Chapter 345: The Truth of the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice (2)

Yong Hwarin circled around the Sky Ocean Merchant Union before heading to its side building.

Currently, Jeong Minji was staying there with Jeong Mae.

“Where are you two going together?”

As Yong Hwarin entered the room with Jeong Minji, Jeong Suji called out from behind.

Then Jeong Daji, looking embarrassed, said,

“Unnie, why are you interrupting them? You’re really mean-spirited.”

Seeing them go into the room as if to fool around, Jeong Minji blushed.

“Ugh, those brats, seriously.”

They were becoming more like enemies than sisters.

Yong Hwarin, thinking this was convenient, spoke.

“I’ve brought the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice that will complete the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow. I was thinking of showing it to Miss Mae first, but would you two like to come along?”

The Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow was a martial art accompanied by terrible pain.

So she would have preferred not to learn it.

“Tell unnie to learn it first.”

At those words, the two younger sisters stopped teasing and quickly vanished from their sight.

“They really need to grow up.”

When Jeong Minji sighed, Yong Hwarin replied,

“If they grow up, it’ll be really boring.”

“That’s true.”

The two laughed while looking at each other before going into the room.

Jeong Suji and Jeong Daji, who had just been about to run off, stopped and said,

“It’s better to stand guard here, since unnie might actually practice the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow.”

“What’s gotten into you? Thinking like that?”

When Jeong Daji sneered, Jeong Suji retorted,

“Think about it. If unnie fails, she’ll make us learn it too. Would you like that?”

“No, if unnie succeeds, then we won’t have to learn it at all. Suji unnie’s right. Sometimes you’re really smart.”

Jeong Suji and Jeong Daji climbed onto the roof opposite and kept watch for anyone approaching the side building.

The two inside placed the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice, which looked like a flower vase tinged with a faint red hue, on the table and admired it for a while.

They turned it this way and that, like examining a piece of art, but found nothing particularly special.

“Is this really the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice?”

Jeong Minji asked in a slightly doubtful tone.

She tapped it with her hand.

Tok! Tok!

It made a hollow metallic sound.

What was important was that it wasn’t as heavy as it looked.

That alone gave her some expectations.

The Four Great Divine Items were made from parts of Banryong, so they were relatively light.

“I should check with the Azure Dragon Three Marbles.”

Yong Hwarin took out the Azure Dragon Three Marbles and placed them inside the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice.

Contrary to expectations, there was no reaction.

“It seems it only reacts when using the Nine Dragons Heavenly Ascent Technique.”

With high anticipation, Yong Hwarin activated the Nine Dragons Heavenly Ascent Technique, and the Azure Dragon Three Marbles slowly began to glow.

Then, the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice also began to change bit by bit.

Jeong Minji’s mouth went dry.

This might be the moment to resolve all the questions she had while practicing the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow.

She couldn’t help but be tense.

The Four Divine Arts were martial arts that used the Four Great Divine Items.

Without them, she always felt something missing during training.

There were more than a few techniques and methods she couldn’t understand.

Notably, techniques like Vermilion Bird Twin Arrows, Vermilion Bird Heavenly Age, Vermilion Bird Moon Wave, Vermilion Bird Thunder Rain, Vermilion Bird Blood Flame, and Phoenix Shadow Shattering Moon were not composed of moves but could only be executed through the manipulation of qi.

In fact, more than half of the Four Divine Arts were of this nature, so trying to link them into moves felt lacking and unnatural.

The Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice began to vibrate, trembling finely on the table.

Ddrrrrrr!

Then, it emitted a strange sound.

Jjeo-eok! Jjeo-eok! Jjeo-eok!

The sound of a log splitting echoed repeatedly.

“Look at this!”

Yong Hwarin brought his face close to the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice.

“There are fine cracks here.”

“It’s like it’s wrapped in cloth.”

“That’s right.”

The two looked at each other, then pulled on the protruding part where the crack was.

Jjiiiik!

When they pulled the protrusion, about the width of a finger joint, something came off the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice.

Jjiiiiik!

What came off was about two spans in length.

“Could this be Banryong’s scale mentioned in the Royal Consort Record?”

“It seems so. It looks discolored as if rusted iron over time. I’ll have to clean it.”

Yong Hwarin rubbed it with a cotton cloth, but the grime accumulated over a long time wouldn’t come off easily.

After thinking for a moment, he held the piece taken from the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice in both hands and ignited the Samadhi True Fire.

Whooosh!

Samadhi True Fire, being a flame of true qi, had the ability to burn even things that normally wouldn’t catch fire.

It blazed like an oil-soaked cloth.

The long-accumulated grime was burning away.

“It won’t turn to ash from the fire, right?”

To the worried Jeong Minji, he said,

“If it’s weak enough to burn, then it’s not Banryong’s scale. If it’s the real thing, it won’t melt even in lava.”

When the flames died down, he held the charred dragon scale and brushed off the ash.

As the bluish-green grime came off, Banryong’s scale revealed its true surface.

It was close to crimson and emitted a subtle glow.

“Oh!”

“Ah!”

Yong Hwarin and Jeong Minji exclaimed at the same time.

At a glance, an extraordinary energy surged up.

And now that the grime was gone, they could see it clearly.

“Look, look at this.”

Jeong Minji, holding up the dragon scale and examining it closely, spoke in surprise.

“These are packed tightly together like scales.”

The dragon scale was about two spans long and resembled a strip of cloth about the width of a finger joint.

They were Banryong’s scales, densely connected like fish scales.

“Heh heh, this really is the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice.”

“In the Royal Consort Record, it refers to this as the Vermilion Bird Wing Dagger, which means Master Gwi Ryeongja must have crafted it into a kind of dagger.”

“Given that it’s named the Vermilion Bird Wing Dagger, it must definitely be a weapon used in the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow.”

The two began detaching the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers from the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice.

Once they had removed them all, there were more than fifty.

“That’s a lot.”

Jeong Minji shuddered as she looked at them.

As someone who had learned the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow, she understood what that meant.

“It seems true that the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow is the most powerful martial art. And now I finally understand why there are techniques called Vermilion Bird Thunder Rain and Vermilion Bird Blood Flame.”

Jeong Minji continued in a tense voice.

“The Vermilion Bird Wing Dagger is a kind of hidden weapon launched using the qi of the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow. But as you know, once imbued with the qi of the Azure Dragon Three Marbles, the Vermilion Bird Wing Dagger will lose its weight. Then who could possibly block it?”

It was understandable that Jeong Minji’s voice trembled faintly.

“Shall we try it out?”

At Yong Hwarin’s words, Jeong Minji nodded with a face half-expectant, half-worried.

“I want to try it too.”

“All right, let’s first remove the grime with Samadhi True Fire.”

Yong Hwarin used the Samadhi True Fire to carefully burn away the grime from each Vermilion Bird Wing Dagger.

The more than fifty reddish Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers made for quite a sight.

When they had been attached to the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice, they hadn’t looked so numerous, but once all separated, the quantity was striking.

“But how are we supposed to carry these around?”

“In the Royal Consort Record, it says the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers were worn on the body. They also served the function of quality armor, so it was written that they were usually kept attached to the body.”

“Since they can connect together, that should be possible.”

Jeong Minji turned around and removed her top.

Yong Hwarin, of course, wasn’t about to just watch quietly.

He came up behind her and covered her chest with both hands.

“Gaga, now’s not the time for jokes.”

Feeling embarrassed, Yong Hwarin stepped back with a sheepish smile.

It was the first time he had seen Jeong Minji so serious.

This was the woman who didn’t even tense up in the face of life-and-death duels.

“Gaga, please attach these.”

She pushed out her chest, and Yong Hwarin began connecting the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers from her abdomen upward.

When she turned her back, he continued attaching them from her back upward.

Jeong Minji’s upper body, from her abdomen to above her chest, was thoroughly wrapped in Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers, making her look like a fish covered in scales.

“Isn’t it heavy?”

“No. It just feels like I’ve put on a piece of clothing. Gaga, strike me with a sword.”

Yong Hwarin stood up and took an ordinary iron sword from the wall.

He struck lightly at first.

Jjiing!

Not a scratch appeared on the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers.

“Strike harder.”

This time, Yong Hwarin slashed at her side.

Jjiing!

It felt like trying to cut through stone with the sword.

“Normally, with that much force, my side would have been deeply cut. But I didn’t feel a single shock. This is amazing.”

Yong Hwarin swallowed hard.

“Miss Min, use the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow. Adjust your internal strength.”

“Gaga, please tap the acupoints on my back.”

Jeong Minji was still under a restriction.

After Yong Hwarin tapped the points she named, he retreated to the corner of the room.

Jeong Minji gathered the qi of the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow and deployed the Vermilion Bird Thunder Rain.

As the energy burst forth, dozens of Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers wrapped around her upper body floated into the air.

The moment they rose, the daggers vanished.

Shhhhhh!

After disappearing, a sound followed, and dust burst from the walls of the room.

Puh-puh-puh-puh-puk!

“Hahahahaha.”

Yong Hwarin let out a laugh of disbelief at the astonishing sight.

The Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers had embedded themselves into the wall, leaving holes.

“That was only with half of my total internal strength.”

Jeong Minji swallowed nervously in surprise.

Yong Hwarin was chilled to the bone by the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow’s power.

Having reached the Qi-Vision Realm, he could usually perceive the flow of qi in most techniques imbued with true qi and predict their trajectory, but he couldn’t see the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers Jeong Minji had fired.

Even with energy imbued, they were so fast they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

The speed of the Vermilion Bird Wing Daggers had surpassed human perception.

‘At this rate, the title of the world’s greatest master might go to Miss Min.’

Yong Hwarin couldn’t be certain his Protective Energy could block the Vermilion Bird Great Flame Heaven Bow.

“Gaga, this is a martial art beyond imagination.”

“Only now is the true power of the Four Divine Arts unleashed when matched with their divine items.”

“It seems there’s no rival for this.”

Yong Hwarin smiled softly at those words.

“Miss Min, you know I love you, right?”

“Do you? Then prove it.”

Seizing the moment, Yong Hwarin claimed Jeong Minji’s lips.

“W-wait. Gaga, not there.”

Jeong Minji tried to push away Yong Hwarin’s hand, but her strength was already drained, and her hands slid down weakly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep