Chapter 18: Who Are You to Eat It All (1)
Chapter 17 – Who Are You to Eat It All (1)
Rustle. Rustle!
The bushes shook.
Whoosh.
The bushes bent in the wind.
In an instant, black shadows appeared like a mirage and then vanished.
At a glance, they looked like wild beasts, and at other times, like a pack of wild rats.
The shadows that climbed halfway up Mount Daun naturally blended into the thick mist.
At some point, the shadows scattered in various directions.
They had moved according to their designated groups.
Namgung Cheon also moved quickly through the bushes, buried in the mist.
Namgung Cheon belonged to Group Twelve.
Coincidentally, the group leader was Jo Gang-min, a third-year cadet.
The same group also included Gwak Cheol-ju, Song Won-gyo, and Baekli Hyang.
In addition, it consisted of a total of ten people, combining several third-year and second-year cadets.
Of all things, he was in the same group as those who were itching to chew him up.
‘Of course, it must not be a coincidence.’
Namgung Cheon chuckled as he watched the cadets pushing through the mist.
A rising star of Jo Gang-min’s caliber would be able to confidently make any request to the instructors.
Since he was suspected of being the one backing Song Won-gyo, the group assignment must have been planned from the beginning.
Although he was curious about what kind of scheme these guys were plotting, he had no time to worry about that now.
He had to slip away somehow and visit his safehouse first.
How long had they been moving like that?
Because of the thick fog, it was impossible to distinguish the surroundings.
Even the back of the cadet moving right in front of him was barely visible.
However, the surrounding signs of presence gradually grew quiet.
They had veered off course.
‘Hmm? Are they starting to play tricks now?’
Actually, this was for the better.
If he separated from the group naturally like this, it would be much easier to act on his own.
Just then, Jo Gang-min, who was leading the way, came to a sudden halt and raised his fist.
Everyone stopped in their tracks and sharpened their energy.
After putting on a grand show of caution, Jo Gang-min slowly turned around.
“I think this spot is just about right. Shall we have some fun here?”
For some reason, he had an excited expression.
As if understanding those ambiguous words immediately, Song Won-gyo wore a sly smile.
“I will follow the group leader’s words.”
“The moment we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived.”
Baekli Hyang replied with a bright smile.
The other cadets also showed their true colors, wearing somewhat sinister smiles.
Song Won-gyo turned around with a wide sneer.
“Hey, Namgung Cheon. You’ve been acting quite cocky lately. Today is indeed your memorial da—? Huh? Namgung Cheon?”
Cutting himself off mid-sentence, Song Won-gyo looked around in confusion.
Jo Gang-min frowned.
“What is it?”
“N-Namgung Cheon is…”
“…?”
“Gone!”
“What do you mean by that?”
Jo Gang-min replied irritably and suddenly released his internal energy in all directions.
Whoosh.
As the blast of energy swept in all directions, the thick mist dispersed far away.
“Huh? He really isn’t here?”
“Where did this rat go?”
The third-year cadets shouted as they looked around.
Baekli Hyang knitted her brow.
“Did he notice and run away already?”
“Even so…”
Jo Gang-min trailed off, narrowing his eyes.
To slip away so stealthily that even he could not notice.
‘You are much more interesting than I thought, Namgung Cheon!’
Soon, Jo Gang-min curled one side of his mouth.
“He couldn’t have gone far. Let’s find him.”
The cadets quickly began to trace their steps back.
* * *
Namgung Cheon used lightweight art to quickly scale the cliff.
He should have reached the top of the cliff in a single bound… but that was only true during his peak.
Running out of strength halfway up the cliff, Namgung Cheon grabbed a protruding rock and hung on precariously.
‘Ah… as expected, I still have a long way to go.’
Even so, this level of performance meant he possessed considerable lightweight art compared to his peers.
Namgung Cheon believed that the foundation of martial arts lay in lightweight art.
It did not matter whether that was true or not.
After all, during his days as a fugitive, the most important thing for him was the lightweight art that allowed him to flee anywhere quickly.
Therefore, the first thing he focused on training as soon as he reincarnated was lightweight art.
As he climbed up the cliff for a while, he felt a presence down below.
‘Ho, they followed me already? Quite impressive.’
Sure enough, Baekli Hyang’s clear voice echoed from beneath the cliff.
“Ah! Over there!”
“What? When did he climb up there? Hey, Namgung Cheon! Where are you going?”
Song Won-gyo shouted at the top of his lungs.
Regardless, Namgung Cheon climbed the rest of the way up the cliff.
Finally standing at the top, Namgung Cheon looked down the precipice.
Jo Gang-min and his gang also began to climb the cliff.
It seemed they were determined to beat him to a pulp today.
‘Geez, they really go through a lot of trouble just to torment me.’
It suddenly occurred to him that tormenting someone required a fair amount of dedication.
Of course, it was a pathetic kind of dedication.
“Why are you so obsessed with me? You should just focus on the mission assigned to you.”
As Namgung Cheon mocked them, Song Won-gyo snapped back while climbing the cliff.
“You’re the one who abandoned the mission and left the formation! Are you out of your mind? No matter how strong you’ve become, do you think this kind of arbitrary behavior will be tolerated? We only came to find you after you strayed from the formation!”
“I’m going to take care of some business for a moment, so don’t worry about me and just do what you were doing. I’ll behave so that it won’t cause any harm to you.”
“Does that make any sense!”
Man, they would only suffer if they followed him.
It seemed they intended to pursue him to the very end.
Namgung Cheon shrugged and turned around.
Well, let them do what they wanted.
Normally, humans could not get it through their thick skulls even if you advised them with good intentions.
Only after tasting it themselves did they regret and realize how foolish they had been.
Namgung Cheon ignored the curses echoing from behind his back and moved forward.
There was no need to rush.
Rather, he had to be careful from now on.
A forest stretched before his eyes.
However, it was no ordinary forest.
Here lay various formations and state-of-the-art mechanical traps… well, not quite.
Well, the various formations were actually real.
To add one thing here, because of his past life as a fugitive, Namgung Cheon was also well-versed in all kinds of formations.
After all, there was nothing as useful as a formation for hiding from or shaking off someone.
He had even gone out of his way to find Zhuge Mun, an expert in Qimen Dunjia, to learn from him under a false identity.
Of course, Zhuge Mun, who later realized Namgung Cheon’s true identity, flew into a rage and threatened to kill him right then and there, but Namgung Cheon had already departed leisurely by then.
‘Come to think of it, the members of the Zhuge Clan don’t seem all that smart either.’
Indeed. Just because there was a genius among one’s ancestors, there was no guarantee that all of their descendants would be geniuses as well.
Perhaps they were all struggling to act like geniuses just so they wouldn’t tarnish their ancestors’ reputation.
Looking at it that way, humans were truly creatures that enjoyed binding themselves to something and not being free.
Ah, a sudden deep realization.
‘Why is my insight so profound?’
Namgung Cheon shook his head and diligently hurried along.
Stride, stride.
He seemed to step at random, but it followed a precise footwork.
A single wrong step could send him plunging back down the cliff, or keep him wandering in circles all day.
It would have been fine to install mechanical traps so that hidden weapons would fire or they would fall into a pit and be impaled to death on spears, but wouldn’t that be too cruel?
‘I am so humane.’
Of course, the sharp-witted rascals of the Ghost King Stronghold argued that it was because he couldn’t afford it, but it must have been because there was a humane side to him somewhere in his heart.
In any case, after traveling for about half a quarter-hour, the Path of Life finally appeared.
It was a place where maple trees grew beautifully on both sides.
Leaving behind the straight path that anyone would naturally take, Namgung Cheon slipped into a side path next to the maple trees.
Instantly, the surrounding scenery changed.
Roaaaaar!
A waterfall poured down refreshingly on one side of the cliff.
Directly ahead, a thatched cottage stood like a picture.
Nestled beneath the cliff and blended with vines, the thatched cottage looked secret enough that one might easily pass it by.
A grin curled up on Namgung Cheon’s lips.
“It’s been a while! My home!”
From now on, there was no need to be particularly careful.
When Namgung Cheon opened the shabby door and went inside, he saw a worn-out bed, a table, and a cabinet.
Although the interior was relatively spacious, the furnishings were simple.
This was because he had done almost nothing but sleep and practice martial arts.
“Ho, surprisingly clean. Did those rascals maintain it until recently?”
They were more diligent than he had thought.
When Namgung Cheon pushed the bed aside and pried open the floorboards, a chest as large as an adult’s torso appeared.
“It’s here!”
Humming to himself, he opened the chest lid to find a five-colored horse statue and a wooden box emitting a faint herbal fragrance.
“Oh, you’re still intact! My babies! Hehehe!”
A smile came to his face naturally.
The Five-Colored Wind Horse Statue and the Nine Dragons Iron Heart Pill!
When he opened the wooden box’s lid, a sweet medicinal aroma filled the room.
Ah, how long had it been since he last smelled this nostalgic scent?
In truth, the Nine Dragons Iron Heart Pill was a spirit pill manufactured by the Thousand Poison Elder, one of the public enemies of the Martial World, and Namgung Cheon had secretly stolen it.
According to the Thousand Poison Elder, it was on the level of Shaolin’s Great Restoration Pill, but frankly, in Namgung Cheon’s opinion, it fell far short of that.
About seventy percent of the Great Restoration Pill?
Still, even that was amazing.
If one could obtain more than half a jiazi of internal energy with a single Great Restoration Pill, the Nine Dragons Iron Heart Pill would yield roughly twenty years’ worth of internal energy.
Although a craze for spirit pills had swept through decades ago, making it an era where just about anyone consumed them, a spirit pill capable of granting more than ten years of internal energy at once was still difficult to obtain.
‘Well, excluding the Shaolin and the Tang Clan, of course.’
In any case, with internal energy that would take a good twenty years of wall-gazing meditation to acquire lying right in front of him, his heart couldn’t help but race.
If he could digest this properly, he would be able to face at least a peak expert.
However, since the First Sight Skill-Breaking Eyes were not an invincible talent, he would also need another way to become stronger.
If he encountered a transcendental master, there would be cases where it would be difficult to win with the First Sight Skill-Breaking Eyes alone.
That was also why he had failed time and again despite having several opportunities to kill the Alliance Leader in his past life.
He could reach a somewhat similar level, but he could not surpass those who had attained a mature realm.
That was the blind spot of the First Sight Skill-Breaking Eyes.
This was because someone who had refined a single martial art for their entire life was bound to realize its true essence.
‘In the end, this means I also need a martial art of my own…’
In his past life, he was too busy running away to even think about properly learning or creating a martial art.
He had no choice but to improvise using the First Sight Skill-Breaking Eyes each time.
Since escape was his objective anyway, that alone was not too bad.
But things were different now.
Once his physical condition improved, he would have to research a martial art that suited him perfectly, based on his past experiences.
‘Come to think of it, I am quite enterprising.’
‘Now, shall I go?’
Namgung Cheon was about to walk out with the spirit pill but paused.
‘Should I just consume it here?’
If he was going to take it anyway, there would be no place better than this.
If he carried this precious spirit pill on him until he returned to the academy, its scent would drift out, attracting annoying flies.
Should the rascals of the Ghost King Stronghold suddenly barge in, it would be problematic since they wouldn’t recognize him, but they were likely busy dealing with the subjugation force by now.
There was no way they would come here today.
Alright, let’s take it here.
Having made his decision, Namgung Cheon sat cross-legged and immediately tossed the Nine Dragons Iron Heart Pill into his mouth.
After chewing the pill, a heavy energy was instantly felt from inside his stomach.
Rumble.
‘Nice. This is the exact feeling.’
The energy that surged up from his dantian began to sprint rampantly.
It was certainly wild.
The spirit pill made by the Thousand Poison Elder was not gentle like the Great Restoration Pill or the Small Restoration Pill.
It ran amok through the twelve meridians of his entire body as if they were its own backyard.
It was nothing short of a runaway colt.
Among them, he had to pay special attention to nine specific meridians.
Was that why it was named the Nine Dragons Iron Heart Pill?
In any case, it required considerable concentration to properly tame this unruly colt.
‘Ugh!’
At that moment, the fierce energy reaching the Baihui point rang out with a loud bang in his crown!
Cold sweat trickled down his temples.
He had almost lost consciousness.
‘It has a nasty temper, just like the Thousand Poison Elder.’
However, the Namgung Clan’s Boundless Sky Great Expansion Divine Art was already an excellent cultivation method in itself.
Furthermore, perhaps because he inherited his mother’s martial talent, his body was holding up better than expected.
Namgung Cheon continued to circulate his energy with his fists clenched tightly.
* * *
How much time had passed?
Because he had focused on circulating his energy for quite a long time, his sense of time had grown dull.
Sssssss.
‘It’s over.’
Having properly gathered the internal energy obtained from the pill into his dantian, Namgung Cheon slowly opened his eyes.
“Hmm?”
In that instant, Namgung Cheon narrowed his eyes and blankly stared at the man sitting opposite him.
He was a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard and graying hair.
The long sword scar crossing his cheek made his already unpleasant face look even more terrifying.
‘Ghost… King?’
No sooner had the thought occurred to him than the Ghost King scowled fiercely and growled.
“Excuse me, but who the hell are you to have gobbled up my stuff? Huh?”