"Ughhh!" In a dark cave, a hand wrapped in bandages pushes its way inside, where not a single ray of light penetrates.
"Ughhhhhh..."
Soon, a face that seems unable to twist any further suddenly appears.
"Aaaaaah!" Thud! Thud! With both hands stretched out, Cheongmyeong crawls into the cave.
"Huff! Huff! Huff! That crazy Plum Blossom Sword Master!" What kind of thought leads someone to create a hideout in a place like this? Has he gone mad from only practicing martial arts in the mountains? Ah, it is the Plum Blossom Sword Master.
"Oh, I’m going to die."
Cheongmyeong collapses onto the ground.
The realization that he somehow made it to the cave brings tears to his eyes. 'I really almost died.' Climbing a cliff that he couldn’t even ascend with a healthy body, while his hands were broken, was no easy feat.
Logically, if one had a brain and thoughts, they would recognize their shortcomings and plan for the future.
However, unfortunately, Cheongmyeong had a brain but no thoughts.
"No! If I don’t get up now, it will take even longer!" Cheongmyeong, as if making excuses to himself, screams desperately and then collapses back onto the ground with a groan.
"Oh dear. An old man is dying."
No, he is still a child.
He gets confused like this sometimes.
Still, somehow, he succeeded in making a sturdy rope to get in.
If the rope had broken again, he would have truly gone to meet King Yeomra.
If that had happened, King Yeomra would have probably struggled to hold back his laughter.
Just the thought of not seeing that sight was a relief.
"Ugh."
Cheongmyeong forced himself to straighten his back and looked around.
There was nothing in sight.
It wasn’t because he was in pain, but because it was too dark to see anything.
"Tsk. This must be..."
As he groped around, something caught the tips of his fingers.
"That’s right."
Pulling on what he had caught, the cloth was lifted, and the inside became bright.
Looking at the glowing object, Cheongmyeong couldn’t help but smile.
"I really had no plan at all."
The light of the Night Bright Pearl was truly radiant and clear.
It was impossible to light a fire inside the cave.
The entrance was structured downward, so if a fire were lit, the cave would quickly fill with smoke.
No matter how much of a genius Cheongmyeong was, he couldn’t drink in that choking smoke.
To be precise, it was possible, but why would he do such a thing when it wasn’t a trial? 'But I did bring the Night Bright Pearl.' How much money is that worth? He had stealthily taken one of the offerings brought into the volcano.
At that time, so many things were coming and going that taking something like that wouldn’t have drawn any attention.
Later, he would have bled while matching the accounts with the sect leader and the finance hall, but what could he do? "What can be done about the past?" Cheongmyeong was once again realizing how reckless the Plum Blossom Sword Master had been.
Ah, that was me.
I keep forgetting.
Cheongmyeong calmly surveyed the now bright cave interior.
"Hmm."
Inside, there was a bed to lie down comfortably, a small table, and a chest.
Yet, everything had a certain antiquity to it.
Perhaps due to the passage of time, even the simplest things seemed to have some significance.
"Wow. So this is how it is?" A sudden realization washed over him.
If Cheongmyeong had died without reviving and someone from the volcano discovered this place in the distant future, wouldn’t they have thought it was the retreat of a previous master? If they had accidentally discovered it while falling from the cliff? "That’s the Cliff Technique. The Cliff Technique."
In reality, it was just a place where he had been hiding and drinking, but it would never have appeared that way to future generations.
They would have thought there must be some hidden secret within the cave and would have done all sorts of things to uncover it.
"Isn’t it true that the Cliff Technique was created in this way?" Cheongmyeong chuckled and walked towards the chest.
With a steady hand, he opened the lid.
Dust that had accumulated for nearly a hundred years billowed up.
"Cough! Ugh! Cough!" Waving his hand to clear the dust, Cheongmyeong examined the inside of the chest.
The first thing that caught his eye was a bottle of liquor.
Seeing the various bottles of alcohol made his mouth water...
No, no! The liquor isn’t what’s important right now.
Desperately pushing the bottles out of his sight, Cheongmyeong shifted his gaze to a small box beside them. 'This is it!' Cheongmyeong quickly grabbed the box and pulled it out.
It was larger and heavier than he remembered.
"Hoo."
Taking a deep breath, Cheongmyeong carefully opened the lid of the box.
At the same time, a rich plum fragrance spread throughout the cave.
It felt as if a fully bloomed plum blossom tree filled the surroundings.
Click.
As he completely opened the lid, he saw round Danhwan filling the box.
There were small items scattered on the bottom of the box, and on top of them lay five snow-white Danhwan.
"Wow!" A wave of emotion surged over him.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
The items on the bottom were not merely cushioning to protect the Danhwan.
They were actually Plum Blossoms.
"What a lunatic."
No matter how common the Plum Blossom was, to stash it away like this? How greedy must a person be to do such a thing? If the sect leader saw this, he would have clutched his neck and collapsed.
"But I didn’t stash away the Jaso Dan, did I? Senior."
Cheongmyeong made a feeble excuse out of embarrassment.
In truth, he hadn’t stashed it away.
To be precise, he couldn’t touch the Jaso Dan.
Like the Great Hwan Dan of Shaolin, the Jaso Dan was considered a top-tier elixir even within the volcano.
Therefore, no matter how much of a senior he was, he couldn’t carelessly touch it.
The Jaso Dan could only be taken out with the simultaneous permission of the Medical Hall and the sect leader.
Other than that, the Plum Blossom could be taken freely by someone of the elder status.
Of course, to touch the Seolmae Dan, one would need to be a powerful elder among the elders, but who was Cheongmyeong? He was the Plum Blossom Sword Master, the greatest master of the volcano. - The greatest troublemaker of the volcano! It seemed he could hear echoes from somewhere.
"What does it matter?" For now, what was important was that he had obtained the Hwan Dan.
With this, he could heal his body.
Cheongmyeong took one Seolmae Dan from the box and carefully closed the lid.
It was something he used to consume recklessly as a hangover cure, but when the situation changes, the value of things also changes.
To Cheongmyeong, these elixirs were priceless treasures.
"Ah, I’m trembling."
Carefully placing the box back inside the chest, Cheongmyeong gazed at the Seolmae Dan in his hand with great care.
The snow-white pill exuded a pure fragrance.
Just smelling it made him feel as if his body was recovering.
"People don’t realize the value of things until they lose them."
Back when the volcano was vying for the title of the greatest sect in the world, he wouldn’t have even glanced at a Seolmae Dan.
The only thing he valued was the Jaso Dan.
So, wasn’t that why Cheongmyeong was able to gather so many Plum Blossoms? It wasn’t just Cheongmyeong.
That atmosphere was prevalent throughout the volcano.
Naturally, it made sense.
When there was no shortage of better elixirs, who would pay attention to lower-tier elixirs? But now that his situation had changed, the elixirs that once seemed trivial felt incredibly precious.
"Oh dear. How did my situation end up like this?" If he was going to suffer, he might as well die.
Cheongmyeong immediately sat down in a lotus position.
He could lament his fate later.
Right now, he needed to fully recover his body.
If he could also accumulate a bit more inner strength in the process, that would be great.
Cheongmyeong, sitting in a lotus position, tossed the Seolmae Dan into his mouth.
The moment it entered, it melted away without giving him a chance to chew and slid down his throat.
The pure fragrance filled his mouth.
However, without even having the chance to savor that fragrance, Cheongmyeong began to circulate his energy.
Just eating the elixir wouldn’t automatically increase his inner strength.
He needed to fully absorb the energy of the elixir to enhance his inner strength.
Here, a subtle problem arose.
When one is young and lacks inner strength, they cannot fully absorb the elixir even if they consume it.
This is due to their insufficient ability to manipulate energy.
On the other hand, when one reaches an age where they can skillfully handle energy? Even then, the effect is not complete.
This is because they already have a lot of accumulated inner strength.
Elixirs are meant to fill what is lacking.
They cannot raise what is already full. 'If consuming elixirs filled one’s inner strength, the Shaolin folks would be chewing on ten Great Hwan Dans each and become the greatest monks in the world.' Thus, elixirs are meant to fill the lacking inner strength.
The younger and weaker one is, the more effective they are, but conversely, young children cannot fully absorb the energy of the elixir.
But what about Cheongmyeong? 'I can suck it all the way to the marrow!' Here lies a child, the only one in the world, who perfectly manipulates energy.
Truly, a legendary newcomer, no, an extraordinary newcomer.
"Hoo."
The Seolmae Dan that entered his body began to ride the blood and energy.
Woosh.
The energy within him surged.
Feeling the immense energy after a long time filled him with pride. 'I need to stay focused!' Containing the energy so it doesn’t escape through the meridians and filling the Dantian? That was nothing for Cheongmyeong now.
However, what Cheongmyeong needed to do now was not that simple.
He had to fill in the incomplete innate energy.
His thick and dull consciousness sharpened like a blade.
But Cheongmyeong went further.
Sharpening his consciousness like a needle, he perfectly controlled the energy of the Seolmae Dan and pushed it into his Dantian. 'Be careful.
Be careful.' Gently and delicately, as if handling a newborn.
Inside Cheongmyeong’s mind, his Dantian appeared so vividly that it felt like he could grasp it with his hands.
But Cheongmyeong’s goal was not the Dantian.
It was the deepest part of that Dantian.
The place where the source of life resides since birth. 'No!' Just as Cheongmyeong was about to guide the energy into the Dantian, he suddenly pulled back the swirling energy. 'Impure.' Fundamentally, elixirs are created to extract and consume only the good energy of the elixirs that exist in the world.
In other words, it can be said that elixirs are refined to extract only pure energy.
However, even the Seolmae Dan, which the volcano boasts, had too many impure aspects for Cheongmyeong’s Dantian.
If the energy flowing within Cheongmyeong’s Dantian was like the pure water of a mountain stream, the energy of the Seolmae Dan felt like stagnant, rotten water.
Cheongmyeong made a firm decision. 'I will filter it out!' If he filtered the energy of the Seolmae Dan as it was, he would have to discard most of its efficacy.
That was not an easy choice.
However, accepting all this energy was meaningless.
Hadn’t he traveled a long way to create the most complete and perfect foundation? He couldn’t ruin everything with a hasty heart. 'I will leave only the purest energy and discard the rest!' The energy circulated through Cheongmyeong’s body.
As it did, it gradually chipped away.
The impurities mixed in with the Seolmae Dan were expelled from his body along with the impurities within Cheongmyeong.
Soon, thick, dark sweat began to ooze from Cheongmyeong’s body.