0029 ———————————————-
Embroidered Uniform Guard (錦衣衛)
The fifth life has begun.
There were no screams this time.
“…”
I opened my eyes in the barn, as if to be natural, and stared blankly at the ceiling, and I hoped it would be unfamiliar to me, but this ceiling was so familiar that I could vomit. I was glad at this death because I had died in a moment, and there was throbbing pain in the whole body, but the pain was not surprisingly great.
I checked my Internal Energy(內功: Neigong) as usual.
The Cultivation Method of the Lightning Dragon One Qigong and the new Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong coexisted in the body, and the huge Internal Energy like the Great River was wriggling in the body. But I couldn’t be pleased this time, so I dropped onto the spot.
“…less than a year…”
When I left this barn, I used to make plans for a grand life, but I often died too suddenly. Of course, this time it was my fault that I had not overcome my curiosity.
I have been still worried about dying even though my Internal Energy has risen to a level not to be daunted; however, I still face death.
However, I have a strong spirit.
Though I have already died four times, but I’m not still going crazy. I can breathe now, and I don’t have to lament as long as I can move. Perhaps the spirit is also affected because the Internal Energy horrifically piled up constantly energizes the body.
I made a calm check on why I died this time. I was struck dead by a giant monster. The martial artists who had attacked me were not such a big threat, but the monster was really without a solution.
What the hell is that monster? What about the black-clothed men? The reason why I don’t fall into the despair of life, is because I am curious about the identity of the bizarre monsters. Frankly, it is too curious to have time to fall into despair.
Why was the Evil Cult rampant?
Why was there the great sorcerer controlling the fanatics?
Why did the black-clothed men protect such a great sorcerer?
There is only one possible answer.
It is the black-clothed men who are manipulating the Evil Cult. There is a big organization that can mobilize enough people to deal with Hyun-Chun Daoist.
They were secretly plotting something in the village, and they were caught by Hyun-Chun Daoist. He was so upset when he went into the mansion that he failed killing the great sorcerer, but the black-clothed people must have been embarrassed as well. If Hyun-Chun Daoist had been a little stronger and more composed, the great sorcerer, at the bottom of the line, would have been murdered.
When Hyun-Chun Daoist was wandering around the village and searching for a Peak-class expert, they brought the black-clothed people from somewhere to escort the great sorcerer. They would have been called from the beginning to prevent him who would come back, and otherwise it was impossible to prevent his sudden attack as
if they had waited. The three men who had dealt with him were a combination of the Peak-class and First-class.
I am not sure whether I could win the Peak-class expert to cast Sword Qi, and there is no doubt that the forces behind them are as strong as Nine Factions & One Association (九派一幇).
The forces who have raised such high-class martial artists would have wealth and honor to be quite well off in Murim, but why have they done the human sacrifices in the village? What on earth can they get from doing such a thing?
I sat there thinking for a long time and got in a conclusion.
‘Monster. Monster! They were going to summon the monster.’
A horrible monster with hundreds of eyes and tentacles!
It is by no means that a creature could be born as a normal conception in nature in this world. I don’t like the magical techniques of Left Dao Side Sect (左道方門), but there is a strong probability that they have been brought in from the other world.
The great sorcerer tried to summon the monster by using the evil technique for human offering, or to summon more than that. In reality, the power of the monster was great. Though Hyun-Chun Daoist who fought with the monster for a while, blowing Sword inflammation, he could not win or kill the monster. The physical capability of the monster was hardly in the realm of living things of this world. The physical ability to destroy a six-story building just by making a headbutt of its own was unusual. Perhaps the black-clothed men were trying to do something by using the power of the monster.
Now what?
I had run into it and died.
No, I just died.
Still, there is no help for curiosity.
Covered Snail (螺湮敎), the evil religion that became rampant after decades!
Why are they working with the black-clothed people at this point in time?
Or are the black-clothed men themselves the staff of Covered Snail?
For a moment the excitement boiled up and I stamped my feet. After a while, I sat back and thought. Sitting back on the wall, I felt comfortable and organized.
I mumbled, “No. No.”
I made a cool judgment. “It’s not a good one. Let’s give up.”
Of course, there is a way to destroy the conspiracy of black-clothed men and the great sorcerer. From now on, if I take only Millennium Snow Ginseng and run straight toward the village of the tragedy without taking any rest, time will remain. I can reach there at least a few days or a week faster than the time when Hyun-Chun Daoist had noticed the village’s disaster. In addition, the black-clothed people are more likely to have not yet produced the monster.
All I have to do is to persuade Hyun-Chun Daoist immediately to confirm the tragedy of the village and then kill the great sorcerer and flee away with him. This will successfully crush the plot of the black-clothed people.
But why am I to do?
If the plot of the black-clothed mes was crushed,
crushed, the justice of the world would be kept. The villagers who had been innocently sacrificed would be saved their lives. But I would be driven out by black-clothed men for the rest of my life, in exchange for crushing their plot.
It is terrible to think that I am going to be attacked by a group that could run a lot of First-class or Peak-class martial artists.
If I determined to die once, I would prevent the conspiracy and learn the secret martial arts of Wudang Faction from Hyun-Chun Daoist. But there is no guarantee to learn it from Hyun-Chun Daoist this time. If this is the case, the situation will be changed.
It was the tragedy that Hyun-Chun Daoist had found himself, and he was in need of the help for the high-class martial artist, so he permitted to teach me.
If I visit and say to Hyun-Chun Daoist, “I will help you solve the tragedy, but teach me the secret martial arts of Wudang Faction,” I will be beaten and kicked out by him. Perhaps one of my arms will be cut off.
However, it is a bad idea to apply the same time zone as before. In order to crush the plot of the black-clothed people, it is necessary to assassinate the great sorcerer first with a fast-paced attack. If I give up time, the black-clothed people will come to support in time.
The time of learning the martial arts of Wudang Faction from Hyun-Chun Daoist was not long enough. Because of the learning, I don’t want to lose him and become the enemy.
“Let’s pass it along. I’ll do some self-training this time.”
I thought about the causes of my continuing failure and death. Overall, curiosity and poor judgment were the main causes, but the most common cause was weakness.
What if I had reached the same level of Hyun-Chun Daoist, a leading man in this case? Even in that desperate situation, if I had secured the great sorcerer, I would have survived somehow.
My problem is that I have incomparable Internal Energy, but I cannot use it properly.
For several days, I had been given some guidance by Hyun-Chun Daoist in earnest, and the abilities of my martial arts had been improved. However, the degree of the Peak-class seems to be far away from me. Furthermore, even simple martial arts skills are clearly far below those of Jin So-Chung.
I need to be stronger.
I have to train myself to do that.
I bit my lip. “Death … I’ll just live by it from now on.”
The moment I decided to properly train my martial arts, I also changed my determination. Until now, I have just learned the required combat skills to survive, but from now on I will learn the strong martial arts no matter how many times I die.
This is a huge difference, because I can be strengthened by using the untried method of not fearing death.
I have decided not to care about the fact that I don’t know the contents of the Heavenly Dark Secret Book. I
Book. I have retrograded four times so far, and I used to the pain of death. I accepted that death itself could be liberated, even if I would not be reversed next time.
If not, I will just die.
I changed my mind and took my first route.
“It has been spinning around a lot.”
My eyes glinted with intent.
About a month after that.
I succeeded in getting the Heavenly Dark Secret Book and the Elixir. This time, I could arrive without much trouble, as I did not hunt for food during my journey to Huangshan, but stole money from ordinary people.
I took Lotus Position (跏趺坐: it is a cross-legged sitting position originating in meditative practices of ancient India, in which the feet are placed on the opposing thighs) in the unexplored area, after taking the Millennium Snow Ginseng.
Rumbling inside.
It was less painful than the last time.
No, it’s all about a bit pressure.
My body was used to accepting the enormous Qi, and I started spinning the Qi to break my entire small blood vessels.
One day, I consulted Hyun-Chun Daoist about my body condition, and told him that I had eaten Millennium Snow Ginseng, although I did not tell him I had eaten twice.
[Hyun-Chun Daoist, what would happen if I ate another Elixir?]
[Hmm, let’s see.]
Hyun-Chun Daoist had diagnosed me, feeling the pulse. And he told me.
[In your body, the gate of Life & Death (生死玄關) is already opened, and forty percent of all the small blood vessels is opened, then there is huge Internal Energy which is running continuously. If you take another Millennium Snow Ginseng again, there will be no abnormality.]
[Excuse me? I thought my body would just burst out.]
[Did you see that in martial-arts novels?]
Hyun-Chun Daoist smiled and said.
[You may not eat another Elixir such as Millennium Snow Ginseng, but even though you eat it, you will not be blown up by the Elixir! The Internal Energy accumulated inside the human body is not a material but a means of communicating with all things. Until you later reach the legendary Middle Dantian (中丹田), you will only accumulate Internal Energy.]
[If I eat three times, will the amount of Internal Energy be still increased?]
[Well, I guess so. But that doesn’t mean it builds up to three times. Every time you eat, the increase of Internal Energy will be dull. But even the slowdown is an evolution that is not understood by a general person. If you look straight up the top from the bottom of the mountain, don’t you see the difference in height between Chong Mountain and Tai Mountain?]
The metaphor was easy to understand. I nodded my head and kept it in mind.
Then Hyun-Chun Daoist burst into laughter.
[Ha ha ha! Are you going to eat another Millennium Snow Ginseng in your life? What a dream you have!]
But … I’m now taking another Millennium Snow Ginseng.
Crunch.
Crunch.
I was chewing on the root scraps to absorb all the energy of the Millennium Snow Ginseng. I didn’t want to waste a bit.
‘You know that? The Millennium Snow Ginseng tastes a little tastes a little carrot … It tastes ginseng when you chew it.’
Hyun-Chun Daoist thought I was in a delusion, but the question was a very important one for me. If my body does not burst out when I keep eating the Elixir, it is enough to eat it continuously.
Rumbling…
Once again, my Internal Energy rose and soared, and now all the veins near my heart were pierced, and the average person would have to train for more than a hundred years to penetrate them. There was a slight change that I had a much stronger Internal Energy than last time, because of Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong (玄天神功).
When I operated Qi through the Big Circulatory Cycle and pulled up my Internal Energy, the Lightning of Lightning Dragon One Qigong flashed. It was a manifestation of the extreme state of Lightning Dragon One Qigong.
However, depending on the principle of ‘Earth helps Metal (土生金)’, the two harmonious coexisting energies began to respond internally. I didn’t learn the real book of Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong (玄天神功), but as I learned Real Qi Guide Method (眞氣導引法), I could build up the foundation of Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong, and the huge amount of Internal Energy began to accumulate.
As the overwhelming force was moved by Real Qi Guide Method, almost similar accomplishments appeared without learning the main book of Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong which would allow the Internal Energy to pile up efficiently at a rapid pace.
Five Elements (五行) – Metal (金), Water (水), Wood (木), Fire (火), Earth (土): they compose all things in the universe, circulate, and produce each other.
This was probably unexpected even to Hyun-Chun Daoist who had passed on Real Qi Guide Method. I did not know that this effect would be achieved by the coexistence of the unspecified Internal Energy. It was doubtful that the two Cultivation Method would have such an additional effect in the wake of the win-win situation.
Thanks to Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong, I could stop emitting a lot of cerebral Lightning light while I was doing my training of Internal Energy, and instead, when I turned on the Big Circulatory Cycle, a very delicate light flowed out from the whole body. It’s because Mysterious Sky God’s Qigong would be in harmony with Lightning Dragon One Qigong.
I slowly rose from the seat when I finished absorbing the Elixir.
“Let’s go to Blue Dragon Martial Club.”
Yes.
I am going to Blue Dragon Martial Club.
And I will learn the martial arts again.
Whether Three-Absolute (三絶), Lee Kwang, one of the most popular experts in Guanzhong accepts or kills me, I don’t care about anymore.
How many times have I died so far?
Do I fear that now?
If he kills me, I will die.
If I am tortured, I will kill myself before he does it.
I am going to face up to it and learn all the martial arts of Blue Dragon Martial Club.
‘Let’s do it. This is the most important thing in the world!’
I don’t want to spin around anymore.
My feet were light as I went down Huangshan.