Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 53 - Kick Off the Torch Stand (4)

Chapter 53 – Kick Off the Torch Stand (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Dust and small pebbles struck my face as I ran toward him. Covering my eyes and mouth with both sleeves, I charged forward.

“Senior Brother!”

I shouted for Myeong-seong, but he was in no state to answer.

His eyelids fluttered open and shut, and beneath them his eyes had rolled back.

‘What do I do?’

It was deviation. But I wasn’t a martial artist. There had to be a way to deal with deviation, but I didn’t know it.

Should I run outside and call Master even now? But judging by Myeong-seong’s condition, already bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth, it didn’t seem like there was time to go and come back.

“Damn it! Wake up!”

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. At that moment, I was able to sense the internal energy raging inside Myeong-seong.

‘…This.’

If I wasn’t mistaken, what was raging right now was demonic qi. More precisely, the pure internal energy of the Supreme Clarity Pill and Myeong-seong’s own pure internal energy were being corrupted into demonic qi.

So this was deviation. Pure internal energy being corrupted and turning into demonic qi. They said demonic qi settled in the upper dantian and ruined the mind. I seemed to have developed a resistance to demonic qi by taking the Divine Demon Pill, but Myeong-seong had not. If I left him like this, Myeong-seong would become an imbecile.

‘This isn’t a simple rampage of internal energy, but corruption. If it’s this, I can handle it.’

I took my hands off his shoulders, sat the collapsing Myeong-seong upright, and placed a hand on his back. The internal energy was so rough that it made my palm sting as it churned through his qi channels.

I had a record of absorbing demonic qi while treating people in Wuhan. If I applied that, I should be able to draw the demonic qi out. This was something only I could do.

“Hup!”

I opened my eyes wide and stirred up my demonic qi.

I had confirmed it in Wuhan too, but my demonic qi held superiority over other people’s demonic qi. When my demonic qi penetrated Myeong-seong’s body, the demonic qi inside him instantly went still.

‘Guide it slowly and bring it into my body.’

With my hand on his back, I could see the condition of Myeong-seong’s body more clearly.

Right now, Myeong-seong’s lower dantian was on the verge of bursting. It was filled to the brim with the internal energy of the Supreme Clarity Pill. Because of that, the overflowing internal energy had caused a mutation in the middle and upper dantians, which had not yet been opened.

His qi channels and blood vessels were already badly damaged and weakened. If they were hurt any more, they might become unusable altogether.

I made the demonic qi as thin as thread. It was a choice made to burden his qi channels as little as possible.

Then I slowly drew it out. Since I’d already done it once before, it wasn’t painful, and the newly born demonic qi followed obediently, as if recognizing my demonic qi as its parent.

‘…Huh?’

I felt pressure gathering in my head. My face was probably turning bright red right now, with the veins at my temples and neck standing out.

Suddenly, the demonic qi inside Myeong-seong’s body rushed rapidly into mine. It obeyed too well. I tried to control the speed as much as possible, but if I forcibly stopped internal energy that had already built up momentum, a backlash could occur and Myeong-seong’s weakened qi channels might burst.

‘Damn it.’

So even obedience could be a problem. Feeling the mounting pressure in my head, I helplessly accepted the demonic qi.

The problem came right after that. The demonic qi was too sensitive, so even energies that had not yet fully mutated came surging violently into my body.

If this went on, I would inevitably have to separate the demonic qi from the Supreme Clarity Pill’s spiritual energy. But even if I separated them, the problem remained. It was common knowledge that different kinds of internal energy could not coexist inside one body. Wasn’t that exactly why I had tried to learn the Dual Intent Heart Art?

‘I think I’m doomed.’

They say there are plenty of cases where someone tries to help another person’s deviation, only to suffer deviation himself instead. This seemed to be exactly that sort of case.

But what else could I do? Myeong-gyeong had tried to protect me in front of the Zhuge Clan because he claimed to be my senior brother. So now I was protecting him too. At the very least, I was the sort of person who repaid what I had received.

‘I have no choice but to try.’

I had already extracted all the demonic qi from Myeong-seong’s body long ago. Myeong-seong’s ragged breathing returned to normal.

Now it was time to deal with my own body, which had recklessly taken in the Supreme Clarity Pill’s spiritual energy and demonic qi.

I called the secret manual of the Dual Intent Heart Art back to mind. There wasn’t much to recall. Black and white. Those colors were still shimmering even in the darkness.

If I couldn’t obtain the Dual Intent Heart Art now, I too would be in danger. The instant that thought struck me, my mind began turning faster on instinct. It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time. It was the sensation that had only activated when I was in danger during my days as a merchant.

It was a truly strange situation. Normally, in a crisis, people tell you to focus your mind into one. But right now, to escape this crisis, I had to split my mind into two.

Suddenly, I thought of the past.

It was when I was working as a merchant with only a small bundle slung over my shoulder. Far ahead on the road, I saw a merchant company that had been seized by brigands.

At the time, the fastest course had been to turn back the way I came and report it to the magistrate’s office. But what I was carrying on my back was meat that spoiled quickly. So instead of turning back, I hurried along my own path. I did report it at the magistrate’s office where I arrived, but they said the report had come too late and the merchant company’s people had all died.

When I heard that, I didn’t feel even a trace of guilt. Merchant companies getting plundered by bands of brigands and losing their lives was common enough, and another merchant had no “duty” to help them.

At the time, I’d poured my entire capital into buying that meat, and if that trading run had failed, I would’ve had to roll around at rock bottom for years again. If I had let myself get swept up by sentiment and pushed around here and there, I would’ve remained nothing more than an ordinary merchant instead of becoming a great one.

‘Then what about now?’

Why was I helping Myeong-seong? Because Myeong-gyeong helped me? If so, I could just repay Myeong-gyeong. Besides, the give-and-take I believed in was reciprocity, not sacrifice.

In the end, I decided to admit it honestly. The reason I was helping now wasn’t because Myeong-gyeong had helped me. It was that Myeong-gyeong had changed me. He had changed the kind of person I was.

‘Since when…’

Was the current me closer to a merchant?

Or closer to a martial artist?

At that moment, I realized it. Why not be both a merchant and a martial artist? They say the human body is a small cosmos. If that small cosmos couldn’t hold even two things, then what could it hold?

With that realization, the demonic qi and spiritual energy began to separate. The demonic qi went to the upper dantian, the spiritual energy to the lower dantian, the two tearing apart from each other. My consciousness could caress the demonic qi and the spiritual energy at the same time.

The Dual Intent Heart Art wasn’t about splitting me into two people. It was about recognizing that the person called me was large enough to contain two intentions. Yin and yang and taiji. Heaven and earth. The sun and the moon. The thing that could unite two opposites. That was what people called the Dao.

I opened my eyes. It was the moment I attained the first star of the Dual Intent Heart Art.

***

Myeong-seong was sent to the infirmary. Even if I had stabilized and gathered the rampaging internal energy, the qi channels and blood vessels injured during the rampage still had to be treated.

“What happened?”

Cheong-hwa, who had been at the Three Purities Hall, came down to the Hall of Exhausting the Way at once.

Cheong-hwa’s voice was more serious and grief-stricken than ever before. Since his disciple had suffered a major internal injury and been carried to the infirmary, that was only natural.

“It seems he took the Supreme Clarity Pill.”

“The Supreme Clarity Pill, hm. Medicine in excess becomes poison. Even the first-generation disciples would find it difficult to take the Supreme Clarity Pill without the elders’ help.”

Cheong-hwa let out a sigh, sounding regretful.

“I went to the infirmary and took Myeong-seong’s pulse. It was quite a severe deviation.”

“Yes. Though it’s the first time I’ve seen one.”

“Was it you who calmed the fit?”

“That’s how it turned out.”

With those words, I explained in detail what had happened before. I also told him that Myeong-seong had been having a hard time comparing himself with other people.

After hearing everything, Cheong-hwa spoke in a self-reproachful tone.

“I actually knew to some extent. That Myeong-seong had been worrying over such things. But I thought the child had to overcome it on his own, so I left him be.”

“It would’ve been better if he’d overcome it on his own. This isn’t your fault, Master.”

“No. As one who became a master, I failed to look after my disciple’s heart, so my own cultivation is lacking as well.”

I closed my mouth for a moment. It couldn’t be helped that Cheong-hwa thought that way. Just as it couldn’t be helped that Myeong-seong, in his desperation, had taken the Supreme Clarity Pill.

After a brief silence, Cheong-hwa spoke.

“But how did you suppress deviation? That is impossible unless one possesses inner strength that overwhelms the other party and a deep understanding of the eight extraordinary meridians.”

“Who knows.”

I merely shrugged. There was no way to dress this up. All I could do was feign ignorance and say I didn’t know either.

“When I examined Myeong-seong’s pulse, I found it wasn’t a simple rampage. It had gone so far as to be corrupted into demonic qi. And a fellow third-generation disciple controlled that and guided it out.”

“…Ahem.”

I couldn’t say even if it killed me that it was because I possessed higher demonic qi. But fortunately, Cheong-hwa didn’t seem to suspect me.

“I thought you were only a genius in swordsmanship and footwork, but it seems you’re a genius at handling inner strength as well.”

“Y-Yes? Well, I-I suppose I am.”

“Honestly. What an absurd child you are.”

A brief smile passed over Cheong-hwa’s face, which had been filled with worry.

Cheong-hwa patted my shoulder and stood up.

“For now, you should rest as well. You must have accumulated a great deal of fatigue. There will probably be rewards and punishments tomorrow.”

“Rewards and punishments?”

“You saved a disciple, so a reward ought to be given. And since he disobeyed the Sect Leader’s words and took the Supreme Clarity Pill on his own, won’t a punishment be handed down as well?”

“…Is that so.”

More than the fact that I would be rewarded, the fact that Myeong-seong would be punished left a bitter taste in my mouth.

That was because I thought taking the Supreme Clarity Pill had been unavoidable for Myeong-seong. I even thought it was admirable that he had gambled with his life.

It should’ve been something for which he was looked after even more, yet they were going to punish him. My mood soured.

“I will try to stop it as much as possible. But the Sect Leader was very angry.”

Perhaps having read my expression, Cheong-hwa spoke in a bitter tone.

My head grew complicated, but for the moment I lay down on my bed. As Cheong-hwa said, I was tired.

As I lay there, my head and lower abdomen grew faintly hot. The absorbed energies had not yet fused together properly.

I sprang up, sat in meditation, and performed breathing exercises. Demonic qi and spiritual energy. Two kinds of internal energy flowed through my blood vessels at the same time. It was the Dual Intent Heart Art in perfection. I kept circulating those energies and making them my own. Bright sunlight shone through my closed eyelids. When I opened my eyes, morning had come before I knew it.

“Haaam.”

Though I was tired because I hadn’t slept a wink, my heart felt full.

That was because the increased demonic qi in my upper dantian and the spiritual energy of the Supreme Clarity Pill in my lower dantian gave me a sense of fullness.

I couldn’t make all the absorbed energy mine because there was simply too much of it, but if I kept at it, there would still be progress.

My thoughts turned to Myeong-seong. I hadn’t been able to absorb all of the Supreme Clarity Pill’s energy by taking in the mutated energy, but Myeong-seong’s internal energy must have grown considerably as well. The Supreme Clarity Pill contained that much enormous power.

“Should I go see him?”

I kicked off the blanket and got to my feet. Cheong-hwa had ordered me to come straight to the Three Purities Hall once I got up.