Chapter 19: Blood Debt (1)

Chui washed his face with rainwater.

Although the reek of blood was washed away to some extent, his physical condition was still disastrous.

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

Creak…

When the door of the stable opened, an unexpected face was visible.

“Chui-i-i-i!”

Woo Dong-won. He was running toward Chui while shouting.

Chui furrowed his brow.

‘…Should I just kill him?’

Right now, his physical condition was too bad to go easy on him.

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

However.

“Hey, hey, hey! Where did you go?! The rice cakes and meat I brought to give to you have all gone cold… Huh? What, what’s wrong with your body?!”

Woo Dong-won made a fuss as he caught Chui’s staggering body.

Eventually, he shouted toward the stable boys behind him.

“Hey! Brew some tea or something! Bring a cold wet towel too! The kid’s body is boiling hot! Does anyone have medicine?!”

Watching Woo Dong-won, who had suddenly become strangely kind, Chui tilted his head.

Then, Woo Dong-won put his arm around Chui’s shoulders and said.

“You went wandering around somewhere outside and came back beaten up, didn’t you? Right. I know that feeling. As expected, the world is scary, isn’t it? The Tiger Pit Sect is the best, right? Welcome back. I’m sorry for bullying you in the past. If you ran away because of that, such a thing will absolutely never happen again. Didn’t you save my life? I’m also someone who knows gratitude. Just know that your life in the stable will be smooth sailing from now on!”

Chui could not understand a single word of what Woo Dong-won was saying.

However, he quite liked the fact that Woo Dong-won and the stable boys brought warm tea, placed a cold wet towel on his forehead, and even yielded a soft bed to him.

Flop—

Chui lay on the bone-dry bed.

Lying on the bed woven from dry straw with a soft blanket spread over it, he felt as if he were sinking into a deep river.

Beside him, Woo Dong-won vented his anger as he looked at Chui’s condition.

“Oh my, you took a severe beating! All the bones in your body are broken! Who did this to you? Is it that Sam-gu gang in the lower village? Or the Chil-deuk faction in the upper town? Which bastards made our youngest like this?! It’s immediate war!”

“Quiet down. Bring some boiled water over here.”

“Huh! I’ll do that! But you bastard… you still speak short? Eh—whatever! A real man should have consistency! It’s actually better!”

Woo Dong-won raised his thumb toward Chui.

Then he went outside to fetch the boiling water Chui had requested.

“…”

Meanwhile, Chui closed his eyes and checked his condition.

The tenth stage of the Bowed Pavilion.

Now, the gate to progress to the next realm, the Towering Vessel, lay before his eyes.

To open this gate, one had to pierce the Conception and Governing Vessels and drain more than half of the blood in the body through several special acupoints.

‘While fighting Staff Ghost, the acupoints were sufficiently cleared. The blood feels like it was drained excessively.’

Chui had thoroughly used Staff Ghost to his advantage.

He had pierced the acupoints that his internal energy could not reach by utilizing Staff Ghost’s attacks, and his old blood naturally drained out as he went through the battle.

Of course, it was a highly dangerous method that a normal person would never attempt, but Chui had pierced through it with his monster-like demonic art and a formidable level of willpower.

‘I will substitute several essential spiritual medicines with Staff Ghost’s spear ghost.’

Chui looked inside the mental world within his dantian.

A pool of blood pooling in the depths of the pitch-black abyss.

In the middle of the red swamp made by numerous Spear Ghosts shedding tears of blood, a new spear ghost was sitting.

The spear ghost that pushed out Cao Yangzi, who had been the master of the center of the blood pond until recently, and newly occupied that spot.

Staff Ghost, Gu Gang-ryong. Standing still like a ghost, he was looking up at Chui.

…Squeeze!

Chui furrowed his brow.

At that, the wraith of Staff Ghost lurking in the center of the blood pond began to shrink.

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!]

It suffered while spitting out a terrifying death rattle.

Then, an enormous amount of blood gushed out from all seven apertures of Staff Ghost, including his wide-open eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

That blood immediately became internal energy flowing through various parts of his blood vessels, healing Chui’s bones and flesh.

By the time Chui was refitting and tightly connecting the severed blood vessels strand by strand, Woo Dong-won returned.

“Chui. Here is hot water. Let’s wash your body with this. Since your body must still be uncomfortable, I will wash you.”

He was a more affectionate fellow than expected.

When he thought of someone as a stranger, he behaved very annoyingly, but once he accepted them as his own person, the treatment was truly like night and day.

Chui waved his hand as if it were bothersome.

He thought this fellow was probably the one who made him speak the most since his regression.

“Never mind that, go to Escort Leader Ju and get some medicinal herbs I specify.”

“Uh-huh. What else do you need?”

“Poria, Dragon’s Blood, Persimmon Calyx, Fenugreek, Flaxseed, Cubeb, Longan Aril…”

From minor ones to precious ones.

Chui was slowly tracing his memory.

Those were all the things that Hong Gong had ordered him to fetch.

They were medicinal herbs that Chui and Ho Ye-yang had searched for until the skin on their feet peeled off and bled.

“Solomon’s Seal, Carpesium Fruit, Homalomena Rhizome, Corn Silk, Mistletoe, Dandelion, Southern Dodder Seed, Japanese Cnidium, Chinese Cnidium, Radish Seed…”

A succession of herbal medicines with properties that made the internal energy of Spear Ghost Calling permeate the body even better were listed.

So to speak, they were auxiliary ingredients to cause a tenderizing effect when marinating meat.

Just then, Woo Dong-won cried out in embarrassment.

“W-wait, there are too many! Where do I get all of those right now?!”

“Didn’t I tell you? Go to Escort Leader Ju and get them.”

“Who is Escort Leader Ju?”

Woo Dong-won tilted his head.

A look of not even imagining that Chui was referring to Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa.

Chui opened his mouth.

“I mean Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa of the Swift Tiger Escort Agency.”

“Ah. Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa. Of the Swift Tiger Escort Agency. Ahhh. Ah. Ah?”

Then, Woo Dong-won jumped up.

“You crazy bastard! How can you call E-E-Escort Leader Ju so casually! She is someone we stable boys don’t even dare to make eye contact with! How could I dare go to her and ask for medicinal herbs!”

“Tell her it is my request. Then she will give them.”

“Does that make sense, you punk! Ugh, this guy. I can’t even hit him.”

Woo Dong-won raised his hand, only to lower it and groan.

But Chui consistently made the same claim.

“If you say I sent you, she will hand them over. Hurry up and go fetch them.”

“Ugh, seriously…”

Woo Dong-won sighed heavily.

Eventually, having written down all the medicinal herbs Chui mentioned, he got up from his seat.

“Fine. It’s the request of the savior who bestowed the grace of saving my life. I might as well go, get called a crazy guy once, and come back.”

Woo Dong-won walked out the back door behind the stable connected to the bedroom.

Then he turned his head and spoke to Chui.

“What did you say to tell her?”

Chui replied.

“Tell her a porter sent you. Then she will understand.”

“…It would be better to just say a stable boy sent me.”

A situation where a porter went to an escort leader to ask for this and that.

For Woo Dong-won, it was even more absurd.

* * *

Before even fifteen minutes, all the medicinal herbs Chui had mentioned were brought.

Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa dragged Woo Dong-won to the medicine storage room, scraped up all the stocked herbs, and handed them to him.

To Woo Dong-won, whose eyes were wide with surprise, Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa questioned him thoroughly.

‘What kind of person is he?’

Woo Dong-won asked back with a puzzled expression.

‘He’s a lackey I’m fond of. Why do you ask?’

Hearing those words, Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa only sighed heavily.

‘No. He must have some intention. He will speak when the time comes. Go now. If you need anything else in the future, come to me.’

Woo Dong-won could not understand this situation at all.

He kept tilting his head, bringing the herbs and handing them to Chui.

Surprisingly, by that time, Chui had already raised his body and was walking around perfectly fine.

Chui spoke without even looking at Woo Dong-won.

“Do not let anyone enter this room until I come out. If anything happens, tell Escort Leader Ju.”

“Ch-Chui, you… what kind of guy are you?”

Woo Dong-won asked with a trembling voice, but Chui easily ignored the question.

Eventually.

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

Sssssssss…

Dark red demonic energy boiled up from his entire body.

This energy was a foreign energy different from any demonic art existing in this world.

In fact, even just passing the stage of Bowed Pavilion and rising to the realm of Towering Vessel, the energy of Spear Ghost Calling transformed into something completely different and foreign from before.

By that time, no one except Chui would be able to recognize that this was a demonic art.

‘No. Hong Gong, he would recognize the identity of my martial art. Since he is the founder of Spear Ghost Calling.’

Suddenly, Chui’s thoughts drifted to Hong Gong, who had been his master.

Where and what was he doing by now?

Was he perhaps in the middle of being chased by the Martial Alliance and the Heterodox Alliance?

Or was he still reigning as the great Envoy of the Right Divine General of the Demonic Cult?

The memories inside Chui’s head tangled in disorder.

…The battlefield on a rainy night.

…The trench warfare where blood and flesh flew about.

…Hong Gong, who was dying, hemiplegic.

…Ho Ye-yang, who had seared her face and chest with charcoal embers and swallowed them to even change her voice.

Every time he climbed a step dyed in blood, the scenes appearing before his eyes changed.

Eventually, Chui stood in front of a giant gate.

A giant gate made of blood, tendons, bones, and internal organs.

Beyond this gate existed stairs leading to higher places.

Stairs that were incomparably larger and higher than the ones he had climbed so far.

However, Chui, who had already climbed all those stairs, knew.

That this was only the beginning.

Creeeeeeeeak…

Chui opened the gate.

And he took his first step toward the giant stairs visible beyond it.

Just then.

‘Are you going?’

From behind, an unpleasant voice, like scratching an iron plate with something sharp, was heard.

Chui turned his head.

Standing there was Ho Ye-yang of the past, in his memories.

She spoke with a distorted face and a burnt voice.

‘You are going.’

Chui shut his mouth.

Then he quietly nodded.

At that, Ho Ye-yang laughed.

Although it was not clearly visible because of her distorted face, Chui, who had spent a long time with her, could recognize it.

‘Farewell.’

Ho Ye-yang said.

Chui spoke too.

‘Take care.’

His mouth gaped, but no voice came out in the end.

Eventually, the moment Chui stepped onto the first stair, crossing the threshold of Towering Vessel.

…Flash!

His eyes opened.

Chui raised his upper body.

Black sweat had completely soaked the bed.

Along with a terrible smell of filth, the sweat smelled of various herbal medicines boiled together.

“…”

Chui checked his body.

He had grown taller, and his bones had become thicker.

His skin, which was originally white, became even whiter, and fine muscles packed tightly throughout his body.

The first stair of Towering Vessel.

By placing his foot here, Chui’s realm, which was somewhere between first-class and peak, reached the stage of mature peak.

And as soon as he judged that everything was perfectly prepared.

…Bang!

Chui kicked off the bed and stood up.

“Is it the next turn?”

Since his body had recovered and his martial realm had also heightened, it was now time to go out to work again.

“Only the real ones are left.”

The third target of revenge, following the Black Path Gang and the Cao Family Manor.

Chui kicked open the stable door as he pictured their faces in his mind.

The overlord of Anhui Province.

The pinnacle of the Five Great Clans.

A pillar of the Fifteen Pillars of the Orthodox Path.

It was precisely in the direction of the Namgung Clan.

Unrivaled Spear Ghost