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Translator/Editor: Asakusa

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◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈

Chapter 19: A Killing Ordeal (3)

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Gwak Do-mun lightly stepped on the fallen corpse and entered the inn. After sweeping his gaze over the room, he looked at Yi Mu-gwang.

“Surely you didn't stay because you think you can beat me.”

Instead of answering, Yi Mu-gwang untied his bamboo hat and threw it into a corner of the inn. He had realized that nothing, not even one small thing, could be allowed to hinder him in a fight.

Gwak Do-mun briefly closed his eyes and sensed the inn for presences. There was no one before him but Yi Mu-gwang.

“I need to tear apart the limbs of the bastard who killed my loyal dog, yet he isn't here. What a shame.”

“Perhaps he noticed and ran.”

“Yet you stayed. They said you were his master?”

“That isn't so.”

“...Then why did you stay?”

“I didn't want to run.”

Yi Mu-gwang made it seem as though Cheon Hwi had fled. He chose his words carefully to reveal as little as possible about Cheon Hwi.

“That boy merely killed the deputy gang leader and survived with the crude techniques I taught him. So I will pay the price with my life.”

“Hah. What a remarkable righteous man. I heard you were his master, but are you his foster father or something?”

“That isn't so.”

“Then what?”

“I simply wanted to do this. Does the Blood Serpent Gang always try to wear people down with their tongues before a fight?”

“No, it's just that...”

The Blood Serpent Gang's leader drew his sword.

The flexible sword tucked along the belt at his waist slid free. The instant he poured inner qi into it, it took on the form of a solid blade.

“One day, when I find him, I want to tell him exactly what you said before you died and how you died. Wouldn't that make his death all the more painful?”

“That child won't die so easily.”

“Good. I hope he doesn't die as easily as you. Then perhaps... I'll feel a little better.”

Those words secretly reassured Yi Mu-gwang.

Cheon Hwi had not been caught yet. Yi Mu-gwang hoped he was holed up in some mountain village, training before making his escape. Or perhaps sleeping in a secluded cave.

Gwak Do-mun's narrow eyes slanted upward.

“I'll ask you one last thing. Why did you make this choice? Did your sense of chivalry rise at the sight of people dying?”

Gwak Do-mun did not know that Yi Mu-gwang was waiting for Cheon Hwi. From Gwak Do-mun's perspective, sacrificing his own life could never take priority over anything else.

“No.”

“...?”

“I merely chose to live as a martial artist rather than run and die.”

For the sake of the boy he had never once called his disciple, Yi Mu-gwang drew his Pudao.

Shk.

All his life, he had recognized the places where death waited and extended his sword there. This fight went against the principles he had lived by.

Yet even so, Yi Mu-gwang did not hesitate in the slightest as he drew his Pudao.

He knew he would not last even one move against a first-rate martial artist. Even so, the fingertips gripping his saber did not tremble. The human righteousness he held at its tip supported his body.

Gwak Do-mun kicked off the ground and flew forward like a snake snatching its prey.

Gwak Do-mun's sword did not come in a straight line.

Like a snake gliding through grass, it curved once in the air, then bent again. It clearly seemed to be aiming for his neck, but suddenly slipped below his wrist. The moment he moved to block his wrist, the blade slid toward the inside of his thigh.

‘Damn it.’

Yi Mu-gwang raised his Pudao and crushed down upon the sword's path.

Clang!

A sharp metallic shriek burst out, hard to believe from the collision of a heavy Pudao and a thin flexible sword. Gwak Do-mun's blade seemed pressed down, only to slip out to the side and graze Yi Mu-gwang's flank.

It was horrifying. The sword that should have been blocked and knocked away had bent and traveled along the saber's blade to pierce inward.

Slash!

Blood sprayed after only their first exchange.

* * *

He did not know how much time had passed.

Now, even after swallowing the spiritual elixir, he could continue circulating his qi and meditating for hours.

At times, he failed to digest the elixir's energy and suffered qi deviation. Yet every time, the point in time returned to just before he consumed the elixir.

Cheon Hwi had now become fairly skilled at controlling the elixir's energy.

The cavern within his lower dantian had been blasted open by the spiritual elixir, as though the entire gradual process of water droplets falling and slowly exploring the interior one by one had been skipped altogether.

The amount of inner power that had been like stagnant water in his tiny cavern had rapidly grown at some point.

‘How much inner power will I accumulate once I digest this elixir?’

The blocked acupoints were forcibly opened, like rocks swept away by a massive waterfall.

Crack! Crunch!

The bursting sounds of acupoints opening rang out one after another from within him. The sensation was not unpleasant.

Dark red blood and sticky, black impurities poured ceaselessly from every pore of Cheon Hwi's skin.

As the elixir's pure energy flowed through his body, it drove out the old impurities accumulated throughout his entire body, not only in his acupoints, but in his internal organs and blood vessels as well.

Black, foul-smelling waste mixed with Cheon Hwi's sweat and ran down his body.

He forgot even the passage of time and his hunger. Within the dark cave, Cheon Hwi's inner world was undergoing a drastic change.

Whoooosh.

The cavern had long since burst open in a fierce torrent.

Drops of water should have fallen one by one, illuminating every side. Yet Cheon Hwi had broken through those walls with the elixir and by dying and returning to life.

As though his dark field of vision were gradually brightening, the surroundings he had believed to be a cave grew clear.

The sight of raindrops pattering down after he consumed the Small Shell Pill was nowhere to be found.

When he looked into his lower dantian and faced the amount of inner power within it, what he saw had become a small pond in a mist-covered field.

A small pond one might see in the estate of a wealthy family. It looked just right for several carp to swim in.

The Black-Shell Softshell Turtle Elixir, the source that had created the small pond, still lay submerged beneath it, bubbling as it gave off inner qi.

‘This much, even though I haven't digested it all?’

Rather than trying to digest the entire elixir now, he thought it might be best to leave it as it was for the time being.

Cheon Hwi settled the flow of inner qi and gathered back the inner power he had spread through his body.

A day and a half passed without notice.

Cheon Hwi's chest, which had remained motionless, slowly and deeply expanded.

The difference from before was unmistakable.

It felt as if he could draw breath without end, and his body overflowed with strength. He could keenly feel the air brushing against his fingertips. The sensation of stone beneath his callused toes was also distinct.

His bones felt as though they had been reinforced with steel, firmly supporting his body. A smile formed on his lips.

Simply by drawing up inner power, turning it into inner qi, and circulating it through his acupoints, he had already far surpassed the realm of a third-rate martial artist.

Hooooo.

A long, murky breath slowly flowed from between Cheon Hwi's lips, roughly scattering the dust on the cave floor.

Then Cheon Hwi's tightly shut eyes snapped open.

He could clearly see the cave interior, which had been dark as pitch.

His dim vision had brightened as well.

Just as healthy eyes naturally distinguish distant things and things hidden in darkness more clearly, his visual acuity had recovered and developed beyond the ordinary function of the eyes.

Every sense in his body was sharply awake.

Cheon Hwi slowly raised his upper body.

Crackle.

The black impurities and bloody sweat that had thickly covered his skin crumbled apart like dried mud and fell to the ground.

He lightly clenched his fist.

The threshold of the second-rate.

Cheon Hwi could tell that he had at least set foot somewhere near it.

As a test, Cheon Hwi picked up a stone from the cave floor and tightened his grip around it.

It would naturally have been impossible before.

Crunch! Crack!

The stone shattered and split apart in his hand. He had not crushed it into powder, but it was tremendous grip strength.

“...I've completely shed the shell of the third-rate.”

Wondering how many hours had passed, Cheon Hwi headed outside.

When he entered the cave, it had clearly been daytime, before the sun had even reached its height.

Now, it was night.

It did not feel as though only half a day had passed. It felt closer to a full day and a half.

Just as he thought he should leave the cave, wash himself at a nearby stream, and return to the city, he saw something red through the trees.

At first, Cheon Hwi thought it was the light of lanterns spilling from the city, but it was quite different.

The farther he descended, the brighter it became. More than that, the sky itself seemed to be turning red.

Flames were spreading in the distance beneath the night sky.

Cheon Hwi narrowed his eyes.

He seemed to hear faint screams carried on the wind.

His pace immediately quickened, strength flowing into his thighs and calves. The cold night wind struck his face. Black smoke was rising into the sky over Changchun.

Perhaps because he had sat for so long, walking quickly was all he could manage at first. But his dizzy body soon returned to normal.

After only a few more steps, his body felt light.

When he focused inner qi in his toes, the earth dented beneath each step as his body shot forward, as if pulled ahead.

As though it understood his urgency, energy welled up from the small pond gathered below his dantian. It flowed through the acupoints in his thighs and calves, pushing his body onward. The mnemonic formula of the Well-Returning Moving Art now turned through his body on its own, without him having to force himself to recall it.

Tap-tap-tap!

The closer he came to Changchun, the clearer the screams became.

The flames were redder, and the smoke thicker.

Once inside the city, corpses lay scattered throughout the streets. The blue lantern of Cheongmok Pharmacy had fallen to the ground and been trampled. Near the Wandering Warrior Hall, bloodstains splattered across the walls, and pools of blood had gathered in places.

Three men wearing dark red headscarves sprang out from the mouth of an alley.

The moment they saw Cheon Hwi, they drew their blades.

“A little brat is still wandering around?”

“Kill him!”

In the past, he could not have let down his guard even against the blade work of martial artists at the beginning of the third-rate realm.

But now, to Cheon Hwi, they were absurdly slow.

He could predict where the blade tips would come from. He read the flow of strength from their soles, calves, thighs, and lower bodies to their torsos and arms. It was all too straightforward. Their clumsy killing intent. Their shallow breaths. Even their unsteady centers of gravity.

He did not have a sword, but that was fine. He merely drew his dagger.

Before the first man's blade could fall, Cheon Hwi's foot had already stepped inside his guard.

Thud.

The dagger stabbed below the man's throat and withdrew.

It was so swift that even the man whose throat had been pierced did not understand why his body was falling.

The moment the second man staggered back in shock, Cheon Hwi lightly twisted his wrist.

Slice.

The tendons in the man's wrist were severed.

The last man tried to scream, but Cheon Hwi's knee struck his solar plexus first. As his upper body folded and thin strands of spittle hung from his mouth, Cheon Hwi's dagger plunged unerringly into the back of his neck.

Thunk! Crack!

Cheon Hwi twisted the dagger, killing him instantly and without pain, then ran on without looking back.

As he ran, Cheon Hwi understood.

Instinctively, he knew this was the Killing Ordeal brought about by the Blood Serpent Gang's leader, who was said to have reached the first-rate.

If he followed this road, he would encounter a first-rate martial artist. And no matter how many times he died and returned to life, he could not defeat one.

In other words, if things went wrong, he might fall into Avici Hell, eternally repeating his death.

Though he knew that rationally, Cheon Hwi only hastened his steps.

Because he was certain Yi Mu-gwang was there.

As he ran, Cheon Hwi hoped he would not be. Just as Yi Mu-gwang had drawn a line between them and said they had no master-disciple bond, Cheon Hwi hoped he had simply turned away and left.

But.

At the edge of Cheon Hwi's sight, Yi Mu-gwang stood facing a man who radiated an extraordinary aura.

A man in a fluttering red robe, holding a flexible sword from which faint sword qi rose.

Blood Serpent Sword Gwak Do-mun slowly turned his head toward Cheon Hwi. His narrow eyes rose as he licked Yi Mu-gwang's blood running down his own cheek.

“So you're the one. The bastard called Cheon Hwi.”

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