novelraw Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Why is the Mahondan showing up here?
As expected, my skill in beating people hadn't rusted at all.
If the rankings of Jianghu were determined by how many people you beat up, I probably would have reigned as the First Seat.
There were too many people in the Jianghu who needed a beating, and naturally, the hands of this Martial Emperor were merciless.
“Kuuuhhh….”
Unlike his soft appearance, Jaegal Cheon's endurance was no joke.
The boy, who barely managed to get up while gripping his failing vision, soon looked over his own body and became dazed.
“Wh-what? Why am I fine….”
I looked at him and grinned.
He must have thought his body would be covered in bruises from the beating.
But I'm not an idiot.
If a younger brother were to beat up his older brother in the heart of the Orthodox Faction, his reputation would plummet endlessly.
Right now, his insides would be full of dead, bruised blood, but on the outside, he looked perfectly fine.
“I’m going to ask you a few questions now. Whether you open your mouth or keep it shut is your freedom, brother, but judge carefully. I'm telling you in advance.”
Crack.
As I stretched and glared at him, he shouted as if in a struggle.
“H-how do you know martial arts!”
“Is that important right now?”
Hoo.
If he were an extraordinary person, he would have quietly rolled his eyes, trying to find a way out of this situation.
But as expected, this guy's first instinct was denial.
I had some expectations since he was the First Young Master, but still.
“What is the meaning of this? If the clan elders find out about this….”
“Go tell on me.”
Did he think this was my first or second day dealing with Orthodox Faction fellows?
Orthodox Faction guys were people who would risk their lives for their precious reputation and face.
This tendency was especially severe in young ones who hadn't yet been worn down by the world.
A guy who has lived his entire life as the First Young Master of the Jaegal Clan is going to tell the clan that he got beaten up by his younger brother?
If such a person actually existed in the Orthodox Faction, this Martial Emperor would give him an award.
“First question. Why does Grandfather treat Yeong like he doesn't even exist?”
The Old Man of Heavenly Wisdom had definitely not even mentioned the fourth son, Jaegal Yeong, when he spoke of the successors of the Martial Marquis line.
It seemed the old man hadn't been able to observe him properly because he was overshadowed by my brilliance, but that boy was by no means an ordinary person.
Of course, I didn't know much about Yeong yet.
But just by possessing such a firm mind at a young age, he was worthy of being called a prodigy.
“……Are you really asking because you don't know that vicious boy?”
“Hmm?”
“After the second brother passed away like that… he is a boy who has been refusing food to this day. Unlike you, who protested with silence… didn't that stubborn boy declare to the clan that he would rather die than take on the Nine Phoenix Gates.”
What?
Refusing food?
As a rule, a person's eyes will spin if they don't eat anything for just three days.
People often say carelessly that they would rather refuse food, but from my perspective, having actually starved to the brink of death, it just sounded like a joke.
If there existed a person who reached death not by begging, but by a self-chosen fast, I dare to assert that their mental fortitude was superior to this Martial Emperor.
I had only seen people who could actually do such a thing in the scriptures of the damn monks.
“Then how is he still alive?”
“W-why are you being so scary? After Mother left for her maternal home, weren't you the one who has been putting Yeong to sleep with Paralysis Powder and feeding him porridge?”
“What? Paralysis Powder?”
Did that mean there was no way to feed him other than by making him lose consciousness?
I was amazed at his stubbornness, but I was more flustered that I, of all people, had been the one doing it.
A whole month had already passed since I had awakened after experiencing reincarnation.
If what he said was true, it meant that Jaegal Yeong had not eaten anything for that entire long period.
Does that make sense?
“Well, I get it for now. Next, second. What's with all those foolish martial arts?”
Jaegal Cheon’s techniques, which he had used against my fist techniques, were a bizarre martial art where the form and the style moved separately.
It might be a different story if the subtlety contained in his initial moves were at the level of a third-rate martial arts academy, but surprisingly, the martial principle that permeated the techniques was not ordinary.
To be more specific, it felt as if a third-rate nobody was imitating the martial arts of an absolute master.
“W-well, you'll find out soon enough anyway, won't you?”
“So in the end, that's all the martial arts of the Nine Phoenix Gates, is that it?”
Jaegal Cheon promptly clamped his mouth shut.
I couldn't help but furrow my brow.
No matter what anyone said, this Jaegal Clan was a family of renowned geniuses.
It meant they would be more intense than any other clan in developing and passing down the clan's talents.
But what was this sloppy feeling?
Why were blood relatives dying while learning martial arts, and why was even the First Young Master of the clan, who had passed that dangerous gateway, in this state?
“Let's just move on to the third. Is that really the Holy Divine Art?”
What I couldn't stand more than anything was Jaegal Cheon's internal energy.
That boisterous Ki art, where unrefined powers were just being spewed out haphazardly.
This wasn't the energy nurtured by a person, but rather something akin to a spiritual beast, no, more like demonic ki or cursed energy.
At the very least, if it had a mnemonic for circulation, and was even called a divine art, this made no sense at all.
It was a miracle that he hadn't fallen into qi deviation while harboring such chaotic internal energy in his body.
“Give me your wrist.”
I snatched the wrist of Jaegal Cheon, who was frozen in a daze.
However, even before I could examine his eight extraordinary meridians, I was so startled that I had to withdraw my hand.
No, what the hell is all this garbage?
“What is this? You haven't cultivated any internal energy at all?”
It was literal.
The energy Jaegal Cheon was emitting was not the internal energy of a human, reborn through a circulation mnemonic, but literally a power close to its natural state.
Only then did it dawn on me.
That this guy had consumed an elixir and had not practiced any internal energy cultivation method.
“What kind of strange elixir did you eat? If the energy is running this wild, it can't be an ordinary elixir.”
“Hoo, how do you already know martial arts… no, I don't even know anymore. Well, it might not be bad to know in advance. It's the Demon Soul Pill.”
“What?”
Shit, why is the Demon Soul Pill showing up here?
I was so flustered that no words would come out.
“You must never let this be known to the outside. Do you understand?”
“Wow, this is making me dizzy. So what you ate was the Demon Soul Pill of the Demonic Cult fellows, is that it?”
Demon Soul Pill.
That vicious elixir was the fundamental power that allowed the two hundred thousand followers of the Demonic Cult to devour the Central Plains in just three years.
Normally, elixirs are rare, but the leaders of the Demonic Cult had truly fed the Demon Soul Pill to all those many followers.
A strange elixir that allowed one to emit the vigorous ki of a second-rate master immediately upon consumption, and if one learned the corresponding demonic art, one could reach the level of a first-rate master in an instant.
At one time, its manufacturing method circulated in the Jianghu, causing countless bloodbaths.
In the end, I could roughly guess the circumstances of how that bloody spoil from the War between the Orthodox and Demonic Factions had flowed into the Jaegal Clan.
That is, it meant that the Murim Alliance, which had taken possession of the Demonic Cult's spoils, had been regularly sending Demon Soul Pills to the Jaegal Clan.
“Wow, to think they were doing such things behind the scenes. You really can't judge a book by its cover; even the Sword Saint is not a person to be trusted.”
“L-lower your voice!”
But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn't understand.
As its name suggests, the Demon Soul Pill was an elixir that displayed its power only when one also learned the Demon Soul Art, which could be called the basic art of the Demonic Cult.
Of course, I didn't know much about the Jaegal Clan's internal energy cultivation method.
But an elixir of the Demonic Cult having good compatibility with the internal energy cultivation method of the Orthodox Faction?
Does that make sense?
“Are you crazy? No matter how versatile the Demon Soul Pill is, it's something the Demonic Cult bastards ate. Orthodox Faction guys shouldn't be eating it.”
Within the Great Murim Alliance, there were those who had luckily obtained and actually consumed the Demon Soul Pill.
I had heard that a few of them had broken through their realms in an instant, but that was because the martial arts of the Underworld were rooted in heretical arts.
As the saying goes, heretical and demonic arts are two sides of the same coin.
But there was no way that such a characteristic would apply equally to the Jaegal Clan's Holy Divine Art.
Could it be that the Holy Divine Art was?
‘Was it really a heretical art?’
But that didn't make sense either.
The resident guests of the Jianghu who had witnessed the power of the Holy Divine Art had all said that it felt as if a profound yellow halo of light had manifested on earth.
As far as I knew, there was no internal energy cultivation method among the heretical arts that displayed such an external appearance. It wasn't called the Holy Divine Art for nothing.
Ah, I just can't wait for the Nine Phoenix Gates until news of the baldy's northern advance arrives.
I feel like I'm going to go crazy with curiosity.
“But why haven't you learned the Holy Divine Art, brother?”
Jaegal Cheon bit his lip hard.
And then, as if it were unfair, he shouted at me.
“What could I do! Do you think I didn't learn it because I didn't want to! Most of the challengers who participate in the Nine Phoenix Gates fail!”
I could roughly see how things were going.
Among the new generation members who challenged it like that, a few outstanding ones would succeed in cultivating the Holy Divine Art even after consuming the Demon Soul Pill.
Those who could protect themselves in an emergency were the ones who would become the strategists assisting the Murim Alliance Leader.
But one thing was certain: when it came to martial arts, this Jaegal Clan was hopelessly incompetent.
Having finished my judgment, I gave Jaegal Cheon his marching orders.
“You can go now. You'll recover after about three days of rest, so don't worry too much about your body.”
“You….”
The boy, who had been staring at me blankly for a long time, retreated without being able to utter the words that were lingering in his mouth.
Around that time, I was opening and checking the various drawers in the room.
As expected, it's here.
When I opened the sealed bottle and checked, a colorless, odorless, pure white liquid sloshed around.
When I tasted it, a pungent aroma quickly spread, and I felt a strong sensation of my tongue going numb.
“It was Paralysis Powder.”
Until now, I had thought this was a medicine for treating the Six Viscera Strange Disease.
Naturally, as someone who already knew how to cure the Six Viscera Strange Disease, I hadn't paid any attention to this medicine bottle.
“Hmm.”
Just how stubborn of a person was he that he wouldn't accept food unless his limbs were paralyzed?
I wonder what he had been eating to survive for the past month?
“Little brother. You ignorant little brother.”
I don't know about the original Jaegal Hwi, but I had no intention of continuing this foolish act.
After seeing Jaegal Cheon off, I turned to the hook-nosed fellow who had returned and was standing respectfully and asked.
“There's still some alcohol left, right?”
“Are you planning to drink again?”
“No, not me.”
“Yes…?”
I always thought people of the Orthodox Faction lived happily, laughing all the time.
But as it turns out, this Jaegal Clan was no different from the Great Murim Alliance, just a place where people live.
For people to live means.
Just enduring today.
“Hoo.”
And so, I started walking towards my little brother, who was also struggling to endure today.
The moon outside the window, as if exhausted, was sinking low.