Ultimate Martial Venerable - Chapter 12

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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 12. Bearing the Weight of Heaven
The Recovery Pill made on the first day was barely worthy of being called medicine.
From the murky gray liquid rose the scent of raw grass and burnt char alike, and even draining an entire vial did little more than soothe the skin inflamed by burns.
Yet Yuk Beom did not complain.
If the effect was weak, he would simply make it better next time. A wound that did not heal today would only hurt more tomorrow—but that was no reason to stop training.
When dawn broke, Yuk Beom set out for the Waterfall once more.
Water plummeting from a thousand-foot cliff hammered his head and shoulders with brutal force. The pool beneath his feet boiled from the Self-Combustion Heavenly Fire, and merely standing on the stones felt as though the soles of his feet were cooking.
Yuk Beom drew the thin strand of Original Qi from his Dantian down to his feet.
He transformed it into wind, dispersed it, then grasped it once more.
A faint current of air wrapped around his soles. His body grew lighter for a moment—then shattered like glass the instant the waterfall struck his back.
Splash!
Yuk Beom plunged into the scalding pool.
The agony of burning skin stole his breath, but he clambered out of the water at once. Without pause, he climbed back onto the stones.
If he failed once, he would last a little longer the second time.
If he failed the second time, he would sustain the wind for one more breath on the third.
Yuk Beom repeated this simple task until the sun fell below the horizon.
When night came, training did not end—only its form changed.
With his entire body swollen and flushed crimson, he sat before the medicinal ingredients and crafted Recovery Pills to treat the wounds that had burned him throughout the day.
There was no set formula for Recovery Pills.
Each herb carried within it both heating properties and cooling properties, blood-quickening qualities and blood-stilling qualities all mixed together. Yuk Beom had to ignite the herb’s nature with the flame of his Original Qi, then select only the aspects he needed and recombine them.
On the first day, he did not even know what he needed.
On the second day, he gathered only heat-reducing medicinal potency, only to suffer a side effect that left his vital channels feeling frozen solid.
On the third day, he focused so intently on closing wounds that his skin became stiff and rigid, leaving him unable to raise his arms properly at the Waterfall the next morning.
O Jin did not reveal the answers.
He only caught the scent of the liquid occasionally and offered a word here and there—and even that only after disappearing into the forest for several days in a row, each time carrying a single herb root, returning only when the night grew late. He did not explain what he was making, but unlike usual, his face bore the unmistakable weight of exhaustion.
Yuk Beom was curious but did not ask. He could at least tell that just because his master was not watching over his training did not mean he was idle.

“Water that is only cold will extinguish fire, but on frozen earth, new flesh will not grow.”
“There is a difference between stilling blood and blocking it altogether.”

It fell to Yuk Beom to understand what those words meant.
On the evening of the fifth day, Yuk Beom returned to the Dwelling with his whole body in tatters.
His shoulders and back bore layer upon layer of wounds from the waterfall’s blows, and his heat-scalded skin would flake away at the slightest touch. Had he not been cultivating the Blazing Gold Body, he would have collapsed from grave injuries long ago.
Yuk Beom gathered the medicinal ingredients with trembling hands.
He ground them to powder, sifted away the impurities, separated the necessary potencies and recombined them.
His fingers kept losing strength, and he spilled the ingredients on the ground several times. Each time his flame wavered, the liquid turned black as it burned.
Each time, Yuk Beom cleared away the ruin and started from the beginning.
It took a full double-hour before a single small vial was complete.
This time the liquid was not murky. A pale, translucent blue-white liquid gleamed gently within the bottle.
Yuk Beom drank it without leaving a single drop.
A cool force traveled down his throat and spread through his entire body. The throbbing, burning pain in his skin subsided, and the torn muscles and wounds began to heal rapidly.

“Done.”

Yuk Beom exhaled a long breath.
For the first time, he had made a proper Recovery Pill.
Only now did he understand why there was no fixed formula. Recovery Pills were not medicines made by combining memorized ingredients. He had to read the wounds before him and the state of his body, then select and combine the precise potencies needed in that moment. Today’s formula held no guarantee of being the answer tomorrow.
Making medicine was ultimately the work of reading a person’s body.
He monitored the sensation of his body recovering and drew from the Nine Heavens Ring a single scarlet pill.
Heo Hwa Dan
(虛火丹)
.
It was an item O Jin had refined into a second-grade pill from the Void Fire Fruit he had obtained at the auction house.
Yuk Beom had postponed consuming it precisely because the medicinal potency of the Geuk Gwang Dan remained in his system. But after days of driving his body to its limits, that residual potency had already been depleted.
If anything, his vital energy was now greatly exhausted.
This was the perfect moment to accept new medicinal potency.
Yuk Beom swallowed the Heo Hwa Dan.
It was harder to wait for the right moment than to obtain a fine pill in the first place. Had he hurried, the remaining potency would have clashed with the new, but his body now was like parched earth awaiting water—primed to receive the Heo Hwa Dan’s energy.
The moment the pill dissolved, crimson smoke rose from his entire body.

“Ugh……!”

Potent medicinal energy swept through his meridians and bone. It was nothing like the violent, body-breaking pain of the Refining Pills—instead, it felt as though a torrent of scalding water had poured into his hollow frame, filling every gap with fierce heat.
Yuk Beom began the breathing technique of the Blazing Gold Body.
Heaven and earth become the furnace; the flesh becomes the metal.
The essence of the Heo Hwa Dan began to circulate around his heart. Crimson light spread from his chest to his shoulders and arms, then down his waist and legs.
Scabs formed over his wounds, and beneath them, new flesh emerged. His old, withered skin hardened like shed skin, wrapping around his body.
At some point, O Jin had positioned himself outside the door.
He did not enter. Once he confirmed the steady rhythm of his disciple’s breathing, he quietly closed the door.
A night passed.
When morning light began to stream through the window, Yuk Beom’s eyes opened.
As he moved, the dried skin covering him cracked and peeled away with successive sounds.
Crack. Crackle.
Yuk Beom looked down at his own arm.
The swollen, reddened skin had shed like an old husk, and beneath it lay smooth, firm new flesh.
He brushed away the brittle skin clinging to his body and threw a light punch.
Whoosh!
A scalding wind swept through the room.
As a test, Yuk Beom drove his fist toward the wooden door.
Crash!
His fist pierced straight through the thick wooden panel. Black smoke rose from the scattered wood fragments, and the area around the impact point blackened as though singed by flame.
A smile spread across Yuk Beom’s lips.
Blazing Gold Body Minor Completion

.
A stage that few in his clan had ever reached—and at last, he had taken his first step into it.
Yuk Beom rushed straight toward the Waterfall.
As he gathered the Original Qi of his Dantian at his feet, the wind rose far more easily than before. It no longer merely cushioned his soles; it gently supported his calves and waist as well.
Yuk Beom stepped onto the stone.
The fierce cascade fell toward his head.
Roar!
This time, even his toes did not waver.
As Yuk Beom awakened the Blazing Gold Body, crimson light flickered beneath his skin. The water that struck his body boiled instantly, transforming into white vapor.

“Ha ha ha!”

His laughter pierced through the roar of the waterfall and echoed into the mountains.
Just days ago, even standing on this stone had been difficult. Now he could endure it with his eyes closed.
Over the following days, his training progressed noticeably faster.
Though his Original Qi occasionally faltered, causing him to slip into the water, the scalding pool could no longer harm his body. The quality of the Recovery Pills improved visibly each day, until he no longer needed to brew medicine through the night.
The moment he realized he had grown comfortable, O Jin appeared at the training ground.
He watched Yuk Beom standing calmly beneath the waterfall, then soared upward toward the cliff’s edge.
The next instant, a violet spark fell onto the waterfall’s upstream source.
Whoosh!
The entire cascade boiled in an instant. White steam blanketed the mountainside, and the air warped as though not water but molten metal cradling fire were falling from above.
Yuk Beom leaped frantically out from beneath the torrent.

“Master, what is this now?”
“This training no longer serves you.”

O Jin extended a black stone no larger than his palm.
It appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary stone with a rough, uneven surface. But the moment Yuk Beom accepted it and hung it around his neck, his body nearly collapsed into the ground.
Thud!
His legs buckled deeply beneath him.
Even lifting an arm felt as difficult as pushing a boulder. Though Yuk Beom gritted his teeth and forced himself upright, it took him considerable effort to shuffle even half a step forward.

A Bongryeok Seok.

O Jin smiled with satisfaction.

“It’s something the Flame Practitioners of ancient times used to imprison criminals. It suppresses the wearer’s strength and Original Qi.”

Yuk Beom looked down at the small stone hanging from his neck.

“This is supposed to imprison a person?”
“This is among the weakest varieties. A properly crafted Bongryeok Seok can render even a master unable to move a single finger.”

The corners of Yuk Beom’s eyes twitched.
When even opening his mouth took effort, learning this was the weakest version made him unsure whether to laugh or curse.
O Jin pointed toward the peak of the churning Waterfall.

“Climb to the top while wearing the Bongryeok Seok.”

Instead of answering, Yuk Beom gazed up at the cliff face.
It rose so high the summit vanished beyond sight. A Waterfall—heated by Self-Combustion Heavenly Fire—poured down over the cliff, a sheer wall that was difficult enough to scale bare-handed on any ordinary day.

“The method doesn’t matter. Climb by strength alone, use your Original Qi, brew a medicinal remedy to unlock the Bongryeok Seok—whatever you choose.”

O Jin set down a thick Medicinal Manual at Yuk Beom’s feet.

“The key to unlocking the Bongryeok Seok is in there. Once you reach the summit, this training is complete.”

Yuk Beom tried to nod, but even his neck would not obey.
O Jin left his disciple behind without hesitation, turning back the way he had come.
On the first day, Yuk Beom could not take a single step.
It took five days before he could walk at a pace slower than a child’s.
By the tenth day, he fed himself and read the Medicinal Manual. His arm trembled under the weight of a single volume, yet the hunger in his eyes never dimmed. Finding a medicinal formula to unlock the Bongryeok Seok was a legitimate approach, but learning unfamiliar ingredients and their complex proportions demanded time. Yuk Beom continued his training through sheer will even as he studied the manual.
On the fifteenth day, Yuk Beom plunged into the Waterfall for the first time and sank straight to the bottom of the pool. Had he not summoned wind through his Original Qi, he would have choked on the water and lost consciousness before the scalding heat could cook him alive.
By the twentieth day, he began to climb the cliff face.
His fingers grasped stone crevices while he conjured wind beneath his feet to lighten his body’s weight. Yet after managing only three body-lengths, his strength gave out and he plunged back into the water.
By the twenty-fifth day, transforming Original Qi into wind had become as natural as breathing.
The wind wrapped around his entire body, not just his feet. The weight of the Bongryeok Seok did not vanish, but he could move freely beneath its burden.
And on the thirtieth day.
Yuk Beom sat in full lotus at the base of the Waterfall.
The torrent of scalding water split and cascaded to either side, leaving a hand’s breadth of space above his head. Original Qi flowing from his entire body formed an invisible barrier, redirecting the water’s course.
With each exhalation, hot steam billowed forth in long, thick plumes.
His muscles, packed tight and hard, contracted in rhythm with his breathing. The vital channels throughout his body surged powerfully, pounding against the final barrier.
Thump.
A deep, resonant sound erupted from within his body.
The blocked wall collapsed, and a greater force surged into his limbs.
Yuk Beom’s eyes opened.
He drove a fist forward, and a crimson inferno erupted.
Boom!
The center of the cascading water column evaporated entirely. For a moment, a massive cavity opened in the Waterfall, and scattered droplets fell like rain down the mountainside.

“You’ve reached the eighth level of Yeon Che Gong.”

O Jin, who had appeared at the water’s edge, spoke.
Yuk Beom seized the Bongryeok Seok at his neck in one hand.
His body was still heavy.
But it no longer felt like a wall bearing down to crush him.
Yuk Beom smiled up at the cliff.

“This time, I’ll reach the summit.”

He pushed off from the rock and launched himself into the scalding Waterfall.
Wind stirred beneath his feet, and his glowing red fingers drove deep into the solid stone.
Yuk Beom’s body ascended without pause—one body-length, two body-lengths, rising unstoppably toward the peak.
The weight of a thousand pounds remained unchanged.
What had changed was the person bearing it.

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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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