Chapter 197

Cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow.

The name literally meant shedding one’s hair and cleansing one’s bones and muscles. It was a procedure performed only by prestigious sects with long histories.

By using internal energy to reshape the bones and muscles and purge the waste accumulated within the body, it transformed a person’s constitution into one better suited to learning martial arts.

Cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow had to be performed steadily over multiple sessions. The problem was that both the requirements and the process were extremely demanding.

After hearing Jeok Cheongang’s explanation, I asked, “Is it really that difficult?”

Jeok Cheongang nodded.

“You’re artificially changing the body you were born with. Did you really think that would be easy and convenient? If it were, there wouldn’t be anyone in this world who wasn’t a master.”

Fair enough.

An ordinary person had to grit their teeth and work out for months just to carve out a six-pack.

Changing your very bones, muscles, and constitution would obviously be far more difficult.

“Cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow requires three things.”

He said it was incredibly difficult, but there are only three?

That thought vanished the instant Jeok Cheongang continued.

“First, an internal-energy master with at least two jiazi of internal energy.”

“…Yikes.”

The difficulty level was brutal right from the start.

Two jiazi amounted to a full one hundred and twenty years. How many people under heaven could possibly possess that much internal energy?

There had to be very few, and Jeok Cheongang, standing right in front of me, was one of them.

He raised two wrinkled fingers.

“Second, money.”

“Why do you need money?”

“Because you need elixirs for the recipient to absorb. The practitioner must guide and circulate the qi filling the recipient’s body. Every sect has its own method, but it is no exaggeration to say the process costs a thousand gold.”

“It would be difficult for anyone outside the Nine Sects and One Gang¹ or the Five Great Families.²”

“Not merely difficult. Extremely difficult. Was it Baek Museong? That Huashan-something fellow seems to have undergone it.”

This was an investment in the most literal sense. Sects selected promising young talents with bright futures and performed the procedure on them.

If Baek Museong was a blue-chip stock, Huashan would certainly have considered him worth the investment.

“Then what about Cheongpung?”

“Do you think the Sword Saint would have simply stood by and watched? He must have refined the boy’s body bit by bit from a very young age.”

Damn it. I’m the only one who missed out.

I had thought the Jin Family of Taiyuan was at least a silver spoon by Murim standards. But compared to the diamond-spoon babies who underwent the procedure as casually as double-eyelid surgery,³ we were nothing.

“What’s the third and final requirement?”

“Endurance.”

“Huh?”

“Cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow changes the bones, muscles, and constitution one was born with. The bones and muscles twist and settle back into place, and the process inevitably causes tremendous pain.”

“How painful are we talking?”

Jeok Cheongang answered without hesitation.

“Painful enough to kill you.”

“…Painful enough to kill me?”

“People really do die.”

“Gasp.”

“In the Sichuan Tang Clan, they fill a jar with more than a thousand different venomous creatures, and then…”

The longer Jeok Cheongang talked, the more my stomach seemed to shrivel. I swallowed hard.

“T-That’s only how the Sichuan Tang Clan does it, right?”

“Of course. Our sect has its own secret method.”

“You don’t stack up more than a thousand logs, make me climb on top, and set them on fire or something…?”

“…”

“I guess not. Sorry.”

“What the hell do you think our sect is?”

Jeok Cheongang glared at me with round, bulging eyes before shaking his head.

“Cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow cannot be prepared overnight. Today, this old man will merely straighten your bones and muscles with internal energy. Whether you stuff yourself with elixirs afterward is your concern.”

“Ah. Okay.”

Come to think of it, Jeok Cheongang had arrived empty-handed. If he had intended to perform the procedure properly, he would have brought elixirs and all the other necessities.

“Should I take off my clothes, then?”

“Ask me that one more time, and I’ll strip off your skin as well.”

I stripped off every piece of clothing I was wearing at the speed of light.

Jeok Cheongang’s gaze roamed over my completely naked body, and a strange look entered his eyes.

“This is…”

“Yes?”

“Ah, never mind. It’s nothing.”

What was that? Why did the atmosphere suddenly become so ominous?

As I wondered what was wrong with the old man, I realized something and grinned.

“Come on, now. We’re all friends here. Why are you acting like that?”

“…?”

“Honestly, this size is absolutely not normal. I was shocked myself when I first saw it. Do you know the Amazon? There’s something called a black anaconda there. It’s just—whoosh. Really enormous. Whew.”

“…!”

“I understand that you’re surprised, but you still can’t touch it. Got it?”

Whoosh—whack!

With a short rush of wind, a tightly clenched fist slammed into my temple.

Ding.

System

Status effect: Unconsciousness has been removed.

I came to with the System notification, stared up at the familiar ceiling, and muttered, “Damn, you could’ve just said you wouldn’t touch it. Why hit me?”

Did he really want to touch it that badly? Was he upset because I turned him down so firmly?

I rubbed my throbbing temple and sat up. Several System messages I had not yet read were floating before my eyes.

“Huh? The cleansing is already over?”

I looked around, but Jeok Cheongang was nowhere to be seen.

Apparently, he had finished the procedure in a flash and left while I was unconscious. At least, that was what the messages suggested.

System

Cleansing the Sinews and Washing the Marrow has been successfully completed.

Muscles and Bones and Sinews and Meridians have increased by 5 each.

Strength, Stamina, and Agility have increased by 1 each.

“Oh…”

A weak murmur of admiration escaped me.

It was definitely good. I was undoubtedly better off than before. This was the sort of improvement that would normally require one level-up and plenty of steady training.

But…

“Is that really all?”

Form is temporary, but class is forever.

It might have been a makeshift procedure performed without proper preparation, but cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow was still cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow.

I had expected some incredible effect. Instead, I was so disappointed that I was practically bewildered.

“What the hell?”

In Murim novels, these things were practically cheat codes.

Bone Transformation and cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow were practically basic requirements for any protagonist.

Even a sickly weakling could undergo both, turn into a thug, and run rampant through the Murim.

So what was wrong with me?

“Did he just half-ass it?”

Just then, the door opened, and Hyuk Mujin cautiously poked his head inside.

“May I come in—gasp.”

As I pulled on the clothes scattered across the floor, I said:

“Just so we’re clear, if you get any strange ideas, I’ll crack your skull. And by skull, I mean your head.”

“Then why are you naked?”

“The old man worked on my body.”

“Your body? With you completely naked?”

“…You’re making that sound weird.”

Hyuk Mujin flinched and hurriedly waved his hands.

“N-No. That’s not what I meant. Great Hero Jeok looked so strange when I ran into him earlier that I came to see if something had happened.”

“His expression was strange?”

“His face was completely rigid. He looked like he’d been startled by something, or maybe like he was angry.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He looked so frightening that I couldn’t even bring myself to speak to him.”

“Why?”

“How would I know?”

I tilted my head. Had something happened all of a sudden?

Jeok Cheongang walked along, lost in thought.

People who recognized him bowed from every direction, but his mind was filled with only one person.

Jin Taekyung.

His assessment of the young man had changed several times over the past few days.

First, he had been an interesting fellow. Then he had become an infuriating bastard who burned his sect’s martial arts manual. And today, the moment Jeok Cheongang saw Jin Taekyung’s naked body for the first time, a new thought had occurred to him.

What a strange fellow.

Even at a glance, Jin Taekyung possessed exceptional bones and muscles. They were so remarkable that it seemed a waste for him to languish in a backwater like this.

But once Jeok Cheongang saw the body hidden beneath his clothes with his own eyes, he realized it was beyond anything he had expected.

How can a body be this perfectly balanced?

The human body grew over time, but balance was another matter.

One’s everyday posture and even the smallest habits in how one dressed, ate, and lived could throw that balance off.

A swordsman who wielded his sword with his right hand would naturally have more muscle and greater strength in his right arm.

It was as natural as water flowing downhill.

But Jin Taekyung was different.

…What is this fellow?

The length and angle of every bone. The shape and form of every muscle.

Every part of him was in perfect balance.

It was as though some unknown, omnipotent being had drawn one half of Jin Taekyung on a blank sheet of paper, folded it over, and then opened it again.

Could he have undergone cleansing steadily since childhood? No. Even cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow couldn’t achieve this.

In the past, Jeok Cheongang had agonized and conducted extensive research for Jangcheon, whose bones and muscles were lacking. Eventually, he had found the best possible method and performed the procedure on him.

The treatment had succeeded, but that experience had taught Jeok Cheongang one thing.

Even cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow has its limits.

The phrase perfect balance did not belong anywhere near the human body.

Even if one spent ten thousand gold instead of a thousand, minute flaws would remain. But Jin Taekyung was different.

Jeok Cheongang had kneaded and touched his unconscious body from head to toe.

He had felt the tough, elastic skin and the strength filling both the surface and the depths of his body. He had circulated his internal energy through Taekyung’s body and confirmed the broad, sturdy Sinews and Meridians within.

And then he had been stunned.

How can a body like this exist?

It was perfect. He almost wondered if this was what the legendary Bone Transformation he had only heard about would look like.

Jeok Cheongang had met several Supreme Peak masters in his life, including the peerless master Mae Jonghak, the Sword Saint.

But he could say this without hesitation: Of all the bones and muscles he had ever seen, Jin Taekyung’s were the finest under heaven.

Could it be…

Jeok Cheongang had been staring blankly for some time when a thought flashed through his mind, making his entire body tremble.

The Murim held sayings passed down like legends from the distant past.

The Heavenly Martial Physique, said to be born through a caprice of Heaven once every several hundred—or perhaps even a thousand—years, was one of them.

The Heavenly Martial Physique? I must be out of my mind.

But the longer Jeok Cheongang examined Jin Taekyung’s body, the deeper his suspicions grew and the more tangled his thoughts became.

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that there was nothing about that body in need of correction.

Once he finished the mere formality that could barely be called cleansing the sinews and washing the marrow, his concerns only deepened.

If that boy truly possesses the Heavenly Martial Physique, what would happen if he learned martial arts even greater than those he knows now and absorbed elixirs?

His thoughts continued chasing one another long after he left the pavilion.

At last, the desire coiled deep within Jeok Cheongang’s heart raised its head.

“What if… I taught that boy?”

The mutter escaped him before he realized it, and Jeok Cheongang was startled.

A Disciple?

His only Disciple had betrayed their sect and was no longer of this world.

The wound from that betrayal had not even healed, and he was already thinking of taking another Disciple.

Worse, he was over a hundred years old, and the infirmities of old age had already begun to cloud his mind.

Even if I don’t do it, Mae Jonghak could find a worthy talent and carry on our sect’s legacy.

He had told no one, but Jeok Cheongang had planned to seek out the Sword Saint Mae Jonghak as soon as he left the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

Mae Jonghak possessed martial arts counted among the strongest under heaven and had no selfish ambitions. Jeok Cheongang planned to entrust the Fire Gate Clan’s succession to him.

And now, at this late hour, I entertain such an absurd thought? Jeok Cheongang, you stupid bastard. You fool.

Jeok Cheongang was sighing heavily and staring up at the sky when a voice reached him.

“Great Hero Jeok. Is something troubling you?”

The polite voice belonged to Jin Wikyung, a giant of a man.

Jeok Cheongang, who had been thinking of Jin Taekyung at that very moment, flinched.

“Uh, yes?”

It was already the third day since Jeok Cheongang had begun staying at the Jin Family of Taiyuan. Seeing him act so unlike himself, Jin Wikyung asked cautiously, “Is there perhaps something making you uncomfortable…?”

“N-No. It’s nothing.”

“Then I’m relieved.”

Jeok Cheongang waved a hand while gazing toward a distant mountain.

“There’s nothing wrong with this old man. I’m perfectly fine, so go about your business.”

“Um, did you perhaps have something you wished to say to me?”

“I said I don’t.”

“Are you certain?”

“I said I am! Stop worrying about it and be on your way.”

“…Great Hero Jeok?”

“Ah, what is it?”

When Jeok Cheongang finally exploded, Jin Wikyung hesitated before speaking.

“Great Hero Jeok, you are standing directly in front of my office.”

“…”

“Would you care to come in for a cup of tea and a conversation?”

After a brief silence, Jeok Cheongang cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Give me liquor instead of tea.”

Whatever his mind might have said, Jeok Cheongang’s feet had been honest.