Chapter 50: This Time to Mount Hua. (4)

Ten days had already passed since we departed from Gu Clan for Mount Hua.

If there was one difference compared to when I used to go to Sichuan, it was that I couldn’t rest comfortably anymore.

“Young Master, are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

“N-no. You don’t need to worry about it.”

The biggest problem was that the coachman driving the carriage right in front of me happened to be one of the Three Sovereigns of the World, the Sword Sovereign.

Seriously, out of all those carriages, why was he driving the one I was in?

Thanks to that, it was ten days of feeling pressured, constantly watching my back, and feeling like I was going to die from the stress.

If I had to guess the reason, I suspected it might be because of Wi Seol-ah, who was riding with me, but regardless, from my perspective, they were suffocating days.

It would have been much easier if I hadn’t known he was the Sword Sovereign.

Damn it….

“Mu Yeon, how much further do we have to go?”

I called out to Mu Yeon, who was outside the carriage.

It was practically a meaningless question.

Mu Yeon gave me a slightly stiff smile and said,

“Young Master… I think you’ve asked that about thirty times just today.”

“…Right? I thought I’d asked quite a bit too.”

“To reiterate, we still have to travel several times further than we have now.”

“…It sounds grim every time I hear it, doesn’t it?”

This damn wide piece of land….

As I let out a deep sigh, Wi Seol-ah sidled up next to me and started chattering away.

“Young Master, Young Master.”

“What is it.”

“Young Master, what kind of dumplings do you like the most?”

“Not what kind of food, but what kind of dumplings? What kind of strange question is that?”

“But, Young Master, you only eat dumplings.”

“….”

It didn’t seem like she was wrong, so I had nothing particular to say.

Asking what kind of dumplings I liked… Have we really gotten to that point?

“Dumplings are just best when they’re just dumplings.”

“Why?”

“They’re cheap and there’s a lot of them.”

It was a truly simple reason. Because they were cheap and plentiful.

And because they were delicious.

There might be dozens of types of dumplings, but I didn’t bother specifying.

They just had to be reasonably cheap, reasonably plentiful, and taste better than Byeokgokdan.

Since I’d eaten worse, I tended to eat anything that seemed like food without being picky.

At my answer, Wi Seol-ah tilted her head.

“That’s strange, my sisters said you had a picky palate…”

“Not anymore.”

Maybe I was back then.

When I was young, I’d nonsensically insist on expensive ingredients, talk about quality, or the appearance of things.

I found meaning in things that had none.

But in the end, I learned with shivers that even those things meant absolutely nothing when you reached the very end of life.

[Just eat something.]

[Fuck, how can anyone eat this crap? Do you eat scorpion tails calling it food?]

[Do you think I eat this like it’s food? I eat it to survive, you crazy bastard.]

[I’m not eating.]

[If you’re not going to eat it, just give it to me, please. I’d rather eat one more bite than waste time being so proud.]

Looking back now, scorpion tails weren’t that bad.

To be precise, it meant they were the most edible thing among what we had there.

It was a place where we had to drink beast blood instead of water, and eat things we knew were poisonous just to fill our stomachs.

What a fucking terrible memory.

“…My stomach feels upset.”

Just thinking about it for a moment made me feel like I was going to throw up.

I felt bloated and nauseous.

Wi Seol-ah glanced at my complexion, then quickly took something out from her robes.

It was a Yakgwa.

…What was she doing, pulling out a Yakgwa in a hurry instead of medicine?

Then, with a trembling voice, she hesitated before speaking.

“Would you like a bite, Young Master…?”

“…Not a whole one, but just a bite? What kind of stingy thing is that to say?”

“But… there’s only one left.”

At Wi Seol-ah’s words, I leaned forward slightly and took the Yakgwa.

Pretending to take just a bite, but actually taking the whole thing.

“Ah, Ah, Noooooo!”

Wi Seol-ah’s wails echoed mournfully inside the carriage.

Roughly speaking, the past ten days were just like today.

They had passed meaninglessly.

When night fell, we camped as usual.

The horses pulling the carriage needed rest, and as it was a long journey, reducing physical fatigue was important.

A fire was quickly lit, and the guards, as if they had been waiting, formed a circle around it to keep watch.

It was an early watch.

That night, both Wi Seol-ah and the Sword Sovereign had left the carriage, and except for the guards stationed around, I was completely alone inside.

I assumed a proper posture, sat cross-legged, and slowly circulated the Nine Flames Wheel Technique.

The energy, starting from my dantian, slowly spread throughout my entire body.

With a ‘kkuguk!’ sound, I could feel my body strengthening.

My exhaled breath mixed with heat and crimson internal energy.

It meant I was almost at the 4th level.

It’s quite easy up to this point, though.

Once I circulated the internal energy within my body beyond a certain point, it started to flow less and less in the direction I wanted.

I could feel it becoming awkward and rough.

This is where the limits of the 3rd level lie.

If I forced the energy further, my acupoints would be damaged.

Once broken through, they would open smoothly, but the problem was that my body couldn’t withstand it right now.

As expected, it was another issue with my body.

In my impatience, I kept trying like this, but I kept getting stuck right around here.

‘I’m too impatient, both in mind and situation.’

Feeling like I couldn’t push it any further, I calmly retracted the internal energy back into my dantian.

Even pointless greed has its limits.

The key to advancing one’s cultivation technique was knowing those limits precisely.

Crossing that line or not was crucial in distinguishing between cultivation deviation and growth.

The reason I put excessive effort into my cultivation technique in such situations wasn’t just to reach the 4th level, but also to consistently train the technique itself.

Step by step, I solidified the foundation while purging impure energy.

The internal energy honed and refined like this would help me gain much more as I grew in the future.

‘…Haa.’

Suddenly, I felt ridiculous thinking like this.

‘I thought I had left my ambition for power behind in the past.’

Just to become strong enough to barely endure, how many months had it been since I decided that?

As soon as a few fortunate encounters overlapped, I immediately became greedy.

As if a martial artist is still a martial artist despite themselves.

As the heat subsided, I felt the stillness of the quiet night.

Chirup, chirup, the sound of night insects lingered in my ears.

Listening to the insects’ chirping, I relaxed my body against the chair.

It was because I had no strength left after just finishing my cultivation.

When I’m in such an empty state, thoughts of what I need to do or my past sins surface, making things bothersome and complicated.

Lately, I hadn’t been having those thoughts.

It was because of the plum blossom scent filling the carriage.

The scent within the carriage, which I noticed immediately after retracting my energy, even made me feel a little dizzy.

If you ask why there’s a sudden plum blossom scent, it’s probably because of the stone on my chest.

“…It really happens at all times, doesn’t it.”

The pleasant scent tickling my nose made me laugh emptily.

The precious item I received from Elder Yi was emitting fragrance from my chest.

Initially, it had no effect because it was wrapped in cloth, but a few days ago, it started emitting fragrance even without unwrapping it.

I figured it was normal for a precious item, but today it was particularly strong.

“How did something like this come to be?”

I carefully took the cloth pouch from my robes.

Precious items were wondrous things, even in the future compared to now.

Not to mention this thing, the stone that contained plum blossoms.

Like Namgung’s sword containing lightning energy, or the Buddha statue said to hold Shaolin’s light.

Mysterious objects that seemed to defy the principles of nature.

These were called precious items, but their existence remained a difficult mystery to ponder.

They simply existed because they existed.

I examined the stone, about two finger-joints long, from various angles before putting it back in my robes.

If I accidentally broke it while playing with it, I’d really have to disappear somewhere far away, let alone go to Mount Hua.

I put the stone back in my robes, but the carriage was still filled with the plum blossom scent.

If it weren’t Mount Hua, it should be a season where plum blossoms are scarce…

To think I was experiencing the scent of plum blossoms inside a carriage, absurdly.

Maybe because the scent was so strong, I even felt the illusion of petals scattering.

‘Am I just sleepy…’

I rubbed my eyes for a moment, but the petals remained.

‘I must be really tired,’ I thought, shifting my position slightly to the side.

The attendants must have set up sleeping arrangements outside, so it would be much more comfortable to sleep out there.

For some reason, I felt overwhelmingly sleepy today.

Yeah, I’ll just close my eyes for a moment.

I’ll rest a little, then quickly go out and finish my physical training.

With such a light thought, I relaxed my body.

As I slowly drifted off to sleep, amidst the hazy feeling, I thought I faintly heard a voice.

[What the heck is this guy…?]

Where was it coming from? It was the voice of an old man I’d never heard before.

[Doesn’t seem like a Mount Hua kid, does he?]

Is this a dream?

Am I having another nightmare?

[How is someone who isn’t even a Mount Hua punk consuming energy like this?]

As I thought that in my half-asleep state, the old man’s voice sounded quite angry, as if displeased.

[…Damn it all, I’ve lived a long life but never seen such a shitty situation… Whose bloodline are you, to be gobbling it up so frantically? You’ll get sick, you punk!]

It felt like something was continuously tapping my cheek, urging me to wake up.

However, my body, thoroughly drunk on sleep, couldn’t move easily.

[…Ah, screw it all…!]

After cursing like that for a while, perhaps giving up, the voice disappeared.

And when I woke up.

“What the…?”

Absurdly and out of the blue, the Nine Flames Wheel Technique had advanced to the 4th level.

---

Hwaruk!

The internal energy wrapped around my fingertips flickered wildly.

What only managed to produce faint wisps of heat yesterday had changed like this.

This was clear proof that my cultivation technique had risen to the 4th level.

I stared at the flames with a dumbfounded expression, but there was no change; this was reality.

“What is it? What on earth is this…”

What hadn’t even considered advancing from the 3rd level yesterday had suddenly jumped to the 4th level by morning.

I was so bewildered that I couldn’t even speak properly.

I was happy that it had advanced as I wished, but it was frustrating not knowing why.

My body hadn’t been strengthened overnight out of the blue.

My body remained the same, but the internal energy had strangely calmed down.

The energy circulating in my body wasn’t rough but flowed calmly and smoothly.

Thanks to that, it had passed through the acupoints in the desired direction without damaging them.

Good heavens, ‘smooth’? No matter how I thought about it, it was a word completely unfitting for the Nine Flames Wheel Technique.

If I had to compare my current energy, it was strikingly similar to Daoist energy.

The energy of a cultivation technique famous for being like a rampaging beast being similar to Daoist energy? What kind of ridiculous statement is that?

Even more, the biggest issue was that the internal energy, which should have been crimson like it was about to burn, looked strangely pale.

…It felt like a familiar kind of energy.

Reaching this point, I instinctively felt a chill.

With subtly trembling hands, I discreetly took out the stone from my robes and unwrapped it.

Please don’t let it be… God, please.

‘Please….’

Perhaps it was because my desperate wish for it not to be came true.

Fortunately, the Plum Blossom Affection Stone had no problems.

Lately, whenever I touched any strange-looking stone or bead, it seemed to have absorbed them all, so whenever something like this happened, I was overcome with anxiety.

If this crazy demonic technique had also absorbed the energy of the precious item, I might have had to live hidden away in a corner, let alone go to Mount Hua.

In that sense, it couldn’t be more fortunate that the stone was fine.

Even as I breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the stone, I felt a slight sense of incongruity.

‘…Is the light a bit dimmer?’

The plum blossom light that illuminated the surroundings when unwrapped now seemed inexplicably diminished.

No, it must be my imagination… It has to be.

“Just in case… I shouldn’t carry it around. I should put it somewhere else.”

Losing it somewhere after putting it away is better than destroying the precious item while carrying it…

No, looking at it either way, both seem like fucked up situations…?

Shit, why did I end up taking responsibility for something like this…!

I intensely resented Elder Yi for suddenly entrusting me with something like this.

“…It’s fine. If I pretend not to know, return it, achieve my objective, and come back, no one will know.”

Besides, the objective wasn’t even to return the precious item, but to bring my younger sister back.

As long as I don’t get involved nonsensically, it should be fine.

No, if it’s not fine, I have to make it fine.

That’s what I thought at the time.

“I have something I wish to ask, hence this rudeness.”

And I had foolishly forgotten one thing.

“My name is Yeongpung of the Mount Hua Sect.”

That I have incredibly terrible luck.

….Fuck.