So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?
Chapter 442 : Awe (4)While the warriors rushed out of the yurt to execute the Khan’s command, Namguru stayed inside.
He cautiously tried to rise to his feet, watching the room carefully for any reaction as he rose.
"T-Then, this humble servant shall also prepare for war."
The Khan let out a dry laugh.
"Hah. Who says that you are going to join the war?”
Namguru hurriedly lifted his head with an uneasy expression, only to meet the Khan’s eyes.
"You let yourself get played by those fanatics, and you have the audacity to crawl back here after losing hundreds of our warriors. What makes you think you have the right to step onto a battlefield ever again?"
And those very eyes looked at him like a predator eyeing its prey.
Slick.
That was the last thing Namguru ever saw before his head left his shoulders.
***
After carving out the section of flesh housing the serpent’s Inner Core, Il-mok carried the severed chunk of the serpent's body and made his way out of the lake.
Once he surfaced, he used his lightness skill to tread on the water and walk to the spot where his group was waiting. And once he got there, he found them all looking at him with a wild mix of expressions.
"Is the beast's Inner Core inside that?"
When Jin Hayeon broke the silence in her characteristically flat tone, Il-mok gave a brief nod. “Dragging the entire carcass back with us would have been too cumbersome, so I cut out just the part holding the core. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be stopping the leakage."
A few among the group understood what he meant and made faces of regret.
The Inner Core was continuously bleeding out Yin Qi even with the flesh still wrapped around it. If he wanted to harvest all of its power, he needed to sit down and consume it right this second.
The problem was that there was no telling when those Mierqi bastards might come storming in to attack.
If they were attacked while Il-mok was in the middle of absorbing the core's energy, there was no telling what kind of disaster could unfold.
Just then, Jin Hayeon held out her hand as if something had occurred to her.
"Left Guardian. Could you hand the Inner Core over to me for just a moment?"
To an outsider, it might have looked like she was succumbing to greed over a priceless treasure, but Il-mok didn't harbor a single shred of doubt about her.
Once the core was cradled in her hand, Jin Hayeon began to carefully circulate the White Hand Demonic Art.
As the Yin Qi of the White Hand Demonic Art flowed from her two palms and wrapped around the core, it began to resonate with the Yin Qi already leaking from the core. Within seconds, the leaking Yin Qi stabilized and no longer seeped out.
"I will personally safeguard this until we cross the border."
"I'm counting on you."
Thanks to Jin Hayeon resolving their containment issue, the group immediately mounted their horses and rode south.
They departed from the lake sometime in the afternoon and it wasn’t until the sun had completely set and night had fallen that they finally arrived near the border fortress.
To put things in perspective, Il-mok and his party had only departed from the fortress right at sunset the previous day.
To make up for a half-day's head start, they had pushed their horses straight through the night until dawn, and only caught a few meager winks of sleep purely to rest their mounts before they rode out again and finally intercepted the Mierqi convoy that held Jong-ri Chu.
They clashed with the nomads around the Hour of the Snake and rode out for about four hours before taking a break at the saltwater lake. There, they ended up witnessing Il-mok picking a fight with a centuries-old serpent and then rode for a grueling ten hours straight back to the fortress.
By any reasonable measure, they should've been exhausted.
But Il-mok had no intention of sleeping just yet.
He headed to the quarter assigned to him and went inside with Jin Hayeon.
Maybe because she'd spent a full ten hours circulating the White Hand Demonic Art to protect the core, Jin Hayeon looked pretty worn out. Of course, given her stoic personality, she was trying her hardest to hide it.
Il-mok looked at her for a moment before speaking.
"I'm going to split the core in half. I want you to absorb the other half, Miss Jin."
"There's no need to waste it on me. The internal energy I spent protecting it will recover quickly enough once I regulate my energy," Jin Hayeon shook her head.
"It's not about that. You've lost internal energy because of me before, haven't you?"
He was referring to the aftermath of their battle with the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, where she had transferred a part of her own cultivation to stabilize the rampaging Blood Qi inside his body.
To avoid bringing up what had happened during all that more than he had to, Il-mok kept his phrasing indirect.
"...I achieved Transcendence in the White Hand Demonic Art due to that incident, Left Guardian. So I believe I have gained far more than I lost.”
"Well, if you're going to keep refusing, then I suppose I don't have a choice. I'll just have to throw half of the core in the trash."
"Excuse me? What do you mean?"
As Jin Hayeon furrowed her brow in confusion, Il-mok just gave a casual shrug.
"Just like the old folks say. Too much is also not a good thing. With my current condition, trying to gorge down all of this Yin Qi will only break the hard-earned balance between my Demonic Arts.”
If he were a martial artist who only practiced the White Hand Demonic Art, it wouldn't be an issue. But Il-mok was currently balancing three entirely different Demonic Arts inside his body.
If one specific attribute of Qi spiked too drastically at once, it was almost guaranteed to collapse his dantians due to the imbalance.
"If the core's going to be wasted either way, wouldn't it be better for you to absorb it instead, Miss Jin?"
Realizing that Il-mok wasn't just making up an excuse, Jin Hayeon thought it over for a moment before nodding. "Then I shall gladly accept the Left Guardian's kindness."
Il-mok carefully drew the Ascension Sword.
With a flash as fast as light, his blade swept through the Inner Core cradled in Jin Hayeon's hands. The instant the core split in two, the Yin Qi contained within the core erupted outward.
Not willing to let a single drop of that precious energy go to waste, Jin Hayeon instantly shoved one half toward Il-mok and tossed the other half directly into her own mouth.
Il-mok stuffed the half she'd handed him straight into his mouth and settled into a meditative position.
He could feel the intense Yin Qi surging through his throat as he swallowed the core even as it barely passed through his throat. The freezing energy inside was rampaging wildly like it was trying to freeze both his esophagus and stomach completely.
Gritting his teeth, immediately deployed the Qi of his Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword to isolate the freezing Yin Qi and then began to pluck the core’s energy strand by strand while executing the White Hand Demonic Art in tandem.
It was an excruciatingly slow and tedious process.
The core's energy was simply too massive compared to the White Hand Demonic Art Qi resting in his Upper Dantian, so there was no way to absorb it all at once.
He had no idea how long he kept his focus locked in place as he repeated the process thousands of times.
Before he knew it, beads of sweat had formed on Il-mok's forehead and were running down his chin. It's ironic that he could still sweat when his insides were on the verge of being frozen solid by the extreme Yin Qi.
It was right around the time he'd managed to absorb about half of the Yin Qi—
—Insolent fool! How dare you trespass on my domain!
That the Yang Qi of the Raging Demon Sword Art residing in his middle dantian suddenly began to convulse.
—This flame of mine cannot be extinguished by anything!
With his meridians growing cold from the Yin Qi, it seemed to have been provoked into reacting.
'Damn it. Just when it had been acting so quietly for a while.'
Thanks to constantly feeding the Ascension Sword with Blood Qi to elevate its grade, his Raging Demon Sword Art had managed to break free of Extremity.
Since then, the frequency of its psychotic outbursts had gone down drastically.
But of all the times for it to act up, it had to be now.
To suppress the side effect's outburst, Il-mok circulated the remaining energy of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword still in his Lower Dantian.
Half of the Demonic Qi of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword went toward containing the core and keeping its energy from escaping, while the other half went toward pushing back the rampaging Yang Qi.
Trying to balance two conflicting forces at once made him feel like he was performing the Wudang Sect's famed Yin-Yang Heart Art.
It’s actually worse than that since he was also simultaneously trying to siphon the Inner Core's energy using his White Hand Demonic Art on top of all that.
He felt his brain practically short-circuiting from the dizzying strain.
Just then, another voice rang out in his head.
—Hmph. You primitive idiot who only knows how to throw tantrums. Fuck off!
This time, it was the White Hand Demonic Art.
—Cast aside that hot-headed imbecile and join together with me! Every woman in the world shall be beneath you! Mwahahaha!
The White Hand Demonic Art that had been stagnant until now had ballooned in size from absorbing the core's energy and had reached Extremity.
—Mwahahaha! More! More! Absorb it all! I'll freeze that bastard solid!
Worse still, the energy of the White Hand Demonic Art broke free of the Upper Dantian on its own and lunged toward the Inner Core wrapped in Demonic Qi.
For a moment, Il-mok found himself caught in a dilemma.
'Should I stop here?'
If he spat out the core and repurposed the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword Qi he was using to seal it, he could easily crush this internal rebellion and stabilize his body.
But nearly half of the core's energy was still unabsorbed.
And more importantly, while he could easily farm Yang Qi by letting the Ascension Sword absorb blood, an opportunity to gorge on this much extreme Yin Qi might literally never present itself again for the rest of his life.
If this were the usual Il-mok, he probably would've given up and spat out the core regardless.
But not this time.
'I need more power. If I want to end this war even a single day faster, I need to be stronger.'
He'd seen far too much blood during this short period of time.
The body count of enemies he had slaughtered with his own two hands was probably well into the tens of thousands by now. This is mainly because he had made a habit of spamming the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm during the opening attack.
And even setting aside the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm, the number he'd killed directly with his sword alone easily passed a thousand.
It was precisely because he'd killed so many that he'd been able to build up his Yang Qi reserve this fast.
In the past, Il-mok had made a vow to himself.
He would wield his sword while fully bearing the weight of the deaths he had caused so far and the deaths he would cause in the future for the sake of what he believed to be right.
If not for that vow, the amount of guilt bearing down on him would have triggered a Qi Deviation and driven him insane by now.
Among those he'd killed, there had been some who'd willingly thrown themselves in with the eunuchs and the Imperial Family, but there had also been plenty of innocent soldiers who'd simply had no choice but to follow orders.
Worse still, the body count wasn't just limited to the enemy.
No matter how hard Il-mok tried, the losses on their own side just kept piling up as well especially ever since the Imperial Family's scheming had triggered all these regional skirmishes.
Whether it was their side or the enemy's, far too much blood was being spilled.
Every time he heard news of how badly their side had been hit somewhere, or how many thousands of enemy troops had been killed, the same thought echoed in Il-mok's mind.
‘If only I were a little stronger.’
Strong enough to march into the Imperial Palace all by himself and execute the Supreme Eunuch, the cause of this massive bloodbath.
Strong enough to kill that damned Divine Monk by himself, the one who kept stirring up chaos and complicating the war effort every chance he got.
If he could just take care of those two monsters, this war could come to an end that much faster.
That thought circled through Il-mok's mind every single day.
He hadn't fallen into Qi Deviation yet, but it was slowly consuming him.
And so, unlike his usual self, Il-mok decided to indulge in a dangerous bit of greed.
'I'll absorb as much as I can. If I really end up on the verge of dying, I can just spit it out then.'
His rational mind knew full well that this was insane.
Despite that, Il-mok willingly attempted that act of insanity.
In the end, the Yin Qi of the White Hand Demonic Art wrapped around the core and began voraciously absorbing its energy in an alarming rate.
As Il-mok desperately diverted his focus to rein in the gluttonous Yin Qi, the mad Yang Qi seized the opportunity.
It squeezed through his weakened control to break free from his Middle Dantian and rampaged throughout his whole body.
And when he tried to contain the Yang Qi’s rampage, the White Hand Demonic Art would consume the Yin Qi inside the Inner Core at an even more alarming rate while also rampaging throughout his meridians.
He was literally standing between the boundary of life and death.
Il-mok squeezed his focus to its absolute limit, doing everything he could to keep the yang-heat and yin-cold energies from colliding directly with each other.
One second, his blood vessels would sear with agonizing heat, and the very next second, they would freeze completely solid.
But even with these tortures cycled on his body, Il-mok just gritted his teeth and kept on circulating his Qi.
***
Beside the cross-legged Il-mok, Jin Hayeon had finished absorbing her half of the core and was watching him with eyes full of worry.
'Left Guardian...'
The scene unfolding before her eyes was alarming even to a Demonic Cultist.
At times, his skin would burn so hot that his robes would catch on fire. The very next second, his flesh would undergo such an extreme flash-freeze that the burning embers of his clothing would instantly harden into icy crystals.
And at some point, an even more alarming sight was unfolding before her.
One side of Il-mok’s body would catch on fire, while the other side of his body would be encased in thick frost.
Every instinct in her body screamed to help him regulate his Qi, but she didn't dare make a move.
If she stepped in, it might end up strengthening the White Hand Demonic Art even further, and that could lead to an even worse disaster.
Just then, nervous voices echoed from outside the doors.
"Miss Jin."
"I-Is something... s-something wrong?"
It was the voices of Hyeokryeon Seon-ah and Jeong Hyeon.
The change happening inside Il-mok had been so violent that even those outside the building could sense the clash of energies.
After thinking it over for a moment, Jin Hayeon finally called out to them. "Come in, but be as quiet as possible. Try not to disturb the Left Guardian."
The moment her order left her lips, the three women carefully made their way into the room.
Having seen with her own eyes the strange phenomena happening to Il-mok's body, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah bit her lip so hard she drew blood, while Jeong Hyeon's face drained of all color.
After watching their reactions for a moment, Jin Hayeon turned her gaze back to Il-mok and spoke. "If anything happens to the Left Guardian, we will all step in together and save him, no matter what it takes."
The girls immediately understood the heavy implications behind Jin Hayeon's words.
Jin Hayeon had called them inside with this very possibility in mind from the beginning.
If only one type of extreme energy were running amok inside him, Jin Hayeon would gladly sacrifice herself to balance his Qi alone. But right now, with both fire and ice spiraling out of control, one woman simply wouldn't be enough.
'For the Left Guardian's sake.'
Her mindset was the same as it had been during the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi incident.
She hadn't done what she did back then for some reward from Il-mok. Because of that, she did not hesitate in the slightest to bring the others into this.
Hearing Jin Hayeon's words, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah nodded as if it were given. And even the timid Jeong Hyeon hardened her expression with unwavering resolve.
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