WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME NOVELS

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Former Supreme ◈

Chapter 55: My Entire Fortune for Internal Energy (2)

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For the first time, three years' worth of internal energy was being used in the forest behind Baek Socheon's estate.

Baek Socheon had begun seriously learning the Fourth Fist of the Heaven-Turning Nine Fists. From the Fourth Fist onward, the forms began to require internal energy in earnest.

Heaven-Turning Nine Fists, Fourth Fist: Moon Bright, Stars Sparse.

Although the Fourth Fist required internal energy, his current three years' worth was enough to perform it. Naturally, it did not come close to its original power, but he could still execute the forms.

The Fifth Fist and beyond were different. Each had a minimum internal energy requirement. The Fifth Fist required at least twenty years of internal energy, while the Sixth Fist required half a sixty-year cycle, or thirty years. Without that much, he could not even attempt them.

The first three fists had been created by observing the movements of wind and sea. From the Fourth Fist onward, the martial arts drew upon the movements of the moon, sun, and sky.

The Fourth Fist, whose name meant that the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, consisted of five forms that mainly used both hands. From this fourth fist onward, the Heaven-Turning Nine Fists began to show their true power.

Bang.

Even with just three years' worth of internal energy, a thick log shattered. With internal energy added to his already exceptional physical ability, the force had doubled. It was enough to bring down an ordinary wall.

Baek Socheon tossed a log into the air, then threw a punch.

Papapapapak!

The log exploded into several pieces and scattered.

Waning Moon, Dawn Stars, a form that rapidly struck an opponent's chest again and again with both fists, boasted the greatest destructive power among the Fourth Fist's techniques. Once he could properly imbue this fist with internal energy, his opponent would be reduced to an unrecognizable pulp.

After practicing the Fourth Fist for a while, Baek Socheon felt good. It had been three years since he had last used martial arts fueled by internal energy. His internal energy still showed a slight tendency to linger in his meridians, but his body had changed, so he tried to adapt.

Then someone spoke from behind him.

"You look pretty good with fists, you know?"

Baek Socheon looked up and saw Cheon Geuk sitting atop a high branch. As always, he could not sense the presence of the Guardian Assassin Stars around her.

"It'll be incredible once you can properly use internal energy. Why don't you take this chance to switch to fist arts?"

"I'm considering it."

"Really?"

He needed a change. He had lost to the Black Heaven Alliance Leader in their last fight while using swordsmanship, so he clearly needed to alter his approach. The Black Heaven Alliance Leader was too strong for him to challenge again while relying only on his internal energy becoming purer. Besides, he could not rule out the possibility that the Black Heaven Alliance Leader had grown stronger while recovering from his injuries.

"Did you get them?"

"By turning into a nasty bitch."

She turned around and showed him the leather bag on her back.

Baek Socheon's face lit up.

"You suddenly look so happy to see me. It's such a contrast from when you first saw me!"

"Welcome back."

Baek Socheon headed for the house first.

Cheon Geuk pursed her lips and jumped down from the tree.

As she followed Baek Socheon inside, she looked around the house.

"This is a nice place."

Just then, she came face-to-face with Beon Saeng, who happened to be leaving his room.

"Gasp!"

Beon Saeng froze in the doorway. He had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life.

The problem was that he knew exactly who she was at first glance.

"That's you, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

She had always hidden her face beneath a bamboo hat, but now he had seen it.

"Am I going to die now?"

"No."

"Whew, that's a relief."

"For people close to me, I only pluck out their eyes. Sometimes I cut out their tongues too. Sometimes I don't."

Beon Saeng smiled as he watched her pass after making that chilling remark.

"Haha, assassins really do have terrifying jokes."

Cheon Geuk looked at him, tilted her head, and gave him a look that seemed to ask, Was it really a joke? Then she followed Baek Socheon into the room.

"You should at least tell me it was a joke before you go."

The closed door did not open.

"She sure knows how to joke."

Beon Saeng walked away as if nothing had happened, then staggered and collapsed near the end of the hallway. He looked around the empty corridor with a tearful expression.

"......It was a joke, right? Right?"

Once inside the room, Cheon Geuk said to Baek Socheon, "For some reason, he makes me want to tease him."

"I know exactly what you mean."

"Why would you say that while looking at me?"

Baek Socheon smiled and opened the leather bag.

He opened each of the three boxes. Once he had checked their contents, Baek Socheon was startled. He recognized all three spiritual medicines.

"You bought all of these with that money?"

"Yes. The market price was low."

"Even then, I don't think you could've bought them."

"Maybe you're lucky."

Baek Socheon suddenly remembered what she had said earlier.

-I had to turn into a nasty bitch.

He understood. She had gone out of her way to buy all three.

"You didn't have to go this far."

When Baek Socheon realized she had overextended herself, she replied calmly.

"That applies to you too."

"What do you mean?"

"You could use that money to hide somewhere and live comfortably by yourself. You don't have to go this far either, but you do, don't you?"

"No. I'm doing this to survive. The Black Heaven Alliance Leader will find me and kill me."

"If you truly wanted to hide, would anyone find you that easily?"

"Anyway, thank you."

"It's enough that you understand. Since I went through the trouble, I'll handle the last part too. I'll stand guard, so take them and circulate your energy."

Baek Socheon was truly grateful to her.

Taking spiritual medicine and circulating his energy was an extremely important process.

It was unlikely, but if someone interfered at any point, it could turn disastrous.

Baek Socheon quietly looked over the three spiritual medicines, considering which one to take first.

The first one he chose was the Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root.

He slowly chewed and swallowed it. A deep, spiritual fragrance far beyond anything the Hundred-Year Fleeceflower Root could offer spread through his mouth.

As Baek Socheon circulated the Immovable Wisdom King Heart Method, he began refining the energy of the Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root.

Ssssss.

It had truly been a long time since such immense energy filled every meridian in his body.

Baek Socheon felt pleasure. It was a pleasure similar to sharing a bed with a woman.

After the energy completed a circuit through his entire body, it gathered in his dantian.

As expected, he extracted all of the medicinal effect equivalent to a full sixty-year cycle, and the amount of internal energy gathered in his dantian was exactly one-third of that, twenty years.

Its purity, though, was beyond description. It was his own internal energy, yet it made him want to lose himself in it.

His existing three years of internal energy had also been pure, but not as pure as the twenty years he had just gained. He had expected the two to mix and become an average, but the less-pure internal energy transformed into pure internal energy before blending together.

'Oh!'

He had discovered another extraordinary trait of his new dantian.

Added to the previous three years, he now had twenty-three years of internal energy.

That was when it happened.

Swaaaaaa.

The internal energy filling his dantian began spreading through every meridian in his body, like seawater rushing away. Baek Socheon had not intended it. It simply dispersed through his entire body on its own.

After examining the changes within himself for a long while, Baek Socheon was astonished.

'How can this be?'

This new dantian was not truly a dantian. It acted as a kind of gateway, while his entire body served as his dantian. When he had only three years of internal energy before, the amount had been too small, so it remained at the entrance. The reason it had tried to linger in his meridians when he used martial arts was because that was where it truly belonged.

With his physical conditioning having surpassed its limits, the Complete Transformation Method had created this entirely new state of being.

Baek Socheon settled the internal energy spread throughout his body.

Then, as if it had been gathered in his dantian, the internal energy settled into every meridian in his body.

Baek Socheon held out his arm to Cheon Geuk.

"Check my internal energy."

"You're already showing off?"

"Come on."

Cheon Geuk took Baek Socheon's wrist and examined his internal condition with her internal energy.

"Huh? Where did all your internal energy go?"

"You can't sense it?"

"Where did you hide it?"

She persistently searched for where his internal energy had gone, but she could not find it.

Baek Socheon understood. He could perfectly conceal his internal energy within his meridians. Even a second dantian could eventually be discovered, but hiding it in his meridians would never be detected. No one would ever imagine such a thing was possible.

Baek Socheon roused his internal energy. Normally, it would have emerged from the dantian and spread through his body, but now it rose directly from his entire body.

In other words, he could summon his internal energy much faster, and with internal energy far purer than anything he had possessed before.

Something unprecedented in the history of the martial world had occurred. His internal energy and external martial arts had become one. From now on, every bit of internal energy he accumulated would settle throughout Baek Socheon's body, and internal energy would surpass the limitation of being confined to a dantian.

Baek Socheon clenched his fist. Internal energy surged in an instant, and strength that felt capable of breaking iron filled his fist. It reacted far faster than before.

Cheon Geuk, watching him, looked as though she could not understand what had happened.

"Are you all right?"

Baek Socheon nodded.

"Keep guarding me."

If it had not been for her, that joy might have been all there was to it.

Because she had pushed herself to buy the spiritual medicines, there was a next step, and then another after that.

The second spiritual medicine he chose was the Seven-Colored Centipede Pill.

This one was incomparably more bitter than the Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root. He frowned as he chewed and swallowed the Seven-Colored Centipede Pill.

He circulated the Immovable Wisdom King Heart Method again. After carefully absorbing the effects of the poison pill, he gathered the energy back into his dantian. Once more, he extracted its full medicinal effect of one sixty-year cycle, and twenty years of internal energy gathered in his dantian.

Just as it seemed to settle there, it spread out from that place in all directions like a rushing tide.

Swaaaaa!

He carefully observed what would happen to this internal energy, which had a slightly different nature.

The two energies seemed to blend, then the newly added internal energy transformed into the pure internal energy created by the Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root and settled throughout his meridians.

'Ah!'

A cry of joy escaped him.

With the two combined, he now had forty-three years of internal energy.

Baek Socheon took the final Emperor Pill as well. Its medicinal effect was the weakest of the three, but this time was no different. He absorbed all twenty-five years of internal energy, and one-third of that, eight years, settled in his meridians.

Altogether, he had accumulated fifty-one years of internal energy.

He was nine years short of a full sixty-year cycle.

Still, his internal energy was so pure that he would be able to fight with far greater power than he once had with a full sixty-year cycle.

Baek Socheon finished circulating his energy with a bright smile.

It felt completely different.

He no longer felt internal energy from his dantian. Instead, immense internal energy surged from every part of his body. He felt the urge to release it, as though lava were about to erupt from within him.

When he calmed it down, all his internal energy settled back into his meridians as if nothing had happened.

Cheon Geuk could tell from Baek Socheon's expression that something enormous had changed within him. His expression reassured her that she did not need to worry about being unable to sense his internal energy a moment ago.

Baek Socheon looked at her.

"I won't forget what you did today."

She snorted.

"Why are you thanking me as if you're speaking to an enemy?"

"Did I?"

Baek Socheon laughed along with her.

"Why did you help me? Like you said, you could've killed me and taken the one million four hundred thousand nyang."

"I have enough money to live on."

"Wouldn't more be better?"

"Maybe because I was raised learning nothing but the art of killing from such a young age, I don't really care that much about money. As long as I have enough to live comfortably, that's enough. There's nothing I particularly want to buy with it."

Baek Socheon was the same. That was why the money had remained deposited at the bank.

This time, Cheon Geuk asked, "How does it feel?"

"I won't be getting beaten up everywhere I go anymore."

"Don't hit me just because you're stronger now."

"I hit you because I was weak back then. I'm sorry I hit you."

A smile appeared at the corner of Cheon Geuk's lips at his sincere apology. Apologies played an important role in relationships. She knew that unless someone offered a heartfelt apology after conflict arose between two people, their relationship would always remain stuck in place, no matter how often they smiled at each other.

"Can you beat the Black Heaven Alliance Leader now?"

Baek Socheon shook his head. He would be fortunate if he could kill the Black Heaven Alliance Leader by pouring all fifty-one years of internal energy into a single attack. If he missed that chance and the fight became prolonged, he would definitely die.

"For now, I have to hide the fact that I've recovered my internal energy. I also need to gather more."

Cheon Geuk nodded. She had met the Black Heaven Alliance Leader herself, so she knew how powerful an enemy he was.

"Come with me for a moment."

"Where?"

"There's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

Cheon Geuk left the house with Baek Socheon.

"By the way, you're penniless now."

"I kept one hundred thousand nyang."

"Really?"

Baek Socheon had left it behind as emergency funds without giving it much thought, but it happened to be one hundred thousand nyang.

Cheon Geuk's steps became so light that she seemed ready to fly.

Footnotes:

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