Chapter 152 :

<Black Flame Dragon Amid the Chaos (2)>

Dang Hyeokjae had personally asked me about the Yueyang Branch Leader position.

He needed to resign right away and find someone to fill the post, so he’d asked if I knew anyone suitable.

Though I’d only met him briefly, I’d gotten the impression that Dang Hyeokjae found most everyday things bothersome.

Just look at how he’d applied to the Martial Alliance to meet me, then settled into the Yueyang Branch Leader position.

‘Are all geniuses this strange?’

Jegal Cheongi, the greatest genius I knew, was perfectly normal, so I couldn’t say they were all like that. Still, it was clear that every one of them had something a little unusual about them.

‘As expected, there’s no one like my little brother, Jegal Cheongi.’

In any case, Dang Hyeokjae had asked me for help, but I didn’t have anyone I could recommend.

There was no one from Taeul Sect staying at the Martial Alliance, and most of the people I knew either were hostile toward me or lacked the standing to become a branch leader.

Then I thought of Haomun.

Of course, Haomun wouldn’t have people planted inside the Martial Alliance. It was an organization for those who lived at the bottom of society, after all.

But there were a few people with close ties to Haomun.

Some had given Haomun leverage over them; others shared their interests.

Haeryeong said she would pick out someone among them who could put in a good word, and I agreed.

After all, if someone who could look after Haomun’s interests took the Yueyang Branch Leader position, Haomun’s influence in Yueyang would naturally grow.

We were about to wrap up and leave when Haeryeong stopped me again.

“How about this? We’ll give you two tenths of the profits from the new Haomun pleasure houses and inns in Yueyang.”

I tilted my head at her unexpected offer.

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Whether it’s the Yueyang Branch Leader position or the interests in Yueyang, they came about thanks to you, Young Master. We don’t leave our ‘guest’ in our debt.”

Before I could say anything, Haeryeong declared that was what she would do and left the guest room.

“Looks like I won’t have to worry about money for a while.”

Even if it was only two tenths, the profits from Haomun’s businesses in Yueyang would probably be far more than I could imagine.

“Now, you two.”

I picked up the Blood Jade Hand first, leaving the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb on the table.

“So we meet again.”

The Blood Jade Hand.

One of the Ten Great Forbidden Arts designated by the Martial Alliance.

It was named for the way both hands turned as red as rubies.

Despite its beautiful appearance, the martial art itself unleashed horrifying destructive power.

The Blood Jade Hand transformed the user’s internal energy into a strange kind of energy called Blood Jade Energy.

Once the user’s dantian had been transformed by Blood Jade Energy, their internal energy would accumulate on its own, even without cultivation.

When the user reached the Three Flowers Gather at the Crown stage, when the three dantians merged, this strange energy would rob them of their reason and turn them into a demonic practitioner who craved nothing but blood.

Two hundred years ago, the Blood Jade Demon Emperor killed ten thousand people in Shaanxi Province all by himself. A hundred and fifty years ago, the Blood-Handed Adept killed fifteen thousand in Jiangxi Province. After that, the Blood Jade Hand was designated one of the Martial Alliance’s forbidden arts and sealed away at Shaolin Temple.

“And then it showed up in the most unexpected place.”

During the Righteous-Demonic War.

Just as the Blood Demon Ghost Sword Unit of the Demonic Cult had gathered to reduce Shaolin to ashes, a Shaolin monk stood in their way.

The unit had already turned hundreds of monks into corpses. They thought the monk was laughable and charged at him.

That day, half of the infamous Blood Demon Ghost Sword Unit died at the monk’s hands.

The monk was Ilgak, the junior brother of Ilmyeong and my rival for the top spot among the disciples.

The martial art Ilgak had used back then was the sealed Blood Jade Hand.

Even in the middle of an emergency, the martial world had vehemently protested that Ilgak used the Blood Jade Hand.

But Shaolin remained unmoved despite the public condemnation.

“By the Buddha’s grace, the Blood Jade Hand will be purified and become a shield that protects righteousness.”

Many people waited for Ilgak to lose his reason so they could attack Shaolin, but even after reaching the supreme level, Ilgak never lost himself.

Instead, the Blood Jade Hand he had mastered proved highly effective at subduing demons and fighting demonic practitioners.

Many wondered how he could practice a demonic art without losing his reason, but Shaolin never revealed its secret. Ilgak made it safely to the Northern Sea.

“Haeryeong must have given this to me as a weapon.”

The Blood Jade Hand manual was like a trump card for pinning the accusation of practicing demonic arts on someone else.

But it was useless against those whose power was as formidable as the Nine Great Sects or the Hundred and Eight Peaks.

“And I won’t lose my reason from using the Blood Jade Hand, just like Ilgak.”

Without hesitation, I quickly read through the Blood Jade Hand manual.

Then I began circulating my internal energy according to the Blood Jade Energy formula.

My hands began to glow red, and the Blood Jade Hand manual in my grasp caught fire.

Whoosh.

Instead of the Blood Jade Hand’s usual crimson flames, a yellow fire, almost golden in color, flickered to life.

It was exactly the form of the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand, as Shaolin had renamed it.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? A demonic art like the Blood Jade Hand can have a demon-subduing effect.”

The secret lay in a higher form of power, like Vajra Power.

Wudang’s Taiji Power, the Three Pure Power of the Three Pure Supreme Sword, and Vajra Power made it possible to use the Blood Jade Hand without side effects.

I waved my hand once, and the room, which had been as bright as day, instantly went dark.

Even though my hand had burned hot enough to turn paper to ash, I felt no warmth when I touched it.

“So Shaolin had a reason to keep this secret, even if it meant being misunderstood.”

Who knew what the future held, but for now, I was probably the only person who could use the Blood Jade Hand without arousing suspicion.

“But it certainly consumes a lot of internal energy.”

I had to convert the energy in my dantian into Jade Purity Heavenly Star Power, then use that to activate the Blood Jade Hand.

Anyone without an enormous reserve of internal energy could only dream of doing that.

I turned my gaze to the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb.

I had another chance here to make up for my lack of internal energy.

“Still, I can’t say this is a good thing.”

The Nine-Leaf Divine Herb was a spiritual medicine with an extraordinary amount of spiritual energy. Daoists sometimes called it the Nine Immortal Herb, giving each of its nine tendrils the name of a god.

The strange thing about the herb was that it had to be absorbed whole.

If you consumed its tendrils separately, its spiritual veins would break and the herb would lose its potency.

It was such a difficult spiritual herb that even seasoned physicians wouldn’t dare use it carelessly.

In short, you had to consume it all at once. But if you couldn’t suppress its energy, it was also a poisonous herb that could kill you.

That was why the martial artist who led Yuwol Gate had planned to offer it to Diancang as a bribe instead of consuming it himself.

“The records say not to eat it.”

The Murim Elixir Compendium said that the Solar Sword Emperor, who once blazed across the martial world, turned into a handful of blood after eating the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb.

Since the Solar Sword Emperor was said to have possessed four jiazi of internal energy, the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb might have been closer to poison than medicine.

I’d hoped to find a different answer, so I looked up the Life-and-Death Divine Physician’s Myriad Herb Records, too. This was what the Life-and-Death Divine Physician had written about the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb:

If you find the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb, put it in a brazier and use it for firewood.
It will make a fire that won’t go out for half a year.

How elegantly put.

In other words, don’t just shove whatever you find into your mouth.

I looked at the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb with a grimace.

How many people had I saved, and how many times had I been helped, thanks to the Life-and-Death Divine Physician?

“I should listen to the good doctor.”

My internal energy was just over three jiazi.

Considering that Yong Soa had reached three jiazi at my age, I had a slight lead.

If I absorbed the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb, I might even surpass Yong Soa’s current level of internal energy—not just the level she’d had at my age.

I should listen to the doctor, but …

After a moment’s thought, I made up my mind.

“ …I’m sorry, Doctor. I’ve fought too many demonic practitioners in the past. Maybe I’ve lost a few screws.”

With an apologetic thought for the Life-and-Death Divine Physician, I picked up the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb.

I’d thought of a way to handle it.

If eating it was too dangerous, I could absorb it instead. After all, I’d mastered the Great Energy-Absorbing Art, one of the Four Great Evil Arts among the Ten Great Forbidden Arts designated by the Martial Alliance.

“With the Azure Dragon Ring, I can stop it halfway through. I’m counting on you, sacred relic of the Demonic Cult.”

I reached out and activated the Azure Dragon Ring.

A blue-green light shone around my wrist, and the pattern of a dragon appeared.

Then the Azure Dragon Ring sensed the energy in the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb and began to draw out its spiritual power.

I kept the speed slow, ready to throw the herb away at any moment.

But—

“Uh-oh.”

Against my will, the Azure Dragon Ring began pulling in the spiritual power like it had found some delicious prey.

At the same time, the withered Nine-Leaf Divine Herb began to regain its vitality.

It was an incredible sight, like a dead tree coming back to life. But I had no time to be amazed. True energy was already filling my dantian to the brim, and I could barely think.

‘Oh, hell.’

No matter how many times I circulated my energy through the small or great circuits, the flow of true energy showed no sign of slowing.

It was like trying to cram all of Dongting Lake into a waterskin with a fixed capacity. There was no way I could handle this much.

‘I have to pull it away.’

But for some reason, my entire body had gone rigid.

Summoning every ounce of willpower I had, I forced my fingers open.

Crack, crack.

When I finally pried open my fingers, stiff as branches, I was horrified all over again.

‘What the hell is this?’

The Nine-Leaf Divine Herb began to rise into the air on its own.

And it kept pouring spiritual power into me.

This was driving me insane.

“Damn it!”

My dantian was filled with true energy and felt ready to burst. My meridians began swelling from the excess energy.

My hands and feet grew grotesquely thick, and veins bulged beneath my skin.

‘I’m going to die …’

The spiritual power passing through the Azure Dragon Ring had been purified to some extent, but there was simply too much of it.

I’d tried to absorb the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb through the Azure Dragon Ring precisely to prevent this sort of thing, but the accursed elixir wouldn’t even let me do that.

‘If only someone here could perform the Two-Source True Energy technique, they could at least prevent the worst.’

But my body and muscles had stiffened from the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb’s spiritual power, and I couldn’t even make a sound.

Clunk.

“Senior Brother!”

Just then, Geumpyo burst in, his face red as a ripe fruit.

Thank goodness! My junior brother—

“ hic. You’re having a banquet. What are you doing all alone in here?”

‘This bastard’s drunk …’

Geumpyo had a wine bottle in one hand. With his eyes half shut, he looked around the room, spotted me, and his eyes flew open.

‘That’s right! Go get the others!’

I looked at Geumpyo desperately, and he seemed to understand. He nodded.

“You’re still devoting yourself to training at this hour. I’m sorry to disturb you, Senior Brother.”

N-no, that’s not it!

“This is truly a wondrous sight. Day after day, I can’t help but admire you, Senior Brother. I’ll make sure no one else comes in and disturbs you.”

No, that’s not what I mean!

I shouted with all my strength.

‘Get someone in here, you idiot!’

But Geumpyo misunderstood my desperate cry. He gave me a thumbs-up and left, closing the door behind him.

I was done for.

If this continued, I wouldn’t just suffer qi deviation. Like the Solar Sword Emperor, I’d turn into a handful of blood.

‘I’m going to die from eating an elixir? How humiliating.’

I didn’t want to be remembered forever as “the idiot who died after eating an elixir he was told not to eat,” so I desperately tried to think.

What I needed now was to get the true energy out of my body.

But I couldn’t move.

Then I had to expel the true energy without moving.

Fortunately, I’d mastered the Blood Jade Hand before eating the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb.

Whoom.

I converted the true energy into Jade Purity Heavenly Star Power, then summoned every bit of strength I had to perform the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand.

Golden flames bloomed from my right hand and began burning the true energy the Azure Dragon Ring had absorbed.

“Phew.”

As I used the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand at full power, I felt the true energy filling my body gradually draining away.

I’d thought it was too inefficient to use often, unlike the Mad Heaven Divine Palm.

But now, the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand was saving my life.

I only had a moment to feel relieved.

‘What the hell?’

Now the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb had started absorbing the heat energy of the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand.

The Azure Dragon Ring absorbed the power of the Nine-Leaf Divine Herb, which had itself absorbed the power of the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand.

The situation was so absurd that I could only laugh in disbelief.

“What in the world …”

And, somehow, the true energy coming through the Azure Dragon Ring was burning hot, as though it had retained the Sacred Fire Demon-Subduing Hand’s power.

My body already felt ready to explode from the accumulated true energy, and now unbearable heat began to surge through me as well.

‘So this is how the Solar Sword Emperor died.’

I’d learned the truth behind the Solar Sword Emperor’s death, a secret unknown to the world, but I wasn’t happy about it at all.

Now it was my turn to die that way.

Just as I hoped that at least my face would remain intact so they could hold a funeral, something began to change inside my body.

“Huh?”

Unbearable heat, hot enough to melt my entire body, rushed through my meridians and devoured the blocked energy.

The heat spread through my body and began to consume the impurities left in my meridians, hidden channels, and smaller vessels.

As the blocked energy and impure energy were cleared away, the true energy that flowed in afterward moved smoothly.

The true energy exceeded my body’s capacity and began seeping into my injured skin and muscles.

Crack, crack, crack.

The sound of bones grinding and muscles tearing rang out again and again, but I couldn’t make a sound.

No, I didn’t have time to focus on that. If the heat moving through my body went even slightly astray, I could become an idiot or have all my organs burned away.

‘Maybe I can survive!’

I focused all my attention on the heat, no matter how badly my body broke.

This called for a degree of precision in controlling my true energy unlike anything I’d needed when directing the Flying Dragon Claw.

Even after all the impurities in my governing and conception vessels had burned away, the heat did not subside. In the end, I guided it through my meridians and into even the smallest vessels.

Pain assaulted every tiny part of my body, places I normally couldn’t even feel.

It felt as though someone was pricking all eighty-four thousand of my pores with needles and searing every nerve with fire.

“Ugh …”

The pain was so intense that even a groan slipped out, though I hadn’t been able to cry out when I was trying with all my strength.

The sound of something inside me bursting rang through my head.

Before I could even tell where the sound came from, more bursts followed.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!

Then came the sound of the air bursting. The pain that had been assaulting each pore and every nerve vanished, and a refreshing sensation began to spread through me.

“Haa …”

A long sigh escaped my mouth, along with a cloud of white vapor.

At the same time, steam began pouring from the pores all over my body.

Hissssss.

A sound like water boiling in a pot rang out, and my body floated lightly into the air.

Even as I experienced this strange phenomenon, I was completely absorbed in the comfortable sensation.

The pressure that had been constricting my whole body, the heat that had been searing my nerves, and the pain pricking my pores had all disappeared.

The internal energy that had been raging through my meridians began to settle in my dantian. The impurities left behind after cleansing my body shot out in every direction through my newly opened pores.

Whoosh.

My internal energy spread like a gentle breeze, wrapped around me like a flower bud, then scattered and vanished.

“Ah … is this the Jade Bud Golden Flower stage?”

I had only recently reached the Five Dragons Sealing the Saint stage, but I’d skipped the Sun and Moon in Harmony stage and advanced all the way to the Jade Bud Golden Flower stage.

“ …”

I clenched and unclenched my fists.

I rolled my arms and lifted and lowered my legs a little.

My body felt light, as if I’d cast off an enormous weight.

I picked up my sword and tried using sword aura.

The sword aura I’d learned just a few days ago felt as familiar in my hand as an old habit.

What’s more, my dantian was full of an absurd four jiazi of internal energy.

I still had less than Bang Duchil, but I’d surpassed Yong Soa.

The amount of internal energy wasn’t an absolute measure of strength, but still—what did it matter that I’d beaten the monster Yong Soa in at least one thing?

“What a fortuitous encounter …”

A joyful feeling welled up from the depths of my heart.

“Divine Physician, it looks like I was right this time. Hahaha.”

I had a feeling that if the Life-and-Death Divine Physician saw me now, he’d frown and give me a thumbs-down. Still, the outcome was good, wasn’t it?

From now on, I planned to enjoy a lavish boat trip on Dongting Lake.

But before that, there was one person I had to deal with.

“You dare drink while your Senior Brother is devoting himself to training?”

I wasn’t saying this because I’d been in mortal danger and he’d walked right past without realizing it.

Given Geumpyo’s level, it was only natural that he couldn’t tell whether I was in danger or simply training.

But it was wrong to get drunk while your Senior Brother was working himself to the bone.

This absolutely wasn’t me holding a grudge.

As the eldest senior brother of the venerable Taeul Sect, I was merely concerned that my junior brothers follow the right path.

“You’re dead!”