Chapter 103 : Chapter 103

Chapter 103. Growth (3)

When I thought that I would soon be able to find Hyeok Ilso, a laugh somehow escaped me.

“Hahaha.”

It was not just because I had found a clue to chase him.

It felt like I could go beyond finding him and literally kill him.

I slowly turned my head and surveyed the battlefield.

The corpse of the First Killing of Sichuan sprawled at the end.

And the fallen Sword Shadow Unit Leader in the back.

Just three months ago, I had to resort to a gamble against the First Killing of Sichuan to barely survive.

But now, there was no feeling of difficulty even when facing the Sword Shadow Unit Leader, who was a master of the same caliber.

I had reached a realm that I could not even dream of in my past life.

Even after reaching such a realm, I could see a path to develop further.

It was thanks to the special eye I gained with regression and the Sun Moon Infinite Sword.

Moreover, I was not the only one who had grown.

Nam Geon had finally achieved the Diamond Indestructible Body.

Now, even the sword of a peak master could not pierce his skin.

And what about Junior Sister Baek Hyang?

For now, she was not shining due to a lack of internal and external energy, but this was a problem that would soon be resolved.

The corpse of the Human-faced Spider left in Ghost Spirit Valley.

All I had to do was extract the Poison Core from it and create a pill.

“Hahaha.”

As I was laughing refreshingly, the Dang Clan fellow, who had been applying medicine all over Nam Geon’s body, frowned as he was approaching me.

“This bastard’s madness has acted up again. Why the hell are you laughing while torturing people?”

I nodded.

Whether that fellow grew or not was none of my business.

***

First, I cleaned up the sprawled corpses.

And I intended to move immediately towards the Human-faced Spider’s corpse, but.

“Are you dying to die?”

The Dang Clan fellow once again interfered unnecessarily.

“Young Warrior Nam goes without saying, but you’re a patient too. No, forget all that, I’m a patient too. In this state, I can’t make a pill even if I die and come back to life.”

The fellow laid down the law.

“The human body also breaks down if you keep wearing it out. If you don’t want to become a cripple, forget about the pill and just rest soundly for a few days.”

“R-Right, big bro. I-I’m hurt. S-So let’s rest together.”

“Yes. Senior Brother. I am fine, so please rest a little for now.”

Since everyone was somehow taking the Dang Clan fellow’s side, I decided to rest for a few days.

After resting for a moderate three days and recovering the minimum, I was finally able to head to Ghost Spirit Valley.

The closer I got to the place where I had killed the Human-faced Spider, the more a foul scent wafted over.

It was due to the poisonous gas that had flowed out from its corpse.

But it did not particularly matter.

As the Dang Clan fellow said, I had developed a certain resistance to that poison.

When I raised the internal energy of my dantian to resist, there was no problem at all.

Recalling the Dang Clan fellow’s advice, I approached the corpse.

Then, after coating the Restoring Name Sword with sword qi, I cut out the area where the Poison Core was.

If I took out only the Poison Core, the energy remaining there could rapidly dissipate.

So, I carved out the flesh and outer skin of the Human-faced Spider that contained the Poison Core together.

When I returned with the Poison Core, I saw the Dang Clan fellow already boiling something in a large pot.

“Now just take out the Poison Core and put it in here.”

Following the Dang Clan fellow’s instructions, I put the Poison Core into the pot.

Even after that, the Dang Clan fellow watched the pot, added more medicinal ingredients, and adjusted the strength of the fire boiling the pot.

After a few shichen passed like that, one stable-formed pill was created.

I took the pill that the Dang Clan fellow offered and approached my Junior Sister.

For some reason, my Junior Sister just silently looked at the pill I offered.

As if pondering something, my Junior Sister suddenly asked Dang Sopyeong.

“Young Master Dang. Could you tell how much energy is contained in this pill?”

At my Junior Sister’s question, the Dang Clan fellow stroked his chin in thought and answered.

“Hmm. Considering the energy the Human-faced Spider used while fighting, and above all, the energy that melted away while fighting the energy of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass, it wasn’t a complete Poison Core. But the energy it held was considerable from the start, and it absorbed the energy of other medicinal ingredients, so it seems to be a little less than one Gapja.”

My Junior Sister, who nodded at the Dang Clan fellow’s lengthy explanation, looked at me and said.

“Senior Brother. I don’t think it’s right for me to eat this alone.”

“Are you planning to yield it to me again?”

My Junior Sister shook her head at my question.

“It doesn’t matter to whom I yield it, but it seems too large for me to absorb all by myself.”

The Dang Clan fellow also nodded as if in agreement.

“There’s some truth to that. I felt it when I checked your pulse last time, Miss Baek’s dantian is not yet large. Absorbing this much energy with such a dantian is a very dangerous thing. Also, there is still poisonous energy left in this pill. If I completely neutralize the poisonous energy of the Poison Core, all the energy contained within it will also disappear, so it couldn’t be helped.”

I felt like scoffing.

It was not because of the poisonous energy that the Dang Clan fellow had left behind.

It was because of my Junior Sister, who was worried she could not absorb it all.

My Junior Sister was the future Lust Disaster.

The Lust Disaster, true to her name, was a being who had learned the Absorption Art.

She raised her realm by absorbing hundreds and thousands of different dirty energies.

Even after accumulating such dirty internal energy, the Lust Disaster had not gone mad.

But for such a Lust Disaster to be unable to handle energy mixed with a little bit of poison?

And that, less than a Gapja of energy?

It was nonsense.

My Junior Sister glanced at me and opened her mouth again.

“You said it too, Senior Brother. That you don’t want to become like the Choi Manor Lord.”

I shook my head.

“Junior Sister’s case is different. The Choi Manor Lord and I can’t do it, but Junior Sister can. Trust me.”

As I spoke with a confident tone, my Junior Sister quietly shut her mouth and began to ponder.

At that moment, the Dang Clan fellow interfered from the side.

“Miss Baek’s talent aside, didn’t you hear me say there’s poisonous energy? Trust what?”

“Do you want to eat that too?”

When I asked, thinking of the Poison Immortal from my past life, the fellow’s face turned crimson.

“W-What do you take me for! D-Do you see me as a guy who would lie, his eyes turning for a single spiritual medicine!?”

Seeing his overreaction, it seemed I had hit the mark.

“If it’s because of my Junior Sister, don’t worry. I will perform True Qi Transference by her side just in case.”

In fact, I only intended to say this and just pretend to perform True Qi Transference.

Because True Qi Transference was a considerably dangerous act.

Something that the genius Junior Sister could do on her own might get complicated if I unnecessarily got involved.

Didn’t they say a common person cannot understand the will of a genius?

It was not a saying I particularly liked, but in this case, trusting and leaving it to my Junior Sister was the best choice.

“Haa. Then do as you please. I’ll stand guard for any unforeseen circumstances and prepare some internal injury medicine.”

As the Dang Clan fellow finally gave up and stepped back, my Junior Sister nodded her head.

“If you will help me, Senior Brother, I’ll give it a try.”

***

Baek Hyang briefly looked down at the pill in her hand.

In fact, she was having a worry similar to what Nam Geon had a few days ago.

She wanted to be of help to her comrades.

She had managed to show some wit so far, but she could not be satisfied with that.

How could she just watch as Senior Brother Nam Geon and Senior Brother Jin Yuseong became covered in blood every time, saying they would protect her?

However, being the smart girl she was, she could not easily accept the spiritual medicine.

She thought it would be more efficient for someone with superior skills to absorb such an item.

So, she thought it would be better for her Senior Brother or at least Senior Brother Nam Geon to eat it.

But for some reason, her Senior Brother always recommended the spiritual medicine to her.

She could not understand.

Why he trusted her so much when she was still so lacking.

She could not understand, but she decided to accept it.

Furthermore, she did not want to disappoint her Senior Brother.

With the help of this spiritual medicine, she wanted to escape from the position of only being protected.

Having made her decision, she tossed the pill into her mouth in one go.

“Sss. Hooo.”

She calmly repeated her breaths and controlled the energy that passed down her throat.

The poisonous energy remaining in the pill flowed out.

Although she had been building up resistance to poison with the Jin Yuseong-style training method, the amount was so large that the poisonous energy was quite overwhelming.

She raised her small internal energy to resist the poisonous energy and guided the energy of the pill.

Her meridians, which had no experience handling this much energy yet, screamed.

As the burden accumulated, a faint smile somehow appeared on her lips.

She felt her Senior Brother’s energy on her back.

As if he was trying to help her as promised.

The strange thing was that he was just letting the energy flow and watching over her.

He was not directly helping her control the energy.

As if he would trust and watch over her for now.

For some reason, she recalled her Senior Brother’s image.

The image of him nodding with a serious expression whenever she focused on her training.

Was it because of the belief that her Senior Brother would help in the worst-case scenario?

Her heart felt much more at ease.

As her anxiety disappeared, her thoughts gradually expanded their scope.

How she could control this energy with her internal energy, which was endlessly insufficient compared to the energy contained in the pill.

The answer flowed ceaselessly in her mind.

From a certain moment, she began to forget everything.

The will to be of help to her comrades was forgotten, and the Senior Brother’s energy she felt at her back was also forgotten.

She focused solely on melting the energy of the pill.

For a moment, as her once-small dantian gradually grew in size.

The corners of her eyes, which had fallen into a state of selflessness, faintly frowned.

As if something was not to her liking, as if something was frustrating.

Soon, a drastic change occurred in a certain flow that was continuing inside her.

***

Jin Yuseong, who had his palm on Baek Hyang’s back, almost nodded his head without realizing it.

‘As expected.’

It seemed that his Junior Sister could absorb all the energy without him having to step in.

However, there remained the problem that it would take quite a long time.

Because of her small dantian and meridians that had never handled large amounts of energy before, she could only absorb the energy very little by little.

At that moment, Jin Yuseong noticed a subtle change occurring inside Baek Hyang.

‘Why is she gathering the poisonous energy in one place?’

Certainly, when she first absorbed the energy, she had separated the poisonous energy little by little.

And she had exhaled that poisonous energy through her breath, absorbing only the purified energy.

She was still extracting the poisonous energy now.

But instead of exhaling it with her breath, she was steadily accumulating it in one place.

Since Baek Hyang also had some resistance to poison, a small amount of poisonous energy was not a big problem.

But if that accumulated, there was a risk that her meridians would melt or be damaged.

‘If it’s my Junior Sister, she must have some intention.’

As he had resolved from the beginning, he, a common person, intended to just watch for now.

But as the amount of poisonous energy accumulating on one side increased, he gradually began to feel anxious.

Moreover, from a certain point, she was not absorbing the energy of the pill and was focusing entirely on handling the poisonous energy.

When she finally extracted all the remaining poisonous energy from the pill and gathered it in one place, the meridian where the poisonous energy was gathered was slowly melting.

Just as he was contemplating whether he should intervene now.

Finally, his Junior Sister began to move that poisonous energy.

Jin Yuseong thought.

He thought she might be trying to exhale all the poison at once now.

But his expectation was splendidly off.

The poison, gathered to its fullest, did not head outwards, but rushed towards her meridians.

Was it because he was observing her insides with his palm on Baek Hyang’s back?

Chiiiiik.

It felt as if he could hear such a sound coming from her meridians.

Only then did Jin Yuseong grasp her intention.

‘Heo. To think of using poisonous energy to melt turbid energy.’

In a way, it could be seen as fighting fire with fire.

The problem was that since the poisonous energy was densely clumped together, it was accumulating damage on the healthy meridians along with the turbid energy.

Baek Hyang also seemed to have this in mind, as she wasn’t forcibly melting away all the turbid energy, but merely letting it brush past the meridians.

For a moment, as she melted the turbid energy accumulated in the meridians one by one, and incidentally sustained internal injuries while moving forward.

When the poison, which had passed through several meridians, reached the Meeting of Yin Acupoint, Jin Yuseong felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

‘Why the Meeting of Yin Acupoint of all places?’

The endpoint of the Ren meridian and a place connected to the Du meridian.

And between them was a huge barrier.

A gate called the so-called Gate of Life and Death.

‘Don’t tell me?’

The moment he thought of it.

The poison that had cleaned the Meeting of Yin Acupoint headed towards the Self-Strengthening Acupoint, the starting point of the Du meridian.

Naturally, the Gate of Life and Death was located on that path.

The poison, strongly condensed into a needle-like form, collided with the Gate of Life and Death.

Goosebumps rose on Jin Yuseong’s spine.

‘Crazy!’

It was a crazy act that even Jin Yuseong could not dare to imagine.

No, he could imagine it, but he could never attempt it.

Jin Yuseong had also opened the Gate of Life and Death with the power of Azure Pomegranate Stone, not with his own internal energy.

But at least Azure Pomegranate Stone was a collection of pure earth energy.

It meant that a minimum level of safety was guaranteed.

Moreover, at the time he consumed the Azure Pomegranate Stone, Jin Yuseong’s dantian had accumulated well over half a Gapja of internal energy.

It was insufficient compared to the energy of the Azure Pomegranate Stone, but he could control it enough with his internal energy.

On the other hand, Baek Hyang’s internal energy, even after absorbing a little of the pill’s energy, was at a level that was probably around ten years of cultivation.

At that moment, a ‘chiiiiik’ sound was heard from the wall of the Gate of Life and Death where the poison was touching.

It was the sound of the Gate of Life and Death slowly melting from the poison.

At that moment, the title Baek Hyang would get in the future came to Jin Yuseong’s mind again.

Lust Disaster.

A master who had freely handled hundreds and thousands of kinds of energy absorbed through the Absorption Art.

Someone who had opened the Gate of Life and Death even with that dirty energy and rose to a higher realm.

Only then did Jin Yuseong realize.

That even he, who had experienced the future, had been underestimating Baek Hyang.

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