Chapter 61: Chapter 61
The dantian was a more delicate and complex domain than anything.
Releasing internal energy through the holes was possible. But the moment he tried to route it back through another hole, the qi burst outward in all directions, as if the dantian itself possessed a defensive instinct protecting itself.
“Kgh…”
Ten thousand evil emotions seized his mind. An urge to grab someone and tear them apart, flesh and bone.
The path he’d carved had collapsed all at once.
Jang I-seo gripped his trembling right wrist hard. His short nails dug deep, drawing blood. It was that hard to endure without losing reason.
But right then.
“Um, Adjutant Jang?”
The back door opened, and Maeng Hwi’s hesitant voice drifted in. Simultaneously, Jang I-seo’s head snapped around violently.
FWASH!
His form launched from the spot like a storm. He seized Maeng Hwi’s throat in a crushing grip.
“K-kgh?! A-Adjutant Jang…?”
Bloodshot eyes. An overwhelming presence that seemed ready to devour him whole.
Maeng Hwi went white with terror. His entire body trembled. His groin stung.
For a man who had never been like this to radiate the kind of earth-shattering killing intent a demonic cult lord might emit, how could he not be terrified?
His vision blurred as breathing became impossible.
“Kgh…”
Jang I-seo bit his tongue hard. With what little reason remained, he formed sword-fingers. STAB, STAB, STAB! He struck pressure points on his own arm hard enough to bruise.
Then.
Thud.
The strength left his grip. Maeng Hwi dropped to the floor, coughing violently, clinging to life.
A moment later, and it would have been disastrous.
‘Huu…’
Jang I-seo took a deep breath, suppressed the killing urge, and bellowed.
“Don’t ever come in like that! Have you forgotten that approaching someone without a physician present is an absolute prohibition?!”
“S-sorry! I just… I’m sorry… It was my fault…”
Maeng Hwi’s eyes glistened, head bowed. Seeing this, Jang I-seo swallowed a deep sigh of frustration.
“I’m not saying the Sixth Young Master did wrong… You could have been hurt.”
“Huh…?”
“There are many in this cult who practice dangerous demonic arts. That means approaching them puts you in danger. Like just now.”
“No, I’m fine…”
“Fine, you say! Come here.”
Jang I-seo approached Maeng Hwi, who still sat on the floor. With self-reproachful eyes, he examined the reddening bruises around his neck.
Maeng Hwi asked with a bewildered expression.
“Are you… worried about me? Not angry?”
“Why would I be angry? I’m the one who did wrong.”
“But your voice sounds angry…”
“I’m angry at myself. Stop asking. You’re in the way.”
Jang I-seo lowered his posture and carefully examined Maeng Hwi’s injuries.
Fortunately, nothing serious. Only because the force had been shallow. A moment longer and it could have been truly bad.
He exhaled in relief, then draped his arm around Maeng Hwi’s bowed shoulders and spoke.
“Next time, always ask from outside first. If there’s no answer, don’t come in.”
“Y-yeah…!”
He answered well enough. But what was with those eyes?
Maeng Hwi’s eyes sparkled brightly. The sudden sensation of a sticky slug crawling onto his body…
“Where are you headed?”
Glancing over him, his clothes were neatly pressed and a water gourd hung at his waist.
Maeng Hwi, face already flushing, replied with excitement.
“I should probably visit the main house. I’ve been away too long. Don’t worry too much. I’ll be back soon!”
“Sure.”
But why did this kid keep coming back here? Jang I-seo tilted his head.
Still, he’d done wrong, so he kept it brief. Besides, having Maeng Hwi around had its benefits.
Running errands. Being Mao’s sparring partner.
“Anyway, Adjutant Jang. I don’t know what demonic art you’re practicing, but… there’s blood everywhere in the room. Take breaks during training.”
Smirk. Who’s worrying about whom? Jang I-seo let out a hollow laugh and waved him off.
“Just go and come back.”
“Yeah…!”
Maeng Hwi beamed and departed.
Jang I-seo turned to survey the blood-stained room and sighed deeply.
His body was a wreck. And he’d lost all progress.
This attempt had failed.
The reason was clear.
“I can push qi out through the holes, but I can’t bring it back. It’s like slipping through a dog hole in a castle wall only to find the outside is swarming with armed sentries.”
He’d been foolish. He’d underestimated the incomprehensible domain of the dantian.
But…
Grin. A smile settled on Jang I-seo’s lips.
“It wasn’t a total failure.”
Strictly speaking, half had succeeded.
“The path of internal energy outside the dantian was definitely connected. That means I just need to find a way back. That alone is tremendous progress.”
Hope filled Jang I-seo’s eyes. He knew the method. All that remained was to try.
However, each failure scattered demonic aura through his body. The number of attempts he could afford was limited.
One more attempt might leave him unable to even stand.
“Not yet. There’s something to do first.”
The Mad Physician, Gongsun Jeol. Fulfilling his promise to the Demon Physician came first. Reciprocity.
If his identity and whereabouts were unknown, he’d start by finding those who might know.
“The Soul-Befuddling Powder came from the Slaughterhouse. They’d know best.”
The Slaughterhouse’s second brother, the wanted Mad Dog, Sa Ho-jeong.
Start with him.
Jang I-seo equipped himself with White Thunder, daggers, and light gear, then stepped out of the annex.
He planned to visit the Guardian Dragon Hall first. They’d be tracking Sa Ho-jeong more closely than anyone.
“Hey, where are you going?”
Stepping into the garden, Mao greeted him while wiping his face with a towel. Drenched in sweat, he’d clearly made several trips between the main building and the latrine.
‘Not bad.’
Before, he’d have flatly refused training after a feast. Now he worked hard without being watched.
The humiliation from the Slaughterhouse battle had surely motivated him. But so had the gradual satisfaction of progress.
A truly positive trajectory.
“Stepping out for a bit.”
“The brat went home too. Where are you going? Want me to come along?”
Mao asked with a slightly eager expression. After brief consideration, Jang I-seo shook his head.
“No. If you want to make it back today, it’d be too much for you.”
“What? You call yourself an adjutant and disappear constantly. Where to. You know I’ve got stamina. I carried you on my back, remember?”
He knew that well. It was about the only thing he could trust.
“Still no.”
“Ah, why!”
“I’m taking a shortcut. Mountain paths. Rough terrain.”
“So what. I’m good at climbing mountains!”
“Can you do this, too?”
Jang I-seo exhaled lightly and leaped. FWASH! His robes fluttered as he soared upward and landed delicately atop a thin branch in the garden.
Mao stared up with the dumbfounded face of a dog that lost its chicken.
“Jumping well isn’t enough. You need to control weight freely. That requires moving the yin and yang energies inherent in your body. We call this lightness technique.”
“Lightness technique… Can I learn it?”
Jang I-seo looked down at Mao’s eager face.
He was full of yang energy and sorely lacking in yin. In other words, he could increase his weight but struggled to reduce it. Fine movement was difficult.
Not impossible. There were absolute yang masters who had perfected lightness techniques.
But it was undeniably harder for him than others.
‘I should look into a lightness technique suited to Mao.’
Naturally, after the urgent matters were settled.
FWASH!
Jang I-seo kicked off the branch and soared over the wall like an elegant crane, vanishing.
The leaves rustled softly, as if remembering he’d been there.
“You could at least answer before leaving-! Hey! Jang I-seo-!”
Mao’s anguished echo followed.
*
– Mahe Mountain, Guardian Dragon Hall.
By the time Jang I-seo arrived at the sloped road before the Guardian Dragon Hall, the sun had risen to mid-sky. His second visit, but the first sober one.
“No danger of thieves.”
A single-file uphill road. Fairly long and steep.
“And this kid carried me on his back all the way here?”
He recalled being carried by Mao after taking Yo Do-sun’s arrow. Fresh gratitude and guilt welled up.
A kid who couldn’t even use lightness techniques had carried him all this way.
“Should buy him a chicken.”
Jang I-seo smiled gently and crested the final hill. At the narrowing road’s end, a gate and walls bearing tiger emblems came into view.
One of the Five Dragon Halls, the core forces of the Demonic Cult.
Ji Dae-ho’s Guardian Dragon Hall.
“What business brings you here?”
A warrior on the battlement above called down. An arrogant expression, pride evident in his tiger-striped uniform of yellow and black.
‘What business, he asks…’
Jang I-seo glanced up at the battlement and quietly curved his lips upward.
In his Counter-Espionage squad leader days, he’d have stated his business plainly. But now, that wouldn’t do.
“…”
Instead of answering, Jang I-seo fixed the man with a chilling glare.
“Ghk!”
The gatekeeper recoiled, sucking in a breath.
He’d released only a trace of demonic aura. But this was the Heavenly Demon’s internal energy, the same presence that even Sixth Young Master Maeng Hwi couldn’t withstand.
Adding a layer of killing intent, sweat broke out on the gatekeeper’s face like rain.
“H-how…”
He stood above. But in his eyes, Jang I-seo had become a massive mountain tiger glaring down at him.
His knees buckled. Naturally.
Unable to endure, the gatekeeper dropped to his knees, pale with terror.
“What’s going… Hgh!”
Other gatekeepers who’d rushed out upon sensing trouble fared no better.
‘What density of killing intent is this…!’
Jang I-seo unapologetically radiated a high-intensity presence to make his existence known.
Not a bandit. An entrance style inconceivable in the righteous sects.
But this was the Demonic Cult.
The weak were devoured. Only the strong were respected.
Moreover, being knowingly mocked and letting it slide was unacceptable.
‘I visited here not long ago. They should remember me. Yet they deliberately spoke down to me. Intentional disrespect. Because a lowly adjutant riding on the good-for-nothing Seventh Young Master’s coatticks doesn’t warrant courtesy.’
He understood. But he couldn’t tolerate it.
So, reluctantly, he had to demonstrate.
FWOOOSH-
From Jang I-seo’s body, a vast killing intent poured forth like a burst dam.
The earth-shattering killing intent forged from the Heavenly Demon’s demonic aura.