Chapter 20 : Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Don't tell me you're the Blood Demon?
The structure of an anthill is very complex.
There is a spawning chamber where the queen lays her eggs, a cocoon chamber for the larger ones, and a separate larval chamber for those preparing to hatch.
In addition, there is a barracks for training warrior ants, a tomb for storing the dead, and a warehouse for storing the nutrients that tens of thousands of worker ants have diligently gathered.
What I need to take is this warehouse.
And not all of it, but always only half.
If I were to touch the larval or cocoon chambers, their legion would collapse in an instant.
The same goes for touching the barracks.
The worker ants will never go out to work beyond their safe territory.
Naturally, if the worker ants don't bring back nutrients, that legion is finished.
Finally, I must not touch their tomb either.
I don't know if ants also honor their ancestors, but if you dig up or destroy their tomb, their power weakens immediately.
How do I know about their ecology like this?
Because I have, of course, experienced all the various ways their legions can collapse.
To them, humans must be a disaster sent from heaven, but I will delay the weakening of their power as much as possible.
That's why I always take only half of the warehouse.
Munch, munch.
The unique musty and fishy smell filled my mouth.
And so, I chewed on their nutrients for a long time.
I have to swallow only the nutrients mixed with their secretions.
Because half of it is dirt.
If I swallow this as it is, my rear end will tear when I do my business.
“Hoo….”
I hadn't eaten anything for three days, so I finally felt like I was alive again.
A handful of nutrients gathered by hundreds of thousands of fire ants.
For the time being, this is my staple food.
Of course, after about a month, their power will weaken, and the amount of nutrients they gather in a day will drop to less than a handful.
But at that time, a reward will come to me.
I feel sorry for them, but when that day comes, I will devour the entire anthill and go find another one.
After that.
I drastically reduced my movements.
Except for when I had to relieve myself or collect dew, I didn't move a muscle.
Not wasting energy recklessly was the most important principle that allowed me to endure this hell.
Moreover, I am a martial artist.
Even while in a seated meditation, I can infinitely expand my thoughts and draw all sorts of techniques in my mind's eye.
Furthermore, an extreme environment like this, completely isolated from the outside, was, on the contrary, the optimal opportunity to cultivate internal ki arts.
Soon, I crossed my arms and slowly drew a circle.
Now that I have completed the One Origin Jade Flower, there was no reason to hesitate at the stage of the Jade Awakening Void Refinement.
If the One Origin Jade Flower was about sharpening and filling, the Jade Awakening Void Refinement was, on the contrary, about emptying.
That emptiness is what most martial artists find most difficult.
This is because the human instinct is more accustomed to filling.
A person eats, drinks, and covets something all day long.
The only time one completely empties is when one is asleep.
That's why to enter the Jade Awakening Void Refinement, one must understand the human state of suspended animation.
Suspended animation refers to a state where the consciousness is emptied as if dead, but the body is alive, or vice versa.
But in the aspect of martial studies, that is, cultivating internal energy, suspended animation is interpreted with a completely different meaning.
It is to not be aware of the internal ki that is circulating through every corner of one's own body.
That is emptiness.
In the old days, the martial artists of the Great Murim Alliance who encountered this concept from me strongly denied that such a thing could be possible.
But this was the core mnemonic of the One Ki Divine Origin Art that made me the Martial Emperor.
Therefore, the second stage, the Jade Awakening Void Refinement, could be said to be perhaps the most important stage in the twelve-stage One Ki Divine Origin Art.
‘…….’
As you break down the boundaries of consciousness over and over, the concepts of time and space gradually disappear.
To become unable to 'perceive' something means to blur those human concepts.
I call this moment Void Transformation.
How much time had passed like that?
When I opened my eyes, I slowly began to examine my interior.
The blue afterimage left behind by the sprouting of the One Origin Jade Flower.
I couldn't tell at this point where on my Du Mai the energy of that Jade Awakening had chosen.
Soon, I moved my true ki and began to track it tenaciously like a snake.
‘Hmm?’
But, I couldn't feel the Jade Awakening, which should have been settled somewhere.
Utmost Yang Point?
Central Pivot Point?
Gate of Life?
I searched thoroughly, but none of the acupoints responded.
The thing that should have responded with a powerful attraction was nowhere to be found.
‘……What is it?’
My Void Transformation was perfect.
There was no way I, who had cultivated the One Ki Divine Origin Art through a lifetime of seated meditation, could make a mistake.
But why on earth was the Jade Awakening not being generated?
At that moment.
My vision blurred, and for a brief moment, I lost consciousness.
“Heup!”
As I was startled and came to my senses, a lightning flame that poured down like a flash of lightning began to fill my vision.
What?
The lightning of the Jade Awakening is being captured in my pupils?
Soon, I found myself guiding my ki art towards a place I had never imagined.
Indeed, at the end of my pursuit, there was a Jade Awakening that had already firmly settled.
‘Cr-crazy! The Nao Hu acupoint!’
In my past life, my Jade Awakening had settled in the Utmost Yang Point acupoint, the ninth acupoint of the Du Mai.
Thanks to that, it had been extremely easy to control the Du Mai.
But crazy, my head?
The Nao Hu acupoint is a vital point exposed to the outside.
Most lethal techniques are aimed at vital points like the Baihui or the Nao Hu.
If the Jade Awakening were to break while I was blocking an enemy's attack, my One Ki Divine Origin Art would lose its balance and collapse like a bursting dam.
This felt like encountering the Heavenly Demon in a dead-end alley.
So, this life ended up being fucked like this?
“Ha….”
No, what kind of trick of fate is this.
Among my martial arts, there were quite a few head techniques that used the head.
Since things had come to this, all the headbutting techniques I knew were now useless.
If the sensitive Jade Awakening were to break, I really don't want to even imagine it.
Is this really right?
The One Ki Divine Origin Art is going to be ruined this early on?
“……Shit, this life, really.”
The Jade Awakening should normally settle in the place where the energy is most vigorous among a person's Du Mai.
Usually, it's the Utmost Yang Point, Central Pivot Point, or Suspended Axis Point, and even if you're really unlucky, it's around the Waist Yang Gate.
“Wait a minute……?”
In that instant, something flashed in my mind like lightning.
The most special genius within the Jaegal Clan to appear in five hundred years.
Little Echoing Energy.
That was it.
I had momentarily forgotten about the characteristics of this boy named Jaegal Hwi.
“Ah, shit.”
Still, I really had never imagined that the Jade Awakening would actually settle in my head.
This was completely outside my expectations.
At that moment, the gloomy voice of the familiar monster pierced my ears.
<Even the Divine Cult does not try to open the Upper Dantian in that way. Who in the world are you? Which Jaegal bastard taught you such a dangerous ki art?>
Hmm?
The Upper Dantian?
That mysterious place only exists in theory; even I, who was the Martial Emperor, did not know its true nature as a martial studies organ.
Somehow, this monster had also come to misunderstand me.
There was another strange point besides that, but let's move on for now.
“…….”
Naturally, I remained silent.
I knew from experience that in a moment like this, the one with more questions becomes the weaker one.
Feeling dazed and also empty, I lay down on the dirt floor and sought sleep.
<……A rare madman, I see.>
Having gathered moisture with torches and even found an anthill with urine, that monster must also be at a loss for words.
On top of that, he had witnessed a ki art that deviated from the common sense of martial studies, so his curiosity must be through the roof.
Of course, the more that happened, the more I would keep my mouth shut.
Because the stronger that monster's curiosity grew, the faster this first gateway of the Nine Phoenix Gates would end.
<Get up.>
Instead, I smiled and turned over.
If he was dying of curiosity, he would have to reveal himself.
He seemed to be planning to continue acting mysterious in front of this Martial Emperor, but I was not a person to be easily played by such games.
About two hours passed like that.
Finally, my surroundings darkened.
The fact that the tunnel I had dug had darkened naturally meant that someone was blocking the light of the torches.
Only then did I slowly get up and gaze at the monster.
His face was not clearly visible due to his disheveled hair, but surprisingly, the monster's appearance was fine.
A gray martial robe, a single iron sword in his hand, and.
“…….”
My heart pounded as if it would burst.
The thing the monster was wearing at his waist.
An amber tablet with an Asura pattern engraved on it; it was an object I could never forget.
‘Demon God Revered Tablet!’
Damn it, no wonder he was talking about the Divine Cult.
The only ones who call that damn Demonic Cult the Divine Cult are, of course, the Demonic Cult guys themselves.
No, why is a bishop of the Demonic Cult in this Jaegal Clan?
A heinous fellow like that is the instructor in charge of the Nine Phoenix Gates?
“Your eyes show you are shaken. Do you know me?”
My senses tightened with tension.
Out of habit, I fumbled in my clothes for a blade.
Damn it.
There's no way I'd have something like that now.
I knew at least one thing.
Why the Jaegals had kept their mouths shut like clams about the Nine Phoenix Gates.
I suppressed my trembling excitement and calmly twisted my lips.
“A person's affairs are truly strange. To think I would meet a bishop of the Demonic Cult in a place like this.”
The monster silently lowered his gaze and looked at the Demon God Revered Tablet at his waist.
“A Jaegal who already knows the Jianghu. You surprise me in many ways. However.”
The monster of the Demonic Cult glared at me fiercely again.
“Why do you say I am a bishop? The revered tablets of the Divine Cult are also carried by the heads of the Eight Great Demon Families and the Demon Revereds.”
Is this bastard trying to mess with me?
As if this Martial Emperor doesn't know the heads of the Eight Great Demon Families and the Demon Revereds?
“……To read an opponent's ki art from the outside means that the ki art has reached the realm of the Five Ki Converging to the Origin. Excluding the Heavenly Demon, it cannot be explained unless you are one of the five bishops.”
Actually, this was incorrect.
The heads of the Eight Great Demon Families, especially a guy like the Mad Blood Emperor, was on par with the Heavenly Demon.
The problem was that I knew the faces of all the heads of the Eight Great Families.
The reason I was sure this guy was one of the Five Great Bishops was simple.
Because I didn't know his face.
The mysterious five bishops who lead the secret order of the Demonic Cult.
If the Central Plains had the Seven Revered of Jianghu, the Demonic Cult had the Five Great Bishops.
Their authority within the Demonic Cult was second only to one and above all others.
“…….”
A long silence followed.
I deliberately revealed the experience of the Martial Emperor.
Once a question begins to brew, a human cannot endure it unless an answer is derived.
As I said before, the more confused that bishop became, the more advantageous it was for me.
In that respect, the memories and experiences of my past life were like a lifeline to me now.
“Kekek….”
In an instant.
A red ghostly light flowed from the bishop's entire body.
A suffocating pressure.
An astonishingly dense demonic ki that flayed the skin.
And this blood flow that was gradually boiling due to his ki art.
My heart pounded as if it would burst.
I froze just like that.
‘This guy is…?’
Red Mist Demonic Art.
A terrifying being who had turned hundreds of Orthodox Faction masters gathered at Azure Rock Plateau into a handful of bloody water with just a lightly roused ki art.
I'm fucked.
This bastard is none other than the Blood Demon.