WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 17: In the Jianghu, One Cannot Control One's Fate (6)

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"Changing the very quality of your body with innate heat. That is called tempering."

The do in doya referred to pottery, firing vessels in flame.

The ya in doya referred to metallurgy, shaping metal in fire.

Yeon Sowol couldn't answer.

"Hoo... Hoooo."

Unable to do anything else, he could only keep breathing.

He couldn't tear his attention away from what was happening inside his body.

'What is this...!'

The point where the tip of his elbow touched when he pressed it against his side, where the ribs ended and his body dipped inward. That was the Zhangmen Acupoint.

From there, Yi Yubaek's kindling the inner fire flooded in without end.

At first, the heat startled him. Then Yeon Sowol realized something else and was horrified.

'Fire... can move like this?'

It felt like watching magic.

Kindling the inner fire couldn't move wherever it wanted.

There were specific meridian channels within the body that it could travel through. Just as gas used for heating had to move through designated pipes and caused problems if it left them, kindling the inner fire had to follow its proper path.

Otherwise, not only would the hard-earned inner fire fail to remain stable, but it could heat places that should never be heated and lead to Cultivation Deviation.

So, no matter how much scorching heat one forced into the body, it would inevitably take time to spread throughout it. Warmth was supposed to move slowly along its assigned routes.

'Or so I thought...'

Inside Yeon Sowol's body, something he had never even imagined was happening.

'The movement of the fire...'

The Zhangmen Acupoint belonged to the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin, one of the Twelve Regular Meridians.

As far as Yeon Sowol knew, there were only two paths it could take from the Zhangmen Acupoint.

It could follow the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin downward to the big toe and the Dadun Acupoint.

Or it could pass directly into the Lung Meridian of Hand Taiyin and travel to the thumb and the Shaoshang Acupoint.

Yet Yi Yubaek slipped into side paths as naturally as though Yeon Sowol's meridians were his own neighborhood.

'The Twelve Divergent Meridians!'

Yeon Sowol tried to understand the situation based on the basic theories he had learned in spare moments.

The Twelve Regular Meridians circulated throughout the entire body.

From the index finger to the head.

From the head, through the torso, to the second toe.

From the second toe to the big toe.

From the big toe, through the torso, to the little finger.

Then back to the head.

They continued their circulation in small rotations like this, warming the body evenly.

Those were the routes Yeon Sowol mainly used.

The Twelve Divergent Meridians, on the other hand, branched off from them, ran into the torso to connect with the organs, then rejoined the other Twelve Regular Meridians.

The passages were narrow, but they formed an intricate network inside the body.

Yi Yubaek entered those side paths with complete familiarity. And that wasn't all.

'Even the Fifteen Collaterals?'

Scorching flames scattered into every tiny hole and rat hole branching off from the Twelve Regular Meridians.

As though he had already memorized every twist in those complicated paths and had no concern whatsoever about getting lost.

'This is insane...'

That confidence was real.

The flames filled each of the netlike collateral vessels, branching even further from the Fifteen Collaterals to link every acupoint in a web.

In perfect order.

At the perfect time.

In the perfect places.

The fire moved back and forth.

His body rapidly grew hot.

Centered around Yeon Sowol's abdomen and thighs, a great current of flame swept through the Twelve Regular Meridians. Smaller flames scattered through the Twelve Divergent Meridians followed behind and combed through every corner. Then, as soon as those passed, flames dispersed through the Fifteen Collaterals and the tiniest netlike collateral vessels gathered and warmed him with a steady, subtle heat.

They advanced and withdrew, carefully and precisely caressing the essence of his bones and flesh.

It felt as though flame was seeping into every cell of his body.

'The stage of maturity...'

Yeon Sowol was dumbfounded.

'This stage of maturity is absurd!'

It was fire control at a level he had never even imagined.

'What the hell have I been doing until now?'

He had thought he was fairly confident in his stage of maturity after reaching Breathing Smoke into Clouds and all that.

Looking at it now, he hadn't even possessed enough heat control to boil instant noodles.

Wasn't this a completely different level?

Yeon Sowol shuddered, then suddenly had an unrelated thought.

'But I feel exactly like a piece of meat grilling over a fire...'

First searing over the high heat of the Twelve Regular Meridians.

Then being turned over in every corner over the medium heat of the Twelve Divergent Meridians.

Finally, cooking evenly over the low heat of the netlike collateral vessels.

'It really feels like I'm being grilled perfectly evenly...'

Strange thoughts kept surfacing, leaving him unsettled.

"From this point on, I will temper your bones and flesh."

Yi Yubaek declared it in a heavy voice.

Flap, flap, flap!

No wind was blowing, yet Yi Yubaek's sleeves billowed.

Veins stood out across the backs of his hands, the nape of his neck, and his forehead.

"Keep breathing."

The moment he whispered the words,

Whoooosh!

As if all the heat until then had been a joke, an unimaginably scorching force surged through the Zhangmen Acupoint.

!!!

Yeon Sowol clenched his teeth to keep from screaming.

Drops of blood formed on the lip his front teeth had torn and fell one by one.

No one had the leisure to care about that.

'Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. What is this?!'

Whoooooosh!

Yeon Sowol took back his earlier thought.

What meat?

This really was tempering.

A kiln where pottery was fired.

A furnace where iron melted.

That dazzling orange heat that burned away all impurities and left behind only what was clear and bright.

The pure, shining things completed within it.

He wasn't being grilled.

He was being tempered.

The essence that had solidified into bone and flesh transformed, bit by bit, into clear essence qi within the flames.

It was the lowest stage of essence qi, but it was still undeniably something that came before matter, something without weight.

Something like sandalwood brushed past his nose.

The clean scent of cedar burning.

It was as though he could hear a wooden fish being struck somewhere.

"Sowol. This is the tempering of the body."

Whoosh!

Yeon Sowol felt the wind.

Far below, Yi Yubaek looked tiny.

Yi Yubaek had lightly tossed him into the air with one hand. Wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead, he grinned.

Wheeeeeee!

Had he been thrown around ten meters into the air?

"Ah..."

Yeon Sowol felt like a giant kite.

The blowing wind pushed his body slightly.

Hoooo!

He was definitely falling, but somehow he wasn't afraid.

Yeon Sowol spread his body wide and received the wind with his whole body.

His body rose slightly, slowing his descent. When the ground finally neared, Yeon Sowol came down softly as if crouching.

Tap!

Like a cat.

Even the sound of his landing was quiet.

Filled with wonder, Yeon Sowol looked over his own body.

"...This."

"Yes. What you just experienced was our Windflow School's lightness skill, Windborne Drift."

"Windborne Drift."

"How did it feel?"

"It felt light. Light enough that I felt as though the wind was carrying me."

"That is why its name includes drift. Like a willow leaf floating gracefully through the air. This is one of our school's supreme arts. It makes you lighter than the lightness skills of other sects, and it gives you a greater advantage when changing direction."

"Is that so?"

Yeon Sowol's eyes lit up.

Better than the other sects' techniques.

For someone who had wanted to learn lightness skill and footwork before anything else, that was welcome news.

Yi Yubaek smiled at the sight.

"You brat. You didn't know that until now? We're a school that uses wind and willow as the names of our martial arts. Though our martial arts are collectively known as the wind-and-willow sword arts, their foundation actually lies in Movement Art."

The Willow Serenity Art, their exclusive inner cultivation method, was a discipline that made one like a willow.

"Through moving exercises, it warms and circulates the essence throughout the body, giving it the flexible resilience of a willow. That makes it easier to temper the body."

"Ah."

"First, the Willow Serenity Art makes your body like a willow. Then you walk with Willow Leaf Steps, which sways like a willow leaf, and perform Windborne Drift, which lets you float on the wind. That is the path of our Windflow School."

"Ah...!"

Something tightened in Yeon Sowol's chest.

'This is pretty cool, isn't it?'

He had begun learning martial arts because they seemed useful and necessary, but he was becoming more engrossed in them by the day.

In martial arts. In the Windflow School too.

"Now then. Did you understand what you must do to use Windborne Drift?"

Yeon Sowol nodded.

He finally understood what Yi Yubaek had meant by warming the body well.

"I need to warm my bones and muscles as evenly as possible without disrupting their balance. The key seems to be maintaining them in a state where they are almost changing, but not quite fully transforming into essence qi."

"As expected, you are sharp. That is right."

Yi Yubaek opened his fan and fluttered it before his face, which was still covered in beads of sweat.

He was breathing slightly heavily as well. Forcibly tempering Yeon Sowol's body had consumed a great deal of his internal energy.

"Hoo. We use our inner cultivation method to heat the cooled essence and qi again, but we are still people who possess physical bodies. If we suddenly turned even that body into essence qi, it would be no different from suicide. You would keep losing parts of your body. No, losing them would be better. What do you think would happen if it transformed into essence qi, cooled, and became bone and flesh again? What if it settled into your body in some strange way?"

"...I don't want to imagine it."

"Right. That is why you must always pay close attention to your stage of maturity."

The key was maintaining that borderline state, where the body might change but did not, with a subtle, constant, and incredibly delicate flame.

"If you do that, the tempered bones and flesh will settle softly back into your body. They will only become stronger, and your bones and muscles will not be damaged."

Like heating water without letting it boil.

"So from now on, what you need to learn is the method of fire control for that. The very formula of Windborne Drift."

'Fire control? Like what he showed me earlier?'

Yeon Sowol flinched.

"Can I really do that?"

Yi Yubaek smiled.

"Of course you can't do it as I did from the start. What I showed you was ninth-stage mastery, on the verge of great completion. For now, you should reach... third-stage mastery. That should be enough to let you escape those sons of bitches, though it may be a close call."

One detail in those words caught Yeon Sowol's attention.

"My father is currently at ninth-stage mastery. If I have to reach third-stage mastery... I think it will take quite a long time."

"It would. Normally."

Normally?

Yeon Sowol's eyes lit up.

Yi Yubaek smiled meaningfully.

"I gave you a spiritual elixir, did I not? Once Windborne Drift reaches first-stage mastery, let us have you take it. You will be able to reach third-stage mastery quickly after that."

Yeon Sowol clenched his fist.

'Finally. I'm going to eat a spiritual elixir.'

"That mushroom is called Dragon Scale Mushroom. It is highly effective at burning away the turbid qi accumulated in your bones and muscles and improving your constitution. If you eat it and improve your constitution, it will become far easier to temper your body."

"Thank you."

Yeon Sowol felt grateful all over again.

A problem that had already been worrying him seemed as though it would be resolved at the same time.

'I'll try the Dragon Scale Mushroom first, then make plans to take the Greater Rejuvenation Pill.'

The Greater Rejuvenation Pill he had obtained after killing the Killing Demon.

He had originally planned to take it after reaching the stage of maturity, but somehow he had advanced another step and achieved Breathing Smoke into Clouds. His body was now strong enough to take the Greater Rejuvenation Pill whenever he wished.

Still, Yeon Sowol was a little afraid to take it right away.

Inner cultivation methods were frightening enough that he worried there might be some hidden trap even in spiritual elixirs.

'I should be able to get a feel for things like that after eating the Dragon Scale Mushroom.'

Once he had organized his thoughts, he began to feel excited.

Eating the Dragon Scale Mushroom alone would let him reach third-stage mastery of Windborne Drift quickly. Then what would a legendary spiritual elixir like the Greater Rejuvenation Pill do?

"Um, Father."

Unable to hold himself back, Yeon Sowol blurted it out.

"Yes?"

"When I first arrived, I often heard that I was too old to begin martial training."

"That would have been true."

"At the time, I heard that even someone like me could learn martial arts and enter a sect if they took a Greater Rejuvenation Pill."

"Hm. A Greater Rejuvenation Pill would certainly open a path to first-rate even for an eighteen-year-old fool."

Yeon Sowol was startled.

'Even a fool could become first-rate?'

How much had he suffered to achieve Breathing Smoke into Clouds, which Yi Yubaek called second-rate?

It had been brutal training that he could never have survived if he had been even slightly weak-willed, even a little lazy, or simply unlucky.

And it would allow someone to become not just second-rate, but first-rate? A fool?

"Th-then... what would happen if I took a Greater Rejuvenation Pill now?"

"Why? Do you have one?"

"No."

Yeon Sowol answered immediately.

"Why did you answer so quickly? Do you really have one?"

"No."

"Hm. If you do, throw it away."

"Why...?"

"Because it cannot be a Greater Rejuvenation Pill."

Yeon Sowol was shocked.

'A fake?'

He had never considered that possibility.

'It did look awfully ordinary.'

There was no special fragrance. It simply looked like a common herbal pill, something that seemed as though he could buy it at any pharmacy.

Thinking about it now, it was a little strange.

Especially when the Dragon Scale Mushroom Yi Yubaek had given him had released a gentle, fragrant mushroom scent even through the wooden box.

Yeon Sowol swallowed.

"...Is that so?"

"Yes. The Greater Rejuvenation Pill is a legend of the Jianghu. It is not something you could obtain. If you did get one, it would surely be a fake made by some swindler with a convincing shine and fragrant scent added to it."

"Then what is a real Greater Rejuvenation Pill like?"

"They call it Returning to Simplicity. Truly precious things look ordinary instead. I have heard that a real Greater Rejuvenation Pill is plain. A simple round pill with no particular fragrance, something that looks as though you could buy it from any herbal medicine shop."

"..."

Yeon Sowol relaxed.

'It really is genuine.'

As relief washed over him, he shot Yi Yubaek a slight glare.

"Look at this brat."

Yi Yubaek bared his teeth.

"I thought being forcibly tempered might have frightened you a little, but there is still life in your eyes. Fine. You are asking me to train you harshly, is that it? You must really want to eat that Dragon Scale Mushroom soon."

"What?"

"Good. Then let us properly learn the stage of maturity for Windborne Drift."

He beckoned Yeon Sowol with his chin.

"Come stand here."

Now, whenever he heard those words, Yeon Sowol broke into a cold sweat for no reason.

Footnotes:

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