As Jin Cheon-hee thought of Zhuge Lin's distant realm, he made up his mind.
"I must become stronger. I must train even harder, to the point of foaming at the mouth."
After all, the strong make the rules, and strength is the ultimate truth.
There were few in the martial world who didn’t know that Baek Rin’s Lineage was afflicted with the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage.
The family head had given up, but Zhuge Lin’s mother never did.
From a young age, she had fed him expensive medicinal herbs, claiming it was for the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage, and even invited renowned doctors from all over to examine him.
In the end, they only confirmed what was already known, but at the time, that was the reality.
Every time, the martial world’s gossips would chatter endlessly, and no one doubted the truth.
When Zhuge Lin, who was believed to die before reaching adulthood, survived the calamity that wiped out his family and used his ghostly intellect and martial prowess to turn those who contributed to the family’s downfall into fertilizer, no one doubted it then either.
Later, when Zhuge Lin didn’t die but instead created the Baek Rin’s Pavilion to prolong his life, the younger martial artists began to doubt.
However, the elders who had known Zhuge Lin since childhood still knew that he suffered from the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage and that his death was imminent.
Thus, the current situation was filled with speculation about what would happen to Baek Rin’s Pavilion after Zhuge Lin’s death.
But when it became known that Jin Cheon-hee, through a groundbreaking surgery, had overcome the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage, the world began to tremble.
The disciple of Baek Rin’s Pavilion had succeeded where even its master had failed? This was news that shook the martial world.
As the news spread, information about the new medicine, the Baek Rin Divine Pill, also began to circulate uncontrollably.
“Kekeke, the Baek Rin Divine Pill. Could it truly suppress the darkness within me?”
“……You’re really… No. Never mind.”
“Oh, why so serious? I just want to witness the power of the famous Little White Dragon of Baek Rin’s Pavilion.”
“What would the elders of the Tang family say about you?”
“What about me? The elders are too busy turning red and running away when they see me.”
“You’re driving me crazy… No. In the end, they couldn’t bear to see their granddaughter pile up a mountain of dark history, so they left her to me.”
“Why are you like this? Yeon-ah, say something.”
“Oh, oppa. Even though Dang-ah looks like this, she’s not a bad girl.”
“What are you talking about?”
Namgoong Woon looked at the two girls with a sad expression.
One was his younger sister, Namgoong Yeon.
And the one clinging to Namgoong Yeon’s arm was Dang-ah (雅).
She was the daughter of the Sichuan Tang family, about the age of a middle school second-grader in Korea.
The Sichuan Tang family was recognized as a righteous faction, but they used poison techniques characteristic of the demonic faction, and their internal energy also followed some traits of the demonic faction.
One of these traits was the change in personality during puberty.
Among those who learned the secret techniques of the Tang family, those who showed exceptional talent in their youth often underwent a change in temperament during adolescence.
They harbored madness in their hearts, obsessed with darkness, and frequently mentioned words like blood and wounds.
Of course, since they were still part of the righteous faction, they rarely went so far as to kill people in their madness.
The foundation of the righteous faction was mental cultivation.
Even though the Tang family had some characteristics of the demonic faction, they rarely let themselves go completely.
By the time they reached adulthood, they usually returned to their original selves.
However, the memories of that time remained, causing them to kick their blankets or scream in the middle of the night.
Dang-ah.
She was a highly promising talent within the Tang family, growing rapidly under her father, the family head.
From a young age, she showed remarkable achievements and a rapid rise in internal energy… and then she transformed like this upon entering puberty.
The elders of the Tang family were horrified when they saw Dang-ah, as if they had stumbled upon a secret diary from ten years ago.
Thus, the Tang family ordered Dang-ah to go out and see the wider world, and in reality, it fell to Namgoong Woon to take care of her.
“Kekeke. So, Baek Rin’s Pavilion, huh? Huh, my wounds are aching.”
Dang-ah covered one eye and laughed.
“Can they really heal the wounds of my soul that even my own family couldn’t fix?”
Hearing this, Namgoong Woon spoke up.
“Ah, right. The Tang family is quite skilled in medicine too.”
On her chest was an exquisitely embroidered symbol of the Sichuan Tang family.
The Sichuan Tang family.
As one of the three great martial families representing Sichuan, they were famous for their poison and assassination techniques.
Though not as renowned as the three great medical pavilions, they were still a capable medical faction in their own right.
Thanks to this, there existed a medical pavilion in Sichuan operated by the Tang family, known as the Medical Poison Pavilion.
Though smaller in scale compared to other medical pavilions, their skills were not to be underestimated.
Especially in pharmacology, they even rivaled the Huazhu Medical Pavilion.
After all, poison, when used correctly, is medicine.
And the antidote for the poison used is equally important.
This accumulated history formed the medical arts of the Sichuan Tang family.
“A medicine that cures incurable diseases and internal injuries? And every single ailment of those saved wasn’t easy to treat. The more I hear, the more fascinating it becomes. Kekeke. The Little White Dragon, was it? I wonder what expression he’ll make when he sees the darkness within me.”
“Probably the same expression as the elders of the Tang family.”
“Huh, even my parents couldn’t understand my darkness and abandoned me.”
“If it were the elders of the Tang family, they’d understand too well, wouldn’t they?”
Namgoong Woon muttered softly as he brushed his bangs aside.
“But still. I’m glad that Dang-ah, Yeon-ah’s friend, is here with us. And it seems you’ve taken a liking to the Little White Dragon too.”
“A liking? I just want to test if he can heal my wounds.”
“……Alright. Got it. Want some mooncakes?”
Namgoong Woon smiled like an adult and handed each of the girls a mooncake.
The mooncakes, beautifully stamped with lotus patterns, clearly seemed tailored to Namgoong Yeon’s taste.
“Yeon-ah, is it delicious?”
Nod.
Namgoong Yeon nodded instead of answering and eagerly ate the mooncake.
Dang-ah, who had received one as well, ate alongside her.
“Kekeke, do you think I have the same taste as a kid like Yeon-ah? Woon oppa.”
“You’re a girl, so call me Woon oppa…… No, call me whatever you like.”
Namgoong Woon’s father, Namgoong Cheol, once said, ‘Even if the child of the Tang family seems like a demonic faction practitioner who has learned some demonic arts, be patient and watch over them.’ His father had interacted with many friends from the Tang family during his youth.
Back then, his father must have thought that his friends from the Tang family had learned demonic arts.
Namgoong Woon, however, was better at understanding people than his father.
“Want another one?”
“Sure. Woon oppa!”
“You eat well.”
Would this girl also grow up to kick her blankets like so many elders of the Tang family? Namgoong Woon thought this as he handed each of the girls another mooncake.
Adolescent girls.
Contrary to the common perception that they should be gentle and ladylike, Namgoong Woon knew the truth. ‘They’re violent, destructive, and endlessly hungry.’ At that age, their screams could be heard from one end of the hall to the other, they would run at full speed for no reason, and they couldn’t control their overflowing energy, often breaking things.
‘You have to feed them a lot.’ Taking care of children at this age meant constantly feeding them.
Like taming a beast, Namgoong Woon kept feeding the two girls.
It was the proper attitude of an adult.
Meanwhile, at the same time that the siblings of the Namgoong family and the Tang family’s member were arriving, Jin Cheon-hee was in the midst of martial training.
Having undergone a complete transformation, Jin Cheon-hee’s internal energy had risen to the level of twenty years, placing him on the verge of being considered a top-tier expert.
Now was the time to delve deeper into a wider variety of martial arts.
In fact, it was a bit late.
Usually, by the time one reached the level of a top-tier expert, they would have already mastered some of the higher-level secret techniques of their family’s martial arts.
But what Jin Cheon-hee was training in were basic martial techniques.
He had selected techniques from the numerous martial arts of the Zhuge family that complemented the Five Elements Divine Art.
Among them, he had chosen to learn one.
- The Ten-Step Divine Spear is an excellent martial art.
But can it be considered a divine art? I can’t nod to that.
Jin Cheon-hee was shocked by this statement.
The Ten-Step Divine Spear was an incredible martial art, mentioned by any decent spear-wielding expert.
Yet, it couldn’t even be considered part of the Zhuge family’s divine arts?
‘Just how arrogant is this…?’
- The Ten-Step Divine Spear is just a stepping stone to learning the family’s true martial arts, Cheon-hee.
Are all the great families this arrogant? Jin Cheon-hee tilted his head in thought.
‘Come to think of it, even the demonic faction’s martial arts always claimed to be the best in the world, saying it was just the foundation for the next technique, tormenting the protagonist.
Yeah, all the great families must be like this.’
The power of the Ten-Step Divine Spear, which his master called a stepping stone, was enough to pierce the mouth of a ten-thousand-year-old crocodile with an unstoppable harpoon.
So, what would the next martial art be like?
- The Taiyi Immortal-Severing Sword.
A sword technique meant to sever immortals, consisting of 24 moves, but when mixed with variations, it could produce endless transformations.
To sever immortals! What an outrageous name!
- It is composed of three principles: speed, variation, and illusion.
Mastering it would make it a divine art with few rivals in the world.
Surprisingly, Jin Cheon-hee had heard of this martial art before.
Later in the novel, one of the antagonists used it.
The person who mastered it was considered a genius, but they only managed to learn half of it and couldn’t fully display its power.
They had succeeded in obtaining the secret manual from the annihilated Zhuge family, but the martial art was too picky about its practitioners.
In the past, Jin Cheon-hee had wondered if the manual had been torn, but now he understood.
The foundational martial arts required were extremely demanding.
Not only the Five Elements Divine Art, but also the Three Talents Footwork, Three Talents Fist, and even foresight had to be fully mastered.
On top of that, one had to learn the Xianyuan Dan Internal Art and master the Ten-Step Divine Spear.
Only then could one use the principles of variation and illusion.
‘So that’s why the antagonist in the novel could only use the speed principle.’ That alone had given the protagonist, Yeo Ha-ryun, a hard time.
- You must study diligently and train your body to learn this.
The Ice Crystal Sword.
He had obtained a peerless treasure sword, so naturally, he wanted to learn a peerless martial art to match it.
And so, Jin Cheon-hee had been suffering for months.
“Argh!”
Wooden poles moved from all directions at strange angles.
This was the Hellish Wooden Dummy Dungeon personally created by Yu Ho! In the local terminology, it was called the Wooden Dummy Training Cave.
Multiple wooden dummies swung anywhere from four to ten arms wildly, but they also followed a certain pattern.
One had to memorize and block or dodge their attacks repeatedly.