Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 10

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 10: Read a Book a Hundred Times and Its Meaning Reveals Itself (9)

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The members of Windflow Martial Academy whispered among themselves.

"That Yeon Sowol. The kid who paid his way in with gold."

"Oh, that old kid? What an annoying bastard. Does he think martial arts can be bought with money? Damn, I'm jealous. He donated some gold, and now he's getting one-on-one lessons from the Academy Head and the instructors. What bullshit."

"But I heard he was put into closed-door seclusion."

"Huh?"

"It's true. Jucheol heard it while carrying several loads of jerky into the seclusion chamber. Apparently, it's been almost fifteen days already."

"That's crazy. Why would someone who's only just begun learning martial arts be in a seclusion chamber?"

"Looks like they're teaching him a proper internal cultivation method."

"Not the Free and Easy Art?"

"Not the Free and Easy Art."

"......Isn't he going to die?"

"Probably."

"Ah. You said it's been fifteen days. Then he's probably dead already."

"Haah......"

"Shit. Are we going to have to clean him up? Corpses from Cultivation Deviation are horribly disgusting."

"Remember Cheolbung from last year? He ignored the Academy Head and pushed himself too hard while cultivating an inner cultivation method. His lungs burned up and he died. The stench afterward was horrible."

"Hey, that was clean compared to this. Was it five years ago? When I first came here, there was a senior named Geumhun. His Huiyin acupoint got overheated, you know?"

"Huiyin? His butt?"

"Yeah. Around the asshole. The essence down there got so heated that it turned all soft and... all his organs came out through there."

"You're insane."

"His pants sagged like he'd shit himself because of all the organs spilling out. Then he waddled over, begging someone to save him, and died. God, after seeing that, I couldn't eat for a month."

"Ah, I remember hearing that story when I came here. Good lord. You saw it yourself? That's insane."

"Exactly. If people are told not to do something, they should listen... The skilled ones are even worse. Once they start being called second-rate, they get greedier. They force things no matter what, and then, ah..."

"It really isn't easy. But making someone who only started at eighteen do something like that? Why would the Academy Head do that?"

"Exactly. Poor guy. ......I take back what I said about him being annoying."

"I take back what I said before too."

"What did you say?"

"I don't know. I take it back. I take it back."

"......But still. He must've explained the internal cultivation method in detail, right?"

"He must have. He probably stayed right beside him and taught him all the theory thoroughly. It's dangerous stuff."

"That part makes me jealous. I've already heard the explanation three times, but I still get confused about how the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels connect. Since we learn together, I feel awkward asking questions too..."

"So. You're jealous?"

"......Ah, no. No, I'm not. I take it back. I take it back."

"Yeon Sowol is probably burning to death alone on the cold floor of the seclusion chamber right now, or spilling something out as he dies... And you're jealous?"

"......Yeah. I'm trash."

"Yep."

"......But when are they going to open the seclusion chamber? If he died inside, no one would know."

"Ah, that. They said if he doesn't come out on his own, the Academy Head will open it himself in two years."

"Two years?"

"Yeah. I guess he told him not to come out until he reached the stage of maturity. He said to master the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels before coming out, so that's probably why."

"That makes sense. In two years, he'll either have reached the stage of maturity or died, so the Academy Head must've given him plenty of time."

"He'll never manage it. It's been over a year since I entered the stage of maturity, and I still don't understand the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels very well. I still haven't even felt whether things like the Twelve Divergent Meridians or Fifteen Collaterals actually exist."

"Ugh. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. Ah, but what happens to the original arrangement? Didn't he say he'd watch him for three months, then decide whether to accept him as a disciple?"

"It seems like he plans to take him as a direct disciple as long as he survives."

"Whoa! A direct disciple?! Not an outer disciple like us?"

"Why? Jealous again? Then why don't you enter closed-door seclusion too?"

"......No. I'm good."

"You piece of trash."

"......"

* * *

"Good. That's another piece of trash taken care of."

As Yeon Sowol repeated the Willow Serenity Art, he continued searching for waste, impurities, and filth inside his body.

It was not an easy process.

His body looked small from the outside, but when he contemplated it by following the flow of energy, it felt as vast as a mountain.

Searching every corner of that Mount Tai-sized body to find and remove large clumps of waste and filth one by one required intense concentration and patience.

Some impurities blocked the meridians so naturally that they made the work even more difficult.

Every now and then, Yeon Sowol would think, 'Hm? I guess this section is supposed to look like this,' and move on, only to realize later that the entire thing had been one huge lump of waste.

He had to identify the impurity, then repeatedly confirm that it was turbid qi from outside his body and had nothing to do with his essence, qi, or spirit.

It was as exhausting as finding a single typo in a book filled with tiny text and no spaces.

Still, a sweet reward waited after every grueling effort.

Sssizzle.

White smoke escaped between Yeon Sowol's front teeth.

His eyes were bloodshot, and dark circles hung beneath them.

Yet he was smiling.

"Why is this so fun?"

He found something and got rid of it. Then acrid smoke rose from his mouth.

There was a thrilling sense of impact hidden in the simple act. It felt as fun as playing an addictive minigame.

The reward was obvious too.

"I've cleaned two meridians now, right?"

The Twelve Regular Meridians.

Twelve major meridians.

They existed in perfectly symmetrical pairs on the left and right sides of the body.

If there was a Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian, there would be an identical one on each side.

So although they were called the Twelve Regular Meridians, there were actually twenty-four pathways.

Of those, Yeon Sowol had cleaned the right Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian, which rose from his right hand, and the left Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian, which descended to his left foot.

His understanding of the Twelve Regular Meridians deepened during that process.

"This is amazing. When I looked at the diagrams, the two seemed separate, but when I actually set kindling the inner fire in motion, they're connected."

On the meridian chart, the Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian and the Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian existed separately.

The right Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian began at the index finger and ended at the Yingxiang acupoint beside the left nostril.

The left Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian began at the Chengqi acupoint below the eye and ended at the left second toe.

They had looked separate, but when he set kindling the inner fire in motion, he discovered that the pathway ran directly from the Yingxiang acupoint beside the nostril to the Chengqi acupoint below the eye.

They had two names, but in truth they formed a single route that began at his right index finger, passed through his head, and continued to his left second toe.

Once he had thoroughly cleaned it, that entire section felt incredibly light.

"So this is what it means for essence to grow warm."

Kindling the inner fire flowed easily through the cleaned pathway, warming his right arm and left leg. Strength surged through him, and he felt more flexible.

It was not just a feeling.

Whoosh!

"Crazy. I can hear the wind."

He planted his left foot and threw his right fist with all his strength. The sound of air splitting rang out.

It was a movement that should have been impossible for the body of a high school senior.

But he could do it.

Essence was the foundation that made up the physical body. As the part of him that had been cold and stiff warmed and loosened, vitality sprang forth.

"My head feels clearer too. If I'd known about this while studying..."

Even the fatigue that had accumulated over fifteen days seemed to melt away. Yeon Sowol felt thoroughly encouraged.

"All right! Let's clean the rest too!"

Excited, he began repeating the Willow Serenity Art again.

He had cleaned the crossing route that led from the right Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian to the left Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian. This time, he planned to clean the opposite crossing route, from the left Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian to the right Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian.

Another full month passed.

Yeon Sowol managed to clean all the Twelve Regular Meridians.

Calling it cleaning was perhaps an exaggeration. He had only barely removed the large pieces of waste that felt as though threads were hanging from them.

Even so, when he finished, the difference was enormous.

"......I feel like I've been reborn."

His body felt incredibly light.

It had grown flexible and springy.

His body moved as he wanted it to, and strength flowed smoothly through his limbs.

It felt as if his athletic ability itself had been remade.

It was like talent he had never possessed had suddenly appeared.

With a body like this, couldn't he try becoming a soccer player or even a UFC fighter?

Yet Yeon Sowol's expression was not entirely bright as he lightly moved his body.

"But what exactly are the Eight Extraordinary Vessels?"

At first, he had not thought much of it. Just as he had found the Twelve Regular Meridians and understood their meaning while learning the Willow Serenity Art, he thought he would naturally come to understand the Eight Extraordinary Vessels if he kept cleaning his meridians and cultivating.

That was not the case at all.

"Do they even exist?"

When he gathered flames through breathing and moved them, he could naturally feel them flowing along the Twelve Regular Meridians.

But...

"There isn't any pathway in the direction where the Eight Extraordinary Vessels are supposed to be."

Yeon Sowol worried over it.

He worried while cultivating, while chewing fasting pills and jerky, and while drawing spring water to scrub himself clean.

He did not only think about it. He kept up his breathing and movements without pause as he contemplated his inner self.

A pathway. Where was another pathway?

But there was none.

None.

There was nothing anywhere.

Instead, he found other pathways unrelated to the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

"This... There are routes branching off the Twelve Regular Meridians and going deep inside the body."

Contemplating his inner self was like feeling his way through a pitch-black, complicated cave with only a faint candle in hand.

Because of that, he occasionally discovered new pathways he had not noticed before.

They were other routes that were not drawn on the meridian chart Yi Yubaek had given him.

"What are these...?"

Yeon Sowol explored them too. They were packed with impurities and waste. He wanted to clean them, but they were narrower than the Twelve Regular Meridians. He could not feel any threads hanging from the waste, so cleaning them was impossible.

There was no choice but to slowly explore them, losing chunks of kindling the inner fire every time it caught on impurities.

"I still need to check. They might connect to the Eight Extraordinary Vessels."

That was how Yeon Sowol discovered twelve side paths branching from the twelve major meridians.

They were called the Twelve Divergent Meridians, though Yeon Sowol did not know that yet.

Another month passed.

It had been two months and fifteen days since he entered closed-door seclusion.

Yet Yeon Sowol still had not found the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

The side paths he had found did not connect to them.

"Will this one connect?"

Instead, he found another, even smaller pathway.

If the meridians of the Twelve Regular Meridians were long, wide caves, then the meridians of the Twelve Divergent Meridians were side passages that required him to duck his head. The new pathway he had discovered was as small as a dog hole or a rat hole.

He had searched so thoroughly that he had found even this.

"It looks brutal, but I have to explore it. Where the hell are the Eight Extraordinary Vessels...?"

Yeon Sowol cautiously began exploring the tiny pathway.

"This is insanely complicated. These routes are linked like a net? Huh? Wait. This connects to here?"

Yeon Sowol was stunned.

The meridians of the Twelve Regular Meridians, which he had thought were separate from one another, were all connected through these newly discovered tiny pathways.

It did not end there. The paths continued spreading out as they grew smaller, creating countless fine connections like capillaries.

"Wow. This is crazy complicated. And fun."

The pathways Yeon Sowol had found this time had a name as well.

They were the Fifteen Collaterals, meridians that martial artists also called the fine vessels of the entire body.

Yeon Sowol explored those pathways as far as his strength allowed, but he found nothing useful.

"What is this?"

Splash!

He scrubbed himself with spring water while worrying.

"Where are they?"

Munch, munch.

He ate jerky and fasting pills while worrying.

"The Eight Extraordinary Vessels..."

Hoo. Inhale!

He practiced the Willow Serenity Art while worrying.

He was the type of person who had to dig until the very end once something caught his interest. He had been the same when studying on Earth.

Then one day...

Yeon Sowol suddenly noticed something.

"But why does kindling the inner fire keep weakening at certain points?"

It had been a long time since he cleaned the Twelve Regular Meridians.

The flames gathered through kindling the inner fire now moved quite smoothly throughout his body, but for some reason, he noticed them weakening at several points.

"It only happens once the flame becomes stronger than a certain point."

It was as though the heat was being sucked away somewhere. And only in specific places...

"Wait!"

Yeon Sowol's body shook as if he had been struck by lightning.

"No way!"

Specific points.

What if those were places connected to the Eight Extraordinary Vessels?

"Did the flames escape from here into the Eight Extraordinary Vessels? But there isn't a connecting pathway."

Yeon Sowol closed his eyes and contemplated his inner self.

He sharpened his already keen qi sense even further.

'Where are you? Where the hell are the Eight Extraordinary Vessels?'

He searched every inch of the pathway's walls.

But there was not even the smallest passage.

"......Then let's see where the flames disappear."

Yeon Sowol chose one of the spots where the flames weakened the most.

Three cun below his navel, at the Guanyuan acupoint.

He gathered kindling the inner fire there.

Normally, he would never leave kindling the inner fire in one place and would keep it moving, but this time, he decided to take the risk for a moment.

He piled up kindling the inner fire.

Then he kept piling it up.

'Ah!'

At last, Yeon Sowol felt it.

'This is insane...!'

The flame, which had accumulated until it was quite large, suddenly flew upward.

Like fireworks, it scattered sparks in every direction.

'Wow.'

The sparks seeped into every part of the wall around the Guanyuan acupoint.

As though they were being absorbed.

The walls of the pathway rippled as if alive.

'Could the Eight Extraordinary Vessels be beyond this wall?'

Yeon Sowol gathered all his qi sense and contemplated what lay beyond the Guanyuan acupoint.

'Ah!'

He trembled.

"I found them."

He had failed to notice because he had been obsessed with pathways.

"The Eight Extraordinary Vessels aren't simple pathways."

They were...

Different from the Twelve Regular Meridians.

They were huge and full.

Like an ocean.

"What is all this...?"

Beyond the Guanyuan acupoint was something far hotter and denser than what Yeon Sowol had been calling fire.

Not fire, but lava.

Only then did Yeon Sowol realize.

"This is residual heat."

Deep within his body lay the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

They were packed full of innate heat that a person received from heaven and earth at birth, still uncooled.

That was the source of life force.

What martial artists called innate true qi.

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels were both vessels and pathways that held innate true qi.

"The Eight Extraordinary Vessels are the source of life itself. When the flames flowing through the Twelve Regular Meridians grow strong, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels absorb that heat and become hotter inside. On the other hand, when the Twelve Regular Meridians grow too cold, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels release heat and warm the outside..."

Yeon Sowol completely understood the relationship between the Twelve Regular Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

He had perfectly met the standard Yi Yubaek demanded.

Yeon Sowol did not know it, but at that moment, he had already entered the stage of maturity. He had felt the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and understood their connection to the Twelve Regular Meridians, so he could now use the heat of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels indirectly to create greater flames.

That was the core of the stage of maturity, the regulation of fire.

It was time for Yeon Sowol to break his closed-door seclusion and leave.

But that thought never occurred to him.

"This is crazy. It's really interesting."

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

They were a kind of insulated tank that preserved the heat a person received at birth.

As Yeon Sowol practiced the Willow Serenity Art, he carefully observed and experimented with how they worked in tandem with the Twelve Regular Meridians.

The seasons changed.

The first snow fell heavily overnight.

Snow piled thickly on the ground.

Then Yi Yubaek's voice came from outside the door.

"Are you alive?"

Sweating as he practiced the Willow Serenity Art, Yeon Sowol answered on reflex.

"Yes. I'm alive."

"Sowol. Three months have passed."

"I see."

Three months.

That was the time Yi Yubaek and Yeon Sowol had agreed upon.

Yi Yubaek had said he would watch him for three months, then decide whether to accept him as a disciple.