Chapter 118

“Was it fun being the only one popping pills?”

“What?”

“I asked if it was fun popping pills all by yourself.”

Pung Yang let out a hollow laugh.

For a mere brat barely twenty, his speech was far too disrespectful. Had being born the youngest young master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and being called the Sleeping Dragon made him think he could get away with anything?

“What a brat. Heh.”

The hollow laughter soon faded, and killing intent filled his eyes.

“Must you see the coffin before you shed tears?”

Jin Taekyung’s eyes widened.

“Wow, that line sounds really weird when you hear it in real life. Say it again.”

“You’re beyond reasoning with.”

As he approached at a leisurely pace, Pung Yang wondered how he could make that young brat beg for his life.

His usual method was to pull out the tongue and slowly break all four limbs. But he couldn’t treat a valuable body that knew the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s martial arts so carelessly.

A reasonable compromise was necessary.

If I sever the sinews and meridians in his legs, he’ll quiet down.

He had already crossed a river of no return with the Jin Family of Taiyuan. Once this fight was over, Pung Yang planned to retreat into some remote mountain valley untouched by human feet, refine his martial arts, and then return to the Murim.

The Red Wind Band had been annihilated, but he could always gather another force. The Murim was ruled by the strong, after all.

“You brought all of this upon yourself, so don’t blame me.”

Pung Yang was just tightening his grip on his curved saber when—

“Ah, wait a second.”

Jin Taekyung held up a hand, then casually tossed something into his mouth.

The action was so natural that Pung Yang couldn’t help stopping.

What is he doing?

His question was answered a moment later.

After Jin Taekyung’s body shuddered once, tremendous heat began to rise from every inch of him.

I had only one option left.

One final gamble with the Blazing Flame Divine Pill.

It was dangerous, but still a hundred times better than dying after Pung Yang forced me to cough up the formulas for the Jin Family’s martial arts.

Gulp.

True to its status as a divine elixir, the pill melted the instant it touched my tongue and slid down my throat. The problem began after that.

Ding.

System

• You have taken the Blazing Flame Divine Pill.
• Circulate your qi to control its energy.

Hot.

The thirty years of internal energy contained within the Blazing Flame Divine Pill spread through every part of my body like wildfire.

System

• You have temporarily gained the Scorching Yang Qi attribute.
• Your internal energy has temporarily increased to 45 years.
• If you cannot control the energy, you may die!
• Quest, Divine Pill Absorption, has been created.

I had no time to check the System notifications chiming incessantly in my ears. I already had my hands full trying to control the Blazing Flame Divine Pill’s energy as it rampaged through my body.

“Hoo. Hooooo.”

I felt like a human pressure cooker. Smoke curled from my entire body as though I were actually on fire.

The snow beneath my feet melted, and the damp earth softened until it ran like water.

I expected it to some extent, but this is…

It was far beyond anything I’d imagined. I couldn’t even scream. All I could do was tremble as Pung Yang’s voice cut into my ears.

“What have you done?”

Seeing the bewilderment on his face actually made the heat subside a little.

I forced the corners of my mouth upward.

“What else? I’m going all in.”

“You brat!”

Had he sensed something ominous in my answer? Pung Yang’s curved saber flew toward me at a blinding speed. A red strand of saber qi extended from the blade and aimed for my chest.

Swish!

Death missed me by exactly half a step. The curved saber missed its target and drew another dizzying arc.

Shh-shh-shh-shhk!

But once again, the blade only cut through empty air. Pung Yang’s face twisted as he stared at me, already backed away.

“You…!”

“What, asshole?”

I answered as casually as I could, but no one was more surprised than me. When we’d crossed hands earlier, I hadn’t been able to dodge him this easily.

This was on an entirely different level from before, when Pung Yang’s overwhelming aura and saber qi had forced me to do nothing but evade.

Since when has my body felt this light?

The instant I thought I needed to avoid an attack, my body moved faster than ever before. And that wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

I can see everything clearly.

I could see and read every one of Pung Yang’s movements. If I could see his attacks, there was no reason I couldn’t evade them. I felt like I could dodge even saber force, let alone saber qi.

At last, I understood why.

It’s the internal energy.

My original fifteen years of internal energy had combined with the thirty years from the Blazing Flame Divine Pill. I couldn’t control it perfectly, but that didn’t mean the power of those thirty years had vanished.

Like an overinflated balloon, the Blazing Flame Divine Pill’s energy filled my entire body.

The problem is that I have no idea when this balloon will burst.

So I had to take Pung Yang down before it did.

Feeling the heat bubbling up inside me, I adjusted my grip on the iron spear.

“Come at me.”

Pung Yang bit his lip.

“Young brat, you’re already getting cocky. Someone like you doesn’t stand a chance against me.”

“You look pretty tense for someone saying that.”

“A wild beast gives its all even when catching a rabbit.”

“But a wild beast doesn’t take a Temporary Strength Pill to catch a rabbit.”

“…!”

Shock flashed across Pung Yang’s face. He stared at me with his mouth hanging open, then stammered.

“T-Temporary Strength Pill?”

“Yeah. Temporary Strength Pill.”

“How do you know that name?”

“Corporate secret, asshole.”

“Did you take one too?”

“Well, I did eat something similar.”

I wondered whether he would recognize the name Blazing Flame Divine Pill.

Compared to the Temporary Strength Pill, its stability was complete garbage. As for how powerful its effects were, I intended to find out right now.

“You’re fucking dead.”

With those final words, I kicked off the ground.

Shweeeeeek!

Pung Yang was deeply troubled.

How does that brat know about the Temporary Strength Pill?

The existence of the Temporary Strength Pill was a secret he had to take to his grave.

It was a hidden trump card that might one day save his life. But if word of it spread, this wondrous object would bring a bloodbath upon the world.

Just the fact that it could draw out two or three times the power of the person who took it would be enough to make martial artists throughout the land salivate and come running.

But there was an even greater problem.

It’s a legacy of demonic, heterodox arts.

After the Great Faction War, the Murim had fallen into the hands of the orthodox factions.

If even a rumor spread that Pung Yang had inherited the legacy of demonic, heterodox arts, it wouldn’t be only the Jin Family of Taiyuan pursuing him. The entire Murim would come after him.

Jin Taekyung, the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi… I must kill him and eliminate the trouble he’ll cause later.

Pung Yang gritted his teeth and unleashed his martial art.

After only a few years of training, he had already attained seventy percent mastery of the Crimson Blood Twelve Sabers. It was more than enough to kill a brat hopelessly beneath him in both age and martial arts.

“Die!”

Shiiing!

The Crimson Blood Twelve Sabers was a domineering martial art. Red saber qi shot from the curved saber and slashed wildly in every direction. The fierce momentum split open the surface of the earth and burst the air apart.

Yet the target it was meant to cut was no longer there.

Jin Taekyung dodged the attack by exactly half a step and thrust his spear.

Shweeeeeek!

The spearhead drove toward Pung Yang’s throat. He hastily twisted his head aside to evade it, and a chill ran through his chest.

Fast.

Fast and accurate. Jin Taekyung had yet to reach the stage of injuring others with Sword Energy, the hallmark of a Peak master, but his movements had already caught up to Pung Yang’s.

Could this brat have taken the Temporary Strength Pill too? No. It’s completely different from mine.

Pung Yang had taken the Temporary Strength Pill several times before.

One look at Jin Taekyung’s body, flushed bright red with heat, was enough to tell him that the pill the brat had swallowed wasn’t a Temporary Strength Pill.

Then what did he—wait!

Pung Yang couldn’t finish the thought. Jin Taekyung had finally seized the initiative and begun unleashing the Jin Family’s Spear Technique in earnest.

Shh-shh-shh-shh-shhk!

Dozens of spear shadows poured down like a rain shower. The sight alone was suffocating.

No, it wasn’t just an illusion. It really was suffocating.

A bead of sweat rolled down Pung Yang’s forehead.

This is…

Scorching Yang Qi.

And not just any Scorching Yang Qi. It was powerful enough to affect even Pung Yang, a Peak master. The Tiger of Mount Heng, Cheol Mubaek, had also possessed Scorching Yang Qi, but it couldn’t compare to what Jin Taekyung was emitting now.

He took a divine elixir—a Scorching Yang-type divine elixir!

Whooooom!

Recognizing it changed nothing. The heat was dizzying, and the attacks were sharp. Pung Yang bit down hard on his lip as he retreated again and again, barely evading the spearhead.

Against a brat this young!

He had lived his entire life fiercely. Now, even after taking the Temporary Strength Pill, he felt humiliated to be driven back by a young brat who had only just begun making a name for himself.

That anger flowed straight into his curved saber. The saber qi rising over the blade blazed redder than ever.

Hiss!

The Jin Family’s Spear Technique and the Crimson Blood Twelve Sabers differed in both weapon and form, but they had one thing in common: both were domineering martial arts.

In the blink of an eye, Jin Mukyung’s iron spear and Pung Yang’s curved saber finally parted after more than ten fierce exchanges.

“Hmm.”

Jin Taekyung was the first to retreat. Blood flowed from his torn palm, and the heavy, sturdy iron spear had been cut by the sharp saber qi until less than half of it remained.

“You fool.”

Pung Yang smiled triumphantly. For a martial artist, losing one’s weapon meant defeat.

Even the Tiger of Mount Heng, Cheol Mubaek, who had built his reputation with nothing but his fists and feet, had knelt before Pung Yang. Jin Taekyung hadn’t even crossed the wall into the Peak realm. The moment he lost his weapon, he was as good as dead.

“Did you think you could defeat me head-on?”

Jin Taekyung wiped the blood from his palm and answered.

“No. But I did learn some valuable information.”

“…Valuable information?”

“Yeah. I figured out your attack pattern.”

“Pat—what?”

“Your attack pattern is strong, strong, strong, strong, strong.”

What kind of bullshit is this?

Pung Yang understood that the brat was talking about his martial arts, but he had never heard of this “pattern-whatever” before. And what did he mean by strong, strong, strong, strong, strong?

Pung Yang glared at Jin Taekyung with murder in his eyes.

“I’ll sever the sinews and meridians in all four of your limbs as payment for that nonsense.”

Jin Taekyung opened his mouth with a bored expression.

“You really like cutting off and pulling out people’s limbs. Do you have a limb fetish?”

“You little bastard…”

“You old bastard…”

Pung Yang drew a deep breath. He was a Peak master who had spent his entire life possessing a cool, rational mind. But he couldn’t stop his voice from breaking into pieces with anger.

“You. Will. Die. By. My. Hand.”

“I. Sometimes. Cut off. Limbs. Sometimes. I don’t like this version of myself.”

He felt his patience snap. He could swear that he had never been this furious in nearly ten years.

“Graaaargh!”

Pung Yang charged like a madman, unleashing a strange cry that could have been either a scream or a roar.

Without using any form or martial art, he brought the curved saber down over the crown of Jin Taekyung’s head with all his strength.

“Die!”

That was when Jin Taekyung’s calm expression was reflected in Pung Yang’s bloodshot eyes gleaming with killing intent.

In an instant, his mind snapped clear as though someone had dumped cold water over him.

Something’s wrong.

Pung Yang drew up his internal energy with all his might.

As his Body-Protecting Qi rose, a dagger flashed in Jin Taekyung’s previously empty hand.

Shnk!