Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 61

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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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#061

 

Namgung Hwi said that his transformation into the Heavenly Fragrance Poison Demon began when the Dang Family was destroyed and he entered Manaakdangmun Samok in despair and desperation.

 

A place that contained the knowledge, power, and history of the Tang Gate’s golden age, but simultaneously a place no one wanted to enter.

 

Especially the final Third Underground Level was said to contain the Tang Gate’s original sin, a cursed place where one would be bewitched by primordial spirits and dragged into poison pits, with rumors that absolutely no one could survive.

 

Namgung Hwi entered that place, and he survived.

 

After becoming the Heavenly Fragrance Poison Demon, he would often show those around him a wooden necklace carved with Kunlun’s ebony dragon, saying it was thanks to this.

 

No one knew why the former head of the Dang Family wore a Kunlun ebony dragon carving around his neck.

 

People just tilted their heads once and moved on, thinking it was some incomprehensible eccentric hobby of a martial arts enemy.

 

And from this very information, I obtained a clue to enter Manaakdangmun Samok.

 

Gonryun Sect.

 

The destroyed Gonryun Sect was a group of Taoists located at the northernmost point of the Martial Arts World, facing the Sun and Moon Sect and opposing the Demonic Sect.

 

My master repeatedly said.

 

That Kunlun was a place not worth associating with.

 

Kunlun was that eccentric.

 

According to their method of Pasabeolsik (Breaking Deception and Destroying Demons), they showed blind and almost obsessive hatred toward demons and deception.

 

Their way of trying to destroy evil by any means necessary went beyond simple Taoists to being close to mentally disturbed.

 

What my master, who gave such an assessment, simultaneously acknowledged were Kunlun’s weapons and artifacts.

 

The weapons and artifacts handled based on the Pasabeolsik mindset were the best when it came to destroying evil things, and especially high-grade artifacts were said to absolutely torment any evil spirits that even touched them.

 

He said these were items that Taoists, sorcerers, and onmyoji couldn’t obtain even with money, so I should definitely secure them if the opportunity arose.

 

And I already possessed a high-grade item that ordinary Kunlun objects couldn’t even compare to.

 

Ebony Dragon Bracers.

 

The artifact I obtained after subduing Hwangpyo of the Green Shadow Assassins in the Red Lantern Battle.

 

Hwangpyo probably didn’t know, but the origin of this was Kunlun.

 

The ebony dragon, willows fluttering in dragon form, and golden color were also Kunlun’s three great symbols.

 

So I thought the Ebony Dragon Bracers would be worth trying against primordial spirits and curses.

 

At minimum, I believed that my current mental state and preparation were in no way inferior to Namgung Hwi, who had lost everything and was devastated just before becoming the Heavenly Fragrance Poison Demon.

 

And my thinking was correct.

 

[Keng… Keeeng…]

 

A fox coughing up blood and staggering was leading the way.

 

The subtle and dreamlike light emanating from the fox was illuminating all directions.

 

‘I don’t know for sure, but it’s probably some kind of evil spirit. This thing must have bewitched people and dragged them to the Third Underground Level to kill them.’

 

It wasn’t quite a spiritual being.

 

It was presumably just some wild animal that had entered in some form and transformed into something that could bewitch people after devouring the resentment of countless people accumulated on this Third Underground Level, originating from the Tang Gate’s original sin, though the exact details were unknown.

 

-Thud…!

 

Following the fox into the First Underground Level, all directions became bright with a specific sound.

 

Whether it was an application of mechanical formations, it seemed lights would come on when someone stepped on certain stones.

 

“So this is that treasury where the Tang Gate’s knowledge is accumulated, the First Underground Level.”

 

It was a library so vast its end couldn’t be seen.

 

“Wait, stop.”

 

The fox that had been striding ahead turned around.

 

[Grrr…]

 

Even though it had just been beaten up by me indiscriminately, the fox’s eyes were filled with humiliation from submission and hostility toward me.

 

I surmised that for this animal, its only revenge was to guide me to the Third Underground Level and kill me as quickly as possible.

 

That’s why if there was even the slightest delay, it couldn’t control its inner feelings and would reveal them again.

 

“I’m going to look around here a bit before going. It won’t take long, so there’s no need to get so angry.”

 

The fox’s form became blurry, then some shape was caught again in the swirling smoke.

 

It was the illusion it had shown at the very beginning.

 

But this time it wasn’t an old woman.

 

It was a young, beautiful woman.

 

Before the half-naked woman’s form could approach me with a coy smile, revealing her bare shoulders, I spoke.

 

“I know better than anyone that there’s no woman who would like me based on my face.”

 

-Clank.

 

My fist clenched with the metallic sound from the iron gauntlet on my left hand.

 

“Put away that useless honey trap before you get beaten again.”

 

[…]

 

The woman stared at me intently, then instantly returned to fox form.

 

She pressed her belly flat to the ground and pointed toward the library with her stiff tail.

 

“…But now that you understand, it’s somehow annoying.”

 

[Ke, keeeng?]

 

I passed the fox and approached the library without hesitation.

 

Namgung Hwi had reluctantly permitted entry here out of guilt, but until the very end he earnestly warned me about the dangers.

 

‘If you don’t return before the morning sun rises, I’ll immediately send a search party, and no matter what you say, I’ll drag you out right away. You have to promise that for me to let you go.’

 

The Tang Gate books before my eyes were ancient texts and treasures not disclosed to the general public, enough to make anyone’s head spin.

 

If I had been the scholarly type with great interest in the history, depth, and structure of martial arts, I might have lost my reason right now.

 

But I didn’t have time, and I couldn’t afford such luxury.

 

‘Twenty. At most twenty should be enough.’

 

My steps quickened.

 

I pulled out books indiscriminately, knocked them over, and focused on what I was looking for.

 

It was bold selection and concentration.

 

The reason Namgung Hwi permitted this place despite the risk of the Dang Family’s knowledge being leaked wasn’t simply due to guilt.

 

It must have been meticulously calculated.

 

‘The more I think about it, he really is the wolf who controlled the Martial Arts World.’

 

Namgung Hwi accepting the unreasonable conditions was a compromise to reduce his guilt toward me.

 

Even if a refusal came tomorrow morning, he could secure the justification that he had done his best.

 

Crucially, it was less than a day.

 

No normal person could understand even a single book no matter how much they tried to cram it into their head.

 

Moreover, half-understood knowledge could actually cause qi deviation during the casting process.

 

Considering all this comprehensively, the risk of leaking the family’s precious knowledge was extremely low while the effect gained was meaningful, so he ultimately accepted.

 

‘But he wouldn’t have known this.’

 

-Flap flap flap.

 

Walking from left to right, I activated even the speed aspect of Pasabeolsik and opened the books I pulled out.

 

-Swish.

 

I quickly skimmed through, and if it wasn’t what I needed, I immediately threw it on the floor.

 

“Clean this up when I leave.”

 

[…]

 

The fox froze.

 

“I’ll come again in three days, and if it’s still messy like this, you’ll get beaten again then.”

 

[…Keng.]

 

Looking at the books piling up thickly at my feet, the fox folds its ears in despair.

 

The claim about coming back in three days is a lie. But that demon has no way of knowing the truth.

 

I sweep through five libraries in this manner.

 

As soon as I find a book, I set it aside separately.

 

I move on to the next library.

 

‘Poison and hidden weapons are meaningless.’

 

The reason I can quickly examine things now isn’t because I’m a genius.

 

Nor is it because I have exceptional memory.

 

What I’m looking for are fragments.

 

‘Juezhan Aoxue, Mancang Huaweng…!’

 

My master had said.

 

My most distinctive trait is,

 

Whether it’s good or bad I don’t know, but rather than accepting martial arts passed down through generations as some kind of absolute, inviolable natural phenomenon, I’m not afraid to always ask why, to analyze and dissect them.

 

My background is lowly,

 

The place where I grew up was like a vicious den at the bottom of the martial arts world,

 

Unlike the children of noble families, I had no access to superior martial arts, so I don’t know much about them.

 

Those later-generation disciples who live lives filled with libraries guaranteed to have quality-assured, complete formulas from beginning to end would feel no reason or necessity to do this.

 

But among all the low-quality martial arts that run rampant, in miscellaneous books full of mold and spider webs, for me to somehow survive,

 

And even for martial arts manuals bought at great expense, there’s always the possibility that some nonsensical formula might be mixed in to cause heart demons and reverse blood flow – in such a bottom-dwelling existence, the solution I came up with myself was one thing.

 

When encountering a complete martial art,

 

I would first establish a framework for it in my mind.

 

According to the techniques, movements, and flow of blood vessels, I would divide it into one-hundredth pieces, very finely in my head.

 

Then I would try fitting them together like matching the joints of a wooden puppet broken into hundreds or thousands of pieces, replacing and switching them until I understood the flow.

 

Even while sleeping, I thought about it over a thousand times.

 

In that process, I made mistakes thousands of times, coughed up blood, and had my internal organs turned upside down.

 

Fortunately, throughout this process, I miraculously never once experienced the inevitable qi deviation that was supposed to follow.

 

And now I am facing something I never experienced in my previous life,

 

A supreme martial art among supreme martial arts.

 

As far as I know, one of the three secret techniques of the Sichuan Tang Family and a secret among secrets, Mancang Huaweng…!

 

Though incomplete, I witnessed the Sichuan Tang Family’s Juezhan Aoxue, Mancang Huaweng right before my eyes.

 

And for some unknown reason, at that time I definitely felt like I was in slowed time as I had done dozens, thousands… no, tens of thousands of times before, where all of Dangmutae’s movements were broken down piece by piece and became understandable.

 

‘I need to record it as quickly as possible before the memory fades.’

 

After finishing the life-and-death duel, I had only one thought.

 

This is an opportunity that absolutely cannot be missed.

 

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that couldn’t be traded for billions of gold…!

 

For someone like me who lived in a world full of moldy, unverified secret manuals, this was an even more tangible stroke of fortune.

 

From the night I returned from the life-and-death duel, though I desperately wanted to sleep until I fainted, I didn’t sleep a wink.

 

While practicing Bukmyeong Singong and using the Taihumuji Cultivation within it to temporarily restore my mind and body, even as drowsiness overcame me, I stabbed my thigh with a needle to stay awake and transferred all the Mancang Huaweng movements floating in my head onto paper, drawing them.

 

When I couldn’t understand something while drawing, I would jump up from my seat and wave my hands and feet in the air while drawing.

 

When I accidentally hit the wall during this process and the building shook, I quickly threw a blanket over the papers to hide them before anyone could come.

 

The papers that came out of that process easily exceeded 240 sheets in one night.

 

For the second night, I made excuses about being sick and had meals left outside, then broke it down again into 500 small movements, splitting and reconnecting every process until I understood it, filling in the gaps.

 

Even so, there were gaps that couldn’t be filled and things I couldn’t understand.

 

And with no master,

 

Moreover, since I absolutely couldn’t directly ask the Tang family why this was like this, I came here to fill those gaps.

 

Ordinary books won’t do.

 

This is only possible in this library filled with verified, high-grade ancient texts that have the original forms and theories perfectly organized.

 

‘Two more with this. Related to footwork.’

 

There was something I couldn’t understand about the arm movements. I took the relevant section from a martial art called Jiutian Xuannü.

 

I couldn’t understand five or more leg movements and breathing management.

 

The leg movements and breathing in Baesim Hwanbo seemed to be both a derivative and source of those in Mancang Huaweng, so I gathered that secret manual.

 

The breathing and wrist movements of Tuobai Liuxing Zhifa seemed like they would be complementary, so I referenced that secret manual.

 

‘Finally, body center and weight transfer…! Daofan Sanyang Guiyuan Gong is more similar than the Sanyang Shou I found before. I’ll discard Sanyang Shou and replace it with this. And finished.’

 

Combining eight or more movements into one framework and adding a technique name called Simeon completes a ‘Choshi.’

 

And again, combining eight or more of those techniques into one and adding true meaning creates a ‘Juezhan Aoxue.’

 

In other words.

 

If I could understand the composition of Juezhan Aoxue and disassemble it again, if I could reverse-engineer it backwards.

 

Even without anyone teaching me, while perfectly restoring the related techniques of that sect might be impossible, I could at least steal the core mysteries to the point of being able to apply them.

 

‘Though that was my initial theory…’

 

Dangmutae’s Juezhan Aoxue was incomplete, but when I actually started, there were more gaps to fill than expected.

 

Reducing and reducing, I selected twenty-one books.

 

I’m getting anxious.

 

I placed a palm-length candle on the desk. I stack the books and calculate the remaining time.

 

Not much time left.

 

Examining twenty-one secret manuals one by one in the conventional way and compressing them into one organized form within the time limit was absolutely impossible.

 

Then…!

 

-Snap.

 

Without hesitation, I opened different books on either side.

 

Under the flickering firelight, I spread out two sheets of paper.

 

I picked up two pieces of charcoal in my left and right hands-.

 

-Scratch scratch! Scrape! Scratch scratch!

 

My two hands began to dance separately.

 

Simultaneous transcription.

 

In real time, my left eye scanned the 【Jiutian Xuannü Mind Method】 while my left hand drew the blood vessel pathways and circulation order for energy cultivation, while simultaneously my right eye explored and interpreted the footwork of 【Baesim Hwanbo】 and my right hand wrote down dense formulas.

 

Different breathing, different content. A strange sight as if two separate egos were moving simultaneously.

 

-Snap!

 

The moment the left and right content finished, verification was complete in my head.

 

Without stopping, I opened the next two books.

 

-Snap snap! Swoosh!

 

The sound of turning pages and charcoal scraping paper burst out like screams.

 

The sound of papers turning spread like waves.

 

The transcribed books poured down at my feet like a waterfall. The knowledge from twenty-one books was dismantled in my head, reassembled, and poured out onto paper like vomiting.

 

[….]

 

The fox’s jaw dropped as if it would fall off.

 

In its two pupils, I was reflected as if I had become the Thousand-Armed Guanyin, rapidly stirring with both hands as if tearing books apart.

 

-Thud.

 

The last twenty-first book fell to the floor. At the same time, pieces of charcoal worn down to the size of beans rolled and fell from both hands.

 

The palm-length candle on the desk was still flickering, not even half melted yet.

 

A moment in time.

 

In that brief time, the condensation of twenty-one books was complete.

 

[….]

 

I spoke to the fox that was gaping.

 

“If the first floor is the Tang Gate’s knowledge, then this floor must be the Tang Gate’s armory, right?”

 

[…. ….]

 

The fox nods blankly.

 

I said curtly.

 

“I don’t need weapons from this floor. With less than three time periods until sunrise, I’ll skip this floor and go straight to the third floor.”

 

[…?!]

 

The fox lifts its head.

 

“Guide me.”

 

I said, gazing at the darkness before my eyes.

 

“Third Underground Level, the divine artifact where all the Tang Family’s resentful poison and grudges are said to dwell, the Tang Heaven Lock Fang. I came here to take it.”

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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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