Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 241 - Innate True Qi (3)
Chapter 241 – Innate True Qi (3)
===================
Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
===================
-Shuuuuuu!
Pale vapor poured out as Mok Gyeong-un slowly raised his body.
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin’s eyes trembled as she looked at him.
‘He is pushing out the innate true qi that had burrowed into his vital points.’
Because innate true qi was primordial qi itself, once it burrowed into the body, it was difficult to force it back out unless one possessed an inner power stronger than it.
Yet that violent qi now rising from Mok Gyeong-un was astonishingly forcing the innate true qi back out.
‘Just what is this qi?’
The vapor was gradually changing into black shimmering haze.
That qi felt so turbid and evil that it was hard to describe.
Wariness filled her eyes.
‘I held back my power, but after being struck in eight vital points he is still circulating qi like that… This man. He crossed the wall.’
So Ye-rin became certain in an instant that Mok Gyeong-un had crossed the wall.
She had already suspected, from the moment he smashed the Qi-Resistant Stone in the first test, that he might have reached the utmost extreme of the transcendent peak realm or perhaps even beyond, but it was still astonishing.
How could someone who had not even reached twenty rise to such a realm?
‘…I heard he was the Shadow Sect Master’s disciple of the Heaven and Earth Society?’
According to the information she had heard beforehand, that was true.
But in truth even the Shadow Sect Master of the Heaven and Earth Society had not reached such a realm.
It felt dangerous to explain all this merely with blue surpassing indigo, and the very qi he possessed made everything seem perilous.
‘First, suppress him.’
In any case, he had tried to kill Ju Un-hyang.
Then there was no reason to go easy on him.
-Pat!
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin kicked off the ground and shot toward Mok Gyeong-un.
Her figure blurred and vanished in an instant.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s right eye flashed.
Along with that, he used Na Yul-ryang’s Bright Manifest Water-Crossing Step of the Heaven and Earth Society and moved his body with ultra-high-speed movement.
-Pak!
The moment Mok Gyeong-un moved, a hand shot out into the spot where he had just been.
It was none other than So Ye-rin’s hand.
‘He dodged it?’
So Ye-rin’s fine brows rose upward.
Taking into account that her opponent was a master who had crossed the wall, she had raised her speed to match that level.
Yet he had evaded it.
Even his movement was anything but ordinary.
‘Ultra-high-speed movement?’
Her gaze shifted to the right.
There stood Mok Gyeong-un, who had evaded her strike, now thrusting sword-fingers wrapped in black qi toward her in an immediate counterattack.
‘Astral qi?’
Judging from its force, it was clearly astral qi.
But how could astral qi carry such violent qi?
She felt the innate true qi within her body rejecting it strongly.
‘Ordinary astral qi will not be enough to block this.’
So,
-Wooooong!
She concentrated innate true qi and formed white astral qi in her hand.
After producing that astral qi, So Ye-rin thrust her own sword-fingers upward at the wrist of Mok Gyeong-un’s hand as it aimed for her head.
‘Her response is fast.’
At that, Mok Gyeong-un hastily halted the thrust and shifted direction with his footwork.
-Papak!
Then he snapped up a kick toward her chin with a kicking technique.
-Pak!
But Mok Gyeong-un’s kick swept through empty air.
She had twisted her body to his side in an instant.
Not stopping there, So Ye-rin closed in on Mok Gyeong-un and at once placed her palm against his abdomen.
-Paang!
The moment it struck, wave-like ripples spread outward from the point of impact.
It was explosive discharge.
The qi carrying innate true qi would bore into his body and invade his internal organs.
That was what she thought, but then,
-Papak!
The palm with which she was releasing the explosive force was knocked back.
Wondering what in the world it was, she was soon unable to hide her surprise.
That was because she discovered Mok Gyeong-un’s palm pressed against her back.
‘This man.’
He had blocked explosive discharge with explosive discharge.
It was judgment ability too incredible to believe.
How could he release explosive force toward his own back in that split second?
This was not something born from long experience, but from overwhelmingly innate combat sense.
However,
‘An opening.’
-Thud!
She did not lack experience either.
That was why she did not miss the opening created in the instant Mok Gyeong-un blocked her strike through reverse explosive discharge, and she struck his chin with a palm.
Hit by it, Mok Gyeong-un’s body flew up into the air and was hurled eight zhang backward before crashing down.
His chin had been struck, and the shock to his brain was such that he could not get up at once from the dizziness.
‘She is strong.’
Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue inwardly.
Of everyone he had encountered so far, aside from that unidentified old man and the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, she was unquestionably the strongest.
He could not even gauge just how great her skill truly was.
-sentient being. That woman is not fighting at full strength.
-I know.
Mok Gyeong-un agreed with Blue Spirit’s words.
Unlike him, who was using his full power and had even released the demonic aura he had concealed, she had not yet drawn up all her qi.
With the right eye that had opened the demonic power of the Three Eyes, he could see that she was deliberately suppressing her qi.
He could not even guess how strong she would be if she fully released that.
“Cough, cough… Deputy Thousand-Household Commander…”
At that moment, Ju Un-hyang called out to Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin.
His voice did not come out loudly because Mok Gyeong-un had struck his throat and he had suffered internal injury, but there was no way a master of her level could fail to hear it.
So Ye-rin turned her head and said,
“Ju Un-hyang. Your internal injuries are serious, so regulate your breathing first. Quickly.”
At those words, Ju Un-hyang shook his head.
That was because he wanted to stop her first.
However things had developed, Mok Gyeong-un had ultimately abandoned the attempt to harm him.
So Ju Un-hyang tried to explain the circumstances, but,
“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander… please stop first…”
Before he could finish speaking,
blood burst from Ju Un-hyang’s mouth.
After suffering internal injury, he should have regulated his breathing and driven out the death aura that had entered his body, but by leaving it unattended, it had ravaged his internal organs.
-Thud!
“Uwek!”
At the sight of him vomiting blood while bent over, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin’s gaze turned sharp.
With it, killing intent rose.
Sensing that, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes narrowed.
‘Her qi rose.’
Through the right eye that had opened the demonic power of the Three Eyes, he could see her innate true qi had become far larger than before.
Her qi was surging in all directions.
This woman had perhaps reached the utmost extreme of the Flower Realm, or even beyond it.
-Srrk!
It was then.
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin had already vanished, and a flash-like trajectory was drawn in his right eye before she appeared at his side.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un hurriedly concentrated his qi and raised his left arm.
-Thud! Crack!
A blow landed on his left arm.
At the same time, Mok Gyeong-un’s body was shoved sideways more than ten paces.
Being driven back like that, Mok Gyeong-un gritted his teeth and barely endured without toppling over.
‘My left wrist is broken.’
From that alone, the difference in cultivated power between them was obvious.
It seemed to be at least twice as great.
While barely suppressing the trembling of his left wrist and clenching his fist, So Ye-rin warned him,
“You had better fight with all you have. Before I arrest you, I will make you pay for what you did to trainee Ju Un-hyang.”
With those words, So Ye-rin’s figure vanished again.
She was no longer thinking of suppressing Mok Gyeong-un halfway.
She meant to subdue him completely.
Even if that meant breaking every bone in his body.
Then, appearing in an instant to Mok Gyeong-un’s right, she unleashed a kicking technique toward his right ribs.
At that very moment, Mok Gyeong-un blocked it with his right arm.
-Thud!
Naturally, she expected him to be sent flying again, but,
-Shrrr!
Mok Gyeong-un’s body slid back only about three paces.
‘!?’
-Creak! Creak!
At that moment, So Ye-rin saw the veins on Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand bulge and blacken.
At the sight of his hand changing as if it belonged to a vicious demon, she frowned and muttered,
“Just what are you…”
“Whew. It is not pleasant to look at, so I do not like showing this, but it cannot be helped.”
It was the Acupoint-Switching Deviant Skill.
It was a method of temporarily amplifying qi through the reversing-acupoint technique.
Ordinary martial artists, when using it, would rapidly consume their true primordial qi or go berserk, but Mok Gyeong-un could control it perfectly because he used it only partially.
‘Amplifying only the qi in one hand?’
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin was inwardly astonished.
How much had this man hidden?
Then, after amplifying the qi in his right hand through the Acupoint-Switching Deviant Skill, Mok Gyeong-un formed a sword gesture with his sword-fingers.
That sword posture was none other than,
‘The first form of the Demonic Sword Skill.’
It was the first form of the sword art he himself had created.
[Demonic Sword Skill? Why did you name it that instead of just calling it a sword art?]
[Because I intend to merge the heart method and sword art into one instead of dividing them.]
[Merge the heart method and sword art into one?]
[Yes.]
Having come up with such a bizarre idea, Mok Gyeong-un named this sword art the Demonic Sword Skill.
The first form of the Demonic Sword Skill could be said to be the strongest method Mok Gyeong-un could currently display.
-Pat!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un launched his body forward.
Even if he could perfectly control the Acupoint-Switching Deviant Skill, he could not maintain it for long, so he meant to settle the fight quickly.
-Swaaak!
The instant Mok Gyeong-un unfolded the sword form, the amplified black astral qi drew a vast trajectory and began sweeping forward with a momentum like raging waves that seemed about to devour everything before it.
Faced with the enormous momentum of that sword form, So Ye-rin’s expression became far more serious than before.
‘Holding back… will not do.’
The sword form before her was an unmatched sword move.
It did not look blockable by any ordinary technique.
So So Ye-rin overlapped the index and middle fingers of her right hand to form sword-fingers, then stomped hard and drew them back.
-Gooooo!
At that instant, intense qi condensed from her fingertips as if her sword-fingers had become the eye of a typhoon.
-Flinch!
Mok Gyeong-un’s gaze sharpened.
‘This is…’
Something about it felt dangerous.
He had never before seen qi rise to such a level.
But he had already entered the sword form and had no choice but to clash.
-Kwa-dududud!
So Ye-rin, after drawing back her hand, thrust it like a cast spear toward Mok Gyeong-un as he rushed at her.
At that instant, sharp sword intent flared and raised a whirlwind of sword force.
-Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-chang!
The might of those two unmatched techniques colliding proved, astonishingly, to be evenly matched.
Ju Un-hyang, who had just barely brought his internal injuries under control by spitting out a mouthful of blood and regulating his qi, could not hide his shock at the sight.
He had already known Mok Gyeong-un was strong because he had fought him, but the woman he could call his master, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin, was a hidden powerhouse unknown to the world.
If she fought with all her strength, he could confidently say her martial prowess was greater than even the Eight Stars, who were called the highest masters.
And yet,
‘To be evenly matched?’
The sight of those two techniques colliding was astonishing.
It was like a raging sea crashing into a whirlwind.
The sword force unfolded by the two kept colliding without rest, yet neither side yielded in the slightest.
-Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-chang!
The one most astonished was So Ye-rin herself.
‘A power equal to the True Pursuing Rival Returning Sword?’
She too was greatly shocked by Mok Gyeong-un’s unmatched sword technique.
She had thought it extraordinary, but she had not expected it to possess power comparable to the supreme move in which she had the greatest confidence.
‘It feels as if my whole body will be torn apart.’
Meanwhile, Mok Gyeong-un was concentrating all his senses upon the sword form.
If he made even a single mistake, he would be caught in that whirlwind of sword force and have his whole body torn to pieces.
He had already reached the eighteenth movement out of twenty-four.
So Ye-rin’s sword force too was gradually exhausting itself, so he only needed to endure a little longer.
That was what he thought, but then,
“It has been a very long time since I have met a supreme swordsman of this level.”
With those words, she stepped the other foot toward the ground and stamped.
-Boom!
At the same time, she withdrew her right hand, drew back the sword-fingers of her left hand, and thrust them forward.
-Chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa!
Seeing it, Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils shook.
‘In succession?’
He had not anticipated at all that another move would flow out like this precisely as the momentum of the sword form was ending.
And this time the sword force rotated in reverse, continuing with a momentum utterly different from before.
Since the direction had changed, it became far harder to block.
-Creak! Creak!
Even the Acupoint-Switching Deviant Skill had reached its limit.
It had been a method of explosively increasing qi through the reversing-acupoint technique from the start, so maintaining it for long was impossible.
Was he going to be struck down like this?
Within Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes, he saw the core of the enormous whirlwind.
All the momentum was surging out from there.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s two eyes flashed.
‘I have to aim at the place where the momentum begins.’
To do that, he needed a force great enough to overwhelm that momentum, even if only for an instant.
The moment he recognized that, Mok Gyeong-un’s thoughts began linking directly toward only one thing.
And that linked thought arrived at a simple conclusion.
‘Gather it into one.’
He would gather all the forms of the Demonic Sword Skill, the greatest sword form he could use, into one.
That was no different from gathering all the sword force unfolding through the sword form and all the sword intent contained in each movement into one.
At Mok Gyeong-un’s current level, that was something close to impossible.
Yet the thoughts and will of Mok Gyeong-un, driven to the edge of a cliff, crossed that boundary that ordinary people could never cross.
‘Did he give up?’
Meanwhile, seeing Mok Gyeong-un’s sword force weakening, So Ye-rin thought he had realized he could not win and had given up.
But then, at that very instant,
-Chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa-chwa-chwak!
The twenty-four black trajectories that had been spreading outward while scattering particles of dark light dispersed and then at once were unified into a single point.
And one black line was drawn straight through the center of the whirling sword force.
‘!!!!!!!!’
-Chaang!
Along with that, an astonishing scene unfolded.
Before anyone knew it, Mok Gyeong-un had already passed by So Ye-rin and stood behind her, gripping his sword-fingers and breathing harshly, while the whirlwind sword force she had created had silently vanished.
And in addition,
-Drip, drip.
Blood drops were falling to the floor from the sword-fingers of her lowered left hand.