Chapter 46: Jaseung, Buys the Drink

Lee Jaseung answered and the old woman’s eyes sparkled.

He did not fully understand the emotion she was revealing. Even someone as perceptive as Lee Jaseung could not interpret the meaning buried in those wrinkled lines.

At a glance her expression looked both surprised and pleased.

Frankly, Lee Jaseung felt conflicted.

Thirty million silver coins was truly a great sum of money.

But money came and went, appeared unexpectedly, or vanished just as quickly.

One had to spend when necessary so that the money might return multiplied.

Of course, there was also a practical side. If he had not taken a large sum from the Righteous Chivalrous Sword Clan, he might have thought for longer. Though ultimately, the decision would have been the same regardless.

The old woman spoke in a serious tone.

“Will you sign a promissory note?”

“I will.”

Having made up his mind already, Lee Jaseung didn’t hesitate.

As if she had prepared in advance, she withdrew a paper from her pocket.

“Sign here.”

A pre‑written promissory note promising to repay thirty million silver coins lay ready.

Just as Lee Jaseung was about to sign, Baek Seolyoung grabbed his arm.

“Wait.”

He turned to her.

“Don’t do it! This is absurd.”

He looked at her hand clasped on his wrist. She did not release her grip. Her face revealed the unwavering intent not to let go.

“It is absurd, as you say. But why are you trying so desperately to stop it?”

After a moment’s hesitation she spoke softly.

“I just had a feeling that maybe you might actually have thirty million silver coins.”

That was utterly absurd speculation. Only a few great wealthy households in the Central Plains could hold such sums. Yet somehow she felt that he might have it.

Of course, another thought struck her too.

‘Ah, I must have gone mad myself to think he might have that money.’

Either way, from her perspective it was a problem whether he had it or not.

“If it’s such an important matter, shouldn’t we consult together even if you have the money?”

“Do you want to get involved in this?”

Of course she didn’t. She lacked the capability even to repay one million silver coins, let alone thirty million. Although the Northern Sky clan could mobilize funds to raise a million, that was their clan’s power, not her private calling.

Even as clan Lord, she could not freely use the clan’s money.

“Not at all. But the moment you endorse it, whether I want to or not I become involved in this matter.”

She sighed and added in a tone of resignation.

“Fine, assume I’m a cursed woman who has to pay her husband’s debt. I could dig the foundations to pay up to one million silver coins. But thirty million, I cannot.”

Silence fell between them.

Then, Lee Jaseung smirked and spoke.

“So you are willing to repay up to a million silver coins.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I will handle this money myself.”

Realizing Lee Jaseung would not be swayed, Baek Seolyoung turned to the old woman and spoke.

“I know it’s presumptuous of me to intervene. I also know it’s disrespectful to you. But there’s no law in this world that lets someone sell a bottle of liquor for thirty million silver coins you know?”

“Why don’t you buy it yourself if you’re so worried about your husband?”

“Grandma! Are you really going to be like this?”

The old woman looked at Lee Jaseung. Her expression said “She’s reacting like this. What will you do now?”.

Lee Jaseung signed the promissory note and handed it to the old woman.

“I will repay it without fail.”

Baek Seolyoung sighed deeply and the old woman smiled brightly.

“I believe you. You look not only like someone who fights well but also someone who keeps promises.”

She opened the bottle and handed it to Lee Jaseung.

“Since this bottle is expensive, you alone should drink.”

The clear fragrance from the liquor spread in the air.

Without hesitation, Lee Jaseung drank it. Once he signed, his decision was already made.

He drank every drop without leaving any.

Initially the liquor burned intensely, then cooled sharply in his stomach and spread through his body.

Unlike the previous two bottles, this was no ordinary liquor. Something had been blended into it.

Lee Jaseung tensed fully.

The energy spreading through him had the extreme Yin nature. It was so Yin the energy chilled like ice.

It contrasted with the extreme Yang medicine he consumed from the iron chest previously. Now his entire body felt frozen.

He sat cross‑legged in place.

Seeing him, Baek Seolyoung knew the liquor had not been ordinary. She looked at the old woman, who simply gazed at Lee Jaseung with a strange smile.

The storming cold energy sweeping over him was a first for him. It felt so cold that his meridians might soon freeze and he would surely die.

But Lee Jaseung’s inner Qi was converted to pure Yang after he consumed the tonic from the iron chest. If he could apply that energy, he might withstand this chill.

But the amount of newly incoming energy was beyond imagination. It felt like a hundred eighty years worth of Qi.

The existing extreme Yang energy was two hundred and forty years worth.

The new extreme Yin energy was a hundred eighty years worth.

No one knew how the inner Qi’s nature would change if these mixed. It might become neither purely Yin nor Yang, a mixed nature.

Four hundred twenty years worth of Qi in total.

Of course, that wasn’t bad. Neither Yin or Yang were inherently superior.

But the problem was his martial art from the metal box. The techniques he learned there clearly required extreme Yang energy. If the nature of his energy changed, he would not be able to perform them.

He understood how precious those techniques were, so he could not easily give them up.

He clenched his teeth. The only thing he could do now was endure the chill without using his Qi.

If his inner Qi had been normal he would have been more comfortable. But he currently couldn’t bring himself to use a single trace of it.

It felt as if his very soul was freezing. He felt as though his body floated in mid‑air.

Then, he heard the old woman’s voice through a voice transmission.

— Listen carefully to what I will say. If you cannot properly follow the instructions and flow your Qi accordingly, you will die with all your meridians frozen.

Lee Jaseung nodded.

As the old woman spoke calmly, he realized she did not know he had pure Yang Qi, and that he was enduring without using his inner Qi.

She likely thought the chill was beyond survival without the use of inner Qi.

The old woman began to teach him the incantation. Lee Jaseung began flowing his Qi as instructed.

It resembled some internal cultivation method he learned from the metal box. It was different, but it felt similar like two branches from the same root.

When he moved his energy according to her instruction, the cold chill began to dissipate.

He finally escaped the crisis of frozen meridians, though still a hundred eighty years worth of extreme Yin energy flowed along his vessels.

The biggest issue was where to house that energy. His Dantian was already filled with extreme Yang energy. But it’s not like he could continue to circulate the energy forever.

His body remained cold. The Yin energy that had not entered the Dantian still circulated all over his body.

The old woman’s eyes sharpened. She sensed something was amiss.

“Shall I help you?”

Lee Jaseung shook his head. He couldn’t speak as he had to manage that immense inner force, but he kept his eyes open.

If she were to help, she would first inject the Qi into her own body and check the Dantian. If she truly were as strong or stronger than him, she would immediately detect the nature of his inner Qi being Yang.

Lee Jaseung did not want that. Whether the old woman or anyone else, he would not let them know the nature of his martial art. Especially not now when he did not know her true identity.

He firmly declined and the old woman waited without asking any further.

Lee Jaseung and Baek Seolyoung briefly exchanged glances.

She looked full of worry.

“Listen, if something goes wrong I might end up having to repay all that money myself. Wake up!”

Her joke oddly cheered him up.

‘Yes, I cannot saddle a woman I had not married with debt.’

‘Like she said, it’s not only my issue.’

An issue that belongs to not one, but both?

That moment, a singular thought came to him, as if by lie.

‘Yes, let’s try to operate two internal Qi cultivation methods simultaneously!’

It was a crazy thought. He had never tried anything like that, nor had he ever heard anyone try it.

It was dangerous. One wrong move and he could fall into Inner Demons or die.

As far as Lee Jaseung knew, it was the first time in world history someone attempted something like this.  

Of course, he didn’t come up with that idea recklessly.

It was because the metal box’s cultivation method and the one taught by the old woman were similar somewhere, different but rooted in the same tree.

Wooong-

Sshhh.

He began to apply both simultaneously. It was not something that could be done with a simple desire. It was only worth attempting only because of the level of the realm Lee Jaseung was in.

His own inner Qi released from the Dantian, and the extreme Yang energy began flowing along the vessels, meeting the extreme Yin energy.

Two different natures converged, and two energies merged.

Then came the miracle.

Like two dragons red and blue spiraling upward, Yin and Yang energies intertliquord through his meridians.

But just like how dragons don’t become one, neither did the energies.

He focused entirely on both inner cultivation methods. He had never concentrated so deeply in his life. His head felt hot from the exertion.

The intertliquord energies coiled through his body multiple times. Though it was difficult at first, over the course of the first section of his body, then second, then third, he could operate both methods more comfortably.

Just like that, both energies entered his Dantian.

On the left the extreme Yin, on the right the extreme Yang. The previous two hundred forty years worth of Qi was the extreme Yang, and the new one hundred eighty years worth was extreme Yin.

Astonishingly, though energies of opposite nature shared the Dantian, they remained separate. A profound miracle born of two deep inner cultivation methods.

Lee Jaseung did it, but he could hardly believe it himself.

“Huuuu.”

He exhaled long and steadily.

As the chill faded and his body steadied, Baek Seolyoung breathed a sigh of relief. She did not realize how astonishing of an outcome her joke had given birth to.

On the other hand, the old woman looked slightly surprised. She had expected Lee Jaseung to accept her instructions more fluidly, but he seemed to have had more trouble than she thought.

Though she seemed all‑seeing, she did not know what had occurred within him today.

Lee Jaseung slowly rose to his feet.

At last, Baek Seolyoung turned to the old woman and asked urgently,

“What exactly was in that liquor?”

“The North Sea Ice Spirit Herb, Eternal Cold Yin Fruit, and Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng.”

“Oh my goodness!”

Baek Seolyoung gasped in shock. The liquor was made using only supreme Yin tonic ingredients.

“If you managed to get the maximum effect, then your inner Qi should’ve increased by another one hundred eighty years worth. Ten million silver coins per sixty years worth. How’s that? Not bad, right?”

Baek Seolyoung loudly responded.

“If it had been that kind of liquor, then why didn’t you offer it to me!”

At that moment, her feelings were honest. The issue of repaying thirty million silver coins was secondary. If she could grow stronger, she could protect the clan.

The old woman narrowed her eyes and asked.

“I gave you a chance too, and you refused.”

Certainly she had seemed to invite Baek Seolyoung to buy the liquor. But that was only a formal gesture. If she truly intended to have her buy it, she would have tried much harder to persuade her.

Baek Seolyoung felt deeply hurt. The old woman had been part of her life since childhood. It was completely different from Lee Jaseung who she had met only recently.  

The old woman smiled gently and spoke.  

“As you heard, the tonics in the liquor are of extreme Yin. A woman can never take them. Even I could not endure such Yin energy.”

Only then did Baek Seolyoung’s expression soften.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”

Yet lingering questions remained.

The old woman’s absurd condition showed she was certain Lee Jaseung would accept it.

Was it only because he had won the martial tournament?

No. The willingness to sign a promissory note for thirty million silver coins was not merely strength, it was resolve.

The grandmother must have intended him to drink that liquor. Possibly from the moment she had earlier requested him to buy her an expensive liquor at the tavern.

Just what had she seen in him?

Baek Seolyoung asked calmly.

“Why? Why him of all people?”

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