Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 9

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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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#009

“Hwi.”

That day, my master was different from usual.

Sitting on the cliff bathed in the sunset glow, he spoke indifferently toward my back as I hugged my knees.

“There’s no need to be so dejected. Your opponent had a Heavenly Martial Body and was one of the famous rising dragons of the Martial Arts World, so just returning alive is accomplishment enough.”

After nearly ten years of absorbing my master’s teachings, I thought I had built quite a reputation.

“Master, but…!”

“Old man.”

“…Old man, I…”

It was right after I had been utterly crushed and fled from a mere novice, just six months after entering the Martial Arts World.

“How long must I keep losing like this?”

“Don’t blame yourself. When you met me, your entire body’s danjeon had already hardened and you’d missed the proper time for learning. Despite that, you overcame yourself. Just growing this much means you’ve surpassed the realm of ordinary people—”

“That’s just an excuse in the end. Look at the results.”

My master spoke with a deep sigh.

“…You once asked me why I took you as a disciple.”

My master sat beside me. Looking at the sunset sky together, he spoke quietly.

“Most people are busy accepting and learning when martial arts are transmitted to them. But you were different. When I said I would transmit the Taixu Wuji Mind Technique, the Soul-Breaking Blood Formula, and the Eight Forms of the Dark Emperor to you, do you remember what your first words were?”

“…No.”

“‘Why those specifically?’ you said. You were incredibly bold. Haha.”

My master’s laughter scattered with the wind.

“And after just two days of perfectly mastering the Taixu Divine Technique’s incantations, you arbitrarily modified them and attached them to other mental cultivation methods. You struggled desperately to somehow surpass and improve the limitations of those inferior cultivation methods.”

“That was…”

“Ordinary people try to learn exactly as taught when you teach them, without raising objections. As if it were nature itself, passed down unchanged from ancient times. But you… always seemed to have ‘why specifically?’ in your head. You weren’t even afraid of nearly dying from qi deviation and heart demons, with your blood and qi twisted—I don’t know how many times I saved you. At first, I really thought you were insane. No, most people would probably think you’re strange.”

My master’s gaze deepened.

“But I don’t think so.”

“…”

“After trying to stop you again and again, I finally gave up, and only then did I realize. Ah, this fellow was born different. He thinks differently. His vessel is different.”

My master, the First Dark Emperor, nodded as he spoke.

“Be proud of yourself, my disciple. Do you think this First Dark Emperor would accept just anyone as a disciple?”

“…”

“Though you missed the proper time for learning and have yet to spread your wings, having established yourself in this lowly assassin’s world, I believe you will surely see the light someday.”

I looked at my master.

“Even if I’m mocked in the process?”

“Yes.”

“Even if everyone tells me it’s futile, that I’ll never succeed?”

“You’re not one of those cowards. No, you’re actually better than them.”

My master struck his palm with his fist.

“You’re not like others with a Heavenly Martial Body, nor a born genius. You don’t possess overwhelming intelligence, nor do you have heroic qualities enough to toy with others. Rather, you’re like ordinary people like us. But precisely because of that, you have something absolutely different from them.”

“…Different…?”

“Though you may be hurt, though you may be broken, though you may despair and fall to your knees.”

My master looked at me.

“You absolutely never give up in the end.”

“…”

“So then.”

My master.

My master who is no longer in this world.

“So this time, let me ask you.”

My master from my memories, who left coughing up red blood from illness, smiled gently in the twilight and said.

“What will you cry out through your life from now on? To those who cried that you specifically couldn’t do it, at least in this lifetime, what will you cry out to them…?”

“I will.”

The sky was red as if burning.

“I will… in my own way. Through my life… to them—”

Under that burning sky, I answer.

“I will surely show them that you and I were not wrong…!”

***

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

I broke down three walls of the underground chambers. I connected them all to create a massive temporary training hall.

Within the boundaries of the annex where I was under house arrest, I also broke down the obstructing walls with a pickaxe to widen the path connecting to the embankment behind the backyard.

Going outside toward the main residence was forbidden territory. The steep embankment connected to the backyard was, strictly speaking, within the annex boundaries—as long as I didn’t cross the wall that enclosed even the embankment, no matter how much I demolished within, it wouldn’t violate the house arrest.

“I’ve brought the next ten days’ worth of food and necessities. Since you told me to buy whatever I wanted without worrying about money.”

Wu Biaoyun came from afar, groaning under a massive load.

“Since you eat five meals a day, the food consumption is faster than expected.”

He returned the silver token that had belonged to Namgung Cheon, which I had given him after use.

I pushed it back to Wu Biaoyun.

“Keep it since there will be continued use for it.”

“If you say so. Anyway, I bought plenty of the chains you mentioned, and since your training clothes wear out too quickly, I bought whatever looked comfortable for activity. And most importantly—”

-Thud…!

Wu Biaoyun set down the massive bundle he’d been carrying on his back with a tremendous sound.

“Ten sacks of mixed rice and grains, and sixteen geun of beef and pork. I also brought twenty dried fish. And the plum syrup you repeatedly emphasized, a whole jar of it.”

“Thank you.”

Wu Biaoyun was amazed.

“Truly the wealth of the Namgung Family. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d handle such large quantities of that expensive plum syrup made with sugar cane juice.”

“Ah, come to think of it, it’s already mealtime.”

I threw down the hammer I’d been using to break the wall. I walked to the meal table I’d prepared in the corner.

When I removed the cloth covering it, beef and pork, fish, and a bowl full of rice were revealed.

Five meals a day.

To quickly secure large quantities of meat, I focused on low-quality, high-volume meat rather than tasty, popular cuts.

And to reduce cooking time, I threw it all into a pot of water and boiled it thoroughly.

Rather than food to be savored and appreciated for taste, it was fuel thrown in solely for physical advancement.

I sat carelessly on the ground, buried my face in the food, and began stuffing rice into my mouth.

‘Definitely easier to eat than in the past. Maybe because this body is young. Much less burden on digestion than when I first started long ago.’

In the past, I was born naturally frail, and due to the continued restrictions, I had an extremely poor appetite. As a result, I couldn’t finish the portions my master assigned each time and constantly vomited before eating even half. As a countermeasure, my master brought a method from the assassin group he once belonged to, used to quickly build muscle and stamina in disposable operatives before throwing them into one-time missions.

Divide meals into five per day, eating different types of meat and mixed grain rice to the limit, gradually increasing the portions.

After that, always drink plum syrup made with concentrated sugar cane juice after meals. Even when circumstances weren’t good due to lack of commission payments, my master would make plum syrup with cheap malt syrup and force me to drink a jar after each meal.

Plum syrup not only aids digestion but helps the hard-earned meals be fully absorbed by the body.

Then continue brutal training until all that food’s calories are depleted, and eat again.

Infinite repetition of this.

And all this preparation was with hellish training in mind, which would begin based on such meals.

“Does all that actually digest? I’m rather worried about buying too much food and having it spoil—”

“One more bowl.”

I handed Wu Biaoyun the empty rice bowl.

“…”

Wu Biaoyun stared down at the empty bowl. He turned to look at the food piled behind him and muttered.

“There was a reason you gave me the silver token again.”

“And please bring three handfuls of Taeul medicinal herbs and Radiant Day Grass. I really need those but they weren’t available.”

After finishing the meal, the next place I went was the moldy apothecary storage.

I opened all the medicine containers and selected the herbs I needed, handing them to Wu Biaoyun.

“What I’m giving you must be boiled down as much as possible. If too much water is mixed in, it won’t concentrate properly.”

“Ha, really. Those instructions are quite demanding. Don’t worry. I may be a quack, but I’m from a medicine shop background after all.”

Following my instructions, Wu Biaoyun also ran here and there helping me.

During my assassin days, manufacturing dozens of types of herbs and simple essentials was basic knowledge.

Wu Biaoyun, who was helping with the work, spoke with a puzzled expression.

“Even though I’m a quack medicine dealer who knows nothing about martial arts or Martial Arts World affairs, I can at least tell that your words have some kind of system to them. …How do you know all this knowledge?”

“Through books.”

It wasn’t that I suspected Wu Biaoyun, who stepped back saying he wasn’t a martial artist anyway and silently helped me.

But if I mentioned that I learned it during my assassin days or that it was knowledge from my past life, it would only complicate things, so I thought this way was better.

That’s why I tried to intentionally keep distance from him through stiff speech.

Wu Biaoyun asked again.

“At the very least, if you tell me what you’re making, we might be able to proceed faster. Are you making weapons? Or…”

“If I tell you, would you understand something?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know anyway. What would a third-rate herb dealer like me do even if I knew? Damn it, just give me orders.”

While making time to create a training ground, I also spent time over two more days making dozens of types of herbs.

I boiled and mixed them to collect the final extract.

I melted the silver ornaments from the annex that Wu Biaoyun had brought.

I lit a fire in the collapsing forge, put in charcoal, and melted silver bracelets to make silver needles.

I soaked them in water mixed with the herbs.

Half a day later, I retrieved the silver needles that had absorbed the dark blue herbs.

I bit down on a gag and heated the needles, inserting them along my back and right shoulder.

-Sizzle.

As the heated silver needles penetrated my flesh, the cold of early winter and heat alternated, creating cool steam.

There was a smell of herbs and burning flesh.

Wu Biaoyun, who was assisting, frowned.

“No matter how I look at it, you weren’t making training tools or anything like that.”

“Before training, I made tools necessary for artificially constructing blood vessels.”

I dropped the blood-stained silver needle to the side.

I grabbed another silver needle with an iron skewer, heated it in the fire, and pierced it into my skin again.

“Blood vessels…? Even though I don’t know much, that’s really news to me.”

“It’s called Pasa Blood Formula, and while it’s inferior compared to how ordinary martial artists strengthen their mobility through blood vessels and danjeon, it’s a technique commonly applied to assassins who couldn’t receive formal training.”

-Crack.

I inserted another silver needle to the side, pulled it out, and placed it on a plate.

“However, the immediate effect is certainly faster than orthodox martial artists who must spend long periods of time, so it’s sufficient as a supplement.”

It was something I learned from my master during my assassin days.

Using silver needles, I temporarily constructed penetrable blood vessels along the back, which has the largest surface area of the human body.

The Pasa Blood Formula was a method that used small amounts of operational internal energy through four formulas to assist an assassin’s movements.

It was originally taboo and looked down upon as vulgar by orthodox martial artist families.

But in the past, my danjeon was also humble, and my internal energy was almost negligible.

For someone like me to survive long-term was nearly impossible.

So my master taught me this blood formula that was applied to only a few even in the assassin world, for my survival.

And from the lowly blood formula that merely assisted the movements of disposable assassins, my master mobilized all his martial knowledge solely for me, completing it into four forms and passing it on to me.

It was certainly effective.

Even my past self, who had only twenty years’ worth of internal energy, used the four forms at the right times to deal with masters several levels above me and overcome life-threatening situations multiple times.

“Really… fascinating. Are you following the blood vessels with silver needles?”

Wu Biaoyun was amazed even while squinting at the smell of burning flesh.

“Is all of this a method you came up with?”

“As I said, this is an existing method.”

I wiped the cold sweat that had formed during the pain with a white cloth.

“And this will also act as backup blood vessels to bypass when the blood vessels become tangled due to qi deviation in what I’ll implement going forward, while simultaneously strengthening the body. It’s also a preliminary application to slightly increase the chances of my body not exploding.”

“By doing this, does it make you much safer from ‘what you’ll implement going forward’?”

I made a very small gesture with my finger.

“Just slightly.”

“…What kind of crazy thing are you trying to do?”

“You’ll know when the time comes.”

“But really, how do you know all this stuff?”

“From books.”

At those words, Wu Biaoyun sighed.

“Whenever I ask anything, it’s always ‘books.'”

“Books make people prosperous.”

“Don’t even start. Young Master Hui.”

“And I’ve wanted to say this for a while, but you probably said it because you don’t know well, but please avoid the title… ‘young master.'”

I kept silent for a moment before speaking.

“…At least in our family, no one thinks of me as or calls me ‘young master.'”

“How would an ignorant person like me know such detailed Martial Arts World affairs?”

Wu Biaoyun pressed and wiped the blood and sweat flowing from my wounds with a white cloth.

“I’ll just call you Young Master Hui because it’s comfortable for me.”

“…”

“Honestly, even to that piece of trash Namgung Cheon who’s worse than you, I had to call him ‘young master,’ and he’d frown so hard, so I lived calling him ‘young master’ all the time. You have much more dignity than that bastard.”

“I’m… ugly.”

Wu Biaoyun chuckled.

“I’m uglier! And you say you’re ugly, but I think once your frame grows more and you put on some weight, you’ll look much better? Hehe. Or it can’t be helped… anyway, this is my feeling, so don’t worry about it.”

I looked at Wu Biaoyun.

Me…?

No.

That can’t be.

After one breath, I spoke briefly.

“…Understood.”

The silver needle treatment was finished.

-Crack.

With a red light, the spider web-like blood vessels artificially drawn turned red with blood droplets that then seeped in.

When everything was finished, I put on my clothes and said.

“I’ve been thinking. For me to win in the Ranking Competition sixty days from now, I need physical strength and internal energy, but above all, internal energy. Even if I engrave the Pasa Blood Formula, that’s not a fundamental solution, and this also becomes stronger the more internal energy there is…”

I nodded.

“Ultimately, unless I solve the fundamental problem, all of this is just a temporary measure. I’m going to break through head-on with this opportunity.”

“Break through head-on?”

“That’s right. I will completely uproot the problem with internal energy this time, and for that, my top priority is.”

I counted on my fingers.

“First, hellish physical training. Meals. Rest. I’ll proceed with these first. This takes up the most time, and no matter how much I try to hurry, a certain amount of time is unavoidable.”

“Then what about the internal energy itself?”

Wu Biaoyun asked back.

“I have no one to talk to about the Martial Arts World and don’t know it well, but sixty days is nowhere near enough for internal energy. I may not know other things, but that’s impos-“

I tore out a paper with five passages written on it from the old books I had selected from the White Goose Library.

“I plan to solve exactly that with this.”

I overlaid and presented the paper I had scribbled on.

“Considering the paths I’ll have to navigate going forward, I’ve concluded that this is the only way.”

Wu Biaoyun stared blankly at the paper.

Then he looked at me.

I looked at the paper again.

I moved my lips a few times before opening my mouth.

“Are you in your right mind?”

“I’m always in my right mind. If I mobilize everything I currently have, I think it would be… possible.”

I fell silent for a moment before adding.

“I’ve done this kind of thing before.”

“You’ve done this before? This insane act?”

“Just talking to myself. Move on.”

Wu Biaoyun stood there dumbfounded, then looked incredulous.

“So that’s why you were frantically searching through the White Goose Library, which would be full of third-rate martial arts confiscated from heretical forces…”

He snatched the old book from my hands.

“Mixing martial arts formulas arbitrarily? Even I, who’s not a martial artist, know that’s something only a crazy bastard with a death wish would do.”

Wu Biaoyun shook his head vigorously.

“Did I understand correctly? You’re going to… test martial arts one by one and shape them into the form you need? Even if it’s temporary to break through the current situation, what kind of-.”

“You understand exactly.”

“No matter how ignorant I am about martial arts, I can still read!”

He pointed to the torn paper, the preface of that book.

“Isn’t this a third-rate derivative martial art that was destroyed by qi collision because it focused mindlessly only on ‘absorption’? Do you think this is some legendary master of this type, the Star-Absorbing Grand Art?”

“That’s exactly why it’s meaningful.”

“Are qi deviation and heart demons a joke to you? To cut and paste as you please?”

“I’ve done far crazier things than this countless times. Since I already know one of the martial arts very well, it’s much safer compared to what I usually do. Moreover.”

I took the book back from Wu Biaoyun’s hands and placed it in front of me.

“I’m trying to do all of this in advance precisely to avoid dying as much as possible.”

-Thud.

Northern Soul Star-Absorbing Technique.

That was the name of the old book I had picked up.

—————
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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