Chapter 552
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 552
Chapter Title: Huh? It's a Feeling
"Hah... hah..."
Her breath was catching in her throat.
It had been a long time since her entire body was drenched in sweat.
Her legs had gone numb, and her dantian throbbed with pain.
Yet she didn't slacken her lightness skill for even a moment.
Instead, Wi Su-yeon was squeezing out every last ounce of strength she had left in her nursing days, running even faster.
She had no choice.
Just ten zhang ahead of her, matching her pace, was the Plum Blossom Sword Sage.
Clearly, Wi Su-yeon was a burden to him right now.
If he were alone, he could reach the Drifting Cloud Martial Hall much faster.
But he was slowing down to match her, so she couldn't whine about it here.
All she could do was grit her teeth, endure, and push herself even harder.
Anyone else might have given up and told the Sword Sage to go on ahead.
But not Wi Su-yeon.
Unlike her appearance, she was tenacious to a fault.
She had to do everything she could, even if it meant crashing through her limits and breaking them.
That's why she was pushing through the throbbing pain in her dantian right now.
There was no time to waste now that the Drifting Cloud Martial Hall was in crisis.
If that crisis led to the loss of the Drifting Cloud Sword Method they held, it would be a regret lasting a thousand years.
For both the Plum Blossom Sword Sage and Wi Su-yeon.
"Are you alright?"
As expected, his calm voice asked the question, showing that this forced march was no burden to him.
"...Yes......"
A slightly delayed response.
"Let's rest a bit."
It was the Plum Blossom Sword Sage's words, having guessed Wi Su-yeon's condition from that reply.
"I'm fine."
Wi Su-yeon quickly recovered her composure and answered.
It wasn't recovery.
She was just pretending to be recovered.
Because she couldn't afford to be a burden.
But the Plum Blossom Sword Sage stopped his steps.
"Just half a gak."
With that, he sat astride a nearby tree stump.
Wi Su-yeon had no choice but to rest as well.
Because the Sword Sage had stopped.
She sat on a suitable rock, catching her breath.
The thick cotton cloth covering her face was a significant hindrance to her breathing, but she couldn't remove it.
As she steadied her breathing to some extent, the Plum Blossom Sword Sage approached.
"Let me take a quick look."
He placed his palm on Wi Su-yeon's Mingmen acupoint and sent his qi flowing into her internals.
Soon, his face furrowed.
He had clearly grasped her internal condition.
And as she immediately assumed the cross-legged position and closed her eyes the moment he touched her Mingmen, he looked down at her anew with fresh surprise.
'Even in this state, she didn't show a hint of strain......'
Her dantian was a mess.
It was in a severely overtaxed state from relentlessly squeezing out her inner power.
If she kept going like this for even one more day, she'd suffer serious internal injuries.
'Heavens.'
The Plum Blossom Sword Sage had once pushed his own dantian this hard during training. That's why he could gauge the magnitude of pain Wi Su-yeon must be feeling now.
Among the countless Huashan disciples he'd seen over the years, none had endured like Wi Su-yeon.
They had all collapsed, complaining of the pain long before reaching this point.
Even he himself, Ryu Hwi, had found it excruciating.
Considering her condition, he needed to slow down.
But the news from Kaifeng made that impossible.
Leaving her behind and going on alone felt wrong, given how stubbornly she was following him.
So he made a decision.
'This must be fate as well.'
Ryu Hwi withdrew his hand from her Mingmen and pulled a small dan pill wrapped in paper from his bosom.
"Take this."
Wi Su-yeon opened her eyes at the Plum Blossom Sword Sage's words and took what he offered.
"What is this?"
"It's something meant for you. Eat it quickly, circulate your qi for about one gak, and then we'll set off again."
Since they had to hurry, Wi Su-yeon swallowed her curiosity and put the pill in her mouth.
It melted upon contact with saliva and slid down her throat.
She immediately entered meditative qi circulation, but felt no particular change.
One gak later.
As promised, the Plum Blossom Sword Sage unleashed his lightness skill and raced toward Sangnam.
Wi Su-yeon followed suit, deploying her lightness skill once more.
How long had they run?
Wi Su-yeon tilted her head in puzzlement.
'It doesn't hurt?'
No matter how much she'd rested and circulated her qi briefly, after running this far, pain should have returned to her dantian. But it was fine.
Wi Su-yeon's gaze fell on the back of the Plum Blossom Sword Sage running ahead.
'That pill......'
She didn't know what kind it was, but it was surely an elixir.
'Thank you, Martial Uncle.'
Wi Su-yeon sent her silent gratitude and ran even faster.
In this state, she felt she could run quicker than before.
Early dawn.
Sangnam's opium den.
It should have been filled with the acrid smoke of opium, but there was only the stale stench clinging to the walls—no smoke at all.
Only Gwan Po sat cross-legged in the center.
Today was the day.
The day Sa Hoon had gone to the Maehyang Sect for negotiations and brought back the agreed date.
Soon, he could smash the bastards who had left his sworn brother in that state.
Five peak experts would step forward, they'd said.
The Drifting Cloud Martial Hall might have a fair number of retainers, but he had no intention of even glancing at them.
His only thought was to capture and torture that wench who had done that to his brother.
"Huuuuh."
Gwan Po exhaled deeply.
He closed his eyes and focused inward on his body.
The seal his master had placed on his dantian to keep him alive.
It was time to release it.
To unleash his full power, he needed to undo that preliminary seal.
No one in the world knew this.
Not even his master, who had placed the seal, was alive anymore.
He could momentarily unleash the aura of a peak expert, but to fully utilize that power, he had to release the dantian seal.
The reason for the seal, despite this inconvenience, was that Gwan Po's dantian was abnormal.
Precisely, it was deteriorating.
The seal had been placed to temporarily halt that process.
On a time limit.
That phrase fit his dantian perfectly.
As the seal fully released, the aura emanating from Gwan Po's body changed.
The hazy look in his eyes returned to normal.
The seal that stopped his dantian's decay had one fatal flaw: pain.
Pain that lasted all day.
Such pain could drive a person mad.
That was why Gwan Po always lived in an opium haze with glazed eyes.
To forget that pain.
"Seven days left now."
That was the state of his dantian, confirmed as he released the seal.
In this state, after seven days, Gwan Po's dantian would reach the end of its life.
He would lose all his inner power and become an ordinary man.
"Damn Demonic Cult bastards......"
Recalling the root of the misfortune that had befallen him, his family, and his master, Gwan Po muttered softly.
Revenge was a pipe dream.
His body couldn't handle it.
His master's final wish, placing the seal in his disciple's body with his last spark of life, had been survival, not revenge.
For Gwan Po, who was in such dire straits that he couldn't survive without help, his master had placed the seal with a final glimmer of hope.
That's why he'd ended up under Seon Gyu, whom he'd received life-saving grace from, living as a third-rate black path rogue.
Debasing himself with opium.
But now, that Seon Gyu had returned in such a state.
"Huu."
He exhaled deeply once more.
Circulating qi through his entire body: three full circuits.
He was fully recovered now.
Back to his peak condition.
He stood, clenching and unclenching his fists.
He moved his arms and legs.
It felt awkward.
'Need to adjust a bit.'
Once he regained some sense of his current body, it would be about the promised time.
And so, Gwan Po swung his fists and kicks in the opium den.
The empty den had plenty of space for that.
Time passed.
About one gak before noon.
He was set to meet the Maehyang Sect people at the main gate of the Drifting Cloud Martial Hall at noon, so Gwan Po left the den.
A thick greatsword hung at his waist.
His beloved weapon, which he'd buried deep in the opium den.
At the corner of the alley in front of the den, Sa Hoon silently watched Gwan Po depart.
After he left, he let out a deep sigh.
"Huu. How did a guy like that end up tangled with our big brother......"
It was regrettable.
He didn't know how long it had been since he'd seen Gwan Po in such a normal state.
That version of Gwan Po didn't suit the black path at all.
He didn't know the circumstances.
He and Seon Gyu, who had grown up in the same village, had been wandering in search of a place to settle and build a base.
They'd stumbled upon that manor by chance.
It was drenched in blood.
They'd entered hoping to scavenge anything valuable.
The habits of vagrants like them were predictable, after all.
There, they found Gwan Po, barely alive amid the carnage.
He'd been in such a state he could hardly move.
The culprits must have thought even Gwan Po was dead and left.
Both Seon Gyu and Sa Hoon had been startled, thinking a corpse was moving.
At that moment, Gwan Po made a request.
He asked them to help with funerals for his family and master.
If he didn't get treatment in his current state, he'd die soon.
Please help, he pleaded.
Dying wasn't unjust, but leaving his family and master's bodies unclaimed was grievous.
If they helped, he'd repay the grace without fail.
Anyone could see he was from a noble house.
So Sa Hoon suggested waiting.
Kill the sole survivor, or if that scared them, wait until he died and take the manor's wealth.
A clan extermination had occurred, but plenty of assets seemed left.
He thought it was the obvious choice.
But then Seon Gyu made an uncharacteristic decision.
Sa Hoon had assumed Seon Gyu would follow his lead, but no.
He willingly helped Gwan Po.
The money for treating Gwan Po, and for the victims' funerals.
All came from the assets left in Gwan Po's manor.
After everything was done, twenty nyang of gold remained.
Gwan Po gladly gave it to Seon Gyu.
And vowed to repay the grace, taking Seon Gyu as his big brother and joining him.
Sa Hoon had spoken his piece, finding Gwan Po burdensome.
But Gwan Po treated even Sa Hoon as a little brother.
Despite his words, Sa Hoon had ultimately helped Seon Gyu treat Gwan Po and hold funerals for his family.
Much later, he'd quietly asked Seon Gyu.
Why had he made that choice then?
"Huh? It's a feeling. My gut told me to."
Seon Gyu's intuition, which occasionally hit the mark like a ghost, had kicked in that time.
Thanks to it, even with his small vessel, he'd become the head of a black path faction and kept someone like Gwan Po under him.
Which meant he had to stick with Gwan Po for the long haul.
Sa Hoon's own gut was telling him something now.
This time, Gwan Po shouldn't step forward.
He didn't know the details, but he knew Gwan Po's body wasn't normal.
Even as a peak expert, fully using that power came at great cost.
That's why he'd tried to stop him.
"Tch. That guy. He has no gut feeling in times like this......"
He blamed Seon Gyu's intuition unfairly.
That fool was probably blinded by lust right now, just waiting for Gwan Po to drag that wench back.
"Come to think of it......"
Reflecting suddenly, the last time Seon Gyu had said "it's a feeling" was that day.
The day he'd helped Gwan Po.
After that, Seon Gyu never mentioned his gut again.
Maybe that was the greatest—and final—stroke of luck in Seon Gyu's life.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!!!
A deafening roar of slicing air echoed as a gale whipped up.
At the center of the air-splitting sounds, at the forefront of the gale, was Ha Mu-baek.
He was unleashing his Radiant Light Thousand-Li Dash to its utmost, hurtling straight ahead.
Limited time.
A distance he had to cover.
It was a speed like a bolt of lightning, overcoming all of it.
"Oshi mal? Misi cho? Around there, and we'll arrive."
Ha Mu-baek muttered as he looked to the sky, gauging direction and distance while running.
He was racing at full speed to arrive on the very date Gwan Ha-kyeong had dared to think impossible.