Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 35 - The Heart Beats (2)

Chapter 35 – The Heart Beats (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A thick violet mist poured out from both my body and the girl’s. It came from my body, yet it carried something deeply unsettling.

The qi began circulating through the body at an unbelievably rapid speed.

I knew this because I had once practiced the Three Calamities Heart Method in my previous life. This was an abnormal circulation of qi.

Inner qi usually emerged from the dantian, descended toward the anus, then surged up the Governing Vessel along the spine. After rising to the Baihui point at the crown, it descended along the front Conception Vessel and returned to the dantian.

It varied by heart method, but the Three Calamities Heart Method had taken about two gak for a single full circulation, if I remembered correctly. It was generally said that orthodox martial arts were slower and steadier, while the arts of the unorthodox sects were faster and rougher.

Then what kind of martial art was this circulation that completed a full circuit in the blink of an eye? My whole body grew hot, as though my qi channels were being wounded by the speed of the flow.

My throat felt as though a ball of fire were burning inside it, and I wanted to open my mouth immediately, but instinctively I knew I couldn’t. This was my own inborn qi.

Instead of opening my mouth, blood started pouring from my eyes, nose, and lips. It dripped down onto the girl’s body.

“Junior Brother, Junior Brother!”

It felt as though I could hear Myeong-gyeong’s voice dimly from very far away.

I couldn’t even take in the situation around me anymore. All I could feel was the inner qi racing so fast it burned, and a heartbeat that felt as though it would burst. I could even smell something scorched at the tip of my nose, and it felt as though my whole body had become one giant flame.

Caught in that storm of agony, I felt as though I were about to lose consciousness. But I knew if I lost consciousness now, I would die. At least that much I understood.

‘The Martial Talent Shop. I have to buy something from the Martial Talent Shop.’

At any rate, I still had money in my pouch right now. I should be able to buy something from the Martial Talent Shop.

Thankfully, even though my mind was reeling, the words of the Martial Talent Shop remained perfectly clear. I quickly swept my eyes over the list.

[ Unyielding – Grade 5 ]

[ Price: two thousand nyang of silver ]

There was a Grade 7 talent called Toughness, but right now I was practically on the verge of death. I didn’t want to save money and create danger for myself for no reason. Besides, since there was a limit to how many talents I could equip, it was better to buy the expensive thing while I could.

The moment I purchased Unyielding without hesitation, I felt my mind clear. Of course, the pain remained. Only my mind had cleared.

Still, once my mind came back, I was finally able to observe the states of my body and the girl’s body.

Something I hadn’t noticed before because everything had happened too suddenly and painfully became clear. The qi inside the girl’s body and the qi inside mine were similar, yet not the same. They were the same type of qi, but the density itself differed. In other words, my inner qi had far greater purity.

And the qi within the girl’s body was eating away at her from the inside, whereas my qi was not eating away at me. It was merely circulating rapidly.

The girl’s qi was definitely yielding before mine and trailing behind it. I began guiding that qi gently.

At any rate, the qi inside my body was mine. So long as my mind remained, I could control it well enough.

‘Maybe I just need to draw it in.’

It seemed certain that the qi spread throughout the girl’s entire body was what had worsened her symptoms. I didn’t know what kind of qi this was, but since it was harmless to me, I decided to draw it in for now.

I tried to absorb only the qi similar to my own while disturbing the girl’s primordial life qi as little as possible.

How much time had passed? At some point, my hand naturally detached from the girl’s wrist. I immediately fell backward onto the floor.

“Puhah, haa, hngh.”

With ragged gasps, the blood that had pooled in my mouth spilled out. The room was already filled with stains the color of my qi, and with the blood I had sprayed on top of that, it had become positively sinister.

When I looked around, Myeong-gyeong was nowhere to be seen. Had he run away? That shouldn’t have felt disappointing. Ever since becoming a merchant, I had never trusted people even once. That had come from a merchant’s instinct. Since I hadn’t trusted him, I shouldn’t have felt disappointed either, yet somehow the aftertaste in my mouth was bitter.

“Tsk.”

Even so, the girl’s breathing had stabilized quite a bit. She was no longer sweating, and her pulse was beating normally.

I opened the door and stepped outside. My body was drenched in sweat, so the wind coming in felt not just cold but chilling.

There I saw a small back standing in the courtyard. That little child had his sword drawn and pointed straight ahead, as though guarding the way and preventing anyone from coming in.

“Senior Brother?”

At my voice, Myeong-gyeong turned around. He ran straight to me and threw himself into my arms.

“Junior Brother!”

“Ugh. I’m having a rough time right now, you know.”

“You weren’t suffering deviation, were you? Your inner qi suddenly went berserk, so I stood guard for you.”

So he hadn’t run away. He had been standing guard for me. For a brief moment, I felt ashamed that I had doubted Myeong-gyeong.

“Whatever it was, that’s good! She’s alive now, right?”

Myeong-gyeong patted my back with his hand. I found that so admirable that I patted his back too.

“How dare you do that to your senior brother.”

Even while saying that, Myeong-gyeong was grinning. He really must have thought I was going to die. Then again, judging by the storm of qi from before, it had been enough to make it seem like a person might really die on the spot.

At that moment, a man brushed past Myeong-gyeong and me and shot into the room like an arrow. Needless to say, it was Hyeong Tae-seong, the girl’s father.

“Sae-eun, Sae-eun!”

His voice, burning with worry, rang out from inside the room. Myeong-gyeong and I followed him in.

“Your daughter should be all right now.”

I spoke from behind him. Even without my saying it, Hyeong Tae-seong had already been touching the girl called Sae-eun’s arms and legs and checking her pulse. The limbs that had been cold enough to look dark had now regained a healthy warmth. The pulse was probably normal too, just as when I had felt it.

As though unable to believe that the girl had suddenly gotten better, Hyeong Tae-seong checked her pulse again and again before pulling her into his arms.

“Oh, you’ve lived. My daughter. My daughter has lived!”

“Dad?”

The commotion woke the girl as well. She was a young girl with big, clear eyes.

“How does your body feel?”

“…Uh, yeah, I feel fine?”

“Thank goodness, thank goodness!”

“Dad, I can’t breathe…”

Hyeong Tae-seong hugged the child tightly. She said it hurt, but she didn’t look displeased. Even that much let me infer that they had always had a good father-daughter relationship.

Once the girl escaped the prison of that embrace, the prisoner of the embrace became me. Hyeong Tae-seong turned around and suddenly hugged me.

“Thank you, thank you! How can I ever repay this grace!”

“Not at all. I only did what should naturally have been done.”

Even as I said that, I was smiling to myself. Since Hyeong Tae-seong had his head against my shoulder, he couldn’t see my expression anyway.

“But Dad, this mister looks kind of suspicious…”

“You little thing. He is the one who saved your life.”

“No, but you need to see his expression…”

Children’s eyes really were frighteningly direct. But Hyeong Tae-seong paid it no mind and kept thanking me over and over.

Even while my back was being thumped, I kept thinking. My prescription had definitely not been wrong. There really had been improvement. But what in the world had that qi been? It had been my qi, yes, but it wasn’t the sort of qi a little girl like this would naturally possess.

“By the way, when exactly did this epidemic start?”

“Let’s see. It began getting reported all over at once around last month.”

“All over at once. Was there anything strange about it?”

Back then in my previous life, I had been in another province rather than Hubei, so I didn’t know the exact details. I had only heard of it from afar.

“There was one unusual point when the first cases were reported.”

“An unusual point?”

“But this is a secret that shouldn’t be told to ordinary commoners.”

Hyeong Tae-seong hesitated, then continued.

“It’s nothing much. The people who first got sick had all bought food at a large market held in Wuhan at the time. After that, people who came into contact with them became infected.”

“That’s really not much of a secret.”

How often did people get sick because something they bought at the market was bad? It was an extremely common case. But I thought I understood why they’d kept it secret.

“If word got out that people got sick from food sold in the market, then the market itself would shrink, so it was kept quiet.”

“…That’s right.”

Hyeong Tae-seong scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

Most likely the merchant associations selling goods there had used money to keep a lid on it. It wasn’t a bad thing from the government’s point of view either. If the market shrank, people’s spending would decrease, and as a result tax revenues would fall.

“Of course, that wasn’t a matter decided at my level.”

“I know. Sixth rank isn’t exactly such a lofty post.”

“…That’s true, but it still feels a little unpleasant hearing it said that way.”

“Still, an investigation should’ve been carried out.”

“An investigation was carried out. It’s just that the people who sold the food all vanished without a trace. You may or may not know this, but people who set up food stalls in the market have to register with the market office as merchants. But those people’s identities were all unclear.”

“How is that possible? The market office would never accept people that unclear.”

“…Actually, that’s the strange part too. According to the market superintendent at the time, when he registered those people, his memory afterward was hazy. As though he had been possessed by something. Of course, it was an absurd excuse, so he was dismissed.”

I froze. Could that perhaps have been the Illusory Soul-Seizing Art used by people of the Demonic Cult? If so, then it would make perfect sense that the market superintendent couldn’t remember them.

Something similar to the qi of the Divine Demon Pill had been found in the girl’s body, people had fallen ill all over at once, and the market superintendent couldn’t remember the merchants at all. There was no way all of that was coincidence. I didn’t believe in coincidence itself.

‘Did the Demonic Cult spread the plague?’

So they had already been moving from this early on. That too was startling.

There wasn’t much more I could learn. To be honest, it would be hard for me alone to investigate anything about the Demonic Cult.

“At any rate, thank you truly. I ought to hold a feast in your honor.”

Perhaps embarrassed because the authorities’ shameful side had been exposed, Hyeong Tae-seong deliberately raised his voice as he spoke. But I waved my hands to stop him.

“For the moment, my mind and body are too drained. I’d like to rest.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll give you a room.”

Hyeong Tae-seong’s house was simple. Even though Registrar wasn’t such a lofty rank, it was still a post where one could easily make a lot of money under the table if one wished. The reputation of incorruptible official seemed true enough.

Using fatigue as an excuse, I even sent Myeong-gyeong away. Hyeong Tae-seong had already become kind enough to give us separate rooms each.

Once inside my room, I immediately sat in the lotus posture. It was the first time I had ever assumed a posture for guiding and regulating qi. I quietly closed my eyes and observed the inside of my body.

To my astonishment, I could feel something settled in the dantian that had originally been empty. It was, as expected, the qi of the Divine Demon Pill. The amount of that qi was very small, but its density was incredible. This seemed to be demonic qi, the power of those of the Demonic Cult.

I drew inner qi from the dantian and tried a minor circulation. As expected, the minor circulation was incredibly fast. It completed a full circuit in almost the blink of an eye. Compared to how the Three Calamities Heart Method took two gak for one full cycle, it was absurdly fast.

It was said that every full circulation increased inner qi a little. Then if the speed was this great, did that mean foundation-building would advance at the same speed?

“Whew.”

I looked out the window.

‘Demonic qi.’

For a Registered lay disciple of Wudang to possess demonic qi. If that were discovered, I’d be immediately accused of being a spy of the Demonic Cult and beheaded by the Martial Alliance. An excuse like saying I had swallowed the Divine Demon Pill in my previous life would never work.

Where exactly was my life headed? I truly had no idea.