Chapter 169. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (15)

As they all moved toward the cave, Ki Yeon-Oh spoke up.

“There definitely is something up here. The death qi is getting more and more intense. It could be dangerous for those with lower cultivation, so the disciples and villagers should remain here.”

One of Ki Yeon-Oh's junior brothers, Du So-Heung, protested.

“But senior brother! For you to go into the cave along with such a terrible person... He might well be from the Black Hand!”

“Hmph! Do you not trust in my skills?”

Ki Yeon-Oh’s two junior brothers, who lived more righteous lives than anyone else and had particular deference for their elder brother, found themselves unable to argue anymore. However, that didn’t mean they would just let things slide. In order to lessen the risk to their senior brother, they called out to Woo-Moon

“If our senior brother is going up alone, you should do the same. Especially that white tiger... it has to stay with us.”

Even though Eun-Ah was a spirit beast and had awakened her spiritual intelligence, when it came to hiding her aura, she lacked control in comparison to a martial artist of the same stage. Therefore, those of the Kunlun Sect could instinctively feel she was strong. Of course, they didn’t know that she was strong enough to kill all of them at once, otherwise they would have reacted in a different way altogether.

This wasn’t something Woo-Moon cared much about, either. After all, he had no reason to be afraid of Ki Yeon-Oh, much less of leaving Eun-Ah alone with Yu Yu.

“Let’s do it that way, then.”

Woo-Moon took the lead, and Ki Yeon-Oh followed. After climbing a little further, the two entered the cave.

Although some time had passed since the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent died, the death qi still pulsated within the cave. After walking a little further into its depths, the two arrived in front of the serpent’s corpse.

Ki Yeon-Oh walked forward without hesitation, drew his sword, and rummaged through the insides of the corpse.

“Are you looking for its neidan?”

Ki Yeon-Oh chuckled at Woo-Moon’s words.

“Yes. Seeing as it's missing, you most likely ate it, didn’t you?”

“And if I did?”

“Well, considering you’re such a mannerless brat, I’ll have to scold you.”

Woo-Moon was not actually surprised by the sudden change in Ki Yeon-Oh’s attitude. He had seen the latter’s reaction when he told the story about the serpent, and now, he could clearly see disappointment, anger, and greed flashing within Ki Yeon-Oh’s eyes as the man looked at the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent.

“So, was this your plan?”

As Woo-Moon spoke, he moved a small bottle of Pure Stalactite Milk from his belt pouch into his breast pocket. Luckily, he had portioned the liquid into smaller bottles a while back, as he was intent on sharing it with his family and friends when he met them.

Because he had done this through qi manipulation, Ki Yeon-Oh didn’t even notice what had just happened.

“I have no reason to answer that.”

With these words, Ki Yeon-Oh dashed forward using the Divine Phantasm Steps, blurring in and out of existence as he rushed Woo-Moon at the same time.

Squelch!

Ki Yeon-Oh's sword pierced the left side of Woo-Moon's chest.

Blood spurted out, dousing Ki Yeon-Oh's face. Woo-Moon glared at him with wide eyes, stepped back, pulled the sword from his chest, and collapsed.

“Y-you cowardly bastard. To think a disciple of the Kunlun Sect would attack so sneakily!”

“Shut the fuck up, you bastard! You have no right to tell me that! Do you know how hard I worked to raise the damn serpent? And you dared to kill it and eat the neidan! Hmph! I thought you might have had some talent because you killed the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent, but I guess it must have been a fluke. I can’t believe you were done in so easily.”

Ki Yeon-Oh took some of Woo-Moon’s blood that had splashed onto his face and licked it.

“Oho! As expected, this must be the power of the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent's neidan. Your blood is as full of qi as an elixir. Well, I guess you haven’t had the time to absorb it yet. Thank the heavens for that. I can at least make up for it if I drink all of your blood. Hmm, yes, that’s only natural. After all, I wasted a lot of effort here.”

As if to himself, Woo-Moon muttered, “A lot... of effort?”

Everyone was like that—when their plans finally succeeded, especially long-term plans, they were very prone to bragging. Moreover, since this was something that had to be kept secret at all costs, Ki Yeon-Oh was even more itching to speak out.

“Well, I guess I’ll let you die in peace. Twenty-three years ago, I discovered a Blood-Horned Poison Serpent here. I was going to kill it right away and take the venom and whatnot, but then, I thought better of it. If it ate enough humans, it would be able to evolve into a spirit beast and grow a neidan, so I could harvest that instead. So I gave some money to the village chief and he convinced the others about the whole Guardian God thing.”

“The Guardian God... So that story was made up by you and the village chief...?”

“That’s about right. In any case, the serpent didn’t do anything good or bad to the village, he just sat here in the cave. And then you fucking had to show up! You greedy bastard, you just gulped down the neidan I've been cultivating for twenty years! Well, I guess your blood will have to do. Now if you’ll allow me... huh?”

Ki Yeon-Oh had been talking rather excitedly when he suddenly noticed something strange. He knew that Woo-Moon had managed to twist his body at the last moment to avoid having his heart pierced, but even so, that was a grievous injury. It was rather conspicuous that he was still conscious after so long.

Realizing that he had been caught, Woo-Moon stopped pretending and stood up with a nonchalant expression on his face.

“Have you finally noticed it? Don’t get too upset about the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent's neidan. I mean, because of you, I also lost a precious drop of Pure Stalactite Milk. That’s more than enough to compensate.”

“Pure Stalactite Milk?”

“Well, you see, that massive natural qi you felt in my blood wasn’t from the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent’s neidan. It just so happened that I had a bottle of Pure Stalactite Milk in my breast pocket, and when you stabbed me, it mixed with my blood.”

Ki Yeon-Oh's eyes narrowed as he listened to Woo-Moon's words.

“You little brat. You actually mastered a heretical art!”

Now that he was no longer busy bragging, he could see that the wound on Woo-Moon’s chest was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Woo-Moon had stopped restricting his power, and a Paragon’s natural healing factor seemed like downright magic to someone who didn’t know better.

As long as one reached the Absolute realm, one could recover from all sorts of wounds using nothing but qi. The Palm Martial Emperor and the Night Spear Devil would never have died if it hadn’t been for the fact that their hearts were practically crushed. As for Woo-Moon, who had transcended even the Absolute peak, even less needed to be said. With enough time, he could even grow a new heart. A sword through his chest was nothing.

Naturally, since Woo-Moon didn’t look like an Absolute Master in any way, Ki Yeon-Oh assumed he had practiced some kind of heretical art.

“Not at all, but that’s besides the point. You have bigger things to worry about right now.”

Ki Yeon-Oh looked at him in confusion. "What?"

At that moment, a group of people rushed in.

Du So-Heung was in the lead, and he was followed by all his fellow disciples. He was pale as paper, and he gritted his teeth while drawing his sword.

“Senior brother... What have you done? How... How could you commit a sin like this?”

Ki Yeon-Oh's face stiffened. He was clearly flustered, but he tried to feign calm.

“What are you talking about, junior brother? What do you mean, sin? Besides, didn’t I tell you to wait outside? Why have you come in?”

Ki Yeon-Oh was no idiot, and the first thing he’d done after entering the cave was to leave behind a soundproof barrier. There was no way his junior brothers and disciples heard his conversation with Woo-Moon... so what was going on?

Then, he saw Woo-Moon laughing heartily.

‘You son of a bitch, you did something to my barrier!’

“You wretched bastard!”

Filled with anger, Ki Yeon-Oh lunged at Woo-Moon with a rage completely unbecoming of a Daoist. However, a moment later, he was blasted back.

“Cough! Cough, cough!”

Woo-Moon’s Raging Wind Palm hit him in the exact same spot where he had stabbed Woo-Moon, and he bent over, vomiting blood like a waterfall. It was clear that he had suffered severe internal injuries.

Seeing this, Du So-Heung and the other Kunlun Sect disciples came to a realization. Ki Yeon-Oh was the strongest of them, so for Woo-Moon to take him down in one move, like this... how strong was he actually?

“You... To think, this level of cultivation... you... hid...

cough, cough!

”

After looking down at Ki Yeon-Oh coldly, Woo-Moon looked at Du So-Heung.

“Now, do you know the truth?”

Du So-Heong cupped his fist and bowed.

“I deeply apologize, Young Hero. As a fellow disciple of the Kunlun Sect, I am extremely ashamed of this atrocity.”

As he bowed his head, the others also apologized to Woo-Moon at the same time.

“We apologize, Young Hero.”

The disciples of the Kunlun Sect had clearly heard Ki Yeon-Oh and Woo-Moon’s conversation from outside. Even though they were far away, it had sounded as loud as if it were being said next to them. Woo-Moon had not only secretly destroyed Ki Yeon-Oh’s barrier by using his Paragon Qi, but had even amplified the sound instead and broadcast it to the people outside.

Then, suddenly, there was a commotion outside.

“You bastard!”

“You’ve been fooling us this whole time!”

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A mixture of all kinds of shouting, the sound of someone being beaten, and the sound of screaming erupted. Then, Woo-Moon’s figure vanished from in front of Du So-Heung.

“Huh?”

Du So-Heung quickly looked around to see where he had gone. When he turned around, he saw Woo-Moon near the villagers. They had knocked the village chief down and were beating him viciously.

They, too, had heard the conversation between Woo-Moon and Ki Yeon-Oh.

“Stop. Do you think you’re qualified to punish the village chief?” Woo-Moon said as he lifted all the villagers who were beating the village chief into the air and threw them back.

“Agh!!”

Then, he placed his hand on the shoulder of the village chief, who was already near death, and imbued him with qi.

Unless a person had already crossed the river of the underworld, or if their heart or brain was destroyed, Woo-Moon could treat them with the Forbidden Divine Art, which had already reached infinitely close to the root of the Dao.

Thus, even though the village chief didn’t have a single intact bone in his body, he immediately regained his strength and held Woo-Moon's hand while crying.

“Thank you so much. I can’t believe you showed mercy to such a detestable old man.”

Woo-Moon snorted to himself at the village chief’s emotions.

‘Pft, do you think I helped you out of kindness? If I didn’t have a use for you, then forget about stopping them and healing you, I would have killed you with my own hands.’

“W-why did you stop us?”

“The culprit behind all of this was the village chief! Because he tricked us, we...!”

Woo-Moon was truly enraged by the villagers, who tried to look as though they were victims themselves.

“STAND BACK!”[1]

At his brief shout, the villagers all clutched their ears and screamed, rolling around on the ground. Some of them even had blood pouring out of their nose and ears.

It was the same for the Kunlun Sect disciples, who were watching from behind. Without exception, each and every one of them turned pale, and some even suffered internal injuries.

Yu Mun-Gwang even felt every hair on his body rise as goosebumps cascaded down his back.

‘W-what the hell is with that bastard? Did he really become an Absolute Master?’

As Woo-Moon had already reached the Paragon stage, and his target was Martial Heaven, he didn’t think much about what it meant to be an Absolute Master.

However, when it came to most of the

murim

, an Absolute Master was literally that—a paramount being. No faction could ignore an Absolute Master, even if they were on their own.

Therefore, Yu Mun-Gwang, who already had a lot of worries, was even more shaken to see that Woo-Moon’s strength had increased that much.

Woo-Moon spoke in a chilly voice.

“You all truly are disgusting. Yes, it was the village chief who lied about the Guardian God, but was it the village chief who made you sacrifice your own daughters? Was it he who made you lure and kill the poor orphaned siblings under the pretense of hospitality? Tell me, were you forced to do any of this?”

The villagers found themselves unable to say anything. Meanwhile, the disciples of the Kunlun Sect, who realized how terrible this incident truly was, closed their eyes tightly as they recited their own Daoist prayers.

“Yes, it’s true that your chief is the worst offender. But do you think you have the right to criticize him? Do you think you have the right to say anything when not two hours ago you murdered a child for protecting his sister? Do you dare to open your mouths when the girl you wanted to murder is right here, watching you?!”

Woo-Moon found it difficult to control his emotions. Even the sight of these atrocious beings was sickening to him. It seemed as though he really might end up killing the villagers with his own two hands if he were to stay here for much longer.

1. The original here, 喝 (gal!) is a word often yelled by Daoist/Muist/Confucian teachers in olden times to express disapproval of someone’s deeds. It literally means “rebuke” and it’s fairly close to the biblical “I rebuke thee!” ☜