Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 135

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 135: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (9)

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Yeon Sowol faced So Hye.

“From now on, I’ll teach you how to perform bodily cultivation on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. Ah, um... I can’t teach you the Hengshan Sect’s secret arts, but...”

So Hye glanced at Yeon Sowol.

She looked apologetic for no reason. There was nothing for her to apologize for.

“Anyway. Just... um. The things everyone generally knows... Ahem. No. The things most people know... Ahem. Anyway, the parts that aren’t secret arts. Ahem.”

If she said everyone generally knew it, the people of Guangdong might hear, “You don’t even know that?”

If she said most people knew it, the people of Guangdong might hear, “So the people of Guangdong aren’t even ordinary?”

So Hye changed her wording several times.

“...”

Yeon Sowol found that consideration even more painful.

After an awkward silence, So Hye took a deep breath and continued.

“To get to the point, the most important thing in cultivating the Eight Extraordinary Vessels is controlling your mind.”

His mind?

“I’m good at that. My mind.”

“Huh? Really? It’s the hardest part, though. The mind.”

Yeon Sowol recalled it.

The vicious heart demons he had faced.

The Strange Ghosts’ temptations while he made the Profound Enlightenment Elixir.

The mind he had tempered again and again while taking countless beatings and surviving one brush with death after another.

“I’m exceptionally good at it.”

“Oh.”

So Hye gave a brief sound of admiration.

“Well, if it’s you, I suppose that makes sense. Anyway, I’ll explain the principle. What did it feel like when you first sensed the Eight Extraordinary Vessels? Didn’t they feel like the sea?”

“They did. The Twelve Regular Meridians felt like narrow passageways, but the Eight Extraordinary Vessels were vast as the sea.”

“Isn’t that strange?”

Was it?

“Look at a meridian chart. The Eight Extraordinary Vessels and the Twelve Regular Meridians are both drawn as lines. There’s no real difference in size.”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t it strange the more you think about it? They’re both inside the body, so why can only one be so enormous? Like the sea?”

“...You’re right.”

“That’s because the Eight Extraordinary Vessels have depth. Even if they look like lines from the outside, they are as deep as the sea within. In a direction invisible to the eye, not forward, back, left, right, up, or down.”

So Hye’s eyes shone as she spoke.

They were the eyes of someone eager to show off what she knew.

“Do you know what that is? That invisible direction! Which way do you think it goes?”

Yeon Sowol answered.

“The mind?”

“Huh?!”

So Hye flinched in surprise.

“What? You already knew?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then how did you...!”

“You said it at the start. That controlling the mind was the most important thing.”

“That alone?”

“Well, people usually describe the mind like space. A deep mind. A broad mind. Things like that. So it fits.”

“Your... insight is incredible.”

So Hye leaned back slightly and folded her arms.

She looked sulky at having lost her chance to boast.

“Anyway, that’s exactly it. The Eight Extraordinary Vessels don’t have clear pathways like the Twelve Regular Meridians. Yet innate true qi doesn’t overflow. It flows along set paths, like a river, following the mind and its depth.”

“Ah.”

Then Yeon Sowol suddenly recalled something.

“So if the mind is shaken, hardened, or obscured, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels become unstable.”

That was why.

The end of Resentful Dog, Jeon Taegwang.

Unable to bear the piercing grief and sorrow in his heart, his innate true qi had finally burst forth and burned fiercely.

Yeon Sowol now understood the principle.

‘Because the mind itself was the depth of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels...’

When the mind, in other words the spirit, suffered a shock, the depths of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels became shallow.

Once their depths became shallow, the searing innate true qi contained within them flooded out.

That was how innate true qi burst forth.

“Ugh... There’s no point in teaching you...”

So Hye slumped her shoulders and grumbled.

He was figuring everything out on his own! She had wanted to teach him... She had wanted to explain it herself...

“No, this is helping me a lot. Thanks to you, I even understand why innate true qi bursts forth. I’d wondered about it all this time, why it happened.”

When Yeon Sowol spoke as though comforting her, So Hye quietly said, “Really?” Then she regained her spirits.

“Right. Even innate true qi bursting out... But a person’s inborn mind is incredibly deep and mysterious. Without a special cultivation method, it would be practically impossible for innate true qi to burst out just because of one’s mind. If someone’s mind got that bad, wouldn’t they become ill and die first?”

“...Is that so?”

“Yes. Anyway, you don’t need to worry about innate true qi bursting out. But remember this. If your mind is shaken during cultivation, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels will be shaken too, and that can become dangerous. The deeper your mind, the safer it will be, and the more smoothly innate true qi will flow.”

As she spoke, So Hye’s expression was firm and her voice low.

Danger.

It was a heavenly punishment that everyone who cultivated had to bear.

Yeon Sowol nodded calmly.

Cultivation had always been frightening and tense, but he no longer froze before it.

So Hye nodded and continued.

“Once you deepen your mind like that, you properly sort out innate true qi and create a good flow. That is bodily cultivation of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.”

“Sort it out?”

“Yes. Quietly observe your Eight Extraordinary Vessels. Even if the paths of your mind are well maintained, there will be places where the flow is poor. Waterways may split apart, then collide again and disrupt the current. Mud and water plants may mix in, making the water thick or stagnant.”

Yeon Sowol quickly understood So Hye’s metaphor.

Water meant qi.

The waterways split because many kinds of qi, including the Five Elements, were mixed together as they flowed.

The mud and water plants meant essence that had not yet melted away, as well as turbid qi.

So Hye said, “You need to clear those places. That’s where you use the insight that brought you to the peak realm.”

Tap.

Her small hand struck Yeon Sowol’s knee as they sat facing each other.

“I may not be able to teach you secret arts, but you have your own insight. You’ll definitely do well. Calm your mind, then do it slowly and carefully. The medicine I made will help too. There’s only a little Azure Void Stone Milk in it, but I made sure it didn’t lose any of its unique clear energy. It’s especially good for bodily cultivation of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels!”

Tap.

So Hye set down a pill in a small wooden box.

“If it’s you, you might even reach the stage of Gradual Clarity on your own. Then you’ll heal your internal injury and still get more than your money’s worth from the spiritual elixir.”

Gradual Clarity.

To slowly become clear.

One separated the tangled qi so the flows would not mix. One filtered and settled the essence that had clotted together with qi.

‘There are even stages for this...’

Yeon Sowol smiled bitterly.

Perhaps this was one reason Guangdong had so few peak-realm masters. If they did not know how to cultivate the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, reaching the peak realm would inevitably be much harder.

‘Someday, when I return to Guangdong...’

Thinking of the future, Yeon Sowol nodded.

“Got it, Little Sister So. I’ll give it a try.”

While healing his internal injury, he would cultivate the Yang Qiao Vessel and Yin Qiao Vessel among the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and make them even stronger.

“Yes. Once you succeed, you’ll be able to make your stage of maturity hot or cold in an instant. Qiao Vessels mean vessels of stepping upward. The more you cultivate them, the more freely you can fill and drain the meridians of heat. The true qi you raise in an instant will become far stronger.”

A flame lit in So Hye’s eyes.

“If you accomplish that, you’ll become stronger than you are now. And if you become stronger...!”

If he became stronger,

“Nothing like that will happen again. You’ll be able to avenge Sister Moyong, too.”

Yeon Sowol and So Hye met each other’s eyes.

That name had come up out of nowhere.

Sudden, yet not sudden.

These days, Moyong Ha was everywhere among Yeon Sowol and his friends, even when no one spoke of her.

She lay darkly and damply beneath every action and every thought.

So Hye lowered her head slightly.

“Sorry... I said controlling the mind was the most important thing, then I brought this up for no reason. It’s not like revenge will make anything better... Sister won’t come back alive. Sorry. Don’t feel pressured because of me.”

Looking dejected, So Hye lowered her head and pressed her soft lips together.

Yeon Sowol smiled bitterly, then stretched out his index finger and lightly tapped her forehead.

What was she apologizing for?

“I feel the same way.”

They all did.

* * *

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels inherently contain two kinds of energy.

Innate essence.

Innate qi.

At the first-rate and peak realms, one melted essence to create qi.

In four characters, Refining Essence into Qi.

Yeon Sowol had been able to pass through that stage with ease. Because of the heat of the Greater Rejuvenation Pill, his essence had melted on its own and transformed into qi.

Though he had done nothing special, he had already completed nearly ninety percent of Refining Essence into Qi.

Whenever he wished, he only needed to gather and bind the remaining energy with his own insight. The aftereffects alone would take him beyond ninety percent and immediately into the peak realm.

That was why Yi Yubaek had said Yeon Sowol would naturally reach the peak realm given enough time.

Now, Yeon Sowol thought about that.

‘Thank goodness I got greedy...’

Back then, driven by the desire to grow stronger faster and in greater measure, Yeon Sowol had decided to seek the insight of the peak realm.

What if he had not done that and simply trusted Yi Yubaek’s words as time passed?

‘How weak a peak-realm master would I have become?’

He would have skipped the process of creating energy unique to himself.

He would not have known how to cultivate the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

Ah. So that was why the Guangdong martial world had so few peak-realm masters...

“...”

For a moment, Yeon Sowol felt sad for the Guangdong martial world.

“No!”

He quickly shook his head.

“Isn’t it amazing that the Guangdong martial world has achieved that much without knowing any of this? When I teach what I’ve learned to the Martial Alliance later, I can’t even imagine how much stronger everyone will become. I really can’t.”

Was not a martial artist’s heart as a martial artist the most important thing?

Yi Yubaek had taught Yeon Sowol that clearly.

“Right. The spirit of Guangdong’s martial artists even overwhelms the Central Plains.”

Sad?

Halt!

Had he already been corrupted by the treacherous Central Plains?

Get a grip, Yeon Sowol!

Taking a deep breath, Yeon Sowol steeled his mind.

“Then let’s learn this properly.”

As the young alliance leader of the Guangdong Martial Alliance.

He would explore the secret of bodily cultivation for the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

Yeon Sowol slowly began to observe himself.

He opened his eyes again a quarter-hour later.

A hollow laugh escaped him before he realized it.

‘It’s a complete mess.’

The first floor of the inn was quiet after So Hye stepped back to stand guard.

Yeon Sowol’s hollow laugh drifted through that silence.

His friends guarding the entrance, windows, and stairs heard it, but none turned around.

Those who were usually so playful did not move an inch now, like wooden statues.

Thanks to them, Yeon Sowol could sink fully into thought.

‘It’s so absurd that it gives me chills.’

It was because of the knowledge So Hye had taught him.

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels he had always handled now felt completely different.

‘So all of this could be sorted out?’

That was the nature of knowledge.

It changed the very way one saw the world.

Before one knew, this and that all looked the same. Once one knew, one could only blink at the sight.

‘Why didn’t I know that? Was I insane?’

Before, whenever he looked into the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, he had thought they were ordinary.

He had thought, ‘That is simply how they are.’

He had never even considered that another possibility existed.

But not anymore.

‘It’s a disaster. The energies are horribly tangled.’

To create the energy of the universe, Yeon Sowol had interwoven and circulated all sorts of energies based on the Five Elements.

But he had never considered the overall flow of his Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

As a result, Yeon Sowol’s Eight Extraordinary Vessels now resembled a sewage treatment plant.

Different energies formed different currents that collided and pushed against one another, and those complicated currents had shaped all kinds of terrain.

Some places swirled violently. Others had been pushed aside and stagnated.

More than ten percent of his essence remained mixed into those currents like mud and water plants, sometimes blocking waterways and making certain flows viscous.

On top of that, the Yang Qiao Vessel and Yin Qiao Vessel had suffered a shock.

They had become a jungle where marshes, wetlands, valleys, and rivers had all mixed together. Qi-blood bubbled and boiled in a complete mess.

The Yang Qiao Vessel released heat.

The Yin Qiao Vessel absorbed heat.

Since both were damaged, Yeon Sowol’s True Flame was currently blazing violently, then abruptly cooling, over and over.

His head grew foggier by the moment, as though he were drunk.

‘Still, if I can strengthen this...’

Yeon Sowol recalled Jin Hyeogo’s final strike.

That overwhelmingly powerful blow, one he had not even dared to face head-on.

If they fought to the death, it was a move that would require Yeon Sowol to prepare to die alongside his opponent.

‘Could I deflect even that?’

If he could greatly strengthen his stage of maturity in an instant, the true qi he raised in an instant would become stronger too.

It was possible.

Perhaps.

“Was it called the realm of Gradual Clarity?”

To slowly become clear.

If he could regulate the tangled currents.

If he could filter out the essence thickly mixed within them.

Then his energy would slowly become clear.

To do that, he needed a tranquil, meticulous, persistent mind and insight. And...

Gulp.

Yeon Sowol swallowed the tailored spiritual elixir So Hye had made.

It was a supreme-grade spiritual elixir mixed with an extremely small amount of Azure Void Stone Milk, a substance even more legendary than the Greater Rejuvenation Pill.

“Let’s do this.”

Fwoooosh!

The spiritual elixir melted gently and slid down his throat, becoming an endlessly clear flame that burned in his stomach.

‘Clear.’

Yeon Sowol flinched at the energy, clearer than any spiritual elixir he had ever consumed.

Sizzle!

Even turbid qi that Yeon Sowol himself had failed to sense was immediately filtered out and evaporated.

‘This feels good... She said she made it clear, and it really is clear.’

Yeon Sowol gathered every last trace of the elixir’s energy without wasting a single bit, then slowly moved it.

He had taken the spiritual elixir.

He would heal his internal injury.

This was his first time doing it alone.