Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#010

[Day 10 of Training.]

“Huff… huff!”

I gasped for rough breaths.

Hot breath burst through the white, cool winter air.

The iron chains were cold enough to stick to my skin.

My clothes, torn to shreds everywhere, were soaked with sweat.

The massive training ground carved out of the underground walls was crushed and destroyed on all sides.

All around were iron chains and huge rocks that had been brought in.

Dozens of broken wooden training dummies were scattered about.

“Grgh!”

I run while holding water buckets in both hands with handles so thick that only two fingers can barely touch around them.

With an equally thick-handled axe whose blade has been dulled, I relentlessly chop logs, making sure to create twenty pieces every day.

I strap rocks to my body and hang from the ceiling beams. I endure using only leg strength and arm power.

I push and roll bundles of four logs tied together up the hills of the rear mountain. When I reach the summit, I support them on my back as I come down again.

At dawn, thin frost cracked like hoofprints on the muddy ground.

The log bundles, which aren’t round but have edges, move at irregular speeds both going up and coming down. If I relax even slightly, I can’t adapt to that erratic pace and get crushed to death.

Starting with the softest rock sandstone, I begin repeatedly striking with my fists and elbows, targeting twenty-five joints.

Including additional supplementary training, I relentlessly push through a total of nine priority training exercises that I performed when building my body in the past. After completing one round, I return to the first of the nine exercises and start again.

-Thud…!

While hanging from the ceiling, I fell along with the rock secured to my body with chains.

“Aaahhh!!!”

I rolled around with a desperate scream.

The skin all over my body was scraped by the chains and blood poured out.

“Huff… huff!”

I fumbled with a pale face from pain. After flailing my hands, I barely managed to untie the chains that secured my upper body-.

“Blech!”

I finally vomited up all the food I had forced myself to eat.

“Oh no…! Young Master Hui! Are you alright?”

Wu Biaoyun, who had been counting my training repetitions from afar, came running over in a panic. He cut away the worn-out clothes that were tightening around my limbs.

Over my gasping body, the protective body markings of the Pasa Blood Formula appeared and disappeared repeatedly as if seeping in.

“This is too much. I’ve never heard of such brutal training.”

Wu Biaoyun shouted.

“At least reduce the weight-.”

“If I back down even once, it’s over!”

I shouted with bloodshot eyes.

“That’s how my life was…! Just this once should be fine, just this one time should be okay! Compromising this moment for the next life… because of that thinking… because of that!”

“…Young Master Hui…?”

“If my thinking is correct, to endure what I have in mind in such a short time…!”

I stood up abruptly.

“One shichen… I must have the basic stamina to endure at least one shichen, or I won’t survive and overcome it…!”

I push away Wu Biaoyun who was trying to stop me.

I tie the rock to my body again with the chains.

I shouted toward Wu Biaoyun.

“I’ll do it again! If I fall again before the set time, I’ll start over from the beginning!”

I start training again from the very first of the nine exercises.

“Blech!!”

Even when I vomited again, this time I didn’t stop. Blood seeped between my clenched teeth.

My fingernails began to come loose and dangle.

“…He’s insane.”

Wu Biaoyun muttered in bewilderment.

….

….

[Day 20]

-Crash! Crash! Bang!

“Aaahhh!!”

Blood and stone fragments burst and scraped away from my swinging bare fists and elbows.

-Crash!

With screams, the number of rocks I carried increased.

The bowls of rice I ate increased.

The amount of meat increased.

When my body got used to it and achieved a certain number and time, I immediately increased the weight of the rocks I handled.

When it became bearable, I increased the thickness of all the handles I gripped – buckets, axes, everything.

When training ended and I collapsed with a trembling body as if fainting, Wu Biaoyun dragged me away.

In one corner of the training ground.

Where a ray of sunlight entered, in a dug-out pit, hot water mixed with medicinal herbs was collected. He pushed my body into it.

Then I used all my strength to insert silver needles into four acupoints of the Pasa Blood Formula that promote recovery with trembling hands, and fell asleep as if fainting.

Exactly five shichen.

That was the only recovery time given to me.

….

….

“What is this place?”

“This was originally the main purpose of the Sword Master’s annex. This place that used to be a prison. It’s also next to the underground apothecary storage.”

I pointed to the wall full of nail marks inside the cell with its door open.

“That prison wall made of black rock – it looks ordinary, but it’s probably Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron.”

“Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron…?”

“Thanks to this, martial artists who got cocky with a bit of internal energy and were imprisoned here probably died struggling without being able to use their strength properly eight or nine times out of ten.”

Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron had strong yin properties that gradually absorbed and trapped the internal energy of imprisoned martial artists, making it a material often used in prisons for martial artists. Therefore, old Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron in family estates typically had residual energy accumulated over decades from prisoners seeping into the walls.

In my previous life, I had been imprisoned myself during my assassin days, and had trouble when my targets were confined there – it was truly something I had a love-hate relationship with.

“How on earth do you know such things?”

“I was once beaten by Namgung Cheon and locked up here all night. During the coming and going process, I heard stories from martial artists. And…”

I looked at the Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron.

“The internal energy contained in this prison will be useful for the completion process of what I have in mind.”

….

….

[Day 50]

-Clank, clatter…!

I inserted chains through the gap fixed in the ceiling and pulled them out.

I connected the end to bind my torso.

And gave the other end to Wu Biaoyun.

“As we discussed.”

I layered thick clothes all over my body.

Taking deep breaths, I stood in the middle of the prison cavity connected to the underground training hall.

“Today is just equipment check and posture confirmation. The actual execution will begin here on the sixtieth day. Understood?”

Wu Biaoyun spoke toward me.

“Are you really sure this is okay?”

“Ah, just in case, go behind the stone wall. You might get hurt by the blood fragments when my body explodes.”

“…Your body explodes?”

Wu Biaoyun retreated far back, holding the iron chain anxiously.

From far away, toward me sitting cross-legged, he shouted once more.

“This doesn’t seem right. How about stopping even now?”

“No matter how I think about it, there’s no other method but this. Only with this method can I continue to win and endure going forward, and I can advance while holding the initiative.”

“Even so… even if you say it’s safe, mixing martial arts formulas to block the inferiority of internal energy and advance, I just don’t understand…!”

Wu Biaoyun clicked his tongue.

“And I don’t know what martial arts or mental cultivation methods are, or whether something will go wrong with you or not.”

“If even someone who doesn’t know what’s what thinks that guy looks like he’s dying, just pull the iron chain with all your strength.”

“What? Well, this person…!”

I thought for a moment and said.

“Originally, I should never open my mouth, but thanks to the bypass of the Blood Breaking technique, I should be able to say two or three words. If I really need help, I’ll shout to pull, so don’t worry too much.”

“…”

“Pulling the chain to break the posture will most surely break the immersion of Taihumuji Cultivation and stop the entire process.”

Wu Biaoyun spoke in a serious voice.

“…No matter what you say about your main divine technique not minding opening your mouth, and it being estimated to be optimized for your body, if you forcibly break out like that, won’t there be internal injuries?”

“To endure that is why I’ve been carving the Blood Breaking technique and training my body until now.”

Wu Biaoyun let out a deep sigh.

“Good heavens.”

…

…

[Day 60]

All preparations are complete.

I bind the iron chain to my body.

Wu Biaoyun, holding the end of the chain from a distance, swallows and nods with a tense face.

I sat cross-legged.

I regulated my breathing with deep breaths.

-Wooong…

I feel the danjeon below my navel.

The end of the North Abyss Sea obtained through this life’s opportunity, a danjeon like a pitch-black abyss.

Even this enormous vessel is meaningless if the amount of water poured into it is small from the start.

Then, to move forward, and to maximize this advantage as much as possible, I needed martial arts to somehow overcome this situation – that was the conclusion I reached.

Internal energy is absolutely insufficient. To catch up with those already ahead, growing based on full support, normal breathing cultivation cannot keep up.

So what I thought of was exactly this method.

Binding absorption, purification, and circulation to pioneer my own separate method rather than the orthodox internal energy accumulation process through breathing cultivation.

Even if it’s just a temporary measure.

‘Let me organize this again.’

The heterogeneous energy drawn in through absorption is first purified by Taihumuji Cultivation, then received by the danjeon like the abyss of Buk Hai for dilution and circulation. The overload that would lead to qi deviation in this process is somehow dispersed and endured using the body and Blood Breaking technique as a bypass.

This is my plan so far.

『Energy returns to the infinite, containing ten thousand flows without being filled.

Energy returns to the infinite, containing ten thousand flows without being filled.』

-Wooong…

Reciting the first formula of Taihumuji Cultivation, the senses throughout my body begin to awaken.

Currently, the only mental cultivation method I know how to operate is the one I’ve been using since my previous life, Taihumuji Cultivation.

It’s a mental method that optimizes and purifies heterogeneous internal energy to match my body.

The disadvantage is that the speed of accumulating internal energy is so slow it’s worse than third-rate mental methods.

At the same time, from what I’ve observed, this clearly resonated with my danjeon, bringing results that allowed me to accept any heterogeneous internal energy.

This is exactly the first gateway among the three central axes in this plan.

And at my feet as I sit cross-legged, I place my palms on the blazing internal energy contained in the ten-thousand-year cold iron.

Like throwing a stone, I recite the second verse, the formula of the Northern Soul Absorption Technique, and begin walking the irreversible path.

『Energy gathers in the northern meridian, and the soul shakes the extreme of the danjeon.

Energy gathers in the northern meridian, and the soul shakes the extreme of the danjeon.』

-Kugung…!

‘It begins…!’

There’s no turning back now.

I feel energy being sucked toward my hands.

Fast and rough.

That enormous and heterogeneous absorption.

My meridians stagger.

My whole body screams.

My entire body resists this heterogeneous flow that differs completely from existing breathing cultivation that accumulates calmly and slowly according to simple inhalation and exhalation.

The Northern Soul Absorption Technique is an inferior derivative, a substandard martial art that cannot even be compared to the famous and representative absorption techniques from the Blood Sect of Jeongsamahyeol.

Well, if it had been a superior martial art from the beginning, it wouldn’t have been lying around in the White Goose Library.

Compared to the Great Absorption Technique, it possessed a tyrannically fast absorption speed, but the internal energy extracted by this was impure, and above all, it would clash with existing internal energy accumulated by martial artists in one hundred out of one hundred cases, making it trash martial arts worthy of being treated as thoughtless third-rate, good for dying from qi deviation unless attacking fellow disciples.

But if there’s even one thing better compared to others.

For me right now, it’s more useful than any martial art.

Old tools might be discarded by others.

But I fix them and somehow modify them for use.

By repairing and modifying like that, I defeated those with new tools.

That was exactly my life.

-Woong.

The separate second blood vessel system on my back skin, made with silver needles.

The path of the Blood Breaking technique emerges and rages frantically to survive the amplified side effects of my whole body about to burst.

I don’t know if this will work.

But there’s no choice.

The carved blood vessels expand and the blood flow gradually accelerates rapidly.

-Crack, crackle!

The body I trained in preparation for this moment was pitifully weak.

There wasn’t enough time from the beginning.

The characters of the Blood Breaking technique carved through blood ritual bulged with blood and forcibly held together my collapsing body.

Rough and impure internal energy that refused to flow along the blood vessels rushed into my body and began raging wildly.

Fast, rough, and raging like an unleashed beast.

The energy current that surged up my spine

Pierced down as if tearing through the danjeon below my heart.

My meridians twisted, and my consciousness grew dizzyingly distant.

But I endured.

‘The final stage…!’

The empty abyss. The endless ocean floor. I guide the internal energy sweeping through my body toward my danjeon, which resembles a tomb of qi.

『Heoije-sil Taehyeong-muwi (, ).

Control the real with the void, and the great form moves toward non-action.』

Following the path of Taihu, the absorption of Northern Soul, and the elixir of Buk Myeong, I apply the final incantation—.

『Chanae-manbeop-gwi-il-ji-buk-myeong-bon-won-ya .

This is truly the source of all Buk Myeong.』

‘Keu… ack…!’

I forcibly purify through Taihumuji Cultivation and begin circulating the absorbed internal energy from the Northern Soul Absorption Technique, forcing it to flow to my Buk Hai danjeon.

‘Ah… ack…!’

Once the channel opens, the internal energy begins resonating throughout my body relentlessly, like madness.

Like rushing water carving through a small waterway, widening it as it goes,

my entire body is being crushed. I feel wind swirling behind my back.

A center of absorption formed, and air currents swirled as if grasping.

“…Young Master Hui?!”

-Crack… crackle…!

Around me sitting in lotus position, the ten-thousand-year cold iron begins to crumble.

The dozens of different internal energies contained within begin seeping into my body, being absorbed.

As the absorbed energy led by the cold qi of the ten-thousand-year cold iron entered my blood vessels, Taihu’s heat melted the frost while purifying, carving a path to Buk Hai’s danjeon.

-Thud!

My body bends forward.

My blood vessels become tangled.

Due to the imperfect combination, my body cannot keep up with the rough movement of qi. Like thread shooting into the air, blood vessels throughout my body stand on end.

Taihumuji Cultivation goes berserk.

I’m pushed back while trying to maintain balance.

Even internal energy that couldn’t be purified in time comes rushing into my danjeon.

Even my danjeon, like the abyss of Buk Hai, resonates and swirls around the different internal energies that seem ready to explode at full power, diluting them. My entire body overheats. Smoke pours out.

“No! You’ll really die at this rate!”

Wu Biaoyun grabs the chains and tries to pull them.

“…Don’t… do it!”

I shouted while spitting blood.

Just two words.

-Retch.

As the price for opening my mouth, the bypass of the Blood-Breaking technique swells as if about to burst.

Bright red blood bursts from the corners of my mouth.

“If you give up…”

Still, I shout.

“…Don’t… do it!”

“Ah.”

Wu Biaoyun, who was about to pull the chains, stops as if frozen.

I grit my teeth.

I use all my body’s strength to straighten my posture as blood vessels throughout my body bulge.

Wu Biaoyun’s hands tremble.

Should he pull the chains or let go?

In the end, he couldn’t pull them and cried out as if screaming.

“Damn it! Please stop! You’ll really die at this rate!”

But I breathe even more deeply.

Like the surrounding ground withering and twisting, everything around me slowly crumbles and shatters.

‘Keu… keuaaack…!’

My mouth is full of the taste of metal. Blood flows down my chin.

From my nose comes a strange sweet scent along with the smell of burning flesh.

My ears are muffled. Only the sound of my heartbeat pounds loudly.

It was like trying to stand firm with my bare body in a massive storm.

In the midst of it all, I try to think of anything to somehow regain my senses.

What was my name again?

What was I doing?

I am…

I am…

‘You can’t, because you’re a mule.’

‘…!’

Even in the hellish pain, what emerged was some voice from past memories.

‘Don’t do foolish things.’

‘If you’re human, you should know your place.’

‘No, you were a beast.’

‘You know it. You are.’

‘You are…’

Those were sounds that filled my previous life.

‘Just a mule bastard.’

-Grind…!!

Blood vessels appear in both my eyes.

Blood vessels appear in the muscles throughout my body that were losing strength.

The absorption speed gradually increases,

my danjeon wavers and writhes as if rebelling against the new process,

and my entire skeletal structure shakes as if about to burst.

I continue whether my blood vessels are blocked or swelling.

Even as my body, sustained by the Blood-Breaking technique, finally begins to collapse, I continued.

-Clang!

Even the chains binding my upper body were crushed and flew up, coming off.

Blood began pouring from all seven orifices of my body.

‘Absolutely… absolutely…!’

I don’t give up.

I advance.

I prove it.

The only person who will save me is myself.

No one else will do it.

At least I won’t give up on myself.

Even if everyone gives up on me.

I am…

I am…!!

‘I am… no longer a mule…!’

-Kugung!

The vibrations of the twisting blood vessels stopped all at once.

My body’s skeletal structure, which had been contorting, began to align.

The blood vessels that had been shaking to their own rhythms began to align in unison.

Everything that had been shaking like a storm began to fall into harmony all at once.

All of it was like pieces that had been infinitely rattling due to their minutely misaligned movements now perfectly fitting together and harmonizing with each other.

-Ku…kugugugu!!

The speed of the absorption technique grew faster and faster, and with me at the center, the floor was like ice being crushed and shattered with explosive sounds…!

“Young, Young Master…!”

-Kwaaaaang!!

A tremendous roar swept through all directions along with a massive explosive sound.

“Uwat…!”

Wu Biaoyun grabbed onto the stone wall to keep from being blown away.

-Kwajik… kwagwagwa!!!

The tremendous roar scattered in all directions.

And in that dust-.

Silence.

A deathly quiet flowed.

“Young… Young Master?”

Wu Biaoyun called out with a trembling voice. There was no answer.

“Surely… you’re not dead, are you?”

He carefully approached, pushing through the dust.

Then-.

-Uuuuuung…

A subtle vibration could be felt. Regular, deep breathing.

When the dust cleared, what was revealed was my figure, still sitting cross-legged in quiet resonance.

“…Ha… haha.”

Even though Wu Biaoyun knew nothing about martial arts,

he understood what this meant.

Wu Biaoyun looked at my shoulders rising and falling regularly with my breathing, and after a long moment of choosing his words, he said.

“You… succeeded?”

“…”

I opened my eyes.

In my two eyes, filling my entire vision, a red glow formed and then faded away.

“Ha… haha. Looks like you succeeded. I don’t even have the strength to be surprised by Young Master anymore.”

Wu Biaoyun laughed helplessly.

Then he spoke to me weakly.

“So what are you going to call that incomplete but new mental cultivation method? Divine technique…? Anyway, that bizarre thing – what’s its name? Let’s at least know that.”

I drew in a breath.

After a moment of silence, I slowly opened my mouth.

“With a danjeon like the dark depths of the northern sea as its root, using Taihumuji Cultivation that harmonizes different energies as its pillar. Taking the Northern Soul Absorption Technique as its means, combining all of these into Taihu Beiming Xusheng Shenggong …”

I raised my head.

“-Shortened to Beiming Shenggong .”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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