Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 63: Supreme Law of Essence Absorption (1)

The Chunbong Spirit Pill Exploration Team traveled for about half a day before arriving at an unnamed mountain.

In the dark forest where sunlight could not reach due to the densely grown trees, Seojun quietly chanted.

“Light.”

Whoosh!

The flames that arose lit up their surroundings brightly.

Chunbong tilted her head.

“La-i-tu? I’ve definitely heard that before.”

“It means light. It’s a Western word.”

“Ah, I see. But why is he doing that?”

“Perhaps Young Expert has some profound meaning behind it?”

“Doubt it. I know him well.”

Correct, Geum Chunbong!

With fire qi in his hand as a makeshift torch, Seojun looked around.

“So where do we go now?”

“Hmm... Probably that way.”

Chunbong pointed in a direction after alternately checking the compass and map.

Caw caw—

As Seojun marched forward vigorously with crow cries as background music, Namgung Suah stopped him.

“Young Expert, that will drain your inner qi too much. We can also infuse our eyes with inner qi to enhance our vision, so you don’t need to do that.”

“Ah, it’s fine. I’m replenishing it as I walk.”

In fact, the efficiency had become ridiculously good after breaking through his Conception and Governing Vessels.

From Seojun’s perspective, he thought other Transcendent Realm martial artists could probably circulate their qi to some extent while walking too.

“I know that upon reaching the Transcendent Realm, one can circulate qi to some degree while walking, but the efficiency isn’t good. I’ve heard it consumes a lot of mental energy and the inner qi recovery is negligible.”

Was that how it was? Now he knew.

Seojun nodded, and Chunbong, watching him, sighed.

“Leave him be. He was like this even before reaching the Transcendent Realm. He just wastes his inner qi recklessly.”

“Pardon?”

“He could fill up an empty dantian in just a few minutes even while running, basically.”

“...How is that possible?”

“I don’t know either..”

Seojun chimed in.

“Come on, Miss Geum. I definitely taught you.”

“Is ‘Breathe in then whoosh! Bam!’ supposed to be an explanation?!”

“I’m telling you it’s true!”

“Haah... forget it.”

Chunbong shook her head and stretched out her hand.

“It’s that way. We’re almost there now.”

She said. After walking a bit further, they came across a tall cliff. In the middle of that cliff, there seemed to be a cave.

“Wow...”

How do we climb this? Seojun pondered and then drew his sword.

He could use light body arts to make his body lighter and then use the mysterious principle of absorption to run up the cliff like flat ground, but that seemed a bit tiring.

Release!

Golden sword qi enveloped Seojun’s sword.

“Stairs would be more convenient, wouldn’t it?”

“Woohoo.”

Chunbong cheered lifelessly as she patted Seojun’s butt.

It gave him strength.

Seojun grinned and swung his sword rapidly.

Swish swish swish!

This wasn’t a sound coming from his mouth, you know.

The sword qi shot from his swings created evenly spaced gaps in the cliff face.

“Let’s go.”

Seojun took the lead, jumping onto the gaps.

As his soaring body began to slow, he stepped on the next gap and jumped, repeating this process until he reached the top.

Seojun arrived at the cave after easily climbing the cliff and shouted loudly.

“Woohoo──────!!”

─ Woohoo────────

An echo came back.

The echo wasn’t coming from very far roughing estimating by intuition. There was probably a rock just ahead since the entrance was said to be blocked by one.

Chunbong and Namgung Suah arrived shortly after and nodded.

“Shall we go in?”

Namgung Suah, holding her long greatsword, took the lead as she looked around the cave.

“Hmm... it seems to be quite an old cave. Judging by the shape of the walls, it appears to be artificially made... Maybe it really is a secret cave.”

“But why has it remained untouched until now?”

“I’m not too sure either?”

“I see.”

That’s right.

They went a bit further in and saw a large rock blocking the cave, just as the information from the Hao Sect had said.

Tap tap, Seojun knocked on the rock and nodded.

“This is probably why they couldn’t get in, right?”

It’s not an ordinary rock.

As Seojun stared at it, Namgung Suah drew her greatsword.

“I’ll do it, Young Expert.”

She opened her nearly closed eyes wide.

Blue light flashed in her eyes as lightning descended upon her greatsword.

“Jeez.”

Just as Seojun quickly retreated,

Rumble!

With a thunderous sound, Namgung Suah shot forward rapidly.

BOOM────────!!

A cloud of dust rose.

“Oh no, my Chunbong.”

Seojun covered her mouth and nose with his hand while waving away the dust.

“Wha wath tha?”

Seojun looked ahead hearing her nasally voice and then his eyes widened.

“Oh.”

Even after taking Namgung Suah’s strike, nothing had significantly changed.

Her eyebrows twitched as she looked at the slightly scratched rock and stepped back.

“This rock... absorbs qi. I’ve never heard of such a material... What could it be?”

“I’m not sure. Should I give it a try?””

Namgung Suah blinked at Seojun, then smiled softly and nodded.

“If you please, Young Expert.”

“Oh...”

If it were Chunbong, she would have kept swinging her sword until she collapsed from exhaustion, determined to break it no matter what.

Their personalities are certainly different.

Having realized this obvious fact anew, Seojun placed his hand on the rock.

“Let’s see...”

When he let his qi flow, the rock absorbed it just as Namgung Suah had said.

He could keep pouring in qi until the rock broke, Chunbong-style, but smart murim master Lee Seojun doesn’t do such foolish things.

Seojun changed the nature of the flowing inner qi to yang qi and quietly observed the rock.

The yang qi with its hot characteristic maximized caused the rock’s surface to heat up quickly, making the air shimmer.

Yin-Yang Reversal.

The yang qi transformed into yin qi.

Simultaneously, the heated rock cooled at an abnormal rate, and,

Crack────────

It became covered in lines, on the verge of shattering.

“Alright! Big sis, I’ll let you have the final blow. Take your revenge!”

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

As Seojun stepped back, Namgung Suah blinked blankly before chuckling and striking the rock with her palm.

Crash!

The massive rock crumbled under her fairly powerful blow.

Clap clap clap, Namgung Suah stared at Seojun applauding before slowly licking her lips with her pink tongue.

“If you keep doing that... I might have trouble, you know?”

“Huh?”

“Fufu, it’s nothing.”

Namgung Suah smiled slyly, her eyes curving.

In that instant, all the hair on Chunbong’s body stood on end and she quickly clung to Seojun’s waist.

“Hey, hey! I just felt something really weird!”

“Whoa, you too? Me too.”

As Seojun and Chunbong hugged each other tightly, shaking, Namgung Suah blinked.

“Oh my, I won’t eat you.”

“Eek...!”

“Hey! You’re in big trouble!”

“Save me little Chunbong!”

“You save me!”

“What?! You brat!”

He ended the short comedy skit by pinching Chunbong’s cheeks.

Anyway, after some twists and turns, they entered the cave only to find nothing but darkness of unfathomable depth.

Blaze!

Seojun ignited a flame in his hand.

Thump thump—

Each step echoed, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Seojun shuddered at the creepy sensation touching his skin.

“What’s this?”

“Is something there?”

“Hmm... Let’s go in a bit further.”

I guess the only fortunate thing is that there are no branching paths?

After venturing deeper in and reaching a massive cavern, Seojun frowned.

The qi that had been bothering him was thickly permeating this place.

“It’s death qi. The aura of death is strong here.”

Namgung Suah muttered as she looked around.

“What could it be? Gu poison? A seal?”

Countless bones were scattered all over the cavern.

Namgung Suah examined the massive, inhuman bones one by one. Suddenly, she seemed to discover something and gestured for the group to come over.

“It seems that, whether intentionally or not, gu poison was created here.”

When small poisonous insects are trapped in a box, only one survives by eating the others, developing a terrible poison.

The surviving venomous creature is called gu poison, but here it seemed demonic creatures were used instead of insects.

A massive snake was occupying approximately half of the vast cavern where she pointed towards.

Seojun, having just noticed, opened his eyes wide.

“Why’s it so big?”

Seojun approached the snake and tapped its huge body, hearing a strange rumbling sound.

He blinked and turned his head.

His eyes met a giant eyeball as big as a human torso.

“EEK!”

Startled, Seojun reflexively punched it.

BOOM──────!!

The snake’s head shattered and it died.

“What just...?”

It didn’t seem like it would die from just that weak of a punch though?

The snake’s aura itself was close to the Transcendent Realm. It could have been quite troublesome in a fight given its size, but it died in one hit?

As Seojun was bewildered, Namgung Suah chuckled and pointed at the snake’s emaciated body.

“It seems it was on the verge of death from starvation for a very long time. For a demonic creature of this size to starve to death... I can’t even imagine how old this cave must be.”

“Man.”

Grumbling, he realized something had caught his qi detection and his eyes widened.

“Oh?”

He swiftly drew his sword, coating it with sword qi. With a powerful swing, he chopped the snake into pieces, blood and internal organs flooding out.

“Ugh...! Come on! If you’re gonna do something, at least say something first!”

Chunbong complained, but it was worth it.

Seojun smiled contentedly as he picked up an inner core the size of an adult male’s fist from among the spilled organs.

“Wow, jackpot. We hit the motherlode!”

Is it what it feels like to get free money?

Feels almost too good.

*The Soul-Stealing Demon, Hyeok Mukang, ran desperately.

Facing Shaolin alone was madness. Even a demonic practitioner with a head full of demonic qi knew to avoid jumping into a fire pit.

I’ve already succeeded in sneaking into Henan anyway, so it’s fine.

Long ago, he had seen a record left by the previous generation’s Demonic Doctor.

What would happen if we made gu poison with demonic creatures?

Demonic creatures contain inner cores to advance to the next realm. If they survived the gu process they would surely contain an inner core with immense energy.

Even if we miss the timing and can’t retrieve the inner core, it’s fine. The powerful demonic beast created from the gu process will turn Henan into a wasteland.

The Soul-Stealing Demon immediately chewed and swallowed the record along with the map after reading it.

According to the following content, there weren’t particularly strong defenses set up there.

It said they blocked the cave dug in the middle of the cliff with a mixture of soil and gravel, but the entrance had probably been exposed after a long time.

Other than that, there was only a single rock that would be difficult to break through for those at the Peak Realm.

The rock’s material was created by the Divine Cult at the time, but it wouldn’t be difficult to break through for someone at the Transcendent Realm.

However, most ordinary Transcendent Realm martial artists would either be holed up somewhere focusing on cultivation to reach the Unrestrained Realm, or wandering the Central Plains looking for worthy opponents.

At the Transcendent Realm level, fortuitous encounters don’t hold much significance. Unless they discover some extraordinary martial art, that is.

So there was still a possibility, however slight, that the gu might remain.

If the inner core remains, this old man will put it to good use, Demonic Doctor.

For an ordinary martial artist, consuming an unrefined demonic creature’s inner core would be madness that hastens qi deviation, but the Soul-Stealing Demon was different.

Absorbing all kinds of qi was his specialty.

The Soul-Stealing Demon was a great master of the Supreme Law of Essence Absorption.