Chapter 154. Destiny (4)

After preparing paper, ink, and a brush, I wrote down the chants that my Senior Sister recited as I found them.

Senior Sister Choyeon’s footwork, stealth techniques, sword arts, internal energy divine arts, etc.

After carefully reading and examining the chants of various martial arts for a while.

The first thing that caught my eye was a short chant called the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique.

I looked at it and asked my Senior Sister.

“Is this that blood-sucking art?”

“That’s right, Senior Brother.”

A truly blatant name.

“To craft a vessel with a hundred bloods.”

“Yes. The instructors there said that after completing a hundred requests, one could become a peak master.”

I nodded and said.

“From now on, even if you kill someone, you must never use this technique.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

After warning my Senior Sister, I looked at the other martial arts again.

Because what I was really concerned about was not the blood-sucking art.

Then, at some point, my eyes became fixed on a divine art called the Unwavering Heart Divine Art.

Unwavering heart. A heart without wavering.

Just by its name, it felt similar to the Jade Cloud Divine Art.

But the chant was completely different.

To be precise, a peculiar point in that divine art chant caught my eye.

There were several chants that stimulated the acupoints in the head, including the Hundred Convergences Acupoint, as well as Tongtian, Qianzheng, and Chengguang.

It wasn’t that I knew all the martial arts in the world.

In particular, I didn’t know much about divine arts.

I had tried to imitate the forms of footwork or sword arts by watching others, but I had never even had a chance to watch and follow an internal energy divine art.

Perhaps among other advanced martial arts, there were many that stimulated the acupoints in the head like this.

But perhaps because a seed of doubt had already sprouted in my head, I felt a sense of certainty for some reason.

To confirm that doubt, I asked my Senior Sister.

“When did you start learning this Unwavering Heart Divine Art?”

“The instructors taught it to me from the first day I was taken there.”

“Then when did you start learning the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique from before?”

“I learned it a few days before you came to that place, Senior Brother.”

“Did the instructors there say anything else? Like you should learn it after a certain level of achievement in the Unwavering Heart Divine Art has been accumulated.”

At my question, my Senior Sister frowned faintly.

Still, since we had been together for a while, I could tell. It wasn’t an unpleasant expression. It was the expression she made when recalling a faint memory.

“There was no talk about the achievement of the Unwavering Heart Divine Art. They only taught the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique to those who were about to leave that place.”

Thanks to my Senior Sister’s answer, my suspicion was confirmed.

“It seems to be because of the Unwavering Heart Divine Art.”

“What is?”

“The reason why they can teach the assassins the wicked technique called the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique. And the reason why you, Senior Sister, have lost your emotions.”

Since I hadn’t learned various divine arts and was not deeply versed in medicine, I couldn’t grasp the exact principle.

Instead, I could make an inference based on the information I had gathered so far.

The reason why all the children at the assassin training center seemed to be broken somewhere.

It wasn’t because of the cruel assassin training and harsh torture.

Those would have had some effect, but in the end, the biggest cause seemed to be this Unwavering Heart Divine Art.

I wondered if it had gradually destroyed something that governs emotions by stimulating the acupoints in the head.

If emotions disappear, greed will also disappear.

Then, even if one learns a blood-sucking art, there would be no danger of going berserk due to excessive greed.

After my reasoning reached this point, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

It felt less like they were training assassins and more like they were conducting experiments on people.

At that moment, my Senior Sister asked in an indifferent tone.

“Is there something wrong with me?”

After contemplating for a moment, I replied.

“There is no immediate problem. But if you continue to learn this, then there will be a big problem. So from today, learn the divine art I will teach you.”

And then I taught my Senior Sister the chant of the Jade Cloud Divine Art.

The best divine art I knew was the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art, but I couldn’t bring myself to teach that.

It wasn’t because I didn’t trust my Senior Sister.

It was because she was learning a dangerous divine art called the Unwavering Heart Divine Art.

The Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art was also a proper divine art, but I was worried that if she learned it now, she might fall into a mental demon.

So I decided to teach her the purest divine art I knew, the Jade Cloud Divine Art, first.

“I have memorized it all.”

Perhaps because the chant of the Jade Cloud Divine Art was simple, my Senior Sister succeeded in memorizing the entire chant at once, as expected.

It was a chant that had taken Nam Geon over a fortnight to memorize.

“Fill your Dantian with the energy of the Jade Cloud Divine Art, and then purify the energy you have accumulated with the Unwavering Heart Divine Art. When all the energy in your Dantian has changed to the color of the Jade Cloud Divine Art, I will teach you a new divine art.”

***

The next day.

We left the village and headed for the next nearest village.

We needed to distribute the wealth of the Nine Dragons Fortress to the residents, and it was also for Hwangbo Ak’s atonement.

Given what that guy had done, we couldn’t just stop by one nearby village and apologize.

On the way out of the village, the Tang Clan guy approached me.

“Why don’t you just rest here?”

“What nonsense are you talking about now?”

“You’re injured too.”

The Tang Clan guy pointed at various parts of my body and said.

There were places scratched by the Nine Dragons Fortress Leader’s axe, and there were also wounds from the needles he had thrown.

“It’s not serious.”

Before the Tang Clan guy, who shook his head, could spout any more useless nagging, I beat him to it.

“When did you get those?”

Two giant axes were hanging on his back.

They were the twin axes that the Nine Dragons Fortress Leader had used.

“Ahem. I have a promise with Mr. Great Jade, the blacksmith, so I have to return these to him, don’t I?”

“Aren’t you trying to return them to Miss Yeo, not Mr. Yeo, the blacksmith?”

“Th, they are father and daughter, so i, isn’t it the same?”

The guy, whose face turned red, quickly changed the subject.

“Ahem. Anyway, how about going to Hubei after this is over? We need to deliver the news that the Nine Dragons Fortress Leader is dead, and we also have to return these axes.”

I gladly nodded at his words.

“The axes are the axes, but I think I need to go see Brother Seomun.”

“You seem to really like that Brother Seomun too. Do you want to see him that much?”

The Tang Clan guy, who was muttering that, opened his eyes in a strange way and muttered.

“Could it be……?”

“I don’t know what kind of crazy thoughts you’re having, but I’m not going because of Brother Sama.”

“Then why are you going?”

“Because of the children I left in Brother Sama’s care.”

The Tang Clan guy made a puzzled expression.

So I told him what had happened yesterday.

“The Unwavering Heart Divine Art that the children there learned. We must stop them from learning it any further.”

As befitting a doctor, the guy was now making a serious expression.

“A divine art that makes one lose emotions by stimulating the acupoints in the head. What a terrible technique I’ve never even thought of.”

“The circumstances suggest so, but I’m not sure. Since I’m not deeply versed in medicine.”

“Do you happen to have the paper on which that chant is written?”

I handed the Tang Clan guy the paper I had kept from yesterday.

The Tang Clan guy, who was carefully examining its contents, asked me.

“May I check Miss Cho’s condition?”

“Ask my Senior Sister directly.”

When I called Senior Sister Choyeon and asked, she nodded with her usual indifferent expression.

The Tang Clan guy took my Senior Sister’s pulse at her wrist and even placed his hand on her head to examine her.

“Phew.”

As the Tang Clan guy let out a faint sigh after finishing the examination, my Senior Sister asked indifferently.

“Is there something wrong with me?”

At this, the Tang Clan guy was startled and replied.

“Th, there’s no big problem. D, don’t worry. Ha. Hahaha.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed there was a big problem.

After Senior Sister Choyeon returned to where Senior Sister Baek Hyang and Nam Geon were, I asked the Tang Clan guy.

“Is it serious?”

“……It’s a case I’ve never seen before. There was no such case among what I learned from my mother, so it’s hard to say for sure.”

“What exactly was her condition?”

“What you said seemed highly possible. Some of the acupoints in her head were a little strange. What should I say. It felt like they were worn down. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the acupoints weren’t completely eroded or damaged to the point of being unusable.”

“It means there’s a possibility of recovery.”

“……It’s hard to say this, but it’s not certain.”

For now, I decided to take it positively.

Because doctors always mention the worst-case scenario.

“As for my Senior Sister, we just need to observe her progress from now on, and I should let Brother Sama know quickly. So that the children don’t learn that divine art anymore.”

The Tang Clan guy also nodded.

“For now, I will continue to look after Miss Cho.”

“I’ll leave her in your care.”

***

After wandering around the vicinity of Nine Dragons Mountain for a few days.

We were able to return all the remaining wealth of the Nine Dragons Fortress to the nearby residents.

Hwangbo Ak’s apology also continued.

Of course, not everyone just forgave Hwangbo Ak.

There were also some who had lost close acquaintances because of the Nine Dragons Fortress, beyond simply losing their wealth.

Among them, there were even some who had been killed by Hwangbo Ak.

They were mainly masters who had learned a thing or two about martial arts.

But no major problems arose.

In many cases, the people around them stopped them.

“You should calm down.”

“But didn’t that person step up and punish the Nine Dragons Fortress himself?”

It might have been different if Hwangbo Ak had just been betrayed by the Nine Dragons Fortress Leader and fled, but it was thanks to him stepping up and punishing the Nine Dragons Fortress himself.

Right after we finished all the things we had to do here, we left southern Zhejiang and started walking northwest.

Hwangbo Ak, who had been making a complicated expression for the past few days, shook his head vigorously and then asked with his original hearty expression.

“Where are we going now, Brother Jin?”

“First, we will go to Hubei.”

“Is there a strong enemy there?”

I shook my head.

“There is someone I have to meet there, but he is not an enemy. Instead, we will clean up the trash on the way.”

At my answer, he grinned.

“Hehehe. I hope there’s a useful one among those trash. A dangerous enemy that makes your hands and feet tingle.”

At his words, for some reason, Nam Geon looked at me.

“What is it?”

“Y, you talk like hyung-ah.”

“What is it?”

“Hy, hyung-ah always says it whenever we go somewhere. That he hopes there is trash.”

At this, the Tang Clan guy nodded his head roughly.

“Well said, Brother Nam! They say words become seeds, and every time that guy says something like that, an accident always happens.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Uahahaha! As expected, I feel like I’m on the same wavelength as you, Brother Jin! It seems you also enjoy fighting strong enemies, Brother Jin!”

Hwangbo Ak held out his arm to me as if to put it around my shoulder.

Perhaps because it felt unpleasant, I slapped away his hand and said.

“If you have the energy to talk, why don’t you train your movement arts instead.”

***

A peaceful journey continued for several days.

We left Zhejiang and entered Jiangxi, and continued to move towards Hubei.

While moving and training our martial arts, we also had duels with each other as usual.

Each time, Hwangbo Ak was ecstatic.

“Kuhahaha! To be able to have a duel every day like this. It’s certainly much more enjoyable than being a bandit!”

Although he seemed out of his mind in many ways, he was quite helpful.

Looking at it right now, there was no master among our companions who was superior to Hwangbo Ak.

Senior Sister Choyeon also trained the Jade Cloud Divine Art for the past few days and was purifying the energy of the Unwavering Heart Divine Art.

In addition to that, the Tang Clan guy would periodically give her medicine or place needles on her.

And every time he treated Senior Sister Choyeon, he would take out an empty book and scribble something down.

“It’s a case I’ve never seen before, so I need to record the progress.”

After moving like that for several days, we arrived at a small village.

A village where only a few dozen houses were gathered together. A village without even an inn.

After observing the somehow quiet and static atmosphere of the village for a moment.

Hwangbo Ak approached a resident he saw and asked.

“Are there any Underworld scoundrels here? Hehehe. This Hwangbo will take care of them all for you!”

At a glance, it looked like he was threatening them to hand over everything they had, but the content was truly wonderful.

At his question, the resident bowed his head low and replied.

“Oh my! Thank you for coming here!”

Perhaps because a stranger had come, or perhaps because of the resident’s shout.

The residents began to approach us one by one.

The residents all spoke out against a place called the Emerald Crossing River.

“Where is that place called the Emerald Crossing River?”

“If you go straight that way, you will come to a large manor!”

On the way, following the residents’ guidance, Hwangbo Ak slammed his iron fists together and grinned.

“Hehehe. Duels are good, but a life-and-death battle is the best, isn’t it. I hope there’s a very outstanding hidden master in that Emerald Crossing River.”

“Hah. How outstanding can an Underworld bastard who only harasses the powerless commoners in a countryside like this be.”

While the Tang Clan guy was raining on Hwangbo Ak’s parade, Nam Geon tilted his head and muttered.

“S, something is strange.”

“Brother Nam Geon is right. It feels similar to Xupu.”

When Senior Sister Baek Hyang also agreed, the Tang Clan guy tilted his head.

“Xupu? What do you mean by that?”

“It’s the place where I got the Restoring Name Sword. I told you before, didn’t I? That there was an incident where the villagers lied as a group to annihilate the innocent Confucian Manor.”

“Ah……. Then they might be lying. I mean, what is there to extort in a countryside like this to be doing Underworld activities.”

“Hmph. Then who should I fight? Fighting with the villagers is no fun. I wish a strong one would come out.”

I ignored Hwangbo Ak’s nonsense and replied.

“It’s not certain yet. So for now, we should go and see that place called the Emerald Crossing River.”

After saying that and taking a few steps forward.

A strange sense of unease kept swirling in my head.

There were many strange things.

Starting with the residents’ attitude.

Even though strangers had visited a rural village, a somehow quiet and peaceful atmosphere continued.

Even when a stranger who was obviously a Murim person with weapons came.

But as soon as Hwangbo Ak asked a question, they suddenly came and cursed the Emerald Crossing River.

As if they had promised to do so from the beginning.

It was similar to Xupu, but also a little different.

The residents of Xupu at least noticed my identity, plotted among themselves, and then approached me.

A somewhat unnatural flow.

But at the same time as the unease, I also felt a sense of déjà vu.

A feeling that I had experienced something similar to this before.

After pondering what that was and advancing for a while.

We arrived in front of a small manor with a crude plaque that said [Emerald Crossing River].

It was a small manor without even a gatekeeper, and the entrance was closed.

Hwangbo Ak, happy, approaches the gate as if he would break it.

While observing the scene, a faint scent of blood pierced my nose.

Perhaps because of that scent of blood, I realized the identity of the déjà vu and unease that had been swirling in my head.

“Stop!”

At my shout, Hwangbo Ak, who was walking at the front, stopped.

A faint sigh escaped me at the sight of Hwangbo Ak looking at me with a puzzled expression.

“Hah. They say words become seeds.”

And then I immediately drew the Master’s Blade and gave an order.

“Draw your weapons. They are assassins.”

I wasn’t referring to the Emerald Crossing River.

All the residents who had spoken to us were assassins.

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