Wei Yan-ho had no such thing as fear.
This was the biggest reason why Wei Yan-ho's actions drew shock from others. While others would first calculate the harm that might come to them before taking action, Wei Yan-ho didn't particularly make such calculations.
To put it positively, he was bold. To put it negatively, it was closer to being thoughtless.
But even such a Wei Yan-ho had something he couldn't help but fear.
His master.
To Wei Yan-ho, Baek Mu-han was an incomprehensible existence.
Someone he couldn't defeat by any means, couldn't handle by any means… and couldn't predict by any method.
Come to think of it, it was truly strange.
Baek Mu-han was the Sword Emperor.
Even Wei Yan-ho, who had not the slightest interest in the martial world, had grown up hearing the name Sword Emperor so much it was drilled into his ears—such was the greatness of this martial artist.
Did it make sense that such a great martial artist would be ostracized by his own family?
But the one person who could understand this senseless situation was precisely Wei Yan-ho.
With that personality, it would be stranger if he wasn't ostracized.
It was because Baek Mu-han was at the level of Sword Emperor that he was merely ostracized—if he hadn't been that strong, someone would have already beaten him to death.
To Wei Yan-ho, his master was such an existence.
He had a worse personality than Wei Yan-ho, was stronger than Wei Yan-ho, was more willful than Wei Yan-ho, and… was more vicious than Wei Yan-ho.
He was truly Wei Yan-ho's ideal type… no, a negative role model.
It was only because Wei Yan-ho was at his level that he could match that person's rhythm and learn martial arts. If an ordinary person had been caught by Baek Mu-han, they would have died of illness from frustration or become half-paralyzed before fully learning the martial arts.
Not passing on martial learning to his own family was practically the same as protecting his descendants of the Ten Thousand Swords Hundred Schools.
In any case.
Wei Yan-ho, who had so little fear that he couldn't properly understand the word "cowardice," had only one thing in the world he was afraid of: Baek Mu-han.
And if he had to pick one more thing, it would be Baek Mu-han's Internal Core that was lodged in his belly.
Baek Mu-han's Internal Core was not something Wei Yan-ho could dare to handle.
He didn't know exactly how the man had accumulated his internal energy, but sometimes when the internal power contained within was released, Wei Yan-ho worried that not just he but the entire surrounding area would be completely devastated.
And that Internal Core was moving right now.
'Hiiiiiik!'
Wei Yan-ho was genuinely terrified, but in a situation where he had pushed his vital energy into another person's body, not even his grandfather could have moved.
Moreover, even if he could move his body, Wei Yan-ho couldn't control Baek Mu-han's Internal Core. All Wei Yan-ho could do was steadily absorb the internal energy that flowed out little by little as it assimilated with his body, gradually weakening the Internal Core.
Of course, at this rate, it would take ten million years to fully absorb the Internal Core.
That's why Baek Mu-han had told Wei Yan-ho to absorb the Internal Core through continuous enlightenment, but to the naturally lazy Wei Yan-ho, the word "consistency" was no different from the word "impossible."
And perhaps as the price for that, the Internal Core that Wei Yan-ho could never control had now begun to move.
'Ah, no.'
Just because the Internal Core was moving didn't guarantee that disaster would strike, but uncertain things shouldn't be touched in the first place. Wei Yan-ho gathered his mind to suppress the Internal Core that had begun writhing in his belly. He concentrated his internal power toward his abdomen and his internal energy…
'It's not working?'
How could it work?
Even if Wei Yan-ho gathered all his internal energy, it wouldn't reach even a hair's breadth of Baek Mu-han's Internal Core. So how could he suppress the Internal Core?
Wei Yan-ho was only alive until now because the Internal Core had no will and had been behaving quietly.
Wooooong.
The Internal Core in his belly began resonating and emitting white radiance.
"Ohhhh!"
Those who didn't know the situation were surprised and stared as Wei Yan-ho suddenly began emitting incomparably brilliant light.
"How auspicious."
"To think that bastard would look so dignified."
Wei Yan-ho's appearance as he emitted white light had an auspiciousness that seemed to purify one's eyes just by looking at it.
Of course, the person in question, Wei Yan-ho, was dying right now, but how would the observers know such things?
"He occasionally shows such appearances, making it hard to treat him carelessly."
Jang-il let out a deep sigh.
Looking at his personality and actions alone, he was the perfect type to get beaten to death even in a beggar's den, but he occasionally showed such dignified appearances. It would be nice if he'd stick to just one side, but what could be done? That's the kind of human he was.
"But what kind of treatment is he performing to emit such light?"
At Gong Mu-jin's question, Wei Jeong-han carefully read the mood.
'How would I know?'
Wei Jeong-han, who rarely fell behind anyone in martial academic knowledge or skill, made an exception when it came to matters related to his son. That bastard was not only strange in character but had grown strong in abnormal ways, and even the martial arts he learned weren't family martial arts, so there was no way to know how things worked.
But it wouldn't look good to just say he didn't know.
"Ahem, wouldn't he be neutralizing poison?"
"Ah, then could it be… are you saying he's currently absorbing the turbid energy while simultaneously neutralizing poison? Is that possible?"
"It would be impossible for us, but since it's that bastard, it would be possible."
"Indeed, indeed!"
Wei Jeong-han let out a low sigh.
'Since he's someone poison doesn't work on, I can somehow deflect it even if other explanations come up later.'
Having successfully deceived them somewhat, Wei Jeong-han looked at Wei Yan-ho with puzzled eyes.
'But why is he really acting like that?'
And at that moment, Wei Yan-ho was beating his chest inwardly.
'Neutralize my frozen ass.'
His body couldn't move and his mouth couldn't open, but his ears were open. Hearing the people around him going "Ooh!" Wei Yan-ho felt the urge to immediately take his hands off and shout.
'People are going to die, you folks!'
This was no joke.
Baek Mu-han had said that if Wei Yan-ho became unable to handle the Internal Core, his energy would be sucked away and he'd die like a withered tree. If this was that moment, the result was all too obvious and terrible.
Wooooong.
The Internal Core that had been trembling and resonating like woong woong suddenly began shooting internal energy in all directions.
'Oh no, I'm dying!'
Wei Yan-ho was horrified and tried somehow to block the flowing internal power, but compared to Baek Mu-han's grand, majestic, and dignified internal energy, his own internal power was just a handful.
It was like trying to block an incoming wave with baby hands.
Baek Mu-han's internal power, cleanly ignoring the feeble resistance, penetrated every part of Wei Yan-ho's body all at once, then suddenly began advancing toward the Green Forest King's body.
'Hm?'
The internal power that flowed into the Green Forest King's body in an instant was blocked by the obstructed blood channels.
Writhe writhe, the internal power tried hitting the blood channels a couple times, and as if it got angry, it began forcefully pushing through the Green Forest King's blood channels.
'The person's going to die?'
Wei Yan-ho hadn't used such a troublesome method because he couldn't break through with force either. He could have broken through with force, but since the blood channels wouldn't be able to withstand it, he had used the method of slowly gnawing through. If he forcefully broke through like that, the Green Forest King's entire body would burst, but…
'What do I care about?'
Now wasn't the time to worry about such things. At this rate, it wasn't the Green Forest King but his own body that would burst.
The internal power that had forcefully rushed into the Green Forest King's body advanced while breaking through all the blocked blood channels.
'What?'
How powerful was the internal energy that there wasn't even a collision? The moment the turbid energy touched Baek Mu-han's internal energy, it was cleanly absorbed by Baek Mu-han's internal power without even being able to exert any strength.
Since there was no collision, there was no impact. Baek Mu-han's internal power was racing through the Green Forest King's entire body like it was an unobstructed realm.
'This is cheating.'
He could realize just how tremendous Baek Mu-han's internal power was. Not only the quantity of that internal power, but the quality was on a different dimension. Before the incomparably pure internal power, the miscellaneous turbid energy was like frost melting in sunlight.
The internal powers that had cleanly broken through the turbid energy blocking the Green Forest King's blood channels and great meridians now began racing even through the detailed meridians.
'Huh? This is?'
Wait a minute? Isn't this the Transformation of Bones and Cleansing of Marrow?
Having broken through all the great meridians, blood channels, and detailed meridians, it would produce effects almost like a complete physical transformation. Wei Yan-ho, who had unintentionally performed the Transformation of Bones and Cleansing of Marrow on the dying old man, began to feel tense.
Now that process was almost finished…
He began to worry about what those surging internal powers would do when this ended.
And that was the moment.
'Huh?'
The internal powers were returning.
The internal powers that had extended to the ends of the detailed meridians began returning exactly along the path they had taken. The problem wasn't that the internal power was returning.
'Why are you bringing that back?'
Baek Mu-han's internal power only knew how to take, not how to give. The internal powers that had extended to every corner of the detailed meridians were returning while sucking up all the internal powers in the Green Forest King's body, not leaving even a handful behind.
'Ah, this isn't right!'
His head knew this wasn't right, but those internal powers had never been under Wei Yan-ho's will in the first place.
Woooooooong!
As the Internal Core vibrated, the returning internal powers gained even more momentum, sucked up all the internal energy existing in the Green Forest King's detailed meridians, great meridians, and blood channels, even absorbed all the internal energy in his dantian, and returned to Wei Yan-ho's body.
"What!"
The moment the internal power was retrieved, Wei Yan-ho took his hands off the Green Forest King's head and stepped back.
"Are you alright?"
Wei Yan-ho didn't even answer and sat cross-legged on the spot. Although Wei Yan-ho was already beyond being attached to sitting meditation and could freely perform standing meditation and walking meditation, right now he needed to find the posture that could produce maximum efficiency.
The returned internal powers weren't returning to the Internal Core but had begun circulating through Wei Yan-ho's body.
"Why, why are you doing that?"
Wei Jeong-han called urgently, but Wei Yan-ho silently sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. Then he began breaking out in cold sweat as he started suppressing the internal powers that had returned to his body.
The internal powers began circulating through Wei Yan-ho's body like a whirlpool. Watching the internal power extend toward the great meridians and detailed meridians, it gave him chills.
Wasn't this the exact same process that had occurred in the Green Forest King's body?
At the thought that he might have all his internal energy sucked away by that Internal Core if he wasn't careful, Wei Yan-ho concentrated his mind.
"…What is this now?"
As Wei Yan-ho sat cross-legged, his body began emitting brilliant radiance. Then, maintaining that posture, he slowly rose into the air.
Seeing that scene, Gong Mu-jin let out a deep sigh.
"Senior."
"…What?"
"Can't we just tell this kid to take first place? He's doing all sorts of things now."
"Don't say useless things and stand guard properly! This looks like an incredibly important moment!"
"Yes…"
Gong Mu-jin kept sighing as he stood in front of Wei Yan-ho. Those with any sense all rushed to Wei Yan-ho and began standing guard in a circle around him.
Woooooooong!
And right then, an incomparably more brilliant radiance than anything before began shooting out from Wei Yan-ho's body.