19 – Blood Debt (1)

Chui washed his face with rainwater.

Most of the stench of blood had been washed away, but his physical condition was still utterly miserable.

After climbing over the wall, Chui suppressed the pain in his legs and walked toward the stable.

Creak…

When the stable door opened, an unexpected face appeared.

“Chuiiiii—!”

Woo Dongwon shouted as he ran toward Chui.

Chui frowned.

‘…Should I just kill him?’

His condition was too poor to bother holding back.

If this guy picked a fight again, he would have no choice but to use lethal force.

But—

“Hey, hey, hey! Where did you go! The rice cakes and meat I saved for you are all cold now—huh? Y-you, what happened to your body!?”

Woo Dongwon made a huge fuss as he grabbed Chui’s staggering body.

Then he shouted toward the stable boys behind him.

“Hey! Boil some tea! Bring cold wet towels too! His body’s burning up! Anyone got medicine!?”

Watching Woo Dongwon suddenly act strangely kind, Chui tilted his head in confusion.

Woo Dongwon slung an arm around Chui’s shoulders and spoke.

“You went out wandering around and got beaten up, didn’t you? Yeah, I get it. The world’s scary, right? Hojeongmun is the best, huh? You did well coming back. Sorry for giving you a hard time before. If you ran away because of that, it’ll never happen again. You saved my life, remember? I’m not the kind of guy who forgets a favor. From now on, your life in the stables is going to be smooth sailing!”

Chui couldn’t understand a single word Woo Dongwon was saying.

Still, he quite liked how Woo Dongwon and the stable boys brought warm tea, placed a cold towel on his forehead, and even gave up a soft bed for him.

Thump—

Chui lay down on the dry bed.

Lying on the bedding woven from dried straw, covered with a soft quilt, felt like sinking deep into a river.

Beside him, Woo Dongwon exploded in anger as he looked over Chui’s condition.

“Good grief, you really got wrecked! Every bone in your body is broken! Who did this to you? That Samgu gang from the lower village? Or the Childeuk group from the upper town? Which bastards did this to our youngest! This means war!”

“Be quiet. Bring me the boiled water.”

“Huh! Okay! But this kid… your speech is still kinda short, huh? Eh—whatever! A real man’s gotta be consistent! I like it better!”

Woo Dongwon gave Chui a thumbs-up.

Then he went outside to fetch the boiling water Chui asked for.

“….”

While that happened, Chui closed his eyes and examined his condition.

Tenth layer of Gulgak.

Before him now stood the gate to the next realm: Iol.

To open this gate, he had to break through the Im-Dok-Yang meridians and drain more than half the blood in his body through several special acupoints.

‘The acupoints were thoroughly opened during the fight with Gwigon. And I may have bled a bit too much.’

Chui had used Gwigon to the fullest.

He forced open acupoints unreachable by his own internal energy by using Gwigon’s attacks, and the old, stagnant blood naturally drained away during the battle.

It was a perilous method that no normal person would ever attempt, but Chui pushed through with his monstrous demonic art and terrifying willpower.

‘I’ll replace several essential elixirs with Gwigon’s spear-wraith.’

Chui looked inward into the inner reaches of the mental world within his dantian.

At the bottom of a pitch-black abyss lay a pool of blood.

In the center of the crimson swamp formed by countless spear-wraiths shedding bloody tears, a new spear-wraith had taken its seat.

The spear-wraith that had pushed aside Joyangja, the former master of the blood pool.

Gwigon Gugangryong stood there silently, gazing up at Chui like a ghost.

…Crush!

Chui frowned.

The wraith of Gwigon lurking at the center of the blood pool began to distort.

[Graaaaaaaaagh!]

It screamed a horrific death cry, writhing in agony.

Then an enormous amount of blood burst forth from all seven orifices—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

That blood instantly transformed into internal energy flowing through Chui’s meridians, restoring his bones and flesh.

As Chui meticulously reconnected each severed blood vessel, Woo Dongwon returned.

“Chui. Here’s the hot water. Let’s wash you up with this. You’re still hurt, so I’ll help you.”

He was more considerate than expected.

When he thought of someone as an outsider, he was unbearably annoying, but once he accepted them as his own, the difference in treatment was night and day.

Chui waved him off irritably.

Since his regression, no one had made him speak more than this guy.

“Forget it. Go to Chief Escort Ju and get the medicinal ingredients I tell you.”

“O-okay. What else do you need?”

“Poria, Dragon’s Blood Resin, persimmon calyx, fenugreek, flaxseed, cubeb pepper, dried longan flesh…”

From common to precious items.

Chui slowly searched his memory.

They were all ingredients Honggong had once ordered him to gather.

Medicines Chui and Ho Yeyang had searched for until their feet bled and the skin peeled off.

“Polygonatum, flea seeds, thousand-year ginger, corn silk, mistletoe, dandelion, southern dodder seed, Japanese chuanxiong, native chuanxiong, radish seed…”

One after another, medicinal herbs that would help the essence of Changwiching permeate his body more deeply.

In other words, auxiliary ingredients to tenderize the flesh before seasoning it.

At that point, Woo Dongwon shouted in panic.

“W-wait, that’s too many! Where am I supposed to get all of those right now!?”

“I told you. Go to Chief Escort Ju and get them.”

“Who’s Chief Escort Ju?”

Woo Dongwon tilted his head.

He clearly couldn’t even imagine that Chui was referring to Ju Yehwa.

Chui spoke.

“I mean Chief Escort Ju Yehwa of the Hojil Escort Agency.”

“Oh. Chief Escort Ju Yehwa. Of Hojil Escort Agency. Ahhh. Ah. Huh?”

Then Woo Dongwon jumped.

“Are you crazy!? How can you call C-Chief Escort Ju so casually!? He’s someone we stable hands wouldn’t even dare make eye contact with! How am I supposed to go ask him for medicine!?”

“Tell him it’s my request. He’ll give it to you.”

“That makes no sense, you bastard! Damn it… I can’t even hit you.”

Woo Dongwon raised his hand, then stopped, groaning in frustration.

But Chui repeated the same insistence.

“If you say I sent you, he’ll hand them over. Just go and get them.”

“Seriously…”

Woo Dongwon sighed deeply.

After writing down all the ingredients Chui listed, he stood up.

“Fine. It’s a request from my life-saving benefactor. I’ll just go get called a lunatic once.”

Woo Dongwon headed out through the back door of the stable connected to the sleeping quarters.

Then he turned back and asked Chui.

“What should I say when I get there?”

Chui answered.

“Say the spear carrier sent you. He’ll understand.”

“…It’d be better to say a stable hand sent me.”

A spear carrier going to ask a chief escort for things.

To Woo Dongwon, it was beyond absurd.

Before even half a watch had passed, all the medicinal ingredients Chui had named were delivered.

Chief Escort Ju Yehwa had dragged Woo Dongwon to the medicine storeroom and piled every stocked herb into his arms.

Staring wide-eyed, Woo Dongwon was interrogated closely by Ju Yehwa.

‘Who exactly is that person?’

Woo Dongwon asked back, bewildered.

‘He’s a lackey I dote on. Why do you ask?’

Hearing that, Ju Yehwa could only sigh deeply.

‘No. He must have his reasons. When the time comes, he’ll explain himself. Go. If you need anything else later, come to me.’

Woo Dongwon couldn’t understand the situation at all.

He kept tilting his head as he brought the herbs back and handed them to Chui.

Amazingly, by then, Chui was already up and walking around as if nothing were wrong.

Without even looking at Woo Dongwon, Chui said,

“Until I come out, don’t let anyone enter this room. If anything happens, tell Chief Escort Ju.”

“Ch-Chui, you… just who are you, really?”

Woo Dongwon asked in a trembling voice, but Chui casually ignored him.

Soon after,

Chui closed the door and sat cross-legged on the bed.

Ts-ts-ts-ts-ts-ts…

Dark crimson demonic energy boiled up from his entire body.

This aura was alien, unlike any demonic art that existed in this world.

Even upon surpassing Gulgak and entering the realm of Iol, the aura of Changwiching would transform into something completely different from before.

By then, no one but Chui would be able to recognize it as a demonic art at all.

‘No. Honggong would recognize it. After all, he is the creator of Changwiching.’

Chui’s thoughts drifted to his former master, Honggong.

Where was he now, and what was he doing?

Perhaps he was still being hunted by the Martial Alliance and the Evil Sect Coalition.

Or perhaps he still reigned as the great Right Divine General Envoy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Memories churned chaotically in Chui’s mind.

…A battlefield on a rainy night.

…Trench warfare filled with blood and flying flesh.

…Honggong dying, half-paralyzed.

…Ho Yeyang searing her face and chest with charcoal, swallowing it to change her voice.

With each step up the blood-soaked stairs, the scenes before his eyes changed.

Eventually, Chui stood before a massive gate.

A colossal gate made of blood, sinew, bone, and viscera.

Beyond it lay stairways leading to even greater heights.

Stairs so vast and tall they could not be compared to those he had climbed so far.

But Chui, who had already climbed all of them once before, knew—

This was only the beginning.

Kii—gi-gi-gi-gik…

Chui opened the gate.

And toward the enormous stairway beyond it, he took his first step.

Then—

‘You’re going?’

From behind came an unpleasant voice, like sharp metal scraping against iron.

Chui turned his head.

There stood Ho Yeyang from the past, from his memories.

With a twisted face and a burned-out voice, she spoke.

‘So you’re going.’

Chui remained silent.

Then he quietly nodded.

Ho Yeyang smiled.

Her distorted face made it hard to see, but Chui, who had spent so long with her, could tell.

‘Go well.’

Ho Yeyang said.

Chui replied.

‘Farewell.’

His lips moved, but no voice came out in the end.

Then, at the moment Chui crossed the threshold of Iol and stepped onto the first stair—

Flash!

His eyes opened.

Chui sat up.

Black sweat had completely soaked the bedding.

The sweat reeked of foul filth, mixed with the smell of countless medicinal herbs boiled together.

“….”

Chui examined his body.

He was taller, and his bones thicker.

His skin, already pale, had grown even whiter, and compact muscles now packed every part of his body.

First layer of Iol.

By stepping into this realm, Chui’s cultivation—once somewhere between first-rate and pinnacle—had reached the level of a fully matured pinnacle.

And the moment he judged that everything was perfectly prepared—

Bang!

Chui kicked off the bed and stood up.

“Is it the next turn already?”

His body had recovered, and his martial realm had risen.

It was time to go to work again.

“Only the real ones are left now.”

The third target of revenge, following the Heukdo Gang and the Jo Family.

As Chui reviewed them in his mind, he kicked open the stable door.

The hegemon of Anhui Province.

The pinnacle of the Five Great Families.

One pillar of the Fifteen Pillars of the Orthodox Path.

In the direction where the Namgung Family lay.

 

[T/N: Read 30+ advanced chapters on https://www.patreon.com/c/Virion_Arvallost

This novel is at high risk of receiving strikes from publishers. The other group that started translating this novel has already removed it from their site. So, I suggest you all read the chapters quickly before they are removed again. Please support our Patreon and the original author if you can. Those of you who can, read from the original site to support the original author.]