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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Escape (2)
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#016: Escape (2)
"Turn left about thirty yards ahead."
"You'll see a side path on your right. Head in there."
"Go straight."
It was the second day of running with Cheong So-so on my back.
All this time, I had faithfully followed her words, as she had transformed into my personal navigation system.
'A man should always listen to three women.'
As the old saying goes, if you just listen to your mom, your wife, and your GPS, good things will come your way even in your sleep.
Of course, the path wasn't easy.
I had to cross ancient, single-rope bridges hanging over thousand-foot cliffs and scale down rock faces, all while maintaining the fastest possible speed.
Thanks to that, my stamina and muscles, which had been on a steady decline since graduating from the Heaven-Ascending Pavilion, were getting a good workout.
'This is exhausting!'
Well, that was the nice way of putting it.
I was so out of breath I felt like I could collapse at any moment.
Sensing my state, the navigation system spoke to me.
"I think we can rest for a bit. They won't be able to pursue us this far."
True, we had crossed three mountain peaks and two cliffs. It made sense.
"Let's do that!"
The moment the words left my mouth, I straightened my body. My back felt like it was about to snap.
*Thud!*
Cheong So-so lost her balance and fell over.
"You made me fall!"
She had the nerve to get angry at me for a little fall, after I'd been carrying her on my back through hell and high water.
Whoever her future husband was, the poor guy had my pity.
'Director Yuk is the answer, after all.'
I found myself missing the gentle aura that emanated from her voluptuous figure.
"Are you listening to me?!"
"Ahem, my apologies. My back was hurting."
"What's a young man to do with a weak back?"
Well, that's because I just carried you across a mountain range.
"Here, take this first."
"What is this?"
Cheong So-so held out a small pill.
It had a funky smell, kind of like dog food.
"It's medicine for internal injuries."
"But I don't have any internal injuries…"
"Internal injury medicine is excellent for recovery. How have you survived in the martial world without knowing that?"
Why scold me when you could just explain it?
Still, one should never refuse free medicine, even if it means waking from a deep sleep.
"Haha, is that so? Then I'll take it gratefully."
I shamelessly bowed my head.
*Gulp.*
As I swallowed the pill in one go, Cheong So-so spoke.
"Circulate your energy as soon as you swallow it. The medicinal effects will spread faster that way."
"Understood."
I immediately began moving my body, starting with my left foot, then left hand, right foot, and right hand, in that order.
It was a characteristic of the War King Arts, where the cultivation method and the killing art were one and the same.
"I told you to circulate your energy, why are you suddenly doing gymnastics?"
"This is how I circulate my energy."
"Don't tell me… it's a dynamic art?"
"That's right. I need to complete one full cycle, so I need to concentrate for a moment."
"Oh, alright."
The engine was warmed up. Now all that was left was to perform the five forms, each consisting of twenty movements, in sequence.
*Whoosh. Pow! Paang.*
Even without releasing any internal energy, the air crackled each time my hands and feet moved.
Soon, fallen leaves on the ground began to swirl around me, rising into the air.
At the same time, vitality started to flow through my entire body, and before long, my depleted internal energy began to replenish.
"Hoo…"
Finishing all the movements, I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.
I saw Cheong So-so staring at me with a dazed expression.
"The medicine is excellent. I've recovered over forty percent of my internal energy."
"..."
"Miss Cheong?"
"Ah! I'm sorry. It's my first time witnessing a dynamic art…"
Then, she gasped in surprise, clasped her hands together, and bowed her head.
"Oh my! Where is my mind! It's rude to watch another's martial arts!"
"Well, it's fine."
To be fair, she wasn't wrong.
If the forms of a technique were leaked, someone could create a similar art or develop a counter to it.
There was a reason martial sects were so picky about choosing disciples, with all their rules about not passing techniques down to outsiders.
'This is the undisputed kingdom of knock-offs, after all.'
I mused that the technical skills that would one day create a glorious empire of counterfeits must have been forged from times like these.
Cheong So-so apologized once more.
"In any case, I'm sorry."
"If you're truly sorry, please give me one more of those pills if you have any left. I'll use it later."
"Alright."
As I tucked the dog-food-like pill she handed me into my robes, I thought to myself.
'I'll replicate this and sell it.'
I'd hit the jackpot.
***
Our renewed trek through the mountains finally ended around noon the next day.
"Hah!"
"You've worked hard."
"You have to tell them at the Nine Dragons Fortress about all this hardship I went through."
"…Well, alright."
"Don't just gloss over it. Be as detailed as possible. A little exaggeration would be nice, too."
"I get it, so stop nagging me."
Cheong So-so raised her voice.
It was clear that yesterday's events had brought us slightly closer.
"So, where is this hideout you mentioned?"
"Wait a moment."
Cheong So-so looked around, then suddenly started picking up stones and throwing them.
*Clack. Clack.*
After a short while of this…
*Swoooosh.*
With the sound of a strong wind, the surrounding scenery changed.
A large cavern appeared in the cliff face, where there had been nothing before.
"It's in there."
I led the way, and Cheong So-so followed right behind me.
"It's a formation. Is this your first time seeing one?"
"I've encountered them before, but never one this profound."
"Huhu, of course. This is an ultimate formation passed down through my family for generations."
A single compliment was enough to make her nose rise in the air. How irritating.
In any case, after walking for a short while, we saw a large stone gate with an inscription carved above it.
'The World's Greatest Medical Family?'
It was an inscription I had seen before, though not often.
After a moment of thought, the answer came to me, and I exclaimed in surprise.
"The Cheong Clan of Hubei?!"
"Huhuhu."
A smirk played on Cheong So-so's lips as she looked at me.
Her expression seemed to say, *Have you, a mere commoner, ever met a descendant of a family as great as mine?*
And then.
"So you finally recognize me. I am none other than Cheong So-so, the third-generation descendant of the Divine Doctor of Life and Death."
Hey, why did you suddenly drop the formalities?
And how was I supposed to know you were the third-generation descendant of the Divine Doctor of Life and Death?
You're a woman, you don't even have inheritance rights.
"Now that you know, you will treat me with the utmost respect. Warrior Jin."
Since she was being completely insufferable, I decided to give her a reality check.
"Excuse me… Miss Cheong?"
"Yes?"
"I'm a graduate of the Heaven-Ascending Pavilion. The dynamic art you saw earlier was a gift from the Lord of the Fortress himself. The Great Pure Adept of the Black Dragon Hall was my guardian at the time."
"..."
"And Dan Un, who came with us to Mount Kongtong, is the head disciple of the Blue Dragon Hall. You do know that the Blue Dragon Hall is the Qingcheng Sect, don't you?"
"Ahem, let's go inside, Young Master Jin."
How dare a mere general hospital try to compare itself to a conglomerate like the Nine Dragons Fortress?
I might be a nobody within the Fortress, but in the martial world, I was at least middle-class.
Cheong So-so, her brief outburst over, demurely opened the gate. To be precise, she pressed something on the gate.
*Clunk! Grrrriind.*
The massive stone gate began to open with a shuddering groan.
'How fascinating.'
It must have been built over a hundred years ago, yet it still worked. And it was likely made from natural materials like stone and wood.
Through the narrowly opened gap, a different world was visible.
The ceiling was studded with countless Night-Luminous Pearls, twinkling and casting a soft glow.
'The radiation must be off the charts.'
Night-Luminous Pearls weren't actually a type of gemstone, but a kind of ore containing radioactive material.
However, only I knew that fact.
The people of the Central Plains treated them as precious jewels and traded them at high prices.
'Should I pocket one?'
I considered it for a moment but shook my head.
'If this is a hidden cavern, those are probably trap cards.'
It was a common trope in martial arts novels, wasn't it?
Touch the treasure, and the whole cavern collapses.
Sure enough, Cheong So-so explained just that.
"Ah! I'm telling you this just in case, but don't touch anything carelessly. There are traps installed, and the entire cavern could collapse."
"Do I look that thoughtless to you? As if I would steal from another family's private cavern?"
"No, that's not what I meant. I was just saying to be careful…"
"That's enough! I'm disappointed in you, Miss Cheong."
"No…"
What does she take me for?
But I wonder if it's okay to touch the things on the shelves?
With that question in mind, I looked around the cavern.
The spacious interior was filled with storage cabinets and jars containing unknown substances. There must have been a ventilation shaft somewhere, as the air didn't feel stale.
There were also several small doors, suggesting rooms for use.
As I surveyed the area, a dejected Cheong So-so approached and began to give me a tour of the cavern's interior.
"That's the latrine. These two here are storerooms. They're empty now, so we can use them as rooms. And do you see that iron door at the very back?"
"Yes."
"That area is forbidden, and a formation is installed there. It's dangerous, so you must never open it."
"Understood."
I'll have to open it when I get the chance.
***
Three days passed.
With no smartphone to kill time, I found myself practicing my martial arts out of boredom.
"Shuk! Shuk shuk! You bastard. Shuk. Shuk shuk."
I added a little rhythm to it.
After four hours of this, the area around me was filled with sweat and scorching heat.
"Shuk shuk! Shuk!"
For the record, what I was doing now was internal energy cultivation.
It would have been an unimaginable act if it were a seated meditation, but it was possible because the cultivation method of the War King Arts was a dynamic art.
*Paang!*
As I threw a punch, the final movement, I could feel the air around me explode.
'Nice.'
Even though I hadn't trained for a while, the circulation of my ki was remarkably smooth.
It felt like remembering a forgotten path and finding my way to the destination.
"Hoo…"
Finishing my training, I jumped into the pond in a corner of the cavern.
*Splash!*
"Ugh! So refreshing."
As I lay in the pond for a moment to cool my body, I could see my muscles, each strand seemingly twisted like wire.
'With this body, I could walk around Gyeongpo Beach wearing just a Speedo.'
The surprising thing was that my muscles had been maintained despite having barely trained for the past year.
I had been living on booze, far from a protein-focused diet.
If the gym rats of the 21st century saw this, they would surely get on their knees and beg me to teach them my secret.
It was all thanks to the wonders of the War King Arts, of which I had barely mastered the first half.
'It's really strange.'
Every time I thought about the War King Arts, I found many parts that defied common sense.
First and foremost, the fact that the creator was the Lord of the Fortress didn't make sense.
The Lord of Nine Dragons, the Dark Poison Star King, Dang Cheong, was indeed a master of the Transformation Realm whose martial prowess reached the heavens.
However, his true ultimate arts were the unparalleled divine art known as the Heavenly Poison Heart Art and the hidden weapon techniques that utilized the immense poison energy it generated.
But the War King Arts he developed and gave to me was a bare-handed fighting style.
'This is like Steve Jobs developing and selling an Android phone.'
Of course, as the greatest martial arts expert in the world, he could have developed it.
The problem was that the level of the War King Arts was comparable to the secret ultimate techniques or divine arts of various major sects.
Secondly.
'Is it possible to accumulate internal energy this quickly with a dynamic art?'
I didn't know how, but the cultivation method of the War King Arts transcended the limits of dynamic arts.
The dynamic arts in this martial world were less effective than the common Three Talents Heart Art found in the marketplace. They were only slightly better than basic calisthenics.
But the War King Arts was different.
It allowed one to accumulate internal energy as quickly as seated meditations that had reached the level of divine arts.
Even more, the internal energy it created didn't clash with energy made from other cultivation methods at all.
This meant it could build incomparably pure internal energy.
'But the most incomprehensible thing is the core principle.'
Finally, there was the core principle and training method.
*The more you move, the stronger you become; the more you fight, the stronger you become.*
This was the core principle and training method of the War King Arts.
It was a principle made possible because the dynamic art for accumulating internal energy was also the fighting method itself.
When I first saw the manual and illustrations for the War King Arts, I was dumbfounded.
Gaining internal energy by fighting.
'What is this, am I a Saiyan?'
That's why I only trained for a year and then quit.
My martial arts had already reached a satisfactory level, and this training method was of no help whatsoever to my ultimate goal of living a life of wine and women.
'Still…'
Moving my body like this felt quite refreshing. I think it's worth doing occasionally.
I laid my body back in the pond to enjoy the long-awaited leisure.
"Are you crazy?! That's our drinking water! What do you think you're doing, taking a bath in it!"
That is, until I heard the shout of the petty Cheong So-so.