Chapter 388 : Seed (7)
Chapter 388: Seed (7)
Il-mok's second reason for visiting Wi Jin-hak was pretty straightforward.
"Cult Leader, could you give me a rough rundown of who's joining us on this expedition?"
He wanted to talk about their troop formations. Wi Jin-hak just grinned at the question.
"You said the Martial Alliance was coming after you in full force; this brother of yours got everything ready for an all-out war."
"Does that mean you pulled in all the martial artists from the Grand Teacher Pavilion, the Hall of the Demonic Way, and even the Missionary Hall as well?"
"Hahaha! Obviously. Your Sixth Brother happens to be in the Western Regions of all things at this time, but I left a message telling him to hurry over here the second he gets back to headquarters."
Il-mok had to force back a sigh at Wi Jin-hak's overly confident answer. Il-mok himself isn’t an expert in war, so he has no specialized knowledge of war preparation.
Nevertheless, the whole reason he brought up their troop formations in the first place was that he was worried about something like this happening.
'I realized this back when Master ascended, but these Cultists really don't think about tomorrow, do they?'
As far as Il-mok could tell, the fighters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult were wired to only think about throwing everything into an all-out war with no consideration of other options.
"Cult Leader, there's a strong chance this war with the Imperial Family is going to drag on for a long time. Therefore, for the sake of supply lines, it would be better for Sixth Brother and the Heavenly Light Merchant Guild to continue their commercial activities rather than join the battlefield."
"Hmm... Supply lines. I thought the gold and rations we've stockpiled so far were pretty hefty. Do you really think it won't be enough, Il-mok?"
"There's no telling how long this war will last. Naturally, running low on supplies isn't going to shake the faith of our Cult's warriors. But no matter how deep that faith runs, our forces are going to lose their edge if they are starved and have no weapon to fight with.”
"Hmm. You make a fair point. I'll send word to headquarters right away and tell Sixth Brother to keep the caravans moving. We'll just have to take the wealth we've piled up and buy a massive amount of weapons and rations from the Western Regions and the Central Plains."
"That's a very wise decision. By the way, you said earlier that you brought everyone from the Hall of the Demonic Way and the Grand Teacher Pavilion. Did you happen to bring all the young students who were training there, too?"
"Hahaha. Of course not. I have no intention whatsoever of using children who haven't even properly developed their skills as soldiers."
Il-mok swallowed a sigh of relief inwardly at that.
Deploying child soldiers in war was insane.
Morals aside, it was basically trading away their tomorrow just to survive today. Unless the Cult was literally moments away from being wiped out, drafting kids was completely off the table.
"So you only brought the instructors who were teaching the children?"
"That's right."
"In that case, since you're already sending a messenger to headquarters, I think we should send some of those instructors and lecturers back as well."
He didn't suggest this just because educating those kids was the key to their future.
To put it harshly, raising kids was just another kind of supply line. If they sent every instructor to the front lines, they'd still end up with zero backup for the future.
After that, Il-mok kept the discussion going, ironing out exactly who needed to be sent back and who needed to be drafted. Only when they finally wrapped up their talks on troop formations did Il-mok bring up his third reason for visiting.
"Cult Leader. I humbly request that you teach me the Raging Demon Sword Art."
Wi Jin-hak's reaction to the request was pretty much identical to Jin Hayeon's.
"You've already achieved Transcendence with the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, why would you want to learn the Demonic Art of your foolish older brother?"
"I've found a clue to creating a brand new martial art, and I need to master a Yang Art to finish it."
"Hahaha! Our youngest, the famous genius, is creating a new martial art? Now that's something I can't wait to see."
With a booming laugh, Wi Jin-hak happily taught Il-mok the Raging Demon Sword Art.
Just like when he learned the White Hand Demonic Art, Il-mok guided his leftover Blood Qi to forge a brand new dantian right near his heart.
When Il-mok successfully formed his Middle Dantian and opened his eyes, Wi Jin-hak asked, "Do you understand all the key principles?"
"Yes, I do."
"Then I suppose your brother here better go take care of those logistics we talked about."
With that, Wi Jin-hak handed over a small book he had jotted down while Il-mok was deep in meditation.
It was a book containing the key principles of the Raging Demon Sword Art.
Il-mok took the book and gave him a martial salute.
"Thank you for listening to your youngest brother's advice."
Il-mok left the hall and returned to his quarters.
After reviewing the techniques of the Raging Demon Sword Art through the book Wi Jin-hak had given him, he contemplated how to execute them using his Middle Dantian rather than his Lower Dantian.
'Hmm. Maybe it's because it's a sword art, but this is way easier than figuring out the White Hand Demonic Art.'
With his thoughts neatly sorted, Il-mok got to his feet and drew the Ascension Sword.
Unlike yesterday, he isolated his Upper Dantian in the Qi of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword. As he practiced the Raging Demon Sword Art, he was super careful to make sure that the Yang Qi of the Raging Demon Sword Art didn’t collide with the Yin Qi of the White Hand Demonic Art.
Whenever his Middle Dantian ran dry of Yang Qi, he'd channel the leftover Blood Qi from his meridians to fill it right back up and slowly expand the dantian’s limit.
After grinding through this routine for several hours, Il-mok managed to expand the Middle Dantian to roughly the same size as his Upper Dantian.
Both held roughly fifteen years' worth of internal energy, which was small compared to the amount of Blood Qi or Yin Qi originally remaining in Il-mok's body.
He burned through a lot of energy during the process, but he managed to recover by meditating and absorbing the ambient qi.
The main reason he kept both dantians so small was purely for safety.
Since they were sitting right next to his heart and brain, Il-mok wasn't about to risk his life by forcing them to expand too far.
"Whew."
After consolidating the Yang Qi in the Middle Dantian, he opened his eyes with a deep breath.
'I feel like I've turned my own body into a walking powder keg.'
Maybe it was just the freakish sensation of having completely different energies crammed into his Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantians, but goosebumps broke out all over his arms for no reason.
When Il-mok stood up and left his quarters, both Jin Hayeon and Jeong Hyeon followed behind him.
Once outside, he found Xining had a somewhat unsettled atmosphere.
Everyone seemed to be rushing around, no doubt a direct result of the logistical advice he had just given Wi Jin-hak.
After observing this for a moment, Il-mok left Xining and headed toward a secluded area.
"Y-Young Master, wh-where are you going?"
Il-mok answered with a faint smile at Jeong Hyeon’s question.
"I came up with a new martial art, so I'm heading somewhere quiet to take it for a test."
Il-mok employed his lightness skill and traveled until he reached a low hill from which the city of Xining appeared small.
"Would you two mind stepping way back?"
Only after Jeong Hyeon and Jin Hayeon moved to the rear at Il-mok's command did Il-mok close his eyes and repeat deep breaths.
"Huuu."
He had to be careful; he was about to test a move where one tiny slip-up meant severe internal bleeding at best, and blowing himself to kingdom come at worst.
'First, the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword.'
Following Il-mok's intent as he sank deep into his inner self, the majestic Demonic Qi from his Lower Dantian left the dantian and headed toward both his Middle and Upper Dantians.
'The Yin Qi of the White Hand Demonic Art to the right palm, the Yang Qi of the Raging Demon Sword Art to the left palm.'
The Yin Qi and Yang Qi that had been residing in his Upper and Middle Dantians emerged from the dantians, and the Demonic Qi he had sent near the Upper and Middle Dantians enveloped them both and guided them to his right and left palms.
Vwoooom.
Before long, a strange hum filled the air as spheres of raw qi materialized over his hands.
The orb over his right hand was a swirling core of blue trapped inside a shell of gray, while the orb over his left was a volatile core of red encased in the same gray.
The Yin Qi and Yang Qi that had been residing in his Upper and Middle Dantians were each about fifteen years' worth of cultivation.
And to contain them, he had used another fifteen years' worth of Demonic Qi for each side.
Maybe it was because he had just dumped a full cycle of sixty years' worth of cultivation energy; an intense sense of exhaustion washed over Il-mok's consciousness.
Il-mok swallowed hard and forced himself to focus.
He opened his eyes and raised his right and left palms.
'Merge them into one, but do not let them mix.'
The Demonic Qi wrapping the Yin Qi and Yang Qi was a ferocious energy that could easily cause a violent chain reaction with the elements trapped inside
The moment his concentration wavered even slightly, a terrible disaster would clearly unfold.
Each time the energy inside the spheres trembled with the movement of his hands, cold sweat ran down Il-mok's back.
The second the two spheres touched, Il-mok used sheer willpower to fuse the gray shells together, morphing them into a massive singular orb.
Inside that large sphere, the blue and red energies still coexisted separately.
Like a taiji symbol.
'If this thing blows up right here, I'm dead.'
Treating it like he was using the Sword Control Art with his Hand-Controlled Sword, Il-mok shoved both palms out and used his will to push the orb away.
Obeying his will, the terrifying ball of Yin and Yang drifted smoothly through the air. But the further away it got, the harder it became to maintain his telepathic grip on it.
"Kuk."
A small groan escaped his lips.
The second his concentration broke, a fissure appeared in the Demonic Qi that had been obediently wrapping the Yin and Yang Qis.
Zzzzzzt.
A screeching noise that sounded like hundreds of birds taking flight ripped through the air, and seconds later, the entire world vanished into a blinding white light.
Feeling like his eyeballs were about to melt out of his skull, Il-mok ripped the Ascension Sword from its sheath and channeled the Qi from his Lower Dantian.
A deafening boom paralyzed his eardrums, leaving nothing but a shrill, unending ring in his ears.
Completely blind and deaf to the world around him, Il-mok slashed the Ascension Sword out, coating it in a dense layer of Force Qi to throw up an emergency barrier.
CLANG!!!
After the energy barrier formed by Force Qi shook violently for several seconds.
By the time his vision returned, he was met with horrifying devastation.
The vegetation and rocks that had been visible throughout the hill were nowhere to be found, and everything had been completely vaporized into ash.
The surrounding area for a hundred meters had been completely scorched, and at the center where the sphere had exploded, a massive crater had been carved out.
It looked like some mythical titan had reached down and gouged a chunk out of the earth with its claws.
"Ha... Haha..."
Staring at the wasteland he'd just created, Il-mok let out a manic laugh.
Thanks to his gradually returning hearing, his own laughter sounded like it was coming from far away.
The sheer destructive power of the technique was completely beyond anything he had pictured.
'Just mixing fifteen years' worth of cultivation produced this much...'
Of course, the combination of the Qis totaled around thirty years’ worth of cultivation, and if you factored in the Demonic Qi he added, it was a pretty hefty chunk of power for a fuel.
But…
'What happens if my Upper and Middle Dantians eventually grow big enough to hold a full sixty-year cycle each?'
What kind of nightmare would he unleash if he performed this move with that kind of massive energy?
Just picturing the fallout was enough to send a chill racing down his spine.
Obviously, it would take a really long time for his dantians to expand to that level.
'Still, I've planted the seed, so someday it will sprout.'
It was a seed that promised to drop an apocalyptic disaster on the heads of anyone foolish enough to stand in its way.
Right on cue, voices started echoing inside his head.
—YES! Use that seed to burn everyone who ever looked down on you to ash! Let your fury loose!
—The hothead is right! Don't hold back! Use that massive stamina to go out and plant your seed in as many women as you want!
—That is absolutely NOT the kind of 'letting loose' I was talking about, you filthy degenerate! I meant his rage!
—Degenerate?! I'm just preaching the beautiful laws of Mother Nature!
Listening to the two side effects screaming over each other in his mind, Il-mok just let out an exhausted sigh.
"Haa. Now you're both tag-teaming this bullshit."
***
TL Note: While others are busy playing fist and sword, bro is building his home-made nuclear deterrent.