The Battle for the Heavenly Sword - Chapter 51

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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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51
Woo Geom-san Challenges the Hegemony
It was no easy feat to accurately insert silver needles into the body of such a tiny chick hawk.
Furthermore, the chick hawk’s body was covered in feathers, making it difficult to find the exact acupoints.
The physical structures of humans and birds were completely different, so there was no guarantee that the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method would even work. However, if he did nothing, the chick hawk would surely die.
Woo Geom-san inserted the Silver Needles into the chick hawk’s body one by one, praying that the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method would work.
Even as he deployed the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method, the chick hawk was slowly dying.
With its eyes rolled back and foam bubbling up from its beak, it looked as though it had no chance of survival.
Yet, Woo Geom-san did not give up and carried out the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Method—no, the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Acupuncture—until the very end.
“Whew!”
Woo Geom-san wiped the sweat pouring down his forehead and looked at the chick hawk.
Numerous Silver Needles were stuck into the chick hawk’s body.
Some of them had already turned black, perhaps due to the influence of the snake venom.
“I’ve done everything I can.”
Woo Geom-san sat beside the chick hawk and watched its condition.
Fortunately, whether the Nine Heavens Soul Returning Acupuncture had worked or not, the chick hawk’s condition did not worsen any further.
In Woo Geom-san’s eyes, he could see vitality gradually returning to the chick hawk’s body.
The innate life force possessed by the chick hawk was slowly reviving.
“You won’t die.”
Only then did Woo Geom-san feel relieved and retrieved the Silver Needles.
Most of the Silver Needles had turned black and seemed unusable for recycling.
Woo Geom-san scooped up the chick hawk in his arms.
Although it had narrowly saved its life, the chick hawk was still unable to regain consciousness.
Woo Geom-san touched the chick hawk’s wing with his hand.
He felt a broken bone beneath his fingertips.
If there was any silver lining, it was that the bone had broken cleanly into two pieces.
Originally, a bird’s bones are hollow, so when they break, they produce many fragments. However, the chick hawk’s bone was broken as smoothly as if it had been cut with a knife. Therefore, aligning it was not difficult.
After setting the chick hawk’s bone, Woo Geom-san picked up some small twigs and placed them against the wing as splints. Then, he tore his clothes into thin strips and tightly bound the chick hawk’s wing.
With all the treatments finished, Woo Geom-san carried the chick hawk and returned home.
“What kind of bird is that?”
To Baek Ho-yang, who asked with a puzzled expression, he explained what had happened a moment ago.
After listening to the whole story, Baek Ho-yang could not suppress his admiration.
“You’re saying it fought against that massive snake with such a tiny body? What a miraculous fellow.”
“Yes! Its personality was no joke.”
“Because it’s that kind of fellow, it’s probably still alive. Wait here a moment.”
Baek Ho-yang suddenly entered his room.
After a short while, what he brought out was a small pill.
“What is that?”
“It is a Yeongbo Vitality Pill that I made by adding the Secret Heritage of our sect to the medicinal herbs I dug up whenever I had free time.”
“Isn’t that quite tricky to make?”
Woo Geom-san also knew about the existence of the Yeongbo Vitality Pill because he had read the Jeonjin Mugong Chongyo.
While it was useless to Martial Artists who had mastered the Choyeon Simgyeol like Woo Geom-san or Baek Ho-yang, it was a tremendous Spiritual Elixir for ordinary people. Taking a single pill helped one live healthily without falling ill for several years. When it came to restoring Vital Qi, there was no medicine that could match the Yeongbo Vitality Pill.
However, the medicinal herbs that served as raw materials for the Yeongbo Vitality Pill were hard to find, and refining them was even more difficult. Since it was not even needed by Martial Artists who mastered the Choyeon Simgyeol, there was no reason to go through the trouble of making it. That was why the Yeongbo Vitality Pill had been almost entirely forgotten.
Baek Ho-yang broke off a small piece of the Yeongbo Vitality Pill and said,
“It is tricky to make, but if you have the will, there’s nothing you can’t make.”
The reason he had made the Yeongbo Vitality Pill was precisely for the sake of the Village people.
Yunjung Village was a remote mountain valley without a single physician.
Even if they fell ill, they could not receive proper treatment, and if they caught a serious disease, they had to walk for over ten days to reach Guangu County. There was no guarantee they would be cured upon reaching Guangu County, and they might even die along the way.
Therefore, what he came up with was the Yeongbo Vitality Pill.
While it would be impossible to have everyone in the Village take the Yeongbo Vitality Pill, giving it to those who were sick could at least boost enough vitality to enable them to travel to Guangu County.
Baek Ho-yang placed the broken piece of the Yeongbo Vitality Pill into the chick hawk’s beak.
“I don’t know if the Yeongbo Vitality Pill will actually work on a hawk, but it’s still better than doing nothing. Feed it the rest while monitoring its condition.”
“Yes!”
Woo Geom-san received the remaining portion of the Yeongbo Vitality Pill.
It would be nice to feed it a whole pill, but there was no way a tiny bird’s body could handle that much volume.
Just as Baek Ho-yang said, the best approach was to feed it little by little while watching its condition.
Woo Geom-san brought the chick hawk into his room.
He placed the chick hawk by his bedside and looked after it.
Fortunately, the chick hawk held on tenaciously, keeping its breath going.
Woo Geom-san gently stroked the chick hawk’s head and said,
“Hang in there.”
After watching over the chick hawk for a long time, Woo Geom-san fell asleep without realizing it.
The next morning, Woo Geom-san opened his eyes upon feeling an intense gaze.
“……”
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a tiny bird’s head staring intently at him right in front of his face.
The chick hawk had regained consciousness and was peering into Woo Geom-san’s face.
“You’re alive.”
Woo Geom-san stood up in delight. At that, the chick hawk startled and retreated backward.
“Ah, sorry! Did I scare you? I was just so glad.”
Woo Geom-san apologized to the chick hawk.
The chick hawk did not back away any further and stared blankly at Woo Geom-san.
Woo Geom-san stared back at the chick hawk as well.
Feeling a strange sense of communion for some reason, Woo Geom-san smiled.
Woo Geom-san gently stroked the chick hawk’s head and said,
“Your body hasn’t recovered yet, so rest here. I’ll catch something for you to eat after my Cultivation Training.”
The chick hawk tilted its head as if it understood his words.
Woo Geom-san left the chick hawk behind and stepped outside.
He was about to practice the Choyeon Simgyeol beneath the Withered Tree just as he always did, when he heard a fluttering sound.
Looking toward the source of the sound, he saw the chick hawk flailing its wings and walking toward him.
Even though one of its wings was tightly bound in cloth and moving must have been uncomfortable, the fellow stubbornly tried to approach Woo Geom-san.
Finding that sight both pitiful and endearing, Woo Geom-san forgot all about his Energy Circulation and watched the chick hawk.
Peep! Cheep!
The chick hawk let out a sound like a chick and settled onto Woo Geom-san’s lap.
Woo Geom-san did not have the heart to push the chick hawk away, so he just left it be.
“I guess I have no choice.”
With the chick hawk perched on his lap, he practiced the Choyeon Simgyeol.
While Woo Geom-san practiced the Choyeon Simgyeol, the chick hawk sat on his lap and dozed off, nodding its head.
Even when Woo Geom-san opened his eyes after finishing the Choyeon Simgyeol, the chick hawk was still sitting on his lap.
Peep!
The chick hawk cried out as if it were hungry.
“For a fellow who just came back from the dead, your energy is quite good.”
Woo Geom-san caressed the chick hawk’s beak with his finger.
Crying out from hunger was a good sign.
It meant it had the will to live.
Woo Geom-san took the chick hawk and went to Heokryongso.
This was because Heokryongso was overflowing with things the chick hawk could eat.
Woo Geom-san caught a fish swimming in Heokryongso.
When he placed the fish, which was about the size of an adult’s palm, in front of the chick hawk, it began to peck and eat ravenously.
The chick hawk tenaciously tore off pieces of flesh with its sharp beak.
Having devoured a whole fish in the blink of an eye, the chick hawk seemed satisfied and stopped pestering Woo Geom-san.
“This is good for your body, so eat this too.”
Woo Geom-san broke off a small piece of the Yeongbo Vitality Pill and fed it to the chick hawk.
Fortunately, the chick hawk did not reject it and ate the Yeongbo Vitality Pill well.
Woo Geom-san placed the chick hawk on a large boulder and said,
“While I practice my Martial Arts, rest here.”
The chick hawk sat quietly on the boulder where Woo Geom-san had placed it, merely blinking its eyes.
After touching the chick hawk’s beak once more, Woo Geom-san began to practice his Martial Arts.
Starting with the Flowing Void Steps, he reviewed the Chaeuolsu and then transitioned into the Choyen Sword Technique.
The chick hawk blinked its eyes, watching Woo Geom-san’s movements as they flowed as smoothly as water.
Perhaps because he had an audience, Woo Geom-san felt that the combination of his Martial Arts chained together better than usual.
A gentle breeze began to blow around his body.
The wind softly caressed even the downy feathers of the chick hawk.
***
“Oh, it’s Hongbaek!”
“Wow!”
The children who came to learn literacy cheered upon seeing the chick hawk perched on Woo Geom-san’s shoulder.
The chick hawk, having crossed the threshold of death, had gained explosive popularity among the children.
This was because the sight of it waddling with a bandage wrapped around one wing, desperately following Woo Geom-san, was simply too cute.
Whether the chick hawk now thought of Woo Geom-san as its mother, it refused to separate from him even for a moment.
The children called such a chick hawk Hongbaek.
When Woo Geom-san asked why they called it that, they said it was because its eyes possessed a faint red color.
Combining the red irises with the particularly white sclera yielded Hongbaek.
That was how the chick hawk’s name was born.
Since all the children called it Hongbaek, Woo Geom-san naturally came to call it Hongbaek as well.
Hongbaek sat on Woo Geom-san’s shoulder and looked at the children.
It accepted the children reaching out their hands to touch it without any fuss.
Originally, wild hawks reject the touch of human hands, but Hongbaek seemed to actually enjoy human attention.
Perhaps it knew that it was a human who had saved it from death.
Once Hongbaek regained a certain amount of vitality, Woo Geom-san tried to find the hawk’s nest to return it. However, the hawk parents rejected Hongbaek’s return.
They rejected it by spreading their wings wide, almost as if dealing with a mortal enemy.
The parent hawks ignored the chick hawk with the broken wing because they lacked the confidence to raise it.
In the wild, weak individuals were destined to be left behind.
Ultimately, Woo Geom-san resolved to raise Hongbaek.
As if Hongbaek also understood Woo Geom-san’s heart, it followed him around for dear life.
After that, Woo Geom-san and Hongbaek always went everywhere together.
Whether Woo Geom-san was practicing Martial Arts, farming, or working on the Plank Road construction, Hongbaek was always where he was.
It reached a point where people would tease Woo Geom-san, saying, “Look over there, your bride is watching you.”
“Hongbaek is a male, though.”
Woo Geom-san protested like that, but it was no use.
To the people who were thoroughly enjoying the fun of teasing him, Hongbaek’s gender did not matter at all.
One of the children pulled out some meat they had prepared in advance and said,
“It’s rabbit meat caught yesterday. Can I give it to Hongbaek?”
“Of course!”
“Hehe!”
As soon as Woo Geom-san’s permission was granted, the child offered the rabbit meat to Hongbaek.
Without even descending from Woo Geom-san’s shoulder, Hongbaek began to tear into and eat the meat offered by the child.
“Wow!”
“Hongbaek!”
Even that sight must have looked cool to the children.
The children let out frantic cheers.
From the children’s fierce reaction, Woo Geom-san felt as though his eardrums were going to burst.
“You’re living in luxury.”
It wasn’t a bad thing for Woo Geom-san either.
Even if he didn’t go out of his way to catch food for it, the children offered food on their own.
Like a king receiving tribute, the chick hawk loftily tore into the food offered by the children.
The chick hawk cleanly devoured the rabbit meat offered by the child without leaving a single shred of flesh behind.
Looking at Hongbaek, who sat loftily on Woo Geom-san’s shoulder preening its feathers, Baek Ho-yang said,
“There’s no separate king.”
“I know, right?”
“Still, it’s a relief that the children like it. They make an effort to come here just to see Hongbaek.”
Children’s focus does not last very long.
At first, they cheered at the prospect of learning characters, but the actual process of learning literacy was not easy.
Because of this, children with weak attention spans were already getting tired of learning characters. However, even those children visited Baek Ho-yang’s house every single day just to see Hongbaek.
Baek Ho-yang laughed.
“They say even dog dung can be useful sometimes, and that fits this perfectly. We shouldn’t have named it Hongbaek, we should’ve named it Dog Dung.”

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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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