Chapter 336
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 336
Chapter Title: You Overpraise Me
Ha Mu-baek's journey back was peaceful.
He mounted his horse and let it plod along the main road, closing his eyes and sinking into meditation.
It wasn't a divine steed, but he'd acquired a fairly intelligent horse thanks to his efforts.
The horse followed the road on its own.
Whenever an obstacle appeared, or a fork in the path, or any situation where it couldn't proceed alone,
the horse would stop.
Then Ha Mu-baek would open his eyes, guide it past the hurdle, and close them again to delve back into meditation.
Within that inner world, he cultivated Radiance.
Training in wielding fire and ice energies.
Those were the two focuses.
He moved unhurriedly, matching the horse's leisurely pace.
At this rate, it would take well over half a month—nearly a full month—to reach Wu Chang.
That would place his arrival right as the break ended and the latter half of the term began.
Ha Mu-baek gauged the dates and, from some point on, quickened their pace.
He couldn't spend all his time on the road.
This came after he'd somewhat organized his grasp of Radiance.
'Roughly seventh stage, maybe?'
That was his self-assessment of his current attainment.
It had only been a few days since he'd obtained it.
Yet reaching the seventh stage.
It was an astonishing speed no ordinary martial artist would ever believe.
And so,
after traveling that way,
it took exactly half a month to return to Wu Chang.
"Hm?"
Upon entering Wu Chang, Ha Mu-baek looked toward the Dragon Training Pavilion.
A situation he sensed with his qi perception.
Some rather intriguing movements caught his attention.
He'd already felt the sparring unfolding at the pavilion by the time he neared Wu Chang.
'Taking on three squads at once, huh. Master's really into it.'
Ha Mu-baek had skipped it out of sheer laziness, honestly.
But his master was teaching with genuine sincerity.
Then he sensed it amid that.
A movement he never thought possible.
'Yeon Ha-min?'
Distinguishing the qi signature of the one who'd pulled it off, Ha Mu-baek nodded lightly.
If it was her,
and she'd used that ability,
then maybe it was possible.
His master wouldn't know about that ability, of course.
Even so, if Master went all out, it wouldn't matter.
But from what his qi sense picked up, that didn't seem to be the case.
Ha Mu-baek slowly urged his horse toward the Dragon Training Pavilion.
A smile deepened at the corner of Ha Seol-ran's lips as she repeated the training drills assigned by Instructor Ji-gun Wi.
It had lingered faintly for a while now.
Strange as it was to smile like that amid grueling training.
Ha Seol-ran had sensed her big brother's return through her qi perception.
She couldn't help but smile.
He'd been gone quite a while this time too.
Over twenty days, even.
"Hm? What's up?"
Nearby, Squad Seven was taking a break.
Dang Jin-san spotted it and asked.
He'd already been curious why she was smiling,
and now that smile grew even brighter.
Ha Seol-ran swung her sword down.
She glanced at Dang Jin-san as she did.
"Big Brother will be back soon."
Then she brought the sword down again.
At Ha Seol-ran's words, a grin spread across Dang Jin-san's face too.
Who knew the return of their instructor could feel this welcoming.
With him back, they'd finally bid farewell to that monstrous Ji instructor.
Now they could look forward to some normal training.
A horse ambling slowly toward the grand training grounds came into view.
And atop it, Ha Mu-baek's figure.
"Instructor!"
Dang Jin-san shot to his feet, shouting joyfully.
He was genuinely thrilled.
Ha Mu-baek glanced at Dang Jin-san, then shifted his gaze to Ha Seol-ran.
He exchanged smiles and greetings with his sister.
This time, he turned to Instructor Ji-gun Wi.
And bowed his head slightly.
Jigun Wi, gazing calmly at Ha Mu-baek, returned the slight bow.
Right now, he looked more like the younger instructor compared to Ha Mu-baek.
It was a gesture mindful of the cadets' eyes.
[Looks like you handled your business well.]
[Yes.]
Ha Mu-baek gave a short reply to Wi Ji-gun's transmission.
[I figured it'd involve a bloodbath. Instead, you gained a stroke of fortune.]
Even as he split his form into three to assault the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets, he sent a transmission to Ha Mu-baek.
[I didn't see that much blood.]
Indeed.
Only one had lost their life to Ha Mu-baek's hands.
Tak Yo-beom.
Ha Mu-baek had taken only his life.
He hadn't touched the others' vital forces.
Just rendered them combat-ineffective.
[That's not what I mean.]
Yet Wi Ji-gun's response upon his return was different.
[Finish up training first, then we'll talk.]
[Understood.]
Ha Mu-baek could tell just by watching his master now.
Master was fully committed to teaching the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets.
He moved with spirit, instructing them one by one.
He seemed far better at it than Ha Mu-baek himself.
'Must've been bored out of his mind without me knowing.'
He couldn't think otherwise.
In the end, Ha Mu-baek gave them a glance and left the training grounds again.
"Ah, ah, uh, oh, aah..."
Dang Jin-san's regret-filled sigh leaked out.
It meant they'd have to keep training with Instructor Ji at least for today.
"You came back alone."
As dusk settled.
After wrapping up training and reverting to his original form,
Wi Ji-gun appeared in fresh clothes, broom in hand—his first words.
"It's been ages since Seol-bing's return, after all."
Wi Ji-gun nodded at Ha Mu-baek's words.
Come to think of it, Ha Mu-baek's last return from Cheongran Island had been after seven years too, hadn't it?
Han Seol-bing's would be the same.
Especially since it stemmed from her clan's crisis.
After Ha Mu-baek resolved it, how many people would she need to reunite with?
Naturally, she'd take her time returning.
"Good deeds bring good rewards, as they say."
Wi Ji-gun smiled faintly at Ha Mu-baek as he spoke.
Sensing this was the talk he'd meant earlier, Ha Mu-baek listened quietly to his master.
"Calling it a stroke of fortune—your blood scent has faded significantly. Something clearly happened. Your qi has changed beyond recognition too. Now even I wonder if I could last a hundred exchanges against you."
"You overpraise me."
Ha Mu-baek bowed his head slightly.
As master and disciple, he knew.
How strong his master truly was.
He'd already confirmed in their last spar that he himself was stronger.
Yet to Ha Mu-baek, his master remained an insurmountable ancient tree-like existence.
It wasn't just about raw power.
His master embodied the pinnacle of Ha Mu-baek's lifelong aspirations.
No matter how strong he grew,
he doubted he'd ever feel he'd surpassed his master.
That was the kind of existence he was.
To Ha Mu-baek, his master was...
"I obtained Radiance."
Ha Mu-baek stated calmly.
Though the reality was far from calm.
"Radiance... so you've gained one of the primordial powers."
His master seemed to know a fair bit already.
Wi Ji-gun gazed steadily at his disciple.
"Just a bit more now. Erase the blood scent entirely, and it'll be done. Radiance must be what diluted your blood scent this much."
Ha Mu-baek's expression shifted slightly.
He'd thought absorbing the Dragon Training and Ice Crystal energies had lightened it.
Turns out it was Radiance's doing.
"I gained something else too."
Ha Mu-baek recounted the North Sea events emotionlessly, as if narrating someone else's tale.
Wi Ji-gun listened just as impassively, as though it concerned a stranger, while diligently sweeping.
"See? Good deeds yield good rewards."
When Ha Mu-baek finished,
Wi Ji-gun repeated the words he'd said upon first appearing with the broom.
"With you obtaining even Radiance, there's clearly a reason for it. You mustn't slack in your cultivation."
Ha Mu-baek replied with a solemn expression to his master's words.
"Yes. I'm always diligent in my training."
Indeed.
Even as he grew into a monster beyond monsters,
Ha Mu-baek never neglected his training.
Not just internal arts, but external ones too—he honed them steadily.
"There's an interesting kid."
Ha Mu-baek instantly knew who Wi Ji-gun meant.
He'd sensed the sparring situation through qi perception, after all.
"Future Sight. That's what she calls the ability."
"I see..."
No lengthy explanation needed.
Just naming the ability, and Wi Ji-gun nodded as if he understood completely.
"Long ago, I fought someone with a similar power exactly once. Never dreamed I'd encounter another."
"Ha-min, was it? That child's got heaven's luck. You've experienced that ability yourself, and now you're the one teaching her."
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly at his master's words.
"It's no easy power, so I told her not to use it for a while. Looks like she got quite a rise out of you, Master."
Wi Ji-gun let out a boyish chuckle unfitting his age.
"Hahaha. Can't blame her."
He'd dangled hope, then snatched it away right before her eyes.
"Staying at the Dragon Training Pavilion from now on?"
Ha Mu-baek caught the subtle regret in Wi Ji-gun's tone.
"That's the plan. But I'd like to ask if you could continue instructing the cadets."
"Why?"
"I need to refine Radiance a bit more."
Wi Ji-gun nodded.
He hadn't told Ha Mu-baek,
but he knew of the Primordial Six Bodies Art's existence.
Radiance, one of them.
Ha Mu-baek had obtained it not as a fragment, but whole.
Even with Infinity and Ruyi under his belt,
mastering Radiance wouldn't be simple.
"Understood."
Wi Ji-gun replied readily, as if glad to help.
The smile on his lips was one only Ha Mu-baek noticed.
Myo Gu-ung.
The name of the blind old man who'd lost his sight.
To poison.
Poison administered by his junior brother, no less.
With unseeing eyes, he'd fled desperately and barely made it back to his homeland in the southern wilds.
Since then, he'd lived for revenge.
Discovering it had given him hope for vengeance against his murderous junior brother and their sect.
Heaven's will aligned, and the timing was right.
Sixty years from now.
Even if that bastard died first by then,
the sect itself would serve as his target.
Myo Gu-ung's grudge wasn't aimed at one man—being cast out for not being a Central Plains native.
Three generations would ripen that hatred.
A long span, yet a mere instant to it.
From that point, Myo Gu-ung had holed up in a dense southern jungle.
A place he'd dubbed the Poison Sapling Grove.
There, he delved deeper into his sect's poison arts.
The environment was perfect.
He couldn't recall how he'd stumbled this far in.
Back then, survival was all that mattered—he'd shaken his pursuers desperately.
The place he'd arrived at.
Called a poison grove, yet teeming with spirit herbs and elixirs.
As he trained his poison arts, he consumed the elixirs too.
Growing stronger bit by bit.
Sixty years.
He had to prepare himself over that span too.
No matter how potent the poison, he needed a body that could endure it.
Immunity to myriad poisons?
Pathetic.
He needed to withstand poisons that pierced even such immunity.
To that end, he cultivated poison arts, ingested toxins, and took elixirs.
The poison art passed down from his master.
The one only the Valley Lord and Vice Lord could learn—his junior bastard hadn't stolen that.
The punk might be Valley Lord now, but he could never truly become one.
Not while Myo Gu-ung held the Valley Lord's Core Technique.
Ten Thousand Wastes Soul-Seizing Dark Poison Art.
Of course, an incomplete figment of imagination.
That's why the bastard had tried to kill him despite not obtaining the core technique.
Who could've known.
That beyond death's brink, in this place,
something existed to turn his imagined poison art into a real one.
Today too, Myo Gu-ung devoured green poison horned earth fungi.
The most potent toxin among the wild poisonous plants here.
Even formidable poisons or venomous insects dropped dead before its might.
"Hm. Still not enough."
Having stuffed the remaining mushrooms into his mouth, Myo Gu-ung shuffled onward.
He'd need to hunt some long-aged toxic beasts to eat.
Just a little longer now.
In the meantime, he had to absorb as much poison qi as possible to temper his body.