Grand Master Jeonggang felt his life weakening.

As if death were approaching.

Slowly, the strength that had filled his muscles and bones was fading away.

Like cold firewood whose flame had gone out...

The old man’s dry body was simply descending into the body of an ordinary man, one that no longer held deep, weighty internal energy.

But he had no regrets.

With large needles inserted all over his body, and one hand placed on Soyak’s small back...

He could feel warmth returning to that small, slender body.

As his internal energy, and the Innate True Qi that had been unraveled strand by strand through the Medicine Sage’s secret art, flowed into her.

The flame of life was burning once more in this small, delicate child’s gifted body.

That was enough.

“...This is driving me mad.”

The Medicine Sage could not even ask Jeonggang whether he was all right.

During a cross-body power transfer, his concentration could not be scattered.

And this was a forbidden secret art that even dissolved Innate True Qi and passed it to another person.

One wrong breath, and everything could twist out of place.

Namgung Byeok, who stood guard, was just as anxious.

Though he was not watching the procedure directly, he could feel it.

Grand Master Jeonggang’s once-mighty presence was slowly fading away.

His aged body had not been sustained solely by internal energy, but still...

No overwhelming, immense aura could be read from him anymore.

He was nothing more than a wise, profound old man.

It was true that his knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment were also great.

But until now, had Grand Master Jeonggang been respected and feared by the world merely for his learning and character?

No.

It was that overwhelming martial power second only to the Sword Sovereign.

His profound martial skill was the source of it.

But not anymore.

Grand Master Jeonggang was now merely an old man with deep enlightenment and excellent insight.

*****

Zhuge Household, front gate.

Eunsong stood just before the threshold, ready to leave.

Zhuge Yeon looked up at him silently.

Behind her stood even Ak Jayeon, the Great Madam of the Zhuge Household.

The Family Head, Zhuge Won, lay in bed.

The same was true of Jang Yul, the guard warrior.

People from the Wudang Sect would be on their way...

And now, only Mount Hua’s matter remained to be resolved.

“Are you truly going?”

Zhuge Yeon bit her lip and asked.

Eunsong nodded.

“Great Grand Master Jeonggang must have some thought in mind. I will return to Mount Hua.”

“She is your disciple, Eunsong.”

“I know. But I do not think Great Grand Master would harm my disciple.”

Eunsong quietly looked down at Zhuge Yeon.

Zhuge Yeon agreed with that as well.

It was just that Grand Master Jeonggang...

For some reason, she had a feeling that he would do something “by any means necessary.”

“...What is he planning to do?”

“How would I know?”

“Cheon Soyak used even all of her Innate True Qi. Death should be the only thing left for her now... No matter how much skill the Medicine Sage possesses, even if he has the skill of Hua Tuo and Bian Que...”

She looked restless.

It was not that Eunsong did not understand how she felt.

His Great Grand Master did have a rather extreme side.

Especially when it came to talented young sprouts.

When he thought about it calmly, Jeonggang had also been the one to persuade the Sect Leader to take Soyak, the Heavenly Killing Star, into Mount Hua.

When Eunsong had made a wager to take Cheonhwa and Cheonju away from Eunbyeok, Jeonggang had even stood as witness.

“...Did the Medicine Sage not reconnect Namgung Byeok’s shattered dantian?”

“That was because he had the Primordial Peerless Pellet. But now...”

“Great Grand Master told me to trust him, so I will. The same goes for the Medicine Sage. With that elder’s hands, he will try anything.”

Anything.

That “anything” was the problem.

Ak Jayeon had been quietly watching from behind Zhuge Yeon.

Then she slowly opened her mouth.

“Though...I have not been drinking the water of the martial world for very long. Replenishing Innate True Qi that has already been drawn out and spent—would that not be impossible even with the Demonic Cult’s evil rites?”

Eunsong stopped the foot he had been about to move.

Then he turned back and looked at Ak Jayeon.

“Great Madam.”

“Yes. Speak, Daoist Eunsong.”

“They are the Medicine Sage and the Mount Hua Sword Emperor. That means they are not men who would lightly utter empty words over a dying child.”

Eunsong’s eyes stared silently at her.

But Ak Jayeon did not retreat even a single step.

“I would certainly like to see it once. A secret art that restores spent Innate True Qi.”

“They will manage it somehow. Perhaps they will make it so she can survive even without Innate True Qi...”

“...Even without Innate True Qi?”

Ak Jayeon furrowed her brow.

Things that moved without Innate True Qi.

Because they could not be called alive, the martial world called them “jiangshi.”

Eunsong immediately realized why Ak Jayeon’s brow had furrowed.

“...I do not mean they will turn her into a corpse puppet.”

Ak Jayeon nodded.

Eunsong let out a deep sigh and stepped over the threshold.

Now he stood outside the Zhuge Household’s main gate.

“Then, everyone, take care. I will see you later.”

*****

Mount Hua.

Eunbyeok’s residence.

Inside the house, with every door shut, Eunbyeok was wrapping his own body in iron chains.

They were not ordinary iron chains.

Each link was engraved with the Great Unity Body-Protecting Scripture and painted with deer blood, making it a special warding chain.

It was meant to control the internal energy overflowing from his body.

“Grrk...”

And standing before him was Myeongjeok.

He looked pitifully at his own disciple, who was struggling under the weight of a single left arm.

“You cannot overcome one mere left arm?”

“You have...never had to try it...Master...!”

Eunbyeok spoke with his eyes bulging, blood vessels raised taut.

Myeongjeok’s brow furrowed.

Because he had never once seen Eunbyeok behave like that.

It was the Young Cult Leader’s left arm.

Myeongjeok had looked at him with contempt, but...

That was something he could say only because Myeongjeok himself had never handled that object.

The Demonic Cult had ended in the generation of Mount Hua whose names bore “Jeong.”

After that, by the time the “Myeong” and “Eun” generations arrived, their perception of the Demonic Cult was different, no matter how gravely they regarded it.

Myeongjeok, in particular, was someone who had blocked even the powerful Demonic Energy under South Peak with his internal energy without great difficulty.

He likely believed that if it were him, if it were his Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method, he would suppress the Young Cult Leader’s left arm without trouble.

But that would not be true at all.

That was entirely his mistake.

“Your manner of speech has grown quite crude, Eunbyeok.”

“The reason I ended up like this is...!”

At that instant, Myeongjeok struck Eunbyeok on the back of the neck.

He could have ended it with acupoint sealing, but he chose to strike him because he found him insolent.

Eunbyeok lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.

But his internal energy did not stop, shaking the iron chains to a dangerous degree...

Until at long last, after quite some time, it subsided.

“Even attached to this wretch, it has this much power...”

But Myeongjeok’s gaze was already not on his disciple.

It was on that left arm.

An object that produced this degree of power even when attached to a disciple so inadequate and talentless.

What would happen if he possessed it?

Perhaps he might even be able to glimpse the Transformation Realm.

How many years had it already been since he struck the wall of Transcendent Apex and lingered at its edge?

If he could break through that wall and ascend to the next realm...

Myeongjeok was prepared to do anything.

“...But not now.”

He had to watch a little longer.

Myeongjeok was not such a fool that, out of greed to soar, he would swallow something whole without even knowing whether it was a wing or a fallen leaf.

Was Eunbyeok not already serving well enough as a living test subject?

He could test everything through him, and after verification was complete, he could take it then.

That would do...

When his thoughts reached that point, Myeongjeok should have realized what was wrong with himself.

The moment he could contemplate killing his disciple without hesitation, staining the heavenly bond between master and disciple with a Blood Calamity, and no longer caring in the slightest about Mount Hua’s rules.

Myeongjeok should have recognized that he had crossed the line.

He should also have realized...

That all of it was the temptation of that wicked, sinister thing.

But he failed to do so, and missed his chance.

Jeongyang had told him to watch Eunbyeok because he believed Myeongjeok would not suffer such a problem.

But in the end, Myeongjeok tilted toward the desire for power, and was captured by it.

Myeongjeok slowly dragged Eunbyeok by the back of his neck and shoved him into the wall cabinet.

The wall cabinet, too, was something bound shut with all sorts of talismans, chains, and rope.

He was protecting Eunbyeok’s acupoints, dantian, heart, and head with large needles of pure silver that had been ritually cleansed.

But there was no telling when the Demonic Energy might dye every protective tool black and burst out.

Sure enough.

The moment he shut the door, Eunbyeok’s voice rang out from inside.

“I-I was wrong, Master. I was wrong... Please let me out, let me out...!”

Auditory hallucinations were ringing in Eunbyeok’s ears.

A voice whose owner he did not know.

It was the voice of a heretic, crying out wicked incitement again and again.

And that voice grew stronger in the dark.

At night rather than during the day.

And in a place where he was locked away in darkness like this, rather than somewhere bright.

But Myeongjeok did not let him out.

No matter how much Eunbyeok said he heard a wicked voice, Myeongjeok ignored him.

Because both Jeongyang and Myeongjeok believed those hallucinations came from Eunbyeok being a weak, inadequate disciple.

But what they had overlooked was this...

Even if it was not the Young Cult Leader’s head.

That fragment of his flesh was still saturated with the power of the unnamable Malevolent God worshiped by the Demonic Cult.

Chapter 119

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