Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 101. You’re going to keep working as a Pokwae?
Until now, aside from the five martial constables who had traveled with Dan Yeop to pursue Seok Joong-ok, no one had ever witnessed his true martial prowess.
When he’d recently pursued the blood-scarred Ha Ryun, three Pojol had been present, but that engagement had ended swiftly.
Everyone knew Dan Yeop’s martial skill was exceptional, but even so, it didn’t exceed what a Pokwae was expected to possess.
Dan Yeop wasn’t from the Five Evil Sword Sect, nor was he someone who’d made a name for himself in the Martial World.
Besides, he was still young, and his bearing fell far short of a true master’s demeanor.
Even Jo Mujin, the Hyeonryeong who’d recruited Dan Yeop, and Do Gyeom, the Hyeonwi, shared this assessment with everyone else.
At least, that’s what they’d thought.
Jo Mujin’s jaw fell slack as he beheld the crescent-shaped Blade Qi.
“Astounding!”
He himself was a martial artist who’d trained in the martial arts, and thus understood just how exalted a realm such Blade Qi projection represented.
The five-colored flower petals that had embroidered the sky tumbled down like scattered rain.
Still six or seven remained, yet they no longer felt threatening.
The dramatic reduction in numbers made blocking or evading far easier.
In the next moment, Dan Yeop threw himself across the floor to subdue Bul Yeom Seonja.
At that instant, the workers of Mannyeon Iron Workshop stepped forward without thinking.
It was to protect Muk Cheolsim, the Workshop’s master.
Seeing this, Jo Mujin barked out sharply.
“Stop! Anyone blocking the Pokwae’s path will be treated as Yeokdo!”
At those words, the Mannyeon Iron Workshop workers froze like statues.
Meanwhile, as Dan Yeop rapidly approached, Bul Yeom Seonja brought her hands together in prayer.
Yet both hands were a feint.
Two White Lotus Hair Needles, secretly unleashed, shot toward Dan Yeop.
This was the technique of Shadowless Heavenly Flower.
It was something that required reaching Mind-is-Qi Movement—the threshold of the Ear-Whisper Sword Technique.
As a newcomer to the Martial World, Dan Yeop had a weakness against unorthodox schemes.
At this moment, he found himself feeling pity as he beheld Bul Yeom Seonja’s prayer posture.
She too must harbor bitter circumstances she couldn’t speak of to others.
Yet that didn’t make his heart lighter about having to pursue her.
Suddenly, Seok Yeseol’s face flashed across his mind.
‘…….’
Standing before Bul Yeom Seonja, a master of the Martial World, Dan Yeop hesitated.
At that moment, something pierced both his shoulders.
Thud.
The hand of Dan Yeop, who held the Hoengdo in a mid-stance, went limp.
Clang—
The tip of the Hoengdo struck the blue stone floor with a metallic ring.
Dan Yeop, who’d been running like a gale, stopped dead.
All eyes in the hall fixed on the motionless Dan Yeop.
Suddenly, a long sigh escaped Dan Yeop’s lips.
“Haah!”
He’d gotten it wrong again.
She wasn’t someone to pity—she was a cunning vixen.
As Dan Yeop stopped, Bul Yeom Seonja spoke with a leisurely smile.
“You fell for my Shadowless Heavenly Flower. Now you can’t use your arms, but soon the White Lotus needles will travel through your blood vessels to your heart, and you’ll die. Only I can save you.”
“And then?”
Dan Yeop posed the question, then channeled the Taiyi Sacred Light through both shoulders.
Just as Bul Yeom Seonja had said, he felt the two White Lotus needles.
As he pondered how to handle this, Bul Yeom Seonja’s voice came again.
“The White Lotus needles are connected to me, so trying to force them out with your Internal Power will be useless.”
Something about that struck him. Looking at Bul Yeom Seonja, she still maintained her prayer posture.
It was clear she was moving the White Lotus needles using her Internal Power, much like the Ear-Whisper Sword Technique.
‘That makes sense.’
If he pushed the needles out before they burrowed into his blood vessels, he could stop them.
It would be difficult, but the Ear-Whisper Sword Technique was ultimately a form of Void Grasping.
Bul Yeom Seonja’s use of the White Lotus needles would likely follow the same principle.
Having thought that far, Dan Yeop opened his mouth calmly.
“You’ve never struck me as particularly kind. What’s the reason you’re explaining this?”
The moment he asked, he concentrated his consciousness directly on the White Lotus needles.
“Kill Jo Mujin.”
Just then, Dan Yeop’s consciousness touched the White Lotus Hair Needles.
‘So this is how you move them from a distance using Qi?’
Dan Yeop had reached the Taiyi Sacred Light long ago—the entry level of the Taego Sect in the Heavenly Realm.
It was a realm far transcending the Mind-is-Qi Movement that Bul Yeom Seonja had mastered.
Only his inexperience had kept him from knowing such a thing existed.
The image of the White Lotus Hair Needles materialized vividly in his mind.
In that instant, Dan Yeop mimicked the Cold Frost Appearance.
He formed the Sword Seal Gesture with his right hand and raised it toward the sky.
Then the two White Lotus Hair Needles lodged in his shoulders ripped free like lightning.
Splash.
In that moment, Bul Yeom Seonja coughed up blood with a strangled cry.
Her Mind-is-Qi Movement shattered violently, and she sustained Internal Injury.
Dan Yeop was not satisfied with that. He pointed the Sword Seal Gesture at Bul Yeom Seonja.
He had not intended anything specific, but the result was terrible.
Bul Yeom Seonja, who had just lifted her head to look at Dan Yeop, had two points marked on her forehead.
That was her end.
Bul Yeom Seonja, robbed of her center, pitched forward.
Her head struck the stone step, and her neck bent at a grotesque angle.
Muk Geumgang, who witnessed Bul Yeom Seonja’s wretched death before his eyes, let out a wail.
“No! Sister! Sister! Dan Yeop! I will kill you! Everything connected to you—I’ll tear it to shreds and slaughter it all! Aaaahhh!”
Jo Mujin, the Hyeonryeong, confirmed Bul Yeom Seonja’s death and ordered the Pokwae.
“Bind the criminals and move the body to the magistrate’s office!”
“Yes!”
The Pokwae directed their Pojol to drag out Muk Cheolsim, Muk Geumgang, and Bul Yeom Seonja’s corpse.
Then Jo Mujin turned to the people of Mannyeon Iron Workshop.
“You must not leave this place until the investigation of Mannyeon Iron Workshop is complete. Should anyone depart without my permission, I shall have them arrested and prosecuted.”
The people of Mannyeon Iron Workshop, bearing guilt, did not utter a sound.
***
As soon as they returned to Jang An County, Jo Mujin sent Dan Yeop to the physician.
After examining Dan Yeop’s shoulders, the physician prepared a Herbal Decoction.
Dan Yeop wondered if he really needed to drink it, but brought it along anyway just in case when he left the office.
When he asked Yu Hwayeong how to prepare the Herbal Decoction, Son Yeonhwa, who had been listening nearby, volunteered to brew it for him.
That night, Son Yeonhwa brought the medicine to Dan Yeop after brewing it in the separate quarters.
“By the way, brother, don’t you need to apply the wound salve?”
“Oh? It’s fine. Besides, there’s no trace—I can’t even tell where they are.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Well, the Dark Qi was thin as steel hair.”
“Really? There’s Dark Qi that fine?”
“I didn’t know either, but apparently it exists.”
“To use something like that as Dark Qi, you’d need incredibly strong Internal Power, wouldn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“Cheonryeon really did gather such masters, didn’t they?”
“There are plenty of people with grievances against the world.”
“Why did Myeol Do and Bul Yeom Seonja become members of Cheonryeon?”
This time, I didn’t have a chance to ask them that. Beyond their martial prowess being exceptional, their natures were utterly vile.”
“To what degree?”
“Bul Yeom Seonja held her palms together as if she were a sincere Buddhist monk.”
“Yes, she did.”
“It was all deception. She threw the White Lotus Hair Needles without anyone knowing. I fell for it myself.”
“How awful!”
“That’s not even the worst of it. Know what she told me? That my life was in her hands, and if I wanted to live, I should kill Jo Mujin. I swear, that was the most ruthless person I’ve ever met.”
“That’s truly terrible. So what happened?”
“I did what Bul Yeom Seonja did—drew her attention and removed the White Lotus Hair Needles.”
Dan Yeop left out the details.
Telling the full story would make him sound like he was bragging.
Son Yeonhwa, having never studied martial arts, accepted his account at face value.
“Still, you’re lucky you removed the White Lotus Hair Needles. Brother, will you continue working as a Pokwae?”
“Why?”
“From what you’ve told me, it sounds far too dangerous.”
“It’s fine. I’m doing it because I can handle it. If I ever feel I can’t, I’ll stop.”
Son Yeonhwa watched Dan Yeop carefully before speaking.
“Have you thought about stopping?”
“Not yet. I have to avenge my friend.”
“Avenge?”
“My friend’s lover was killed by Cheonryeon. Murdered in the most horrible way. I promised him I’d get revenge on Cheonryeon.”
“Oh! I didn’t know such a thing had happened.”
“It’s late. You should go home before your mother worries.”
“Yes, of course…….”
At Dan Yeop’s dismissal, Son Yeonhwa rose from her seat without another word.
After seeing her off, Dan Yeop recorded the day’s events in his White Notebook.
What had started as a way to communicate with his former dull self had become habit.
The pity he’d felt for Bul Yeom Seonja, the blow to the back of his head that followed, the story of Muk Cheolsim and Muk Geumgang and their father——all of it he committed to paper.
When he finished writing and closed the notebook, he finally felt the day’s work complete.
Soon Dan Yeop pulled out his travel pack from beneath the bed and set it on the table.
“It feels like I’ve lived two days since last night until this morning…….”
Until this morning, he’d assumed he’d simply dozed off during his training.
But after living through today, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Everything from leaving Jang An County to arriving at Mannyeon Iron Workshop came back to him with perfect clarity.
It was as though he’d traveled backward through time alone.
What if he truly had lived that time?
Then it all made sense.
‘Could I have lived the future while wearing the Geumru Okui?’
If his master were here, he would ask.
Was this mysterious experience today perhaps the secret of the Stellar Golden Thread Jade Robe?
If one could know the future perfectly, the dead could be brought back to life.
Just as he had saved Jo Mujin and Do Gyeom today.
Their fate was supposed to end at Mannyeon Iron Workshop.
He had saved those whose death was certain.
Thinking of it made his skin crawl.
If one could control the fates of others, wasn’t that what a god would do?
‘Let me try again.’
Dan Yeop locked the door, put on the Geumru Okui, and lay on the bed.
At the thought of experiencing another future, his heart quickened with anticipation.
Soon he recalled the secret formula of the Iwon Gwi Il Gong.
With a dizzying sensation, a vast starlit sky suddenly unfurled before his eyes.
Countless stars glittered within the Milky Way that flowed like a river.
No matter how many times he saw this mysterious vista, it never lost its beauty.
Dan Yeop waited for Saibi to appear, gazing at the endless expanse of stars.
But the starry sky remained silent.
‘It should come soon…….’
Tired of waiting, he simply began to train in the Iwon Gwi Il Gong.
He recalled the secret formula and meditated on its profound teachings.
As time passed, the boundary between inner and outer dissolved.
He himself seemed to become part of the starry sky.
In an instant, a wisdom that defied words pierced through his soul.
In a space where time itself seemed to stop, where silence reigned and existence wavered between being and non-being, between life and death, Dan Yeop’s breath grew thin as a thread and finally ceased altogether.
…….
How much time had passed?
Thinking it sufficient, Dan Yeop slowly opened his eyes.
He expected dawn, but the window outside was still pitch black.
“What?”
The training had been successful, but he had glimpsed no secret of the Geumru Okui.
“Huh…….”
Dan Yeop scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression.
They say greed spoils everything, and here he was proving it.
“It’s not easy.”
After all, this was a secret that the senior masters of the Taego Sect had carried for hundreds of thousands of years without solving.
How could he expect to swallow it whole without even peeling back the surface?
Just as Dan Yeop, smiling wryly, was putting away the Geumru Okui in his pack, he heard the distant bell of a night watchman announcing the Third Watch.
“Yes, this is how it should be.”
Yet knowing this, a deep sense of regret pressed against one corner of his heart.

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