WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Asakusa

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◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈

Chapter 15: Since It Has Come to This, I'll Steal the Elixir (2)

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The roiling energy came both from Cheon Hwi's own inner energy and from the Small Shell Pill itself pouring out energy.

What mattered was that, unlike the internal energy he had accumulated through cultivation, this energy shook with a sharpness that seemed ready to pierce in every direction.

Had Cheon Hwi's internal energy been deeper, even a pill like this might have sunk down and been digested quietly. But his internal energy was nowhere near that level, and he was a beginner who had only just completed his first Small Circulation.

The Small Shell Pill's rampant energy was as sharp as needles stabbing in every direction.

‘Urgh...!’

It was the first time he had felt foreign qi invade his dantian and run wild. An ordinary martial artist might have been frightened and panicked, but Cheon Hwi did not so much as blink.

He forcibly drew up the small amount of pure inner qi that had barely pooled at the bottom of his dantian.

Cheon Hwi wielded his own energy like a whip, wrapping it around the rampaging Small Shell Pill energy as if binding it, and focused on circulating his qi.

As his inner qi traveled along the exact route of the Small Circulation he had performed just before, some of the blazing Small Shell Pill energy mixed into it and began flowing along the same path.

Unlike his own inner qi, the energy from the Small Shell Pill raged so violently through his acupoints that it felt as though it would leave wounds everywhere.

Yet as it gradually melted in and completed a full circuit, the moment it reached the Baihui Point, its fierce yang qi abated, transformed into yin qi, and began refining into clear dew.

At last, the energy raced down the Ren Vessel and returned to its destination, the lower dantian.

‘The force is completely different.’

Cheon Hwi was greatly startled. Before, only a drop or two had trickled down. Now, a stream of yin qi flowed into him.

When he had practiced the Well-Returning Moving Art in the past, one or two drops would occasionally fall into the bottom of his dantian.

But the instant it reached there.

Patter, patter...

Instead, the immense vital energy fully dissolved from the Small Shell Pill's spiritual qi filled the ceiling of the cavern. Then it began pouring down over the pool's surface as countless raindrops, falling with a pitter-patter.

After repeating the Small Circulation a couple of times, he could no longer feel the elixir's bubbling energy.

The downpour had been brief, but in terms of cultivation, it was an amount that might not have accumulated even after months spent doing nothing but circulating qi and regulating his breath.

Filled with a sense of fullness he had never known, Cheon Hwi let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

“Master...”

“What.”

“You said this was not even one hundredth of the elixir's true effect?”

“So I heard.”

Yi Mu-gwang was inwardly surprised as well. It was not some five-hundred-year-old spirit creature, merely an elixir made from a hundred-year-old softshell turtle, so he had not expected much. Yet for a third-rate wanderer, this overwhelming amount of internal energy was enough to call it a fortuitous encounter.

The changed bearing he sensed from Cheon Hwi was proof enough.

Cheon Hwi moistened his dry lips and swallowed. If that was true, just how potent was the real Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir?

The storm in his dantian died down, and complete calm settled over him.

Cheon Hwi slowly rose, roughly brushing away the dark, hardened sweat mixed with impurities that clung to his skin. When he clenched his fist, he could distinctly feel a heavy strength he had never known before flowing through his veins.

“This... is only one hundredth as potent, and it's an elixir made from scraps.”

At first, Cheon Hwi had naturally assumed the story about a hundred-year-old softshell turtle was a lie. But after taking it, he could not help thinking that it had to be an elixir made from a spirit creature.

If the scraps were this potent, how much energy did the true Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir contain?

Deep greed flickered in Cheon Hwi's murky eyes. It was the pure yearning for strength that no martial artist could refuse.

“Teacher.”

At Yi Mu-gwang's request, Cheon Hwi addressed him as Teacher instead of Master. Yi Mu-gwang silently listened.

“Now that I think about it, aren't those Cheongmok Pharmacy bastards truly shameless?”

“Shameless? Where did that come from?”

“Isn't it obvious? On the surface, they hired us to escort medicinal ingredients. In reality, they practically threw us into danger as human shields. They were using our lives as bait to secretly move their truly valuable elixir, weren't they?”

Cheon Hwi stepped closer, his eyes gleaming.

“I hear the way of the martial world is to return what one receives. They weighed our lives so casually, so wouldn't it be only right for us to swipe their most valuable possession?”

The corner of Yi Mu-gwang's mouth curled at Cheon Hwi's brazen proposal.

“Heh. Listening to you, one would think those Cheongmok Pharmacy men were the greatest villains under heaven.”

“But aren't they villains? I heard that when an epidemic broke out, they bought up all the medicinal ingredients and squeezed people until they bled tears. Aren't they beasts who value money over human lives?”

Cheon Hwi even threw in everything he had heard from the wanderers taking on the mission with him.

At that shameless attitude, Yi Mu-gwang gave an incredulous laugh.

“Well, look at you. They don't just seem wicked because you suddenly want their elixir, do they?”

Regardless, Cheon Hwi calmly continued.

“Besides, doesn't the fact that it's headed far away instead of toward the Central Plains make it suspicious? Huh? They'll sell to anyone for money, Black Path or otherwise, so they're using wanderers like us to...”

“Tch. Boy, don't try so hard to know everything. Even if that's true, what would change?”

Though Yi Mu-gwang had struck the mark, Cheon Hwi did not blink. Instead, he nodded and answered confidently, as though they could therefore reach one conclusion.

“Let's rob them.”

“...Now you're truly going off the rails, aren't you?”

Yi Mu-gwang sighed as he looked down at his fearless disciple.

“I heard not all of that elixir has been shipped out yet.”

“Because they're villains, you think it's fine to rob them?”

Cheon Hwi ran a hand over the worn hilt at his waist and snorted.

“It isn't as though we're young masters from orthodox sects, quietly cultivating martial arts while keeping up appearances. People like us have our own way of getting stronger. Call it righteous banditry. Wouldn't it be a hundred times better than letting it fall into the hands of men who traffic people or who, like the ones you saw last time, dry children's hearts and sell them?”

Yi Mu-gwang clicked his tongue. Such audacity should not have come from the mouth of a third-rate greenhorn who had only just completed a Small Circulation.

“...You hopeless fool. Do you think the pharmacy is staffed only by idiots? Even if you succeeded in stealing the elixir, it would still be a problem. Your whole body twisted, and you sweated like rain just digesting a single scrap. Do you think that thin body of yours could digest it if you took the real thing? Your qi channels would not be able to bear it, your blood vessels would all burst, and you would die from qi deviation.”

The corpses of martial artists who had coveted elixirs beyond their means and exploded to death could form mountains.

But Cheon Hwi merely shrugged and gave a short laugh.

“What is there that can't be done? What do you say? While those money-crazed bastards are calculating how dearly they can sell it, we steal it and run. If you take it, Teacher, might you not be able to aim for the first-rate level?”

If taking the elixir made him explode to death, then he only needed to force more inner qi into himself, train his qi channels, and die hundreds of times until he no longer exploded.

Death was no different from Cheon Hwi's own secret ultimate art.

“Brat. Even if you get it, you can't eat it.”

“At worst, I'll burst to death. Whether I die unable to eat it and get cut down, or eat until my belly bursts and die, death in the martial world is all the same.”

Yi Mu-gwang shook his head at the sincere madness before him.

He was not joking. This fellow really would run out and rob the place at once. Yi Mu-gwang clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Crazy bastard.”

“Is that praise?”

“Would it be praise? It's an insult. Don't ever think of trying it. The Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir is a problem even if you eat it. Even if you eat it. It's an even bigger problem if you possess it. Do you understand? Besides, robbing it would be difficult. No, impossible.”

“Is it guarded by a first-rate master?”

“No. There will be no guard. If there were, they would have brought that person along when transporting the elixir.”

“Then?”

“There is no one in the underground medicine vault of Cheongmok Pharmacy.”

Cheon Hwi raised his eyes in confusion.

“If there is no one guarding it, that means no person is needed.”

Cheon Hwi nodded outwardly.

However, certain that Cheon Hwi would get strange ideas, Yi Mu-gwang added,

“I heard that Cheongmok Pharmacy's underground has a mechanical formation called the Fatal Mechanism Array.”

“The Fatal Array?”

“Yes. An array. Take one wrong step, and poisonous needles rain down. Take two wrong steps, and the floor collapses. Take three wrong steps, and poison fog seeps out through the gaps in the walls. Since it is a pharmacy that guards medicinal ingredients, its skill with poison will be more vicious than that of any Black Path faction. That is why it is better to rob them while they transport their goods than to rob that place. I hear that people periodically sneak in without fear, only to be soaked in poison and thrown before the pharmacy gate. I believe there were even first-rate martial artists among them. There was quite a commotion over it for a while.”

It was likely meant as a display of force.

Yi Mu-gwang continued.

“And that isn't all. There is also a rumor that if you force the door open, the medicine cabinets inside will be set on fire.”

“They would burn the elixir?”

“They are the kind of people who think turning it to ash is better than letting it fall into another's hands.”

Yi Mu-gwang looked Cheon Hwi directly in the eye, pointed at him with his index finger, and gave a stern warning.

“So don't covet what isn't yours.”

Yet a reckless plan to plunder the elixir was already ripening in Cheon Hwi's mind.

‘It's worth trying, at least.’

More than anything, Cheon Hwi knew that if things went wrong, he only had to die.

‘A Fatal Array...’

Cheon Hwi lightly brushed the hilt of his sword. It looked difficult to draw in a narrow underground space.

But Cheon Hwi had a dagger from the Blood Serpent Gang that he had picked up during the battle in the gorge.

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