This time, he did not go to the training grounds.
Instead, he entered a place where no one else could enter—his own room.
He sat down cross-legged, but this was different from when he cultivated his pupils.
For inner energy cultivation, one had to sit upright and absorb energy in a place free from external disturbances.
"If someone disturbs me and my energy channels get twisted, I’ll die," he thought.
The thought of Qi Deviation crossed his mind.
He recalled how cautious his family members were when it came to him.
It was a reasonable concern.
He didn’t want to die young because his energy and blood channels got tangled.
He shook off the unpleasant thought with a deep breath.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly cleared his mind of distractions and began to sink into his inner self.
He had already grasped the principles of circulating Qi through his body, including the Minor and Major Heavenly Circuits.
"Let’s use the Jeong Family’s inner energy technique to activate my Qi," he thought.
The first step was to refine the natural energy he inhaled using the Tuna Method.
Most martial lineages, including the Jeong Family and the Zhongnan Sect, absorbed natural energy through circulation and made it their own.
Once the energy fully adapted to the practitioner’s body and remained there, it was called internal energy or true Qi.
Jeong Yeon-shin wanted to strengthen his true Qi with more true Qi.
Just as his body had grown stronger by absorbing internal energy.
The training he started in the morning continued until the sun disappeared behind the mountains.
"Huh? This is strange," Jeong Yeon-shin muttered with a blank expression.
He lightly uncrossed his legs, as if he had just sat down.
"Why is my Baihui point so wide open?" At first, he wanted to explore what kind of power the denser true Qi could unleash.
But it didn’t work out.
The true Qi accumulated in his dantian seemed to resist any further stacking, as if it had already reached its limit.
He thought he might have been wrong, but then how could he explain the powerful energy of Elder Ye Il-shin of the Zhongnan Sect? However, all this training was now secondary.
"I’ve spent a year just tempering my body with the Jeong Family’s inner energy technique," he thought.
He had been so obsessed with one form of training that he hadn’t reflected on himself for a year.
During that time, the amount of energy flowing through his head had grown immensely.
"I knew I was the only one growing, but..."
Jeong Yeon-shin muttered blankly.
"Am I going to die like this?" The Baihui point was directly connected to the dantian in the head, and the energy in the upper dantian should be balanced.
He was afraid he might become a fool and be found as a corpse later.
Comparing the differences, it seemed he had less than five years before he would lose consciousness.
The sudden realization of his lifespan felt unreal.
"Am I going to die? Me?" He got up from his seat, his trembling hand gripping the doorknob.
Maybe some fresh air would help him find a solution.
Clank.
As soon as he opened the door, his body froze.
Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t move for a moment.
Along with the fresh air, the smell of blood hit him.
He grabbed his sword.
He had once watched hunters butcher and skin animals.
The smell was similar, but as he walked past the training grounds, he saw no corpses.
If it wasn’t the Blood Gong of the Samaedo, which he had only heard about, this couldn’t be happening.
Silence enveloped the night sky.
The family compound was eerily quiet.
Jeong Yeon-shin walked slowly.
An intuition that something had already happened surrounded his consciousness.
It felt like walking into a pitch-black swamp.
"Ah."
By the time he reached the garden of the main house, he saw it.
A river of blood.
The common saying in the martial world that blood could form a river was an exaggeration.
The blood was either absorbed by the ground or dripped down the thresholds of the side buildings.
Everywhere, family members lay lifeless, each with identical sword marks on their chests.
They lay still, as if they had never moved.
Whether they were in a state of deep meditation and didn’t notice the commotion, or the attackers were overwhelmingly powerful, it was hard to tell.
Boom! A loud noise finally echoed from outside the estate.
It seemed like formidable experts were clashing beyond the main gate.
Amid the sounds of sword cries and strikes, Jeong Yeon-shin walked toward the main house.
About ten attackers were scattered around, and only one turned his head when the boy approached within three steps.
"Who are you?" a man with two swords crossed on his back asked.
Jeong Yeon-shin replied shortly, "The third son of this house."
No answer came.
The man stood up and walked toward him, seemingly not intending to draw his sword.
The man’s palm strike, accompanied by a gust of wind, came down.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes flashed with a blue light as he read the flow of the energy.
Snap! He grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted it, and broke it in one fluid motion.
A technique he had never learned—the Jin Na Shou (擒拏手)—unfolded naturally.
As he moved, the energy and physical strength boosted by the Jeong Family’s inner energy technique filled his entire body.
No matter how much force the enemy used, his grip didn’t loosen.
He clenched harder.
Crack! A loud bone-cracking sound and a scream followed.
The others, who hadn’t been paying attention, all turned their heads.
Their eyes widened.
"Let go!" "You brat!" Now they seemed like the rootless Samaedo.
Jeong Yeon-shin thought.
When he released his grip, the swordsman glared at him, his face twisted in pain and anger.
It was natural, being subdued by a boy half his size.
The swordsman’s large hand clenched into a fist.
His face turned red, and he roared as he swung his arm.
It wasn’t an ordinary fist strike.
For a moment, his fist seemed to grow as large as a pot lid.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes flashed with blue lightning again.
"Head."
The trajectory was obvious.
The energy of the Jeong Family’s inner technique, activated throughout his body, surged.
At the same time, a realization he had never had before pierced his mind.
Willpower, willpower.
When the willpower to move internal energy becomes strong, the true Qi in the body can do anything.
It fully obeys the master of the energy.
Whoosh! Jeong Yeon-shin’s will to move his true Qi materialized, and a clear mental image naturally transformed into words that seeped into his inner self.
The essence of martial arts, known as the口诀 (Gugyeol), burned like the sun throughout his body.
始 (Shi) 克 (Ke) 经 (Jing).
The name that came to mind without deliberation defined the identity of the martial art.
Shi Ke Jing.
A true Qi manipulation technique that breaks through current limits, as the name suggests.
The true Qi filling his right foot and left hand rushed to his right hand and left foot.
The overlapping energy increased in density.
His left foot, filled with unprecedented power, shattered the ground, and the iron sword, drawn in an instant following the quick sword technique, flickered with moonlight.
Swish! The swordsman and two others who had rushed in had their necks sliced in one motion.
It felt as if it wasn’t his own body.
Three heads were swept away at once.
The shock on their faces suggested they had seen the sword’s speed.
What did it matter? The heads floating in the air could stare all they wanted.
Swoosh! Turning his upper body, he spun like a snowflake caught in the wind and struck again.
A red-haired woman approaching from behind gasped.
By the time she raised her crescent-shaped blade, a blue sword had already pierced her throat.
Without hesitation, the boy pulled out the sword, and the corpse fell forward.
There was no difference in his breathing before and after drawing the sword.
It was an extreme situation.
The shock of his first kill naturally detached itself somewhere in his mind, and his body, tempered by inner energy, seemed stronger and more stable than anyone else present.
"You..."
A thin swordsman watching from the side grimaced.
A large man with a fox-like agility in his eyes stood up, placing a hand on the thin man’s shoulder.
"He’s devoted his life to the quick sword. He has no other tricks. Just a well-trained young swordsman. Those guys were caught off guard," the large man said.
Not everything he said was correct, but Jeong Yeon-shin sensed that his reserves were running low.
"Even so, it’s astonishing. Truly astonishing. How can someone his age do that?"
"Blood Flame Sect?" the boy asked, recalling the red-haired woman lying at his feet.
He couldn’t take his eyes off the large man.
"No. I’m from the Broken Sword Sect."
"I’m from the Broken Sword Sect? Is this the Blood Flame Sect?"
"Yes."
"What are two of the Thirteen Heavens doing in a place like Xinye County?"
"None of your business."
"Why are you answering me?"
"Because it’s a pity. A martial artist as well-trained as you at your age is rare. It’s amusing to hear a country boy talk as if he’s experienced the heart of the martial world," the man laughed gruffly.
"A pity?" A sneer formed on the boy’s lips.
"You’re afraid of my maternal family, aren’t you? You rootless Samaedo half-breed."
Jeong Yeon-shin challenged him with an arrogant expression and a fiercely beating heart.
If the man held back, he would definitely win.
He had guessed as much when the twin-sword wielder used a hand strike instead of drawing his sword during their first exchange.
"... You crazy brat," the man growled.
It sounded like the roar of a beast rising from deep within.
The ferocious aura sent chills down his spine, but Jeong Yeon-shin forced himself to remain calm.
"You half-breeds can’t kill me. No matter what I do, it’s the same."
Boom! A loud noise came from the main gate.
The gate shattered, and the fragments flew in all directions.
Among the debris, a familiar man tumbled in.
A high-ranking expert from the Zhongnan Sect who had come with Ye Il-shin.
His once-neat martial attire was torn in several places, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
"His nickname was Cliff Sword. How could such an expert end up like this...?"
Boom! Boom! The startled boy turned his head.
The sound of immense forces colliding grew closer, and soon they broke through the wall and entered the estate.
Crash! Ye Il-shin and another Zhongnan expert appeared first.
The Jeong Family members couldn’t have imagined their disheveled state.
They were no better than Cliff Sword.
The sight of Ye Il-shin, who had seemed almost divine, with the upper part of his left ear cut off, was truly shocking.
"I thought he was a sword immortal roaming the heavens."
Thud.
A massive shadow strode in with large steps.
It was clearly human, but the overwhelming aura emanating from him felt unreal, as if declaring that the center of the world was here.
He carried a massive sword, and the aura emanating from it made one think of death.
Just facing him sent shivers down his spine.
It wasn’t just the energy waves or the level of martial arts.
There was something beyond ordinary power enveloping his entire body.
Jeong Yeon-shin thought of an unstoppable landslide.
"Who is he?" The terrifying aura surrounding the middle-aged man writhed like a living thing.
The sword energy of an absolute master.
It soon enveloped the man Jeong Yeon-shin had been confronting and then turned toward the boy, eroding the space around him.
Just realizing that his gaze had turned this way made Jeong Yeon-shin dizzy.
"Sect Leader!" The man who had been speaking with Jeong Yeon-shin prostrated himself.
"Sect Leader? The leader of the Broken Sword Sect came personally?" The leader of one of the Thirteen Heavens, who could rival the Nine Sects.
That explained the overwhelming presence.
The aura that could halt the movement of all things, and the sight of the Zhongnan Sect’s elder being injured despite their combined efforts.
In fact, it was awe-inspiring that the Zhongnan experts had lasted so long against such a figure.
In that moment when everyone froze, thud, thud.
Jeong Yeon-shin moved alone.
He started running.
Pushing the Jeong Family’s inner energy technique to its limits, he continued to stomp the ground.
Toward the man prostrating before the Broken Sword Sect Leader.
Toward the terrifying martial artist he had briefly matched wits with.
"What, what?" The man was stunned, and all eyes in the courtyard turned to the boy.
The Broken Sword Sect Leader didn’t move.
Was he waiting to see what the boy would do? Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t care and threw his body forward with all his might.
Whoosh! The air rushing past his ears was like a waterfall.
As he sprinted, a sharp sword light drew a straight line.
Crack! The blue sword blade pierced the back of the man who had hastily risen to his feet.
With a thud, the man, pierced from back to abdomen, fell forward again.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly stood up.
With one foot on the man’s back, he looked straight at the Broken Sword Sect Leader.
"Even so," the boy’s eyes flashed with a faint blue lightning.
"Can you kill me?"