The Battle for the Heavenly Sword - Chapter 2

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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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2
Woo Geom-san Battles for Supremacy
The Quanzhen Sect was a sect that could be considered the very source of all Taoist Sects under heaven.
Although it had fallen into decay and not many people even knew that anyone still carried on its legacy, it possessed a deep history and numerous secret heritages.
The decline of the Quanzhen Sect was not because their studies were poor, but rather because they were too deep and vast.
The vast knowledge of the Quanzhen Sect, accumulated over generations, was by no means easy to master.
Furthermore, it did not continue down a single lineage but fractured into countless factions, failing to preserve the complete teachings.
Conversely, later-established Taoist Sects like the Wudang Sect or the Mount Hua Sect steadily inherited their secret heritages and expanded their influence.
Moreover, both sects were located in the core regions of the Jianghu, making it easy to recruit talented disciples.
Thanks to this, both sects flourished even more as time passed, while the Quanzhen Sect, unable to properly accept talent, repeatedly declined.
As a result, the presence of the Quanzhen Sect in the current Jianghu was extremely minuscule.
Unless one was a martial artist who made a living in the Jianghu, there was almost no one who knew of the Quanzhen Sect.
To that extent, the Quanzhen Sect was an existence forgotten by the world.
However, the Quanzhen Sect was still keeping its legacy alive.
Baek Ho-yang was the orthodox successor carrying on the very source of the Quanzhen Sect.
Although he had not mastered all the martial arts of the Quanzhen Sect, he remembered all the important martial arts.
Among them was the Life-Saving Healing Method.
The Life-Saving Healing Method, named the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method, was a study that consumed a massive amount of martial cultivation force in a short period.
Therefore, it was also a treatment method that could never be attempted unless one’s martial cultivation force was deep and profound.
Fortunately, Baek Ho-yang possessed a deep and profound martial cultivation force accumulated over a long time.
His internal energy, accumulated through the secret heart method of the Quanzhen Sect, was purer and deeper than that of any other martial artist.
In terms of the purity of internal energy alone, there was almost no one under heaven who could match him.
Baek Ho-yang administered a spirit elixir to boost the vital qi of the boy, who lay without the slightest movement, and then performed the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method.
The Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method was a type of Acupressure Blood Circulation Technique.
It involved massaging the boy’s entire body to facilitate blood circulation while injecting his own internal energy to awaken the boy’s inherent life force.
As he operated the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method and massaged the entire body, the administered spirit elixir quickly melted and was absorbed into the system.
The spirit elixir Baek Ho-yang administered was made by blending dozens of herbs according to the secret heritage of the Quanzhen Sect.
It was more effective than any medicine for the fatal external injuries the boy had suffered.
When the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method was added to the spirit elixir, a slight flush began to return to the boy’s pale complexion.
Even though the complexion had returned slightly, Baek Ho-yang did not stop the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method.
Baek Ho-yang continued to inject his martial cultivation force while elaborately massaging the boy’s entire body.
A backlash was felt from within the boy’s body.
Reacting to the foreign internal strength entering from the outside, the boy’s internal strength resisted.
The backlash was extremely brief.
It was because the boy’s internal strength was also nearly depleted, just like the wick of a candle reaching the end of its lifespan.
Regrettably, even the last remaining drop of internal strength was about to scatter.
‘He is a child who learned martial arts.’
Seeing the physique suitable for martial arts and the calloused fists, he had already thought that would be the case.
The fists, calloused like nails, showed how much bitter training the boy had endured. However, unfortunately, the boy’s right fist was shattered to pieces and could absolutely never be restored to how it was before.
They say that broken bones become stronger once they mend, but that was a story for when it was within a certain limit.
Bones shattered so minutely like that would be difficult to mend fully, and even if he were lucky enough for them to mend completely, they would be as fragile as glass.
Since it could never be reversed if it received a major impact, it was impossible to master fist techniques as before.
Baek Ho-yang gently caressed the boy’s right hand.
The muscles and fingers, whose supporting bones were all broken, limped and wobbled like an octopus.
“Whew!”
Baek Ho-yang let out a shallow sigh and carefully began to set the boy’s bones.
The only saving grace was that while the metacarpals and phalanges were all broken, the carpals, which were the wrist bones, were perfectly intact.
If even the carpals had been crushed, no matter how great Baek Ho-yang’s Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method was, he wouldn’t have even dared to attempt setting the mangled right hand bones.
Upon the intact carpals, he fitted and set the five broken metacarpals one by one, like erecting pillars.
Crack!
Every time a bone was set, the boy’s face distorted.
Even though he had lost consciousness, he was reacting to the extreme pain.
“It must hurt a lot. How could it not hurt? It is the nature of a human body to scream in pain even when pricked by a small thorn. I do not know how you ended up suffering such a heinous deed, but you must endure. The current pain will allow you to live.”
Baek Ho-yang consoled the boy and calmly continued to set the remaining bones.
One bone was split into at least two pieces.
Since there are nineteen finger bones, they were separated into at least thirty-eight pieces.
Setting bones that were shattered to pieces like that required a high level of concentration.
Fortunately, even if all the bones were set, the nerves were already ruined and the muscles were damaged, so he would not be able to recover their original function.
To that extent, the condition of the boy’s fist was severe.
After roughly setting the boy’s hand bones, Baek Ho-yang awakened his life force with the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method.
Now, the boy’s hand was out of Baek Ho-yang’s hands.
Instead, Baek Ho-yang’s attention turned toward the boy’s chest and lower belly.
In a way, these were even more severe wounds than the hand.
One does not die from a crushed hand, but one can lose their life if they sustain major injuries to the chest and lower belly.
In fact, the wounds the boy suffered were so deep that it was a miracle he was still alive.
“Vicious, so vicious! Just what kind of grudge did they hold against this child to use such vicious attacks?”
Baek Ho-yang shook his head and first examined the boy’s chest wound.
The only fortunate thing was that the wound was about an inch away from the boy’s heart.
Thanks to that, the boy lived.
Because no existence in this world could live with a hole pierced through their heart.
Baek Ho-yang performed the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method so that the energy of the spiritual medicine could sprout new flesh on the wounded area.
“Whew!”
Baek Ho-yang let out a sigh.
Beads of sweat were flowing incessantly down his face.
Normally, there would be no reason for him to be this exhausted just by operating this amount of martial cultivation force.
Because his martial cultivation force was vast and deep.
The problem was that his current physical condition was not normal.
After leaving the main headquarters of the Cheonmyeong Association, Baek Ho-yang had neglected his wounds.
It was because he thought he didn’t deserve to live.
For the first time, Baek Ho-yang blamed himself for making such a choice.
It was because if his own physical condition had been good, he would have been able to treat the boy much more easily.
‘It can’t be helped. I have no choice but to do my best…’
Baek Ho-yang injected his internal energy and examined the boy’s lower belly.
The moment his internal energy touched the boy’s dantian, Baek Ho-yang furrowed his brows involuntarily.
It was because the state of the boy’s dantian was quite wretched.
The one who unleashed the vicious attacks seemed to have inflicted a wound on the boy’s dantian using a technique like penetrating force. Because of that, the internal energy the boy had painstakingly accumulated was completely lost. That was why the felt backlash had been so minuscule.
Just like the shattered right hand, even if the dantian was treated, there was no guarantee that he could accumulate qi normally.
Even so, Baek Ho-yang did not give up.
No matter what the outcome would be, he had to try treating it first.
‘Healing the dantian with the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method is impossible.’
Clearly, the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method was the best Life-Saving Healing Method. Most internal and external injuries could be treated with the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method.
However, the dantian was entirely different in nature from other bodily organs.
Because it was the one and only organ in the human body that could contain internal energy.
A martial artist receives external qi into the human body through a mental law and stores it in the dantian.
Depending on the type and nature of the mental law, the type of qi accumulated in the dantian also differs.
Some people accumulate hot fire qi, and others contain cold water qi.
The internal qi accumulated through Buddhist studies is grand and powerful, while Taoist studies are pure.
Some qi is sharp like spears and swords, and some qi is blunt like hammers.
Since the attributes of the accumulated qi were all different for each person and for each mastered mental law like this, it was a very dangerous thing to recklessly inject one’s own internal energy into another person’s dantian.
If martial cultivation force of a different nature penetrated the dantian, it was bound to clash.
For that reason, unless they were martial brothers or a master who had learned the same study, injecting one’s own martial cultivation force recklessly into another person’s body was a taboo. However, that didn’t matter to Baek Ho-yang.
The internal strength of the Quanzhen Sect that he had mastered was the mildest and purest under heaven, capable of embracing any internal strength.
Baek Ho-yang carefully injected his internal qi into the boy’s dantian.
Unlike before, no backlash occurred.
It was because his internal strength was so pure, and furthermore, even the last drop of internal strength remaining in the boy’s dantian had evaporated.
Baek Ho-yang’s internal energy gently caressed the boy’s dantian. However, the boy’s already dried-up dantian did not react at all.
Even so, Baek Ho-yang did not give up and continued to gently stimulate the boy’s dantian using his internal energy.
It was a very tedious and difficult task.
It was something that would have been impossible if one had not accumulated an internal energy and deep patience on the level of Baek Ho-yang.
Baek Ho-yang did not know how much time had passed either.
It was because he was already deeply immersed.
His entire body had long been drenched in sweat.
Even so, Baek Ho-yang did not stop and caressed the boy’s dantian with his own qi.
Whether such efforts of Baek Ho-yang worked, a faint reaction came from the boy’s dantian.
Even so, it was merely equivalent to a single raindrop falling upon a cracked rice paddy, but for Baek Ho-yang, that much was enough.
‘A single drop of water shall breathe life into the dried-up earth…’
The highest virtue is like water.
The highest good is like water, so it is bound to flow from a high place to a low place to fill what is lacking and adapt itself.
However, it also goes against the weight of a mere drop to ascend to a high place.
Qi also possessed the same properties as water.
Baek Ho-yang gently embraced the boy’s internal energy with his own internal energy, helping it grow in size.
In this process, the stimulated dantian was being healed little by little.
However, this process was very slow, requiring strong patience.
Fortunately, Baek Ho-yang was on the very patient side.
No matter how long it took, he was confident that he would hold onto the boy and not let go.
Baek Ho-yang stayed up completely for several days and nights.
As a result, although it was incomplete, he was able to heal the boy’s wounded dantian to some extent.
“Phew!”
Baek Ho-yang opened his eyes with a shallow sigh.
A look of exhaustion was evident on his face.
His already pale face was miserably emaciated, reminiscent of a beggar who had starved for several days.
Even so, his eyes alone were incomparably bright.
Even in the darkness, his eyes shone like bright lanterns. However, that was only for a moment, and his gaze soon returned to normal.
“I have done everything I can. The rest depends on his own effort and the will of heaven.”
Thanks to his efforts, the boy’s dantian was healed to some extent. However, just as putting a broken bowl back together leaves its strength significantly reduced so that it breaks again at a small impact, the boy’s dantian was also precarious.
No matter how much qi accumulation he performed, the boy’s dantian would never return to the intact state of the past.
He would have to live his entire life being careful not to let it break.
It was too harsh an ordeal for a boy who was still young.
“Still, I hope he finds a shred of consolation in the fact that he is alive…”
Whether Baek Ho-yang’s efforts were not in vain, blood color was circulating in the boy’s face.
“Now I must take care of myself.”
From taking care of the boy, his physical condition, which was already a wreck, became even more of a mess.
Both his physical energy and mental energy were depleted, leaving him without the strength to lift a single finger.
At this rate, he would die before the boy.
He immediately performed Qi Meditation and Breathing right beside the boy.
Do not be bound by worldly affairs, and do not place your mind upon them.
Like the high and clear sky, free yourself from all discrimination and attachment.
If there is no attachment, the mind flows, and if it flows, the qi is without blockage.
If the energy flows without blockage, it shall form a great and deep internal energy on its own.
Reciting the teachings of the Quanzhen Sect, Baek Ho-yang sank deep into the depths of his consciousness.

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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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