Chapter 173: It’s All Good Then.
Does the dantian of a person have its own temper?
Well, I don’t know about others but mine sure feels like it does. And it is often so difficult to try to understand what is happening within. The Yang Qi in the dantian beating the Yin Qi and the Yin Qi trying to strangle the Yang Qi when being beaten.
But never giving in.
That is because I am the owner of both Yang and Yin Qi, and I am not a man who gives in to anything at all. I wasn’t nervous about people betraying me, but more because of the sudden change, and I began sweating all over my body.
‘I cursed myself….’
A man who falls into a crisis thinking that it will happen.
In the meantime, White Face Prince, of course, is enduring it well.
The reason is simple.
It is because I had saved up Qi to prepare for a surprise attack. I convey my thoughts while glaring at the Right Valley Lord with my most scary eyes.
‘It is fine as long as it isn’t me. Hit the one next to me.’
As soon as the hands of the Right Valley Lord move, my entire body rages with energy. In that moment, my eyes notice the Valley Lord, who passes right ahead of me, going for the White Face Prince.
‘Nice.’
However, White Face Prince actually stops the sword by holding it in between the thumb and index finger of his right hand. I can’t help but praise this guy’s skills.
“I like your skills too.”
On the other hand, the eyes of the Right Valley Lord, holding the sword, widen. Sometimes, those who don’t know how to handle it, ask if it is alright to turn their sword in this situation. But there are times when it helps and times it doesn’t. Unless the opponent is a complete ass, he would be readily pushing internal Qi into the sword.
In any case, this was an unfavorable situation and, as expected, the White Face Prince asks for the help of his subordinates.
“… Kill him.”
At the same time, he begins to infuse Qi into the sword with the intention to explode it and that widens the distance.
Puak!
The table explodes and the sword Qi aims at me and rushes in.
I kick the sole of my foot into the ground and soar into the air. As I tumbled, I checked the condition of my body. And what I confirmed is that I was now face to face with the White Face Prince.
Soon, both of us drew swords from our waist and we clashed in the air.
Kwaang!
With the base of the swords having been infused with our Sword Qi, instead of hearing the clashing sound of metal, what came was a wave of force that exploded out at the same time causing both of us to spin and regain our balance at the same moment.
At times like this, being flustered allows for the beauty of hiding and revealing skills. But I still have to hide my true skills.
And I have no other alternative but to check the state of my wooden sword every time we clash. This sword is thinner than the normal long sword, so I am worried that it might break.
Silence continues for a while as we look at each other and I ask Mr. Yukhap who is a little far,
“Yukgap?”
Master Yukhap, who had drawn his sword and confronted the subordinates of White Face Prince, replies with an expression which says this is absurd.
“It is Yukhap.”
“Fine.”
I myself have no idea as to why I spoke to him. The reason why the subordinates of White Face Prince weren’t moving hastily was because they were surrounded by the subordinates of the Right Valley Lord.
White Face Young Lord looks around as if his interest is piqued.
“Valley Leader, it is a pity that you chose to turn your back on me this swiftly.”
To which Valley Leader answers with his sword in hand.
“Since when was I on your side for us to speak about betrayal? I only lost once in a game, but I never agreed to be a slave.”
I speak back in a polite manner.
“Gambling is scary in such ways, everyone.”
At my words, Right Valley leader yells,
“Shut up! You fucking Low-Down Sect Leader.”
Suddenly, I feel so uncomfortable in my stomach that I frown as I look around. It wasn’t like I needed to take a dump but more like I was feeling something ominous.
‘No…’
This feeling made me infuse more qi into the wooden sword. Fortunately, a red flame on it makes me feel a bit better.
‘My internal Qi is doing fine.’
I try so hard to get rid of this feeling, which is bothering me, by focusing on the other thoughts. It’s the way most people try to forget about diarrhea, but as anyone would know, it doesn’t help much.
In the sense of my heart wanting to rush things, I take out the moonlight dagger, hold it in my hand, and infuse it with Shadow Moon Martial Art’s like I did in the inn.
Fortunately, the ice was normal and the dagger was now looking frosted white.
In an instant, this strange and horrible pain tore throughout my entire body. The feeling of something digging right into my dantian and forcing it to expand began to spread throughout.
Normally I’m not the kind of person to scream due to pain. However, the dantian, which should have been normal, began to move and the pain of having it move and tear through my organs was excruciating to control.
‘Ah, please… not here.’
I watch the people around while trying to control the pain. I take a step back alone thinking how it would be difficult to stop anyone if they were to move in to attack me right now.
Byuk Geom seems surprised as he asks,
“Sect Leader, are you alright?”
Even Master Yukhap seems surprised.
“Sect Leader, what is happening? You cannot be doing this. We will all die here, alright?”
When White Face Young Lord moves for me, four men approach to handle Byuk Geom and Master Yukhap.
The middle-aged man speaks to Yukhap in a gentle tone.
“Everyone be still. I see that you are Master Yukhap. Why are you with the Low-Down Sect leader?”
To which he answers,
“You don’t need to know.”
Everyone looked at me, but I couldn’t help it. I can’t get my voice out. So, I rested myself on my knee feeling the clash of Yin and Yang within.
‘Be damned.’
Was this really happening out of nowhere? Or was the body just in shock and unable to handle it? The Yin and Yang qi within my dantian are fighting like insane beasts trying to eat one another.
Even when the two were in harmony, it was an unfortunate thing, but now?
Is this why I wasn’t so popular with women?
At that time, White Face Young Lord, who is watching me, bursts into laughter.
“Hahahaha! You are going through a cultivation mistake! I am going to kill you by watching you to my heart’s content. Hahaha… fucking insane bastard who cannot handle this will attack me? You are going to cough up blood soon. I will bet on it.”
This is the situation.
In that instant, blood mixed with sweat began to pour out of my body. A few of the people around moved back in fear as they saw my face sweating blood.
This time, I just cursed.
“Ah, fuck….”
Yeop Ya-hyung seems excited as he says,
“Wow, this is happening for real.”
I put my left hand out to try to buy time.
“Warrior Yeop, wait.”
“Wait my ass!”
Yeop Ya-hyung is elated as shrugs his shoulders. He moves his head around like a monkey and begins to approach me.
“Sect Leader, are you alright?”
“I am not, so stop there.”
“You must be shocked right? Hahaha…. What is this, bleeding out slowly? Wow, just what stupid martial arts did you have to learn for you to bleed all over your body! Where did you even learn this martial art? You bastard!”
Even in this desperate moment I have to respond to him.
“Self-taught.”
This makes Yeop Ya-hyung stomp his feet and laugh.
“You did good you fucking insane bastard. Hahahaha. This is happening because it is self-taught! What you? A genius?”
“I learned things the hard way. I didn’t know that working hard to see some effort would do this.”
As I say it, the guy changes his tone and yells more loudly.
“Yah, you Sect Leader fuckin dog! I knew that you were a scary guy the other day but man I had no reason to be scared. You fucking foolish bastard, Low-Down Sect Leader, you are just a fucking guy who is nothing. Just stand there. Young lord, I will be aiming for his right arm first.”
White Face Young Lord smiles and tells him,
“You bastard, do not be careless.”
To which Yeop Ya-hyung says,
“Ah, right. I shouldn’t. Now, here I come.”
Still, Yeop Ya-hyung is looking alert since he is slowly coming close.
In that instant, I began to feel a drowsiness fall over my body, so I began to collect the Infernal Flame Scent and wrap it around the wooden sword. I also retrieved the Shadow Moon Martial Arts which was around the dagger.
Suddenly I sighed.
“Phew…”
And Yeop Ya-hyung flicks his left hand.
“I, Yeop Ya-hyung, will be the man who will cut down the head of Low-Down Sect. Get up. It is I who will be showing you the bitterness of life.”
I put my sword back and then move the dagger into my right hand.
“Warrior Yeop.”
“What?”
I can’t stop the tears in my eyes and Yeop Ya-hyung looks shocked.
“Woah, tears of blood now?”
I wipe my eyes to see it. I found that my fingers were truly stained with blood, sweat, and tears too. But I am not a man who gives in so easily.
Although feeling weak, I hold out my dagger to kill the guy even when I am trembling, even when blood is flowing down the sweat pores in my dagger holding hand.
In an instant, I could feel the craziness rise to the point of me losing sanity, so I hold onto the Yin and Yang in my dantian at the same time and clench the dagger.
There is a strange sound which touches my ears and, before I know it, the dagger gets dyed in purple with sword qi.
“….”
A color I am seeing for the first time, and this was a rare color to have.
It looks like a color which came from mixing red, white, blood, sweat and tears.
Come to think of it, this isn’t my first time seeing it. This resembles the purple sunset that I was mesmerized by the other day.
‘Purple Sword Qi?’
I was truly shocked looking at the color, and only when I sensed the approaching presence of Yeop Ya-hyung did I swing my dagger.
I hear the sound of chuk- and then see the purple sword Qi and the body of Yeop Ya-hyung at the same time being cut in half.
I feel truly sad for the guy, so I call for him.
“Warrior Yeop?”
The guy’s eyes were on me but he had already lost the life in his eyes. The blood from the diagonal cut on his body began to spread out and his body split and fell down.
Thud…!
With my own mouth open in shock, I look at Yeop Ya-hyung who left for heaven.
“I was trying to hold you. But you died. Such a sad thing.”
The pain had gone down a little and the condition of the body seemed to be recovering fast. And, as I wished, I could release a very small amount of Qi from the sweat holes in my body which was draining blood and sweat. The drops of blood which felt too ominous covering my body began to spread and scatter around with purple mist.
The only one who knows my name here is Yukhap.
And he is looking at me dumbfounded as he says,
“Zaha?”
I wasn’t sure if he was calling my name, or the purple mist (cause purple means Zaha) so I answered normally.
“Master Yukhap, what is it?”
To which he smiles as if this is fun.
“It wasn’t a cultivation mistake?”
“Uh. No.”
After putting the dagger into the place near my chest, I say to White Face Young Lord, who looks surprised,
“You would’ve had the chance to attack if you moved, but it is too late now. I am all recovered. I earned the time I needed, and you will realize that all of this was a part of my plan, a psychological warfare.”
Only then did the guy’s face change from shock to dumbfounded one and he raised his finger to order the subordinates.
“Him.”
And as his men rushed for me, the guy soars into the air for the other side and begins to run.
“That bastard….”
I take three steps towards where the idiot was running and order Master Yukhap,
“Yukgap. Can you handle this?”
“I have to. There is Right Valley Leader too.”
I block and walk towards the swordsmen and then slash them down with the dagger which I took out. The Purple Sword Qi moves out like a feather and slashes down the necks of the three at once.
Puak!
I am the only guy who is surprised at the sight of killing them in one hit.
“This is giving me creeps.”
I jump into the air, twist my body, and continue to jump on things to get close. I watch the running guy who stops on a tree branch and moves while stepping on the other trees.
Well, I was never one to care about weak people.
Anyway, I always have a tendency to beat down one man. I wasn’t sure why, but now I had this burning desire to catch the ones who ran. I increase my speed as I provoke the guy.
“White Face, do you think you can run?”
“….”
“The thing I am most confident about is footwork. You fucking bastard. You abandoned your subordinates to create this situation? Abandoned your men!”
I push for the guy who gave up his own men to run. I have no idea what to do if the dantian decides to betray me. If it turns to Taiji or if the Yin and Yang Qi decide to agree on something.
In any case, the situation turned me stronger.
That is enough.