Chapter 434: A Coincidence That Changes the Situation (2)

After returning to his quarters, Yeon Hojeong ate a bowl of well-cooked porridge, drank some water, and slept for a full twenty hours.

It had swallowed up nearly an entire day. Considering Yeon Hojeong’s cultivation, that alone showed just how exhausted he had been, both physically and mentally.

Fortunately, that much sleep was enough to dispel almost all of his fatigue. He could recover so thoroughly because he had managed to bring some order to his troubled mind.

By the time he rose, the sun was already setting again.

Yeon Hojeong drank some cold water, sat cross-legged, and immediately began circulating his qi and regulating his breathing.

HMMMM.

The Yeon Clan Divine Core gave off a deep, heavy resonance.

It feels denser.

The power contained within his inner core had increased again.

An increase in power meant that the core itself had grown denser.

That was astonishing.

To raise the density of an inner core by leaps and bounds required one of three things: an insight into the concentration of True Qi, overwhelming medicinal force, or a tremendous infusion of power from an extraordinary master.

That was what it took for explosive growth rather than the gradual accumulation of layer upon layer.

Yet that was exactly what had happened to Yeon Hojeong.

He had gained no remarkable new enlightenment. He had passed most of the medicinal force he received from Yangcheon to Gangryang, and no supreme master had transferred power into him.

And yet the density of his inner core had risen.

To a frightening degree.

More astonishing still, he had not even noticed until now.

Why?

Yeon Hojeong was baffled.

Why has the core grown this much denser...? Ah!

The realization escaped him as an involuntary exclamation.

Just to be certain, he examined each of the Four Spirit Qi individually. As expected, they were all more or less unchanged from before.

Which meant his guess was right.

The tempering of the five desires and seven emotions...!

Back when he was the Dark Emperor, the Inner Qi that powered his Four Spirit Qi had been Crimson Heaven Qi.

Crimson Heaven Qi was a cultivation method centered on the lower dantian, refining an oceanic reservoir of Inner Qi. At least when it came to accumulating qi, there was no cultivation method under heaven that could rival it.

An inexhaustible supply of True Qi.

Fueled by that boundless reserve, the Four Spirit Qi had turned the Four Spirit Martial Art into an endless killing method. Behind the terror of an art that could crush enemy after enemy without exhaustion lay the immense reserves of Crimson Heaven Qi.

But Yeon Hojeong was different now.

He had formed the Yeon Clan Divine Core.

It was an inner core situated in the middle dantian.

And the middle dantian was profoundly affected by the five desires and seven emotions—by human emotion itself.

Of course, internal force housed in the middle dantian was not automatically governed by emotion. Qi, like the human mind, could be affected by countless factors. There were even cases where a person lost control of the five desires and seven emotions badly enough to shatter the lower dantian or destabilize the upper dantian.

Even so, the center of the heart lay in the middle dantian.

That was why, once the middle dantian was brought into balance, the mind would not easily be shaken.

My afflictions... my anguish actually strengthened the core.

He had never expected growth on this scale.

Qi was influenced by intent, so the mind could never be ignored when it came to changes in cultivation. Even so, he had never experienced growth this rapid before.

If the accumulation of Crimson Heaven Qi was endless expansion, the accumulation of the Yeon Clan Divine Core was a repeated cycle of convergence and diffusion.

If asked which cultivation method was superior for bringing out the power of the Four Spirit Martial Art, Yeon Hojeong could not easily answer.

But he had seen in the Yeon Clan Divine Core a potential greater than anything he had possessed as the Dark Emperor.

That was why he had chosen to complete and cultivate it.

My anguish over the deaths of my subordinates made me stronger...

Bitterness settled over Yeon Hojeong’s face.

I thought I had let it go, yet it had taken hold of me this deeply.

This was not merely power.

He was the one who had suffered the affliction, and he was the one who had overcome it.

But without the deaths of his subordinates, he would never have grown this much.

In that sense, this strength had been given to him by them.

Yeon Hojeong decided to think of it that way.

At the very least, I will never use this strength in a way that dishonors you.

To gain strength through the sacrifice of his own people?

Most minds could not endure something like that. Anyone who truly valued human life might have fallen into another spiral of anguish.

Yeon Hojeong did not.

Once was enough for showing such an ugly side of himself.

If he had decided to regard this as strength his subordinates had left him, then it was time to move forward.

Keep going. There’s still a mountain of work left to do.

Yeon Hojeong slapped both cheeks several times, ended his qi circulation, and stepped outside.

“You’re up?”

Mookbi, drenched in sweat as she swung a short spear, greeted him warmly.

Yeon Hojeong tilted his head.

“What happened to your bow? Why the short spear?”

“Oh, this?” She lifted it slightly. “I thought I might as well learn it properly.”

“You were already better with one than most people.”

Mookbi possessed exceptional martial talent.

She had devoted her entire life to archery, yet the fist and kicking arts she had learned from Yeon Hojeong had also reached an impressive level.

She had not been using a short spear for long.

The fact that she could already wield one well enough for it to be useful in real combat against masters showed just how gifted she was.

“Being better than most isn’t enough. I need to reach the point where I overwhelm them.”

“Isn’t your archery already enough?”

“If it were, I wouldn’t be learning this. My subordinates are right in front of me fighting with blood flying everywhere, while I sit in the rear plucking a bowstring and shooting arrows. I don’t like it.”

“A martial artist should focus on sharpening strengths before trying to patch weaknesses. Especially in the martial world, where one mistake can cost you your life.”

He was telling her there was nothing shameful about firing from the rear.

In fact, the Evil-Smiting Corps trusted her archery, which had reached the level of divine skill, so completely that they entered frontal battles without the slightest hesitation.

Mookbi nodded.

“That’s true when we’re moving as a unit. I’m not interested in risking my life with something I’m mediocre at when I have something I’m already far better at.”

Still, there would inevitably be times when she had to fight her way through a melee alone.

With her skill in archery, she could probably break through even if attacks came from every direction.

But it seemed the battle involving Sima Hyeon had left her with something to think about.

Yeon Hojeong nodded.

“Once you’ve made some progress, come find me. I’ll take a look and point out anything you’re lacking.”

“Thanks.”

“Where is everyone else?”

“They’ve all finished training and are resting. Well, except for a few.”

“A few?”

Mookbi clicked her tongue.

“While you were running around dealing with everything, there were people here training harder than anyone else. Though ‘training hard’ might be too mild. They were practically obsessed.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

“I think I know who you mean.”

“Going to see them?”

“Just to look in on them. It’s been far too long.”

“Go see Sima Hyeon later too. He said there’s something he absolutely needs to discuss with you.”

“Understood.”

Yeon Hojeong ended the conversation in a calm voice and headed toward the Evil-Smiting Corps’ quarters.

Mookbi watched his back for a moment.

“Let’s have a drink later.”

Yeon Hojeong merely raised a hand without turning around.

The first person he saw upon entering the Evil-Smiting Corps’ quarters was Okcheong.

Everyone else had finished training for the day, but Okcheong remained alone on the makeshift training ground, slowly and gently moving his sword.

WHOOOOSH.

The air flowing along the sword tip seemed extraordinarily soft.

He had only recently recovered from his injuries.

White bandages were still wrapped around the exposed parts of his arms and near his collarbone.

Even so, his complexion looked healthy, and his presence was remarkably stable.

His recovery seemed to be progressing quickly.

HMMMM. HMMMMMM.

The injury would have prevented any strenuous training.

But Okcheong’s movements did not appear slow merely because he was wounded.

Yeon Hojeong recognized the sword art at once.

The Taiji Wisdom Sword.

One of Wudang’s defining supreme arts.

Just as Shaolin had the Hundred-Pace Divine Fist, Wudang had the Taiji Wisdom Sword. In other words, it was an art that embodied the sect itself.

Okcheong’s Taiji Wisdom Sword was exceedingly soft.

So soft that it was almost hard to believe a sword could be moved that way.

The softness was so extreme that one might even question whether the movements had any practical use as swordsmanship.

But Yeon Hojeong could see the fierce movement of True Qi woven into those impossibly gentle motions.

Within each simple movement, the True Qi shifted in dozens—hundreds—of different ways.

That kind of qi circulation would have been impossible for Okcheong before his injury.

He was still far from completion, but even this much progress was remarkable.

There were virtually no gaps in the movement of his True Qi. An ordinary attack could probably be stopped with a single sweep of the sword.

Looks like he gained some insight.

It was unlikely to have come simply from swinging a sword.

After regaining consciousness—or perhaps even while unconscious—Okcheong must have spent time reflecting on his martial arts.

Yeon Hojeong watched him quietly for a while, then suppressed his presence and moved on.

Part of him wanted to talk.

He wanted to ask if Okcheong was all right and tell him not to push himself too hard.

But he did neither.

He did not want to break Okcheong’s concentration, and he could sense that something within the man had changed.

Yeon Hojeong walked for another seven or eight minutes.

PAPAPAPAPAPAK!

A vicious burst of sound erupted, and dozens of brilliant sword flashes embroidered the air.

A gleam appeared in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

Oh?

In the rear garden, a young man was swinging a half-sword snapped cleanly across the middle.

It was Yeon Jipyeong.

Jipyeong had accompanied the Evil-Smiting Corps but had contributed nothing during this mission.

Since the corps itself had never engaged in a proper unit battle, that was only natural.

I thought he’d be wound tight with nerves by now.

Yeon Hojeong was glad to discover that his prediction had been wrong.

Yeon Jipyeong was no longer the immature little brother he remembered from the past.

Even in circumstances this dangerous, and even while the Evil-Smiting Corps conducted its own unit training around him, he had not forgotten °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° what he himself needed to do.

I’m sorry.

A fresh pang of guilt struck Yeon Hojeong.

No matter how busy he had been with the corps, he could have found time to check on his brother if he had truly made the effort.

Instead, he had been so consumed by the mission that he had barely looked after him at all.

And even so, his brother probably had not resented him.

If anything, Jipyeong had likely worked even harder for fear of becoming a burden.

I hardly have the face to look at you—or Father.

People said that to gain one thing, you had to give up another.

But Yeon Hojeong felt as though he had given up something that never should have been sacrificed.

For the sake of military discipline, he could not treat his younger brother differently from anyone else.

But surely it would not have hurt to pat him on the shoulder once in a while when they were alone.

Still...

FLASH!

The sword light slicing through the air was clear and cold, like a crescent moon suspended in a cloudless night sky.

You’ve still found a way to keep growing on your own.

There was no fixed shape or prescribed form in the sword he swung.

Seen generously, it was free.

Seen harshly, it was unpredictable to the point of being formless.

The blade itself had been snapped in half, so delicate thrusts were out of the question.

Cut.

Then cut again.

Yet whatever Jipyeong had found within those repeated cuts had left a faint smile on his face.

Yeon Hojeong watched him for a long time before giving a wry smile inwardly.

Why is it so hard to speak to anyone today?

Okcheong.

Jipyeong.

Perhaps the problem lay with him.

He had told himself he had settled his emotions, but his mood was still subdued.

After watching his brother train for a while longer, Yeon Hojeong quietly turned away.

I’ll come back tomorrow morning.

That was when it happened.

“Supreme Commander Yeon! Supreme Commander Yeon, are you here?!”

The booming voice carried both its owner’s usual uninhibited energy and an unmistakable urgency.

The sudden shout brought both Jipyeong’s and Okcheong’s training to an abrupt stop.

WHOOSH!

Yeon Hojeong crossed the distance to the training ground in an instant and saw Ga Deoksang rushing in.

“Successor?”

“Ah! They said you’d be here.”

“What happened?”

“Something serious has come up!”

Now what?

Yeon Hojeong frowned.

“Serious? Is it the provincial government?”

“No.”

Ga Deoksang’s expression darkened.

“Supreme Commander Yeon, have you heard of Putuo Hermitage?”