WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 36: Between Second-rate and Peak (4)

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My entire body ached.

My lower abdomen hurt the most. Calling it pain wasn't enough. It felt as though some immense force had put me through a noodle press and squeezed me flat. A searing pain centered in my abdomen spread to the tips of my limbs.

“Ugh... Doctor, where am I?”

“Where else would you be? The Medical Hall.”

The only reason I could crack a joke the moment I opened my eyes despite that pain was because the White-Robed Miracle Physician stood right in front of me.

With him watching over me, I felt certain I wouldn't suddenly die.

Had he brought me to the Medical Hall and given me emergency treatment the instant I collapsed? I was deeply grateful.

‘For the next three days, I should call him a special physician in my heart too.’

I tried to sit up, then sighed and lay back down. My dantian felt constricted, making it hard to breathe. The spar had been going perfectly well, so what had gone wrong?

“Special Physician, did you use some kind of sorcery on me?”

“The sorcery is the Star-Absorbing Great Method you'll be using from now on.”

“Isn't it unfair to make it impossible for me to argue back?”

The special physician waved a hand at my complaining.

“Don't talk so much. You'll disturb the needles in your face.”

“Ah.”

Only then did I notice them. When I turned my head slightly, thin needles moved with it. There had to be at least four or five. Just how many had he put in me?

“First, the Life-and-Death Gambler's assessment was correct. It would be impossible for anyone below the Peak realm to alter martial arts forms to suit their body while preserving their martial principles.”

“Oh, then will I be promoted to a Peak master's pay grade now?”

“Your internal energy is too pitiful for me to recognize you as a Peak master.”

“What?”

“Why do you think you collapsed just now? Your dantian holds too little internal energy compared to the amount used to bring out the martial principles of those arts. It couldn't endure the expenditure, so your dantian was strained.”

“Then what about the Drifting Cloud Step I used when fighting Maitreya?”

I asked without thinking. I had spent far longer fleeing from Maitreya than I had sparring just now.

“That is obvious. The difference is familiarity.”

“Familiarity?”

The special physician asked which martial arts I had used most over the past few months.

“Well, I traveled all across the Central Plains...”

Lightness techniques that made the body lighter, movement techniques that made the body move more efficiently, and footwork that guided proper steps. Their traits overlapped enough that they were sometimes grouped together as movement and lightness arts.

Normally, when traveling long distances, lightness techniques and movement techniques were the main focus, while footwork was primarily used in brief close-quarter battles.

But my feet had hurt after walking for so long. I had wondered whether I could reduce the strain on them by adapting the light movements of Drifting Cloud Step. Had that led to this result?

After hearing my explanation, the special physician nodded.

“The fact that you can preserve only the martial principles and reshape a martial art to suit yourself is itself proof that you have reached the Peak realm.”

Unlike the other martial arts I had used in the spar, I had already succeeded in rearranging Drifting Cloud Step's forms to some extent. I had completed its optimization before I even reached the True Empty Homeland.

That was why using Drifting Cloud Step did not consume much internal energy. But martial arts meant directly for fighting, including Crouching Tiger Fist, had never been used at full strength since I entered the Anomaly Records Office...

The process of breaking down their forms and rebuilding them so I could use them in the spar had rapidly consumed my internal energy.

Naturally, my dantian could not endure being forced to squeeze out internal energy it did not have.

In other words, the special physician had diagnosed me with a lack of internal energy.

“...Do Peak masters usually fight while barely able to stand?”

“No, they don't. I told you when you were first brought here. You survived because, despite triggering True Origin Qi, you had excellent control over internal energy but a pitiful amount of it. Now you've collapsed because that amount is pitiful. Honestly.”

Stroking his long beard, the special physician muttered as though wondering whether he should find me a spiritual elixir.

That reminded me of something.

Didn't I have the heavenly peaches I had stolen from the True Empty Homeland in my luggage?

They were connected to Maitreya, so I had felt uneasy about putting one in my mouth. I still hadn't taken a single bite.

I forced myself upright.

“Why is a patient sitting up instead of lying down?”

“Please take out the bundle wrapped in hanji paper from my luggage.”

“Hm? Wait a moment.”

The special physician easily found the paper-wrapped peaches in my things. My pack was sparse to begin with.

Even when they had been deep inside my dust-covered leather pack, a subtle scent had seeped through. Now that only a single layer of paper remained, it was far clearer.

It was a sweet scent that stirred my appetite. Nothing like the oppressive feeling of the Peach Blossom Spring in the True Empty Homeland.

The special physician seemed to recognize the distinctive scent of heavenly peaches as well. He unwrapped the paper, revealing five peaches.

It was strange. Peaches had soft flesh. Even a light squeeze could bruise and spoil them.

These heavenly peaches had spent a long journey inside my pack, no matter how carefully I had placed them among my clothes. They must have rolled around and knocked into one another constantly.

Yet not a single one looked damaged. If anything, they seemed to hold a faint glow.

“With this scent, could these be...?”

“You know them?”

“Of course. Aren't these peaches from the Peach Blossom Spring?”

When the special physician asked why I hadn't eaten them until now, I answered timidly.

“I smelled too many peaches in the True Empty Homeland, so I got a little tired of them.”

“You'll swallow a bug the moment you see it, but you won't eat a peach? Hurry up and eat it. Don't even think of peeling it. Eat the whole thing.”

“How many times are you going to bring up the Feathered-Human Gu? Besides, it looked like an ordinary pill no matter how I looked at it.”

Before handing me a peach, the special physician pulled out every needle he had placed in me. I needed to circulate my energy immediately after eating the peach to gain its full effect, and foreign objects stuck in my body would interfere.

Enduring the muscle pain, I sat cross-legged.

“The people gathered at the Peach-Stealing Grounds ate them however they liked.”

“You can do that. But if you want to make the most of its medicinal properties, you should circulate your energy and regulate your breathing right away.”

Sighing, I picked up a heavenly peach. Something still bothered me.

“Elder Special Physician, technically, this grew from the Eccentric Physician. Is it really safe to eat?”

“Others may question that, but you don't get to... Hm? Your pronunciation sounded strange.”

“You're imagining it.”

The special physician shrugged and explained the peach's effects. He did not know whether it extended one's lifespan, but it washed the turbid qi accumulated in every acupoint from the body and greatly increased internal energy.

“I heard every peach from the second onward has little effect. It probably works by purifying turbid qi and turning it directly into internal energy.”

“Its origins couldn't be more suspicious, but its effects are practically those of a spirit creature.”

“It was born by borrowing an Anomaly's power, but the human thoughts it contains are pure. It was created from the ordinary wish for eternal life.”

With the Martial Alliance's finest physician vouching for it, I bit into the peach without worrying about food poisoning.

Juice burst into my mouth.

The sweetness filled my mouth with enough force to be called violent. Yet it did not leave behind a cloying stickiness that made my tongue uncomfortable. The fruit's natural freshness remained, refreshing my palate before the sweetness could become unpleasant.

The peach's crisp skin had a satisfying bite without being tough, while every particle of its flesh seemed filled with juice, brimming with flavor and fragrance.

The moment I chewed and swallowed the entire peach, the squeezing pain I had felt upon waking in the sickbed surged up again.

This time, its source was not my lower abdomen but where the heavenly peach had passed through my esophagus. It was a pressure that seemed to seize my extremities and squeeze upward toward the center, like forcing out every last bit of toothpaste from the bottom of a tube.

I realized it was the turbid qi that had built up within me.

It was a mixture of blood qi spilling from injured acupoints, Evil Qi accumulated in the red shadow, and countless other yin energies.

It gathered together and mingled, then spread throughout my body once more.

Was this the process by which the heavenly peach purified turbid qi and turned it into internal energy?

When I opened my eyes after finishing my energy circulation, my body felt much lighter. That oppressive feeling was gone as well.

“Good. It seems you digested it well! How is your internal energy?”

“Please wait a moment.”

Expectation filled the special physician's voice. I felt the same.

Peak realm.

I could finally step into the realm where the martial world truly recognized someone as a master!

“...Hm. It's the same.”

“The same?”

“My amount of internal energy. It doesn't seem any different.”

An awkward silence fell.

The special physician continued checking my pulse while holding my wrist, then spoke with a sigh.

“Your body used Demonic Qi in place of Innate True Qi, so it seems there was no real increase in your internal energy. But the peach's effects were not entirely absent. Use your eye technique.”

Following his words, I focused my power in my eyes, though I tilted my head in confusion. I had not noticed any visible improvement in my eye technique.

I only noticed the difference after using it for some time.

“My internal energy consumption is much lower.”

“Exactly! Your acupoints are clean now! If it couldn't even do that, we'd have to drop heavenly from its name and call it a peach!”

The efficiency of circulating my internal energy had visibly improved. The turbid qi spread through the fine channels of my acupoints had gathered and blended, minimizing the losses that had been unavoidable whenever I released and recovered qi.

“With this efficiency...! Can I go around calling myself a Peak master now?”

“No. If you fought a Peak master with that internal energy, you would last perhaps half a quarter-hour. A quarter-hour if you focused entirely on defense.”

The special physician's assessment was cold.

I had internal energy on par with a Second-rate martial artist and martial talent on par with the Peak realm.

“You are not below First-rate, but it is hard to say you have definitely surpassed First-rate.”

“What should I do?”

The special physician pointed at the secret martial manual.

“The Star-Absorbing Great Method... no. You should train in the Anomaly-Absorbing Great Method, shouldn't you?”

Footnotes:

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