You don't know me.
A guy whose name I couldn't even remember approached me with an annoying expression, his breath reeking.
"Don't even think about getting close to Chae-hyang. It just ruins my mood. If you really end up rolling around with her, she'll have to retire from here. Do you understand what I'm saying, you bastard Jaha?"
I tilted my head.
"What was your name again? I can't quite recall."
Honestly, he was so insignificant that I couldn't remember his name at all.
"What?" My hand flew out and struck his face, making a loud smack as he fell backward.
Did I hit him too hard? The unexpected impact felt strange, and I looked at my hand.
I shouldn't have any internal energy, but my punch felt surprisingly strong.
Now that I thought about it, the sensation in my dantian was also odd.
I hadn't even done my first breathing exercise yet, but my dantian was already stirring.
I would check that later, but for now...
As soon as the guy got up, he rushed at me, cursing.
"You bastard!"
When someone shouts curses while attacking, they leave themselves wide open.
I dodged his clumsy punches and struck the back of his head.
Smack! This time, he fell forward.
"What was the name of our young man from the shop again?" I kicked his face as he tried to get up, sending him rolling to the side.
"Oh, I'm going to die. I should stop hitting him."
But I could still tease him a bit more.
He seemed too upset to speak after being beaten by a local nobody.
"Feeling wronged? You should feel wronged for getting beaten by a nobody."
But what could he do...
It was fortunate for him if he didn't die here.
I grabbed his hair and pulled him up to meet my gaze.
"Hey."
My eyes, hardened from years of experience in the martial world, seemed to return to the past, or perhaps they were just the innocent eyes of a local nobody now.
Emotions were reflected in one's gaze.
As I stared at him, contemplating smashing his face, I finally saw his expression flinch.
I asked again, "What’s your name?"
"Why are you asking my name all of a sudden?"
"Just answer the question."
As my hand rose again, he finally replied, "My name is Myung-gon."
"Oh, I remember now. Damn, Myung-gon. Why do you have to add 'damn' before your name? What's that about? Say it again."
"Jaha."
"Again."
"Jaha."
Only then did I let go of his hair.
"Just say my name. Don't add any nonsense before it. If you don't want to die."
If a young man from Iyang-hyeon softens up after this kind of warm beating and scolding, he’s not really from Iyang-hyeon.
Myung-gon stood up stubbornly, still filled with resentment, and let out a long breath.
"Huh..."
I gave Myung-gon another chance.
"If you feel wronged, come at me again."
He nodded and charged at me right away. 'As expected, a young man from my hometown.' This time, I threw a punch too.
There were no feelings involved.
After all, he was from my hometown.
Myung-gon looked like he would rather faint than awkwardly get beaten by a nobody.
That way, when he woke up, his feelings would be different.
He would realize that what could have been death ended up as just fainting.
With a simple dodge, I landed a clean hit.
Whack! Myung-gon fell back, knocked out.
I shook him for a moment and called out, "Myung-gon?"
"......"
There was no answer, but he was still breathing.
I looked at his chest rising and falling as he lay unconscious and then moved on.
"Jara."
As I returned to the inn, I thought about this.
Just because I returned to the past didn’t mean my character would revert to that of a nobody.
I whispered to myself, "You don’t know me."
By the way, my dantian condition was definitely strange.
Sensing something, I rearranged the chairs and tables in the inn and temporarily hung a sign saying "Closed."
In times like these, it was best not to do business.
In my time as a nobody, it was normal not to have any internal energy.
Yet, I felt a considerable amount of internal energy sleeping in my dantian.
Strangely, it didn’t feel like I was a soldier thrown into battle; it felt more like a trainee still waiting at the main camp.
This sensation was similar to when one takes a medicinal pill.
Ultimately, one must perform breathing exercises to convert the power of the pill into internal energy.
By the way, there was indeed a lot of latent power waiting.
Why was this happening?
Returning to my room in the Jaha Inn, I sat cross-legged and pondered this issue.
The method to check my internal energy was relatively simple.
I just needed to re-enter the practice of the Golden Turtle Soaring Technique.
This technique was unique, hard to find even in the vast martial world.
The name itself suggested a crazy idea: a steel turtle that had reached the state of invulnerability wandering as it pleased.
In the beginning, it was similar to magical energy, so achievements came quickly.
In the middle, it resembled the martial arts of the righteous, so progress slowed.
Ultimately, it pursued the indestructible state of the Buddha, making it extremely difficult to conquer the final stage.
Therefore, overcoming the last stage, which could be considered the final chapter, was as challenging as attaining enlightenment in Buddhism.
After a while, the calm internal energy began to stir, flowing out as true energy and moving through my meridians.
There were two main pathways for true energy to travel.
The first was the Du Meridian, where energy started from the anus, traveled up the spine, reached the crown of the head, and arrived at the lips.
The second was the Ren Meridian, where energy started from the lips, passed through the chest, abdomen, and navel, stimulating the lower body before returning to the anus.
Just as climbing methods vary, each sect has different ways to conquer these pathways.
The differences in internal energy techniques among sects stem from this reason.
The commonality is that once one starts a cycle of energy, it is difficult to stop midway.
It’s akin to forcibly stopping food from going down the esophagus, which is a perfect way to invite disaster.
Fortunately, our inn had few guests to begin with, and with the sign saying "Closed," no one would come looking.
If digestion goes wrong, it merely leads to discomfort, but if the flow of true energy goes awry, it can severely damage the body, something I had experienced before.
Before I could resolve my doubts about the internal energy settled in my dantian, I had completed the first stage of the Golden Turtle Soaring Technique, known as the Wood Chicken, in a clean manner.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I had been sitting without food or relieving myself, like a monkey in meditation.
The feeling was very strange yet oddly pleasant.
However, as soon as I realized there were no side effects, a delightful shiver ran down my spine.
I summarized the situation like this.
First, before falling off the cliff, my internal energy had rapidly increased due to the heavenly jade.
Second, during the increase, I distinctly felt my dantian dividing into yin and yang.
Third, I was sent back to the past by an unknown man.
Fourth, since I returned to the past, the spirit of the heavenly jade that had clung to my body must have either perished or, if it were still alive, returned to its original body by now.
Fifth, however, the mysterious power contained in the heavenly jade had returned with me.
...
That was my conclusion.
The sect leader didn’t seek the "spirit" of others to consume the heavenly jade.
Martial artists create such things solely to strengthen their martial arts.
So, what’s the final conclusion? I was in a state where I had consumed the heavenly jade, free of the side effects of the spirit.
Even though I had returned to the past, the power that had resided in the heavenly jade had also returned with me.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to break through the first stage of the Golden Turtle Soaring Technique so swiftly.
Of course, not all questions were resolved.
There was an unfounded feeling that it wasn’t just simple internal energy.
Suddenly, the man’s words came to mind.
"This will be the best choice I can give you, and the greatest gift."
Then... the best choice is regression.
The greatest gift is the heavenly jade.
Only by interpreting it this way does everything fit together clearly.
However, there were still tasks left to resolve.
For some reason, about half of the latent power didn’t respond at all to the Golden Turtle Soaring Technique.
I rested my chin on my hand, lost in thought. 'Why is half of it not responding?' After much contemplation, I simply concluded.
This was clearly the power left by the heavenly jade, so the "potential" power must also be divided into yin and yang.
The Golden Turtle Soaring Technique purely utilizes the extreme yang internal energy.
It was only natural that I couldn’t effectively use the internal energy that could be defined as extreme yin.
Then, in the future, I would need to obtain a new technique that could utilize extreme yin internal energy.
There was still quite an attractive task ahead.
I was in a position where I could use both extreme yang and extreme yin martial arts simultaneously.
I wasn’t one to dwell on thoughts for long, so I concluded my pondering there.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but feel elated.
It was as if I had forgotten that I had once been mad.
It seems that people can only feel satisfied once conditions are met.
"Hehehe..."
In truth, internal energy isn’t everything in martial arts.
Skills, psychological warfare, innate talents, fighting instincts, and luck all contribute to the battles of top-tier masters.
However, from start to finish, what matters most is internal energy.
I had returned with a sufficient amount of it, albeit as potential.
The value I possessed in my body was something that couldn’t be measured with mere money in the human world.
Just breaking through the first stage of the Golden Turtle Soaring Technique meant I had no rivals in my hometown.
Honestly, I felt full even though I hadn’t eaten, but in reality, I was very hungry.
Grrr...
I couldn’t afford to starve to death.
Moreover, if I wanted to beat those at the Mae-hwa Tower, I needed to eat well too.
In the kitchen, I poured side dishes into a large pot, added cold rice and seasoning, and mixed it all together.
After stirring it around, I had made bibimbap.
It looked a bit like dog food, but it tasted fine.
I always solved my meals this way because I hated wasting food.
Making bibimbap from leftover side dishes at the inn after a long time was truly a delicacy.
As I savored the taste of nostalgia, I occasionally chuckled to myself.
Living alone, I felt that it would be hard to stay sane in this life as well.
But that was okay.
I was used to this kind of loneliness because I had been mad before.
What mattered more was that my enemies, who would face me in the future, would go completely insane.
While eating the bibimbap, I thought of the powerful figures of the era.
Compared to the martial artists of the Central Plains, my background was rather shabby.
Even when I had learned some martial arts, it was common to flee during matches because there were so many masters in the martial world.
Because of that, my skills in lightness technique for survival developed much faster than my martial arts.
Thinking of them made my jaw tighten as I chewed the bibimbap.
After finishing the bibimbap, I took out some alcohol meant for sale to customers and drank it freely.
"Burp... That’s good."
Excessive consumption was always thrilling.
It was quite a splendid dinner.
I filled a flask with alcohol, tucked a sickle for cutting grass into my waistband, and then left the inn.
Since I felt full, I was confident I could take on all the men in Iyang-hyeon at once.
I planned to say something that would surely sound like a joke in a place where a joke could easily turn serious.
I walked toward the Mae-hwa Tower while continuing to drink.
As I approached the entrance of the Mae-hwa Tower, the man guarding the door widened his eyes upon seeing my face.
"Hey, you crazy bastard. What are you doing here? Don’t cause any trouble."
"Is that how you talk to a guest?"
"You crazy bastard."
Without warning, his hand flew at me.
I caught his hand with my left and then struck his face with the flask.
Whack! I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him to the ground.
After kicking his face as he half got up, I looked at the Mae-hwa Tower.
"Your customer service is terrible. Have you really lost your mind?"
The place was still loud with laughter and drinking, completely ignoring the commotion at the entrance.
Laughter erupted from all around.
"What’s so funny? Why is everyone having fun without me?"
Since the doorman was knocked out, I opened the door myself and walked in.
I shouted loudly, something I had wanted to say here at least once.
"Come here, you bastards!"
As the drunken Jaha Inn nobody appeared, the expressions of the Mae-hwa Tower staff serving the guests instantly stiffened.
"Isn’t that the guy from Jaha Inn?"
"What’s he doing here?"
Amidst the chatter, I responded, "What do you mean, what? Isn’t this a place to drink? Did I come to the wrong place?"
"Hahaha."
A guy named Cha Seong-tae, who was looking at me from the railing on this floor, laughed loudly.
"That’s right. This is a place to drink."
His subordinates asked, "Should we chase him away?"
Cha Seong-tae, who had been laughing, waved his hand at me.
"No. Let him up. By the way, who hit him? Why does he look like that?"
"I didn’t hit him."
Cha Seong-tae, known as the most cunning in Iyang-hyeon, looked at me and grinned.
"We can’t throw out a guest. Come on in."
Though he was cunning, when a fight broke out, there weren’t many who could beat Cha Seong-tae in the southern region of Iyang-hyeon, aside from the three brothers of the Jo family.
If there were others similar to Cha Seong-tae, there were two more middle managers who played the role of overseers in other establishments.
To be precise, I had been beaten by Cha Seong-tae’s subordinates.
Because of that, I was thinking of tormenting him for not managing his underlings properly.
At least he hadn’t done anything too disgraceful until I completely left Iyang-hyeon, so there was no reason to kill him.
As I climbed the stairs, Cha Seong-tae said, "Our Jaha Inn nobody, prepare a hearty feast for him. When will he ever come to a place like this again? Everyone, serve him with sincerity. A guest is a guest."
"Understood."
As I reached this floor, a guide approached me.
"This way."
Following the corridor, I was led to an empty room.
It was a strange structure.
A table was placed in the center, and the bottom was hollowed out so that feet could fit in.
It was spacious enough for about six people to sit around and drink, with a place for musicians to perform nearby.
The young staff member asked casually, "What kind of alcohol would you like?"
"I would know if I had been here. Just bring out the expensive stuff."
The staff member suddenly stared at me blankly before changing his tone.
"But why are you speaking casually...?"
As I sat at the head seat, I replied, "Sorry for speaking casually, you bastard. Hurry up and bring the alcohol."
The staff member glared at me with a murderous look, as if he wanted to kill me. 'Is this guy crazy?' However, knowing the reason why a nobody like me was treated as a guest, he said nothing and closed the door behind him.
I liked that kind of gaze.
A look filled with anger, hatred, and bloodlust.
In reality, it was nothing special.
Once you hit them, their gaze would turn pitiful, begging for mercy.
I waited with my arms crossed for the alcohol, my eyes meeting again. 'I’m getting angry for no reason.'