flood of emotions.
The four others exchanged looks.
Success.
Dang Ji-yeon and Gong Son Bi-yeon looked ready to cheer on the spot.
Especially Dang Ji-yeon.
She was the first among them to encounter the Soul Mixing Poison.
"Wait. Not yet."
Gong Son Mu-oe calmed the excited group.
"Someone else needs to test just this antidote."
Exactly.
Wi Ji-gun had taken three different antidotes in succession.
There could be interference between them.
At least he'd proven first that taking the antidote posed no major risk.
Now it was time to test only the effective one.
Gong Son Mu-oe didn't hesitate and swallowed it.
He suppressed his internal energy, and the innate true energy reacted.
When he took the Soul Mixing Poison.
Gong Son Mu-oe's eyes widened too.
"Success."
At his words, Dang Ji-yeon and Gong Son Bi-yeon finally burst into cheers.
"We did it!!"
"Wooow!!"
Smiles filled the faces of Dang Ja-cheong, Gong Son Mu-oe, and Wi Ji-gun as well.
They'd crossed the biggest hurdle.
"Now we need to check how long this antidote's effect lasts. You two, take it too."
At Dang Ja-cheong's words, Dang Ji-yeon and Gong Son Bi-yeon swallowed the antidote.
And Dang Ja-cheong did as well.
Now they'd have to ingest Soul Mixing Poison daily to verify the reaction.
"At least a month. If it holds that long, it'll be good."
Gong Son Mu-oe muttered.
Dang Ja-cheong nodded.
There was no pretext to give this antidote to ordinary people right away.
It would only see the light of day after the Blood Cult released the Soul Mixing Poison and corpse puppets appeared.
The initial victims were inevitable.
No one would step forward rashly, even if warned and urged to take it first.
But if taking the antidote after corpse puppets appeared granted even a month's resistance to the Soul Mixing Poison.
They could face the Blood Cult without worry about the poison. A massive gain.
Gae Se-aek felt suffocated.
His original place had already been stifling enough to make him want to bolt out.
Now he'd hidden even deeper.
He could barely breathe.
"The Blood Cult that once dominated the world, reduced to this."
Gae Se-aek grumbled in dissatisfaction.
He barely remembered those days of ruling the world.
Only the memories after their crushing defeat and retreat were vivid.
Until now, he'd had no interest in the Blood Cult's revival.
He just wanted to escape this damnable place.
But now he'd burrowed even deeper.
He was still indifferent to the revival, but something had changed.
"It's because I lack power."
Gae Se-aek's conclusion.
Without the power to overwhelm that monster Ha Mu-baek, the Great Blood Cult had fallen, forcing them into hiding.
"I need power."
For the first time, Gae Se-aek picked up a Blood Cult manual himself.
As the former leader's grandson, he could access all the rare manuals left behind.
He'd simply had no interest before.
The current situation of burrowing deeper underground ignited his thirst for power.
The first manual he picked up.
Reverse Heaven Blood Flow Destruction Blood Art.
The pinnacle blood art, one only Blood Cult leaders could learn.
Gae Se-aek read and practiced it indifferently.
After days of this.
His chest grew stuffy.
"In the end, it's the art of the defeated..."
His grandfather had practiced it too, but still lost to Ha Mu-baek.
The more he practiced, the more that creeping thought sapped his motivation.
Another desire took its place.
"I need something stronger."
His craving for strength remained.
The Reverse Heaven Blood Flow Destruction Blood Art simply couldn't satisfy it.
The moment desire dominated his body.
The energy in his dantian twitched and stirred.
The Reverse Heaven Blood Flow Destruction Blood Art.
It had begun circulating on its own, reacting to Gae Se-aek's desire.
Gae Se-aek wasn't even aware of it.
The fusion of desire and blood art.
That drove Gae Se-aek.
Thud. Thud.
Gae Se-aek left his room and walked.
Downward.
Downward.
Deeper into the underground he loathed so much.
Into the place filled only with thick darkness. Gae Se-aek walked on.
Reverse Heaven Blood Flow Temple World Great Law.
In a moment of life and death, Blood Cult Leader Gae Hong-cheon unleashed the great law that burned his life to erupt his final burst of power.
It was the hidden great law of the Reverse Heaven Blood Flow Destruction Blood Art.
His sword, instantly restored to full power, sent Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong's blade flying helplessly.
So Hwi-woong lay exposed under Gae Hong-cheon's blade momentum, defenseless.
Now it was his turn to face a life-or-death crisis.
Gritting his teeth, So Hwi-woong gathered all his internal energy into his hands.
Then.
Someone blocked So Hwi-woong's path.
Among the many suicide squads deployed to assassinate the Blood Cult Leader, the only one unscathed besides So Hwi-woong himself.
The sole member of So Hwi-woong's Royal Guard Corps still able to move: Hocheon Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek.
He too was utterly drained, but he had just enough energy left for one final ultimate technique.
Infinite Bright Wheel Eight Severing Sword Sea.
Its final essence.
He'd mastered it but never used it before.
For the first time, he unleashed the essence that melted the eight severings into a single sword.
Pouring all his remaining energy into it.
The ultimate technique from Ha Mu-baek's hand pierced Gae Hong-cheon's heart.
"Urk. Damn it. The Blood Demon's world was right before me... Heh heh. But you won't conquer Sanwol land. This land alone will remain the Blood Demon's forever..."
Those were Blood Cult Leader Gae Hong-cheon's last words.
"What was that?"
Ha Mu-baek muttered as he opened his eyes from a dream he hadn't had in ages.
The moment he'd slain Blood Cult Leader Gae Hong-cheon.
To think it would appear in his dreams.
A first.
He'd occasionally recalled those memories before, but never so vividly as this dream replaying the scene.
"Come to think of it, Pavilion Lord Pang survived back then too."
Pang Do-yul had been at the end of the suicide squad, somehow one of those who faced Gae Hong-cheon and lived.
Few had survived clashing with Gae Hong-cheon, and Pang Do-yul was one.
"An unsettling dream..."
Both the Blood Cult Leader and the Demonic Cult Leader.
They hadn't just died.
They'd left behind eerie curses like that before breathing their last.
Seeing that scene again was profoundly irritating.
"Sanwol, huh..."
Where the Blood Cult remnants were holed up.
He'd said it would remain the Blood Demon's land forever, but in truth, it lingered as demonic forest due to the great powers' greed.
'Is something happening there?'
Ha Mu-baek tilted his head at the inexplicable premonition.
He didn't believe in prophetic dreams.
But dreaming so suddenly of that time...
"Instructor!"
Then Dang Jin-san's voice rang out.
He'd finished the training assigned and come back.
Soaked in sweat, he was full of energy.
"Done already?"
"Yes!"
His eyes burned with zeal.
This was the first time the kid had been this enthusiastic.
His motivation was probably revenge for his sister.
'Must be tough...'
Ha Mu-baek didn't voice it.
The boy had resolved to train hard himself.