The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 118

A little while later, our party finished their respective meals.

At my words to rest freely until we depart for the Nangong family again tomorrow morning, my senior brothers and the Zhuge family siblings quietly disappeared somewhere.

They could go to their rooms to sleep, or if they felt like it, they could train.

Whatever they do, I have no intention of touching them at all until tomorrow.

Because it is my principle that if I say rest, I shouldn't order anything.

For those who are tired of training, rest becomes a great reward.

Just being able to rest becomes a motivation to bring out even the strength they had when they were suckling.

If I bother them by saying let's just do this, let's just do that during their rest time, it's obvious that they'll only feel resentment instead of doing it sincerely.

The problem is not them, but Mo Yong Baek-jin, who is now drinking only alcohol with his food across from me.

He is only drinking alcohol, as if he doesn't want to talk to me.

So I just left him alone.

Although I suddenly feel like drinking, alcohol is a big hindrance to accumulating the immortal energy of the Wudang Sect.

So I decided to endure alcohol until I had accumulated a considerable amount of immortal energy and my physical growth was over, so I didn't drink a single drop.

Instead, I ordered boiled pork slices and am eating them while glaring at Mo Yong Baek-jin.

"Phew... I'm not even getting drunk."

Mo Yong Baek-jin, who had emptied a bottle of Zhuyeqing by himself and had almost finished the Tangcu Liji, muttered to himself.

I thought he was about to get up from his seat, but Mo Yong Baek-jin looked at me and said, "What are you trying to do now?"

"What about me?"

Then his eyebrows twitched.

He must not have expected me to come out with such informal language.

"Did you really call me just to sit face to face and eat?"

"I said let's eat, did I say let's do something else?"

"No... there must be a purpose for calling me. A purpose."

"Another purpose... not really? I don't expect anything from you. I'm a little curious about your situation, but it's not like I'll die if I don't know."

I shrugged my shoulders and said, and Mo Yong Baek-jin let out a small sigh as if he was dumbfounded.

"But why have you been speaking informally since a while ago? I think I'm much older."

"Then you can speak informally too."

"Heo..."

I thought Mo Yong Baek-jin would get angry at this point, but he passed it over more nonchalantly than I thought.

Is it because he realized that there is a huge difference in skill between us in the spar earlier? He had a more obedient attitude than I thought.

"Okay. I'll speak comfortably too. What's the reason for keeping me here?"

"Keeping you here? That's a strange way to put it. Did I tie you up, or did I press your acupoints or something? You could have just left, but you didn't."

"Such a sophism! If I had just left earlier, weren't you about to chase me and catch me?"

"Oh. You're quite sharp, aren't you? You're not clueless, you just don't care about what others think, do you?"

When I said with a small laugh, he frowned and looked at me.

At the same time, I also slowly looked him over.

His limbs are long and his frame is excellent. His muscles of a moderate size are properly in place, and his temples are also bulging, so it seems that he didn't just get strong for free with good elixirs or body-to-body transmission, but he also didn't neglect his training.

'But why... did he stop growing?'

And the body of Mo Yong Baek-jin that I remember was even more trained.

Although Mo Yong Baek-jin has an annoying and arrogant personality, he was not the kind of trash who would lord it over others without even training.

"Wh-What are you looking at now?"

He said in a slightly unpleasant voice.

It's a natural reaction since I suddenly looked him up and down.

"Ah, sorry."

"Sorry?"

"I was a little curious about something, so I took a look."

"What are you curious about?"

"You... when did you stop growing?"

"......!"

I didn't just beat around the bush, but asked him directly.

I have no intention of wasting time with Mo Yong Baek-jin by having a Zen dialogue or something.

In any case, the Mo Yong family is not included in my original plan.

They are at the northwestern end of the Central Plains, and they have so many procedures and formalities because they are royalty.

It is said that when the Demonic Cult invaded, the martial artist from the Martial Arts Alliance who went to request reinforcements took a full week to meet the head of the Mo Yong family even in that urgent situation.

So I thought that if I solved Mo Yong Baek-jin's problem, even if I couldn't have a good relationship with the Mo Yong family... at least if I could get Mo Yong Baek-jin's personal help, it wouldn't be a loss.

"Wh-What do you mean? That I've stopped growing."

"There's no need to hide it. I can see it at a glance. You grew at an incredible speed until you reached your current level, and then you faltered at some point, right? And now you've probably stopped completely."

"H-How did you..."

"I told you I can see it at a glance, right? Tell me straight. Who knows? Maybe I can help. In my opinion, if you can't solve this and just let it pass, you'll be stuck there until you're at least twenty-seven."

"N-No!"

He shouted.

Thanks to that, my ears hurt, so I picked my ear and said.

Although I had only thrown a few words, his stern expression collapsed.

It seems it was because I had presented a strangely specific number, twenty-seven.

"Why not? You're strong enough now."

"This much is not enough. I have to become the successor of the great Mo Yong family. With just this much..."

His arrogant expression from a little while ago was gone, and Mo Yong Baek-jin's expression was anxiety. Itself.

The words that he had to become the successor of the Mo Yong family, for some reason... sounded like a cry that he had to become the successor.

"You have to become the head of the Mo Yong family. Why do you have to become the head?"

"That's..."

He couldn't answer easily and trailed off.

It feels like there is some complicated problem that he doesn't want to talk about or can't easily talk about.

"Well, if you don't want to talk, that's fine. Can I take a look at your body for a moment?"

"My body...?"

He frowned and looked at me.

It seems he is suspicious of what trick I'm trying to pull.

"I have no other ulterior motives. I just want to check if there's any problem with you."

"There's no problem with me. And even if there is, do you think a young Taoist like you can find a problem that the elders of my family haven't been able to find for two years?"

"Aha. So you've stopped growing for about two years?"

"Keub... th-that's right."

"If you were at this level at eighteen, you must have had considerable aptitude, right? No matter how much full support you had from your family, it's your part to accept it."

When I praised him with a pure heart, he had an expression as if he didn't know how to take it.

I let out a small laugh without realizing it.

Although I may look like a young Taoist to him, the inside is an old man who is almost forty.

No matter how dirty Mo Yong Baek-jin's personality is, in my eyes, he is a far-off child.

"Ah. That's enough. For now, come here and sit down. Quickly!"

When I shouted, Mo Yong Baek-jin reflexively stood up awkwardly.

He's a guy with a surprisingly cute side.

Mo Yong Baek-jin got up from his seat and came and sat in the chair next to me.

I adjusted my posture so that I could see Mo Yong Baek-jin's back, and then I put my hand on his Mingmen acupoint and slowly began to push my energy in.

And I slowly began to feel his inside.

The energy I put into Mo Yong Baek-jin's body now is not just internal energy, but the immortal energy I have accumulated by training my upper dantian in Wudang.

Immortal energy has a much lighter nature than internal energy.

So in order to actually use it in martial arts, you have to accumulate a huge amount of immortal energy, and the amount I have now is not enough.

But with my control, it is quite possible to examine the opponent's body.

Since it is lighter than internal energy, the speed of feeling the body is also fast, and it is less burdensome for the opponent.

"Hmm...?"

After examining his whole body once, a questioning sound came out of my mouth.

'There's nothing wrong?'

In fact, I thought Mo Yong Baek-jin's condition was a side effect of excessive elixir consumption.

There are often such people.

They take another elixir even when they haven't fully absorbed the energy of the elixir.

Or they receive energy from someone else, and then take another elixir before they have even absorbed that energy.

In this way, the dregs of the elixir that remain in the body gradually clump together and block the meridians.

'No. Let's look again.'

And I examined his body again... but unfortunately, I couldn't find anything.

A little while later, I took my hand off his body without any results.

And he turned his back and said with a 'so what' expression, "Didn't I say you wouldn't be able to find out? You were acting all high and mighty... Waiter! Another bottle of Zhuyeqing here!"

He ordered another bottle of alcohol in a bitter voice.

In fact, there must have been a little bit of expectation when he entrusted his back to me, whom he had just met for the first time today.

A thread-like expectation that was close to grasping at straws, wondering if I might have a clue to solving his problem.

But since there were no results, he couldn't help but be disappointed.

'What on earth is it? Was this guy's talent just this much?'

I had such a thought without realizing it. As I was thinking that, I met Mo Yong Baek-jin's eyes...

"As expected. You think so too."

"What?"

"That expression. I know it well. That expression of doubting my aptitude!"

He bit his lip hard.

He bit it so hard that a little blood was showing.

"Do you think I've only seen that expression once or twice? The martial artists of my family, the elders, and even my distant relatives... and my parents..."

Whether it was because of the alcohol, or because his emotions had become intense, his eyes were bloodshot.

I didn't know what expression to make, so I was just watching him, and he, who had been brought another bottle of Zhuyeqing by the waiter, drank it straight from the bottle and then looked at me and said in a cold voice, "The martial arts of our Mo Yong family are martial arts that are unfolded based on internal energy. If you have a lot of internal energy, the speed of your sword will also increase, and if you lack internal energy, you won't be able to unfold all the techniques. But... my internal energy hasn't increased for two years. No matter how much I do qi circulation, no matter how many elixirs I eat, no matter how much enlightenment I get, my internal energy doesn't increase."

"Th-There must be a reason, right?"

"If I knew the reason, would I be like this? I wouldn't be so desperate as to have expectations for a stranger like you."

"......"

I couldn't answer easily and looked at him.

Then he said in a cold voice, "Is it pity? Haha... I feel so dirty."

He stood up from his seat with a thud and went up to his room on the second floor with a bottle of alcohol in one hand.

Looking up at his back, which suddenly seemed smaller than before, I thought.

'Lacking aptitude? No. That's ridiculous. A person who lacks aptitude surpassed the first-rate level at eighteen?'

I replayed the spar with him earlier.

His footwork and lightness skill, the hand holding the sword, the unity of the arm and the sword, and even the circulation of his internal energy.

Although I was much stronger than him, in fact, Mo Yong Baek-jin's talent did not feel lacking at all.

'Then there must be another problem...'

I thought that there might be something wrong with the martial art he had learned, but if I were to ask Mo Yong Baek-jin to recite the incantation of the internal technique he had learned so that I could check his martial art, I would be treated like a crazy person.

And that martial art is a martial art that has been passed down in the Mo Yong family, and there must be many other martial artists who have learned the same martial art.

If there was a problem with the incantation of the martial art, the same problem would have occurred to them as well.

And the family would have noticed the problem long ago.

'Then the problem is...'

I racked my brain hard.

No matter how much I think about it, I can't find any problem inside him.

Then the problem must be external...

"If it's an external problem..."

At that moment, several methods flashed through my mind.

As I thought about the methods one by one, I came to one conclusion.

"Poison?"

Yes. It's poison. If you continuously inhale a poison that scatters your skills, you can prevent your internal energy from accumulating in the current situation.

If the existing internal energy is also scattered, you will surely notice the abnormality and suspect the existence of the poison.

So, a very small amount, continuously. Even if you can't do anything about the existing internal energy, if you use poison to the extent that you can't accumulate new energy...

It's a very possible story.

'Then in what way is the poison...?'

There are various ways to administer poison.

You can release poison smoke in the room while you are sleeping, or you can put a small amount of poison in the water or tea you drink, or the food you eat.

But those methods are not very realistic.

Because it is difficult to make only Mo Yong Baek-jin affected without affecting others.

If not only Mo Yong Baek-jin but also others have similar phenomena...?

As I said before, they will start a thorough investigation, and they would have been caught using poison long ago.

"Huh...? No way?!"

At that moment, his pale face came to my mind.

Not just pale, but his face, which was painted white with powder.

I didn't even care that the chair fell over backwards, and I ran up to Mo Yong Baek-jin's room on the second floor and burst open his door!

"Wh-What is it?!"

Mo Yong Baek-jin, who was sitting on the windowsill and drinking alcohol from the bottle pitifully, was so surprised that he let out a loud shout.

I looked at him and said with a meaningful expression, "That white powder you put on your face. Give it to me.”

(End of Chapter)