Chapter 22 –Fruitful After the Rain(5)
It’s true that I’ve been paying too much attention to Seolhwa lately. That’s why I explained everything to Sua without leaving anything out. Even the reason why I passed down the Spear-Sword Mind Technique to Seolhwa.
The Breathing technique, which is the source of mental cultivation techniques, originated from Zhuangzi’s phrase “expelling the old and taking in the new,” meaning to expel old energy and take in good energy.
However, just as a tree has one root but many branches, even within the same Orthodox Sect, there were differences in Mental cultivation technique depending on the affiliation or the underlying principles embodied in the techniques.
From that perspective, the Spear-Sword Mind Technique that the old man taught was different from the Orthodox Sect’ Mental cultivation techniques. The Orthodox Sect following Taoist and Buddhist lineages did not deviate much from the breathing technique Method.
In contrast, the Spear-Sword Mind Technique had the characteristic of not expelling impurities or toxic energy existing in the body, but rather using them as fuel to ignite an even hotter flame.
This was closer to an evil sect method that would become stronger by any means necessary. In fact, the Mental cultivation technique itself is closer to the Orthodox Sect than the evil sect, but it’s not like evil sects don’t have Mental cultivation techniques at all.
Because of this, it might seem inferior to the Murong family’s Mental cultivation technique that pursues swiftness or other orthodox martial clan Mental cultivation techniques. But the true value of the Spear-Sword Mind Technique was in purification.
[No matter how much you expel toxic energy and impurities through breathing, they will eventually accumulate again. Using them as fuel to make the flame stronger—that is the marvelous principle of Spear-Sword Mind Technique]
There is a limit to the toxic energy and impurities that can be expelled through breathing. However, the Spear-Sword Mind Technique burns all impurities and toxic energy in the body as fuel.
This had the advantage of greatly improving the quality of internal energy compared to the internal energy built up through Orthodox Sect Mental cultivation techniques. That’s probably why I was able to defeat Murong Gang, the head of the Murong family.
‘The difference in realm is absolute. Nevertheless, the reason I could win was because Murong Gang had lost his mind from being consumed by demonic energy, and also because the quality of my internal energy was very high.’
Perhaps because I’ve now reached the realm of a supreme master? I could see something like black smoke wriggling like a worm in Seolhwa’s dantian. Or rather, I could feel it.
At first, I wondered if passing down the Spear-Sword Mind Technique to Seolhwa was the right thing to do. However, the toxic energy settled in Seolhwa’s dantian was something that could not be ignored.
So after much deliberation, I chose to pass down the Spear-Sword Mind Technique to Seolhwa. After all, she had become my disciple, and toxic energy is of no benefit to a living person.
I believed that since the Spear-Sword Mind Technique uses toxic energy as fuel, even if it couldn’t completely purify the toxic energy settled in Seolhwa’s dantian, it could at least neutralize it to some extent.
[Ma, Master. Something feels strange.]
[What’s wrong? Is there a problem somewhere?]
[It doesn’t hurt anymore. My chest used to ache every time I breathed… now it feels so, so empty. Am I dying?]
The effect was beyond imagination. The drawback of the Spear-Sword Mind is that if there are no toxic energy or impurities to use as fuel, it builds internal energy much slower than even the slowest Orthodox Sect methods.
However, using the toxic energy in Seolhwa’s dantian as fuel to burn even hotter, the speed of building internal energy through the Mental cultivation technique was incredibly fast. And that’s not all.
I don’t know what kind of evil technique was used, but the toxic energy settled in Sua’s dantian keeps refilling after a day passes, and then it’s burned again through the Mental cultivation technique.
In other words, she was the perfect talent that completely offset the drawback of the Spear-Sword Mind Technique. After hearing my explanation, Sua’s eyes lit up like stars as she exclaimed in admiration.
“So Master, you knew from the beginning how to save Seolhwa!”
“… Yeah.”
Well, it’s not entirely wrong…
In truth, my realization that Seolhwa was an Ingo was recent. Even that was something I happened to notice by chance while teaching Seolhwa and checking her blood vessels. [TL/N: Has to do with a form of tempering]
Even that would have been impossible if I hadn’t reached the realm of supreme master through my last battle. But I didn’t want to ruin the mood by mentioning this fact.
So I could only awkwardly stiffen my expression and nod. Now that I had explained everything, I thought I could teach Seolhwa without much difficulty from now on.
“Umm, Master?”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know why, but it’s bright over there! And there’s smoke too!”
“…what?”
At least until I heard Seolhwa’s words from outside the door.
◇
Since he had already heard about the villains who were chasing Seolhwa, Mu-myung easily guessed that something bad had happened to the village and immediately moved.
Judging that it would be much more dangerous to be separated in a situation like this, Mu-myung made sure not to forget to bring Sua and Seolhwa with him.
Arriving in less than half a quarter hour with Sua and Seolhwa on his back, Mu-myung saw with his own eyes the flames brightly illuminating the darkness. It was not just torches.
“Bring them all out!!”
“No exceptions. Bring out the elderly and children too and tie them up.”
“…Master, it’s those people. The people who kept chasing me.”
After seeing the villains dressed in black with bamboo hats pressed down, Seolhwa hid behind Mu-myung with trembling hands out of fear. Thanks to that, there was no need to ask directly.
There were about twenty of them, and that’s just counting those gathered in the square. Fortunately, amidst the misfortune, although they had set fire to houses, there didn’t appear to be any casualties yet.
But judging that he couldn’t leave this situation alone, Mu-myung drew his sword without hesitation. Though he clearly had the advantage in terms of realm, sadly, the enemy had far greater numbers.
‘The only way to overcome numerical superiority is through an unexpected surprise attack.’
Cutting off even a moment’s hesitation, Mu-myung dove into their midst with the speed of a bird flying through the sky. An unexpectedly fast and swift sword strike against a completely unexpected surprise attack.
It was no different than a fish meeting water. It was only a brief moment of a few seconds, but with one surprise attack, Mu-myung beheaded more than seven men.
Even then, the remaining three were able to preserve their lives only because they were far away. If they had been together with the others, they would never have escaped the fate of being beheaded.
“Su, surprise attack!!!”
Was it due to the instinct to survive? One of the villains was barely able to shout by squeezing out every last bit of strength, and at this, the scattered warriors gathered in one place.
At this, Mu-myung’s expression twisted slightly, and tension began to form in his eyes. These were clearly not ordinary men. Each one was a properly trained elite warrior.
Moreover, judging by their extraordinary aura, he thought there might even be supreme masters like himself among them. If so, things would become quite complicated.
‘It’s not an entirely implausible assumption. Considering what happened at the Murong family before, and the cruelty of their methods, they are almost certainly warriors affiliated with the evil sect.’
The evil sect’s demonic arts could produce masters much faster than not only the Orthodox Sect’ martial arts but even the evil sects’ martial arts, which didn’t hesitate to use any means to become stronger.
It seems this setting is not well maintained recently, but anyway, for an ordinary person to reach the supreme realm with Orthodox Sect martial arts usually takes forty to fifty years.
In contrast, the evil sect’s demonic arts could reduce that time by more than half. The problem was just that it came with tremendous risks. However, the enemy was just as tense.
‘In such a brief moment, seven of the Black Wind Sect’s elite warriors were defeated.’
‘Even a master who has reached the first-class realm couldn’t perform such a one-sided massacre. That means… could it be?’
‘Nonsense! The supreme masters of both orthodox and evil sects have already identified all the suspects! He might be a first-class master who has set foot in the supreme realm, but he is absolutely not a supreme master!’
The Black Wind Sect warriors exchanged information through mental communication. Thanks to this, while they were caught in an indefinite standoff as they warily watched each other, one of them spoke up.
“This is a matter of life and death for our sect. It is not something the great warrior should meddle in.”
The old man standing before them with his sword drawn was undoubtedly the person the warriors were looking for, but seeing his extraordinary skills, they judged that this wouldn’t work and first sought to escape the situation.
“Sect, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“”You vicious scum of the evil sect are certainly glib with your tongues, as if they were oiled.””
“How did you…?!”
But the moment the word “evil sect” came out of the old man’s mouth, the warriors were shocked. The fact that the Black Wind Sect had joined hands with the evil sect was a secret unknown to anyone in the orthodox or evil sects.
Yet here, in a remote countryside with no connections, there was an old master who immediately recognized that the Black Wind Sect had colluded with the evil sect? At that moment, a thought flashed through the leader’s mind.
The evil sect was known by name to only a handful of people in the martial world. But by coincidence, an unidentified master who knew of the evil sect’s existence had taken in the poison that had escaped?
Could all of this really be just a coincidence? If it wasn’t a coincidence, then what? If all of this was a plot by that old man who had first understood their cause and tried to stop it?
He had thought something was strange from the moment the powerless poison had escaped the warriors’ eyes, and finally understanding everything, the leader spoke in a cold voice.
“Black Death Squad, form the battle formation.”
As soon as the leader’s words fell, more than ten warriors began to quickly form a battle formation without even questioning the order. At first, they had tried to avoid taking risks.
But their minds had changed.
Even at the cost of any sacrifice.
They would kill that unidentified old man to silence him.
