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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Foundation 2
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He retracted his outstretched hand and shot out his right foot. Judging by the angle of the kick, he was aiming for my side. A rational man would have already gauged the difference in our skills from our first exchange.
But the Third Young Master chose to press on rather than stop. In the end, he was just an immature young master who had barely come of age. His pride was wounded, and he couldn't bear it. He was fifty years too young to read the mind of an old man like me.
'That's it.'
I had started to counter the Third Young Master's first attack but stopped myself. To any observer, it was clear I had given him an opening. Any counterattack from this point on could be forgiven as an obvious act of self-defense.
Before his foot could connect with my side, I took a step forward, shifting the point of impact. Then, I brought my knee up and struck his shin in return.
The blow to his shin made him falter.
"Gah!"
Then I slammed my raised leg to the ground, drawing power from the earth. I rotated my pelvis, waist, and shoulders in sequence as I threw a punch. It was an attack that minimized the loss of power as it traveled up from my leg. This punch would hurt several times more than the first.
A sound like a pig being slaughtered escaped the man's throat as my fist connected.
"Kuek!"
"""...!"""
Everyone watching the scene was stunned. The Fourth Young Master of the Heavenly Dance Family, a hopeless case who had always wasted his life and fortune on courtesans.
That very same man had just demonstrated a flawless punch against the Third Young Master.
The Third Young Master was thrown backward by the powerful blow to his face. I lunged on top of him and began to rain blows all over his body.
He kept trying to say something as I hit him, but the severe impacts made his words unintelligible. Not that it mattered. I knew what he would say, but I deliberately chose not to listen.
"Stop!"
The First Young Master, who had been watching, finally stepped in to stop me. I immediately straightened up, halted my assault, and apologized. I had to handle this part carefully.
"My apologies. I felt threatened and acted without thinking... I went a bit too far."
"You… you bastard…"
The Third Young Master's face was swollen in several places. He wouldn't dare challenge me so recklessly again. To be beaten down by the younger brother he had always looked down on, right after that brother declared he would pursue martial arts—he must now realize how weak he truly was.
"It seems your words were not entirely a bluff."
"You praise me too highly."
"I will see you in three weeks. Ah, and don't worry too much. I won't use my internal energy against someone just beginning to learn martial arts."
"Thank you for your consideration."
The First Young Master, Baek Mu-hyeon.
This man was several times stronger than the Third Young Master.
The Third Young Master had only recently begun his martial arts training in earnest. As such, his fighting experience was likely limited to street brawls. He and the First Young Master were on completely different levels.
While the First Young Master wasn't a dedicated martial artist either, he had at least learned the basics. He was not someone an ordinary person could challenge just by training their body a little.
From what I'd heard, he was about the level of a second-rate martial artist… or perhaps even higher.
"I will see you in three weeks, then."
After bidding farewell to my brothers, who were trying their best to act composed, I took Jang Ryang and walked past them.
The Second Young Master helped the fallen Third Young Master to his feet and spoke.
"E-Elder Brother. Is that really the fourth brother I used to know?"
The Second Young Master was also far from a martial artist. He suspected that if he had been the one to fight, the outcome would have been the same. That meant the fourth brother had changed.
"Well… we'll see in due time. He was a gambler, so he might have gotten into a few street fights, don't you think?"
"That's true, but…"
"Say no more. Everything will be clear in three weeks. As for you, third brother, take this as an opportunity to begin your martial arts training in earnest."
"…Yes."
The Third Young Master swallowed all the words he wanted to say and gave a short reply. It seemed his grasp on reality was still intact.
Unlike the immature Third and Second Young Masters, who were barely adults, the First Young Master's mind was a whirl of complex thoughts.
If the fourth brother had truly changed, that was a relief. If not, he was prepared to stop his brother's rampage, even if it meant using excessive force.
I walked past my brothers, returned to my room, and calculated the time I had.
Three weeks remained until the public spar with the First Young Master.
It was a tight schedule, which, in a way, I thought was for the best.
The recent scuffle would make my brothers suspicious of me. That suspicion would only deepen with time. Moreover, since there were many witnesses, the news would eventually spread throughout the entire family.
It was the perfect opportunity to reverse the image this body had built up until now. However, I had no intention of revealing too drastic a change. A proper display of my power would have to wait until I was strong enough that my life would not be in danger.
For now, simply altering their perception of me was enough.
'That's not all. I finally remembered the Heavenly Demon Master's last words.'
[When you awaken, go to the Grand Library of the Heavenly Dance Family and find the Sun and Moon Chronicle. I have hidden my secret treasure there for you to take. If you can obtain it, your path will become ten times easier.]
The Grand Library of the Heavenly Dance Family, the Sun and Moon Chronicle.
First, I needed to retrieve my master's secret treasure.
But not today. It was too late, and I had overexerted my body without sufficient rest after my treatment. Every part of me was creaking and screaming for a break. I finally lay down on my bed. As the bright moonlight streamed through the window, I was lost in thought.
A week had passed since I had gained a new body. It felt both long and short. It seemed as though too many incidents had happened all at once.
Nothing had been simple.
But this was only the beginning.
I must have been more tired than I thought.
In the middle of my thoughts, my eyes closed on their own.
First, a good night's sleep. Special training begins tomorrow!
* * *
The next morning.
Before the sun had fully risen.
I took Jang Ryang and headed for the Grand Library of the Heavenly Dance Family. Considering what had happened last night, I expected many people would be looking for me, so I decided to make myself scarce.
It was obvious that everyone from Doctor Jang, who was in charge of my care, to the head of the medical hall who managed the herb storage, to the family elders who heard about my spar with the First Young Master, and even Baek Gun-hak, the Family Head, would be looking for me. It was better to move quickly before things became tiresome.
It wasn't that I had nothing to say to them, but there was no need to waste time dealing with each of them individually. In the end, everything was meaningless without proof. As they say, seeing is believing.
"Can I enter the library?"
"F-Fourth Young Master, what brings you here…?"
The librarian in charge of access to the library asked, terrified.
'Seriously, why is he so scared…?'
Had I caused a disturbance in the library before? Or perhaps I had intimidated the librarian or trashed the place?
I had no idea, but the librarian seemed to be under the impression that I was here to cause trouble.
He flinched at my slightest movement, blocking the library entrance with his body, his eyes filled with hostility… I felt wronged.
"I've just come to read a few books. Is there a problem with me coming to my own family's library to read?"
"N-No, sir. It's just that I heard it has been a long time since the Young Master has set foot in the library…"
"…Enough talk. May I go in?"
"Ah, of course. Please, enter."
Fortunately, it seemed I hadn't caused any trouble in the library before. He was probably just afraid because the family's worst troublemaker had shown up at his post.
I had Jang Ryang wait outside and walked past the librarian into the archives.
The moment I took my first step inside, I felt a pang of poignant nostalgia and an inexplicable flutter of excitement in a corner of my heart.
'It seems the original owner of this body used to love the library.'
My heart pounded as if I were finally meeting a woman I had loved from afar for a long time. Maintaining this pleasant excitement, I looked around.
Indeed, the Heavenly Dance Family was not known as a family of scholars for nothing. And it was not called the Grand Library for nothing. The inside of the library was as vast and magnificent as a small village.
A smile crept onto my face as I walked between the towering shelves packed with books. I love the meaning and knowledge engraved in the written word. My heart swells. Is this the nature of a scholar?
For that reason, I lamented that I could not read all these books. If I had my way, I would slowly savor them, but now was not the time for such leisure. Time was not on my side.
'I need to find the Sun and Moon Chronicle now.'
Since it was early morning, with the sun just beginning to rise, there was no one else in the library. The task of finding a single book in such a vast archive felt daunting.
'A library this large must have a classification system. The Sun and Moon Chronicle is likely a history of the Demonic Cult, so I should head to where the history books are kept.'
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a religion that revered the sky and fire. In the Central Plains, it was called the Demonic Cult, but here, it was mostly referred to as the Divine Cult or the Bright Cult.
Its original name was the Sun and Moon Divine Cult.
Just as the sun (日) and the moon (月) were likened to the heavens, giving it the name Sun and Moon Divine Cult, that same bright sky was the reason it was also called the Bright Cult (明敎).
It was a hard-to-believe transformation that this religion, founded on such principles, had at some point begun to crush everything with force, championing the logic of the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest.
"Found it."
On the highest shelf in the section for the Divine Cult's history, in a spot so untouched that it was thick with dust, was the Sun and Moon Chronicle my master had spoken of.
I reached out, took down the chronicle, and after dusting it off, I opened it. Then I understood why it was covered in so much dust.
'There's nothing in it.'
The book was filled with nothing but blank pages. No, that wasn't entirely true. There was something written on the very first page.
[It all began with revenge. I awakened the Demon, and I walked the path of vengeance. There was no one in the world who could withstand this power, and at the end of that path, paved with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, only emptiness remained. For years, I pondered.
What was I to do with this demonic art I had come to realize?
What is great power for?
The martial path, in itself, was nothing. It was merely a temporary addition of strength to a body that would eventually wither with time. Therefore, at the end of a path pursued with all one's might, there always had to be a clear purpose, and that was related to leaving one's will to future generations.
I realized.
Great power existed to protect those who live their lives earnestly. After this realization, I used my power to protect. This is my life, which I leave behind after having first walked the path of martial arts and reached its end. I hope that the successor who reads this will carry on my will and pass this life on to the next generation.]
'This is…'
It was undoubtedly the work of the Heavenly Demon Master. With such words on the first page and nothing after, it was no wonder no one had read it, and it had only gathered dust.
He was a terribly clumsy man. If he wanted to leave a legacy, he should have properly trained a successor and had them write it down and protect it. By leaving just a single letter like this, of course no one would follow his will.
The Heavenly Demon Master's successors, far from carrying on his will, had made a complete mess of things. It had gotten so bad that the Central Plains labeled the Demonic Cult as a common enemy of the martial world, separate from the Unorthodox Sects.
But that wasn't what was important right now.
'This is an artifact. There must be some kind of activation condition. The answer must lie in the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon that my master taught me.'
I placed my hands on my dantian and recalled the Heavenly Demon Master's teachings.
[Qi is the power of life and the power of the mind. The mind is a wave, a wave is matter, and matter is qi.
Process the qi gathered in your dantian and create a line. The created line will swim through the dantian and eventually collide with another.
Collide them, explode them, and obtain demonic qi.]
The demonic qi of the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon was fundamentally based on the collision of finely processed qi. It was about colliding unbelievably fine strands of qi at a single point.
The resulting explosion, a violent energy that fissioned matter from its smallest unit, was the foundation of the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon.
I had some qi in my dantian, but it was too little, having been absorbed for only a day. The amount was far too insufficient to process into a line.
In the end, I took out the Yusu Pill that the Family Head had given me from my sleeve. To process the qi into a line, I first needed to accumulate qi in my dantian. For that, I placed the Yusu Pill in my mouth and immediately assumed my posture.
The gentle energy of the Yusu Pill flowed into my body, which had already been healed. The qi that had gathered in my dantian increased significantly.
About five years' worth of internal energy.
Even then, I couldn't absorb all of it, as much of it was scattered through my muddied meridians.
'Hoo…'
Still, it was enough. Now, I needed to gather the chaotic energy into one place to process it.
I processed the qi, which was gathered like fluffy cumulus clouds in my dantian. As I stretched it out thinly and finely, the energy seemed to flow like a single stream of a river.
'Still not enough. It needs to be finer and sharper.'
I compressed the flowing river even further. Like a sharp spear, no, like the acupuncture needles I used to insert into meridians during my time as a doctor.
I could feel the flow of qi.
A line, processed like a fine needle, swam through my dantian.
'Divide in two!'
I severed the long, thin line of processed qi, creating two strands. This was the only way to temporarily create the energy of the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon.
The sharpened needles of qi, I aimed their pointed tips at each other. There could not be the slightest error. Failure would result in internal injuries from which I might never recover.
It was a tense moment, but I could do it. I had done this countless times with the Heavenly Demon Master in a space that was entirely white.
'Collide!'
The energy began to move according to my will.
The meticulously processed strands of qi rushed toward each other.
An impossibly precise collision.
Needle met needle, but because the angle and force of the collision were uniform, neither was pushed aside, and a resonance occurred.
I felt something explode.
The trembling resonance erupted, and from within it, a completely new energy was created.
It was a sinister demonic qi that voraciously devoured all the remaining energy in my dantian and swelled in size.
I immediately drew the energy from my dantian to my fingertips and touched the Sun and Moon Chronicle.
As the energy touched the book, a change began to occur.
A purple light flowed from the book.
'Has the artifact been activated?!'
The vast library instantly changed its location, becoming a huge, open space. In the very center stood a single sword and a purple torch.
'This is…'