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Translator/Editor: Asakusa

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◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈

Chapter 14: Since It Has Come to This, I'll Steal the Elixir (1)

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At the inn, as Yi Mu-gwang polished off a bowl of thin noodles, he began indirectly praising Cheon Hwi for surviving.

“Learning how to manifest inner energy as inner qi while fighting for your life is something anyone can do, unless they are exceptionally slow.”

Slurp.

“Master, how can you say something like that while eating?”

“Why am I your master?”

Yi Mu-gwang suddenly drew a line between them.

“I thought you were?”

“Forming a master-disciple bond is not something to take so lightly. My favors and grudges become yours as well. Those who bear me a grudge will try to kill you too. Do you even know how many people I have crossed while living as a wanderer?”

“But people already think I am your disciple.”

“No one will believe a B-rank warrior has a B-rank disciple, so it is fine. Let us be precise while we are at it. I am only helping you because our paths happened to cross. Repay the favor someday. That will be enough. Or, if you find someone who seems decent, share what you have with them. That is how this barren jianghu becomes a slightly better place to live, is it not?”

“Are you saying I am someone who seems decent?!”

“...Enough with your nonsense. Shut up and sit cross-legged.”

Yi Mu-gwang was someone Cheon Hwi could never quite understand. At times, he was cold and merciless. At others, he seemed to possess a warm and tender heart.

In any case, Cheon Hwi sat cross-legged and focused inward.

Before long, he saw his dantian, which resembled a dark cavern.

So far, it was no different from usual.

‘Has it... grown a little?’

Before that dark cavern lay a small pool of water, like water gathered inside a cave.

Then Cheon Hwi realized. The tiny droplets he had accumulated little by little through the Well-Returning Moving Art at the boundary between life and death, drawn from the breaths he had struggled to exhale, had all remained there.

Which meant...

‘The inner energy I accumulated while dying is carrying over?’

It was astonishing enough to seem impossible. Yet Cheon Hwi realized there was no other way to explain the increase in his inner energy.

The view from which he observed his inner energy had become brighter and wider than before.

In other words, while he had not noticed, his inner energy had accumulated and repeatedly passed through the A Drop of Water Illuminates stage.

‘An unexpected gain.’

This went beyond simply honing his martial arts and external techniques through repeated deaths. His inner energy was being refined naturally as well.

As Cheon Hwi concentrated, Yi Mu-gwang's voice faintly reached his ears.

“There is nothing grand about an inner energy cultivation method.”

With his eyes closed, Cheon Hwi listened to his master's voice.

“Just by performing a Small Circulation through basic inner qi control, you can rid your body of lingering ailments and strengthen your bones and sinews. You will not be able to complete a full Small Circulation, but you should manage part of it. You must have done some of it without realizing while fighting. Especially so.”

Following Yi Mu-gwang's words, Cheon Hwi focused on his dantian.

“Take it slowly. If you force it, you will most likely suffer internal injuries. If impatience causes injury to your qi pathways, there will be no medicine for it.”

According to Yi Mu-gwang, even if one theoretically understood the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and the Twelve Primary Meridians, understanding them and opening the acupoints were entirely different matters.

In actual combat, inner qi moved not according to what the mind understood, but according to what the body remembered.

“Today, we will begin with the Small Circulation, lightly circulating inner qi along the Ren Vessel and Du Vessel.”

“Yes.”

Cheon Hwi waited for further instruction.

None came.

Unable to wait any longer, Cheon Hwi opened his eyes and asked. Yi Mu-gwang was sitting with his arms folded, watching him with an expression that seemed to ask why he was not concentrating.

“What do I do now?”

“What do you mean, what do you do? That is all. You must awaken to the rest with your own body.”

“...Did you not just say something about internal injuries?”

“I am certain you can do it. Your body has already done it. You simply have not recognized it.”

‘His teaching method is more slapdash than it looks.’

Cheon Hwi carefully gathered the energy lapping at the bottom of his dantian with his will.

Water had pooled at the bottom of a dark, narrow cavern. At first, even the sound of a single drop falling had seemed wondrous. Now, the water had spread to the size of his palm. A faint light rippled over its still surface.

Cheon Hwi sat before it with his legs crossed, gathering his focus.

With every breath, it seemed as if the water were bubbling and boiling.

A small amount of inner qi rose from it.

It was a peculiar sensation.

As he observed that energy rise like heat haze, he felt its yang qi being drawn somewhere and vanishing.

Like breath entering the body, naturally spreading out, then dispersing within him until he exhaled without knowing where it had gone.

Before he could grasp that energy, it scattered somewhere on his breath. It was difficult to tell where it had gone.

There was a place where the rising inner qi was drawn in and dispersed.

Cheon Hwi concentrated on the inner qi spreading with his breathing. He focused on the flowing energy to see where it traveled.

‘Is this the Du Vessel?’

Cheon Hwi vaguely recalled what Yi Mu-gwang had told him. Boiling inner qi carrying yang energy flowed along the Du Vessel.

The energy first traveled down his lower abdomen and reached the Huiyin Point. Cheon Hwi did not know the name of that acupoint, but the moment it arrived, he strangely felt something block it.

More precisely, it felt as if a fierce current had been stopped by something very small and could not pass through properly.

It felt like something was tightly clogged. Perhaps it was because he had never let his inner qi flow like this before.

Cheon Hwi fearlessly drew up a little more inner qi.

Then, the instant he recklessly drove it into the gap he could sense.

Boom!

‘Urgh!’

A dull impact and pain, as though someone had punched him in the lower abdomen, brought tears to Cheon Hwi's eyes.

The turbid energy blocking the acupoint burst free and flowed out mixed with his breath.

Seeing that, Yi Mu-gwang immediately realized what Cheon Hwi was doing, and a surprised look crossed his face.

‘He is braver than he looks.’

He had just warned Cheon Hwi about internal injuries, yet the boy had fearlessly opened an acupoint. The slight furrow between his brows suggested it might have hurt.

A dull bursting sound seemed to ring out.

The acupoints that had remained closed his whole life were like channels of hardened mud. Whenever energy struck them, they shuddered violently, and the solidified impurities were scraped away.

Yet Cheon Hwi did not so much as twitch a brow. This pain was not even worth comparing to the sensation of Gyu Pae's saber cutting through his waist or a heavy kick caving in his chest.

Crack!

Once a path opened, the scorching inner qi surged upward without restraint.

Energy climbed up the inside of Cheon Hwi's spine.

Jiaji. Dazhui. Yuzhen.

Cheon Hwi had no way of knowing the names of those acupoints, but each time he broke through and passed one, he felt a distinct sensation. More precisely, each blockage seemed to possess a different nature.

Some felt like wind sweeping across a field of dry mud. Others felt like brushing against the roots or trunk of a withered, cracked tree. Still others felt sticky, like passing through deep mud.

Whenever the energy passed through them, impurities were scraped out along with it.

Trickle.

A stream of black blood ran from Cheon Hwi's nose. It was old blood mixed with turbid energy, carrying a rotten stench.

Crack, crack!

Like misaligned joints snapping back into place, the inner qi rising along Cheon Hwi's spine continued to strike away, scrape down, and shatter the impurities.

Then the yang qi that had surged along his spine reached the Baihui Point at the crown of his head.

Upon reaching it, he sensed a thin membrane around Baihui.

The inner qi, once like vapor, was refined into liquid again upon touching that membrane. Like vapor becoming rainwater through clouds, the inner qi gathered and condensed before returning to the form of a single droplet.

It then fell along the Ren Vessel at the front of his chest like dew rolling down a leaf, returning once more to his lower dantian.

Plop.

A droplet fell before Cheon Hwi in the cavern he saw with closed eyes, spreading ripples through the water.

A circulation of inner qi where beginning and end became one.

It was the moment Cheon Hwi performed a complete Small Circulation for the first time.

Cheon Hwi opened his eyes in satisfaction.

Then he was greatly startled. Turbid energy was slowly rising from his skin and streaming from his nose and mouth, as though he were exhaling cigarette smoke.

As his acupoints opened, the old impurities clinging to his blood and bones had risen up and fled all at once.

Hoooo.

Black smoke scattered from his mouth with his exhaled breath.

A terrible stench, like the bottom of a sewer scraped clean, filled the room.

Yi Mu-gwang calmly opened the window, though even he was greatly surprised by Cheon Hwi. Whatever he did, he exceeded Yi Mu-gwang's expectations by one step.

‘To purify that much turbid energy during his first Small Circulation...’

When an ordinary martial artist opened their first Small Circulation and expelled old energy, they could only release a little turbid energy through their pores or ragged breaths.

Yi Mu-gwang had never seen anyone expel black turbid energy so explosively through all seven orifices through merely a Small Circulation rather than a Grand Circulation.

“...Well done.”

A low exclamation slipped from Yi Mu-gwang's lips.

Perhaps it was because he had been born with a fearless disposition, but the boy had no fear even during his first Small Circulation.

Most people would naturally be seized by fear. Yet this one had none of that. He was like someone with no tomorrow.

“You are faster than I expected.”

Unable to hide his surprise, Yi Mu-gwang stroked his beard. Cheon Hwi seemed to have broken the thin shell of a third-rate wanderer and gained a little of the bearing of a true martial artist, a second-rate one who possessed genuine inner energy.

“I think I have accomplished something!”

Cheon Hwi's eyes gleamed like a child's.

“Accomplished something? Do you think you have become second-rate just because you performed one Small Circulation?”

“Am I not?”

“Not even close, brat. You need to be able to use at least one martial art suited to your inner energy cultivation method before you can be called second-rate.”

“Tsk.”

“Learning martial arts that suit your inner energy cultivation method is important. Inner qi is supplied in the precise amount needed through the proper acupoints, so the cultivation method and martial arts pull and push each other, bringing out greater power than either could alone. This is not some profound martial art of the Nine Sects and One Gang. It is only third-rate martial arts, so there may not be much harmony with the cultivation method, but it is not as if there is none at all.”

Cheon Hwi let out a quiet chuckle. He finally felt like he had gained some of the bearing of a martial artist.

“Do not be pleased. You have only just set foot on the path. Whether you cut down Gyu Pae or not, you are still a novice when it comes to inner qi control.”

“Yes.”

“And you stink. Wash up.”

Only then did Cheon Hwi notice the foul odor rising from his body.

The turbid energy flowing from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes stained his collar and chin. It smelled like rotten blood mixed with mud.

Cheon Hwi laughed awkwardly.

“Ah. No. Since you're going to wash anyway.”

Yi Mu-gwang took an elixir from his robes as he spoke.

“Eat this first, then wash.”

The Small Shell Pill, an elixir Cheongmok Pharmacy had given as additional payment for Cheon Hwi's work this time.

What Cheon Hwi and Yi Mu-gwang had transported for Cheongmok Pharmacy was an elixir made from softshell turtles called the Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir.

It was not made from an ordinary softshell turtle. It was an elixir made by brewing the blood and shell of a hundred-year-old Black-Shell Softshell Turtle with over forty medicinal ingredients.

The Small Shell Pill was a lesser elixir, nearly an inferior version of the Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir. Its effect was not even one hundredth of the Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir's, but a mere third-rate martial artist would struggle to obtain it even with money.

“If I eat this, can I become stronger than you, Master?”

“Do you think that is possible?”

Yi Mu-gwang casually threw the small pouch to Cheon Hwi, as if he would grow greedy if he held it any longer.

Seeing how reluctant Yi Mu-gwang seemed to part with it, Cheon Hwi thought he could tell how precious it was and what a good person Yi Mu-gwang was.

No second-rate martial artist could help desiring any elixir.

“Do not worry and focus. I will stand guard for you.”

Lest even a chill disturb Cheon Hwi's concentration, Yi Mu-gwang did not open a single window despite the stench.

“Thank you, Master.”

Gulp.

Yi Mu-gwang stood guard over Cheon Hwi as he entered into qi circulation.

The drunken shouting of the martial artists on the inn's first floor echoed through the walls. The sounds of insects filled the empty spaces between them.

But none of those sounds reached Cheon Hwi's ears.

The pill that had fallen into the small cavern well was boiling, producing an immense cloud of vapor.

Cheon Hwi instinctively knew.

If this went wrong, the elixir might consume him.

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