"I can't believe this, really!" The energy is being torn apart in chunks.
I tried to salvage as much as I could, but there was nothing useful left.
It was like picking out the edible parts from something completely rotten.
Now, I had reached the point of extracting the purest essence from the energy of the Seolmaedan.
The energies that did not meet this standard were boldly pulled out of my body.
No one else would dare to imagine such a thing.
Isn't a spirit pill something you consume to enhance your energy? Yet now, Cheongmyeong was expelling the energy of the spirit pill from his body.
If those who created the Seolmaedan saw this, they would have rushed over, foaming at the mouth.
"Do I want to do this?" Damn foundation! I had gathered only the purest energy in my dantian, and now I couldn't even increase my energy at will.
Even the refined energy of the spirit pill was regarded as nothing but a large impurity.
The essence I had carefully selected from the energy, which was as vast as the sea, was now reduced to just a handful.
Desperately, I pulled the remaining energy and pushed it into my dantian.
Whoooom! Soon, the essence of energy began to merge with the energy of Cheongmyeong that had been sleeping in his dantian, circulating throughout his body.
One cycle of energy.
This cycle.
In an instant, twelve cycles were completed.
Cheongmyeong's body, sitting cross-legged, began to rise into the air.
It was something his current cultivation level could not achieve, but because the energy was so pure, a phenomenon began to occur that transcended the amount of energy.
Whoooom! The clear energy flowed around and around his entire body, starting to filter out all the impurities embedded in his flesh.
"This isn't what I intended!" This was not what Cheongmyeong had planned.
He merely wanted to recover his innate energy with pure energy, but his energy began to regenerate his body beyond his will.
His broken wrists quickly healed and rejoined.
The bruises scattered across his body vanished as if they had never existed.
Drip, drip.
The waste flowing from his body soaked his clothes and formed streams that dripped to the ground.
The major blood vessels he thought he had already opened widened even more, and the minor meridians began to open up more broadly and extensively.
Cheongmyeong unknowingly tilted his head back.
"Heavenly Connection?" The Baihui point opened.
The energy that started from the lower dantian, commonly referred to as the dantian, burst open the middle dantian in his chest, and now it was even opening the upper dantian.
A chill ran down his spine.
Everything in the world has its stages.
A child must crawl.
They might eventually walk with effort, but a child without strength in their legs running would surely fall and crack their head, right? Cheongmyeong was exactly in that situation.
"I must stop it..."
Energy that has escaped control can do anything.
When energy breaks free and destroys the body, that is the beginning of going astray.
This was a situation akin to the threshold of going astray.
Even if the process itself was beneficial to the body, no one knew how it would end.
Cheongmyeong struggled to contain the energy.
But the pure energy rejected his will and rushed forward on its own.
"Damn it, listen to me! It's my energy!" Cheongmyeong gritted his teeth once more.
Only then did the energy hesitate, as if realizing who its master was.
But that was only for a moment.
The energy, which had been cautiously observing, began to rush forward again.
Cheongmyeong clenched his jaw.
"I will stop it!" Even if it meant that the energy would backflow and harm his body, he had to stop it now.
Just as Cheongmyeong gathered all his will to suppress the energy, a voice echoed in his mind.
"So, are you a master or a martial artist?" The voice of his senior brother, Jangmun, rang in his head.
Senior brother's voice? No! This was something he had heard from Jangmun in the past.
"Martial artists control and suppress. But those who follow the path let things be. Hey, you! Does the principle of the world get resolved by force? If you try to block flowing water by building a dam, the water will overflow."
Cheongmyeong's body relaxed.
"Let it be. If you leave it alone, everything will flow according to its nature. Can a person's will overturn nature? Foolish one. Humans are also part of nature. How can there be no humans in the vast and high nature?" The energy, having received Cheongmyeong's permission, surged through his entire body.
The fierce energy that had been boiling began to flow smoothly through Cheongmyeong's body like water when released.
The energy flowed within him.
The flowing stream gradually thickened, soon becoming a river, flowing through the universe that was Cheongmyeong.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly! Cheongmyeong opened his eyes.
An incredibly clear light flowed from his eyes.
And...
Thud!
"Ouch!" Cheongmyeong, who had dropped from the air to the ground, grabbed his bottom.
"What? Why was I floating?" He had never imagined his body would be suspended in the air.
Rubbing his sore bottom, Cheongmyeong stood up.
"Phew. That was close."
It had been dangerous.
If he had miscalculated even a little, he could have become a half-paralyzed person or lost his life.
The fall from the cliff earlier felt like a minor incident in comparison.
But the result was certain.
"Hmm."
Cheongmyeong lightly shook his wrist.
His broken wrist was completely healed.
It felt even sturdier than before it had broken.
It wasn't just his wrist.
"There were impurities left."
He thought he had completely washed them away, but as his level rose, he could see even more.
He shook off the remaining impurities in his body once more.
In the future, when he reached an even higher level, there would be things he could not see now that would become visible.
But all of this was merely a secondary issue.
The truly significant change was in his energy and blood.
It felt as if his entire body was wide open.
From the tips of his hair to the soles of his feet, there was not a single blockage.
Originally, his meridians were like a small path leading up the mountain, but now they had widened to the size of a grand avenue leading into a palace.
To exaggerate a bit, it felt like horses could gallop and hawks could soar within his energy and blood.
"My cultivation has also increased."
As he organized his body, his energy rose.
Given that it usually took a long time to increase his energy even by a tiny bit due to the pure and clear energy he had gathered, this was truly encouraging.
"My innate energy has been completely restored."
So, to sum it all up.
"My vessel has grown."
For Cheongmyeong, his body was the vessel that contained his martial arts.
If the vessel is small, what can be contained is limited.
By surpassing a new barrier through the Seolmaedan, his vessel had clearly expanded.
Right now, he had only become slightly stronger, but this vessel would become the foundation for Cheongmyeong to surpass his past levels.
Cheongmyeong smiled with satisfaction.
"If it weren't for my senior brother's teachings, I would have been in big trouble."
Having died once, perhaps he gained some enlightenment.
The words of his senior brother, which he had once regarded as mere nagging, now came to him with a completely different meaning.
He realized anew.
"I was just a martial artist."
He was not a master.
The volcano is both a checkpoint and a path.
That is the identity of the volcano.
But Cheongmyeong was someone who was ambiguous in calling himself a master.
Could he really awaken the volcano again?
"Hmm."
Cheongmyeong scratched his head.
Such worries did not suit him.
For now, he would just try! "If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work."
Cheongmyeong walked over to the box.
With each step he took, his body moved forward more swiftly than he expected, but since this had been a more natural movement for him in the past, he quickly adapted.
Click.
Cheongmyeong took out the box containing the Seolmaedan and the Maehwa Dan and stuffed it into his sleeve.
"Tsk. What a pity."
This no longer held any meaning for Cheongmyeong.
The reason he could reorganize his body was that the energy of the Seolmaedan had served as a medium, not because that energy itself contributed to his cultivation.
Even the refined spirit pill would be nothing but an impurity when placed against Cheongmyeong's energy.
The Jaso Dan might be a bit better, but it wouldn't be significantly different.
Of course, it would help a little.
But using the Seolmaedan for that would be too wasteful.
If it were someone else, they would see much greater effects.
"Tsk."
Cheongmyeong smacked his lips.
The situation was quite tricky.
"Ah!" He closed his eyes tightly as he pondered.
What good would it do to cling to something that was no longer his? He had already gained effects that could not be seen even with ten pills of Seolmaedan.
"Being greedy leads to ruin. Cheongmyeong, let's only take what we can eat."
Cheongmyeong turned his body without regret.
Whoosh!
Hrumph! Hrumph! Hrumph!
A couple of bottles of liquor from the box wrapped around Cheongmyeong's waist.
This was not because he wanted to drink.
It was purely out of curiosity about what a hundred-year-old liquor would taste like.
Having gathered the liquor and the box, Cheongmyeong stood at the entrance of the cave and glanced back.
"This feels strange."
It was probably because he could see traces of the past.
Among the drastically changed volcano, this cave retained its past appearance.
Being inside this cave made him feel as if he were living in that time again.
Longing.
And yearning.
Cheongmyeong, silently gazing into the cave, smiled and turned his head.
"I should visit occasionally."
Although he wouldn't drink and play like before, it would still be a good place to come and rest when his heart felt heavy.
"Well, I won't come too often. The past is just the past."
It was an undeniable fact that he had been the Maehwa Sword Master, Cheongmyeong.
But now, he was not the Maehwa Sword Master, but the third disciple of the volcano, Cheongmyeong.
Those who are bound by the past cannot move toward the future.
The past is merely a signpost that leads his life in the right direction.
"Then."
Cheongmyeong threw himself out of the cave without regret.
Swoosh!
His body, now incredibly light, allowed for movements completely different from when he entered the cave.
His feet lightly kicked off the cliff, rising higher and higher.
"Ha!" With a single leap, he jumped nearly three feet high several times.
In an instant, Cheongmyeong stood at the top of the cliff.
"Not bad."
He took a deep breath.
As the fresh air at the summit filled his nostrils, he felt...
"Ugh!" He felt nauseous.
Only then did he realize that his clothes were covered in the thick filth that had flowed out of his body.
Cheongmyeong grimaced and quickly stripped off his clothes.
"What is this coming out of my body!" Having removed all his clothes, Cheongmyeong lifted them with his fingertips and sighed deeply.
"Ha, really. Nothing goes right. Where's the nearest stream?" For now, he needed to wash these clothes before returning to the volcano.
Cheongmyeong trudged down the mountain.
That day, the animals that usually quenched their thirst at the stream without a care in the world would suffer for several days, writhing in pain.